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Hello from Bear and Curadh, a podcast from the Land of Awes Information Services.
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I love you, Bear.
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This is episode 130 of the Bear and Curadh podcast.
We're going to talk about cruelty.
Cruelty.
It's good because the first question we got is Donald Trump can say and do things that basically
no one else on the planet can get away with.
Mostly true, I think.
He even said himself he could murder someone in Times Square with a million people watching
and get away with it.
He doesn't have anything to prove that it's differently, has he?
It seems to be Teflon.
Teflon?
Mine, it's just going to get worse.
Especially now that the Supreme Court says once he's president he can do anything he wants
with no impunity.
No, he set it up, I mean you can tell him, I mean he plays a long game, wow.
Republicans probably, I can't see him playing the long game, he wouldn't remember from the
beginning of the sentence to the end.
No, I mean it's all been a long game though, I mean, but we start giving him a little more
credits and we need to know, I don't think so.
He's surrounded himself by with billionaires and liquor, yes man, who have set things up
for their benefit and which accidentally aligns with his benefit.
Yeah.
You're right, I mean he's surrounded himself with people that will take the fall form.
Then prepare him, prepare the country or whatever, for him if it's a benefit to them.
Yeah, yeah.
But no, I don't think he's any kind of political genius.
Yeah, I don't think so either, I don't think, I think it's just, do you think it's all been
just dumb luck?
Hmm, I'd like to, but I just can't help but think that he's had a lot of hell.
Yeah, he's definitely got a lot of help, he's needed help, but he's kind of done, he's saying
that he can get rid of it at all, and I'm not really giving him credit, it's just the people,
people have tried to use ammo for until the end.
So yeah, I mean, it's not like he's putting any more crazy, you know, I mean he's still just
crazy, crazy to be, and still grifting, selling now, like $1,000 Christmas ornaments.
Yeah.
And there's people out there who probably can't afford it or buy them up like, just by crazy.
Well, maybe, maybe in a million years those will be valuable and people go, I can't believe
they elected this guy.
There's a Christmas ornament that proves it.
Yeah.
Can you guys see him?
Has Donald Trump forever desensitized America to cruelty?
No, because we still doing our podcast, don't we?
There's other ones out there too.
What does that have to do with...
We're still putting up a fight, we're still out there talking about it.
But I don't think our podcast is going to make any difference.
Yeah.
The basis of that question is, has the bar been lowered for him?
For everything.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
He's over the bar years ago.
I mean, he changed it, he changed the political landscape as we know it.
Mm-hmm.
As much as we don't want to accept it, I mean, he has.
So, I've said over and over again that he's done things that not too long ago would end
any politician's career forever and it just bounces off on him right away.
I don't think people, people have always said politicians were liars.
But it seems like now they sort of expect him to lie.
The first generation of politicians, it seems worse than the past, you know what I mean?
It just makes it easier for the next guy and the next guy.
Yeah.
Well, that's what they were saying.
They said if he won that politics, or I have changed, ever since he's been in politics,
but they said ever since, if he wins, there's a quorum, one that would be the same in politics.
Yeah.
And that quorum has dried up long before he was a presidential candidate.
I think that started with Monica Lewinsky because Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, they had
to talk about things that polite people in civil discourse did not talk about presidential
sex and stains on dresses and whatever.
And that just made it more okay for everyone else to be less civil.
Okay.
And it's just gotten worse and worse and worse.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I could see how it goes, I mean, it's going to happen, but that's going to
happen.
So, I hate to blame Trump on Bill Clinton, but because, well, in my memory, that's where
it started.
Yeah.
No, that's what I agree with you.
I agree with you, too.
But I think he's part of the level.
Oh, yeah.
Like a whole level were.
Yeah.
Um, um, the idea that a politician would at least appear to be honest is now considered
quaint.
Hmm.
Dear, for reasons that will be analyzed for years to come, consequences seem to evade him
in every term.
And that's the big difference between him and everyone else.
He can do whatever he wants with no consequences.
And now the Supreme Court has told him he has no consequences.
As long as he can call it a presidential act, he can do whatever he wants.
Just imagine anybody else did those things.
What happened?
The concept of judgment, justice depends on consequences.
It basically says people are no damn good and they won't be any good unless they have consequences
for those actions.
And he doesn't, he hasn't had any consequences and won't have any.
So, I'll just imagine what will happen.
Well, then it comes because he's kind of well, yeah, you're right.
I mean, he's told him we were going to do things, but we haven't done anything.
So, I guess there has been no consequences.
No.
You're right.
I was going to say, well, no, there has been, but there hasn't been at all.
And what judgments and whatever have been put down on him, all of those judges have pretty
much withdrawn them saying, we won't prosecute a president.
And there's judges that he pointed, or, yeah, just think about that, but imagine you could
do whatever you want with no consequences.
Well, since mine, that means you think about it, isn't it?
Trump has thoroughly de-sensitized fillers to behaviors that in another era would have
deemed him disqualifying as a president.
You can agree with that 100%.
Well, you see, we'll give it, I mean, he's convicted 34 times.
Uh-huh.
That's one.
34 times.
What else?
Just one of those rate allegations.
What have been gone?
Yeah.
Rate allegations.
Not that long ago.
Businesses, field schools, everything.
I mean, there's a laundry list, south of the gym.
And how do we go back to that?
You just can't.
No, we can't.
I'm just going to remember it.
Yeah.
The national bar for outrage keeps rising.
Has it really though?
There hasn't been any outrage.
Well, here's the past few days that insurance CEO that was murdered.
There's no outrage for that murder.
No.
I mean, people love it.
No.
I mean, people were excited about it.
It's kind of disturbing.
Yeah.
And every time a person dies, an entire universe is gone.
That's my thought about death.
But people are laughing about this.
You know, he's gotten his come up.
Yeah.
Which is great.
I mean, he's a father.
He's got kids.
Stuff people don't care.
And you and I, and probably everyone we know are among the people who are laughing about
this.
Yeah.
It's kind of, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's disturbing.
Yeah.
I mean, there is no outrage.
Yeah.
So really, the only outrage is put on the insurance industry.
Yeah.
I mean, that's where the real outrage is.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're almost treating the guy that did the shooting of him as a hero.
Sort of a Robin Hood.
Love a Robin Hood, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they're trying to say they're looking for him, but they really, I mean, they put it
out.
Oh, I bet the police, yes, any cop it would make their career to find him.
But I think there are people hiding this guy.
You think so?
Yeah.
And not in a conspiratorial way is just mom's a word there.
Well, it's just like, I, I don't necessarily, you know, people are thinking I don't agree with
his mean, his method, but I agree with his means and are probably helping him.
I have no proof for that, it's just my gut feeling.
No, I agree with you.
I agree with you too.
That's crazy, though.
Our ability to be shocked has dwindled.
I think so.
I think sure.
Yeah.
I mean, nowadays it's, I remember like one of the first school shootings would happen.
People would look, it was outrage.
People freaked out.
Now it's like, oh, another one today.
Another one.
How many.
How many people died?
Oh, okay.
You know, no shock or, you know, you know, you mean it's just, it's sad.
It's just that the people have come at a tally point.
Now that a big millionaire CEO was killed, I, I wonder if some ideas about gun control are
going to change where a whole bunch of schoolchildren dying had no effect whatsoever.
Hmm.
Now, you think this, you think I don't know.
The, the NRA has practically disappeared.
Yeah.
I don't know.
They've been harassed out of business pretty much, but that first amendment that's still
gone strong.
Yeah, there's that first amendment's kind of, it's never going to go anywhere.
Do you think so?
I don't, well, I always suspected NRA lobbying to be a big part of that.
It doesn't appear that it's made any difference.
Hmm.
All right.
We get bored reading about the man's many indiscretions.
We're talking about Trump here.
Yes.
It's true.
He probably, at this point, would have to murder someone before anybody would notice.
You think so?
Probably.
You know, another, I can't think of, he appoints Dr. Awes to the medical cabinet, nobody cares.
It, he'd have to kill somebody before it would be news.
Hmm.
You're right.
And brag about it.
Mm-hmm.
Wonderful.
I don't know.
Then he wouldn't think about it if he would ever try it.
I don't think he would kill an individual, but he probably wouldn't have no problem with
killing a class of people like immigrants.
Hmm.
We're telling them to do it, telling some other group to do it.
Telling the troops.
You know, he, he's, he's the head of the army and, and you can do all that now, can he?
Yeah.
That's a fucking scary.
Oh, what's more scary is he's finger is on the nuclear button.
Hmm.
That's so frightening, isn't it?
Hmm.
Wow.
Trump's followers argue that his success is his symptom, not the cause and the country's
bad behavior, of the country's bad behavior.
Morning again.
Um, I'm just thinking about that.
Of course, his followers are going to say whatever they can say to, to make him look better.
He is a symptom of, of our times, but I think mainly because of his agenda, I mean, those
times didn't exist without him.
Hmm.
Yeah, um, I'm sorry, it isn't it scary that over half the people voted for him.
I mean, knowing what we all know about him and they voted for him anyway, it's like, have
the country just stuck up their middle finger and said, I want to get out my long furniture
and watch this nation burn.
Yeah, but it's almost, like, in other people who, most of them are the ones that are turning
around saying, if they have, um, they're, they're the only ones that knew, um, we're, we're
sitting back now going, okay, you decide it does.
Have fun.
Hmm.
That's, that's my feelings over and over and over, and you do that for yourself.
A lot of people, but eventually something's going to happen that, that affects you, yeah.
And your outrage is going to come back and having organized during the AIDS pandemic, I can
say, use your anger.
Yeah.
Don't let your anger use you, but use your anger.
Don't push it down.
Um, let it motivate you.
Hmm.
I think that's where a lot of people are right now, or they're trying to figure out what to
do.
Mm-hmm.
Some.
Hopefully you won't have to use your anger.
Oh, so the writings on the wall, we, we know, I know, I know, I know.
No, things are going.
Others continue to rebuke others who try to act similarly.
Now this is an interesting point.
Sure.
There are other Trump-like politicians and people aren't voting for them.
I'll read the next.
Okay.
Mark Robinson, a Trump endorsed anti-gay politician who called himself a black Nazi a purv for
pornography.
Retrieving transgendered actors was soundly rejected by voters.
Now that sounds just like a black version of Trump.
But this guy got trounced.
He does, does all the same things that Trump would do, but he was defeated in the election.
So, explain that, if, if it's just a matter of, the line has moved in our times, why didn't
this guy gets elected too?
I don't know.
It has something to do with Trump himself.
I don't know.
I've also thought that Trump is the Bodie McBoatFace of politicians.
Bodie McBoatFace was the British.
They were going to cast a naval ship, and they wanted to find a name for it.
So, they had a contest on the Internet.
People could submit names, and other people could vote on it.
And one of those names, somebody as a joke, put Bodie McBoatFace.
And at one, I mean, like by 70%, of course, they didn't actually use that name.
But the thing is, people will do things just to fuck with you.
And I can't help but think that Trump is one of those.
Yeah.
And can anyone could be.
It seems to be the case, doesn't it?
Especially when there are other politicians, they're just as bad, who are not benefiting from
it.
What's that?
There's a quote, and I can't remember exactly how it goes.
It's something about putting the gesture in charge, does not make the gesture a king.
It makes the kingdom a circus.
That's a good point, me or I, I'm sorry, I'm just saying about all this stuff.
So, do you think this is going to just going to keep going and going and going, or?
It's got to meet some kind of critical mass.
When do you think that'll hit?
I don't know.
That's a scary, because we're not, he's not even in office yet.
Yeah.
And this thing with the CEO shooting, conditions are just like they were in the French Revolution.
Not really.
That's scary.
I think, I think there will be a revolt.
Thank you.
May I make you?
A politician, probably Trump will do something that definitely goes over the line, and then
enough people will get mad about it to say, this has to stop.
And I don't know what that will do to our country.
Pretty scary, huh?
Mm-hmm.
Never thought we'd see it here.
Hopefully it won't.
Cam, where are we at?
Every time Trump crosses a new line, he makes it that much easier for the next guy to do
the same.
That should just be a statement right to the mega.
And I think they'd like that idea, if they'd like it to accelerate.
But don't you think that's happening right now?
I can't think of an example of it.
But maybe going out and killing the CEO of a company is the beginning of it.
I mean, that's sort of similar to putting his head in a guillotine.
Yeah.
So maybe it's already started?
Yeah, maybe.
Well, it's a thing.
Okay.
Americans have internalized the idea that expecting our political leaders to be good people
is quaint and foolish.
I think we talked about that before.
Is it possible to re-sensitize the electric to scandal and cruelty?
About it.
Not as long as you saw it.
Well, I just said, it's going to have to take something big, come to meet that kind
of critical mass to where people will revolt and say, I'm not going to put up with this
anymore.
Yeah.
Yeah, something big has happened.
In the age crisis, it was like the third year of Reagan's term where he did the State
of the Union and didn't mention AIDS.
Oh, really?
That was the critical.
I mean, people were dying.
Those people who were dying said, I have nothing to lose.
So, I'm going to go out with a bang.
That's when they started talking about it.
Yeah, having the dying and shutting down train systems, clogging up politics, protesting
the National Institute of Health, those were all done by people who were angry and scared
and had nothing to lose.
Well, they didn't know about that, they didn't know they did all that.
Well, that's so sad.
And that's what it's going to take.
Some people today are too young to even remember the first time running for President.
They have grown up with the cruelty, that's pretty good statement.
A lot of the new voters, you know, we expected them to vote Democrat.
They didn't know, not at all, you need to keep that in mind next time, because they automatically
thought that they were going to all the left.
And all these new voter registrations that all went to the right, you need to figure
out how to get them, get them in the first place.
And people are saying the Democrats are going to have to be as nasty as the Republicans to
win next time.
That's lowering the bar, I mean, the bar is already underground.
Yeah, but when you do them, you just have to stay there, do you try to raise it, do you
try to stay where it's at, do you try to get lower?
I think some fundamental changes are going to have to happen.
A whole party needs a whole overall.
And having a two-party system, well, it keeps either party from becoming too extreme.
I don't think most people want to be Democrat or Republican.
I think they'd like to be somewhere in between.
And I really wish there was an in between party, like a centrist party, that they could vote
for.
Me too.
I think a lot of people feel that way too.
But how many times I remember Ross Perot was going to make a third party anyway.
Many times, people tried to make a third party and it's just never succeeded, probably because
the two existing parties are too powerful to, and then they don't want a third party.
I don't know.
But I think it would be a good idea if they could do it.
Because I mean, you have the independent party, but it's not really a party, is it?
Really all it does is steal votes from one side of you.
I don't know, but we need to do something.
I mean, they tried to let them know, take it party, and then that turned out that it was
another shadow.
Yeah, that was a fraud.
A fraud for another, for one of the Democrats, where the Republican yet, so I don't know, but
I think we do need definitely at least two more parties I would say, but I'd be happy with
one.
Don't the British have something like 17 parties?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So, I mean, anything would be better right now, anything?
We should start by trying to remember how we felt when all of this was still new.
And that applies to you and me and people of our age group, because these new voters, they've
never known anything else.
Well, incorrect.
Um, over and over again, in this podcast, I have said, I just can't believe any one of those
things that Trump has done would have ruined any other politician, how does this happen?
Yeah, I don't know.
Are you done?
Yeah.
I don't know what to say.
I could tell by the way; your arms are crossed that you've been done with this conversation
for a while.
I'm sorry.
I mean, you've always had better advice than I do on these issues, I kind of just clean up
and, uh, I don't know what to do.
Well, I always think, like you said, that's probably why I can't sleep at night.
Mm-hmm.
Man, get mad.
So, there we are, folks, um, maybe a funny joke for us this week?
Yes.
Trump and Vance are backstage at a rally.
Trump says, "The less immigrants we have, the better."
Vance corrects him and says, "The fewer."
And Trump says, "Never call me that in public."
That's, that's very good.
It's a spin on it, on an old joke, but it's a good one.
That's a good one.
You're very proud of yourself and you should be.
All right.
We hope you enjoyed episode 130 of the Bear and Curve podcast.
This is Bear.
This is Curadh.
Goodbye.
You have been listening to the Baehr and Curadh podcast, a production of the Land of Awes
Information Services. We can be contacted via email using the address podcast@awes.com
and Awes is spelled A-W-E-S.
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