0:00:34
Welcome to left on red where a gen x mom and gay millennial do socialism. We got left wing views on the news you can use. I'm Scott. I'm Susan, and we have a guest with us today. My name is Rael Almonte.
0:00:48
Originally, when I thought about this podcast, I thought the two of these guys would be great together. Yeah. My original idea was Outer Boro Boyz, but with a z at the edge. And then I could just, like, tag along to be, like, funny. So but then Rail went off to Binghamton to get a PhD, so whatever.
0:01:03
I hate it so. Very specifically, I said, don't be like me. So but does anyone ever listen to me? They do not. Well, all of our listeners are listening to you. Not to my life. Who is just me and Riel?
0:01:15
The tagline would be a gay millennial and straight millennial antisemitism. Feel like we would need to work and rework that. Like the MSNBC kind of thing. Liberal socialist podcasts. Liberal life. Real is very marginally a millennial, though. Right? She always tries to marginalize me. It's true. I'd rather marginalized red of color. Erasing my identity.
0:01:40
Well, we're gonna marginalize this conversation. Get into some of the news so much news you can use, y'all. So Like a week. A few things we're gonna talk about today, but first, I would like to talk about I think what's on everyone's mind is Donald Trump. Donald Trump's arraignment.
0:02:00
So as of the recording of his podcast, it happened yesterday, where The accounts was it? Twenty six. Or thirty six. Okay. Thirty something. Yeah. A rained in Manhattan on I don't even know what the charges are to be honest. Yeah. Qualifying business records. Sometime in the afternoon yesterday.
0:02:19
Misusing campaign. Yeah. And I don't know. I feel like everybody in their mother in the media is talking about this. And I have to be really honest with you guys, I could not care less. It's it's like the if you open up the New York Times, you gotta keep scrolling before you get non indictment news -- Yeah. -- headlines. It's a lot. Yeah. And, like, it just doesn't seem interesting or meaningful, there seems to be no news. He got a raid and that's it. The most interesting thing that happened was we were watching yesterday on TV and he was briefly in Astoria because they drove from Manhattan to LaGuardia and he was like, oh my god, that's the Burger King. That's the interchange. Did you feel special as a son of Astoria? I if only I had biked out to be on the helicopter and waved when Well, he also is you know, former president Donald Trump is also a son of Queen's just like you. That's true. That's why we gotta cancel Queen's one. He could have been on the Outer Burrow Voice.
0:03:16
Some hate from the Bronx. You got this. So wherever else you what do you think about this? Is it newsworthy? Is it is it worth all this drama and airtime. No. I don't think so.
0:03:25
Especially the counts from, like, New York. The counts from New York are, like, basically, like, mismanagement of funds, which, by the way, I hate the fact that senators are going like, well, this doesn't this this gleeves a bad presidents for presidents. You know, it's how bad they don't commit things that are illegal. But I think the New York counts are like, basically, every president, anybody everybody who's riding like a mass campaign has been fined. Usually, you get fined for this. And I think the difference between the two is, like, you have to show intent that you wanted to, like, deceive the voters or something like that. I'm not a I'm not a lawyer, so I don't I don't know. That's the most lawyerly thing that's been said so on those. Yeah. Right. But yeah. And I I just don't think, like, the accounts like, Liberals are, like, having, like, a, like, a field day with this.
0:04:08
Having a meltdown. Yeah. They are. They are. There are some liberals that are saying, no. They think it was wrong for him to get prosecuted on this. Yeah. Because they're so worried that it's gonna, like, make a president Or make a martyr. Or make a martyr. But a lot of people I saw were worried about, like, Republicans are not gonna try and prosecute Joe Biden. And I agree with you, Haile. I feel like, yeah, prosecute you Joe Biden. If he has committed a crime, he should be imprisoned. If It's probably true that every single one of our presidents, all who have been extremely wealthy and powerful people, have committed dozens of crimes in their personal time. Not to mention the war crimes they've committed as leaders of the American military. But like, yeah, they should be prosecuted. If you committed a crime, you should be treated with the same justice that I am treated with. Right. And that's what what some of the procedural lists out there are commenting on why it's significant, which is that evidently no former US president has ever been charged like this before. And that's why usually there's been this sort of like wink, wink, wink, nod, idea that alright. We're gonna let them, like, retire in peace, not that they deserve it. And so that's significant. Right? And so maybe it's a maybe it's a good thing for the rule of law. Right?
0:05:24
I think that, like, one of the the the things that we have to keep in mind is that that wink wink not not still exist. Right. And that's what I'm saying. Like, it it so unlikely that Trump goes to honestly, like and you mentioned something really important here. This is like great politics for Trump. Like, he is like, he already is printing shirts, like, with his with, like, a fake mugshot on it. Like, it is insanely good politics for Trump. But also just like Joe Biden doesn't want to be, like, held accountable afterwards. Obama doesn't want to be held accountable. I think every president except for probably Jimmy Carter should be in jail in one way or form. And, like, I think that that's extremely important to keep in mind when we're looking at this media circus around it. That, like, it's almost there's, like, ninety nine percent chance that he's not gonna be putting Joe for this. Right.
0:06:11
And, like, you know, look at how quickly George W Bush has been like, what's the right word? Rehabilitated. Right? So when I was in my twenties, when I was like, Brian's age. We all hated Bush, and we thought he was a war criminal, and we thought that he should be dragged to the Hague And in fact, my very first media appearance was doing Seaspan Book TV with Elizabeth Holzman. Holzman who wrote a book about why we should put Bush on trial. So Bush was, like, public enemy number one of people who cared about war crimes, who cared about rule of law. And now he's, like, Cuddly grandpa who, like, does ugly oil pastels and just ugly What's on Elad? We're hugging with Elad. Right?
0:06:53
So it's, like, how quickly we forget? Like, the crimes that our leaders, like, engaging. He he didn't just, like, do nasty things abroad, like, start a legal wars in Iraq. He also did, like, things, like, criminally negligent around, like Yes. Hurricane Katrina. And, like, in addition to like, really bad policies, like, no child left behind. But now he's just so sweet and presidential that can be the Michelle Obama. Right. I know. Yeah. And it's, like, it's it's really it's disgusting.
0:07:22
So and people say things like, well, I missed when we used to have Republican president's likes George W. Bush, and I'm like, why do we miss that? He was actually also very bad. Mhmm. It's just, like, was Gentile, I guess, more, like and and that's, like, he's from like a kind of bunk port, whatever, New England family. Yeah. Right? So Americans, they don't mind their war criminals and they're like, presence who engage in legal activities as long as they're, like, properly yankee -- Right. -- and, like, waspy. Yeah.
0:07:50
And I'll I'll so this is like the topic of our first episode, I think, where we talked about the Supreme Court and how like, they're saying quite part out loud that it is a political decision. They're not making it based on, like, impartial judicial thoughts, but they're making a political decision I think it's revealing that everyone is going on all these news programs and saying the decision to prosecute Trump is political. It's gonna turn into prosecution of other presidents. All these things Like, yeah, it is. You know, we are saying the quiet part out loud. We are admitting that justice is not blind.
0:08:23
But also like the DA is elected. Right? So Alvin Bragg is, like, this highly controversial DA because Republicans have made him out to be some kind of, like, left wing anarchist boogeyman, but, like, he did run as a relatively progressive prosecutor, I or my friends in Manhattan saying we're gonna vote for him because he seems like the least crappy one with a good a good chance of winning. Right? So yes, how we enforce our laws is a political decision. Yeah. And what laws we decide are worth enforcing? Like, how much do corporate, like, crimes get enforced versus like petty crimes? Right? And so broken windows is explicitly a political decision to enforce small, little, tiny, like, infractions versus, you know, negligent landlords and people who won't pay their workers or like financial, you know, whatever banker types who break the law to make money. Right?
0:09:15
Insider trading. Like, we know of all these things that happen that don't get a force. Every single congress member is probably engaging in illegal insider trading right now. Yeah. There's a great chart, Raul, that you mentioned, you said wage stuff. There's this great chart that's just like relative amounts of money stolen in theft, and it's wage theft, and then it's like shoplifting. And then wage theft makes up, like, seventy five percent of the chart and then five hundred different other forms of theft make up very tiny parts in front of the show. The best of us however have to call an agent when we go to Walgreens or CVS to to buy our shaving cream because it's behind plastic stake. Right? Like, we see how there's, like, the deep beer and, like, you know and then people are, like, oh, so these are dying. Right?
0:09:53
And so this is also gonna fuel or public in attacks against somebody like Alvin Bragg, not that I, like, cry about him or anything, but, you know, somebody who wants to be doesn't wanna, like, use state resources on enforcing and prosecuting small criminal offenses, which includes me. Right? Like, I also had a charge because I got arrested for defending Bill of the Renewables Act in June of twenty twenty one. And once Albert brag came and he's like, I'm not gonna pursue this and our cases got dropped. Right? But I could have a criminal record if Albert brag didn't decide to do that.
0:10:27
But, like, we, you know, we support this decision by a prosecutor. Yeah. Yeah. We support the political decision to not prosecute Susan and to prosecute Donald Trump. Right. Why downright bad. I I I think it's good that Donald Trump should go to, you know, through the justice process I don't know if I wanna say that anyone should go to jail or prison, but if anyone should in this country right now at lose Donald Trump, that's fine. But I think it's just good and important that people are revealing that it's like a political thing, that people are openly admitting our justice system is a sham used by the rich and powerful to enforce whatever rules and laws that they want. And maybe we'll have another episode to talk about how capitalism and justice remarks. Yeah.
0:11:14
I think it's also, like, super important to keep the contact of, like, Trump has, like, four different cases that are being built. Two of them are in the justice department. One of them is in Georgia, one of them. It's New York. The one that we're talking about is obviously the one in New York. The most serious one is in Georgia, the one in Georgia and I got not a lawyer. But the one in Georgia has to do with, like, him, like, literally interfering with, like, the election, which is a extremely serious charge. So it's also very indicative of, like, I'm I'm pretty sure, especially with the the justice department once I'm pretty sure the the Biden administration doesn't want this to, like, carry forward in any wave form.
0:11:52
And one, like, alternative kind of, like, history look at it is, what if, like, by and again, probably not gonna happen in any world, but, like, What if Biden pardons Trump in one way or form? That would be It is an effort to be, like, we're trying to build bridges. Yeah. I could see that. Never got love to do that kind of It would poison him to defeat Rhonda Santos. Only one man can defeat this demon from Florida. I guess that's demon from Queen. Yes. But then but then, like, another alternative is, you know, he gets he goes in, like, he and Bolsonaro go somewhere together. Yeah. They could they could become, like, you know, because Trump is, like, an ultimate businessman. Yeah. They could become, like, the new judges on Levi's lint or something.
0:12:36
There's also there's also the the the the caveat of, like and, like, this is clownish behavior because, like, the the Rhonda Santos came out and was, like, we're not gonna cooperate with any extradition request, specifically talking about Trump. So it would be and that's like kind of simple war talk not to be like a like a like an alarmist, but like that's insane thing to say. It's a governor of the state. It's crazy that within the United States, we have extradition. Like, there's no there's no other country to extradite from. Yeah.
0:13:06
You should not be safe from one state's charges just because you live in another state. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Yeah. I don't really I don't know how that all works. We can ask our lawyer friends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
0:13:16
But anyway, speaking of state charges and being safe from other I guess I take back what I just said because I do think some states should be able to shield you, for example, if you choose to get an abortion. And one of the reasons I bring that up is because abortion was one of the main subjects of conversation for why in Wisconsin just last night as the recording of this podcast. A Democrat won a state supreme court seat finally moving their supreme court in the direction of the democrats, meaning very likely that abortion will soon become legal and protected again in Wisconsin. Among other things. So we're very exciting to read, hear about the news from Wisconsin, and it's also interesting to note that Wisconsin was very much swept in the tea party revolution of twenty eleven. So here we are twelve years later and we could see how things can change. Right? And things change because of organizing and things change because of mobilizing. We can't take credit for this. We can't say the DSA did this, but you know, we can say that a lot of different organizers and a lot of movements, including like, you know, abortion rights activists, have done, like, great work. I will say there were some DSA victories in Wisconsin last night, a Democratic social three Democratic socialist of America a endorsed candidate, one in the Madison, like, city council version that they have over there. So congratulations to them. And there was a citywide public school board seat in Milwaukee, that a DSA endorsed candidate one. So those are really cool. Nice.
0:14:55
So people think of people who don't know the history, they don't really think of how socialist, the upper Midwest, once was. But one of the things I learned, when I was at the University of Illinois back in the late nineties, early two thousands, my one of my professors who was just like a hardcore Republican, told us about how when he was at the University of Wisconsin to Medicine, it was like a full socialist, like, People's Republic Bank, a socialist mayor, a socialist council, and that was as recently as like the nineteen sixties. And so, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with the industrial base, right, that a lot of these Midwestern cities had, a lot of people in unions, right, as well as, like, immigration networks to people theaters. Right. People who came from various, like, countries where they had strong socialist movements, brought those movements with them, I also think it has to do with, you know, we talked about the student movement. Right? The student movement for radical in the sixties. And they, you know, made linkages to explicitly social demands. Just a few days ago, on our DSA calendar, I noted that the first socialist mayor in the United States a meal something in Milwaukee was born on our DSA calendar. You can check that merch out on the New York City Democratic assist america dot com? You can only get it if you give a monthly donation after it. Yeah. So if you want to learn these fun facts, you can check out a monthly donation here.
0:16:20
But I think the socialist tradition in the upper Midwest, especially literally, I feel like you said it all, and is a great opportunity for us to, like, make inroads again because I think these are regions in the United States where there's a lot of uneducated working class people who haven't gone to college. Who previously were very strong left coalition voters and have been pulled away. Have either been disenfranchised by neither liberal turn of Democrats or have been misled by the very populous turn of Republicans. And folks are beginning to, I think, get a clue about whether or not the Republicans are really all that good. And that vote statewide in Wisconsin for a Democratic supreme court judge. She didn't win by a small margin either.
0:17:06
I think it's really hopeful in terms of how much people care about abortion rights. And how damaging the Republican push against abortion was for them. But also, on a whole host of other issues. Wisconsin has one of the worst, probably the worst gerrymandered political maps in the United States and I think regular people there are saying, oh, I wanna actually be represented. I want my vote to actually count. I don't want these Republicans just do whatever they want. And I was very young when this happened, but I remember it because it seemed so covered and was such a big deal in Wisconsin.
0:17:45
In I think two thousand and ten, they elected Scott Walker as -- Mhmm. -- public governor who decimated the public union system in Wisconsin and made a number of anti labor reforms and that we can see has a clear through line to the right wing descent for Wisconsin. So this election of a supreme court justice for the Democrats, the likely restoration of abortion rights in Wisconsin constant, the unnecessary mandering of the state, and further movements left. Probably mean we're gonna see another upper Midwest leftist renaissance there in the same way that Michigan repealed right to work, we can hopefully expect that in Wisconsin and see a resurgence of labor's power in that state. See a resurgence of the left's power. All of those things you talked about in terms of their socialist coalition is coming back. In Wisconsin and hopefully the rest of the upper Midwest. Yeah.
0:18:36
Minnesota has been typically, like, pretty far pretty pretty left wing. But the thing about Minnesota is that it's it can go like either way. Right? You can you can have a Paul Well Stone, but then you can also have like there was no senator when I was there who was this pretty right wing. So it's like the margins are never very big. Right? So there's deep divisions as well. Right? Another thing too about the Midwest is that historically, you know, we talk about the DSA being really white. Historically, we think of the upper Midwest being very white. But in fact, there's a lot of diversity that people don't know about. Like Michigan's got one of the biggest Arab populations in the country. Minneapolis and Wisconsin actually have tons and tons of immigrants who came over here as refugees, who also sort of influence the politics as well. And, you know, they also have, like, radical traditions that come out of, like, the Luther in church as well, which is I'm the most Midwestern person in the room here. I just wanna say.
0:19:34
So I lived in Madison, Wisconsin. My father was getting a PhD at the University of Wisconsin, and I went to I went to University of Illinois. My parents lived outside of Chicago. I actually got married in Chicago, and then I went to grad school in Minnesota. And I took real with me to Minnesota remember in two thousand eighteen and tried to convince him to go to grad school there, but he was just like, I don't think so. To gold. But where'd you go? Yeah. Exactly. I have visited Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis. Oh, yeah. You're Midwestern in law. And Chicago. Yeah. I'm really I'm hitting all the big tickets in the Midwest. And I was surprised that the diversity, I was expecting a bunch of white people in cornfields. But Milwaukee is like traditionally very black city as well. Milwaukee, not only that beautiful city highly recommended, anyone who's listening. Visit Milwaukee actually has some really gorgeous architecture. Lots of good food. Lots of it was a wonderful city. You're right. Traditionally very black, especially in Wisconsin. I think That's part of the reason why they're so left and democrat. And just a great time. I had a really good time in a walkie the several times I've been. I mean, he doesn't even drink beer, so he's alive in the beer.
0:20:48
I think one thing going back to, like, the the kind of, like, erasure of, like, left wing activism and movement organizing in the Midwest. And Jacqueline has a really good piece on this. I think it's called something along the lines of, like, liberals love to blame voters, but the left can't afford to. Where it talks about how, like, every time, like, like, Pennsylvania or, like, Michigan will vote. Republican. They're like, oh, well, those dumb yokels who, like, lost their their union jobs. Of course, they're gonna vote for the fashions. And it's just like there's no level of, like, class analysis or interest analysis there. And I think that sometimes the left, and I think it's becoming less prevalent, not only within the SA, but the left generally. They're real left. I'm not talking about, like, random people online.
0:21:31
But, like, I think it's becoming less prevalent to, like, blame voters. It's like, oh, well, obviously, these idiots who, like, are poor poor white people, this and that, and it's just like, no, you need to understand, like, the conditions that kind of let them to that decision. But also understand that, like, just because and I I know this is, like, mind blowingly stupid that I have to say this, but, like, understand that, like, just because a a a state votes Republican or a city votes Republican or votes for a fashion or whatever. It doesn't mean that there's no left wing organizing there. Like in Kansas, we were talking about how, like, some some DSA maybe didn't do as much in that abortion campaign. I don't know if that's true but in Kansas. Like, we had a significant role in in in getting that referendum through. And Kansas is a really red state. Yeah.
0:22:20
And I remember, like, in my friend Ethan, who lives in Vienna now tells me that he's a he's a proud Michigan patriot. He tells me all the time that in the middle of, like, this, like, kind of Trump Trump shift in Michigan, like, they've they passed, like, like marijuana legalization in Michigan. And it's just something that is extremely popular. So it's important to keep in mind, one, that these movements exist within these, like, red states the bad kind of red, but the red states. And also that our we we're on the right side of history. Like, we our pop our our policies are popular, and people, once they understand past the propaganda that the Republicans feed them. They understand that, like, no. No. No. This is in my interest. We can kind of, like, push through that. Yeah.
0:23:06
Another big component of these coalitions that are voting in this way and are moving states and cities left is the youth vote. I think I saw a tweet from some organization in Wisconsin that claimed they had the biggest youth turnout operation for a state supreme court race ever, probably for state race in Wisconsin ever to be honest, is really impressive. And the youth vote was really critical in helping another really great progressive left victory last night, which was Brandon Johnson now coming mayor of Let's go Brandon. We love Brandon. Right. We're all we're all Brandon today. Yeah. I was really excited to see that Brandon Johnson has won the Merrill race in Chicago. We're all very jealous, by the way. If we have any Chicago listeners, then you have a mayor now. That is kind of good. And we are do not. We have a It's terrible. No. We don't even have Swagger anymore. Oh, damn. No. We lost a Swagger. I saw Eric Adams trip. It's over. Yeah. Sorry, man. So that's really exciting. Brendan Johnson Partially, it was really well known politically because he came out early and supported the defund of the police movement.
0:24:20
Mhmm. He is, like, teacher's union organizer and But a former classroom teacher as well. Yes. And the Chicago Teachers Union, which is one of the best like, visible unions in United States. Strike oriented. Very radical -- Very volatile. -- very rank and file oriented. Yes. Endorsed him, didn't just endorse him, but basically, like, launched and boosted his lines of pain because they had a lot of fights, really ugly fights the former mayor, Laurie Lightfoot. And it was kind of funny in Chicago. It was like this tale of two unions of the other guy Paul Validus was backed up by the police union who I saw a very funny new time story. That was, like, Brandon Johnson is supported by Chicago Teachers Union. Paul Validus, reported by the police union.
0:25:08
The Chicago Teachers Union has been problematic because it's fought with the city for better working conditions for teachers. And the police union is problematic because the leader has said that Muslims deserve a bullet. Right. So these two things are they're morally equivalent. Yeah. I was like Sentism one zero one. Right?
0:25:25
It was really painful to read. You know, one fights for the workers and the other one It's a fascist. It's like the classic meme. Right? It's just like, oh, I I'm a leftist because I I want healthcare. It's like, no. I I want Muslims to be murdered. It's just like, No. They're they're we can reach the middle here since then. Come on, man. We're reaching a middle where the Muslims will get shot, but they'll get health careful. That's the that's the New York Times new liberal dream. But so it was a lot of really absurd horrific comparisons. The police union guy, I aren't you ever said many other things, terrible things, taken many actions. The police department actually threatened that one thousand to fifteen hundred cops would resign if Brandon Johnson was elected mayor.
0:26:11
And to that, I think a lot of people are saying good. I hope you do. I mean, I just wanna sort of take that idea on its side, which is that the profession of teaching is hemorrhaging people -- Yeah. -- because being a teacher is so hard. And teachers work. Not people are like, oh, they work nine to three. No. They're my my son's teacher sometimes messages me at eight PM. I've gotten a message from her on the weekend. Right? Not not to me specifically, but to the whole class. Like, they're working seven days a week, ten, twelve hour days, and they don't get paid nearly enough. And yeah, so teachers are blamed for everything, blamed for all inequality that exists between among children and all everything, but yet, you know, they're actually quitting in mass. And so if there's one particular set of services that are publicly public funded services that we should be concerned about, people quitting. It should be the teaching profession.
0:27:06
And we know that, like, in Florida, they just kind of they said something like, oh, you can just be like a like a veteran or something and we'll let you teach. Like, they're just reducing the standards across the board. Even though unlike being a police officer, which, you know, has some skills, you have to have, like, education. You have to have some knowledge of pedagogy and child development to be a teacher. If you quit, do you get your pensions, though? I don't know. Oh, man. But how many awesome. But how many years They put you imagine they put in, like, their their two weeks and they tell them, like, halfway through, like, you know, you're not gonna pension. Because, like, this is the thing. Like, you mentioned that they have skills like I can't be the police I can't be a police officer.
0:27:48
I don't know sort of say, Lake Lake, you could play Candy Crush. What I actually don't even I don't like to play video games on my phone. Oh, she can't be a police officer. It's over. You're gonna get bored to that. And kill somebody. But the the like, I just have a difficult time.
0:28:04
And this is because I know a lot of people went to John j and our police officers, like, are some of them that are very smart people who, like, you know, became police officers. One of my cousins is one of the smartest people that I know. Just he had two kids. He became a police officer. I got it. But I also know some police officers were like, Matt. Good luck on the job market buddy like. I don't know what the fuck you're gonna do afterwards, Matt. But It's just I like the idea of, like, they're, like, threatening this, like, this, like, this, like in essence, like, like It's it's like a strike. Yeah. Right. Exactly. But it's like their defending their own department. Yeah. Which is, yeah, that's what we wanted. I I mean, the it's great that you put the juxtaposition between Every single mayorial election in the United States in the last three years has been whether or not we should hire more police or hire more police.
0:28:50
Yeah. It's been one flavor of Democrats saying we should hire more police and then another flavor of Democrats saying, actually, we should hire more police. And none of them, until Chicago, it seemed have finally accurately made it possible whether or not you wanna spend more, I guess, Boston. Yeah. Boston was the OG got a good mayor and baby jealous. Yeah. Mayor Wu from Boston. Yeah. We stay. We stay. We're erasing Asian accent. Yeah. You don't like Asian women. Just say it. Especially Asian mom Asian moms. Sental. I'm a big fan.
0:29:21
I talked extensively with someone who worked in Boston and Green New Deal stuff, and it's like night and day, premier. So jealous. But okay. Great. So Boston and now Chicago are these great national examples of we're not just saying, oh, we wanna earn less money towards police or we don't wanna hire more police. We're also saying there's other better public goods that we need to fund and support such as teachers.
0:29:45
We know that crime will go down if people have opportunities, education, after school programs in their neighborhoods. If kids are doing something besides, you know, just like being idle on the street or they feel like they have to work or they're struggling to find a job. If some resources there to support them, those people will probably not as likely do any random number of violent or stupid things. Right. You know that works. Yep.
0:30:12
And yet I read an article and I think it was the Atlantic by obama's former campaign manager, chief of staff. What was his name? David Axelrod. Oh, god. And he literally was writing about Paul Validus versus Brandon Johnson. And he wrote, yes, there's lots of studies that show that it's not increased police presence, but other poverty reduction and community support services that reduce crime, but Paul Validus is offering a solution now and those solutions take time. But he just admitted that the police doesn't work. But that's the thing that's happening right now.
0:30:45
Like, with here in New York, our governor wants to, like, rollback bill reform simultaneously saying, I know the studies show that bail reform hasn't increased crime. Right? But they create the politicians create the narrative that if you wanna feel safer, you need to let us spend more money on police. Even though the actual, like, research backed policies are that if you wanna feel safer and who doesn't wanna feel safer, I wanna feel safer, we have to improve the living conditions for regular people, especially most crimes committed according to criminologists and sociologists by young men between the ages of like sixteen to twenty four. So we gotta make things good for though that age cohort Right?
0:31:29
So education, act school jobs, public pools being open in the summer -- Yeah. -- youth employment, whatever. Right? But, like, let's keep those kids in college. Yeah. They fund the community colleges, fund, you know, free transportation for them, you know, all kinds of internships, whatever they need to get their brains developed because by around age twenty five, they can not only rent a car for cheaper, but they're also less likely to engage in crime. Yeah. Right? But then the problem is that's why they wanted to do are in a car. Right. All I wanna but at an affordable price. Mhmm. Right. But, like, you know my people, man. Right. But, like It's true. You know, the thing is that once you go get into crime, you get into the criminal justice system, you don't really have a choice. Right? So you you know, there's not a lot of options for you. Yeah.
0:32:13
I mean, I went to to a very shitty public school in the Bronx. Shout out to Bronx Leadership Academy two or one one of the two. Anyways, I went to a really bad, like, like, the teachers were awesome. Like, I wanna know how to write if it wasn't for one of my English teachers. So, like, it's definitely never blamed the teachers. But like, it was just underfunded. Like, it's, like, chronically underfunded. And I know, like, a lot of people who, like a lot of people went to school with who, like, Yeah.
0:32:40
Once they they got arrested, that was back in the days when, like, you could get, like, into the criminal system for small That was a classic -- Yeah. -- stopping first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I was stopping first constantly. And, like, once they got into that system, it was impossible for them to get out. It was like a trap. You know? What is it like a sticky sticky floor or not a great A sticky a sticky trap. Yeah. Yeah. So And this is extremely important to kind of like put in context with like mayor Adams, like and like the city council, gutting the schools, you know, funding. Because yeah. Like, cops don't don't decrease crime. Like, physically, if they are in a block, like somebody people are just gonna go, it's ballooning. You're gonna go somewhere else to commit the crime.
0:33:23
What really, like like Susan said, what really, like, brings down this crime, especially in the younger, cohort of folks is just literally providing opportunities. Like, one of the things that keep kept me off the streets. And again, like, I'm not You know, I grew up in, like, a lower middle class family, but, like, I got a lifeguard job. Like, when I was when I was, like, sixteen, seventeen, And that really, like, not only physically kept me busy, but also, like, I had money. So, like, I didn't have to, like, you know, do other mischievous stuff to to to kind of fund my first thoughts. By the way, man, you're you're racing Dominican Identity too, man. That's the first thing we we want to we get here. I thoroughly said, yes. You wanna rent a car. That is the number one thing young man between the age of sixteen and twenty four. I misread. Trying to do. I misunderstood him.
0:34:11
It seems like the solution to crime in cities is to open up public pools and hire young men between the ages of six sixteen and twenty four is lifeguard. Right. And make sure that there's a lot of them because we would go to story a pool and they would even have all the sections open. Remember? And the pool is closed this year. Yeah. So that's expected increasing crime in this area by young people because, like, what are they gonna do? They can't like preen. Right? The lifeguards, I think, were older than I don't know. They're probably in their early twenties. There but also plenty of, like, young people also just go to the pool because it's like a place to be. That's convenient.
0:34:46
The McDonald's near me has now banned minors from coming without an adult. Because the middle school students are so incredibly rowdy, and I'll admit it. It was kinda nice being in the McDonald's without those middle school students, but it just speaks to the need of you can't just ban people from doing things. You can't just keep people out of things. You need to give people, especially young people. Some form of outlet, some place to be -- Isn't that like a third place? -- third space. Yeah. Right? Like, it's not home. It's not school or work. It's like a third place where they can be kids. Yeah. So, you know, people always make fun of the idea, like, the youth the youth center, but more youth centers, I say -- Yeah. -- like more rec centers, more more places for them just to hang out and just, like, not be productive, not do homework -- Yeah. -- just like B kids. Yeah.
0:35:34
And I think that and this goes back to, like, just generally, like, our ideas are very popular. This is something that is extremely popular, especially when it comes to, like, funding schools and, like, it's unpopular to defund schools. I was talking to my brother who, like, has the most contradictory politics, like, in the planet. But, like, what I told him because he he hates de Blasio. And he was like, well, you know, Eric Autumn sucks, but, you know, he's better than De Blasio. I was like, not really. You know, like, De Blasio at least didn't, like, defund the schools and stuff like that. He was like, wait, what? He defunded the schools, Eric Ottomos, and that, and shout out to comrades with kids.
0:36:11
In in the Democratic Socialism of America who's, like, taking up this banner, but, like, we really need to, like, stand stand that line of like, no, we can't let people touch our schools. We need to fund schools further because I think that's an extremely popular position to have. So we're jealous of Chicago. We love and we're we're envious of your new mayor. And here in New York or if you're in any other city and you want to have leadership that believes in the importance of funding social services, taxing the rich, protecting our public schools.
0:36:43
You can't do it alone. Can't do it alone. You gotta do it with a lot of other people in a transcendental human experience mass movement that makes you feel really good. Where would I find such a thing? It's called the Democratic socialist of America. How do I join? You Google, join DSA. Democratic, socialist, America. Or you shoot us an email left on red, n y c at gmail dot com after you have listened to this episode, rated us and subscribed, and then decided you want to be part of something bigger than yourself and you're gonna go out and seek it and join DSA. It's the best vehicle for this stuff right now. Thank you so much. I'm Susan. I'm Scott and I'm real. Solidary forever and have a wonderful day. Left on red is reported live at Left on Red Studios International in beautiful historic Astoria Queens, the most filmed neighborhood in all of New York City. It's hosted by Susan King and Scott Care ladies. It's produced with original music by me, Noah Teachey, and Julianna Mirra manages our comms. Thanks for listening, solidarity forever.