Speaker 1: Hello the Internet. I'm welcome to this election night special
Speaker 1: of j Days like guysduction of I Heart Radio. This
Speaker 1: is the podcast where we take a deep dive into
Speaker 1: as so on and so forth. I do believe the
Speaker 1: election results thus far have done some manner of neurological
Speaker 1: damage to me, because I'm I've like gone through a
Speaker 1: folksy phase where I'm like speaking like folksy ways, or
Speaker 1: like writing in our back and folksy ways, and then like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, my cadence is all off. Uh but um,
Speaker 1: it's what is it? It's like Tuesday ten. Yeah, ten
Speaker 1: forty Eastern, seven forty Pacific. I'm Jack O'Brien. That's Miles grag.
Speaker 1: You didn't have an a K, did you? No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I think we could just focus on the matter at
Speaker 1: hand without I've been there. Yeah. Well, we are thrilled
Speaker 1: to be joined in our third seat by the brilliant,
Speaker 1: the talented tez onn Hi. Everyone, Hi, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us late on this night when I'm sure you
Speaker 1: would typically just be relaxing. Um. Yeah, I am nail
Speaker 1: biting on the edge of my sofa. You said something
Speaker 1: that made me feel good before we started recording. You
Speaker 1: said that as a organizer, like the organizing community, this
Speaker 1: is like what they expected. They expected it to be tight,
Speaker 1: and they expected, uh something that hasn't happened yet, but
Speaker 1: that we expect like Trump Fuckory is going to start
Speaker 1: popping off on Twitter at some point. It's gonna happen soon.
Speaker 1: So so there's a website actually if you go do
Speaker 1: a Democracy Rising dot live and they have this kind
Speaker 1: of countdown on time remaining until Biden pulls a head.
Speaker 1: And so I just think that, like it's what's bringing
Speaker 1: me comfort. I just keep going to this website going
Speaker 1: like okay, like they've done the math. They know that
Speaker 1: like once he went Biden went the West coast, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be in total votes for Biden. And we're just
Speaker 1: in that in between point where you know the states
Speaker 1: are read because we're just counting poll day voters, right,
Speaker 1: and there's some like Florida has been counting. So Florida
Speaker 1: did not go well, that's like the one thing we
Speaker 1: know for sure, like Trump exceeded his polling in Florida.
Speaker 1: Biden did the opposite of that. Wait, can I push
Speaker 1: back on Florida a little bit? Because I know we
Speaker 1: are talking about the presidential election cycle. But I'm I
Speaker 1: have an organizer that I've been working with in Miami.
Speaker 1: She worked for an organization called Power You, and she
Speaker 1: just texted me that they elected a progressive mayor in
Speaker 1: Miami probably probably Miami, and I think, you know, like
Speaker 1: we are going to have terrible wins, but Miami Dade
Speaker 1: County turned out blue and it turned out progressive for
Speaker 1: their local mayor. Yeah, just not in the numbers like
Speaker 1: last time. I think that was like the big thing
Speaker 1: that they sat like, okay, so didn't well where they're
Speaker 1: being like Cubans and Hispanic Oh my god, what the
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, what what is Cuba? Then I'm
Speaker 1: pardon me. That's a very interesting The other thing where
Speaker 1: I think people are also seeing two is um there's
Speaker 1: like people need to stop looking at certain votes as
Speaker 1: like a monolith, right because I think for all the
Speaker 1: people that are like, oh my god, I don't understand,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of Latinos coming out for Trump,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, not everyone subscribes to the same like
Speaker 1: belief system, like of what it means to come to America,
Speaker 1: what it means to be self sufficient, like everyone has
Speaker 1: very different versions of that that they're looking at the
Speaker 1: country through, and so I think that's that's an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: I will say the one nice thing so far is
Speaker 1: that we have not heard about terrible violence appalling places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: threatened violence us been Trump Trump trains uh and caravans
Speaker 1: that uh look like some kind of as jam or
Speaker 1: it's fun to get right, all right. We have a
Speaker 1: writer from Canada who just like writes about this stuff
Speaker 1: just with his mouth at gape from from Canada, and
Speaker 1: he was saying that, you know, it's from where he's sitting,
Speaker 1: it looks like a tackier version of mad Max Fury
Speaker 1: Road down here, just choking the highways actually like driving
Speaker 1: through or ending at polling places, just very very strange.
Speaker 1: And and they, as we talked about, like in Bakersfield
Speaker 1: and other places, they are violent, They're angry. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, like I, as we we said, the bar
Speaker 1: pretty low with like the no violence, no Island. Nobody
Speaker 1: attacked each other at the polling place. I think there
Speaker 1: is violence now happening outside the White House because both
Speaker 1: Trump and Biden supporters are gathering, But I think it's
Speaker 1: a big headline other than Florida. We're not going to
Speaker 1: know there's so much going on. Yeah, just again, I
Speaker 1: wish the media, like Steve Kornaki would just you know,
Speaker 1: always throw a caveat on MSNBC, like, yeah, there's still
Speaker 1: there's a lot of mail in votes to count two. Um,
Speaker 1: I know, we're kind of getting back into that cycle
Speaker 1: of like, oh wow, remember this from Let's do it
Speaker 1: all over again? But yeah, I mean it's it's slow going.
Speaker 1: But the ship is a tight you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like I don't maybe the maybe the blowout happens in
Speaker 1: the popular vote, but the in terms of like defunct
Speaker 1: up electoral college, ship is very tight. It's very tight. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think, honestly, I think everyone should have expected
Speaker 1: that given the nature and the degree of polarization that
Speaker 1: we have in the country. Like it's people are you know,
Speaker 1: split on ship, and we're just seeing that in so
Speaker 1: many ways just play out. I just think that, like
Speaker 1: it's split, but but we're in a fucking pandemic, Like
Speaker 1: they're in a death cult. Like I just yeah, like
Speaker 1: how how it's wild? Because yeah, repeated like that. We
Speaker 1: we've called it a death cult for a while on
Speaker 1: this show. But like they're actually you know, coming out
Speaker 1: in full force to tell us that no, that's what
Speaker 1: we are. We will die for this motherfucker because he
Speaker 1: validates our identity by It's not just like they get
Speaker 1: a small charge out of like his sick burns on
Speaker 1: the lips, Like they validate something about them that is
Speaker 1: very powerful, to the point that they will let him
Speaker 1: kill them in order to just continue to have that
Speaker 1: feeling whatever, whatever that feeling is, um, you know, and
Speaker 1: let them let them fucking freeze while he flies off
Speaker 1: in a helicopter. It's wild, truly. Yeah, Like he just
Speaker 1: what like all these rallies, he's just dropping them, or
Speaker 1: that he's taken bussing them to the spot, letting them
Speaker 1: like walk walk their way back home. Yeah. So I
Speaker 1: do feel like I don't know that I got I
Speaker 1: I feel like the mainstream media sucked me in to
Speaker 1: this fool's gold world where I don't know, like it
Speaker 1: was like I reverted back to nineties era democratic thinking
Speaker 1: where it was just like, well, yeah, no, everybody loves
Speaker 1: Joe Biden now because he's like the middle of the
Speaker 1: road guy and everybody's you know, I'm just being brought
Speaker 1: back to when like during the Democratic primary when I
Speaker 1: was like, nobody's going to support this motherfucker. He's he's
Speaker 1: old and uh just like doesn't really stand for anything.
Speaker 1: Nobody's excited about him. Um, but I feel like the
Speaker 1: d n C and the mainstream media speak with such
Speaker 1: a like unified voice that it's like hard to not
Speaker 1: get sucked into just these you know, Like I thought
Speaker 1: Cornin was going down in Texas. He won. Biden was
Speaker 1: favored by like seventy percent in Florida according to the
Speaker 1: polling averages. It's just like, I think these are part
Speaker 1: of the same issue. I think the fact that those
Speaker 1: people are so angry at the mainstream liberal, neoliberal culture
Speaker 1: cultural elite in quotes that they will die for President
Speaker 1: Trump is probably related to the fact that that cultural
Speaker 1: elite like cannot figure them out, like and not even
Speaker 1: conceive of them, like when it comes to pulling, when
Speaker 1: their lives are like on the line, they just like
Speaker 1: can't get them. Uh it's they're just like invisible to them.
Speaker 1: And that's probably all about polarization. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we just we just gotta keep watching. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: really just you know, especially with like things like you know,
Speaker 1: now obviously Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania obviously have it's all looking
Speaker 1: over there that blue wall up there, um and Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: barely counted a fucking thing. Yeah, it's and like you know,
Speaker 1: that's why I just I feel like the one thing
Speaker 1: I gotta do is it take myself out of the
Speaker 1: fucking like watching water boil phases, because it's like anything,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I feel like, just as human beings,
Speaker 1: we have this instinct or this impulse to be like
Speaker 1: if I why if I stay on top of it,
Speaker 1: my eyes may affect what it's going to come on
Speaker 1: the screen, and really it just doesn't matter. My magical
Speaker 1: thinking is bad right now. My magical thinking. Uh, my
Speaker 1: my son is obsessed with asking Alexa what the air
Speaker 1: quality is because of the fires. He like, he asked
Speaker 1: Alexa like twenty times a day what the air quality
Speaker 1: is in Los Angeles, and uh it was forty five
Speaker 1: this afternoon, and I was like, fuck, Trump's gonna win.
Speaker 1: The alextive particulate matters like per whatever, oh right right right,
Speaker 1: the QPI or que and that whatever there it is,
Speaker 1: we're losing. He's gonna do it again. So that's where
Speaker 1: my brain is at just fully broken, but I'm I'm
Speaker 1: willing to acknowledge that. Yeah. Yeah, I think other than that,
Speaker 1: there's a total lack of i think emphasis on the
Speaker 1: Senate races that I've seen, you know, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot that goes hand in hand with who controls the Senate,
Speaker 1: with the ability to get things done, especially at this
Speaker 1: point because we know the House isn't one anywhere. Um,
Speaker 1: like that's a rap, but the Senate is still I
Speaker 1: don't think so. Lindsay Graham one, Yeah, Lindsay Graham one. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know Doug Jones, you know, he did he did
Speaker 1: the right thing. He didn't do the thing that maybe
Speaker 1: someone in his position would have done, which was vote
Speaker 1: with the Republicans to try and save his skin in
Speaker 1: a election. Uh yeah, you know, Tommy t came through.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Mitch McConnell went to Yeah, Mitch McConnell, that
Speaker 1: was always I think that was But yeah, like purple hands, right,
Speaker 1: so he must have made some sort of deal with
Speaker 1: the devil. Oh absolutely, if you're the personified Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like what's the deal, look like, Satan?
Speaker 1: Just let me what are the deal points? Hands? Yeah,
Speaker 1: if if we're if we're doing if we're going in
Speaker 1: business together. Um, but yeah, I'm a little concerned by
Speaker 1: seeing so I've been following the rogue Podus staff. M
Speaker 1: they just tweeted. A lot of people are getting mad
Speaker 1: at us for telling you what's happening. But the fact
Speaker 1: is it's going better than Podus for Potus than expected,
Speaker 1: for Pods than expected. I think, yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: that became clear when there was no smash happening in
Speaker 1: any of these other like swings like hey, maybe North Coro,
Speaker 1: maybe Georgia, but again still fully not done done, so
Speaker 1: I don't know whatever, like either way, like, no matter
Speaker 1: what happens, and I just keep reiterating this, the mission
Speaker 1: of like good hearted people is going to be the same,
Speaker 1: you know, Like, no matter who the driver is, we're
Speaker 1: still in a fucked up car that is a danger
Speaker 1: at everybody else on the road. Um, and it's still
Speaker 1: very difficult to navigate and maneuver. And that's where we're
Speaker 1: you know, the hard work is trying to change this
Speaker 1: vehicle that we're all you know, riding together, and to
Speaker 1: make me something that works for everybody. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I'll I'm just gonna reserve my energy for
Speaker 1: when the reality is what it is. Let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. We'll be right back after this, and we're back.
Speaker 1: Do we even want to put ads in an election episode?
Speaker 1: I was noticing that people on Twitter. We're like, there's
Speaker 1: sure a lot of like ads for watching like our
Speaker 1: democracy burned down. It's fun to like get sold cars
Speaker 1: while you're watching your democracy burned down. So this is America? Hey, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: so Philadelphia, Uh, I think those American explanation just so
Speaker 1: in Georgia, we I can't I can't remember if we
Speaker 1: mentioned it on Mike or before we started recording, But Georgia,
Speaker 1: there is a burst pipe uh which this ship always
Speaker 1: seems to happen when it when it's gonna benefit the
Speaker 1: Democrats are Progressive Canada. But there's a birst pipe at
Speaker 1: uh at an arena that is the biggest vote counting arena.
Speaker 1: And then there's also a software error that has made
Speaker 1: it so they can't count two hundred and seventy thousand
Speaker 1: mail in votes in Georgia. So I but you know,
Speaker 1: like they have an excuse there, like they gave their
Speaker 1: reason for why those things are not being counted immediately
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. They're just like, yeah, no, we're gonna go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to wah wah. Yeah league, He's we're gonna
Speaker 1: get some wah wah. But yeah. Like I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: how many votes are on the table. They're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we got through seventy about three And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, well, and those are obviously, as we're saying,
Speaker 1: huge numbers for Biden is coming in the early vote.
Speaker 1: But what's funny is like how even pundits are like
Speaker 1: and then that early vote as if every early vote
Speaker 1: is exclusively for Donald Trump, like no person who votes
Speaker 1: Democrat is also voting on the day rum. But what
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like it's it's just very unsettling to
Speaker 1: like watch people try and pretend like things are settled
Speaker 1: when they're very much close and like there's all kinds
Speaker 1: of things in play. Uh but I think maybe that
Speaker 1: could be a self preservation mechanism. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: either way, I mean, the poles are still open in California.
Speaker 1: We don't close until eight pm here, so we were
Speaker 1: still literally in in games. Still. Yeah, I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see how a lot of votes go, especially in art
Speaker 1: in l A county. That'll be interesting and curious what
Speaker 1: happens with Jackie Lacey if so, if she's still the
Speaker 1: district attorney. Gosh, if he is gonna win her city
Speaker 1: council seat. If Measure J passes, if we're gonna side
Speaker 1: with Uber to not classify people who work for Uber
Speaker 1: and Lift as employees, I think they're going to win
Speaker 1: that one. They blew it out with that messaging, like
Speaker 1: they really made it look like you were going to
Speaker 1: kill a single mother if you voted no. I feel
Speaker 1: like they paid their work, like their drivers or maybe
Speaker 1: like their drivers are just like, yeah, I do this
Speaker 1: as a part time job. But like I have no
Speaker 1: people who are like yeah. But when I talked to
Speaker 1: Uber drivers, they're like, yeah, no, vote no, like we
Speaker 1: we really be able to Yeah. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's paid. That's Spahn con for their people in
Speaker 1: the in the labor minds just be like, hey, we'll
Speaker 1: give you, we'll float you an extra fifty driver points
Speaker 1: that can be redeemed for an extra fifty cents an
Speaker 1: hour for a drive time limited offer. Anyways, Um that
Speaker 1: that's that's the one where people were trying to legislate
Speaker 1: so that Uber and Lyft had to pay drivers and
Speaker 1: like cover them and you know, treat them like employees. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with benefits things like that. Sickly, here in California we
Speaker 1: do so much. Only like about half the states in
Speaker 1: the US have ballot initiatives the way we do in California.
Speaker 1: And I'm just looking at the l A Times article
Speaker 1: that says that seven five million dollars went into these
Speaker 1: twelve ballot measures this year. Just just bananas to me.
Speaker 1: I hate ballad initiatives so much. I've always been anti
Speaker 1: ballot initiatives because I think we just need to elect
Speaker 1: smart people to run our legists, run our policies for us,
Speaker 1: and that we shouldn't have to be voting on this
Speaker 1: as voters. That's just absurd. Seven million dollars into these
Speaker 1: twelve ballot initiatives, Right, where would that money go if
Speaker 1: there weren't valid initiatives, if they knowing driver versus employees,
Speaker 1: and pay for the benefits that you're trying to not
Speaker 1: fucking pay for. You've already spent the money, you fucking scumbag.
Speaker 1: Fucking treat people humanely. There's precedents involved here, man, Come on,
Speaker 1: I gotta start treating some people, some employees like humans,
Speaker 1: then where's it gonna end treat all humans like humans? Um?
Speaker 1: What I do think that I do like, it does
Speaker 1: seem like there's not going to be a democratic blowout Miles,
Speaker 1: as you said, this is gonna be a nail biter.
Speaker 1: Is gonna be razor thin uh or the chan Paul
Speaker 1: got here, Yeah, even thinner That's what Cornaki was saying this.
Speaker 1: If you look right here, you'll see that this is
Speaker 1: could be thinner than now John Paul goatee air cologne,
Speaker 1: fill the air. Um. But I had, like I saw
Speaker 1: somebody making the point on the five thirty eight Live
Speaker 1: blog that like it's pretty clear that there's not going
Speaker 1: to be like a landslide rebuke of Trump is um.
Speaker 1: And so the Republicans will, you know, if he overperforms
Speaker 1: his polls, which it seems like he's going to. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Republicans like this is their future. They see
Speaker 1: this as the future now of just you know, populism
Speaker 1: and identity politics and fucking Q and on. Uh. We
Speaker 1: saw a Q and On ad here and get elected
Speaker 1: to Congress and Georgia um. And that could be a
Speaker 1: sign of things to come in the future of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party. Uh do do you think Republicans are upset
Speaker 1: by this? No? I mean maybe the Lincoln Project is
Speaker 1: like those those Republicans, but I don't know. They had
Speaker 1: that autopsy after the election where they're like, whoa, what
Speaker 1: do we do. We're gonna have to like change things,
Speaker 1: We'll have to like find a way to um, you know,
Speaker 1: become more moderate. Instead they went in the opposite direction
Speaker 1: and that ended up being the the future. Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I can it's a weird night for I think
Speaker 1: to put a lot of energy into the results. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like at this point because I think we've even been
Speaker 1: saying like we're not gonna fucking know, like we're not
Speaker 1: so maybe we won't come back to you like this
Speaker 1: is gonna be our episode in the morning for the morning,
Speaker 1: Like we're we're gonna put it up tonight, but don't
Speaker 1: expect us to be dropping anything tomorrow morning. Uh, We're
Speaker 1: gonna wait for a little bit. Let these results come in. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm honestly feeling like it's going to be a Trump win,
Speaker 1: but like it's too early for me to feel that way.
Speaker 1: But that's just uh my magical thinking. At this point,
Speaker 1: I do. I still feel pretty confident about a Biden
Speaker 1: popular like total vote win. I think I think I
Speaker 1: win total vote. That just doesn't sadly not enough to
Speaker 1: become We're gonna have to win one of these elections
Speaker 1: to make it stop being so that doesn't matter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to win a couple uh congressional We're
Speaker 1: gonna have to win a pretty giant uh majority on
Speaker 1: in Congress. And it just doesn't seem like they can
Speaker 1: funk up hard enough for uh that to happen the Democrats,
Speaker 1: because the Democrats or bad at their job. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: tas what what what were you working on this election? Like?
Speaker 1: In terms of organizing this election cycle, I was where
Speaker 1: I am the senior narrative specialists at a group called
Speaker 1: API Specific Engagement Fund. We basically do we find cecific
Speaker 1: engagement work for API community. So UM, A lot of
Speaker 1: our work was uh you know, giving money out to
Speaker 1: grassroots API organizations on the ground. And I was specifically
Speaker 1: engaged with working on elect election art project called Voting Together,
Speaker 1: where we commissioned thirteen different UM pieces of artwork. So
Speaker 1: we had music, videos, poetry, images of API artists making
Speaker 1: art for elections. Hell yeah, um, very cool, it's exciting.
Speaker 1: So what are you guys gonna do for for the remainder?
Speaker 1: You just gonna go to bed and some future count
Speaker 1: the motherfucking vote, count votes. But what are you gonna
Speaker 1: be doing while they count the votes? As much? I'm done? Look,
Speaker 1: I think it's as stupid to look at the fucking
Speaker 1: screen tonight. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's really
Speaker 1: like this fucked up self torture thing where like you
Speaker 1: can feel like a physiological sensation, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: watching like yo, turn that ship off, because at the
Speaker 1: time of the day, you gotta count that ship up
Speaker 1: and whatever comes is gonna come. And that's the thing
Speaker 1: I have to Like, I'm also just reminding myself again
Speaker 1: no matter what, the problems are not solved. And yes,
Speaker 1: there we could have we could have four more years
Speaker 1: of this bullshit. Um, but until we have like a
Speaker 1: majority of people that we can really all get on
Speaker 1: the same fucking page to like pull in the right direction,
Speaker 1: we're gonna this is gonna be the you know, the
Speaker 1: undulations of a shitty quote unquote democracy. So yeah, just
Speaker 1: wait for the votes and then we'll see. Then we'll
Speaker 1: go from there. I was talking to my wife, who's
Speaker 1: back with her folks right now, and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: they were like, wow, you look sick or you are
Speaker 1: all right, and I was like, they just it's just
Speaker 1: called Florida. The New York Times needles pointing towards Florida.
Speaker 1: And she was like, yeah, well, there's nothing we can
Speaker 1: do about it, right, It's just right. That's smart. You
Speaker 1: are a smart person. I mean. The thing is like,
Speaker 1: I think there's obviously count every vote. Obviously Trump's going
Speaker 1: to declare something in the next whatever a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: Obviously that's not going to count for anything because all
Speaker 1: the votes haven't been counted. And traditionally the only way
Speaker 1: the winner gets declared is when the opponent like concedes.
Speaker 1: So also, obviously mine is not going to concede this
Speaker 1: election until all the votes are counted. So we just
Speaker 1: we have a long race in front of us. But
Speaker 1: I think, so that's like the like intellectual part. I think.
Speaker 1: I still think people are gonna like take to the streets.
Speaker 1: I feel like something might happen at the White House.
Speaker 1: I feel like things are going to happen in like
Speaker 1: urban cities with lots of lots of people. I know
Speaker 1: downtown l A's all boarded up. I don't know when
Speaker 1: things are going to pop off, but I feel like
Speaker 1: things might pop off either tonight or tomorrow night if
Speaker 1: Trump wins. Who knows, I think both. Yeah. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of energy. Yeah yeah, alright, guys,
Speaker 1: well get some rests. It's a long election, and even
Speaker 1: if it's not a long election, we will need our
Speaker 1: energy in the coming days. And now sounds like a
Speaker 1: fucking character in a post apocalyptic movie. Rest up, young woman,
Speaker 1: you need your energy. We will need it for us
Speaker 1: to fight into franchise wars. Yeah. I'm gonna also reach
Speaker 1: out to Jason Parson because I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people have been hit me up about trying to get
Speaker 1: him on the reprise our conversation the day after the
Speaker 1: last Trump victory. Um, so I'll see if we can
Speaker 1: get him into the next week. Right, but until tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so stay safe, stay safe, don't do nothing about white Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Ye uh, and we will talk to y'all tomorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: We're