Do you remember, as a child, taking a set of dominoes and standing them up end on end next to each other, and then tipping the first over and watching with unrestrained glee as they all come tumbling down? No? That may only be me, but I’m sure you get the concept. It’s all cause and effect: the first domino knocks over the second, and the second the third, and so on.

What does this have to do with politics?

Especially in America, we like to believe we are that shining city on the hill, impervious to anything else that happens in the world. We want to be independent, above all else, and sometimes this desire is so strong and so pervasive that it deludes us into believing that we actually can be. But, no matter what we might want to believe, the truth is that there is no such thing as an independent nation in the modern world. The truth is that if a war breaks out in, say, Ukraine, then the oil prices rise in the United States. Now that we’ve got gas prices under control, it’s tempting to push the narrative that our concerns in Ukraine have somehow diminished, but that would be farther from the truth. In Africa, right now, there’s a hunger crisis that’s linked to the Ukraine war.

This is the truth: we are all interconnected. There are no islands, and there is no way to disentangle if we wish to maintain our envied lifestyles here in the states. And if we’re not feeling the war in Ukraine yet in any real way here in the states, don’t worry…it’s coming. And that famine? 1.3 million people are fleeing their homes because of it, and they all have to go somewhere.

29-year-old Tyre Nichols had a run-in with the police. He’d been driving recklessly and they’d pulled him over. Then there was a “confrontation”. Then there was a chase. Then he was dead.

26-year-old Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her home when police executed a no-knock warrant and shot her dead.

Yet…376 law enforcement officers in Uvalde, Texas failed on all levels to take down one single person.

What do these things have in common?

Police officers not being able to faithfully execute their jobs. At some point, it’s got to be said, and here at Right and Freedom, we’re saying it. The time for change is well past, and we as citizens are absolutely 100% required to get involved and fix our systems. Because if systems such as policing were were going to fix themselves, they’d have done it by now.

For bonus points, what do women bleeding out during labor have to do with overpolicing and lack of accountability? Listen to this podcast and find out!

If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while, then you’ll know our stance on gun control: it can’t happen soon enough. Yet again, we have a reason to be discussing gun control in America. This time, it came in the form of ten people who will no longer kiss their loved ones, no longer taste a birthday cake, no longer walk the earth, who were taken away from us before their time in Monterey Park, California.

We ask why. The school shooting in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado happened in 1999. Here we are, over twenty years later, and mass shootings are up nationwide over 300%. That’s right. Instead of getting better, we’re actually getting worse. Much worse. Why?

Well, we’ve got some ideas. And we get into it in this latest episode of Right and Freedom called Click, Click, Boom. Here’s a hint: what exactly would it take to change things when we’re seeing night clubs, grocery stores, big-box stores, churches, synagogues,…,basketball pickup games all erupting in gun violence? Listen now and learn how three former Marines, two of whom are actual gun owners, feel about gun violence in the United States of America.

Let’s talk about bail. Specifically, let’s talk about something small, like $1,000 bail for an attempted robbery. Can you afford that? According to CNBC news, you probably can’t. 69% of our nation cannot afford an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense (which I would argue bail qualifies). What happens next?

Someone arrested for the attempted robbery couldn’t likely afford bail, and now must sit in jail until their trial happens, which in Florida for example, can be as long as 90-180 days. So for 90-180 days, that person sits in jail, and can’t do their job if they have one. Therefore, they can’t pay their rent, car note, or credit card bill, and their things are slowly being repossessed. Rare is the employer who can afford to keep someone on the payroll for doing nothing while they’re sitting in jail, so kiss that job goodbye. Now, day 90, or 180, arrives. It turns out they didn’t do it. Honest mistake—someone thought they saw something they didn’t and it comes out in court.

That’s what this podcast is about. Two justice systems: one for the rich, one for the poor. That, and integrity. Listen for both.

Back in November of 2022, after Brazil’s election when Bolsonaro lost, the newspapers in America marveled and openly discussed what the United States might learn from Brazil’s electoral process. Sure, Bolsonaro made a bunch of untrue claims that he hadn’t actually lost (just like another would-be-dictator we all know), but it hadn’t led to the systemic denial of the election. In fact, an election board specifically for monitoring election outcomes dismissed a lawsuit claiming fraud and fined the plaintiff something like four million dollars.

Fast-forward to 2023, and almost two years to the day after our attempted insurrection here in the United States, Brasilia has had their own coup attempt. It turns out that the celebrations of stability and peaceful transfer of power were premature. The capital was stormed and vandalized, and the aftermath is still being felt. And, wouldn’t you know it, while all this was going on, where was Bolsonaro? Florida. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions about that.

Suffice it to say that Bolsonaro knew Trump, and took a page from his playbook. In other words, as we discuss, the United States is successfully exporting its political unrest. Presented still another way: our ugly is catching on. What will we do about that? Well, from the looks of it, not much.

Hide your babies, we’re about to talk CRT. Okay, no not really. CRT (Critical Race Theory) is a specific thing but it is tangentially related to what we’re about to get into. For one thing, did you ever wonder why we have an electoral college? Did you ever consider the fact that the 3/5 Compromise was in force for the first almost 100 years of our nation’s past, giving slave-owning states outsized power in congress and giving new states a powerful incentive to allow slavery? Have you given much thought to what the result of that has been?

We have. And in this podcast episode, we get deep into how slavery has disenfranchised you and how land now has more rights than actual human beings in some cases.

May 4th, 1976 — Under the cover of night, a rogue power company in Texas decided that enough was enough. They wanted better than a power grid that was poorly regulated and they wanted better. On this night, they successfully proved that they could connect to the wider gride across the United States by sending people from Vernon, Texas to Altus, Oklahoma. So yes, Texas could send power and be combined into the federal power grid. So what happened?

Five people dead, twenty-five injured by a gunman in body armor carrying a rifle modified from semi-automatic to automatic, as well as a pistol side-arm. You’d be forgiven if you don’t immediately know which mass shooting this refers to. Would it change things if I told you it was the United States? Oh, you already basically guessed that. What about if I told you that it was one of the shootings that have happened in the week previous to recording this podcast? Still unsure?

That’s because we have a violence problem in America. We have so many shootings that we don’t even know by these above details exactly which shooting I’m talking about. For the record, I’m talking about the Colorado Springs shooting that happend on Saturday November 19th. But it wasn’t just having a violent culture that brought this shooting about. It’s also an attack on LGBTQ+ community, like Pulse and like so many other crimes against marginalized (in this case, LGBTQ+ groups). Rhetoric has a price, and this is the price, especially in a nation like the United States.

End the rhetoric.

Save lives.

It matters who you vote for.

For reference: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting

Herschel Walker is a politician without a thought. He doesn’t contribute any meaningful ideas or planks in the Republican party platform, which from what we can tell, is to tax them more, deny them healthcare, and keep the brown-skins out of the country. There is no excuse for the fact that HW is up on Ralph Warnock, the well-versed and capable politician who represents Georgia’s constituents right now. Consider that the man has already personally sponsored 93 pieces of legislation and has co-sponsored 396 different pieces of legislation, all of which go toward issues that improve the lives of Georgians. From the act to house survivors of major disasters (aptly named the Housing Survivors of Major Disasters act) to Senat Bill 4822 which aims to force contributors to political messaging to disclose their sources, Warnock has worked to put our democracy on a firmer foundation.

Our heart goes out to Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul, who have experienced a tragic and terrifying break-in and assault. We wish nothing but the best to Paul and a smooth recovery. At Right and Freedom, we have a lot of opinions about a lot of different things. But the reason we started this podcast was because of shootings in Texas and our stance against violence. Every voice in America should universally condemn the actions of the home invader.

Image by: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1

Tis the season for…fires. Lots and lots of fires along the west coast, and we start out this episode getting caught up on the season. One of the said fires was the result of corporate malfeasance (alleged). Is anyone being held accountable for that? Well…no. However many people are killed due to these fires, nobody in the company (name intentionally withheld) will be held accountable. Let’s look just a bit to the east: Texas. In Texas, the electricity outage during a severe snowstorm led to between 264 (official number reported by the state) and 700 (outside experts have said). Who was held accountable for that? Not a single damn person. Nobody was fired, and in the meantime, Texas folks were price gouged for whatever electricity they did get. You might think we’re complaining about Abbot again. We’re not. This week, we discuss how corporations don’t pay consequences, regardless of the fact that they kill people. Got to break a few eggs to make a healthy profit, amirite?

Image by: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Balise42

Are you the type of voter who votes your conscious — no matter what? I used to be. During the 2000 election I voted for Ralph Nader and the supported the Green Party candidates. There was a stretch in there where I voted Libertarian too. My mistakes, and I do consider these mistakes, possibly contributed to Gore losing the 2000 election. Not just mine, but guaranteed there were people like me in every state.

One of the problems that we have in politics is an aging population in the white house and halls of congress. To give a stark example, many of the most powerful members of congress are going to be dead before climate change impact is fully felt. Intentionally or not, people are generally concerned about the issues that affect them directly. So is it any surprise that so many in congress don’t prioritize climate change? A lot of people can change, and can prioritize working for others to an extent. Underlining it all and always is that self-interest.

Watching the January 6th hearings, we’ve all been convinced that Trump was culpable and was trying to get his enemies killed. He’ll say other things, of course, but nobody who sits there and does nothing while the threat of violence is imminent having already been informed about the situation and having the power to do something simply stands by. As we often say on this podcast: doing nothing is still doing something. And Donald J. Trump did a very large something with his inaction that day. Finally enough evidence has been uncovered to convince all members of the 1/6 committee that it’s worthwhile to subpoena him.

But if you’re like me, and are patiently awaiting the day when Donald J. Trump actually pays for his crimes, be aware that you’ll likely be waiting. We’re seeing a lot of hedging from the 1/6 committee to the point that we’re not convinced that they will even go far enough to hold him in contempt. That’s part 1 of our podcast episode, and the motivation for the title.

The second part is all about term limits. Do they work or just make corporate influence cheaper? We talk through the pros and cons of it and actually one of our members is convinced enough during the course to change their mind. Listen to find out who, and what the decision ultimately became!

Image from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Paper_tigers_in_villain_hitting.jpg/1024px-Paper_tigers_in_villain_hitting.jpg

In this podcast, Don, Chuck, and Christina begin discussing the January 6th hearings. But in true Right and Freedom fashion, we quickly dive into a discussion about the fact that Herschel Walker has been said to have been more Christian than Ralph Warnock. Now, for the thousandth time if you listen to our podcast, we have to say that laws in this country shouldn’t be based on anyone’s religion. So does it really matter who is the more Christian of the two? Not a chance in hell. And yet, Newt Gingrich is just short of a divinity in the minds of many on the right, so no doubt this endorsement will sway some people.

Troubling indeed.

Couple that with banned books and some side-conversation about parthogenesis among frogs and other animals, and you have the crux of what this podcast episode is about. Mostly — it’s about freedom, and how the only way to a truly free society is to completely extricate the religious arguments from our debates about laws. Period. Because any society that makes its laws based on any particular religion cannot be said to have true freedom of religion, can it? Take a listen and you decide!

Do you smoke pot? Have you considered it? We’re not coming down on either side of the pot smoking issue. Smoke if you want, don’t if you don’t want. But one thing we all agree on is that compared to alcohol, pot is a way safer way to spend your time. With the marijuana movement growing and legalization across the states, Biden’s decision to pardon thousands of non-violent medical marijuana sentences and drug declassification is an amazing source. Considering that over 10% of Americans are “habitual marijuana users” and that marijuana enforcement is largely biased, this is a good move.

What impact will it have on the election? We have some thoughts on that. Check out this podcast and learn a little more about this emerging multi-billion dollar industry and what it means for our upcoming elections.

The big lie has been an established part of history for generations. We know it, talk about it, but we don’t know what it really means. Hitler used it in a very manipulative way by maligning the news sources of the day and instilling distrust between the population and the news media (sound familiar?). Trump is doing the same thing with the press and with the latest problems he has discussing the election or anything that frankly annoys him. By himself, he’s not dangerous. But throw in reputable sources — or sources deemed reputable by many — Clarence Thomas and Ginni Thomas. How do you fight against the big lie? With education. Guess what’s also happening right now?

77% of Texas teachers in Texas want to quit. It’s not just Texas. The culture wars are real and are having a devastating impact across the nation down into the PTA rooms. As they are lying to your face, America, the Trump party is also systematically dismantling the tools you need to keep common conversation and shared knowledge flowing. Education is power, and we need to understand that as a community and give it the priority it deserves.

As prices keep going up, we need to remember how to prioritize. Inflation is global and Biden is delivering on the infrastructure programs that we need to build this country. Biden doesn’t control inflation as many might think.

And if we’re tracking inflation, we should really talk about Turkey (79% inflation). And there’s a war in Ukraine so food supplies are short worldwide. All of these issues impact inflation here at home. Further, there’s a global oil market, so there’s not much that Biden can do about oil other than what he’s been doing.

What can he help with? Building our national infrastructure, and putting blocks in place to diminish the ability of people to interfere with our elections going forward. Biden can help a lot when it comes to fighting fascism. When it comes right down to it though, the power belongs to the people. You and I, how we vote and who we talk to about the current state of politics is a huge factor in the upcoming political fights.

It’s time to prioritize. To fascism or not to fascism?

Midterms are just around the corner. Do you know who you’re voting for? While we don’t tell you who to vote for (Beto — vote for Beto if you live in Texas), we do tell you why we support the people we do. No, it’s not a personality contest. And if you’ve learned anything about us so far, you should know that we don’t beat any single party drum religiously. Of late, we’ve been on one side of the aisle because when it comes to d*#%$ing around with the democracy and constitution that we swore to protect, one party is doing this in spades.

If that’s not enough, maybe some good old-fashioned self-interest will interest you. When it comes to policy, it also happens that (right now) one single party pushes a platform that helps society and the people in it, while the other gives tax breaks to billionaires and steals from its constituents. And there’s more…so much more. Learn a bit about policy in this podcast episode called the Midterm Hustle.