Greetings and salutations, it is time once again for the hard rock lunch box and if you're watching this on YouTube, it's time for the top 20. How's everybody doing today? I have no idea what kind of day it is. I don't even know that I've looked outside yet, but I can tell you, thanks to my trusty computer here, that it is September 19th, 2024. Hopefully that means something to somebody. Hopefully it's good for somebody. I personally don't care. It's probably a good way to start the show. Yeah. Talk about things we don't care about. Let's do that. I am going to apologize in advance for whatever reason. I am just super foggy today. It's, I mean, not technically, but it's something that is caused called brain fog. I typically get brain fog when I have gluten or too much gluten, but I did not have gluten yesterday as far as I'm aware. But I am very groggy. Now I would also equate this with sleeping really well, but let's not get ridiculous, shall we? I know that's a nap. Hopefully you know that didn't happen and we can just move on with our lives from there. That was very weird. The wallpaper on my computer just changed for no reason. I don't think I touched it, but who knows? Who knows? I have magic powers now. I can do that. So, yeah. So what's going on, everybody? So if I seem a little slow and disjointed, it's because I am. But I will do my best to put on a good show. I have good music for you. Of course, I have good local music. I have good regular music or non-local music and all that other good stuff. So we'll be getting to all of that momentarily. We could start as we do some days with a little lighthouse keeping. The brand new episode of Top 20 is out. It is the Childless Cat Lady episode. It's where I basically talk about the prescription. I tried to get felt at CVS, which I finally got. Thank you for asking. And also really funny is the very next prescription that I did not ask for just arrived all by itself. So just showing just how wonderful a situation that was. Aside from the fact that I don't like taking medications, I think the red tape and paperwork and phone calls, is a good reason to stay off of a medication. Medication, if you can, I had another prescription. I take thyroid supportive meds. I've taken them for years. Probably going to have to take them for the rest of my life, unfortunately. Or at least until I figure out what's wrong with me, which would be such a long list. But they actually took like over 10 days to get here and I actually messaged them like, "What are we even doing, man?" Like, "What?" How long is it take? Like, I can get gone and it's like in Indiana and I could have gone and gotten it and come back in that amount of time. But it's so... I talk about the CVS debacle, my ability to attract negativity, which factored in a lot to my pseudo therapy session this week. And I guess in a good way because I was basically sort of discussing this sort of ability. Like, there's stuff out there, like, laws of attraction, which I don't really need to get into because it's probably a little too goony. Goony goo goo for most people, so I'm not going to get into the specifics, but there are those kinds of things out there. And I was always worried that I can't do it because I am able to sort of attract... I can't seem to attract the positivity, but like, I can do the negativity in space. And we kind of actually decided that it's the same mechanism, which is a good thing, but not necessarily if you're in a bad spot, right? So, if you're in a lower space and a lower plane or lower level of consciousness, then you're going to attract what you're attracting. So, if I can get over the hump and get into those better spaces, maybe those lottery tickets will start getting in. I don't know. I don't really know the rules. I don't... I was sort of talking about that. But I also was talking about Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris, and I read her post about it in the Childless Cat Lady, and I give you all a background on why JD Vance is such a douche. And if you didn't know that already, like, I'm very happy to make that very clear. Especially, the only thing... the only people that are, like, bigger douches than JD Vance at this point are really supporters of his. Because whenever I see anybody, like, talking in favor of JD Vance, like, it's usually one of the most racist, sexist, misogynistic people. I mean, it's just... it's just bananas. And the videos of JD Vance, like, out there trying to relate to people, like, as a human being, if you don't get... You don't have to be into politics to watch them and be amused. I mean, I saw it... It was either in Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert, but there was this video, like, he was in a donut shop, and, like, trying to order donuts and, like, have the most boring conversations possible. And the people behind the counter were just, like, so not into it. Not having any of it. It was funny because the host had basically, like, this guy is trying to do one of the most fun things there is to do, which is order donuts. And he's doing it in the most unfund way possible. And that's basically what JD Vance is all about. You know, it's funny, speaking of small talk, like, I don't like having to make small talk. Like, it's not something I enjoy doing. Like, it's work, like, out in public, like, trying to make small talk. But I actually kind of enjoy it with people I enjoy it with. Like, I find, like, some of the small, like, in-name conversations that I get to engage in from time to time are some of the most ridiculous and fun conversations. I mean, my band is a pretty good example. I mean, like, we can have real conversations, but mostly they're just not. Everything's a non-sequitur. Everything leads to Noodle Hate's Tony. Joni loves Chachi. And, you know, it just goes from there, but, like, they're meaningless conversations, but they tend to be a lot of fun. And I do enjoy, like, sort of some of the day-to-day conversations that people can have. I feel like that is, like, when you like having small talk with somebody, I feel like that's the, you know, that's a keeper. You know what I mean? Those are good. But when it's, like, that whole Tom's score thing, like, starting weather chats with people, like... If you haven't seen that special, I think that's, I think that's mostly stories, and it starts out where he, like, he comes to Seattle and he, like, started a weather chat with the guy from Uber, whatever. And he was, like, sure does rain here a lot. It's like, I can't believe. And the driver's like, I'm going to run us off the road. Like, are you tall? Do you play basketball? Anyway, if you're not a fan of Tom's score, I don't know what you're doing with your life. You should fix that right now. Turn off the show and go listen to Tom's score. Disgraceful is my favorite. Most of the stories is up there. But yeah, so anyway, that's what we were talking about. Last week, and that's the new Top 20. I have not, and I need to do this. I need to, I need to go through the big, and it's my podcast, Metamorphosis. I heard the episode, or whatever. It was not even like a full episode about the changes they were going to make, but I have not had a chance to kind of go through them. There's a lot of stuff that's being posted by them, so I've got to investigate. I haven't really talked to Jimmy or Mikey about it either, but I'm going to investigate when I get a minute, or five, or ten, or whatever. So there's something happening over at Bacon in my podcast. I assure you, I just, I don't know what it is this week. I will try to do some due diligence and figure that out for you next week if you're dying, but if not, I'll probably still do it anyway. I had my chiropractor pop my shoulder back into place yesterday, and I have to tell you, it was really one of the most painful things I've experienced physically. And mentally, it's nothing. It doesn't even rate lately. But physically, he popped it back in, and I think it tore again. And I know it needs to go in, because if I'm strengthening the muscle and the bone is in the right place, no phrasing, that'll be bad. And I think that that's what had happened. So I haven't done any rehab on it in the past couple days, because it honestly just hurts too much. At this point, it's not even a weight thing. I can barely move it around. I don't want frozen shoulder again, because that hurts, but I gotta fix this. That's why I'm playing with my shoulder. You can't see this on radio, but it's going to be really captivating when you see it. Anyway, that's my shoulder report for the day. Like I said, I'm super fuzzy, so I don't really have all that much to talk about. Our Mr. Beerie Show is all set. I think I told you that. That is Rebel 9, all new episode, Path Maker, and Space Turtles. I'm really looking forward to that. I like the beerie shows, because they tend to just be a little easier. And there's not a lot of extra leg work for me, which is great, because I really don't have it in me currently. To do any of that stuff, which is why you're not seeing us play a lot of shows out of town, because I don't have the resources to pull that off right now, but hopefully I'll get that back at some point. That'll be good, but I don't really have all that much to talk about this week, which I know is unusual, because I probably have stuff to talk about, I just can't think of it. So I printed this out, because I actually thought it was kind of interesting. And as much as I'm trying to skirt away from politics, I mean I clearly was talking politics last week, but it really wasn't so much politics as much as it was the people involved in it, but I guess politicians are politics, so I guess I'm a liar. That's fine. But I thought this was really interesting, because this is something that happened yesterday. Now, there's a lot of talk in political circles, Republican and Democrat, kind of on endorsements and sort of the way they're going this cycle. And I'll start by saying that the Teamsters, one of the largest, if not the largest, labor union in the country, declined to endorse a candidate yesterday. Now, the Teamsters and organized labor in general have tended to be steadfast, democratic, leaning unions, people, organizations, mainly because Democrats are usually more favorable towards labor. That has been true for most of my lifetime. Yeah, I think it's all of my lifetime. And the argument really was that Republicans were always very big business and very big money. And that's true. Like that's demonstrably true over the years. You know, starting with Reagan, who a lot of Republicans think is one of the greatest presidents we've ever had. They are incorrect. The fact that they think that just highlights just how poor their memories for history are, especially when it comes to labor. I mean, Reagan famously broke the air traffic controller's union. He broke their strike and he brought in scabs to basically replace all them, which was something that was just never done. But because Reagan was very pro corporation, pro business, not pro labor, it didn't really matter. And nobody really cared. Like, I remember that thinking like it wasn't such a big deal. But then, you know, when I kind of studied like how labor and corporations work, I was like, wow, that's a very big deal for president to step in. It's completely one thing to force. And you see this all the time, like there was just going to be a big train strike, which would have been really bad. But the government, I think, I think it was in Canada. They forced the two parties to arbitration. And I don't know how you do that, but I guess they did. And like, that seems to be more of the way that sort of thing goes as opposed to just breaking the union. So it's pretty typical for Republicans to side with business over labor. That, like I said, really has been the way it has been for much of my lifetime. The change lately has really been the Democrat, Democratic embrace of big business. With the exception of some, like we were talking about, Lena Kahn at the FTC and how she is very pro worker and very pro, you know, consumer and Elizabeth Warren is very pro consumer. They're very anti big business. But for some reason, like a lot of the, I guess, rank and file Democrats tend to be, or are tending to be more and more pro big business. I think it stems because they're trying to, you know, grow the economy or whatever. But at the detriment to workers and consumers, I think it's a really, really big problem. I have been bothered that the Biden administration has not done more to sort of sour on the corporate price gouging that's been going on. And a lot of people on the right will tell you that's myth. It's not really happening. It's just Biden's economic policies, which also is not true. I mean, as evidenced by the fact that the vets cut their rate for the first time since 2020 yesterday, they cut the interest rate because inflation is finally under control. And that's what they said they were going to do. And that's exactly what they did. And the stock market is rally. The economy is humming along. What's happening, though, is that people like you and me are getting screwed by these corporate entities that are still making record profits. And as we saw in the lawsuit with Kroger's in Albertson, the board at Kroger was in email, basically just admitting that they were passing on this retail inflation cost to consumers, which was just a way for them to make more money. It wasn't a cost. They were passing the cost of inflation onto consumers. That was fine. Like that makes sense. But they're adding more costs simply because they can. And that was the reason. They can. They can get away with it. Everybody seems to be blaming inflation for all the prices, but it's really corporate greed. Or corporate greed is responsible for at least half of it, sometimes more of it. And it's completely unnecessary. And I really would like to see more action done against that. But somebody like Lena Kahn at the FTC is certainly doing her part. That's great. I know there are laws in New York state against like price gouging for gasoline. There was a price gouging task force during COVID. I know white post farms, the scumbag that runs that thing. They were charging like, you know, $25 for hand sanitizer during COVID. That's illegal in New York state. And they got in trouble for it. So, you know, good. But I'd like to see that. I'd like to see that go happen more and more. It just doesn't seem to be because I feel like the Democrats are favoring those kinds of businesses because they help the economy bring in jobs and all that other stuff. But again, it's not the detriment of workers and consumer protections, which I think is bad. But that's on the Democratic side. And that's unfortunate. And the Harris campaign really should do something to rectify that and really come out and lay out some agenda for how they're going to protect us and workers, especially, you know, you got like states like, like right to work states like North Carolina, which is a completeness nowhere. I mean, it's so ridiculous. It basically just torpedoes unions. Like we need to get rid of that. Like unions, unions are always good. Is there corruption in them? Is there some scandal in them? Of course. Does it pale in comparison to corporate, you know, bad corporate behavior? Yeah, it does. I'll take a union over corporate entities any single day. Because at the end of the day, unions mean you're basically just not alone working where you're working. You have some advocacy. You know, if you're in a place that can just fire you because they want to fire you, like, that's not okay. And all the stuff, like the non-competes, we talked about that when the FTC basically rendered them non-enforceable, non-enforceable. Like, that's a good thing because companies can just, you know, you can't work in your field for another 12 months. Are you going to, like, pay your rent? Like, if you can't work for 12 months, I digress. So I think the Dems should do something about that. But what was really interesting, and this is what I wanted to bring to your attention, is this happened yesterday. There's been a lot of disillusionment in the Republican Party, which I find really refreshing because this, like, lockstep with Trump and all the Magus nonsense is just, it was getting a little pathetic when you see people like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, who, like, criticized Donald Trump at first and now just basically sucking his balls because they want, they don't want to lose power. Well, you're seeing a lot of that. And finally, the Trump name is not, I guess, or the Trump engine or entity is not as powerful as it was, and they're not really able to primary people as good as they were. So some people are being able to hold on to their jobs, unlike Liz Cheney and Adam Kingsiger, or who didn't even bother, honestly, which was probably the smart move. This was interesting, and this happened yesterday. More than 100 former staffers and national security leaders from past Republican administrations endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, adding to the growing list of Republicans speaking out against former President Donald Trump. The letter, released by the group Reagan Bush McCain and Romney alumni for Harris, is signed by 111 former officials from those administrations, as well as ex-Trump staffers like Miles Taylor, along with some former Republican members of Congress like former Illinois Rep. Adam Kingsiger. In addition to criticizing Trump's national security record and "demonstrated chaotic and unethical behavior," the letter condemned Trump's actions on January 6, 2021. That's the January 6, where they rioted and stormed the Capitol even though most believed Kool-Aid drinking Republicans will tell you, like, no, they were just, they're gathering, but like, I have eyes, right? We all saw the video, unlike Haitians eating pets, which is obviously not true. The letter comes after notable members of George W. Bush's administration, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez endorsed Harris over Trump in recent weeks. Now, I was going to read this whole letter, but honestly, it's a good two-pager, but my anxiety is really ramping up. Sorry for that. So I'm going to not read it. You can read it if you want. Maybe I can post it somewhere, or you can just search it, but they do. They do talk about, like, the second paragraph is probably the really important part. We believe that the President of the United States must be principled, serious, and, excuse me, must be a principled, serious, and steady leader who can advance and defend American security values, strengthen our alliances, and protect our democracy. We expect to disagree with Kamala Harris on many domestic and foreign policy issues, but we believe that she possesses the essential qualities to serve as President, and Donald Trump does not. We therefore support her election to be President. That's a big deal, and that's really what's starting to come out of the right, because I think with the whole Project 2025 nonsense that Trump still denies knowing anything about, and yet keeps talking about all the things in it, and basically promising to do that, I think it's becoming dangerous. I think I mentioned last week that he was talking about a way to find it to be illegal for talk show hosts to make fun of him. So he could jail people like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and John Stewart, which I find unbelievably frightening, and anybody that doesn't is really just an idiot and a moron, and not a good American, frankly, because that sort of stuff is exactly what we're allowed to do. It's the first, excuse me, it's the first amendment, it's the, you know, in the Bill of Rights, it's your freedom of speech, which of course is not absolute, as the Supreme Court said, repeatedly in court cases. But that sort of talk, especially political discourse, is always allowed. And the fact that he doesn't like it and wants to find a way to jail them, like literally that's what happened in Nazi Germany. That's how they did it, that's how they did it in Stalin's Russia. I mean, these are signs of fascism, and as much as they keep complaining that Biden is somehow a fascist, which is bananas ridiculous, like it's literally the pot calling the kettle black, and I find it just disturbing. But it was really disturbing that very few Republicans were willing to stick their neck out and say that this is wrong, and it's nice to see that they are finally doing that. I do not have a problem with traditional Republicans, what it is, like they said, is I disagree with them a lot on foreign and domestic policy. They did. But I still voted for a Republican governor in the state of New York. I mean, at that point, your level of stupidity has got to be just tremendously hard to measure. So I'll never do that. I'll also never vote for anybody that's totally against reproductive freedom and the woman's right to do what she wants with her body. You'll just never get my vote. It doesn't even matter what the next thing is. If it's like, okay, we're going to oppress and suppress women, and then everybody gets a million dollars. Like, I don't even know that I could get to the second line item because I don't think you're going to get my vote. So I've said that for years. So as soon as you are a Republican, like the tacky was, that just didn't care. Like it wasn't his business and he knew it. What a woman wanted to do with her body. All he really wanted to do is make infrastructure a little bit better in New York state. I think he wanted to bring back the death penalty with, I don't know, where you fall on that. It's not a big issue for me. I have mixed emotions on it. I do think punishment needs to be severe when it's due. I do think our system is really messed up and kind of needs an overhaul. But that was neither here nor there and it wasn't a deal breaker for me. So that's why a Republican got my vote. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last time. You just got to put up somebody's scene and you might get it. It's really, really quite simple. But anyway, I was going to read the letter. Like I said, like I'm starting to run out of breath. My heart's starting to be too much, so I'm going to get on out of here and start playing some music. My voice and craving strange released a brand new song last week. Now normally you would think this could be during the weekly craving the week, but I wanted to hear it and I wanted to start the rest of the show off with it. And I have the microphone, so we're going to listen to grains on the box. So you want to get out and try a different vein. (upbeat music)
