Guests this week: Rob Becker, Dr Gonzo & Yayne Abeba.
On this week's edition of Copeland's Corner, Brian hosts a lively panel discussion just five days before the presidential election. The panel includes the 'Doc of Comedy Rock' Dr. Gonzo, comedian Rob Becker, and returning guest Yanni Abbaba. They delve into the tension surrounding the upcoming election, including why 20% of African American men under 25 are reportedly supporting Trump. The group also tackles controversial remarks by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the Trump Madison Square Garden rally, the critical role of reproductive rights, and the significance of Kamala Harris's closing arguments in her campaign. Brian concludes the show urging listeners to vote and explaining the importance of votes in battleground states.
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Connect with our Guests...
Rob Becker: Defending the Caveman
Dr Gonzo: @DrGonzoComedy on Facebook
Yayne Abeba: @YayneAbeba on Instagam
EP190 - Copeland's Corner with Rob Becker, Dr Gonzo & Yayne Abeba
Host Brian Copeland: [00:00:00] Hello again. This is Brian Copeland's talking. Welcome to another edition of Copeland's Corner. This is episode number 190. We are five days away from the presidential election. We are. We're biting our nails no matter what side of this this election you're on you're biting your nails They say as of as of today Anyway, it's uh, it's a coin flip So got a great panel this week.
Uh, the legendary doc of comedy rock. Dr. Gonzo, uh is joining us along with Obama, who was just here a couple of weeks ago, uh, who has just some great insight and great analysis and, uh, Rob Becker, who has the longest running solo show in the history of Broadway is going to join us as well. And they're very insightful about, uh, what's going on in the world of politics.
[00:01:00] So, uh, before we get to them, want to, want to thank you all. Uh, who are subscribing, who are subscribing. If you're watching us on YouTube, who are giving us five star reviews. If you were listening to us on Spotify or Amazon or Apple or any of the other places where you can hear a podcast, please continue to do that because it helps people to find the show.
And again, we're trying to get enough folks on YouTube subscribing so that we can do this live so that you can chime in with your questions, with your comments, with your thoughts. While we're talking. So, uh, that'll be a great addition. Have you be a part of the show? So, uh, please do that. But in the meantime, uh, here we go.
All right. This week, we've got a panel of three pals of mine. Uh, one who's been on this show. Yanni Abbaba, who's just was here a couple of weeks ago. Good to have you back with us. And that too, I've known forever who I've not seen in a long time. Uh, Rob Becker, uh, standup comic, the, uh, the, the creator, the of Defending the Caveman, the [00:02:00] longest running solo show in Broadway history.
International hit is here. Good. Good to have you, man. I haven't seen you in forever.
Rob Becker: Good to be here. Good to be with you.
Host Brian Copeland: Actually, you know what I just realized, you know, the last time I saw you, I was opening for Cosby. I came and sat down like in the front. I had like my kids and some friends to see Cosby and like in the third row and you were sitting with your wife directly in front of me.
So that's the last time I saw you. So back, back when it was okay to go and see Cosby when he was, I thought we had
Rob Becker: lunch one time over in Albany.
Host Brian Copeland: That was before Cosby. That was before that was before it caused me. It has been a bit and the legendary doc of comedy rock Dr. God's all with us, man. Good to see you, buddy.
Good to see you, Brian. I was a little worried about your hat is at the beginning. Cause it looked like a red hat and again, Cincinnati
Dr. Gonzo: reds, Cincinnati reds. I'm not a fan, but it's just a cool hat. It's got Jerry Garcia's missing [00:03:00] finger on it. It's a good for topic.
Host Brian Copeland: All right. Now where, where are you in Iowa?
Is
Dr. Gonzo: that where you are? Illinois, Illinois, downstate. Uh, we're, uh, we are a blue state because of Chicago, but
Host Brian Copeland: Chicago,
Dr. Gonzo: but everything's rural around here. So you kind of know what I'm dealing with.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. I
Dr. Gonzo: was going to ask you, are you seeing more, are you seeing more Trump signs? I'm seeing more, uh, signs lately.
I haven't, uh, I was surprised. Um, Yeah, it's a, it's kind of both ways, you know, but nobody really talks that much politics around here. Everybody's too busy trying to make a living and survive.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, it's funny you would say that because you were your city councilman there from what I understand. And you were the mayor actually.
Dr. Gonzo: Well, I wasn't the mayor, but I was, uh, I'm involved in, I, I pay a lot of attention to local politics. Uh, I don't really pay too much attention to all the bickering. I don't watch the news and I've been a lot happier ever since. I watch baseball on TV and, uh, twilight zone,
Host Brian Copeland: which, so you do watch [00:04:00] the news.
Dr. Gonzo: I'm informed. Okay. How do you know if you're watching the twilight zone of the news? I don't know. Well, there's not a guy going picture if you will. That's, that's the only difference. No, I just, uh, keep things pretty cool around here.
Host Brian Copeland: All right, we're going to start with this. Okay, you guys have not done the show.
Yanni's done the show before, so, uh, she knows how it goes. We, we just talk. I mean, I got, I got a bunch of topics here. We just talk. It goes where it goes. If it's funny, it's funny. If it's not, it's not. We're, we're going to be informative. Um, All right, so here's what I want to start with. Um, let's just start with this clip if uh, if we're ready This was a clip that uh, our executive producer tom sawyer sent me this morning I am not sure who the who the speaker is it is from another uh podcast But he's talking about why?
Based on the latest polls you have 20 percent of african american men Who are under the age of [00:05:00] 25, who are voting for Trump constituency. You would not expect to say, and listen to the, the reason that he gives.
Audio Clip: You can't fail enough of white privilege that Donald Trump is being treated with. This is a masterclass in white privilege.
Trump can't say enough to be racist. Correct. He can't commit enough crimes to be a criminal. He can't fail enough to be a failure, and he can't say enough stupid things to be stupid. He is so shielded and insulated by the idea and the concept of whiteness that he is un fucking touchable. The thought conjured around him matters more than any reality.
Any reality. He's a Christian that doesn't know the Bible, that fucks porn stars. That [00:06:00] is mean, grabs women by the pussy is the least Christ like, but the sheer promise of the whiteness that exists inside of Donald Trump is enough for everyone, white and black people, black people. A lot of them who worship whiteness and aspire to the level of whiteness that Trump has.
It's enough for them to say, Hey, he's still our guy, no matter what. It's the
Yayne Abeba: whiteness he guarantees to protect. That's what he's, that's what he represents. Right? It's. Yeah. They're being that he guarantees to protect and that's true. That's something that they won't say, but that they're voting for.
Host Brian Copeland: All right.
So I want to mention something to you about, about kind of a white privilege thing, and I just think it's fascinating to see a black man in a cowboy hat talking about white privilege, but I thought
Yayne Abeba: that the cowboy culture came from black people. Sure. I know, I
Host Brian Copeland: know, I know, but that's not what we think of when we see a cowboy.
Usually. Yeah, [00:07:00] usually not these days. Well, actually, now actually Beyonce's made it, it made it stylish now. So, but what, what do you think about what it is he has to say? Cause I, I couldn't figure it out. Why, why you'd have 20%, especially in that age bracket, because the, one of the things Trump said he will do if he becomes president is he will give police total immunity.
He, and I don't know if he can unilaterally do that or what, but he wants cops to have total immunity so they can do whatever they want. They kill you that, you know, they shoot you in the back, whatever they cannot be prosecuted for whatsoever. And that the, the demographic that will primarily be affected by a policy like that is black men under 25.
So, so, you know, I wondered what it was that there, why would you do this? What are you getting out of this? So your thoughts on what it is you just heard.
Dr. Gonzo: Well, Beyonce didn't win any Grammys because of white privilege. I know that. I mean, cause she had a huge album and it was [00:08:00] well received and no awards whatsoever.
They, the country community, I don't think was ready to let her in. No, I'm saying, but, uh, as far as what this guy was just talking about. Yeah. I mean, um, I know people that are scared that, uh, minorities are going to take over the country. I'm just, I'm living in rural America and it's, it was white farmers, you know, I'm surrounded by retired white farmers.
They don't talk about it that much, but I think people are scared a little bit of the outside world. I mean, our demographics here are probably about 96, 7 percent white, you know.
Rob Becker: It's just the reality though, you know, at some point we're all going to be brown.
Dr. Gonzo: Yes, I know we're all going to breed into each other eventually, you know, but it's I'm just saying that that that might be, they might think that Trump is the last, uh, savior of the white race and, uh, look at his followers.[00:09:00]
Rob Becker: The funny thing is that people, you know, white supremacy, the idea that you're superior because you're white. You know, white skin is actually less protective. Yes. You're actually more fragile if you're white. That's funny.
Yayne Abeba: I don't believe that that many black men are voting for Trump. Those polls were paid for by right leaning organizations, including the Trump campaign.
And they're designed to skew towards them favorably. I don't think that many, and I think the ones who are voting for them, there are ones who want the proximity to whiteness and think that in order to be white, you have to be uncle ruckus, right? We all know that.
Host Brian Copeland: But, um, great character, by the way, for the boondocks.
Oh, yeah.
Yayne Abeba: And I think that, I think it's more about like, they don't have that information. They're not hearing what Trump is saying, what his plan is. For people of color, they're not hearing about the details of project [00:10:00] 2025 and how it's going to dismantle the Department of Education and directly affect them.
Their children, they're just not getting the information. And a lot of them are listening to rappers and influencers who are being paid that by the Trump campaign and Bad By the Russians.
Host Brian Copeland: And by the Russians we're finding out now and by the
Yayne Abeba: Russians.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah.
Yayne Abeba: To talk about how we need to vote for Trump.
'cause we are gonna get another Stemmy check. So I think that's what's going on. I think, I think it's like, you know, how Trump keeps repeating a lie until it becomes true. I think in this situation, they're repeating a lie until it becomes true. I would believe those numbers if it was Latino people prior to this weekend,
Host Brian Copeland: because Latino voters would do that.
But
Yayne Abeba: I don't, I don't believe there's that many black men under the age of 25 that are going to vote for Trump, probably like 12%.
Host Brian Copeland: Now, I, I heard an interesting theory. I was, um, doing this, um, this [00:11:00] solo show that just closed this past weekend on monologues, uh, on life during the Trump era called the great American shit show.
And, uh, and afterwards I was, um, I had, I had hats. I had, uh, I had blue hats that said, make America think again. And, uh, I had this guy who got a bunch of these hats, young African American guy, maybe 30. And there were a group of us, you know, we're talking in line and stuff just about the, about the situation.
And that, that statistic came up and he said, I guess, I know these guys, they're just saying this because they're being asked. They're not going to vote. He goes, go hang around the barber shop. They'll talk all this, you know, macho male crap with me. I'm voting for Trump. Of course, I'm voting for Trump. He goes, they're not going to get their asses off the couches and vote.
None of them have ever voted before. Because when you stick a microphone or a camera in somebody's face, they feel like they gotta say something. So they'll beat their chest. They're not going to say about a vote for Kamala because it's not very macho to say that you're voting for Kamala. What do you think of that theory?
Dr. Gonzo: Well, the [00:12:00] macho thing I understand, you know, I mean, there's. What else is there to Trump? What's there? I mean, I,
Host Brian Copeland: I think
Rob Becker: it's funny cause you do, you, you know, if you drive around rural areas, you'll see these pictures of Trump that they've made where you're standing on the deck of like an aircraft carrier and he's got all
these
Rob Becker: muscles they put on them and everything.
They see him as this macho guy, but when I listened to him, all the guy does is complain. He just whines and whines and whines. Somebody else got something he should have got. He deserved it more. How come he's not getting what that guy's getting? You know, that guy's getting all this praise and I should be getting it.
It's just nothing but whining and complaining and moaning. And I, how anybody thinks that guy is macho, the way he's not whining and complaining. He's gossiping. He's the most gossipy guy. I mean, he talks The way he talks, people say this, and I hear people say that, all these kinds of things. He's [00:13:00] not very direct.
Uh, there's nothing particularly traditionally masculine about the guy. Well,
Host Brian Copeland: that's actually an old fox news trick, you know, if you ever get a chance see the documentary It's probably 15 years old now called op boxed And the thing that they pull in order to spread disinformation and have plausible deniability about the sources Is by saying some people say
Dr. Gonzo: some people
Host Brian Copeland: that's what they say, you know, some people say I'm sure
Yayne Abeba: there's like one and I hear that.
I mean i'm in i'm in tennessee, right? I'm in nashville You And I hear that people are like, well, you know, some people say, well, I'm like, who are those people or the day I love the day. Who are they? Who are they? I would like to meet this day. I would like to have a conversation with day because they are responsible for a lot of problems in the world.
Whoever they are. I know no one can ever tell you who, do you guys know who they are?
Host Brian Copeland: The
Yayne Abeba: Illuminati,
Rob Becker: like when you're, when you're arguing with somebody, [00:14:00] especially if you argue with them online, the person will say, all my friends agree with me. And that's how, you know, they've got a losing argument,
all these
Rob Becker: people supposedly, you know, that agree with them.
It's like, you know what? All my friends agree with me too.
Host Brian Copeland: Everybody I know. All right. Let me ask you what you think about this? Cause this is sort of on the same, not a sort of exactly on the same topic. Uh, van Jones. Uh, the, the, the activist and, uh, and, uh, political pundit, uh, with CNN and author, uh, said something very interesting in a panel last week where he said that the deal with, with, with Harris and Trump is that they're not taking the same exam.
He gets to be lawless while she has to be flawless. You think that's accurate?
Dr. Gonzo: I think so.
Yayne Abeba: Yeah,
Dr. Gonzo: I think so. And the other, you know, putting all this together. I mean, the whole Trump concept to me is that he's unhinged. And when you're unhinged, all these other [00:15:00] countries around the world go, we don't know what this guy is going to do.
And that might keep them from doing something harmful. And I think a lot of people like the concept that he is totally unhinged and off his rocker. He scares the rest of the world. And I, and I don't, I don't like that idea at all, but I see that, uh, in people and some conversations.
Rob Becker: It's an old idea. It's called the crazy man theory, but the thing is, is the crazy theory is supposed to scare your enemies.
This guy's got it
Rob Becker: completely backwards, but he's kissing up to all our enemies and he's scaring all of our allies. It's like
Host Brian Copeland: G Gordon lady's story of when he first went to prison, that the first thing he did was he lit a match or something and held it under his hand until the flesh burned. So everybody would go stay away from him.
He's crazy.
Yayne Abeba: Before he went to prison, when
Rob Becker: I was [00:16:00] doing cavemen and, uh, my agent would come back and with these crazy offers, you know, that there were too low and, you know, And I'd say, well, I don't want to take that, take this back to them. And then he'd say, well, that guy is crazy. He's not going to go for it.
You know? Yeah. It all makes sense, but he's crazy. I said, you know what? Tell him I'm crazy too.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. Yeah. It works. And how did it work out? Did you, well, did the money come up?
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. Oh yeah. Look at him. He's smiling.
Host Brian Copeland: He doesn't have to plug a gig today.
Rob Becker: That's how well it went. I tell him I'm crazy. I won't, I won't take the deal.
Yeah. I'm just as crazy.
Dr. Gonzo: And I, and this chumming up to other dictators kind of really bothers me. I mean, in one, in one idea, keep your enemies closer. It's the whole godfather concept. Okay.
Host Brian Copeland: But yeah, but that has to do with, with strategy and planning and you really think that Trump has, is
Dr. Gonzo: that strategic?
No, no. And neither is, uh, who's the [00:17:00] basketball player that went over to North Korea?
Oh, Yeah. Yeah. Dennis Rodman. Yeah.
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. He's a, he's a good diplomat
crying because he was good friends with the guy, you know,
Host Brian Copeland: well, they say that the closing argument, you know, this, this is closing arguments week and they're saying that the closing argument that, that Kamala is making is about, uh, about policy, you know, she's talking about policy where if you look at commercial after commercial after commercial and the battleground states that, that the Trump campaign is running.
It is either trans stuff or it is, uh, anti, anti immigrant. That's it. That's all they're running over and over and over. And the trans stuff, I had, I had not heard what they're saying about trans. I did not know this till I saw this yesterday. I saw like a barrage of it. Actually, I think Kimmel might've shown it last night.
Kimmel Kimmel showed it last night when he he took us all monologue to speak to Republicans who [00:18:00] Who are willing to listen and go listen, you know, we make jokes, but it was more just Here's why we can't have this guy and he had a bunch of clips But the one that I hadn't heard that he apparently said several times is that people are sending their kids to It's They're sending their kids to public schools and as a boy, and then they come home and they're a girl because they're doing, they're doing sex change operations at school.
And he makes the point that's true. You can't even send a peanut butter sandwich to a public school. And we're supposed to believe that your son that you sent off is getting surgery. And by the way, surgery sometime between nine and three. Okay. So that there is a, you know, during the school day, so that he's completely recovered, recovered enough so that he is now wishing you can come walk into the house.
And it's just, it's, it's insanity.
Rob Becker: You almost get the feeling that Trump sits around thinking, how [00:19:00] far can I go and see how these people will still believe me? You know, as, as far as he goes, it's like, that wasn't far enough. I let's see if I can take it a little further and see if they'll still. And he just keeps taking it further and further and further.
And there's no limit. There's no place where he can go where the, you know, his people just don't buy it. Yeah.
Yayne Abeba: That started with that trans story started with this woman. Who is like a mom's for Liberty mom who just made it up. And then she parades her kids on stage when she talks about it. And they're like, and then my classmate wants to be a cat and has a litter box at school and I'm like, none of that is happening.
Like little kids play at recess and pretend to be things. Do you know what I mean? But no one's, no one's, they don't have money for pencils. How are they going to have money to do surgery? You know, like the teachers are buying school supplies.
Dr. Gonzo: I substitute teach every once in a while, and I've never seen the surgery room [00:20:00] at the school.
And, uh, and I, I had a friend when I was growing up, she thought she was a horse for five years. And so we petted her, you know, out of it, you know, and it's, the whole thing is just so bizarre. I don't, I don't, I don't see it. I don't know it. I don't hear it. You know, you talk to kids, you know, if they're acting around,
Host Brian Copeland: the kids have imaginations and they say, Although the story you were just talking about, but the kid who wants to be a cat just gave me a, reminded me of a horrible memory, uh, when my children's mother, when they were young, uh, put a sandbox out in the backyard, you know, for them to, to play with, you know, it was just, you know, cute and always wanted a sandbox, big yard and the whole thing.
And, um, apparently the neighborhood cats and the stray cats would use, we didn't know. We didn't know that until all three of our kids got ringworm. And that's where they got ringworm. And we're asking the [00:21:00] doctor, how the hell did they get ringworm? Well, do they have a sandbox? Yeah. Okay. Well, that's why, because all the neighborhood cats are playing in it.
Then they're playing in it. They end up with ringworm. So there's, that's my public service announcement today. Keep your kids out of sandboxes.
Rob Becker: Always the problem with sandboxes. They're fun for about a week. Yeah. Martha
Dr. Gonzo: Stewart's selling that cat litter now, pretty kitty litters. So you can tell if you get ringworm now for all the different colors and stuff.
Go Martha. What
Yayne Abeba: color is ringworm?
Dr. Gonzo: I have no idea.
Host Brian Copeland: I didn't even know black people could get ringworm. That was the first thing that surprised me. There's certain things, you know, you know, black people can get head lice. That's true. Did you know that?
Yayne Abeba: Yeah, but that's totally not true.
Host Brian Copeland: I have read this in legitimate, in legitimate medical publications.
Then it has something, I forget what the rationale is, but for some reason,
Yayne Abeba: the life cling to, um, the product, [00:22:00] right? And so our hair is so dry that it doesn't retain that product the same way straight hair is. Because it has all this. Like a whole coil it has to go down. Uh huh. And so our hair doesn't retain the product the way straight hair does.
And so it's easier for lice to cling to straight hair full of product.
Host Brian Copeland: Okay. Now see, I thought it was because the lice were racist.
Yayne Abeba: Yeah, they are. There is also that.
Host Brian Copeland: And they just didn't want to live in those neighborhoods. That's, that's, that's what it is. I
Yayne Abeba: will take that racism. I am fine with that racism.
You can hate me all you want if you are light.
Rob Becker: Makes you weaker.
Host Brian Copeland: On the topic of, of, of racism. Um, did any of you see any or all or part of, of, of Trump's Nuremberg rally on, uh, on Sunday?
Dr. Gonzo: I just read, I read some of the comments, uh, that the comic made.
Host Brian Copeland: Why don't you hold on for a second? Cause I think, um, Charlene, we got that [00:23:00] clip.
If we do the let's, let's just go ahead and play. Everybody's heard him. I heard about it. Let's actually just play it.
Audio Clip (2): Stuff is really, really crazy. We're right there by a wide open border. Where are my proud Latinos at tonight? You guys see what I mean? It's wide open. There's so many of them. It's absolutely incredible.
Believe it or not, people. I welcome migrants. to the United States of America, with open arms. And by open arms, I mean like this.
Wow. It's wild. And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There's no
They don't do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country. Ha ha! Republicans of the party with a good sense of humor. [00:24:00] There's a lot going on. Like, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
Okay, all right. Okay, we're getting there. Again, normally I don't follow the national anthem, everybody. Uh, this isn't exactly a perfect comedy setup. There's some people here out there. Actually, I
Host Brian Copeland: don't think I, I, I think that that's enough. Uh, Tony Hinchcliffe, who, um, , well, I'm two parts to this story. Uh, the comic's name is to, is Tony Hinchcliffe.
I'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's got a podcast with, with hundreds of thousands of, of, of listeners, and he's a regular at the Comedy Store, which surprises me 'cause what he just did was so incredibly hacky. Uh, uh, Geraldo Rivera. Who was very close friends with trump during his first term and uh, you know personal friends with him before that And he would call him at the white house and and [00:25:00] he had turned on trump before Earlier, you know prior to this but when this came on He he gave an interview to ari melba on I believe it was ari melba on msnbc We said this is the end of his campaign This is the beginning of the end of the trump campaign because he needs pennsylvania to win You And Allentown, Pennsylvania is a very important region to, of that state to win in order to carry that state.
And there are a couple of hundred thousand Puerto Ricans who are, uh, I should say Americans of Puerto Rican descent, uh, who, uh, who live there. And, uh, and he was just furious and he actually, he either tweeted or posted, I'm not sure what it is, while this guy's performing. Uh, and this will get bleeped.
Buck this, buck these racists is what it is that, uh, that, that, uh, he posted. And he said, um, Latino men of character, [00:26:00] uh, he said to have some pride in your, your heritage. And I'm, I'm paraphrasing and in your ancestors, because a vote for Trump is a, is a vote for this. Now, uh, this comic, Tony Henscliff, you know, everybody was saying that, uh, there should be an apology from Trump, and Trump did not apologize, and he claimed he knew nothing about it, didn't hear it, the campaign's distancing itself.
Here's the thing that's not getting a lot of play. That, that script for that set, Was vetted. It was vetted. And the reason I know among, I knew, I figured it was vetted before I read that it was, uh, because Tom Sawyer, who I mentioned earlier is, is our EP on our program here. Um, uh, and I, were, we're, we're gonna do a big, uh, a big benefit for Kamala.
And the thing we had to, we, we couldn't do was do it. For the actual campaign, because then we've all got to be vetted and every word that every comic said would have had to have been vetted. Because if somebody said something that that [00:27:00] blew back on the campaign, you don't want that. So they vetted that script and the only thing they took out.
Was a joke where he calls Kamala the C word.
Whoa.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. So they took that out. But all of this other stuff was was left in, including a joke that he did about, you know, for Halloween, he got a paraphrasing again, got together with an African American friend and they carved watermelon. I mean, you know, I mean, at least if it was even a clever racist joke, you know, but he
Yayne Abeba: also went he also talked about Jewish people.
He also talked about Arabs. He did a Travis Kelsey joke where he said he's the next OJ. So that's implying violence against Taylor Swift. Wow. Yeah. So he, I mean, he went even further.
Host Brian Copeland: Well,
Yayne Abeba: they said that no one was left out.
Host Brian Copeland: What, one of the things that her almost said is, is a, is a, a factor in knowing how much blowback there is from this is that [00:28:00] on.
Sunday or Monday for the first time, uh, more people Googled, uh, Tony Tutts than Googled Taylor Swift for the first time. Wow. That's how bad it is. Now here's why I bring this up. There's several reasons I bring this up, but here's what, what I'm curious about with you guys. Um, Hanks Clifton is not going to apologize.
They've come to him and said, will you apologize? You see how many people you offended. You may have heard the Trump campaign. Some are saying you may have just sunk. You may have just torpedoed where, you know, when you're talking about one, two point race, you may have just torpedoed the campaign. And he says his idol.
And the reason he became a comic is because of Don Rickles and Don Rickles said everything. And you, and he said that because of Don Rickles, you never, ever, under any circumstances, apologize for a joke. Do you agree with that?
Dr. Gonzo: I, I want to just say, uh, uh, the, whoever booked this guy is the, is the [00:29:00] person that should be responsible for the apology because you wouldn't, you know, you wouldn't book Bobby Slayton at a bar mitzvah, you know, you know what I'm saying?
You would, and Bobby would always say, you know, I insult everybody. Rickles was the same way I insult everybody, but I saw Rickles Open for Cool in the gang up in Tahoe and like Rick Cool in the gang was Rickles. Oh yeah. And he totally, they cooling the gang opened and then Rickles went on, said, not bad for a bunch of N words and lost the crowd completely.
40, took 40 minutes for him to get the crowd back , you know, and he was pretty apologetic. So whether he said that or not, cause I was sitting there with my mouth again, going, he just said what? Cause the band had everybody on their feet and cool. And to get what was celebrate good times, come on. And then Rickles was just bam and came right out of the gate.
And I thought, Oh, This was a bad combo, you know what I'm saying? And I, so I [00:30:00] think the Booker should be to blame. And, uh, Maybe this guy, it won't sink his, what about his career? Is this going to boost his career? And people are going to go,
Host Brian Copeland: well, but actually it might because of the fact that he's known as a right wing comic and he plays Republican events and right wing events, apparently all the time.
So, uh, so this is, if anything, he's now, she's so stuck. Hell now he'll get us a show up there. Gutfeld on Fox.
Dr. Gonzo: You're probably right.
Host Brian Copeland: He'll be the late, late show now on Fox. Is, is what'll happen for, to, to him. But I, um, how well, well, you, your material was always very smart and very funny and, but, and, and never anything I've ever seen you do in the God, 30 years.
I can't believe I've known you, uh, was ever offensive. 40 Have you 40 you no longer than I have. So, so had you ever done anything that you thought you should apologize for or have you ever had to apologize for a joke?
Dr. Gonzo: And that's a question to Rob.
Rob Becker: Well, there's [00:31:00] a couple of things. One, early in my career, when I was just starting out, I had these awful jokes that got laughed most of the time, and it was making fun of women who are heavy.
And, uh, you know, I was just starting out, so, you know, you're at that point where you're just blailing around, trying to find stuff that gets laughed. One night I was out on at the Holy City Zoo and I did those jokes, you know, to close because they normally were surefire laughs and I got nothing. And I looked around the crowd and the crowd was hating those jokes.
And I felt like, you know, on my way home, just driving home, I was thinking, you know, the awful thing about that was not failing to get laughs. The awful thing was realizing, I don't believe in those jokes. I didn't think they were funny in myself. There wasn't anything I thought was important to say. I couldn't stand behind them.
Now. I don't think I owed anybody an apology. You know, [00:32:00] except for myself, really. So I just got from then on that if I did a joke from then on, I would do something. I had to believe in it. I had to think it was funny. I had to think I could stand behind it. And if I didn't get a laugh, I could be okay with that.
And, uh, so, you know, uh, uh, I don't know how that plays into it. The other thing is the idea that you should never apologize for a joke. Is, you know, it's like any other rule in comedy. It's made to be broken. Remember Bob Saget? Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Rob Becker: Of course. Daggett had this pit in his, in his, in his routine where, you know, he would do this really offensive joke and the audience would moan and, and boo him.
And then he would apologize. And then he would say something even more offensive and apologize for that. And in trying to dig himself out, he'd do something more offensive and then apologize for that. Then he started apologizing for apologizing so much and, and, and then he finished with this thing. I'm like, I'm [00:33:00] apologizing so much.
It's really obnoxious. He said, I used to hate obnoxious people. And now I'm their king. I know
Yayne Abeba: I, I've listened. I have sat in the back of the punchline and cobs and all these clubs and listen to white comics say horribly negative racist stereotypes about black people. And gotten laughs from the room and in my head i'm like fuck that guy Sorry, i'm not supposed to say that word.
I will screw that guy. Don't worry about it But i've never told them not to tell the joke It just changed the way I interacted with them in the green room And but i've never told them not to tell the joke, but I think with tony That was a political rally. That wasn't a comedy club. And I've seen his stuff, like, I saw him where he was introduced by an Asian comic, and it was just five minutes of the most racist anti Asian, like, mocking his voice, mocking the way Chinese people speak.
It was [00:34:00] disgusting. And in my head, I was like, screw that guy. He's so racist. But so I wasn't surprised that they had him open. I don't think they should have had him open at all. I don't think it was the right
Host Brian Copeland: way. Didn't you, but when he went in the right place, didn't you hear the rest of the rally? Of course, the rest of the rally was the right place.
Yeah.
Yayne Abeba: But that was some of
Host Brian Copeland: the stuff that was, that was
Yayne Abeba: the people talking about slaughtering Democrats.
Host Brian Copeland: You know, I mean, that's just crazy. But I will say there is one time in my career that I've ever apologized. And I'm not going to say I've never offended anybody. All of us have offended somebody because if you if you say Sunday's the best day of the week, you're going to offend somebody who thinks it's Monday, you know, so I we've all offended people and, you know, case around.
But actually what I felt badly about having done it and felt that I owe an apology. It was when, um, When I started doing not a genuine black man, uh, the, the opening part of, of that, it's the first maybe four or five minutes of [00:35:00] it is standup and race based standup about what's black and what's not. And I, that show opened in 2004, which was, you know, we're in the war in the Middle East.
It's a couple of years after nine 11. And I had a joke. I don't remember the setup, but the, the joke was, The punchline of it was that I called the FBI because my daughter got out of the shower with a towel on her head. And, always got laughs. I never thought anything else about it until I was asked to do the show at a high school.
And I did the show at the high school and it got laughs, big laughs like always. And then afterwards, uh, these, uh, two Middle Eastern young women, probably 16 or 17 said, you know, can we talk to you for a second? You know, that joke that you did, you know, people make fun of us, people make fun of us. And it's, it's really, really hard, you know, because, you know, they call us terrorists and they, you [00:36:00] know, they, you know, I've never been in the Middle East, you know, we've been here for four generations.
However, we get blamed for it. And it's just, it's just something for you to think about. And I just stopped immediately. I had never thought of that. And I apologize. I'm really, really sorry if I just made your life harder or something stupid that I said, and I never said that. I never told that joke again.
I never ever told the joking and it never will. And it was a stupid now looking back at it. It was a stupid, ignorant, racist joke to tell, but you know, in the context of the fact that we're, I guess when you're at war with somebody that the feeling is always meaning and say whatever you want. I mean, you know, listen to old rate, listen to like Bob Hope or Jack many during world war two, you know, when it's the Japs, this and the crowds that, and, and, and, and all of this, this kind of stuff, but that's the only time I've ever apologized.
Uh, and I'm, I'm glad that I did. And, and to, to, to this day, when I think about it, I went and it makes me feel, it makes me feel terrible, quite frankly, even this is years later. And it still bothers me [00:37:00] that how many people. Did I, did I not offend again? I don't care if I offended you. How many people did I hurt by, by, by, by telling that joke who didn't come up to me?
And say that was really painful. And it, you just made my life a little bit harder.
Rob Becker: Yeah. Yeah. A while back, I saw something with Sarah Silverman and she was apologizing for jokes she had done earlier in her career. And, uh, you know, it made me respect her more. So I didn't think if she was making a mistake or she was violating some rule, I, the way she handled it, I thought was really cool.
And, uh, So I think there are times and certainly if you're a comedian, I mean, I, I, I've tried this in my private life, you know, with my family and friends and so forth to, to take that attitude. I don't know. I don't apologize for any joke. Well, that's a good way to lose friends and
family.
Rob Becker: Cause there, there are times in your private life [00:38:00] when I've done jokes that are just crappy jokes, you know, that I've done at people's expense because, you know, it was, it was there for the taking and I, as a comedian, I couldn't resist and, uh, and I've had to apologize.
Well, we've all done that
Host Brian Copeland: because you know, you're thinking because comics, your minds, your mind's always going. And I mean, you know, I say something stupid every day and at some point you have to go, okay. Maybe I shouldn't have
Dr. Gonzo: said that, Brian, you know that I, for a lot of rock bands. So I got a lot of that.
Screaming at me, we hate you. You suck. And you get that because you're opening for a band. They're there to see the band. And I'm just the cartoon before the movie kind of thing. And, and I, uh, there were times when, you know, like somebody would throw a handful of change at me, you know, in the front row when you're, when you're playing a.
Big crowd, there could be a hundred people in front of you insulting the crap out of you, but the 9, 000 people behind them can't [00:39:00] hear them because they're pointing at you. They don't hear it. So my, my rule was if somebody yells something really offensive to me, is I would repeat what they said through the microphone.
So everybody in the stadium knew, What this person said to me, and then they gave me carte blanche to just insult the crap out of them and get huge cheers. And it wasn't, it wasn't, it was mostly about their shirt or their face or, you know, something I was picking on one particular person who was interrupting the show now in that context.
I think making fun of people, but I don't think I ever did anything, uh, based on their, their race. You know, it didn't have anything to do with that. It was just them being stupid. You know what I mean? I mean, you've been heckled. Haven't you?
Host Brian Copeland: Oh, sure. We have, we've all been heckled. I'm trying to think like you for a lot of, a lot of, of, of artists and a lot of more individual artists and bands.
I mean, I did some bands, some bands I had no business doing. Like I opened for you, you [00:40:00] opened for two. I am for Blue Oyster Cult. Yeah. And that was, that was the worst band I ever, brutal. Wow. Brutal. Brutal. I, I was horrible. Hey, lemme play things about my
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. Guitar. Yeah. You didn't have a guitar? ?
Host Brian Copeland: I didn't have a guitar.
I mean, they hated me. I mean, they just hated my guts. Two worst. I have two worst ones I ever did. It was that. And I edem for Julio Igl. In, uh, at Donald Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, um, it was, it was me and Julio and the audience and I was warm before I needed, I needed money because my, my wife was expecting our third child and it was some loophole in the insurance or some of the insurance was just being changed or something, but it wasn't going to cover the birth and it costs 10 grand.
So I told my agent, I needed 10 grand and he calls me up and goes, I got you a 10 grand gig. That's three nights still for Julio glaciers and Atlantic city. And I said, you know, usually when I do these Atlantic city gigs, it's like half that. So why is this so much? And he says, because they're not going to understand you.
I go, what are you talking about?[00:41:00]
He goes, because the entire audience is Puerto Rican and they all speak Spanish and they're not going, it's 5, 000, 5, 000 seat room and he goes, and they're not going to understand you. And I go, why don't you get like Paul Rodriguez or somebody who they represented also at the time, you know, once you get Paul Rodriguez, somebody, you know, they'll understand.
He goes, he's not available. And I know you need the money. So, you know, and it was, it's, it was horrible. I'm like, God. It was like one of those sets where you're, you're, you're three minutes in and you think you're at 20. And you're looking at what's up. That's all I'm like, that's all I got. If 5, 000 people not listening, it was awful, awful, awful, awful.
But I never had an experience though. I've done some big rooms of it. Not as big as you did. Like when you were with, with Huey Lewis and doing during this, was it the sports tour?
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. But you were with them. I mean, you were playing arenas, weren't you? Oh, yeah. 10 to 30, 000 people. You know, I mean, it's, it was just insane, but I had a, I let the monitor guy do my introduction.
I wouldn't let the, let the, [00:42:00] uh, the, you know, the disc jockey. Hey guys, you ready to rock and roll that? Well, first, you know, cause that just kills you right there. This guy's, this guy's touring with us. He's a good friend of ours. He's been on the tour with us. You're going to love him. Let's hear it for Dr.
Gonzo. And I get, you know, Probably 30 seconds to be funny. So I got in there right quick. And if I got that laugh, then it was, it was, and I was probably about a 96 percent or, you know, a couple of the ice rinks were tough when it was general admission and they're all pushed up against the platform and then it collapsed and you have no security between you and the crowd.
It's pretty scary. Sometimes
Host Brian Copeland: what I did was I had, um, I was, I had a radio talk show at the time too, so I had, I had the engineer. Who also did voiceover stuff, record my introduction. Oh, and I just brought it in and they, and they would, would play it over the loudspeaker. Uh, I only played arena. I played, you know, I played, [00:43:00] let's see, probably the biggest place I played.
I played over you Cincinnati. I played, uh, I played riverfront arena. With, uh, with Natalie Cole, we did three shows and it was a private party, three packs for, for Procter and Gamble. And if somebody would have heckled me, I don't know what I would have done.
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah,
Host Brian Copeland: I don't know what, what it is I would have done.
So, uh, but now it's, you know, but we're, we're getting inside base. Sure we are. But
Dr. Gonzo: I knew I'd draw you in. I knew I'd draw you in. Talk about your life.
Host Brian Copeland: You sucked me in, but, uh, but this, you know, this goes along with the Trump philosophy that he got from Roy Cohn, his. Oh yeah, deny, deny that.
Dr. Gonzo: And that's where rock and roll comes in because all these guys would cheat on their wives on the road.
And the whole deal was denied, denied, denied, attack, attack, attack, and, uh, never, uh, admit defeat and, uh, cost a lot of marriages, but that's, I mean, it's the same thing, deny.
Host Brian Copeland: You know what, that, that reminds me of [00:44:00] is, you know, as I did rock and roll, you know, comics have a bad reputation for, for that on the road as well.
Uh, and there's a comic and I, I, well, I'm not going to say who it is, obviously, uh, who was a real, was a married guy. Who's a real playboy on the road. And, um, his wife used to unpack his suitcase. Maybe you heard the story because it's like lore now. So he'd get home off the road and his wife would unpack his suitcase.
And so she unpacks a suitcase and there is a pair of lacy panties in a suitcase. And so, you know, he's in like the living room or something. She walks in carrying these lacy panties. Doesn't say a word. Just walks in, carries them and sticks them in front of his face. And he goes, those guys. I'm blaming it on the other comics, those guys,
Dr. Gonzo: those guys,
Host Brian Copeland: those guys.
But yeah, it's like Obama said that all politicians lie. The problem with these people is, is that they lie. Most people, these [00:45:00] politicians, they will lie when you fact check them or when you catch them in the lie, they will then. Um, yeah. Okay. I misspoke or I, you know, misinformation or they'll pivot and talk about something else.
Whereas these people, Donald Trump is still doubling down on Haitians eat dogs. Yeah. So I'm Fox news. He doubled at Fox news. They checked him. They said, no, no, no. It's been, it's, it's been debunked. Well, people are saying
Yayne Abeba: that people are saying that. Yeah. That's what he said. He said, you know, I heard it.
Like, it's not my fault. I'm saying it. I heard somebody else say it first.
Dr. Gonzo: It's the same thing. You're right. They them.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. I do. Anybody catch catch Kamala's closing argument? And what do you think of it? And before we get to it, let me let me preface it with this. She has been getting a lot of grief the last maybe 4 or 5 days from, uh, High profile Democrats from Democratic donors, PACs, whatnot, saying that the campaign has been [00:46:00] giving too much oxygen and too much energy into leaning into Donald Trump as a fascist and leaning into John Kelly's remarks, which I gotta tell you, I mean, they should be disqualified.
What Kelly had to say should be enough to be disqualified, but they're saying that's a mistake. And that what she needed to be focusing on was policy, because you saying that Donald Trump is a fascist and Donald Trump loves Hitler. And even though it's his chief of staff, it's water off a duck's back. So, so given that and keeping that in mind, well, first of all, do you agree with that?
I mean, should she have leaned into it? And second of all, what'd you think of the speech?
Yayne Abeba: I think she should lean into it. I think people don't, people are going about their lives and they don't follow the news like they used to. People. On tiktok tell me that they're getting news from my tiktoks and I am a comedian Like a bunch of people were like, oh, I didn't know bannon was out of prison like until I did a whole like [00:47:00] post about how gross he is and um People people aren't hearing it.
This is essential It's important that people understand this and the democratic party As someone who's worked in politics and had to deal with them when i'm working on campaigns They have a formula and if someone breaks the formula they freak out They're constantly freaking out and wringing their hands and screaming about like, Oh my God, everything's going wrong.
Even when things are going great, there's something about. This party that they're always in panic mode So they don't and just think about it. How long has she been the nominee since august 19th?
Host Brian Copeland: Wow, that's all
Yayne Abeba: wow August 19th. Look at what she's done in that time Look at the campaign she's put together.
That is amazing. She's not getting any credit for it She needs to lean into what a danger he is to this country That we are not going to have a democracy if he becomes president of the united states. We will [00:48:00] have a dictator You And life as we know, it will severely change.
Host Brian Copeland: Let's see. Here's the problem.
The problem is, is that, is that on the left, any Republican in the last 20 years or 30 years who has run for president on the left has been called a fascist. Or on the left is called the dictator. And I think that could be part of the problem because everyday
Yayne Abeba: person isn't paying attention to that language.
They don't pay attention to the politics in that way. They're getting up, they're going to the grocery store. They're living their lives. I mean, my cousin, she doesn't know what's going on. She's getting up in the morning. She's, Oh, I hate it when it does that. She's getting up in the morning. She's taking her kids to school.
She's going to the grocery store. She's doing all this stuff. And then she comes over here and I'm like, girl, did you watch the news? Did you see what happened? She has no idea. She did not know anything about project 2025 until I was like, you need to Google it. You need to read it because it directly affects [00:49:00] us.
And, um, there's a lot of people who don't have the right information. And I think this is like critical. It's critical to know that he's a fascist. Like we pay attention, right? Everyday people, I go to Starbucks. I'm talking to that person. They don't, they just want to know what kind of drink I want. You know what I mean?
Like, and especially here in Tennessee, these people are so misinformed. They have no idea what's going on. I'm shocked. They just believe whatever Fox news tells them, Fox news is not talking about it.
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. That's Illinois. Illinois is the same way, you know, outside of the big urban areas. Yeah. And this whole banning thing, I saw it got released and it looks like they have showers in the prisons.
Host Brian Copeland: You ever like look at somebody and go, he looks like he smells.
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. Oh boy. Yeah. He looks like he has dandruff. Who's the gal that does all the, the, the body odor commercials on TV? That [00:50:00] gal, you know, she looks like she's got a smell.
Host Brian Copeland: Rob, Rob, your thoughts, your two cents on this. Here's the thing.
Rob Becker: I know a guy who's a trumper.
So I was talking to him one day and I said, you know, that he lies all the time. Right. And he goes, Oh yeah, I know that. And I said, well, how, how can you support a guy who lies all the time? He said, I just think it's funny because it makes liberals mad. So to me, I don't think it goes any further than that for a lot of people who support Trump.
So when liberals complain about him being a fascist for being a dictator, for wanting to throw out the constitution, for wanting to be a strong man, whatever. As long as it's making liberals mad, I think they think that's, that's cool. That's what's really cool about him. So I don't think you're going to change the mind of any Trump supporters, you know, with any kind of information.
And I think it's, it's, uh, it's sort of a fool's errand to think that they just need to be informed. [00:51:00] You know, I think it's
Host Brian Copeland: not, it's not Trump Trump supporters. I think they're going after, I think it is. They're going after no independence, but also Republicans. Yeah. Haley,
Rob Becker: Haley, uh, Nikki Haley Republicans.
That's who I think they should be appealing to. And from that standpoint, I thought she did a brilliant job. I think she's doing exactly what she needs to do going after those voters. People who are still persuadable, people who are not diehard Trump supporters. Um, you know, and so I thought she did a brilliant job.
I thought she was very inclusive. You know, she, she appealed to, uh, all the different kinds of voters who are still out there and still Up for grabs. So that's what I thought. I thought it was great. What'd you think?
Host Brian Copeland: Well, I thought it was great too. I thought she did exactly what it is she needed to do. Um, I thought that the location doing it at the ellipse, which is where, you know, Donald Trump incited the mob of January 6th, I thought was brilliant.
And I [00:52:00] saw something today that just made me chuckle. And that is, you know, uh, Trump's been running around for a couple of months saying that he had more people at the ellipse that day, listening to him speak that Martin Luther King had for the speech.
Yeah.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, I mean, so, so it was, it turns out he had 53, 000 and she had 75, 000. That's the number right now. So his head is about to explode, but I thought she started with it. Yeah, she started, she started with here's why I'm here. And then she went into policy. So I thought she did, but she needed to, I think
Rob Becker: she's done a great job from beginning to end.
Her, her convention was You know, uh, um, her stump speech is brilliant. The speech she gave last night, her debate with Trump, I, she wiped the floor with them,
Host Brian Copeland: which is why I wouldn't debate her again.
Dr. Gonzo: Right. That's definitely why she's educated. Uh, she's, uh, got interesting heritage. [00:53:00] She's, uh, She's a prosecutor.
And if he loses this election, he's facing prison time. You know, I mean, he's, he's losing it because he knows he might be end up behind bars. That's what he's
Yayne Abeba: running for. He's running to stay out of prison. So he can
Dr. Gonzo: recuse himself or whatever. But I, I still think, uh, Rob had the right point. You know, people listen to him because, uh, He makes liberals mad and I, I feel that around here too when I hear people support Trump and it's like, what are you, what are you listening?
Yayne Abeba: How is that going to, how is that going to help them with their bills? How is that going to help them with their health care? Oating the libs isn't going to improve the quality of their life. That's the thing I don't understand. And
Dr. Gonzo: you can, you can make all these promises, but until you're in office, then you've got to do, you've got to deal with Congress.
You got to do, you know, there's just no way things are just going to switch over and things are going to be cheaper. And my life's beautiful. And I mean, it takes a lot of [00:54:00] work. It would be nice to know what cabinet people are bringing into when you vote for these presidential nominees. Because we don't know, you know, who you're going to be surrounded by.
Who's he going to be? You know, if he wins, who's he going to be picking? Well, all the
Yayne Abeba: Project 2025 authors are going to be in his cabinet.
Dr. Gonzo: All the Fox commentators are going to be, uh, head of the defense department.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, I'll tell you this, is that his son, um, Eric, You know, the smart one of the two is, is, is, uh, his job during the transition is to vet potential appointees for their loyalty to Trump
Dr. Gonzo: or for their loyalty
Host Brian Copeland: or their loyalty to Trump.
That's what his job is, is to vet them all and find out how loyal they are to Trump. If they're not sufficiently loyal to Trump, they are disqualified.
Dr. Gonzo: My pillow guy,
Rob Becker: Trump supporters, everything they do is counter to their own best interests. They all claim to be really angry about inflation, right? But what is Trump planning to do?
Mass deportation and [00:55:00] tariffs, which will make inflation go through the roof. It'll, it'll explode the cost of healthcare, uh, for, for elderly people. You know, it'll, it'll explode the cost of food, the cost of housing. Uh, you know, so everything they do is counter to their interests, you know, but as long as it's making liberals mad, I guess they're okay with it.
It's worth it. And that's the problem. That's the real problem. You know, it's not, it's not the Tony Hinchcliffe jokes, it's that the racism turns into these policies like mass deportation, which would crash our economy. The real cost over
Yayne Abeba: a trillion dollars to do that.
Rob Becker: Yeah. And we need immigrants. Our population is shrinking, our workforce is shrinking.
We need immigrants for our economy to thrive. And, uh, you know, it's like, uh, Springfield, Ohio is like a microcosm of the United States. They, They needed those Haitians to come in because their economy, they needed workers. They went out and got those Haitians to come in. [00:56:00] And now their economy is thriving because they brought these Haitians in.
And, uh, by all reports, these Haitians are great workers. They report to work. They, you know, they work hard, et cetera, et cetera. Their, their economy is thriving. And then these lies they told about these Haitians, uh, the whole city was basically shut down because of all the, who were here
Host Brian Copeland: legally, by the way, who were here legally.
Rob Becker: Yeah, they're here legally. They were brought here legally.
Yayne Abeba: I love, I love how Trump keeps saying They had to shut down all
Rob Becker: the schools. They had to shut down the government because of all these death threats. So, the problem is this racism and these lies have real effects on, on people and also on our economy.
Yayne Abeba: Alright, speaking of the economy Trump keeps saying that, um, the Haitians are here on probation. So, he think, he literally thinks that they are criminals that were on probation in Haiti who came here. He doesn't understand that it is an immigration probation that's related to the temporary protective act.[00:57:00]
He doesn't get that. So I think he also thinks that he keeps saying lunatics from other countries. Cause he thinks that when you seek asylum, you came from an asylum.
I think he does. I think he's that stupid.
Host Brian Copeland: I didn't think about that, but that would make, that explains a lot. It's like you go, we're just keeping this because, you know, we're talking about the economy and, um, the, the Economist, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, uh, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. These are all, uh, conservative publications, and they have all published stories in the last seven to ten days, touting the economy, saying that we are in an America right now.
The economy is the, literally, the envy of the world. That we are in what is literally the best economy of our lifetimes, how there is record unemployment, um, how there are higher wages for the middle class, and it's because of, [00:58:00] of, uh, stimulus programs and things that were put in place by the Biden Harris administration.
That's right. So my, my question is this, why the hell doesn't anybody know the, I, I saw the New Yorker today said that the Biden's transformation. Of the economy rivals Franklin Roosevelt's new deal. So why and why have we not heard any that why, you know, Instead we have to listen to you know J. D. Vance stand in front of eggs talking about how expensive eggs are when they're like way cheaper There's a sign on them behind them saying that they're way cheaper than he's claiming.
They are why why do we not know this? I think most of the media is not
Yayne Abeba: covering it, but
Rob Becker: I think a lot of people do know that the economy is doing very well, but Trumpers, you know, are not going to admit that. And then you also have people on the far left who will say the economy is not good until everybody has lots and lots of money.
And we live in a, you know, a capitalist society, and the sad thing is that in a [00:59:00] capitalist society, there are always winners, and there's always going to be people who are going to suffer because of, you know, Uh, you know, they're on the losing end of, uh, the capitalist system. If you're going to judge, uh, any economy based on the people at the bottom, there's never going to be an economy that's going to be successful.
There will always be people at the bottom. The only thing you can do to solve that is to redistribute wealth, which is what, you know, people on the right hate. But you've got to take some taxes from people at the top and you've got to redistribute it down to the bottom and let it cycle its way back up.
Money trickles up, it does not trickle down.
Dr. Gonzo: Yeah. You're, you're correct on that. You gotta, if you give poor people money, they'll spend it. Exactly. That's what fuels everything. So give us more money.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, you know, what's interesting, just an aside is, you know, the majority of people who buy lottery tickets in states that have a lottery are people who live at or below the poverty line.
And those who win. Are you usually [01:00:00] sent? I read a stat, something like 70, 80 percent of them have lost it all. They're broke. Like within 18 months, within 18 months of, of, of winning the lottery, which makes no sense, you got family,
Dr. Gonzo: you got kids and here's, here's. Here's 1, 000, here's 1, 000, here's 1, 000, here's 1, 000.
You're trying to help people out because you were lucky. And because that's how you think. You think you have empathy for other people. And you see other people struggling. And if you were struggling and you got all that money, you'd probably be handing some of it out.
No,
Dr. Gonzo: maybe not me. No,
Host Brian Copeland: if
Rob Becker: you look at the statistics, if you look at statistics and you see, like, every time we have a three day holiday, you know, record numbers of people are out traveling.
You know, restaurants are thriving. Entertainment venues are thriving. The airlines are thriving. You know, uh, somebody knows we're having a good economy because a lot of people are out there living it up.
Host Brian Copeland: It's just so good. Southwest is making a pick [01:01:00] a pick a seat. They're making us pick a seat in advance.
Now with an assignment, that's how Trumpers,
Rob Becker: you know, Trumpers that are complaining about the economy, they have money to send this guy for his legal bills. Yeah.
Host Brian Copeland: and his sneakers and his, uh, nft. I, I still trading
Dr. Gonzo: cards. His, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What,
Host Brian Copeland: what? NFTs I don't New cryptocurrency,
Dr. Gonzo: crypto, or, or,
Host Brian Copeland: or, or his, his silver medallions that are a hundred bucks.
That's one ounce of Troy Silver that you can get an ounce of Troy Silver for something. What? In silver for something like's like 20 bucks
Rob Becker: worth of silver for a hundred bucks. Trump told his people that he was so rich he would never need their money. The next thing you know, he's asking them for money to pay his legal bills because he got busted for fraud.
And these people actually send him their money. I mean, I don't know how much you can say about his followers than that. You know, [01:02:00] nobody humiliates them worse than he does.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, see what people forget is, is that, and I had to explain this to somebody yesterday, this started as a publicity stunt that went awry.
This was the publicity stunt. I mean, if you go back and look at interviews of him during the, the, the Republican debates in 2015 and 2016, he didn't expect that, that he was going to do as well as he did. He decided it helped boost his brand. And, and he, you know, was shocked that, that he was a front runner.
And, and then, uh, on election night, nobody was more surprised than him. Yeah. Nobody was more surprised than you. I mean, they were so unprepared. There's a story about during the transition, the beginning of the transition, Jared Kushner is, is talking to somebody in the, in the, uh, Obama administration, uh, some official in there, they're walking to the white house and all the staffers are all over the place and, and Kushner asked, okay.
So, um, after the transition. How many of these employees are, are, are, are going to [01:03:00] still be here and how many do we need to fill? And they go, they're all going, none of them are going to be here unless they're, unless the new president reappoints them. None of them are. I mean, so how do you run for president and then not know that you're, you're, and you're only going to have a couple of months.
And you're going to have completely staffed government, the executive branch of the government. And you don't know that you got to do that. That tells me this is not a serious guy. He had no idea he was going to win.
Rob Becker: He knows nothing about being president, but even worse, he shows no interest. He seems to have no interest in learning anything about it.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, they said he didn't read his briefings. He get the president gets daily briefings. And I think
Yayne Abeba: I think he's a fake it till you make it guy like on a daily. Do you know what I mean? Like there's some people who just like kind of skate through life And he's one of those guys who's like, I don't need to know anything.
I'll just figure it out. And then he trusts that all the people he pays are going to figure it out for him. And he never has to do anything. [01:04:00] And now it just doesn't apply to being president of the most powerful country on the planet, you know?
Host Brian Copeland: As we are, are in the final days, uh, they are really ramping up.
Um, they, I mean the, the, the Harris campaign or PAC supporting, uh, the Democrats, uh, are really ramping up ads with abortion horror stories. And women telling their stories about, you know, I was going to die or I saw one that maybe brought me to tears. His husband and wife talking about how they were in a place where they were forced that they knew the baby was going to be, you know, if the baby even came out alive, he wouldn't live more than a minute or two.
And that they had to go through the whole labor and the whole thing, you know, so, um, just, just like the, the, the other question about fascism, there are some who are saying that they don't lean too much into that because there are voters who will be turned off. Um, and [01:05:00] I, it just seems to me, it would be the opposite.
I mean, any place where abortion rights have been on, on the ballot, for God's sake of Iowa. I mean, you know, places where you wouldn't think. Abortion referendum in Ohio. They tried, you know, they tried all kinds of procedural stuff to keep it from being a referendum. So, um, how big of a part do you think that abortion rights are and reproductive rights are going to play into this this election?
Because keep in mind. In 2016, 52 percent of, of white women, and I'm told, um, that, uh, in 2020, it was more, a higher percentage of white women voted for Trump who brags about overturning Roe because he says everybody wanted it.
Yayne Abeba: Yeah, but he did the, the Supreme question. Overturned Roe until Biden was president.
And a lot of people think that it's Biden's fault that Roe was overturned because he was president when the Supreme court made that ruling. [01:06:00] Um, and that goes back to the lack of education and information that people have in this country. I think Michelle Obama at the Kalamazoo speech made the best argument for why abortion is essential.
This it is healthcare and that's why it's on the ballot. And that a vote for Trump is a vote against the women in your life because it's, so I have a friend who he's a, he's a black Trumper and he's constantly DMing me and my cousin's stuff. And we're like, stop sending and he's always bringing up the laptop, Hunter Biden's laptop, right?
Everything's about the laptop. And then we were like, you know, whatever. We don't even know if we want to be friends with you anymore, because you're advocating against us as women and against our safety and our health. This is healthcare. And he had the nerve to say to us, which is a lot of men think this way, well, you guys are too old, too old to have kids anyway, so why do you care?
And it's more than that. It's these drugs are for more than [01:07:00] just abortions. They treat other things. There's, you know, women need birth control because they're going to go after birth control too. They're going after IVF. They're going after all of it. So they just want women to be like, like cattle, just breeding.
And so it is essential and it's breaking up families. I mean, all through social media, there are women posting tears about their husband counts, canceling out their vote. Cause their husband voted for Trump or their father voted for Trump and they feel betrayed like their father or husband voted against them and doesn't care about them.
And I, there are so many women who realize that this is abortion is healthcare and women are dying. Right now, because of this overturn
Host Brian Copeland: and that's not hyperbole, you're not at all. I mean, literally women are dying.
Rob Becker: A woman over 50 shouldn't care about abortion. It's kind of like saying my house isn't [01:08:00] on fire.
Why should I care about your house?
Yayne Abeba: Yeah,
Rob Becker: no,
Yayne Abeba: exactly.
Rob Becker: It's called empathy. You know, it's called wanting something for other people that you would want for yourself.
Yayne Abeba: And that's the problem with the MAGA base. They lack empathy, just like Trump lacks empathy. So they don't care. And the Heritage Foundation This whole thing is not about their religion.
This is about more white babies being born because the majority of women who terminate pregnancies are white.
Host Brian Copeland: Did you ever see that, that study that, um, uh, Malcolm Gladwell did in one of his books, I can't remember what the book was, uh, that we had a real big drop in, in crime in America, in the 1990s, in the mid to late 1990s, a real big drop.
In, uh, in crime, and they were trying to figure out why did crime suddenly dip. And what he hypothesized [01:09:00] was it was exactly 18 years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. And The women who, in a lot of cases, have abortion because they, for whatever reason, don't want to have the child, are in a circumstance where they can't take care of, you know, they're poor, they're uneducated, they're not in a situation where they can take care of a kid, and they are raising children who are most likely, who are statistically more likely to, in those years, when they hit their teens and early twenties, be involved in crime.
And so therefore, because of the fact that Roe was the, was the, the, the law of the land, there were a lot of people who, um, would not have had, who would have had babies that would have, I'm trying to be as delicate as I can. So basically what you're saying is there's a whole generation of criminals out there.
That's what it was he was saying. [01:10:00] That's what it is that he said. I don't know that I buy that or not, but I, I don't know if there's any, any, any credence to, to that idea. But you think about, you know, this is not every, every woman or most women who have abortions, but there are a lot of women who have them because of the fact that they, they would be, uh, high at a child they have would be at higher risk For being engaged in illegal activity because of the fact that they can't take care of them.
They can't educate them. They can't feed them. They are not living in circumstances where you can do anything else to survive, but but commit illegal acts,
Yayne Abeba: but abortions more than just. It's an unwanted pregnancy. And I think that's what the people who, who, who helped this helped row get overturned. Don't realize that because they're men and they're, you know, like they're evangelical white men who don't understand other people or care to understand other people's circumstances.
It's [01:11:00] just about their religious beliefs. So they don't understand that there's the topic pregnancy. There's the, you know, there's all these other situations where in the life of the mother, Or the child that's a victim of, um, ancestor rape. Like those, those are situations that they, I don't think they thought this through and they're not pro life they're pro birth.
Rob Becker: No one's
Yayne Abeba: taking care of people. I bridle
Rob Becker: at making it a gender issue, because if you look at surveys and polls, you know, something like 60 percent of women think that women should have the right to choose. And it's something like 58 percent of men. So it's not a gender issue. Just as many men as women believe women should have the right to choose.
It's a party issue. And you have, uh, you know, Trump when he ran in 2016, uh, said he would overturn Roe v. Wade and said that women should be punished for seeking abortions. And he's still got 50 percent of white women voted for him. So, you know, I see [01:12:00] these things online where they say men should butt out and men should have no opinion.
My opinion is nobody should have an opinion. Only the woman and her doctor or her clergyman or whatever, whoever she wants to bring in to consult her husband or boyfriend, whatever, should be making that decision. You know, not men, not women, not anybody else.
Host Brian Copeland: I mean, make it, make it about something other than abortion.
I mean, let's, let's look at it as, uh, you've got some kind of, well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you a personal story. Uh, I, I found out I've been having trouble breathing through my nose for the last like four weeks and I finally went to the doctor yesterday and apparently I've got polyps growing in my nose.
Uh, and I, uh, They put me on some medicine to see if it shrinks them, but if it doesn't shrink them, I'm going to have to have surgery or we're going to have to talk about surgery. So, you know, should that be my decision, whether I want to, there are side effects. I don't know what the possible complications could be, but should that be my decision, whether or not I want to do it, or should it be up to the government?[01:13:00]
So if you put it, you know, in, in terms like that, maybe Guys who don't understand might understand if you put in terms of, you know, any medical procedure you want to have. And if you decide you want to have a vasectomy, do you want to decide that or should the government decide that for you?
Rob Becker: Yeah, and I believe men can understand that issue.
And I think that that was what was so brilliant about Michelle Obama's speech is that she really brought the men along into it. You know, She talked about, you know, uh, to, to all you men who love us women, you know, to, to fathers, you know, it's your mother, it's your niece, it's your daughter, it's your sister, it's your wife, you know, it's, it's all the women in your life.
And, uh, she also told a story, you know, but, uh, you know, the, the, the little girl that gets pregnant and has to put her life on hold. And she said, you know, not just her, but her, you know, the man, you know, the boy who's involved is, is also, uh, going to have his life interrupted. Uh, which, you know, if we're, if we're talking [01:14:00] about an ethical situation, of course, the boy should be involved as well.
It's going to affect his life. Even if it's nothing more than, uh, having it on his conscience of what he did, you know, uh, that men have consciences too. And, uh, you know, I love that she, she brought men into this because as someone who I go out and I do texting, you know, political texting. And that's what you're up against.
You're up against the idea that this is just a woman's issue, that men, it's not something that men need to be concerned about. But I do believe that, you know, uh, that men are concerned about this issue, that they're empathetic to this issue. Not all men, but some are, some certainly are. And like I said, 60, you know, 58 percent of men at poll, you know, believe that women should have the right to choose.
And I believe that they are, uh, potential voters.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, to be quite honest with you, the numbers you just gave surprised me that they're so low that it's only 60 percent of women. I would have assumed that number two would have been much higher. [01:15:00] Like
Dr. Gonzo: he said, I think it's a political thing. It's not because of that.
Host Brian Copeland: It's it's been so interesting that we went long. Hey, but that's cool. Well, we will kind of have to show I want to say thank you very much for being here. I want to thank all of you for being here. We'll talk again after the election. Okay.
Yayne Abeba: All right. We'll be in a good place after the election.
Host Brian Copeland: If we still have free speech, we'll do it.
Dr. Gato, Rob, Becker, Yanni, Abobo. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, that's going to do it for this week. Uh, it's going to be a real hairy five days. I'm going out for a prescription and valium, in fact, right? As soon as I'm done here. That's how nerve wracking this next five days are going to be. If you like what it is that you are seeing here on YouTube or that you're listening to, if you're listening to the audio version of the podcast, please do us a favor and help us get some support.
Best way to do that [01:16:00] is on YouTube. Please make sure that you like the broadcast. Just let us know that you like it. Click like. The more likes we get, the better we are. As soon as we get enough of them, we can go live. Uh, if you like what you're listening to, go to your, uh, your podcast provider where it says, leave a review, leave us a five star review that helps people to find the show as well.
And I'm going to leave you with this and that is vote. This is in, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this, this is the most important election of our lifetime. It will really determine whether or not this 250 year, 250 plus year, no, it's not 250 plus, you know what I'm saying. It's up for 200 years, 76 sort of years.
I don't feel like doing the math, but about this, this couple of century old experiment in democracy. We'll work or not, because if, uh, if the election goes one way, [01:17:00] then, uh, our way of life will continue. We'll continue to disagree about things. We'll continue to compromise on things. We will continue to try to find ways to solve problems and we'll come up with new problems.
But the whole fact is that we'll still all have some kind of a voice, you know, in how these problems are dealt with. If it goes another way, then we won't. It's as simple as that. So vote, and um, I'm sure you know which way I lean, I'm endorsing, I don't have to endorse her, I know her, I've talked about her, I've told you I know her, uh, Kamala Harris, I support a thousand percent, and uh, if you support Kamala Harris, here's what you, I'm gonna ask you to do, if you have a son, vote for Kamala Harris.
or a daughter or a grandson or a granddaughter or a niece or a nephew or a cousin who goes to college and is going to college In a battleground state have them vote there [01:18:00] have them vote in the battleground state because those are the states that are going to determine who the next president of the United States is, you know, especially when we have a lot of listeners in California, because this is where it is that we are recording.
And, uh, where a lot of our, uh, Our panels come from here in California. So that's we do have a large California, uh, viewership, uh, and listenership. Uh, but California is a blue state and it's the electoral college, which in my opinion, a lot of opinions is really anti democratic. The one who has the most votes should win.
I mean, that's simple. The most who has the, the, the, whoever the candidate is with the most votes should be the candidate who wins, but that's not always how it goes. So, uh, it's going to come down to the electoral college. So if, if you're, you're a young person in your life is a Californian who's going to school in Pennsylvania or in Wisconsin or [01:19:00] Michigan, have them vote there.
Because their vote will count a lot more there than it will here. California is going blue. I mean, there's no chance. I mean, they're, they're going to be pockets of red. They're going to be some, some, uh, uh, GOP, uh, Congress people I'm sure elected here in this state, but the state itself is going to go blue.
That that's not, there's no doubt of that. But, uh, it's the other states where you've got as a I'm recording this right now on Wednesday, um, and you're seeing this Thursday or after, uh, as of Wednesday, we're talking about 1 to 2 points on average in the battleground states, separating these 2 candidates.
One to two points. And in some places that can come down to a couple of thousand or even a couple of hundred votes in terms of who gets the electors for that state. I mean, that's why they're doing things like, you know, uh, in, in [01:20:00] Virginia. Uh, you had the Republicans trying to purge 1600 votes that they are saying are votes of people who were not citizens.
And a judge said, first of all, you can't do that this close to election. Second of all, what you're risking here is, is having people who Our citizens swept up in it. First of all, if you believe that there are that many non citizens who are voting, uh, that you're going to have people who are citizens swept up in this and their vote is, is thrown out.
Well, as of today, as of Wednesday, as of Wednesday morning, the Virginia state, uh, Supreme court said, no, they can do it. Then throw the 1, 600 votes out. And while 1, 600 votes in the grand scheme of millions and tens of millions of American votes may not seem like a lot, in a battleground state, that 1, 600 votes could mean the difference between Kamala Harris being in the White House and Donald Trump being in the White House.
So have the young person in your life who is going to school, going to work, doing [01:21:00] whatever, uh, in one of the battleground states to cast their ballot. So I will, uh, we'll check out next week. Uh, try to survive over the weekend. Make sure that you vote and, uh, Godspeed. Till next time, be kind to your neighbor because he really knows who he is.
Copeland's
Producer Char: Corner is brought to you by Carolina Productions and GoToProductions. It was created by an executive produced by your host. Brian Copeland. It is produced, recorded, and edited by Charlene Goto. Our booking producer is Tom Sawyer. If you like what you hear, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and comment on our YouTube channel and wherever you listen to your podcast media.
You can follow us on Instagram, at Copeland's Corner, to get all the latest news and happenings on the show. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next [01:22:00] time.