#915 - "Burnout Break!, Ignorant Voters, ICC Arrests, Alito's Flag, & A$$hole of Today feat. Bill Maher!"

Jesse Dollemore
The following broadcast may contain free thinking and open minded discussion. Ideas, skepticism, and adult subject matter. Topics will be discussed using adult language, sometimes gratuitously. Get ready to move the conversation forward. This ain't your granddad's news and comments show.

This is I doubt it podcast with Brittany Page and Jesse Dolomore.

Welcome to the big Old show, episode 915 of I doubt it podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Dolomore, joined today by the lovely, talented, and indeed scholarly Brittany page. So my initial response right now is to rant and rave about a health insurance issue that I'm having, but maybe we'll spare everyone on that and spare me. I get infuriated and talk about just our recent experience with burnout kind of reaching its peak and how we needed to have a brief escape, which we took, which was relaxing, but not super relaxing. Well, there were stressors, and getting to the relaxation was a lot of fucking work.

Cause it was a long drive. And then returning from the relaxation just was more driving and bullshit. Well, and I think, I don't know if this happens for everyone, but I certainly feel like this, that when I return from a trip or whatever, I feel like I can't just get back and then go, okay, let's get back to work. Which is what we actually had planned. Like, we.

Brittany Page
We drove 6 hours yesterday, and we were like, we'll do the show when we get back that day. And then you get home and you're like, oh, my God, I can't move. I need to just. I need to lay down. I need a nap.

I need to relax. Even sweepie, who accompanied us, which was awesome. Amazing to bring sweepie with us. Yeah, even she was, like, fucking tapped out. Like, I'm done.

Yes. Yeah. So we went to Bovina, New York, and there's nothing there. It's a very small town. I wonder if anyone lives there.

Does anyone live there? Listens to the show. Well, here, there. And if you do, go to Russell's general store, because they have fantastic breakfast sandwiches. Delicious.

Still thinking about it. Wildly underpriced. Very, very. Yeah, they should charge double for those things. There was no cell phone service in this town in New York.

And there were plenty of Trump signs. Lots of Trump signs. What is with. Let me ask you this. What do you think about this?

Jesse Dollemore
And I throw it to the audience too. What's with the get over it? I saw several signs that were like, trump 2024, get over it. I'm a Trump girl. 2024.

Get over. Like, who's. Who are they telling to get over it. And who do they assume has such a. What is the get over?

What the fuck does that even mean? So if I can. I think that it is someone who is centering their Trump support as a feature of their personality and kind of defining their sense of self by being a Trump supporter. And I don't know, it seems almost confrontational, like a way to push people away, like a way to be apart, set yourself apart, and maybe they don't have other things that make them unique. Do you also think that it might be some semblance of the manifestation of, like, a martyr complex?

Like, I'm above the. I'm being persecuted. You need to get over your issues with me being this thing or. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's any number of things. I'm sure you can't categorize it.

Brittany Page
I would need to go talk to her for a lengthy breakdown. Mean the Trump girl that we need to get over her being a Trump girl? Yeah. I would need to kind of suss the situation out. But as far as just reading the sign, you know, who knows?

I don't know. Well, sign or signs, because oftentimes it's a series, a litany, a panoply, a plethora of flags and signs hastily attached to a fence or whatever. It's not just one thing. Yeah. So anyway, we didn't want this to turn into.

It was supposed to be talking about our break, and here we are talking about the politics of everything, but which. Is why we need to take a fucking break. Sometimes you can't escape it. It, like, follows you. I guess the nice thing was that we didn't have cell phone service, and so we were not as connected to things that were going on during the weekend, and we got to spend some time with people, and that was really nice and had a decent meal.

Not perfect, but decent. Jesse was not a fan of the meatballs. Don't get him started on the meatballs. And it was. It was overall.

It was overall good. Well, I don't want to shit on the place. We're not going to talk about it now that there's been. My displeasure has been inserted into the zeitgeist, because I don't want to. I think they're trying hard.

Jesse Dollemore
They're just, you know, it wasn't great. Yeah. So maybe I'll rant about the insurance issue now. So I went to the dermatologist last year. You know, they recommend that you get a skin check once a year.

Brittany Page
Okay. To get your moles checked to get your spots checked to get your skin checked out. And I like to do that because I get worried about some of the spots and the things that show up, and so I want to get those things checked, and so I like to go every year. And the health insurance puts dermatology in a specialty category, which means that even if you've already seen a dermatologist and this dermatologist says, come back in one year for a skin check on this date or this time period. Yeah.

You cannot just log into your portal and make an appointment with that doctor that you've already seen. You have to go through this whole rigamarole and call the insurance company and wait on hold and talk to a specialist person who's going to make the appointment. And so I do all that. I call and they're like, so worried that I'm, like, going to steal healthcare from the dermatologist or something. I don't understand these hoops that you have to jump through.

Jesse Dollemore
They're worried that you're going to steal healthcare. I mean, really, I don't know what else the issue is. I don't know why it's so hard. No, it's so hilarious. But that might.

What the. You're going to misappropriate? What are they? Well, because I'm already paying monthly. I'm paying my monthly premium, and then I have to pay a $50 copay to go to the dermatologist, which is double what the ordinary copay is because it's a specialty thing.

Brittany Page
So I'm going to pay. I'm paying. It's fine. Relax. So anyway, I'm talking to this person and they're like, okay, you're gonna have to call back on the first when the book's open because there's nothing available.

Jesse Dollemore
So they're rationing dermatology appointments. Yeah. And I'm like, well, there's nothing available when, like, what are we talking about? How far out are you looking? And she's like, oh, I already closed it.

Brittany Page
Let me reopen it. And so she reopens it and she says, august, right? We're in May. Nothing is open until August. Wow.

And I say, oh, well, can I book for August then? You know? No, you need to call back on the first to book for August. So I'm like, okay, great. I guess I'll dedicate more time to doing this.

It shouldn't be this hard to get healthcare, right? Yeah, it should not be this difficult. Especially cancer preventing, right? I don't want skin cancer. That's the whole point of this?

Jesse Dollemore
It's not like my ankle's been hurting. Yeah, it's something. I don't know. Yeah, maybe I should be like, well, will this make a difference in terms of the appointment time? Something has appeared.

Brittany Page
It's red, it's bleeding, it hurts. I'm really scared of it. It's very large. Should we make an appointment sooner than that? No, you need to call back the 1 June and then we'll fit you in sometime in August of 2028.

Perfect.

Love the healthcare system in this country. It's absolutely fantastic. Tell us what you think. We would love to know. 657-464-7609 and of course, as always, you can email us a voice memo from your smartphone or a regular old fashioned email to idoutitollimore.com.

Jesse Dollemore
In this increasingly technological world that we live, we only seem to spend more time hunched over our gadgets, legs pretzeled and twisted and backs arched, staring at the almighty screen. We are better than this. We need to stand up for ourselves, improve our bodies and our brains. That's why Jesse and I changed to an uplift standing desk standing while prepping the show has completely improved our efficiency by amplifying our focus and boosting the flow of ideas and blood circulation. Studies have shown using a standing desk can also increase your energy and lower your risk of disease.

Brittany Page
Your health and work deserve a raise. Go to upliftdesk.com idoutit and use code idoutit at checkout to get 5% off and take your fitness and productivity to new heights. You know raising standing desk with over 6005 star Google reviews, we're not the only satisfied customers. The New York Times wire Cutter has chosen Uplift desk as their standing desk of choice for five years running. Since uplift desks are super stable, you can switch between sitting and standing configurations with the single tap of a button, and there's more than 100 desktop styles and tons of accessories to choose from, including four for free with every desk purchase.

Uplift Desk also offers a 15 year warranty, free shipping, and free returns with free return shipping. Are you ready to prioritize your health and productivity? Move more with Uplift desk. Head to upliftdesk.com I doubtit. Or just click the link below to score 5% off of your first purchase when you use code idoutit at checkout.

Jesse Dollemore
Work better live healthier with uplift desk all right, let's get to some listener communication. We've got a couple emails here and I'm eager to get back at this. Having less burnout than I had before. We have an email from Tommy H. In the USA.

Brittany Page
Hey there, baby birds. Remember when you played that video from maybe it was Oklahoma about the library? You know, the what's anal sex video? Yeah, it was. That was Idaho.

I nearly peed myself from laughing about it when you discussed it on your show. I was just watching a recent episode of last Week tonight with John Oliver and he did a segment on public libraries and they played it. I laughed just as hard about it as I did when you two covered it. It's sad to see that people really think public libraries are such a wacky place. Also, I should mention that my local library has been completely taken over by MAGA extremists.

Every member of the library board that was there to do some good has either been replaced or has resigned along with our very amazing former library director. In any case, I hope you two can laugh again at such a stupid but hilarious video. Love your show. Britney's the best part. Tommy H.

In the USA. Love the show. Britney's the best part. We actually, that particular segment of the podcast on YouTube that we filmed, like a million views, that really resonated with people. I think this library issue is something that, that absolutely people are getting very, very tired of, even maybe even conservatives, because they, they've kind of come around that are realized.

Jesse Dollemore
I'm talking about what we could consider rational people, that it's just culture war bullshit and you're going to be harming your kids. And also it's antithetical to what conservatives are. Just parent. It's personal responsibility. If you don't want your kid reading a certain book, well, then you don't allow your kid to read a certain book.

Brittany Page
Yeah, I did watch that segment. It was a good segment. I want to say, and I'm not shitting on Tommy here, but it is kind of funny that Tommy watched us talk about it and John Oliver talked about it and then the state didn't solidify in Tommy's mind of where the story came from. Yeah, it just pick us. Pick any conservative hellhole.

Jesse Dollemore
Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas. It just all runs together at some point. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, really, the focus of the story is the hilarity that ensues when you hear the mommy, what's anal sex? That, you know, this child learned about this from the librarian.

Brittany Page
Like, yeah, yeah. You know, come on. Sprinkled with some anti trans rhetoric in there, too. Cause the librarian was a lady with a scratchy face when she hugged and kissed me. Yeah, but, you know, it's nice to be ahead of the curve sometimes.

Cause John Oliver has a whole team. Yeah. And we just have us, so, you know, barely. That's nice. Sometimes I'm checked out.

Yeah. So thank you for that, Tommy. We appreciate it. We have another email here. Hi, Jesse and Brittany.

This was in every driveway in our neighborhood this morning. It's a photo. I will explain the photo in a second. We are hubby is a non white in a very white California county. White, 88% hispanic, 24% black, 2% asian, 4% Slo county on the central Cali coast.

What to do? It's not exactly a threat, yet. It is scary. And this person attached a photo of a flyer that says, diversity is not our strength. It lowers our wages, marginalizes our culture, increases crime, fills our hospitals, occupies our housing, ruins our schools, consumes our taxes, tightens our laws, restricts our freedoms, endangers our children, and calls us racist.

The bottom says diversity is anti white. Join us in the struggle against our people's displacement. Why someone distributing that flyer would be called racist. That's. Yeah.

Jesse Dollemore
What an injustice. Yeah. So this person says what to do? It's not a threat. Yet it is scary.

Brittany Page
I mean, in terms of what to do, Jesse. Yeah, I mean, I would. I would certainly. Because it's the precursor of a threat. I would absolutely contact law enforcement, your local DA, civil rights organizations, to get their eyes on this.

Jesse Dollemore
So if indeed it does become an actual threat or violence, they can trace it back to whomever may have have left the flyer. But it is. This is racist, white supremacist propaganda that is being distributed as a twofold. I think that the. The goal would be, one is to recruit others and then also to instill fear in people like you and your family living in.

They. I think that's St. Louis, Obispo county, probably, which, you know, people think of California, they just think La or San Francisco, they think totally liberal everywhere. And California is a massive, wide ranging state. And there are all kinds of places in California that are dangerously trumpish.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it could also open up a conversation in the neighborhood, like other people, maybe if you know your neighbors and they also got the flyer talking to them and maybe as a way to create connections among your neighbors or even with neighbors that you don't know very well of. Like, did you also get this? What the hell is this?

Brittany Page
Safety in numbers and, you know, trying to kind of build some sort of community among like minded folks in the neighborhood who don't support this, who don't want this in their neighborhood and, you know, opening up actual political conversations about who your elected officials are and getting in contact with those people and ensuring that, you know, they know that this is on their radar, that they are fighting against racism in the community, you know, those kinds of things. I know that all of these answers aren't great because ultimately, you want to be able to do something directly about, like this organization, which I'm not going to name or promote on the show here, but it is listed in the flyer. And, you know, unfortunately, these people are cowards. That's why they're leaving the flyers on your lawn and not going and knocking on your door like a mormon missionary. They are doing it in secret and trying to spread this information in secret.

And this is how, unfortunately, they. They do it in order to build power. Yeah. In akin to your suggestion about grouping together and maybe create an organization or just talk to your neighbors and maybe see if maybe your neighbors have skill sets that could network and create an organization. But akin to that in coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where Hayden Lake, Idaho, where the aryan nation headquarters was until they got sued into oblivion and had to have that land given away to victims.

Jesse Dollemore
Coeur d'alene business owners. Years ago. I don't know how it is now, but years ago, every business had a sign in front that says, we don't tolerate. Hey, we're like, they were banding together to push back against white supremacy. And, you know, that's an organized business effort.

But I'm certain that your neighbors are of like mind, largely. And it might be nice to. To ban one with another against this. Yeah. Yeah.

Brittany Page
So thank you for that email. There was no name in the body of the email, so we'll keep that anonymous. And we have one more. This will be a fun one. This is also gonna be anonymous.

So there's no name in the body of the email. We'll keep it anonymous. This is in response to the death and rape threat that we received. And particularly relevant here, if you didn't listen to our previous episode about the death and rape threat, is that they also said I was an ugly c word. We won't say the word for people who complain that we say it.

So, um. Okay, here we go. First. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a true statement. I still don't get cubism.

See Picasso. My preference runs toward Rubens, Raphael, et cetera. A study among fashion designers, photographers, and modeling agencies ask, what is beauty? Overwhelmingly cited symmetry as the foremost criteria. They say no one has perfect symmetry yet some are close.

Think Heidi Klum. Which is why I get a chuckle from Haba when she speaks about how she'd rather be pretty. Does her mirror not reveal the asymmetry shape of her head? MTG, russian media calls her beautiful. Do they not see the lopsided melon sitting on her shoulders?

And here we go. Objectively, Britney is a pretty woman. She has good relative symmetry. Maybe not supermodel gorgeous, but few are. Inner beauty is still most important.

Jesse Dollemore
Oh, you're beautiful on the inside. Brittany, this is not this specific email, but this is something that happened a lot after the death threats where they called you an ugly effin c or whatever and they were gonna kill and rape you. Very interesting that so many people were like, oh, that is terrible, Brittany, you're not ugly. It's like that. That's not, that wasn't the concern.

That wasn't our focus. Yeah. Whether or not you're. Well, that's just not even true. You're not ugly.

Brittany Page
I thought this email was so funny. I was cackling after I read it, because imagine listening to the death and rape threat, and then this is your first thought is like this. Well, her face isn't totally symmetrical, but. Yeah, this, like, philosophical discussion of what beauty is and breaking it down and then ending after all of that about Haba's lopsided head, her melon. Inner beauty is still most important.

And this is a very funny thing that happens. Like, we will read comments, you know? Cause we get so much communication from people that it starts to become like, certain communications fall into this category of, like, do these people hear themselves? And it will be like someone listens to. What's a recent example, my video that I just did about Megyn Kelly's response, calling the protesters ugly.

Jesse Dollemore
Homely. Yeah, yeah. Attractive and homely. Yeah. The, the palestinian campus protesters.

Brittany Page
That's what she said about them. And I did a video about it. And in the video, I talk about the horrors that have rained down on Gaza, including the number of children who have lost their limbs. And I featured this, this photo in a New Yorker article that is just so terrible. And someone left a comment, like, after seeing all of that horror, you know, they leave comments and they just are focused on the complete wrong thing.

And I had the idea of what it specifically was, and then it completely disappeared after I thought of the kid in the photo. So. But, yeah, it's like you hear this terrible thing and somehow it just, like, blocks out or something. I don't know how it works. But then they just forget that you even talked about that, I guess I.

Jesse Dollemore
Think people fixate and then they're just the energy of their brain just goes to that whatever thing it is. Yeah. So we appreciate all of the communication whether and by the way, we all. Know Britney's no fucking supermodel, I'll tell you.

Brittany Page
Thank you for that. Anonymous emailer. We appreciate your commentary and analysis of the symmetry of my face. If you too would like to comment on the symmetry of my face, you can send an email to idoutitollimore.com or a voicemail 657-4645 let's thank some Patreon supporters. Oftentimes we do this and then forget to even give the Patreon address.

Jesse Dollemore
If you would like to help support this work, help us move the conversation forward on an episode by episode basis, please consider $2 a month and become a patron. Go to patreon.com. I doubt it podcast we would like. To thank our new Patreon supporters Steve P Steve P Josiah J Josiah J Tim W Tim W Farley X W. Farley XW Sabrina Sabrina Alan S Allen.

Brittany Page
S Jerre Jira Cor cph core cph Wren A ren A Thomas M Thomas. M thank you Michael r Michael r Ingrid g Ingrid G that's a familiar name. Jim W Jim W Amber b Amber b Burin g Burren G and we would like to give a shout out to our Patreon supporters who have increased their pledge or turned it into an annual membership, as is the case with. John L. John L.

Jesse Dollemore
Thank you very, very much. We appreciate you all. Remember that if you are a Patreon supporter, you have access to the ad free version of the show, not just on Patreon's platform itself, but you have access to the rss feed link which you can copy and paste into whatever podcatcher you use so that you can access the ad free version of the show. And remember that we also have been sending your welcome stickers out on a continuous basis. So please make sure when you sign up as a Patreon supporter that you add your address in your mailing address because sometimes people will become Patreon supporters and then say, hey, what the hell?

Brittany Page
Where are my stickers? But if you didn't add your mailing address, we cannot send them to you. So please remember to do that and if you haven't received your stickers, please reach out and we will see what happened. Maybe the address didn't get listed or whatever or we dropped the ball. I'm not blaming you guys, so just.

Jesse Dollemore
Let us know again, patreon.com, I doubt it. Podcast dilemma cracy, facing down pessimistic politics with realistic optimism.

Brittany Page
So before we get to some of the clips, I'd want to talk about a few things just that have come up in the news or that I've been reading. And I saw this New York Times article in. The title is Democrats hold leads in four crucial races that could decide Senate control. New battleground state polls by the New York Times, Sienna College and the Philadelphia Enquirer show Democrats ahead in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and running well ahead of the president. And then they go on to interview various voters in discussion of who they are planning to vote for.

And Jesse, I consume a lot of these voter panel things, you know, like Frank, not Frank Bruni. Frank Lunz. Lunts. Yeah, I just, he's been around forever. Yeah, I just watched, I think Frank Bruni was on time when I work.

Jesse Dollemore
For the Senate and Trent Lott was the majority leader from Mississippi. Frank Luntz was always lapdogging it with Trent Lott. He's been around since the nineties, early two thousands. So he does a lot of these voter panels where he sits and asks who they're voting for, what issues they care about, what their opinions are. And it's not just him that does these.

Brittany Page
I mean, every news organization has their, you know, talking heads sit down with panels of voters and do this. Famously, Fox News and CNN does them a lot. Yeah, I've watched Cena and I've watched PBS. Just did one. I watch a lot of them.

And something that bothers me about them is that I've never once watched one where they ask this group of voters their opinion on a political topic, you know, choose whatever political topic. I've never heard someone say, you know, I don't really know a lot about that, and I certainly don't know enough to have an opinion on that. Yeah. So I can't really speak to that. But maybe my sense of it is, you know, like some sort of qualifier of like, I don't know.

I don't really know about that. I don't really have a strong opinion about that. It's like you get into that room, you get around that table, and you're expected to know about everything and have an opinion about every issue. And maybe it's like the, the room or you feel pressure because you're on camera and it's gonna be on the news, or, or maybe it's something that's just lacking in society in general, which I think is the the better explanation? I think so too, because I guess, how often in general do you hear people say that?

They don't know. But I was reading this article and they interviewed this voter, Benjamin Johnson, a 37 year old truck driver from superior, Wisconsin. And here's what this says. Benjamin Johnson said he has supported Mister Biden since he was Barack Obama's vice president, trusting him to defend the country against terrorism. But he said he wants Republicans to control the Senate and keep taxes low.

So he is leaning toward the Republican challenging Tammy Baldwin for, for control in the Senate. Yeah. So here we go. Here's another one. But more typical was Chris Myers, a 52 year old union construction worker in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Mister Myers said he had never seen more construction work than what was underway now in the state. In fact, he said he was helping to build the $3 billion Microsoft artificial intelligence data center that Mister Biden was trumpeting on Wednesday in Wisconsin as a promise delivered by his administration. Yet Mister Myers said he would split his vote by supporting Miss Baldwin, whom he praised for doing, quote, some good things for the state. And Mister Trump saying, I like his go get him, take no crap attitude. Mainly, Mister Myers complained that Mister Biden's visit last week celebrating the creation of his job ended up slowing down the concrete trucks.

Jesse Dollemore
First of all, there's, there's a number of different things here. Wow. That is nuts. The jobs that were created by this Microsoft thing in Wisconsin are on the site of the Foxconn thing that Donald Trump touted when he was like, we're bringing jobs to America. And then it ended up just being a pr scam.

Foxconn didn't. They pulled up roots. They, they did imminent domain and made people took their property and made them move. And then Foxconn yanked out and then left this community in the lurch. Joe Biden actually got something done with this Microsoft deal, created actual jobs.

They've actually broken ground. Things are actually taking place and a lot of jobs have been created through the infrastructure plan. All that Democrats got done and all that Republicans worked against. Yeah, and he's gonna vote for Donald Trump or vote for a Republican to split the ticket because of taxes. And, and what a strange complaint to have that Biden coming and visiting your state, promoting the work that he just did to ensure that you have job security, disrupted your day with the concrete trucks.

Brittany Page
And so that's enough to vote for Donald Trump. And by the way, Donald Trump promised that the Foxconn thing would be the 8th wonder of the world. And when he visited the site with elected officials and 2017, they made a. Big, big splash of it. I think they, like, broke ground with golden shovels.

Golden shovels. Yeah. Fucking idiots. Yeah. Golden shovel.

Jesse Dollemore
Was that what you were going to say? Yes, because Biden specifically called that out when he was there making the announcement. He said, look what happened. They dug a hole with those golden shovels and then they fell into it.

Let me tell you. Let me say this. Joe Biden is pretty quick witted. He's got some jokes sometimes, and they land pretty hard. Yeah.

Brittany Page
Yeah. Now, we also talked about the looming possibility that the international criminal court was going to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And that has actually materialized. And the leadership of Hamas, it's not just some isolated attack on Israel and Jews. It's, here are some criminals.

Jesse Dollemore
This is what's happening. These are human rights abuses. And we're going to issue a rest warrant. Absolutely. Yeah.

Brittany Page
It's for Hamas leaders, and it's also for, like I said, Benjamin Netanyahu and then the israeli defense minister. And when it comes to Hamas, they are seeking arrest of Hamas leaders for committing war crimes and crimes, crimes against humanity, including hostage taking, murder, and crimes of sexual violence. And then when it comes to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the israeli defense minister, they have committed war crimes, they say, and crimes against humanity, including starvation, as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination. Yeah. So unfortunately, Biden made a statement today condemning this as outrageous, fucking stupid and said in a, as reported by the AP, a sharply worded statement that he is saying, whatever this prosecutor might imply, there's no equivalence, none, between Israel and Hamas.

We will always stand with Israel against threat to its security. And what's strange about this is all along you've been hearing people say, you know, when, when you, like, listen to Bill Maher talk. Sorry, Bill Maher's on my mind because he's going to be like, a feature of this show when he's like, what about Hamas? What about Hamas? And every time you ask someone that, right, when they're talking about what's happening to the people of Gaza, inevitably someone will say, and what about Hamas?

And then they say, yeah, Hamas is a terrorist organization. It's terrible what they did. And yes, absolutely everything you're saying is terrible. But then when you're like, hey, but what about these atrocities that are being committed in Gaza? It's like, oh, well, we need to commit more of them because we got to get rid of Hamas.

Jesse Dollemore
When asked, what about Hamas? And then you say, yes, fucking terrible terrorists. They need to be eliminated, eradicated. I've been using the word. But then when you say, yeah, I agree with you, but what about Israel?

They go, yeah, but what about Hamas? Right. It's just the circular bullshit. Right, right. So they're kind of in a difficult position here because people who have been very outspoken about what's happening in Gaza will say that, yes, Hamas is terrible.

Brittany Page
We totally agree with that. But these people that have been defending Israel, I mean, what do they have to say about the international criminal court now, you know, deciding whether they're going to move forward on how this case is going to proceed with these arrest warrants? I mean. Well, it's not going to proceed. There is no proceeding with the case because Israel didn't sign on to whatever agreement.

Jesse Dollemore
They're not inside of the international criminal courts jurisdiction, so to speak, either. Are we in the United States? It's. No, we're going to commit war crimes and we don't want to be held accountable. So we're not going to sign on to this treaty or agreement.

Brittany Page
Yeah. It's just bananas. Well, and it's. It's. I mean, it's just so disturbing because the response from israeli leaders has been to condemn it as disgraceful and anti semitic.

Jesse Dollemore
Come on. And so the accusations that you are intentionally starving a population by refusing to allowed aid trucks in, which has been widely reported and seen not only by reporters on the ground, but also humanitarian aid organizations that are trying to help the people of Gaza not starve to death, to call that concern about that, to call someone attempting to do something about that, to intervene, to call that anti semitic is very disturbing. It is setting back the cause of working against anti semitism to do that. In fact, this weekend, somewhere, Jerry Seinfeld was in somewhere that you wouldn't expect him to be, but given a doing stand up somewhere. Norfolk, Virginia.

That's where it was. Jerry Seinfeld in Norfolk, Virginia. And multiple times he was. He was interrupted during his set. And the first one who, some dude, he got up and he said, free Gaza.

And then he was tackled by another audience member and started to be, like, choked out or something. And I was reading somewhere and Jerry Seinfeld goes, oh, what a way to spice up the show with a little jew hate. At the beginning of the. Of my set, what it's like, free Gaza is not hating Jews, you fucking piece of shit. Ugh.

It's just. It is. It's setting back the cause of working against anti semitism when trying to stop the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians is considered antisemitism by these idiots. Yeah. So I wish I could say as a segue, let's move on to a, like, you know, positive topic or something, but that's not gonna happen, so.

Well, anytime you talk about Samuel Alito, it's not gonna be great. Yeah. And especially now that we know he's, like, a stop the steel guy. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Brittany Page
I don't wanna get into trouble with a Supreme Court justice, but. So I don't mind. Fuck him. This story broke on Friday, I think, and it was reported in the New York Times. Jody Cant, who has broken other huge stories for the New York Times.

And the story here is that at Samuel Alito's house, there was a stop. The steel symbol on display in the form of an upside down american flag hoisted up on the flagpole in front of his house. And not, like, just briefly. It was there for days. Also, he's one of these guys that has, like, a full size flagpole in his front yard, not the little canted flag that hangs off, like, the column on a front porch.

Jesse Dollemore
We're talking about, like, you have to raise and lower the flag on the giant flagpole in front of his house. And this wasn't. The timing of this was after the insurrection. Like, the insurrection had already happened. Yeah.

And they were hearing cases dealing with the attempt to steal the election at this very moment that the flag was up. Right. So we're talking about him flying this flag in January 2021, January 17. It was nearly two weeks after the insurrection when we knew what had taken place. We saw all the upside down flags at the insurrection, and he decided to put his up.

Brittany Page
Right. And Joe Biden's inauguration was three days away, and people were so concerned about this that they took photos of it. Now, my question is, what took so long for this to come out? Yeah. And the New York Times also reports that it got back to the court.

People who work at the Supreme Court knew about this. Like, word got back to them that this had happened. So what the hell? They've known about this for years and what is going on? So the bigger question here, too, is the.

And it always comes back to this. Right. The ethics questions. We started having these conversations when ProPublica broke all those stories about Clarence Thomas getting gifts and Samuel Alito also getting gifts, by the way. The question's always, who's going to monitor the court?

Jesse Dollemore
Who's going to regulate? And the answer is, they regulate themselves. Right. And so that's working out really well, Brittany. It's going so well, so Jody Kantor from the New York Times, who broke this story, sat down on CNN with Abby Phillip to talk about some of these ethics questions.

Brittany Page
And basically, what, if anything, can be done about a sitting Supreme Court justice flying an inverted flag seemingly in support of the insurrection and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election results. It's a binding federal statute, so it does apply to Supreme Court justices. The court has said that it's for individual justices to determine. I think the question of whether this fact pattern is a cause for recusal is something for the experts to debate. We just broke this news tonight and I'm curious to see how the legal world reacts.

Jody Kantor
But there are a number of issues. There are kind of the recusal issues about whether he should participate in this case, and there's the question of the code of conduct for judges and whether this behavior meets that bar and if not, what anybody can do about it. Because the Supreme Court by definition is the last word and nobody else supervises the justices. Yeah. That's why the appearance of impropriety is so problematic there.

Jesse Dollemore
What's amazing, Jody, is also, I mean, this being scuttlebutt for basically four years among, in that neighborhood and among the court and then finally coming out when it did. Thank you for joining us. All of this reporting, this is something that's contributing to my burnout, by the way. It's this continuing to give these motherfuckers the benefit of the doubt. Even Abby Phillip there.

And I realize she's a, she's a straight news journalist. She's got to use the correct language about even the appearance of impropriety. This isn't the motherfucking appearance of impropriety. This is a justice on the United States Supreme Court flying a flag, which was adopted as a symbol of the attempt to steal the election from Joe Biden, flying that at his home and then blaming his fucking wife for it, right? That's what he did.

Brittany Page
He blamed misses Alito. And I actually want to read briefly because Shannon Bream of Fox News reached out to Justice Alito to get some more information from him about the story in the New York Times. And so this is what she wrote on, on Twitter in a thread. I spoke directly with Justice Alito about the flag story in the New York Times. In addition to what's in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a fuck Trump sign that was within 50ft of where children await the school bus in January 2021.

Misses. Alito brought this up with the neighborhood. According to Justice Alito, things escalated, and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Misses Alito and blaming her for the January 6 attacks. Seems like a good neighborhood situation going on here. Well, would it be any different if we were their neighbors?

Jesse Dollemore
You know what I mean? Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood, and there were words between misses Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, including the c word. Following. Did he also leave me a voicemail?

Brittany Page
Do you think it was the. He called her a carpetbagger. Yeah. Following that exchange, misses Alito was distraught and hung. You know, you get distraught and then you go and you hang the inverted flag.

But continue. Misses Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down, quote, for a short time, Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are, quote, very political and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021. Wait a minute. He's juxtaposing himself from his neighbors, that they are the very political ones, while defending the flying of a symbol that was co opted by insurrectionists. It's an interesting.

Jesse Dollemore
They're the political ones because of a fuck Trump sign. We're not even political. I'm a supreme court justice, everybody. Well, and he's like, my neighbors were attacking my wife for being, like, treasonous to the country. And so she went ahead and she was distraught, and she hung this, like, treasonous symbol.

Yeah, exactly. It's the same argument as if you call me racist. I'm not racist, but maybe I'll become racist. Cause I don't like being called racist. Right.

Brittany Page
But I mean, really, this Alito logic. That'S what that is. Yeah, and I mean, this is. This is so disturbing because the news broke after they have already. They're done hearing arguments.

They're now every week releasing opinions. And I don't want to hear. I don't want to read their opinions. I don't. You know, people always say that the supreme Court needs us to believe in the institution in order for our society to not descend into chaos or whatever.

Jesse Dollemore
We need us to adopt a fantasy. In our minds in order for them to have legitimacy, continued legitimacy, that they need the public's buy in. And it's like, well, the public's buy in is going away. And when are we officially going to be like, you know, can we just disregard what the Supreme Court is saying? Well, the answer to this is stack the fucking court.

Pack the fucking court. Yeah, and we were talking about this because there was nothing more consequential for Donald Trump being elected than his appointing three Supreme Court justices. And if you think about it, I don't have the ages on the top of my head because I wasn't planning to talk about this, but they're in. Their upper seventies, 75. Alito is 74.

Brittany Page
Clarence Thomas, I think he's a year or two older, is 75. And Sonia Sotomayor is 69. Yeah. So you could potentially have the next presidential candidate putting into place the next president. Sorry.

Yeah, the next president putting into place three Supreme Court justices, which right now. Were a six three Supreme Court. If we were to take two conservatives away, it would be a. And then add anyway, we could be back to not just a five four Supreme Court, we could be a six three Supreme Court with liberals on the bench. Right.

Jesse Dollemore
It could be a completely different world where, in the absence of Democrats actually passing legislation to protect abortion rights and marriage equality and a host of other important things, we would have a Supreme Court there to protect those items. Right. Right. Yeah. So keep that in mind as we continue to approach this election.

Brittany Page
And if you have something to say about that, please let us know. 657-464-7609 or you can send an email to idoutitollimore.com dot.

It's the asshole of today. Bill Maher, host of a real time with Bill Maher on the HBO and now featured on CNN as well. Yes, Bill Maher, the anti science, anti trans bigot, anti vaccine douchebag. So we've had criticism for. It's always kind of funny when, like, you do your thing and then I transition into, you know, how I'm gonna talk about it.

So we've talked about Bill Maher a lot on this show. We have criticized him for years. I think in the initial period of time when we were launching criticism against Bill Maher, it was widely unpopular. And a lot of people still had an affection for Bill Maher that we just don't have. I think that he's actually quite dangerous for the discourse and generally uninformed and ignorant.

And when I say dangerous, I don't mean like, oh, his comedy is so irreverent that, like, it's offensive. No, I mean, like, he's uneducated. And the things that he says using his platform then spread misinformation and can lead to other people being misinformed. And this episode of Overtime that we're gonna talk about overtime is when he completes his regular show. He has, like, another ten to 15 minutes segment where they, he and his panel take questions from the audience and answer them.

Jesse Dollemore
And isn't it like, live streamed to YouTube, too? Well, it gets posted on YouTube. I don't know if it's live streamed, but it's, it's. Or is that, is that overtime where they do the live stream? I don't know.

Brittany Page
Well, we're talking about overtime. Yeah, I don't know if there's a live stream, it gets posted to YouTube. And this episode that we're specifically talking about had over, over a million views. I mean, at the time that I was talking about it to a friend, it had like 800,000 or something. It's for sure over a million at this point, I would say.

But he had on this episode Frank Bruni, Douglas Murray and Eric Slosser. And I don't really know a lot about these people except for Douglas Murray, who is an author and a frequent Sam Harris guest. He's a racist and islamophobe. Yeah, he's very anti immigration. And I mean, he's racist.

So he had these people on. And one of the questions that came from the audience is about safe consumption sites, these sites that are sometimes set up. Two of them are currently in New York City. I'll talk about that in a minute. Where people can come, people who already actively use drugs come to use those drugs in a safe environment and then leave their needles or pipes to be disposed of and then leave the site.

Jesse Dollemore
And are monitored so they don't od and die. Right. And the goal of these sites is to, number one, create a safe place for people to use and dispose of their drug use materials so that they are not using in public and they are not disposing of their drug use materials in public, and to create community among drug users that will allow them to get connected to services, including treatment. Okay, now, Bill Maher is asked a question about safe consumption sites, and the panel is going to discuss it. We have two clips on it.

Brittany Page
First, we're going to talk about Bill Maher's response. And then Douglas Murray, who's an author, is going to give, is going to give his perspective. But we'll talk about Bill Maher first. Also, I think it should be said before we get to the clip that I want to refute his lie that he says. So when the audience hears it, they know it's a lie, that the other thing about safe consumption sites is they're not distributing drugs.

Jesse Dollemore
They don't have a warehouse, a storehouse of drugs that they give out to people who are coming to experiment or just want to get high. You bring your own drugs, and then you use them there in a safe atmosphere where you're far less likely to od and die. There are people there to take care of you. Should cities employ safe use sites to combat the drug epidemic and help addicts? Well, Portland just pulled back on that.

Bill Maher
I think it was Portland, or maybe it was San Francisco. Maybe they had that, you know, let's give out free drugs, see what happens. I think it's a great idea, but I'm not an addict. You know, addicts, you know, to them, they were just like, great. More drugs.

I mean, it didn't seem to work. So deeply stupid on numerous levels. Number one, he's conflating two things. Right. The safe consumption sites with Portland decriminalizing small amounts of drugs.

Jesse Dollemore
Yeah. And so that those are two separate issues. He was asked about safe consumption sites. Again, here's a great example. You could have said, you know, I don't know enough about this.

Brittany Page
And does anyone on the panel know anything about this? Instead, he opens his mouth and proves he doesn't know enough about it. Right. And so, like I said, there's two safe consumption sites that are currently running in New York. And during the first year, they collected data to actually look at what difference these supervised sites made.

And the site was used over 48,000 times. Out of that, EMS was called only 23 times. So it's reducing use of emergency services that may happen if someone is using in public and someone walks by and sees that someone has overdosed and then calls 911. Right. It's reducing the likelihood that that happens.

Jesse Dollemore
The burden on the infrastructure of first responders in the city. Right. And so out of, you know, over 48,000 utilizations of the overdose prevention center, it was only. They were only called 23 times. Now, additionally, the people who use the overdose prevention site said that they would have used in public had they not had access to this space.

Brittany Page
So the overdose Prevention center in New York City averted public drug use in 81% of visits because these people who were visiting, and again, over 48,000 utilizations in a year said if they didn't have access to a center where they. Could use, they would have been doing in public. Right. Which, by the way, if you think about Tommy Lahren or Jesse Waters or any of these other reactionary assholes, the things that they whine about and complain about are smelling drugs, seeing drugs, seeing needles, seeing people high. It's about their comfort level, and they bitch about that.

Jesse Dollemore
So that's. It's removing that from the streets, from the sidewalks, from city view, so they can have their little brunches and not have to worry about real life taking place around them. Right? And not only that, they removed 435,000 units of hazardous waste waste from public parks, streets and buildings. So according to the findings, according to the data that was collected, in addition to diverting those instances of otherwise public drug use, our OPCs collected 435,078 units of hazardous waste in the first year, which may have otherwise been improperly discarded in public spaces.

Brittany Page
Now, here's what's remarkable about this. According to this report, before opening our overdose prevention centers, New York City parks reported collecting an average of 13,000 syringes per month from High Bridge park, located across the street from our Washington Heights location. In the month following the opening of our overdose prevention centers, syringe collection dropped to 1000. Wow, 13,000 to 1000. That's crazy.

Jesse Dollemore
So it proves the efficacy, it proves even from a cosmetic level that they're doing big time stuff here, right? So what Bill Maher said about you just get to have free drugs, that's not happening. Like, I love drugs, but, you know, I'm not an addict. I'm not an addict. You have to be a person who is already injecting drugs.

Brittany Page
Like, they're not going to teach you how to inject drugs to these places. Like, that's. That's not what's happening. They're giving you safe you. They're giving you supplies that you can use safely so that you're not getting diseases, you're not spreading diseases.

Right. Minimizing the impact of that. It is a public health service. Right, that they're providing. But no.

Jesse Douglas Murray has some thoughts. The guy who writes about immigration has some thoughts about these safe consumption sites. I just did a document on the fentanyl crisis recently. I went to some of these safe, safe use sites, and there's so many problems about it because on the one hand, there's a very good idea, it's a compassionate idea, that you give users a facility where they can shoot up with needles that are clean and there's NaRcAn in case they overdose, and this brings them back round. And it's certainly in that way, it's understandable.

Douglas Murray
The bit that's the problem is, like ten blocks around, any safe use site is covered with needles and people trying to sell you fentanyl. So you have to weigh them up. Okay. Jesus Christ. And again, juxtapose that with what I just said, right?

Brittany Page
Based on data that was collected, it's not as though these sites opened, and it was just a free for all. They're actually collecting data on how often the participants are accessing services, how often they're being referred to treatment, how often they are actually preventing public drug use, how often they are preventing litter from being in public streets, and more importantly. How often they are preventing actual deaths of human beings. Hundreds of overdoses prevented maybe thousands. I mean, it's remarkable, the good that this is doing.

Jesse Dollemore
And, look, if you're listening to this right now and you're like, oh, you guys are just activists. I'm not an activist in this space. Britney knows more about this. She's worked with these populations in her real job as a therapist. But I'm only sold on it based on the results, based on the efficacy of what they're endeavoring to do.

If it didn't work, I would say, yeah, let's not do that. I want to be led by what the data shows us. Right. And let me talk about that briefly, because you talked about the overdose interventions, and that's important, too. It wasn't a subject for Bill Maher and Douglas Murray, but the staff at the overdose prevention centers intervened in the first year.

Brittany Page
Just in the first year, again, just. Just New York, with 2841 unique participants and 48,533 utilizations, there were staff intervened to prevent overdose death 636 times. And in 83% of the opioid overdoses, they were resolved without the need for naloxone. So by, like, rubbing on the chest with knuckles, you do. Which is Narcan or providing oxygen.

Yeah, naloxone is Narcan. Yeah. Um, and so, yeah, speaker one, I'm. Here as a translator for your expertise. I'm sorry.

So, again, this is just so frustrating to me to hear someone like Bill Maher. He also said, I'm not an addict. Right. He just said that. And I don't know if you saw this, Jesse, but Steve O made a public statement that he was going to go on Bill Maher's podcast, which is called club random.

It's on YouTube. Yeah. And part of Bill Maher's podcast is that apparently he gets loaded off his ass and absolutely hammered, and he wants the guests to do that with him as well. Yeah. Remember when he had Richard Dawkins on, and he was pressuring, like.

Jesse Dollemore
Like, high school level peer pressure to try to get Richard Dawkins to drink alcohol with him on the show. Right. And Dawkins, who's a dipshit in his own right, is a very proper english old man. He's like, I'm not gonna get fucking drunk on a show. Right?

No, I'm not gonna do that. Right. But he said it in a Richard Dawkins way. Yeah. So Steve O said, steve o's from Jackass.

Brittany Page
For people who don't know who Steve O is, but he's been sober for 16 years, and that's awesome because he was, you know, he was on his way to. He was. He was in a bad place. And so it's really good that he's sober, and I'm really happy for him. And he refused an offer to go on Bill Maher's podcast because Bill Maher gets loaded off his ass and drunk.

And he was like, hey, can you not smoke weed during the interview if I come on your podcast? That's what Steve O asked of Bill Maher. It's a trigger for me. And Bill Maher said no. And so Steve O told the world about this, that Bill Maher refused to not smoke weed for an hour to let Steve o come on the podcast.

And so Bill Maher released this statement, quote, that Steve O guy was taking shots at me in the press recently. It was an unfortunate. I don't want to start a feud, and I'm sorry that he felt slighted or something, but it is ridiculous that somebody thinks that I should give up pot smoking because they have a problem. Give it up, then. I'm sorry, you can't be here.

He said. Speaker one, no one's asking you to host your podcast from. From an n a meeting. No one's asking that. Just, hey, if I'm going to be on the show, I'd love to do your show.

Jesse Dollemore
Great. But, you know, just don't smoke weed around me. He's not giving it up. Can you not smoke weed for an hour? Yeah, but he's not an addict.

He's not an addict. He just can't not smoke weed for 60 minutes out of every day, hour of the day. Yeah. And, you know, I want to leave you guys with. With one more quote from Douglas Murray, because this was the level of analysis that took place on overtime, if you weren't sold enough already, that a bunch of.

Brittany Page
A bunch of ignorant people just sit around spewing nonsense about things they know nothing about. This was Douglas Murray talking about the effort in Virginia? Virginia school district voted to restore confederate names to two schools. This was his take on that story. To re put the statue up.

No, that's great. I mean, you can do what museums call retain and explain. I mean, you say we need to know our history, how are people going to know their history if there's no statue, statues representing anything that happened except for one side? I mean, most someone with that posh accent shouldn't be making a claim like that. Like, I just expect everyone who has that accent to be, like, a genius.

Listen, because I want that accent. He's, he's, he's right. I mean, without the Washington monument here in DC, how would we know? There's no way to know. A way does not exist for us to know that George Washington was the president of the United States.

Jesse Dollemore
It just, it's impossible. Yeah. I also love, like, an author making that argument. Like, he doesn't even, he doesn't like sculpt statues. Right?

Brittany Page
Like, you'd think that someone would make that argument because they're trying to, like, save their job. He's an author. He writes books. People learn things from books. They're gonna learn about history in the books that are written by authors.

You don't need the statues to teach the history. So pretty, pretty, pretty limited analysis that you get on overtime. But I'm glad he's paid millions of dollars and I'm glad that he has an audience where his video gets a million views in a week and he's. Been even more widely platformed by CNN. Yeah, a nightmare.

Jesse Dollemore
Anyway, we'd love to know what you think about this. Do you disagree? I would love, I really would. I would love to hear people who dissent and disagree about our take about Bill Maher being the asshole of today. You can call 657-464-7609 of course you can email a voice memo from your smartphone to idoutitollimore.com dot.

We're going to leave you there. We're going to try to push through the impending and continuing burnout that I am afflicted by. We love and appreciate you. If you want to help us make this show, you can donate. You can become a patron on Patreon.

Go to patreon.com. I doubt it. Podcast. Pick your tier. There are benefits.

But moreover, the most important aspect is you know that you're supporting this show, helping us move the conversation on an episode by episode basis. We love and appreciate you. We'll see you next time. For Britney Page, I'm Jesse Dolomore, and this has been, I doubt.

#915 - "Burnout Break!, Ignorant Voters, ICC Arrests, Alito's Flag, & A$$hole of Today feat. Bill Maher!"

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction

2: Political and Social Observations

3: ICC Arrests and Political Controversies

4: Health Insurance Rant

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

People

Companies

Books

Guest Name(s):

Content Warnings:

Transcript