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Ep. 175 – Moroccan Bathhouses & Weapons-Grade Naval Scabies w/ Amber Viola
435 Plays7 months ago
Our guest this week is returning author, podcaster, and activist, our good friend Amber Viola! Aside from catching up and chatting about church gossip and missions trips, we spent some time discussing the release of her first book, “72 Hours of Hell: My Time in the VA.” Amber is a Navy veteran, and we’ve talked at length in past episodes about her advocacy on behalf of US military veterans. When it comes to mental health and self-harm, veterans represent a particularly vulnerable community. In this jaw-dropping personal account, Amber gives readers an inside look at what it’s like seeking voluntary mental health treatment from the Veterans Health Administration. It’s a harrowing story that shines a light on the VA’s shortcomings, and one that we think everyone should hear. Amber is one of our favorite people we’ve met through the show, and we are always excited to talk to her! Follow her on Instagram (@amber_viola), check out her podcast Politics But Make It Fashion on all streaming platforms, and find her new book “72 Hours of Hell: My Time in the VA” on Amazon and Kindle!
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Transcript
Gossip and Humor in Church
00:00:00
Speaker
Me and my gay best friend in church, we were the two old biddies. We knew everything that was going on with everybody. That's awesome. That's the cue I want to sit in. Oh my God. We were always in trouble for talking and stuff, but we were trying to figure out what's going on. Shouldn't start selling information in the back of the church, just the gossip corner.
00:00:23
Speaker
100% like, literally, if you needed to know something, then like, oh, someone said, yes, you got cancer now. But mom be like, how do you already know that? I don't know, but you know. I don't reveal controversial sources. Yeah, exactly. It's not gossiping. I'm just like spreading the word. Good journalism. I don't know what to tell you. It was juicy in there. People always had stuff going on. You like your sea eyes and shit? You're like, no, we're good.
00:00:53
Speaker
Oh, what did they say?
Liberty University's Controversies
00:01:21
Speaker
Did you sing that song when you were a kid? No, this is first I'm getting it. Good news, good news. I'm saved eternally. That's wonderful. And then you shout extra. Good news, but not for Liberty University.
00:01:40
Speaker
Growing up Christian. I'm Casey and I'm still recovering from this seven-week cough I'm Sam. I think this is how you die Long Covid was that real? I don't know Yeah, it's not real is anything really cough, but it's actually death rattles It's the plague someone died from the bubonic plague recently is that that happened?
00:02:06
Speaker
Someone like local? No, I mean in the United States, right? Okay, I'm making shit up. No, I'm not. I'm not. I have to Google it. This was not where I intended to go, but I'm Googling it as we speak. Let's guess. Okay, wait, before you do that, what state do you think it was from? I mean, Texas? I'm gonna say Florida.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, it could be Florida. Death by Black Plague. That's not what they call it. I don't know. I'm not good at Googling shit on the spot. Bubonic Plague. I'm not good at Googling. I'm not. I say the wrong words. I even spell bubonic. That's sad. I'm pathetic. B-O-O-B-O-N-I-C-K. You just want to spell bubonic. B-U-B, you dumb shit. A-0-0-8.
00:02:57
Speaker
Uh, this marks the first human case of plague in New Mexico since 2021. Yeah. New Mexico man dies of rare plague case. Hell yeah. Uh, you win.
00:03:07
Speaker
Well, everyone can do their own research on this. I'm not overly interested, but it did that recent, that information recently came to me. So I thought now is the appropriate time to bestow it upon you all. So our beloved alma mater, Liberty University had, uh, they've had some rough news here in recent weeks.
00:03:30
Speaker
They have been fined 14 million dollars for violations of the Clery Act, which is a record setting, 14 million, by the way. L.U. breaks a lot of records. We got to hand it to him. So this is just another notch notch on the belt. Yeah. What is the is the belt part of the spiritual armor armor?
00:03:53
Speaker
Oh, another ding in the breastplate. It should probably be like the belt of humility. It's a chastity belt. No, it's a belt of chastity. The girdle of federal consequence.
00:04:08
Speaker
I mean, there's some other records they've broken. Definitely one relating to debate. I'm certain they have a debate team record out there. Oh, debate sucks so bad. Absolutely. The first university to have a snowflax mountain.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah. As soon as they finished bragging to us in our big weekly convocation that the school was debt free, they announced that we were going to have a year-round skiing hill. Yeah. No one even knew what that meant. We weren't sure if that meant they were going to build a dome and then spray it full of snow like a, I don't know, like a UAE amusement park.
00:04:51
Speaker
yeah it's like i was gonna it feels it's like spraying like just spraying foam everywhere like a girl's gone wild commercial it's like instead they just basically like an octagon with foam spraying everywhere
00:05:08
Speaker
I'm sure I could see Jerry Junior pitching that idea. Oh, I think he pitched more than that while pitching that idea. Instead, they just like carpeted the mountainside in like, I don't know, like mini golf turf. Your uncle's like plastic BPA hairpiece.
00:05:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's literally like when you, um, when you're playing mini golf and they don't have real sand traps, it just goes into like the coarser tan version of like the green fake turf. It's that, but like an extra like inch longer and you just see down it.
00:05:46
Speaker
is basically like a wee golf fairway, but white. It's everything. It's got to keep it white. It's Liberty University. And they all it's like they came from Europe. So we were the first when we were there. It was like the first snowflakes mountain. Snowflakes is like patented, by the way, like, but it was like the first one in the United States, too. So.
00:06:11
Speaker
Big claim to fame. Good for them. A lot of cool snowboarders got laid after some chicks swooned over their ability to grind a nice little rail that got put up on that mountain. They dry-humped in their Nissan Xterra? They certainly did.
00:06:31
Speaker
So the Cleary Act is a campus safety measure that passed in like the nineties. I was just doing a little reading on it, but basically it's, it's all about like reporting crimes and, and, uh, you know, like crime statistics on campus accurately and honestly and time in a timely fashion and warning students and faculty and stuff of like dangers or
00:07:02
Speaker
criminal happenings on campus in a timely fashion. So if there's a parking lot where everyone's cars are getting broken into, you kind of have a right to know that as a student. Yeah, dude. The parking lot at the back of the campus was basically like Detroit and RoboCop. Yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
They didn't have pea gravel like in the flower beds. It was just broken windshields. There had to have been no cameras in the back of that parking lot. What was it? We were on the circle. And what was like a cross from us? What campus was it? What part? That was like the quads. That's where I lived the first year. There was an area. It was like, oh, maybe it was part of the quads. It would have been like the south lot or something like that.
00:07:53
Speaker
It was the quads and then there was like this awful girls' dorm back there that when I was still in high school, we had our ACE student convention at Liberty and I stayed in that dorm. And I locked myself out and no, definitely. But I locked myself out of the room by accident and so I pushed the bike rack, like I leaned it up on its side up against the wall and then climbed up it and threw the window into my room.
00:08:19
Speaker
while they're on a high school trip. Yep, brazen. That was brazen of you.
00:08:26
Speaker
Well, it was already a, uh, an accomplished B and E villain by that point, you know? Yeah. Long criminal past breaking into people's homes and stealing the sour patch kids. Oh, that too. You're like a raccoon. Like if a raccoon was a criminal, it'd be you. It just breaks in like picks through trash and steals candy.
00:08:50
Speaker
You were its crackers. Oh, my God. So, yeah, they they got hit pretty hard. So if you if you've been listening to the show for a while, a few years ago, we had a guy on his name was Zach Levitt. Zach Levitt. I thought that's what it was. He was the showrunner for a podcast called Gangster Capitalism.
00:09:19
Speaker
And I think it was season three, they did a whole season on Liberty University and Jerry Falwell Jr. And it was like right at the tail end of all of the like, just fiasco, you know, him and the pool boy and, you know, he and Becky getting called out for, I don't know, given their son Trey's buddies hand jobs at night and all that. Yeah, the good stuff.
00:09:46
Speaker
So it kind of like delved into a bunch of different aspects of the whole thing, like the Falwell's behavior and how brazen it was, the kind of like consolidation of power that had happened there that, you know, basically if you weren't, if you spoke out against the Falwells on anything, even minutely, like the chances are you were either going to be like ostracized or eventually just booted.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, and pretty much fucked if you had an opinion against them and then it was all like in there in the palm of their hand at the top where like it it seemed like any nay saying Didn't go on it wouldn't go unpunished to some degree
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, he was a, it was North Korea in there and Jerry was Kim Jong douche, but there was an episode. I think there was actually, there was like an extra. Yeah. They did a bonus episode where they really touched on all the title nine violations and everything that was going on there. And in it, they described like some, just some really rough.
00:10:51
Speaker
responses to sexual violence on campus against women and what the school's response was. They cited emails directly from Jerry Falwell Jr. basically telling students that were concerned about safety and stuff just to get bent.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm even little things you know and it's the campus is so flush with money like they're literally especially at that point they were literally just blowing money on the dumbest things we're gonna buy them all and turn it into the arc encounter.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, they would if it was beneficial to them, they would have set it on fire just to get just to get rid of some of it. Like the amount that they had to spend in order to like balance their books. It's like, well, we don't like because you don't want to be a nonprofit. You don't be left with a bunch of money at the end of the fiscal year. Right. You got to figure out
00:11:49
Speaker
And one way you can't do that is by putting it into the pockets of professors and people who work there. You got to put it into like race car tracks and bumper boats. That's one thing. Yeah. It's like a couple more years of unobstructed nonsense and they would have had like a Pablo Escobar hippo lagoon in the middle of campus. If it wasn't for these meddling kids,
00:12:14
Speaker
But, uh, so it's dude, you should, even if you're not really, like, of course we're, we're more interested in Liberty because we went there and we're, you know, very familiar with it and stuff. But even if you're not that interested in Liberty, like that season of gangster capitalism is really something.
00:12:35
Speaker
I mean, the, the fall was really like, they changed the course of like public policy and stuff like that in the U S over the years with their activism and stuff. I mean, Jerry's endorsement of Donald Trump helped him cinch the evangelical vote, you know.
00:12:55
Speaker
would have happened without him. I don't know. I tend to think so, but like he played a pretty major role in it and was kind of teed up to take like a cabinet position of some sort. It's just, it was crazy. Like he was just running a muck on campus. And this is one of the things that like was not a priority to him and he wanted it to go away. Like marketing Liberty is like the safest campus in the U S was a big part of their.
00:13:22
Speaker
You know, that was on their trifold brochure that they handed out to, uh, Mennonite parents. Yeah. And it was just not true. And they were like covering up crimes. They were trying to handle them internally through LUPD. They also like really shamed. I mean, some of the things that they told the women that reported like sexual assault, rape, those types of things, like, I mean, there was one instance, I was just kind of catching up on a few of them.
00:13:52
Speaker
as we were getting ready for the show. And like in one instance, a girl left campus, went to a Halloween party, had a little bit to drink, and she passed out at some point and woke up with a guy on top of her with his hand over her mouth, violating her.
00:14:11
Speaker
She comes back to campus, she takes pictures of like bruises and stuff like that all over, reports it to her, I think like her RA or somebody can't complete one of them. Basically, they kind of like routed her through a couple of female
00:14:29
Speaker
you know, administrators who basically just said, well, you know, how much did you have to drink? I mean, you know, we can we can look at this further, but just be aware that, like, you could be held responsible for breaking the liberty way, which is like the campus code, moral code code. So by drinking basically like
00:14:53
Speaker
you were breaking the rules. And like, if you want to pursue this further, then there's a chance that you're going to get punished for being in an indecent situation with a man and drinking on, you know, drinking as well, enrolled at just crazy stuff and punished. I mean, the extent to which drinking can be punished is expulsion from liberty. So like, let's be clear that like the punishment is like you have to balance your
00:15:19
Speaker
You have to balance your future prospects. You have to go, I've spent this much money here, and then to just get expelled. That's what you have on the line, is being fully removed from campus, from the school.
00:15:33
Speaker
Not to mention like all the other things that come with like, you know, publicly admitting things, you know, that kind of violation in that environment and the judgment and stuff. All the things that you would face already as like a woman, you know, trying to get justice after being, you know, wronged and violated in such a way. Stack on top of that.
00:15:58
Speaker
You know, campus, like Liberty, you know, finding you, sentencing you to community service, you know, possibly even like giving you the boot. It just, it's insane that that's how they dealt with it. And after this investigation, they basically got found them guilty of a whole bunch of different things and they've levied a fine of $14 million. Which is a historic fine.
00:16:25
Speaker
uh, issued by the department of education. I have a Washington post article that kind of pulls some of the information together. I think the Washington post article that I'm looking at here called a Liberty university find record 14 million for violating campus safety law. Um, I think some of this, let's be real, despite everything that Casey and I have to criticize, have all our criticisms of Liberty university. Um,
00:16:54
Speaker
I mean no holds barred here when it comes to like pointing out the shit they've done that's fucked up but I also think certain publications have a bone to pick with institutions like liberty to the point where sometimes they can the bias seeps in where they I mean some of the ways they word things as though like
00:17:16
Speaker
You know, they're less likely to point out that post Jerry Falwell Jr., a lot of the people involved, a lot of the higher ups at Liberty worked with the Department of Education, not against them with this shit.
00:17:35
Speaker
And I think some of the language in this Washington Post article assumes that they're just the bad guys throughout and that they didn't try to do the right thing when they got new leadership. But just to go through a few paragraphs here of information, because I mean, our tent isn't to spend a ton of time on this, but we thought it was worth talking about.
00:17:58
Speaker
It says, Liberty University has agreed to pay a record $14 million fine after the Education Department found a systemic and persistent failure by the institution to comply with the federal law on campus safety.
00:18:10
Speaker
The agency's review found that Liberty did not notify people on campus about emergencies and dangerous situations such as bomb threats, the attempted abduction of a young girl, and people accused of repeated acts of sexual violence. The university did not keep an accurate and complete crime log during the 2016 to 2023 review period.
00:18:32
Speaker
the report found in addition the private christian university in lynchburg must also spend two million dollars on campus safety improvements during the two-year post review monitoring period so the department of education is going to be involved for the next couple years while the university spends more money to make things better
00:18:51
Speaker
And all that's just required by the Department of Education. So yet, we've yet to come across anything that Liberty's done specifically that shows that they've tried to take the right steps forward after all of this. But the report was 100 pages long, and it cited multiple violations by Liberty. The report paints a portrait of campus, well, whatever. Casey already touched on some of that. Go ahead, Casey.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I think it's all pretty like self-explanatory from there, but, um, I don't know, they caught up with them. Finally. I do think there's been some, so I was listening to a interview with, I listened to an interview with the current president, which, you know, Sam and I are still close with some people who are closer to the institution. And you know, I think it's worth noting that.
00:19:50
Speaker
I mean, from what we've heard, they've actually made some pretty serious changes. And it seems like they're actually trying to take this seriously and correct it. And they've made a lot of progress in how they're handling this stuff, which is
00:20:06
Speaker
This it's good. You know, I mean, is it enough? Is it? No, of course not. You know, but it's not been their M.O. to own up to failure and faults. You know, no, it hasn't been. There's two things I think are worth pointing out, too. So like.
00:20:24
Speaker
Just to move down the WAPO article, a Liberty spokesman said in an email that the university is fully committed to maintaining the safety and security of students and staff without exception. In a statement, the university said it has made more than $10 million in significant advancements since 2022 to ensure compliance
00:20:45
Speaker
with a title nine in Clariac. So like, that's great. I mean, prior to the $14 million fine, they had spent $10 million since all those allegations came out and Jerry Jr. Was no longer affiliated with the university to try to fix some of these glaring problems. Now I will point out that
00:21:10
Speaker
They're still kind of doing that cool little Christian persecution complex thing a little bit here because it goes on to say, but the university also alleged that Liberty had, quote, repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the education department. A concern it raised last year after the Washington Post reported on a preliminary confidential report by the
00:21:33
Speaker
The clear review in the report made the department's method... It's the quote from Liberty. It says, in the report, many of the department's methodologies, findings, and calculations were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities, a Liberty spokesman said in an email.
00:21:51
Speaker
Now, I think that's notable because maybe it maybe it had been different. Maybe they had treated them differently than they had historically. But I think it's clear that historically Liberty had one of the worst track records of all universities ever when it comes to this shit. So maybe like the the additional inquiry and quote unquote unfair treatment was actually quite justified.
00:22:17
Speaker
So I was looking at some numbers on that and some of the like history of, uh, clear react cases, just to kind of get a feel for what, you know, what, where this is coming from. Here's, here's what I think. I think that the, the fine that they got, I think that was.
00:22:38
Speaker
I don't see any problem with them being fined $14 million. I do think that they under find some other universities based on what I've seen.
00:22:48
Speaker
And I'll give you a couple of examples. So are you familiar with like the Larry Nassar? Oh, yeah. Situation. So Larry Nassar was like a gym. Yeah, he was like a coach, right? Yeah, he was like an Olympic gymnastics coach at Michigan State University. And I had to look up the number just to see what. So.
00:23:16
Speaker
But let me just give you so Lawrence Gerard Nassar is a former American psychiatrist for 18 years. He was the team doctor of the United States Women National gymnastics team where he used his position to exploit and sexually assault hundreds of young athletes.
00:23:33
Speaker
So in 2016, he was actually convicted. He was charged with sexually assaulting at least 265 young women and girls under the guise of medical treatments. His victims included numerous Olympic and United States national gymnastics team gymnasts.
00:23:53
Speaker
So, he was sentenced to 60 years, not only for that, but also for possession of child pornography and all this stuff. I mean, he is a scumbag. And Michigan State, people within Michigan State did not take action when those types of allegations came to them.
00:24:17
Speaker
And they helped cover his tracks and avoided actually dealing with the situation for a long time. I don't know the specifics of all that stuff, but just to give you an idea. So Michigan State was fined $4.5 million in 2019, which was the largest up until Liberty University's penalty. Wow. So $4.5 million. And I mean, he's accused of assaulting more than 500 women and girls.
00:24:46
Speaker
There was also the Penn State University thing with Jerry Sandusky. Yeah, I remember Sandusky, dude. That one was real fucked up.
00:24:55
Speaker
He's kind of the, collegiate molesters. Yeah. So he, uh, you know, I mean, I, I don't know. I don't remember all the details of that one either, but I know that like the institution ran smokescreens for him for a long time. I mean, he had a long time rival that of the Catholic church. Really?
00:25:18
Speaker
So they were, they were cited for 11 violations and find $2.4 million. So is there a, is there a bit of a difference in how much fine is being leveled levied against the. Sure. Find them more. Right. That's such a low amount of money too, really. I mean, I don't know if like, if it's based on count based on what, I don't know what the.
00:25:48
Speaker
the university equivalent of gdp is but it's like those the ones that you've mentioned are uh fairly uh wealthy i i don't know if that's the right term for a quote unquote non-profit but none of these non-profits function like non-profit such a goofy ass fucking
00:26:07
Speaker
concept when it comes to universities. When it comes to university, nonprofit's like a fucking horseshit term at this point. Here's what I will say too, though. Nobody wants to hear you complain about being fined. Shut up.
00:26:24
Speaker
All people listen to is you complain about persecution and then get on your soapbox and scream at people and try to slant the political system against people you don't like. Shut up.
00:26:40
Speaker
Pay your fine and shut up. I think especially when like Liberty University has gone out of its way to make itself so so influential and known like they're trying to make themselves like the city on a hill and to some degree when you go out of your way to make yourself part of the public discourse when shit hits the fan it's gonna hit you harder.
00:27:07
Speaker
And you have to accept that. You don't get to have your Jerry Juniors, you don't get to have a whole documentary made about the guy who inherited the university. You don't get to have that legacy family name. You don't get all of that and also political influence and clout and literally anyone can say Liberty University and most people in most places will go, oh yeah, I know that place for good or for bad.
00:27:34
Speaker
Like you don't get that, you don't, and then not expect higher fines. Like those, those levels of fines come with the amount. It's like, it's like equal to the amount that you've conflated yourself with American politics and culture and invested in the culture war. Yeah.
00:27:57
Speaker
Well, and you know, to quote Jerry senior, um, if when you're talking about fines, if it's going to be Christian, it should be bigger. Yeah. That's true. That was his favorite thing. If it's Christian, it ought to be better. That's why we, that's why Chick-fil-A makes better chicken sandwiches. That that's what they talked about every year. Cause true at Kathy.
00:28:20
Speaker
would go to convo every year prior is he is he dead he's dead now he's gotta be dead he was he was dead when he spoke at liberty oh yeah they wheeled him in on iron love dude he was he was like straight up uh dianne feinstein in it through the sermon
00:28:40
Speaker
Dude, but that was their whole thing. If it's Christian, it should be better. That was like the thing. And Truett Cathy loved to point out that we have Christian chicken sandwiches, so therefore they should be better.
Amber Viola's Story
00:28:52
Speaker
So that being said, our guest needs no introduction for people who have been listening to this show for a while. It's our good friend, Amber Viola.
00:29:05
Speaker
Um, Amber's a Navy veteran. She's been on the show multiple times and she's just like one of our favorite people that we've met. She's so cool. And she does so many cool things. She, um, she was like the first female president of the American Legion. Yeah.
00:29:27
Speaker
And, uh, she's like involved in politics and like, uh, you know, get out the vote type stuff and Scranton where she lives. She, she's got her own podcast called politics, but make it fashion, where she kind of does like current events and commentary and talks about it from the standpoint of, you know, uh, uh, Navy veteran, uh,
00:29:52
Speaker
Uh, black single mom, like she's got a, she's got a unique perspective and just like, uh, a really good way of breaking things down and explaining them. And, and she always has great takes on, on current events stuff. She also recently released a book called 72 hours in hell, my time in the VA. And it's about an experience she had, which she talks about a little bit on the show here, but.
00:30:20
Speaker
She basically, like, she was having a mental health crisis and she knew she needed help. I mean, we're all familiar with the statistics around veteran suicide. You know, they're a vulnerable population.
00:30:34
Speaker
And she went to the VA, her local VA hospital to seek help and treatment. She had kind of like done some figuring where, you know, she wanted to like voluntarily commit herself for a certain period, you know, it's like a three day thing or something at a hospital that was close by so she could still be there for her daughter and stuff like that. But when she got there and started the process, at some point they said, hey,
00:31:03
Speaker
this uh that that hospital's full so you're gonna have to go to another place and that was not gonna work for her but then they would not let her leave and she had she had voluntarily like come seeking help and stuff like that and then they basically detained her
00:31:23
Speaker
And there's all sorts of like after effects that come from that, like your rights are restricted and different, it's just a crazy story. And it's like such a perfect indicator of like how veterans are treated in the country and why it's like, it's going to be so hard to offer them help through the system. It's how accessible help is for, for veterans.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah. So 72 hours in hell, my time in the VA by Amber Viola is available on Amazon. And I will put a link to that and to her podcast politics, but make it fashion in the description. And we hope you enjoy our conversation with Amber. And we're back once again with our friend, Amber Viola. Amber, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Great. It's so nice to have you back.
00:32:16
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. Should I turn my camera? Would that be better if it was like... It's fine. It's going to crop it anyways. Okay. Crops it for like phone view. But no, it's good to see you. Thank you guys so much for having me back on here. I'm excited. I love you guys. I still listen all the time. You guys like for real be cracking me up.
00:32:40
Speaker
Thanks very much. Appreciate it. So nice to hear when people are still listening, especially like I don't know. You don't you don't know if the people that you're talking to like are listening. Yeah. You know, and there are people you don't want to like if like I find out family members have been listening. I'm like, stop. I don't want that in my life. But if it's like people you love, it's like, oh, great. Well, I do my family. Sorry. That was the wrong message.
00:33:08
Speaker
It's hilarious. I mean, honestly, like, it's Casey's list. That was so good. Yeah, I mean, I saw racism, so. Yeah, yeah. Oh, God, that was too hard.
00:33:28
Speaker
God, who we were in 2009. You know what, I know I never did any of those open letters on Facebook, and I wanted to a lot, because I wanted people to know what I thought. Nothing's changed, obviously, started a podcast, but I was like,
00:33:46
Speaker
I would I'll whenever it came to writing especially for like public consumption I would always get like this anxiety about it not because I was afraid of criticism or anything but like I was so up my own ass about it that I'm like it's just not it's just not where I wanted to be it was never good enough for me I always knew that like
00:34:05
Speaker
No, this is going to come back. And like, I would go through and I would look at my memories and actively delete things because I was like, this doesn't know. Nobody needs to know this. But I was pretty careful about some of the stuff. I would say sometimes I'm like, OK, that was a mess. But it's all terrible and cringy and just. Oh, yeah. So you'll never have to reckon with your like
00:34:31
Speaker
Once strong opinions on fluoride. No, no, no. I get to do. Cause even in, even in like, um, when I was in like Bible college and stuff, I had Facebook, but I didn't really use it too much. I saw a couple like Kirk Cameron posts floating around and different things, but like, thank God I wasn't saying too much.
00:34:55
Speaker
I had some good posts, real cringy posts. I started doing the thing where I would delete like when memories would be like, Hey, remember when you said this really stupid thing? I would delete it. And then I got to a point where I'm like, I shouldn't delete this. I should be reminded every year that this is who I used to be. It really makes me think twice about the way I act now on the internet.
00:35:20
Speaker
Like don't, oh, you just wrote a really long post explaining your views and threatening to cut off family members who don't agree. Maybe just delete that now. You don't need that to come back and get you. Oh, right. I'm talking about your feeling and whatever. It's like, you know what, Amber, nobody cared then. Nobody really cares now. So we're just. Dude, I was listening to your podcast.
00:35:48
Speaker
Uh, the most recent episode and, uh, talking about that, that theme park where there was like, just like a straight up medieval brawl broke out with gunshots and six flags. Yeah. Which six flags was it? It was in Georgia. Oh, I've been to that one before. Was that six flags in a Chucky cheese? Apparently they said it was like wild.
00:36:19
Speaker
like 600 people, like people over here fighting and somebody's getting shot, like it was just a mess.
00:36:27
Speaker
That's so wild. I feel like that's the number one most likely place for a fight to break out those Chuck E. Cheese, so that's why. It's a lot. I had an acquaintance get kicked out of Chuck E. Cheese the other week. I don't know what he did. I just saw on Facebook that he did get kicked out of Chuck E. Cheese. I was like, I need to know what you did because I've been there.
00:36:50
Speaker
And I've seen people do very questionable things and they're still out there. Don't touch the rat. Let the rat touch you. Those things are so scary. That's weird animatronic animal band. Do you get on, Sam, do you get on a ride with your kids? I got on that giraffe thing. It was up to the ceiling. And it was moving. And I literally was like, I have to get off.
00:37:16
Speaker
I've never taken my kids through Chuck E. Cheese. I'm a bad dad. I've not done Chuck E. Cheese yet. You have to. It's an experience that you have to live through once, at least. Do they still have the animatronic band? I know they've been getting rid of those. They have been getting rid of them. But where I live, it's like 1980s still, some places, and a lot. So they still have the thing.
00:37:41
Speaker
Nice. Those things are that that was I just watched the whole piece on the history of Chuck E. Cheese. So that's why it's fresh in my mind. And how they destroy them when they get rid of them and they bring people. People. People spend top dollar to try to, like, get the originals and rebuild them.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah, someone did a cool thing where they like remade the band But they like synced it to like modern hits and shit or modern hits from like 10 years ago, but it is people have done some wild shit and I've heard of it That's sort of the thing with that right it's like Yeah
00:38:26
Speaker
You think ever there was ever like an actual like in-person band at the first Chuck E. Cheese just like, like cuffed to the stage? And those were like the first AI jobs that got taken?
00:38:40
Speaker
The AI, that's a bold term for what they got going on there, but the MS-DOS program that's running it. It's the animtronic equivalent of like a dot matrix printer. Yeah. It's like booting up.
00:39:01
Speaker
It's like the first time a computer took someone's job. It's like being replaced by a calculator. I think they did though. They should bring it back. That's actually, you know what?
00:39:20
Speaker
That would be a great like third act for John Fetterman to just be like the fat dumpy drummer in the Chuck E. Cheese real left hand.
00:39:34
Speaker
supported you and I was here for you and then you and you can take you in your little flag and you can go somewhere else with your little sweatshirt and shorts okay did he start doing weird shit I haven't followed much with him did he start you and he sucks real bad very pro is real still oh boy yeah yeah and he had a little flag he was waving at people and
00:39:59
Speaker
unhelpful. He's a rebel, you know? It's funny how the amount of people who are kind of like middle finger to the man and then the Israel shit happens. Well, actually, that's a bridge too far. You're like, what are you talking about? I was surprised. And I know I still shouldn't be, but with that one, there were still some people that I was kind of shocked. I was like, wow, I thought
00:40:28
Speaker
Like, Bernie. It took Bernie a second. Yeah. I get it. I mean, he's Jewish. I could... I'll forgive his delay. Well, I'm not gonna know who I'm not forgiving. DJ Khaled, okay? He is Khaled JK, alright? I will not forgive you. I do not. I am bad. And I'm gonna be mad about it. Because that's messed up, okay? What did DJ Khaled say? He hasn't said nothing. Nothing. He's not an idiot.
00:40:59
Speaker
Oh, that's right. That's why DJ Cali does not. He acts like he sustained some serious head trauma as a child. He's nothing about Tracey Morgan. Yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
Oh my god. That guy's too much. He's like blown away by everything. Simple. The video of him getting carried around so he didn't get his sneakers dirty. Oh my god. That blew my mind. That was funny as shit.
00:41:30
Speaker
He does have the cutest old kids though. They're cute. Oh my God. Yeah. So Fetterman was very, it's very strange. Some of the things that he's like taking a hard stance on and like how he's very like thumbed his nose at.
00:41:49
Speaker
like mainstream liberalism, you know, I think. And there's like one of my buddies who works in the same field as I do. We were talking about hiring salesmen and, you know, how it's such a crapshoot and stuff like that. And he has this saying where he says, he goes, you know, the thing about hiring salesmen, he's like, you can get a pretty good idea of how good they're going to be.
00:42:18
Speaker
But you can never guess how bad they're going to be. That's kind of how I feel about them. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I feel like that definitely could be for politicians across the board because that is so true. Oh, yeah. I mean, I feel like nine times out of 10, they disappoint as soon as they like get lobbied for five seconds. Yeah.
00:42:46
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I just want to understand like how it happens though, you know, because I can see there's things where you can see how it would take place, right? 70 brings a bill to you or like a contract or something. I've got.
00:43:03
Speaker
I'm already off to a good start. It says if you'll vote yes on this particular amendment or something, then we'll do this for you. You look at it and it's not something that you particularly care about or think matters or maybe it seems pretty neutral either way and you're like, yeah, okay. It would be easy to make that equation.
00:43:27
Speaker
in your brain, but like to come out so like just obnoxiously like pro-Israel in the face of all, like not just to be like, yeah, I sport Israel, you know, like so many of them have done.
00:43:42
Speaker
there's Sam if you haven't seen it there's video of him and he's he's on the roof of like a building or like a Some sort of like a deck or something looking out at a crowd of people and he's they're like chanting at him They're chanting at him something about Palestine or something and he like pulls out a Israeli flag and I don't know where the flag came from
00:44:08
Speaker
waves it. It is bizarre. Like Rocket Man style, when Fred Randall pulls the American flag off the store. Yes. Proud flag. High flying flag. Yeah, definitely. And that's what it was. Because like, do they have pockets in those basketball shorts? Like, I don't know. Are they cargo? I don't know.
00:44:38
Speaker
I know he did some goofy shit to like, instead of just like, like he would refusing to dress in any form or fashion that he would have to in order to go like into the set, he would just like stand outside of it. Like, I don't feel like that's just a gimmick. Yeah, like the gimmicks up you won the election, like just be a little bit normal.
00:44:59
Speaker
And the thing is there's people who are more casual around like nobody's telling you have to wear a suit all the time. Throw on some cargo pants. Yeah, he's he's good. It looks looks purposeful. How sloppy he is most of the time. It's got like he's got some of that energy of like
00:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, I remember- It's definitely Pennsylvania though. For sure. For sure. Instead of a Tide Pod, he just throws in a McDouble with his laundry. Nice and fetterman. Seal in the scent. He's got that energy though of back when I was in Christian school.
00:45:48
Speaker
Like you would do things that could be like, well, you have to wear a belt to school. So you would wear a belt inside the loop or you'd turn it around backwards, just to be an annoying little prick. Yeah. Yep. My fingers were always inside out and backwards. That's for that extra little, I always put on different color socks because there wasn't anything that said your socks could be like two different colors. You had to be like blue and white. So one would be blue and one would be white.
00:46:17
Speaker
Yeah, he's got like an annoying teenager vibe. Oh, that was a look at the time though. That was serious stuff. You would get detention for that if it was serious. I'm pretty sure all my detention stuff was definitely for uniform violations, 100%. Yeah, that's a big part of the authority structure at Christian schools. It's like sideburn length and
00:46:46
Speaker
you know, skirt that the size of your skirt, how tight your shirt is, you know, making sure that your tie is tied properly and your top buttons done. But mustaches were generally permissible. Yes, and creepy. Yeah. Because you know that all the guys, once they got to like junior, senior year, would all grow out the creepiest like pedo stash. Yeah, do you know the facial hair they were allowed to have?
00:47:13
Speaker
I'd bet now that mustaches are really, are really back that, um, they probably banned those now. They're just like, like we were fine with them when like our Christian pastors had them. But now all these gay folks stole that along with the rainbow and now ruined mustaches, you know? Yeah.
00:47:33
Speaker
only allowed if you pair them with white new balance. You have to look like a washed up baseball player from the 80s. Anything that can also function as a gym teacher's uniform.
00:47:54
Speaker
Because they still had the khaki pants on, but they definitely had on the sneakers. Yes. That's it. It's the khaki pants. I had a professor in community college who always wore the white new balances with a full suit in khaki pants. It was like the suit coat, the tie and everything, khaki pants, and then a fresh pair of new balances. That's his move. Like in a cool way or in an old man way? No, he was dorky as fuck.
00:48:21
Speaker
My gym teacher definitely had that mustache. It was, oh my god, it was so gross. I can like, yup, I can fitter it. It always had stuff in it. What is happening? Some mustache that screams, this guy showers with the team. It was like the worst. Christian school gym teacher, that has to be a special calling.
00:48:49
Speaker
Dude, so you were asking on there about like, would you drop your kids off at an amusement park? Yeah. And how different that is nowadays and stuff. Like, what was for you guys? Like, what was a seminal moment of like, you're doing a grown up thing with your friends and there's no adults around. Like, you know, my mom dropped us off at the fairgrounds with bracelets, you know, or something like that.
00:49:20
Speaker
And then you're like, I shouldn't be here. The moment was like, I went to a basketball game at a high school and my mom dropped me off. And then there was like a shooting and I had to run home and I don't need to go. Like, why was I allowed to be here or whatever? But I remember getting dropped off. Like I would go to Six Flags every summer because I grew up in Jersey. So great adventure.
00:49:48
Speaker
Then, as I got 13, 14, 15, I was babysitting, so I babysit kids at Six Flags. What the hell were they thinking about? That's incredible. That is insane. I would not let my kid go with...
00:50:07
Speaker
And he's older now cause I had like a three year old and like a four year old at Six Flags just with the kids. Like we had our, you know, season passes and I'm in a little play area place or whatever, but like no cell phones, I guess just living on vibes and they'll come, you know, we'll be there. We'll be there to pick you up at six, you know, at the, at gate E or whatever, like, you know, in the front and.
00:50:33
Speaker
That's unreal. I mean, I remember taking kids when I must have been in college at the time, but I would, I did like a summer rec program for money and they did a Six Flags field trip. And I took like, they were like, I don't know. They must've been like pre-teen, early teens, like maybe pre-teen, but I remember being like, this is too much. Who's putting, who would, why would,
00:51:04
Speaker
Yeah, this isn't a good idea. As soon as you get there, kids are walking away from you. You're like, what's happening? No, I'm responsible for you. And you're like, I'm like 20. And I felt like that was too much responsibility. And I couldn't believe parents were like, let's send, you know, it's a few 20 something year olds in charge of like a dozen kids. And that felt like a terrible
00:51:25
Speaker
like a good ratio. So that's doing that when you're 13, maybe at 13, you don't have that fear that quite that like, no, I don't think I'm going to lose these people's kids and my life is over. So you just go through the day with dread and panic and you're right.
00:51:44
Speaker
I'm just thinking, okay, I'm going to make like, you know, 70 bucks or something. Yeah. I got paid to go to Six Flags. Right. Exactly. That's literally what I'm thinking. Like, oh, I got paid to be here. Yeah. Like, we used to get dropped off at the beach, like, you know, and hang out me and my brother and stuff. Like now you can't do that. Yeah. And all.
00:52:07
Speaker
The first thing I got dropped off to do by myself, it was me and my brother and our friend, was to go see the Pokemon movie that came out in 1999. I'm 11 years old and that was the first time my mom let me go to the movies by myself because she refused to sit down. That's where I draw the line. I will risk your kidnapping over my hatred of this concept of a movie. I went to see Godzilla.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yeah, the Warren guy
00:52:40
Speaker
I was just watching a, I was just watching a clip of that, like not five days ago. And then I bawled my eyes out when he died. Like I was so traumatized at the end of the movie. Spoiler alert, like you haven't seen it, but I was just not prepared for like the sadness of, I was like, it's not his fault. Like he's his eyes blinking, you could hear his heartbeat. It was, I was like, why are you crying? It's like,
00:53:08
Speaker
Godzilla getting hit by cruise missiles is the same emotional effect as Shadow being stuck in the mud pit. I remember Fox and the Hound having that like, that was a sad kids movie, right? Where you're like, what is it? Why are we watching this as children?
00:53:29
Speaker
Yeah, that one's that one's got. Yeah, they are. They put one of the animals down, don't they? Or does one of them die? I can't quite tell the other where they have to shoot him. Where the red fern grows. That was the first book I read where I got choked up over a dog dying.
00:53:46
Speaker
Were you allowed to watch all dogs go to heaven? Yeah, because I know sometimes that was controversial Yeah, well, I just read I just kind of I didn't rewatch it but my kids are watching it and I was like did you Jesus Christ
00:54:02
Speaker
Dude, the hell scene is, it's tough. Bro, that movie is a lot, like I, we start, me and my brother started watching it to let my daughter watch it and I was like, I don't, oh, I don't know if I can explain all of these concepts. Yeah, it's a lot. The gangster dog who's just ripping down cigars and firing off a Tommy gun from the back of a, can that be some poor little girl? Yeah. Like, obviously she's getting abused. Like that's like underlined and the thing was very creepy.
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah, that movie was so dark. No, it wasn't really, really dark. That 80s, like that, whatever that era of animation is, though, is great. It's kind of like Oliver and Company style. You know, there's an there's like a certain animator behind all that that I feel like I knew the name of at one point. Oh, that makes sense that you did a lot of those like darker Disney films.
00:54:59
Speaker
You know they're coming out with the Steamboat Mickey horror film. I am ready for it. I'm so excited. This is one of those, like, the licensing lapsed or something like that, like the Winnie the Pooh one. Yep. Yep. Their second Winnie the Pooh one is coming out, too. No, what's so funny, too, is the director or creator for the Winnie the Pooh one got, like, threw all sorts of shade at this Mickey one, acting like it's like, I can't believe someone would do that. And you're like, bro, you did that.
00:55:28
Speaker
He's like, yeah, but I did it with like creative direction. And he's like, he's really up his own ass about this Winnie the Pooh movie. And he's just obviously butthurt that he didn't grab like, yeah, he wasn't every dizzy. But he didn't start a cinematic universe. Yeah, like his nemesis. Yeah, they need to come together. I mean, the thing about it is his movie, like,
00:55:49
Speaker
For that concept and that movie, there's a lot of people who saw that and a lot of people who are talking about it. So yeah, I never did, but I would still I still would give it a chance. The beginning of the movie in itself is how they become like these feral creatures is insane, like.
00:56:07
Speaker
Even just watching the first 10 minutes of the movie just to get that backstory is worth it. It's so worth it. I gotta give that a chance. Yeah, for real. It's wild. Dude, we've been going back and watching old movies. It's funny how some of them are great. We just recently watched Willow.
00:56:31
Speaker
This is a great movie and then some of them have not been good like Legend have you guys ever seen that? It's like young unibrowed Tom Cruise
00:56:47
Speaker
And you would recognize like this guy, that's the bad guy. He just, he's called darkness, but he's just like huge Satan figure with like these giant horns coming out. I don't know what this is. It's like it.
00:57:06
Speaker
It just didn't quite come together, I feel like. So then there's apparently there's a theatrical version, which is the one that the boardroom people like chopped and cut together.
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, they ditched the score for like a more moderny, like 80s synthesizer music sort of version and stuff. And then there's the it's oh, it's Ridley Scott. And then he had like the director's cut version of it that was longer and had the original music and stuff. So we we didn't know that when we started watching, we started watching the theatrical version and we got like halfway through and I'm like, this
00:57:46
Speaker
What they did was fantastic for the last one that they did.
00:57:53
Speaker
Oh, the one with, yeah, the most recent one. Yeah, because they had, they came in and the studio did a bunch of reshoots. And that's why What's Her Name Tear was messed up because she had to have a wig on and that wig was terrible. And you keep seeing these flashes like, why all of a sudden is she in a bad wig? And then the final after, the studio came, they didn't like the movie, so they had people reshoot, chopped in a gun, and it was just a disaster.
00:58:17
Speaker
Oh, my God. There's nothing like a roundtable full of like UC Berkeley flunkies to put a movie together. They always think they want. Yeah. Was that what other ones did you watch recently? That was bad. Excalibur. Oh, I never saw that. It just looked terrible.
00:58:38
Speaker
is really bad. I just saw one of those Instagram pages that cuts old movie pieces together and puts some cool music behind it and stuff, and I was like, that actually kinda looks cool. Maybe I'll give that a shot. There's no cohesive story there. I mean, it's a mess, and it's just lame and very dated, morally speaking.
00:59:07
Speaker
There's a lot of questionable like a hero concept in there. But yeah, that one was awful. Last week we watched Highlander, Highlander rules. I don't want to call any of these movies Excalibur. I feel like I can picture the the font for the for the movie. I remember watching Highlander. I just watched The Crow.
00:59:33
Speaker
My list I've been watching like oh, I love old horror old sci-fi movies. So Like I feel like 80s 90s sci-fi was like peak that is just Right there anything around like I think I watched mission to Mars. I had never seen that before Of course like classics event horizon the core. Oh, yeah. Oh, I don't know if I've seen the core. Oh
00:59:58
Speaker
I thought I'd seen it and then I thought it was some other movie, but then I saw that one. It actually wasn't bad. I remember like one Halloween, I'd never watched like any horror movies at all. Like the most, the scariest movie I ever watched was Signs. Because somehow we were allowed to watch like Mel Gibson movies. Yeah, of course, of course. Because he was anti-Semitic. I also saw Signs and I'm not sure how that happened either.
01:00:27
Speaker
Well, like one Halloween, my parents were doing something and my sister was at somebody's house. Definitely not doing Halloween stuff, but like they were away. So I was home alone. No harvest festival. Maybe my sister was at one of those. I can't remember, but I, uh, I turned on the TV and it's like all horror movies and I ended up watching pumpkin head. Oh my gosh. Freaked me out.
01:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, some of those are like the concept is really cool like you know the like Revenge selling your soul for revenge you get somebody and stuff like it's a it's a great story It's just you know it's kind of scary and I just I don't know why I really thought he was gonna look more like a pumpkin like that was the part I was like
01:01:20
Speaker
Does he look scary? And I was like, that's not a pumpkin. That's actually the lookout pumpkin. I don't recall what he looks like. I haven't I miss a pretty good movie villain. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember a lot of horror movies just from like going to the video store and like side eyeing the covers, you know, like blockbuster and being like, oh, I couldn't wait. Like I any chance I got so sneak a horror movie.
01:01:49
Speaker
or watch it at somebody's house or like when I was there for it. As soon as we could start torrenting stuff, I was watching like old horror movies that I wanted to see since forever. Do you remember ever like watching a movie of some sort and then feeling like really bad about it? Like, oh, I shouldn't have seen that. I think when I watched The Cell, I then I'm pretty sure the pastor like started talking about it.
01:02:18
Speaker
at some point, and I felt real bad about it. I felt really- The cell. Yeah. Which one's the cell? Jennifer Lopez. As a therapist, he has to go into a mind of a serial killer. Vincent, what's his name? I don't recall this one at all, actually.
01:02:38
Speaker
It's a good movie. He plays a serial killer. She has to go save a little boy, so she has to go in his brain. And it's just fucked up. Everything is just a mess. That movie really freaked me out. And so then I felt even worse about it because I actually got a little bit scared.
01:02:57
Speaker
And I felt like he was talking to me, like just- The devil got in you just a little bit. Yep, he got in that little crevice. Yeah, he's there. Yep, now he has a foothold in my life. Yeah. Because I watched this- A stronghold. There's a weight on my heart. Yeah. I needed a repent. I probably had, I probably went forward that time. Definitely haven't unspoken. Right, right, definitely. You know, I swear people probably just made that up.
01:03:27
Speaker
Think about people going up for prayer. Like my church always did that, right? There was no big altar call every Sunday, but they always had the elders go up to front in case people needed prayer. Yeah. And that shit's so funny looking back on it because all that anyone ever thought was like when people, people went up and for prayer, everyone's just like,
01:03:51
Speaker
I wonder what they need prayer for. Like, you're just wondering. They're not really listening to anything. You're just like, Oh, that guy went up. What's up? And I was a little nosy busy bee and everybody's been there. So I was like, okay, so her daughter got pregnant and they're praying with them because
01:04:09
Speaker
They didn't tell anybody, and she actually moved down to the South to go live with her aunt while she has a baby. They're like, how do you know? I don't know. I was eavesdropping next to so-and-so, and I heard them talk. They didn't see me because I was a child. I'm not seen, so I'm just listening. Yeah, just creeping around. Bilbo Baggins just kneeled down, and people just don't know you're there. 100%. I was in everything.
01:04:38
Speaker
You would sit in the front seat every week where people would stay. Me and my gay best friend in church, we were the two old biddies. We knew everything that was going on with everybody. That's awesome. That's the cue I want to sit in. We were always in trouble for talking and stuff, but we were trying to figure out what was going on. Should have started selling information in the back of the church, just the gossip corner.
01:05:04
Speaker
100% like, literally, and you needed to know something, then like, oh, someone said, yes, you got cancer now. Yeah. But mom be like, how do you already know that? I don't know, but you know. I don't reveal controversial sources. Yeah, exactly. It's not gossiping. I'm just like spreading the word. Good journalism. I don't know what to tell you. It was juicy in there. People always had stuff going on. You like your sea eyes and shit? You're like, no, we're good.
01:05:34
Speaker
Oh, what did they say? You had, you had some elders on the payroll. Just, Oh my gosh. Somebody sitting out the choir this week. Oh, why are they sitting out the choir? Let me try to go find out what happened. Do you remember any of your friends getting like caught doing something and it was like, Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Caught with porn, gay porn. Whoa. That's the worst kind of porn to get caught with. Messing around with somebody.
01:06:01
Speaker
you know, or parents find it like birth control or condoms or people get pregnant. Very scandalous. Finding the birth control is like, you know, there's always an upset and then it's like, sometimes it feels like there's more of an upset over finding birth control and condoms and over pregnancy. Yeah, yeah. Like, what's the disconnect? That is the basic ending to sin.
01:06:28
Speaker
Yeah. That was the whole thing. If the baby's the silver lining, they have to. They don't believe that. No one feels that. But the baby has to be the silver lining. Because God, I mean, it's a it's a life and God, you know, this is what we have. God loves it. This is our thing now. Yeah. We're the people who talk about the silver lining of the miracle of childbirth and this teen pregnancy. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody, you're sorry.
01:06:58
Speaker
They're trying, they're trying to get it baptized before it's even born. Oh, because over the, like the baptism, so you had to go through a class in order to get baptized. And like, if you did certain things or got in trouble for certain things, like you wouldn't be allowed to get baptized. And I remember there was like a kid who didn't go through with our baptism.
01:07:19
Speaker
um in our class or whatever and it was like a big thing like oh he didn't graduate from the class or whatever he got like suspended from school for something that's hilariously the opposite of the intention of baptism love that shit
01:07:38
Speaker
Oh I'm afraid that's a sin God can't wash away. It's like I would like to profess faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in accordance with his commandments to do this and they're just like no no because you did the thing we didn't like so
01:07:59
Speaker
You didn't throw away your Marilyn Manson CD after, after, you know, youth group week. We've decided that God's not quite ready to redeem you yet. Coming home from acquire the fire, you have to throw all your stuff away.
01:08:19
Speaker
I'm so glad I never felt that conviction to throw stuff away. Oh, I never felt that conviction. That conviction was forced upon me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. They just made a burn pit and then just forced everyone to throw shit into it. It was a coffin. You had to put it in a coffin. Oh, my God. That's so cool. They had a literal coffin? That shit's expensive, too. Did someone- That's awesome. It was a church volunteer made that?
01:08:49
Speaker
So what was it like, death to the old you or, you know, whatever? And God. Dude, they love object lessons. It was so over the top and ridiculous. Like, over the top.
01:09:02
Speaker
I remember, it's funny thinking back on all the different goofy object lessons that people used for that kind of stuff over the years, because I remember one guy, there was one guy that he would teach at our church sometimes. He was a huge man, just a giant round man. And he was real quirky in how he talked. He was like a pastor, but he didn't have a church.
01:09:28
Speaker
He was just kind of around, I don't know. It was weird. Did you call him like Uncle Somebody? There was some of those too, for sure. One of the coolest old ladies ever was Aunt Scarlett. She was like the junior church teacher and everybody loved her.
01:09:48
Speaker
This big dude he at one point he came in with and taught like a sermon and he had a bow and arrow and he set up like a target and he shot arrows at a target like in the school gymnasium like in front of a group. Just worked up a sweat. He was actually pretty good. It would have been funny if he missed and like hit the gym floor and the arrow explodes.
01:10:12
Speaker
i just think you're a big guy like with a real shaky arm just like sweating his ass off it's like sweat dripping from his forehead as he tries to pull the string all the way back oh my gosh how many pound test was he working with is that what they call it pound test not test that's fishing line
01:10:30
Speaker
How do they weight up? Draw weight. Draw weight. Yeah. He was pulling some poundage, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he was. He was one of those guys that would be like, he'd be like, all right, everybody draw your sword. And then if you didn't have your Bible with you at church, he'd be like. Oh yeah, he had to put your Bible up in the air. He'd go, shame on you. Shame on you coming to battle without your sword. Love it. He said it like every Sunday.
01:10:57
Speaker
And people still didn't bring them, so shame on them, for real. They didn't want to save themselves in embarrassment. Having a nice brand new Bible that's not creased. Ooh, yeah. No, no, the gold on the edges is stuffed off yet. Yeah. That gold leaf, dude. Yeah. That's where it was at.
01:11:18
Speaker
I was telling my mom recently about like true love waits and how we had to like marry our dad. And like she was like, girl, I didn't even know that. Oh, even and I was like, first of all, what do you mean you didn't know that? Like you just she was like, you know, I just assumed I'm sending you to her youth group or whatever. Like, I just left you to six flags. Yeah. I'm like, let me tell you about how they had this whole ceremony thing that was just so creepy and strange. Like,
01:11:48
Speaker
You got like a ring and everything. It was the worst thing.
01:11:52
Speaker
That was creepy as fuck. Wait, did your dad go? Was it like? Yeah, he did. Oh, and you see, just your mom didn't know about that. So that's weird because I think they probably made it this big like father daughter thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, that's so it is so weird, though, to like padlock. I probably just didn't want to talk about it. He got home and was like, oh, fuck, that was weird. I'm not going to tell my wife about that. That was really fucking weird.
01:12:23
Speaker
Oh my gosh, it was awful. I forget, did you ever go on any missions trips? Yes.
01:12:32
Speaker
Where'd you go? I did one to Arizona. We went to a Navajo reservation. That's when I was in high school. And then I did a couple... Some more racist, right? A little. I had a really enjoyable time because I just got to work on stuff for people, like real stuff, like outhouses and help people in their homes or whatever. We did one to Philly.
01:13:00
Speaker
and then I did one to Morocco and I did one I feel like I'm missing somewhere else but uh yeah the Morocco one was even more racist than oh yeah yeah I just think of going to a Navajo tribe being like your way of doing things is wrong we've been trying to weed that out for hundreds of years and you're still not getting it so here we are
01:13:27
Speaker
I'm just looking like, how am I supposed to tell any of these people anything when they're using outhouses? That's like, I was so uncomfortable the whole time because I literally was like, I didn't know the wording. I didn't know what I was feeling, but I definitely felt some sense of like, no, I'm not telling you to do anything when you're literally like living in poverty.
01:13:52
Speaker
Like I feel like that's wrong. I feel like I shouldn't be flying out here telling you some shit. Like it's just, it felt so icky the whole time. Was it that area like up in Northeast Oakland or Arizona, like way up there in the desert? We were in the desert because I remember, I remember we drove through like the petrified forest and stuff when we were like coming down and everything. And I think, I don't know how far we were from the like four corners.
01:14:22
Speaker
and stuff like that. But we were in the middle because there was no I think Walmart was like almost an hour away. Yeah, it is so remote. Yeah. For that whole like northeast corner of Arizona, which is like where some of the reservations are and stuff like it is desolate land far from everything. Yeah, there's nothing out there.
01:14:47
Speaker
It's crazy. So were you digging a new hole or did you just like hold the seat for a week? We dug new holes. We put new like little like lean tools on them and stuff and everything like painted them. They were like bright ass colors and stuff. So like once we were driving around, you could like see it. Like I painted like a purple and green one and like Amber purposely mismatched her socks today. So she gets to clean out the old hole. Yeah.
01:15:17
Speaker
Oh my gosh. How's the market trip more racist though? Well, because they, you know, they thought that everybody was going to be like a jihadist. I don't even know if that's like a real word, but that's a word that was used. So they're like, you know, growing their beards out and they're like, you know.
01:15:37
Speaker
You know, our hair can't be a certain way or whatever. And they get there and they're like, oh, nobody really has beards. No kidding. Oh my God. They did not do their market research. Yeah. Like you're not some like old like Iman somewhere, you know, religious leader and stuff. And just kind of the way it was like, you know, they're taught to hate Americans.
01:15:59
Speaker
No, they don't care. They literally do not care about you. They don't care. Because people were so surprised that they were nice to us. And I had a great time. Of course, I was the only black person. So a lot of the white people were really scared. But one day, we had to go into town and meet people. And I was in these people's house. They made me fool.
01:16:23
Speaker
They I got invited to the bath house. So then I took all the girls to this bath house. So like this bath house has a whole bunch of levels. And when you're inside, the most inner one is hot. And then as you get older, it's like cooler, totally naked. You got to be like totally naked in this thing. And you pay somebody and they wash you and they like wash your whole body. Oh, whoa. Yeah. That's the cultural difference for a lot of people felt real uncomfortable.
01:16:52
Speaker
and stuff and everything. And they're like- My chastity belt doesn't get rusty. One person's bathhouse is another person's molestation. Some people didn't do it, but I was like, we're supposed to be in the culture.
01:17:06
Speaker
You know, or, but it was, I had, it was fun, but it was sad to see how judgmental people were. And it was like, nobody's going to know God out your God out here in the middle of the desert. We just took a train that had like an open bathroom thing that I literally was in the train trying to use the bathroom and like one leg up here and like another leg over here. Cause it's moving. It's just a hole. It's like a wooden roller coaster.
01:17:33
Speaker
your feet on it, but there's shit everywhere because it's moving. It was amazing in there that I even was able to go to the bathroom. It's like trying to open a Capri Sun in an earthquake. Yes, literally. Literally it was. It was wild. Oh my God.
01:17:59
Speaker
They were like, surprise people heard of Jesus and were like Christians. And I was just like, you guys are so embarrassing. What was it that you were supposed to be doing there? Witnessing, spreading the word. So we took some Arabic lessons and then we were going into a school to teach English for a week or something like that, or whatever, and to be around these kids. So our goal wasn't to minister.
01:18:29
Speaker
like in an overt way it was supposed to minister in a covert way where we're just being we're showing the love of jesus through like interactions with everyone sounds like it you like shine through yeah yeah hmm
01:18:44
Speaker
ate everything. I was just kiki'ing with people. I could have cared less what I was there for. Like. Yeah. You made the most of it. You had a good time. I had a great time. Yeah. I definitely saw a new reservation episode about Morocco and the food looks awesome. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was, it was good. The tea is good. Like.
01:19:04
Speaker
The people were really, really kind and nice and so hospitable and everything and like, you know, would give you whatever they had. I'm telling you, the people made us these huge meals. I mean, these things were like this big. They're like, eat, eat, eat, you know, and they're just feeding you and.
01:19:21
Speaker
Introducing you to their family. Like I'm speaking terrible like Arabic or whatever and you know We're trying to communicate with people and it was just but a lot of these people whose houses we went at were like Christians So I was like, did nobody Google anything? Like whoever set this trip up literally did no research at all
01:19:42
Speaker
yeah that's embarrassing that little research for how much money you guys probably had to raise to go and shit like I mean at least I can say that any youth group missions trip I went on there was like a good amount of planning and research done ahead of time yeah this one sounds like a tragedy
01:20:01
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it was like, we have like connections and we're doing stuff with people, but it's as far as like, you're growing out your beard, but you never thought to look up to see if people in this area have long beards or not because nobody does. So now you're standing out like a sore thumb because you have a long beard. So you didn't stick out already enough just being a white American. Right.
01:20:28
Speaker
I will say you should definitely reject the bathhouse experience if your missions trip is to the Vatican.
01:20:49
Speaker
Well, you've been up to a lot of shit since the last time we talked. You've written a book. You've had some TV appearances. You've been going hard.
01:20:59
Speaker
Yes. Yes. So, um, I have, I did write a book and, um, it's called 72 hours of hell. My time in the VA. If you guys want to order it, you can. It's on Amazon, on Kindle or paperback, but I had a very terrible experience at a VA mental health facility here in Pennsylvania.
01:21:24
Speaker
And so once I kind of like got through that, I was like, I feel like I need to tell people about this experience that happened to me because I knew it was illegal. And I also knew it wasn't right.
01:21:40
Speaker
But at the time in the situation, I felt like there was nothing I could really do. So I didn't write the book right away. I came home and I did voice notes about my whole experience there. That first night that I got home, because I was exhausted. I was drugged up. Of course I didn't sleep. So I just cried and did voice notes. And then I came back to it about six months later.
01:22:06
Speaker
And kind of started then wanting to tell my story and writing my story about how basically as a vet, I was going in to seek treatment for mental health issues. I've come to find out at PTSD and like so many people.
01:22:24
Speaker
And in that process, they're now forcing me to stay here and putting me on an involuntary hold and basically taking all my rights away. And then I found out that that is actually happening to veterans all across the US, where they're going into a VA hospital saying, hey, I want to voluntarily get treatment.
01:22:45
Speaker
Therapy, I want to maybe change up my meds. Maybe I'll do a 72-hour hold like voluntarily and then there being that options being taken away from them and they're being forced into a hold an involuntary hold What so well just for clarity what year? When was this experience in that facility?
01:23:07
Speaker
like 2022 2023 okay i guess i didn't realize it was that recent oh my god yeah yeah wow holy shit um i mask so well like you know um
01:23:22
Speaker
So what is that? I mean, what's that look? So obviously in some situations, right? There's the ability, maybe it's state by state too. I don't know. I know there's an ability to like section somebody. I think Massachusetts, you could do maybe a 24 hour hold. 72 hours involuntary hold is a lot. I don't know if there's any reason that that's allowed ever in the state of Pennsylvania, maybe
01:23:47
Speaker
like i'm a little curious about that yeah so you you definitely can and you're able to like sign yourself in some place and you're supposed to be able to sign yourself out
01:23:58
Speaker
But that's kind of where the ify-ness gets to, because then if a doctor decides that you aren't able to do that, then they can make those decisions for you. That you're unfit to make that decision? Yeah, right. So for me, my issue was that actually there was another woman who I found out who wasn't a veteran but had this exact same issue.
01:24:20
Speaker
There was no room at the hospital that I was at. So being a mom, I wanted to stay relatively like 30 minutes away from my kid, right? And there was no room there. So they were trying to ship me off. They didn't even know where they were shipping me off. I didn't even find out where I was going until I was like,
01:24:39
Speaker
Forceably put in the ambulance and then found out from the ambulance driver But they shipped me off hours away. And so for me, I just said I'll do Outpatient like I'll call my therapist back We'll work it out, but I don't feel comfortable with this like this was part of my plan And if there's no room here, I don't want to stay here And they're like you're not leaving
01:25:04
Speaker
And then it became an issue and they're like, we're going to call security, you know, all this stuff. And there's a point in my book.
01:25:14
Speaker
where I talk about I have a MAGA moment, because now I'm screaming about my guns, because I'm talking to the social worker, and I'm like, if you put me on this involuntary hold, I'm not gonna be able to have guns anymore. Like, you're taking away my right to be able to do different things with this. And I came here voluntarily, and I was like, as I'm yelling it, I'm like, this is the real, this is the low point, this is it. This is the low point, this is it. I was like, oh, God.
01:25:44
Speaker
I was like, this was that wasn't good, Amber, but you got to stand on business. I guess we're going for it now because. Yeah. And then, of course, because of the the general association with the type of people who immediately.
01:25:56
Speaker
drift towards screaming about their gun rights and go, ah, this is crazy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're not, they're not the most stable. It's like, that's like their fixation. 100%. I just dug myself into all. Yeah. And I did, but I knew it. Like I'm a social worker. So I knew that there's stuff that, okay, if you get 302, you can't do this, this, this, this mess.
01:26:19
Speaker
you know and I know that so for for them to tell me like oh everything's gonna be fine is it because now I feel like you're lying and now I'm even more mad you know and then they said they're gonna call security and I'm like
01:26:35
Speaker
it's like if if you it's like that you know everyone knows that that's the way things trend when you start telling it's like why are you so mad right now I'm not mad dude you're furious and then they start getting mad and say when you call people crazy medical facility like it makes you start being like
01:26:56
Speaker
No, now I'm losing my mind. Now I'm just angry. Then they're like, whoa, this person's maybe a little unstable. It's like, you know, they just literally like flipped their life upside down in 10 minutes and they reacted. And so like the other girl that I was saying went through the same thing. She got irate, rightly so, and started fighting and she ended up in there for a while.
01:27:19
Speaker
because she just kept going. She was like, no, this is wrong, you're not gonna do this, blah, blah. And for me, I eventually was just like, I asked to call my mom and finally I was able to talk to my mom on the phone and she was just like, sign the fucking paper, shut the fuck up so you can do this and get done and get out of here. And I was like, okay.
01:27:41
Speaker
I was upset because I was so frustrated because I wanted to get help. Like, I wanted to get better. And I knew, like, it was done out of love and because she was protecting me. But then I was like, fuck, man. This was a waste of time. Now I just regret even coming here, this whole thing and everything.
01:28:04
Speaker
The implications of that are so scary too because we've all heard the statistics on veteran suicide rates and stuff. When you make it, you create such a deterrence to seeking help for yourself in such a vulnerable population.
01:28:26
Speaker
That, by all accounts, I mean, if anybody we should be taken care of, I mean, it would be people who've served the country and whatnot. And geez, so. Yeah. And I mean, I really, I wasn't expecting that. You know, I had a great therapist. He retired. Hey, Sandy. But, you know, I had talked to her. So I felt comfortable, like, OK, well, I'm going to go do this so like I can get it together because I knew I was in a horrible place.
01:28:55
Speaker
And I'm not going to tell anybody to not get help, but I, I'm never going to advise anybody to do this because it just, it, I feel like I ended up worse off almost at the end of it and I didn't get the seat, the help I needed. And who knows?
01:29:13
Speaker
Like what could have happened? I mean, there's been people who have had mental health issues killed by police officers. We know how they feel about black people. Like, you know, how could my, what would my interaction have been with the security guard? You know, if they had to, or if they called the police, like how would that have gone? And so it could have just been so bad all around, you know? And it's sad because veteran suicide is an epidemic and
01:29:41
Speaker
You know, at least 22 a day, the VA just came out and said that there's higher numbers now. And there was another study that was done that said if you add in overdose deaths, that it's about 44 vets a day who are killing themselves. So, you know, we need to do something about it, but this obviously isn't the right way if people are coming to seek help and you're tearing them apart. Yeah. What are you...
01:30:10
Speaker
I feel like numbers like that are just, it's, it's so many people. Yeah. And like, you know, it's, I guess I'm trying to think of how to, like, there's a lot of people that joined the military and have, you know, like somewhat like normal jobs in the, you know, not everybody's a frontline troop. Yeah.
01:30:33
Speaker
What what are the what's the common denominator there? I mean, like, what do you have ideas about? That's that's probably a huge question. But like, I mean, you are so many different stuff. So for me, you know, I had there was a a girl who went overboard and we were looking for her body and we ended up finding her and we have caskets on the ship.
01:30:59
Speaker
They took a casket down. They had her. She was like held in our freezer. Um, so like it was right by where I lived. And so it's like, you're walking past it when you're going like on a mess decks, which is our cafeteria and stuff. So like an incident like that, you know, you're on a deployment, like that can fuck you up. Um, I had an ex who ended up getting their,
01:31:20
Speaker
their boat started taking on water and he's worked at night. So they ended up getting locked in there as the water was rising. Oh, they tried to seal. Yeah, they had it. So there's so many situations that can happen where you're just living life on this boat or wherever you are, and it can be really traumatizing for you.
01:31:44
Speaker
a lot of people getting sexually assaulted. So now they have MST, which is military sexual trauma, which is pretty closely linked to PTSD and CPTSD, which is complex post-traumatic stress. So you have assaults that have caused people post-traumatic stress. Different accidents that can happen. I mean, you know, there's, we had a couple of people die on my ship throughout the deployment.
01:32:13
Speaker
You know, so I'm saying this stuff very lightly, but there's a lot that can happen while you're in service that can cause you to have a lot of issues and it's stressful and it's shitty. You know, and one deployment I did was 11 months and we kept getting, you know, extended. You're missing your family, you're missing your friends.
01:32:35
Speaker
People die while you're gone and you can't go home and there's nothing that you can do. So you have survivor's guilt from that, from losing people and not being there.
01:32:49
Speaker
you know there was uh so there's so many different things that happen to you or can happen and so it's not one size fits all and it and it's not just people who are you know on the front lines or infantry men all the time it can really kind of just be anybody. I have a friend who was a
01:33:10
Speaker
He was a CS, a culinary specialist. He's a cook and he has PTSD and he got out. And for him, that was the hardest part, I think was was feeling like he had to justify it, you know, because people were like, OK, well, you weren't on the gun like, you know. Yeah. But are you saying the feeling of participating in something that that's like the overall like, but I was there. I was part of it. And he's thinking about some of the consequences of that.
01:33:41
Speaker
And also just the stuff that just happens to you in general that you're exposed to that you're dealing with on a regular basis. Yeah, I guess it would be a lot of things. It's like your life is out of your control for a period of time. You're stuck in this small environment with a small group of people that you're basically living on top of each other.
01:34:11
Speaker
It's almost like high school on steroids. It really is. I mean, we would call the boat high school all the time. I mean, one girl, like the girl who lived underneath my bunk bed, she got scabies. And it was just like this whole thing. And I'm traumatized. I was like, we're going to do all this stuff. You can't go anywhere. You can't do anything. And it's just like there's so many things that happen that were just like such a disaster. I almost fell off the ship one night. Like we have these big speakers.
01:34:41
Speaker
when we would pull into port that would yell out things like stay away from our boat or whatever in like whatever language we were coming upon. So like Farsi or Arabic or whatever.
01:34:51
Speaker
And they're called LRADs and you're, and we're putting them up. And I had to kind of go over the side a little bit to get it up in there. And we're going fast. It's pitch black. It's cold. The wind is one. We're probably going like 35 knots and my foot slips. And like the guy always grabs me and I was like, holy shit, dude, I just died. I almost died. Like I was almost, nobody would have found me. Like, yeah. Wow. And that was super good.
01:35:22
Speaker
My, you know, and I didn't, I don't even think I realized how dangerous it, you know what I mean? Like it didn't even sink in at all until I was up there one time in the daylight. And this was a couple of weeks later and I was doing something and I saw where I was and I was like,
01:35:40
Speaker
That was almost it for me over the side of the boat. Like, so there's, it's just, it's so much. A girl fell in, had a, had a rescue where she thought she was drowned in. I mean, that was a whole, a whole thing. We had to get like shots in our stomach because we were in the water in the harbor. And I guess it was so toxic in Everett, Washington.
01:36:01
Speaker
Um, that you had to get a bunch of shots for that. So, I mean, so many, yeah, there's just so many things that could happen to you that aren't combat related that can just really mess you up. I mean, even just, um, you know, you said you're going to different ports in different places, being on deployment, like even just that, I mean, there's an active underlying
01:36:26
Speaker
Stress of just yeah an unknown factor like anything. I mean you're you're Prepared for the idea. It's kind of mentally prepared for the idea that anything could happen And then you come back and it drops and Your body doesn't know how to react to that or how to deal with that. Mm-hmm
01:36:51
Speaker
Wow. Interesting. So, you know, we were talking a little bit before we started recording about, you know, everything that's going on, you know, in Israel, Palestine, obviously there's, um, you know, direct US involvement and stuff, places like the Gulf of Aden and everything right now with the, the Houthi militants that are firing missiles at boats and stuff.
Military and Mental Health Challenges
01:37:17
Speaker
Um.
01:37:20
Speaker
I know this is another big just big broad question, but like what what is your what is your feeling about like
01:37:30
Speaker
War as a whole coming from your background, because it's very easy for I mean, Sam and I, we didn't, you know, we didn't do any military stuff. And like, it's very easy to be like, war is bad. We should never fight in a war. War is evil to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, like all the really throw away positions from people who didn't do it. What do you think about it? I mean, do you think that because there's obviously like that's that's a long history there.
01:37:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:38:12
Speaker
What is going to be the next step because he wants to take Russia back to those full glory, right? So if we allow him to do this and we don't get involved and he takes this over and now the next step is he's going to take over what and could he now become in alliance with China? China sees that we didn't do anything. So now they're going to.
01:38:31
Speaker
officially take over Taiwan and keep it going and do all this stuff. So yeah, there's a game plan that you see where you have to be strategic and you have to look ahead and say, we need to stop this from happening. And that's the same that goes with a lot of different things in the Middle East as well. But at the same time, America, we like to be everybody's police.
01:38:56
Speaker
and a lot of stuff isn't our business and we don't need to be involved in it and we're involved in it because of our interests like oil or natural resources and different things so that's what happens and we go after these things and we take over every country does not need to be a democracy it doesn't if it wants to be socialist or communist or have a dynasty or a monarchy or whatever like
01:39:22
Speaker
that okay every you know once you get into where you're ethnically cleansing people you're creating genocide like obviously something will have to need to be done for those things but again we also don't step in whenever that's also happening because there was genocide in Myanmar we didn't really do anything about that
01:39:40
Speaker
So you have to kind of balance it out. And in the Middle East, there's a long standing feuds between different sects of Islam between the Shiite and the Sunnis, which has nothing to do with us.
01:39:56
Speaker
Over here and it is something that is I think gonna go on for a really really long time Then you add in the creation of Israel and the fact that people were already there and When you have these border companies countries like Egypt and Jordan who don't really want to get involved because we're involved and
01:40:18
Speaker
And so it's like, would maybe they be more willing to take refugees if they knew that America wasn't back in Israel and America could then potentially get mad at them and they're gonna get bombed? It's just so complicated and also there's a lot of little nuances in that. And so sometimes war is necessary and there was a long time where a lot of us were conquering
01:40:43
Speaker
Nations and countries, but people are there people are in these places and I think sometimes we need to let people
01:40:51
Speaker
live and have the type of government that they want to have and that's not going to be an easy thing for us as Americans to do because you know ever since Manifest Destiny we've just thought that we could you know take over and kind of do whatever and sadly we see a lot of people who don't live the same way as us as living below us or not
01:41:18
Speaker
Yeah. Like we need to bring them up to level. No, we don't. If people want to live in a hut, I'm not saying who lives in a hut, who doesn't, but if they want to, and that's their culture, then let them. We don't need to come over there and bring like Westernization to them and stuff like that. But when you, when you spread the West, you spread money, you spread McDonald's, you spread Burger King, you spread our music, you spread our clothing. So there's a lot of money involved. And I know I said a whole bunch of stuff.
01:41:47
Speaker
stuff to not answer that question. I feel like that is a way to answer the question in a sense, though, because I mean, what I'm hearing you say is like, I mean, there's been there's been absolutely zero consistency applied to the way that the US intervenes in countries across the globe. And we pretend we have this gold standard, but we don't. It's been inconsistent.
01:42:11
Speaker
as far as we can remember. And there's genocides we get involved in, there's ones we don't. And when we do, we pretend it's because we're taking the moral high ground and that's never been the case. It's never about moral high ground. It's always about strategy. I'd be a little bit more open to the intent and reasons if they could just own up to the fact that it is about strategy and not about moral high ground.
01:42:35
Speaker
Right. Like people understand. No, we're not doing this because it's a moral thing to do because it's not our job to be the world police. Here's why we're here. Here's a vested interest. The problem is sometimes those interests go against what is what is ethical at all. Yeah, exactly. In the name of war. And we're not really we're fighting proxy wars and not real wars. I don't know. It's just it's so convoluted. The idea, though, to me of like doing we're literally just killing people who have nothing like we're bombing Yemen, you know,
01:43:04
Speaker
Obama bombed the crap out of Yemen and created a famine and we're still bothering these people who really don't have anything to do with anything. And then we have the Houthis who are like, y'all are not going to be coming here doing this. And at the end of the day, well, they keep messing with people and then get mad that they're going to mess with you back.
01:43:28
Speaker
And then, yeah, and then there's like the, you know, the like twisting of the narrative around their agency, you know, because they're an out there allied with Iran and Iran's obviously, you know, giving them funding, giving them weapons and stuff. So like, you know, we're we here in the West are are.
01:43:50
Speaker
told that basically they are part of the cuds force or whatever you know the revolutionary guard like just getting aid you know are is you know and and obviously to like is Iran having some type of if I do this for you
01:44:06
Speaker
You know in the back of their head you scratch my back I scratch yours, but if they're the only people giving you food who? Yeah, like just because they're taking stuff, you know weapons and aid and stuff from Iran doesn't mean that they're you know, right controlled by Iran so I was watching a Yesterday, I've been I've been trying to kind of keep up with some of the stuff that's going on in Haiti right now because obviously
01:44:35
Speaker
It's gotten wild over the past month or so – I think longer, but that's the point. Yeah, and they said the prime minister is gone out of Haiti now. Yeah, he officially stepped down today, I think. Yeah, you know. And so I was listening to an interview, and it was interesting because it was this professor from some university in the UK.
01:44:59
Speaker
and she's a white lady. She's on there talking about Haiti and Haitian politics and stuff. And obviously there's like a lot of violence. There's gangs that are controlling major sections of the country and Port-au-Prince and stuff like that. It was an interesting discussion though, because this lady was kind of arguing that like,
01:45:25
Speaker
You know, these gangs are a small minority in the country and we need to just like stay out of the way, you know ship You know, we need to support the Haitian people in determining their own future right, you know and offer them support and it it's always kind of like in these vague terms that like don't really
01:45:46
Speaker
It sounds great from a standpoint of like, well, yeah, we shouldn't interfere in other people's government. But there's also the reality that –
01:45:56
Speaker
Okay, but, you know, it's got us right now. Right. And if we send a, would it actually get to the people or would it just be taken over by the gangs? And the thing is, is they called all the gangs that kind of come together. So I feel like calling them a gang is understating what they are because now they're kind of, you know, they pulled a coup. They got everybody together and all the rebels kind of came together on the same side. Now, will they eventually break apart again?
01:46:26
Speaker
and everything I don't know but you know it's interesting to see how we'll treat this situation in Haiti versus how we treat it other places. Yeah it was like you know she was arguing that we shouldn't get involved but we should send aid but by aid I'm assuming that she meant like weapons and
01:46:47
Speaker
Because part of the problem that I've picked up from this is that the police and military in Haiti are out of question. There wasn't enough. There already wasn't enough. I think there was 9,000 altogether before this all started for everybody on the island, and I don't remember what the number of people it was.
01:47:09
Speaker
but that was really really low and so now it's even lower and people have been killed they've stolen all the weapons from them and all that stuff so I mean the people are pretty much defenseless I think honestly they were pretty much defenseless before but if they don't have anything to fight back with and we're talking about a lot of women and children here and elderly people so
01:47:34
Speaker
You know, are we just going to leave them there to be wiped out? I guess by by these gangs or or are we going to do something? That's kind of the conundrum that I think like the like 15 minute interview on a subject.
01:47:49
Speaker
just glazes over is like, okay, so you want us to arm a segment of the population, which I don't really know to what extent people on the ground support those structures in general, the military, the police force, and like, okay, so we should pick this side and we should arm them and stuff.
01:48:14
Speaker
The other reality of that is that, you know, a lot of innocent people are going to die in the meantime. Yeah. And, you know, are we prolonging a conflict by picking a side and arming that side and stuff? I mean, if we look at the Vietnam War, we picked a side and by the end, both sides were like, if you don't get away from us.
01:48:35
Speaker
Like, you know, because we weren't helping anything. And when everybody's going to look like everybody else, how are we supposed to know who's on what side and who's with what group and and everything like that? Yeah, it's just I feel like it's.
01:48:52
Speaker
especially when it's a conflict that we're not invested in. We are pretty invested in Ukraine, whether you're for it or against the war or whatever. We're pretty invested in Ukraine and we're willing to hear out the details of what that looks like and stuff. But we haven't been, I mean, we did Haiti Pretty Dirty just with all of their, after the hurricanes that they've had and we were supposed to come in and help them and rebuild right now.
01:49:20
Speaker
You know, the Red Cross gave them 0.5% of whatever and there was a lot of corruption. That's how a lot of the stuff got funded because the money and the food and the goods that were supposed to go to the people after they got warmed by these hurricanes went to these groups. And that's how they got money and stuff. So this is just, um, you know, part of a problem that started before that honestly, if we wanted to help and give people aid, that would have been the time to do it.
01:49:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's a frequent subject of discussion in conspiracy theory circles around the Clinton Foundation is.
01:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, Haitian aid dollars and how many of those went and where those went and stuff. But yeah, it's weird. It's like there's I think that was part of the point that the lady was making in the interview was that like there is such a long history of foreign intervention in Haiti. Yeah. And it's traditionally been a very negative thing. Does that mean that, you know, by rights, we ought to leave
01:50:27
Speaker
this to play out on its own? I don't know. It's tough. You really can't escape the realities of that. Regardless of which option you choose, people are going to die. They are. When people are in poverty and there's not a lot of options, that's how you get people joining up.
01:50:45
Speaker
with these groups and not fighting against them. Because that's a question I hear a lot is, why aren't people fighting against these groups? And I think, you know, you could say the same thing about like Hamas when you're in poverty and there's this one group that's like, hey, we're going to try to kind of help you a little bit.
01:51:03
Speaker
And we're the only people who are protecting you. We're the only people who are helping and giving you food. Even if we're doing these other terrible things over here, people are going to support them because they're the only people who are looking out for them and doing something. And when people are trying to eat, that's going to be their first and foremost goal, eat and have shelter. And there's homes that were destroyed in Haiti that never got rebuilt. There's whole towns and things that got wiped out where people are still just living in rubble.
01:51:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting not to compare the US to Hamas, but even when you think of its comparisons to Israel or other countries operating around the world, it's just like all we've done, all we do, whether it's CNN or whatever, it's always a blind eye turn to the awful things that our country's done across the globe.
01:52:02
Speaker
I think it's just weird that people still get mad even if you talk about it. They want to look through everything with rose-colored glasses. Anything bad that's happened must have been a mistake or miscalculation, not something intentional.
01:52:17
Speaker
And I think that's just like, I even going back to the war question, like the concept, it's like, I feel like theoretically someone could convince me that like a good war is exist. That is that war could be necessary. It's just like, I think I feel so disillusioned now that you're like, I don't know that anyone's capable of fighting one. I don't think anyone, I feel like every, every
01:52:41
Speaker
you look at every act of conflict and like the way people just kind of like put their fingers in to try to like make a buck off it or make a strategic move or whatever. I don't know that I think even in like the world's worst situation where there would be a clear like black and white good or bad whatever you would still find everyone getting involved for the wrong reasons and fucking that shit up pretty bad.
01:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. We just keep watching everyone fuck shit up everywhere constantly. Yeah.
01:53:13
Speaker
as we're doing now, because I feel like watching what happened happening in Gaza is a clear, like black and white issue. Right. And people do not feel the same. And it's like, you know, any time you want to say anything, it's like, but if we're as a human, we are supposed to care about each other and like not and and protect people. And if that's your goal, then I think, yes, I think it can work out and I think it can have a reason.
01:53:43
Speaker
But that's not going to be the goal for anything. So it feels like we're past that. Yep. Yep. Do you feel that like, so I've been listening to, um, the old like hardcore history series on, uh, on world war one. And in the lead up to that, you know, there was a very different mindset about.
01:54:09
Speaker
war and the glory of combat and how it sharpens a society and strengthens them and hardens them through adversity. War is actually a good for a nation because it builds character. Obviously, we're in the very opposite end of that spectrum today. How do you see that on an individual level? Do you think that
01:54:33
Speaker
Does combat, is it always bad? Are people that we send into combat, are they sacrificial in a way that knowing that these people are going to deal with the effects of this forever?
01:54:54
Speaker
I think now that we know, I think for, and I would even say war war one, cause I think after they started calling what we have now PTSD shell shock. And I think that might have been around the first time they really started using it. So I will say that I really don't think there was the concept of these people are going to be messed up for the rest of their lives.
01:55:18
Speaker
And so many people were dying that you died, you're glorified, right? But when people started being able to come home, and then I think that's when it was like, oh, what are we going to do with these people?
01:55:33
Speaker
Now we have a problem. When you started losing glory, when you started losing the people who were putting you into these wars, actually being on the horse, being first, standing out there. Because they're not out there now. The politicians who are removering all this stuff around kings, world leaders, people in parliament, they're not the ones going out there. Their kids aren't the ones going out there.
01:55:58
Speaker
I think one of the things that makes Joe Biden really unique is that his son was in war and was an actual soldier. And that gives you a different feel when your kids are deployed. Just sucks you can't remember that anymore, you know? Right, when your kids are deployed and you're home.
01:56:15
Speaker
But now we know how much it really damages people and damages whole families when you come home and you're messed up and now you're broken, your family's broken apart, your kids are a mess because you're a mess. There's no help really for you. So I mean, the glory is in death. It's the glory isn't ever in returning home. The glory is dying in battle and being remembered that way.
01:56:42
Speaker
Because when you come home, then you have survivor's guilt for not dying. And I was dating a guy who had such bad survivor's guilt because his convoy got blown up and he survived. And he truly felt like he should have died with them. And that's what he was there for. I believe he was like third or fourth generation military.
01:57:07
Speaker
and stuff so you know it's not in it's not in coming home and surviving you know so I just don't know if there's any way to really kind of do that because a lot of I mean even some of our medals and stuff weren't given to people who were alive until um like once you started getting into world war one getting into world war two and you started getting people who are receiving like purple hearts um or was it like the silver cross
01:57:33
Speaker
who were alive receiving these things. And I think more people are coming home from stuff because you can live without your legs now. They can save you for that. And so now you're just coming home trying to figure it out and you're dealing with financial issues and like on top of emotional issues and stuff. So the whole thing is just a disaster.
01:58:00
Speaker
to follow up on Casey's question on that like the the glory aspect of it I feel like I please push back on any assumptions I'm making that you think are wrong but I feel like just through talking to people who have who have been other people have been the military trained in combat who have
01:58:20
Speaker
maybe not have seen active combat but planned expected to at some point that was what they had what they would have done while they were enlisted if they were deployed and I think of like what I've heard and learned from others about just like if you're if you're
01:58:39
Speaker
If you're in there to fight, you know, boots on the ground, like there's a heavy amount of I think it's not a really psychologically correct term to use anymore, but
01:58:51
Speaker
heavy amount of brainwashing, like you're being prepared to go kill anyone that looks different, thinks different, believes different. And that's drilled into some heads pretty heavily to the point where like, even if you don't go anywhere, I think I kind of made this point the other week. And I think that's part of the reason why a lot of people still have PTSD.
01:59:13
Speaker
is because you are trained to be a certain way. You're always on alert. You're always at this very high functioning level ready for anything to happen. So if you're on a ship, you got to be ready for a torpedo or miss little hit, whether you're with me working on a gun mount or you're in the kitchen.
01:59:32
Speaker
because if it hits, we all got to be able to like survive and work together and have some level of training. So we all still, you know, train on how to stop the ship from flooding or how to fight fires and do different things like that so that when stuff happens, everybody is ready to go. And then, and it's hard to get all that and then like have to back it up once you get out and to like try to be normal again, I guess.
02:00:00
Speaker
It's like a not a good, not a good stair stepping down back into everyday life. Yeah, it's like deconstruction. You know, they, they broke us down in the church so that they could build us back up as soldiers for Christ. And now that we're out of that and we're trying to deconstruct like, you know, how often are you doing something and your brain goes back and you're like,
02:00:25
Speaker
Right that way or like yeah, even so had that in me all my pathways still active Yeah, and and it takes a little bit for it to kind of get out of your system and I think you have to Put in the work and be and be really willing to do that and have people
02:00:43
Speaker
who can help you with that you know to talk to and and who have maybe been through similar things like finding you guys and listening to your podcast like initially when i initially did and stuff was so helpful in my deconstruction process even though i had been on it
02:00:59
Speaker
since my 20s, you know, but since recently it became so much more popular to publicly talk about. I've seen a big difference in me and my thinking and I think that's what's happening with mental health with PTSD as more of us are talking about veteran suicide and talking about
02:01:18
Speaker
having PTSD and living with it, it's gonna happen. But the downside is that we're talking about it and nobody's joining because we're so open and honest and talking about it now, people are like, I'm not doing that. Time to start lying again. Sometimes I think about, because over the past year or so here, I started following a bunch of
02:01:48
Speaker
Like military pages on Instagram and stuff that are, you know, they're, they're always posting footage and body cam footage and things like that from like different conflicts around the world and stuff, which sounds.
02:02:01
Speaker
It is kind of macabre and gross in a way to, you know, flip open your phone on the toilet and watch like, you know, a Russian soldier going while a drone drops a grenade on him. But I do. I feel like especially since the Ukraine war, like whenever like conflict comes up and they talk about like sending in our troops, right?
02:02:26
Speaker
there's an instant reaction that a lot of us have, you know, especially if you don't really like the conflict that they're talking about. It's like, you know, not one American soldier should die on the field in, you know, Iran or wherever else, right? I don't really feel, there's a way in which, you know, as substandard as our feelings are towards, you know, people who have served in veterans and things like that,
02:03:09
Speaker
You know, Western leadership, not just us, but like, you know, the UK and stuff has kind of thwarted the peace process at a couple of different junctures where we may have gotten Russians to the table and negotiated some sort of deal. Maybe it would have gone nowhere, you know, but we intervened and kind of like shut those deals down. I'm starting to hear like this.
02:03:12
Speaker
I don't know.
02:03:32
Speaker
And this turn of phrase made when people are talking about like the ongoing conflict and the continual lobbying for dollars and stuff is that like, yeah, the West is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian.
02:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, it does feel a little like that. You know, I mean, it does feel like it really does. It does. And I think that for us, we have a disconnect because a lot of times we've had this is going to be a lot of big generation where people's parents aren't in the military.
02:04:06
Speaker
You know, and so even for me as being an American Legion, everybody's grandparents or parents weren't in the military anymore. So there's that disconnect from knowing somebody who was in and we are a really small part of the population. So as our grandparents are dying out and we're becoming the parents and grandparents and none of us are in the military joining the military. We have that disconnect with those.
02:04:34
Speaker
soldiers with people dying with people coming back and so then on top of that when somebody else is foreign it's really a big disconnect and I think people speak in another language and then when you like with Ukraine at least they look white I think what you then get out in brown people brown people that's a even bigger disconnect between it um
02:05:01
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, when Putin was talking to Tucker Carlson and saying that, like, yeah, if the U.S. stops giving them weapons and aids, like, give me two weeks, everybody be gone. You know, and I was like, oh, my God, we can't. Well, we can't do that like.
02:05:18
Speaker
Because I was I felt terrible because I was like I do not want all the Ukrainian people to die And that is kind of what's gonna happen if we keep just doing this because they're just losing people And there's not enough, but I know on the other hand I'm not I don't want us to send in our own people either as fucked up as that sounds right now So I don't there's no
02:05:40
Speaker
right answer. And there is a huge disconnect between the fighting class and the people who are going out there and kind of everybody else now. And we even see that here, the way people are talking about if we have a draft.
02:05:55
Speaker
or anything like that and look i'm with them so pudgy boomers love talking about a drought yeah you know in israel they had you have to do two years in the military i think that would be a good idea and free education that's true you know what maybe i'd take that straight off i don't know that i would but if you're gonna put
02:06:17
Speaker
If you're going to put free healthcare on the line and free education, you might be able to sell me two years of military service. I'm not a fighter, so I think they could- You'd be such a bad soldier. I would be so bad. I don't think either of us would be very good, but you would be particularly bad.
02:06:41
Speaker
It would be, uh, I'd forget to turn like, you know, I'd forget to turn the little, like, night, the little, like, green light off or whatever when you're out in the middle of the field. People tell me all the time, they're like, Amber, I can't see ya. They're like, I just can't. They're like, I can't see ya. That's Sam, AKA Sergeant Sourpuss. They're like, where's your stuff? Oh my god, I left it on the phone. My backpack!
02:07:10
Speaker
Like, we don't call it a backpack. Yeah, 100%. I remember when I got my first set of coveralls or whatever, and we were wearing them. I was like, oh my god, I love my outfit. And they were like, it is not an outfit.
Amber's Podcast and Political Commentary
02:07:29
Speaker
I feel like is there a tailor on the board? This ones he gives me a camel toe. Can I turn these cargo pants into joggers? Is there a zip off option? That was, that was me in the hole. Can I get this taken in please? Cause this is just, this is, I know. Oh man. Well, Amber.
02:07:56
Speaker
It's always good to talk to you. I'm so happy we got to do this again. Your podcast is great and I plan on reading your book. Maybe just give people like a kind of a synapses on your podcast.
02:08:11
Speaker
So my podcast is called Politics But Make It Fashion and you could find it wherever you listen to podcasts. It's me talking about different political issues going on and I like to weave them into pop culture, being a mom, just life in general. I think everything is connected to each other.
02:08:32
Speaker
And it helps you kind of understand how, you know, this bill or whatever would impact your life as a mom, you know, how that would affect your kid's school and, you know, different funding issues, like everything. I think that also I liked people to know that you can have your head on the ground and be, you know, deep and like politics and all that stuff. But you can also like frivolous things like the Kardashians and all those things are okay to talk about because life is terrible.
02:09:05
Speaker
And I really, my goal is to inform people and try to help explain things that are going on in like an easy, fun way and to just kind of let people take the information and do with it as they will. I'm not out here really trying to like
02:09:20
Speaker
changed hearts and minds, but I really felt like during the 2016 election and 2020, people were so uninformed and just didn't know. So, you know, just want to talk and spread that. So it's called politics, but make it fashion. And last question. How active do you think you will be in the the Nikki Haley, John Federman ticket of twenty twenty eight?
02:09:50
Speaker
I was kind of here for Nikki Haley originally in the first time but then I felt like she tried to cater too much to the MAGA people and that lost me and then this time when she ran I felt like she was trying to backtrack that a little bit
02:10:09
Speaker
I can't believe this is what America has to offer. That's where I'm currently at right now. It's sad. It's very disappointing. This can't be it, guys. This cannot be the best out of every state. We were promising. This is it. The median age in America is like 46. They're double that. I mean, you know, that's the ratio.
02:10:36
Speaker
Life expectancy was 30 back in the day when the founding fathers were like running the country Yeah But we have to Paul Paul's running, okay If you wouldn't want them to run your school board or like your PTA if you would like when you think about that it makes you feel that they're gonna run the country either one of them and
02:11:05
Speaker
It's not good. I think if you get to the point where we have to be concerned about household falls, you're not allowed to run the country anymore. For everybody, right. And what kills me is when I hear Trump supporters talking about Biden and I'm like, okay, but seriously, we don't get on it. If we're going to talk about that, it's both of them. It's bad. It's bad. It's all the way around, full circle.
02:11:33
Speaker
Biden at this point, like his secret service is basically just like a human life alert. Well, you mentioned Casey at that Comic Con, the the Slender Man guy. And I feel like pretty soon that's just going to be Biden. They're just going to put him on a cart and they're just going to put a bunch of rods up his sleeves. Yeah. Yeah. They're just going to like have to fucking move around like a full size marionette. Walk around.
02:12:04
Speaker
puppet him like sniffing a kid's hair did you guys see that montage that the DNC made of Trump like not being able to talk dude he says some stuff that is so nuts it's funny no when he okay when his shoe thing
02:12:31
Speaker
That, for me, was another level with the Trump treason shoes or whatever they were called when he was like, oh, they're like, oh, black people. Yeah. Oh, did you see that clip of the box? They're like, it's like giddy ass white dude cracking the fuck up. He's like, oh, ear to ear. I've never seen a white dude smile that big in my life. You guys don't get a lot of shoes. Love this stuff. He's he's meeting these people on a different level.
02:13:01
Speaker
He thought like Trump, I mean, it's like he just watched like Trump figure out the middle out algorithm. For real. Dude, he had like total Lloyd Christmas being like, big gulps, huh? Okay. That was the vibe he was putting out. When he was looking out, he was like, I can only see black people. I was like, what?
02:13:26
Speaker
You're like, no, the house lights are just shining on your face and you can't see good. What? Oh my God. Yeah, so being that you're a fashionista, take the politics out of it, okay? What's your thoughts on the Trump shoe just from a design fashion perspective?
02:13:45
Speaker
Um, I thought they were ugly. They were $399, which seemed insane to me, but then they were quickly went on sale for $99. Um, like two days later. So like the election.
02:14:01
Speaker
Yeah, I thought they looked very cheap because like gold, gold, it can either go either way. Like gold can either look very expensive and elegant or it can look cheap. Spray painted. Yeah. Ninety faucets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're from gold toilet. Yeezys but sleazies. Yeah. Yeah. There you go.
02:14:30
Speaker
And because Trump's whole suits, he does not have a tail. I never understood how you could be president of the United States and look like that. I will not get it. I don't get it because he was always wrinkled, disheveled. His suits were always ill fitting. His tie was always way too long. Why was it so long? Like what?
02:14:57
Speaker
In the White House and I know it was because he thought he just knew everything and he was like no this I got this dude that look that look is straight off of like The guy at the mattress store with music playing. Yes It's also like you know, there was all that
02:15:20
Speaker
shit about his hands being small but about the other day and I realized his sleeves are also massive and I'm wondering if that if that plays a part into it you know his sleeves are massive it's like it's like what a little boy puts on their dad's suit coat exactly how it looks because like when your hand comes down your suit jacket is supposed to hit a certain place and his is always and I'm like what is that and they're so wide they're the widest you like and it's
02:15:49
Speaker
Anyway, like people are wearing like the slimmer cut, even if you look at Biden and his suits are very tailored. Yeah. From the neck down, it looks great. They're also steel plated to keep him in that form, but he can't move in it. Keeps him propped up.
02:16:10
Speaker
one of those too, because you know how he like leans forward. They need like the, put like the little back brace in there or something. So it's, Oh my God. He's yeah. He's posture. He always looks like he's about to like bark on his belly. Yeah. His sleeves are so big. It's like, he's like an old West gambler. That's got one of those things that shoots a card out, you know, all these, but it's got like Jack links in there.
02:16:40
Speaker
Like, you know his tie is getting stuck in Big Mac sauce. Like, you know. Oh, yeah. You know. So good. Man. Well, thanks for joining us, Amber. Thanks, everybody, for listening. And we will see you next time.