Guests this week: Daymon Ferguson, Maureen Langan & Johnny Steele.
This week's edition of Copeland's Corner, with featured Headliners Daymon Ferguson, Maureen Langan & Johnny Steele, as they and Brian discuss this week's hot talk topics.
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Y23 - D1025 - EP164 - Copeland's Corner (Steele, Langan & Ferguson)
[00:00:00]
Host Brian Copeland: This is the part of podcast that we call headliners on the headlines. Joining me this week, uh, Damon Ferguson, Johnny Steele, Maureen Langan. We'll talk about some of the news of the week. Welcome everybody. What's going on?
Maureen Langan: Hey, Brian. Hi, fellas. Hey, hey.
Host Brian Copeland: What's new and exciting? Oh, What I forgot your dog's name.
What is your dog's name? Nick. Mickey. Hey, Mickey. Hey, Mickey! He's a rescue what? Attack dog? Pardon? He's a rescue attack dog, is that what it is? That's what he is. He does
Johnny Steele: one trick, I think I showed you.
Host Brian Copeland: Wait, wait, wait,
Johnny Steele: wait. He does one trick but he knows he's excited about it. So, wait, wait. Oh no, Johnny, you're frozen.
Wait, you're blowing the lead, dude, hold on.
Host Brian Copeland: Hey, Nick. Hey,
Johnny Steele: Nick. You want to go out for a walk or you want to stay home and watch a bunch of Brian Copeland stand up comedy videos? [00:01:00] Guess not. He didn't like that idea. Well, he
Maureen Langan: could win America's Got Talent.
Host Brian Copeland: What did the dog do that that beat you on America's Got Talent?
Maureen Langan: I don't I don't know. All I know is I'm going to start a kill shelter. That's all I know. Um,
He jumped into stuff and jumped around and went into leaves and came out of them I don't know, I blocked it out. And
Host Brian Copeland: he beat your dog jumping in the leaves?
Maureen Langan: He beat everybody! Everybody lost to the dog. The dog won everything. It's like us going to best in show at my curly hair, calling myself a poodle and winning.
It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I'm not kidding. Look at this. All right. Lobster, lobster, whatever. No, no, no. Animal eggs, man.
Host Brian Copeland: No animal eggs and kid eggs. Forget it. All right. Well, let's start, let's start with this. Let's jump into it. Um, today, Wednesday, when we were recording this a couple of hours ago, the Republican house of representatives finally elected a [00:02:00] speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
He's an election denier. And the New York times said that he was one of the chief arch architects of the electoral court, electoral college plot. This is the speaker of the house who would not certify, uh, Joe Biden as the victor in 2020, and he's going to be the sitting speaker during the 2024 election, should we be worried?
That he's not going to certify anybody, he's not going to be behind certifying anybody but Trump, if Trump should lose. I would be
Maureen Langan: more, most concerned that he's third in line for the presidency, uh, and knowing what his values are. That, that's what would concern me. He's so ultra, ultra conservative and we'll have a federal abortion ban and things like that.
Nice things.
Daymon Ferguson: Well, wise to the occasion, as an honorable man. Nobody bought
Host Brian Copeland: that. No, not at all. Well, this a comedy podcast, so go ahead. Keep going on that train of thought.
Daymon Ferguson: I look like a dog [00:03:00] on America's Got Talent.
Host Brian Copeland: Jump into some leaves, will ya? I could, I could.
Daymon Ferguson: No, I, I, I, I really, I don't think he's gonna You know, Leopard doesn't change his spots.
He's going to be the same. Uh, and yes, we should be worried. We should be incredibly worried about the state of the democracy. I think even a lot of moderate Republicans are worried, although they didn't appear to support this guy. Uh, but I think they're very worried about the way that their party's being hijacked by the, the mega side of things.
And I'm not seeing them really do
Host Brian Copeland: much about it though. Well, it's not being hijacked. It has been hijacked. The only reason Yeah, that, that he got the, the 217 votes he needed, I think he got two 20, is what he ended up with was because of the fact that the, the, the right wingers who were, um, uh, opposed to whoever the, I forget who the third, uh, speaker candidate was.
Who, who yesterday was, he was a candidate for about four hours. They had chosen him until then. Trump like put the kibosh on it. So, so he had to withdraw. [00:04:00] I mean, so that that's how much control and how much power Trump still has over that party. So, it's just, you know, Nancy Pelosi was on, uh, on with Chris Hayes.
I think it was last night. And she said, it's interesting how on the day that, that Mark Meadows, the, the, the final chief of staff of Donald Trump, it's been announced that he's been given immunity and he's testifying against Trump when this is announced that he's flipped on that very day. There's still the house Republicans are still cowtelling Trump.
I mean, unbelievable, unbelievable, Johnny thoughts. I know you've got some. I don't you know, I just
Johnny Steele: wonder like when you we've all traveled to other countries and you walk around a corner during election year and there's like 18 parties. I wonder if this is a an example of like maybe some of the flaws in the two party system.
It seems like any I even feel this a little bit about the left part of the left is, you know, maybe there's yeah. I mean, there are other parties, of course, right? Libertarians and greens and whatever, but they don't, you know, they don't get enough of a percentage of the votership to get in the debates and so on and so forth.
So [00:05:00] there really isn't in practicality. It's a two party system. And I just wonder, I see some people saying crazy stuff on the left. I see people saying crazy stuff on the right. It seems like it wasn't crazy. Part of the original GOP package and it wasn't part of the original democratic package. I don't know.
Maybe, maybe we do need six parties. I never would have said this before, but I don't think I've seen both parties sort of divided. I mean, you know, I just remember doing the last couple of elections, you know, the Hillary crowd hated the Bernie crowd people and the Bernie crowd hated the Hillary crowd people.
And it was almost like two separate parties, you know, they were calling Hillary a Nazi and a corporate weasel and everything else. You know, and so I don't know. I live in Berkeley, of course, so it's a constant clown show, and I went for a bike ride to a bunch of, uh, Robert Kennedy people up on the up on the over the 80, which is illegal.
By the way, you can't go up on the overpass and hang signs and scream and yell and whatnot. And, you know, there's a theory that if he runs, he may pull enough Dems off to give the GOP the election. So afraid [00:06:00] everyone's afraid to go to more than two parties because you remember. Some of you might be too young.
We remember John Anderson. What was that? 1980 or something
Host Brian Copeland: like that. Yeah, it was, it was Reagan, Carter, and John Anderson. And
Johnny Steele: then don't forget Nader. And some people say the far left still says, Hey, screw you. You're going to Gore. Wasn't good enough or blah, blah, blah. And then other people say, no, there's some data that shows that he may have tossed the election to the Bush was Bush at that time, remember it was Bush.
So, I don't know. It just does seem crazy. I mean, I know there are a lot of conservative people who roll their eyes when, you know, they don't, they're not fans of Trump and they wish he would just go away. Mm-Hmm. . But, 'cause he just, you know, he's, that, you know, once, once it's outta the bottle, you know, he's crazy.
And it's embarrassing for, for centrist conservatives who, you know, are more Mitt Romney, John. Yeah. You know, kind of people. So it's, no, we were in certainly a, it's hate user existential, but I mean, both parties are sort of there where. I don't know. It's crazy. There's cringy fringe people. It's almost [00:07:00] Frankenstein's monster, right?
It's just like created this monster and now you can't control it. Well, you know
Maureen Langan: what worries me too? You'll see somebody like Jim Jordan, whose head seems like it's going to explode, you know, and you could just see the wrestler and him hasn't left. It's just like, he is just insane. This Mike Johnson guy.
He can come across a little more eloquently calm and his demeanor, but that doesn't mean underneath. It isn't the same thing. And that's what worries me. You can say very nicely. I bet. He's very nice, but I may not want to be his religion and I may still want. You know, autonomy to my body, and you have to be careful because you watch Nikki Haley's doing this.
Now. Do I think that she's really informed about, uh, you know, global politics and, you know, yes, I think she's very smart, but all of a sudden, you know, instead of nobody should have an abortion now. It's, um. My husband was adopted and I really believe in it. Great. I'm glad your husband was adopted. I'm glad he was put up for adoption.
I'm glad that worked out for you. But now that has to be my [00:08:00] choice, Nikki Haley, but watch, she's really soft in the way she addresses it, but she wants a federal man to be careful with these people, the ones that come across very nice and calm.
Host Brian Copeland: I'll tell you what's, what's scary to me. Um, you know, when you talk about a federal ban, I mean, as long as Democrats can keep one house of, of, of Congress, that's not going to happen or, or, or can keep the executive branch.
That's not going to happen. A number of polls came out, have come out in the last 24, 48 hours. This showed that, uh, if the election were held today, it's too close to call. Or in some cases, like one or two of these polls have Trump winning. And the guy has 91 charges against him, he's been
Daymon Ferguson: indicted 4 times.
He's a victim. Really?
Host Brian Copeland: Really? Definitely.
Maureen Langan: It's really fun though watching how out of control he is because he's not used to anybody telling him sit down and shut up like these judges and I just absolutely love. That there's an African American woman who's actually the boss of him. [00:09:00] This has got to be his worst nightmare.
The person that he would want under his thumb more than anybody is now going, I see you when I raise you, shut up
Host Brian Copeland: gag order. There was an article that I read about how fascinating it is that, that as anti African American as Trump has been in his rhetoric and in, uh, in his policies, that the people are holding him accountable, Alvin Bragg in New York.
Tisha James, uh, Fonny Willis. Uh, Tanya Chuck, yes. They're all people of color who are holding him accountable, you know, which is kind of poetic justice. Yeah.
That's cool. Did you see that clip, um, of, of Mike Johnson, uh, giving a, a press conference when he was asked by an African American woman, uh, about his involvement with trying to overturn the 2020 election and he just said, no, next question. And the, the House Republicans who are with him started booing this reporter, a black woman, and told yelling for her to shut [00:10:00] up.
Maureen Langan: I didn't know it was a black reporter. I did know they were telling somebody to shut up. But I didn't realize
Host Brian Copeland: it was a black woman, you know, they're telling to shut up. So, I mean, it's just, it's, it's frightening. I saw another, uh, report today. Uh, it was a study, uh, that was done by the Brookings Institute where they ask how many people agreed with the, the, the statement.
Think since things are so bad, uh, patriots may have to resort to violence. To keep America, what get America or to get America back? Yeah. Well, actually, I'll see if I can find the, yeah, that's, uh, since things are so bad, it's something like, uh, hang on a second. I'll tell you the exact number, what it is.
Here it is. Okay. Report released by the public religion research Institute and the Brookings Institute. 23%. Agreed with the statement because things have gotten so bad, I've gotten so far off track. True American patriots may have to resort to violence to save our [00:11:00] country. Uh, 33 percent of Republicans agree with that statement.
41 percent of Trump supporters agree with that statement. So I'll ask you the question. How worried do you think we should be about political violence? I mean, you got threats that are through the roof. We saw what happened on January 6th. We saw what happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband. You know, so, so I mean, how, how scared should we be?
Very.
Daymon Ferguson: I think it's probably inevitable at this point because it's being stoked so vehemently, uh, and chaos certainly serves the, the, the Trump platform and the more chaos, the better for him. And I think that we're probably going to see it. Uh, I think it's almost inevitable at this point. I think we should be very afraid of it.
Uh, and to Johnny's point earlier, I think it's probably time to get rid of political parties. I
Host Brian Copeland: don't think they're doing us any good. But how do we do that? I mean, I don't know. That's something that I mean, that's really looks good on paper, but let's talk practicality. It's like getting rid of, we should get rid of the electoral college, but it's [00:12:00] not going to happen because we're not going to amend the constitution because the red states will never go alone.
Right. You know, there are a lot of things that there are a lot of things that we should do, but I mean, but realistic short, short of abolishing and I gotta tell you, I would agree with that job, but short of abolishing parties, I mean, It's, it's frightening. Um, you know, and I think these gag orders on Trump are a good thing because everybody he targets, if he, you know, he's calling Jack Smith, the reigns, and the things he said about Bonnie Willis and Alvin Bragg, all these people end up getting death threats, all these people who he targets and he just says, Oh, I'm just exercising my first member, right.
And he knows that he's got a lot of nuts and coops who were following him and they're just waiting for his go ahead to attack somebody. And you know, that's what they're. You know, that's what the FBI is most afraid of. They say we will not find, we will not see another coordinated thing like January 6th.
What instead we'll see is lone wolves.
Maureen Langan: Well, you're seeing it with judges now, you see people who go and kill judges who don't side with them or don't like their decisions. It may [00:13:00] not have anything to do with Trump, but it's his sense of the lunatic being empowered to kill somebody if they don't like what they're doing.
That frightens me. But I think I'm in a really big sense of denial and I have to snap out of it. It really is probably a 99% Sure that it's going to be a Trump Biden runoff again. Right? I, I, I keep thinking there's going to be somebody. Is it, is it too late for another Democrat to emerge a deadline for that?
Host Brian Copeland: They haven't had the primaries yet, of course. So, I mean, anything could happen. Any, anything could happen. Um, and there are a lot of people who say that if Biden cared about the party, you know, cause the biggest thing that he's got going against him is the age thing, uh, which I, it was just fascinating to me.
There's not more of an issue for Trump. Cause they're only three years apart for God's sakes. But, but yeah, they're, they're saying that he should just step aside and say, okay, I did what I said I was going to do. I'd be a caretaker president. I'd get the crazy out of the white house. I'd fumigate the place.
And, and, uh, you know, basically that's what he's done and that he should step [00:14:00] aside and let somebody else go. I mean, who, I mean, people, for some reason, people don't like Kamala and I've never understood that and I'm biased because I know her personally, but I've never understood why it is that she gets to
Maureen Langan: really, really, you, you don't know why, come on.
Come on. She's a woman and she's
Host Brian Copeland: black. I mean, other than other than racism and sex. Well, they haven't. I will.
Maureen Langan: Well, totally. They hate women in America. Sorry. People hate women. They just do look at that. And even when you're watching this Johnson and his, uh, you know, his crowd behind him, there's not 1 ounce of diversity in that crowd.
0, 0, 0. That's what you look at when you're seeing the Republicans. I do think. Aside from being a woman, a woman of color, I do think it takes away. It detracts from her credibility when she giggles and laughs at everything. Even when they're serious questions. She has this kind of tick or nervous habit where her default is to just kind of laugh or giggle it just what she does.
And it's like, come on, this is your moment this time. Come on. Yeah. [00:15:00] So that I, I do think that detracts because we don't hear enough from her. So, when we do, and it's a heavy topic and she starts to giggle, I think it does detract. I do. Yeah. I would have to chat with her about that. You're close to her. Go talk to her about that.
Because I'm not
Host Brian Copeland: close to her. I know her. I haven't. Get close. Put her hand on the Bible. Or that. All right. We'll make friends. Donnie look like you got thoughts. I
Johnny Steele: don't know what Newsom's plans are. I mean, I met Newsom years ago when I was a San Francisco radio show host. Yeah, and um, it's it seemed to me that guy had an official air about him when he was a child, you know I thought he was looking toward the presidency when he was just a san francisco supervisor So I don't know what he's waiting for when he's waiting, you know, I I would I all every election I wonder why he's not in so well,
Daymon Ferguson: he's a party guy and I think they're struggling for party unity I think that's a lot of what's going on is uh, they're not gonna you're not gonna find a serious democrat who's gonna Try to unseat biden in the [00:16:00] primary They won't have
Host Brian Copeland: party backing.
That, that's why, why he, I mean, he's setting himself up. I mean, that, that, that's why he's been attacking Rhonda Santos and he's going to be debating Santa's on Fox, Santa's on Fox news, they're going to have a debate and the whole reason is, is he, he's trying to position himself. So if something happened and Biden did drop out or Biden had to drop out, that, uh, you know, he's the guy he's right there.
And I've always said, unless he slips on a banana peel or something, he's going to be president one day, unless, unless there's some real big hiccup. Unless there's something really bad that's happened that, that he's done. There's happened that we're not aware of. He's going to be a president one day. Yeah,
Maureen Langan: but, you know, I know the, um, you know, being from the East Coast, or you hear this whatever coast you're on people, they just particularly Fox News or the right wing news.
They always just glom on to California as an example of and just like they make fun of my beloved New Jersey that it's smelly. It's not there's beautiful beaches. It's gorgeous. So people [00:17:00] have a stereo and I hate people who put down my beloved New Jersey. And even though I grew up in a town called Lake Hiawatha, and there's no lake, but still, I think.
You That people look, and I'm glad you brought up news from Johnny because I was thinking he looks like he's planting seeds. Why would he be debating DeSantis on Fox News? Come on. And that takes balls. However, people are going to look at the homeless situation in San Francisco, the 999 dollar rule. I picked up a pair of shoes in Nordstrom and made a little joke on my little videos.
They truly were 1590 dollars. So I said, where's the daughter of the garbage man section? Because I can't afford these. And somebody goes too bad. They weren't 999 or they would have been yours. You could have just walked right out. That's the image. People have of San Francisco, the homeless, the needles, the drugs, and they're going to say, if you couldn't take care of that Avenue.
So what are you going to do with the rest of the country? Why should we put our. Faith in you when you can't take care of your own, um, a city
in
Host Brian Copeland: your state. Let's, let's talk about this for a second. As you brought up, you know, shoplifting is a, it's, it's gone beyond shoplifting. I mean, people just go in and they fill up [00:18:00] baskets and they walk out with the baskets just without paying.
And it's like, you know, what, what do we do? I mean, there have been a couple of cases of employees. I'm aware of employees actually trying to stop people. Uh, you know, one guy at, uh, down in, in San Ramon, California, I believe it was at a Home Depot. I think it was a Home Depot was a Home Depot was at Home Depot was trying to
Johnny Steele: sell me.
So he wanted to be, he wanted to be a police officer and I don't know if he didn't have money for the Academy or whatever. So he thought he'd work in loss prevention or whatever they call it now. And some couple came in and they stole, uh, I think a battery charger or something like that. And then there was a tussle and they went to their car and got a gun and came back and shot him dead.
Like like a 20 year old kid, a 21 year old kid. Oh
Host Brian Copeland: wow.
Johnny Steele: And they had, All sorts of priors galore and had been.
Host Brian Copeland: Oh, man. And I know somebody personally who was working at a major grocery store chain, uh, here in the, in the Bay area, which is where we're all based. If you're out of the area, this is where we're [00:19:00] based right now.
Uh, who was in the store when, uh, when there was a robbery, uh, where they were like a swarm of four or five people who came in to rob the place. And she stood in the doorway and tried to block them on the way out. And, uh, and they shoved her down. And, uh, when, once it was all over, when management found out what she'd done, they fired her.
For standing in the doorway trying
Johnny Steele: to remember that story. Yeah.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. So it's like, what do you I mean, so, I mean, I don't know what the, what the, what the solution is. We've got an Alameda County, we've got a recall right now there's a recall campaign to recall the current da. And the reason they're using is because she's she's trying to fight mass incarceration and she's, you know, has ordered her, her ad is to find any alternative to incarceration, you can find.
And if it's something where, where the law says you have to give jail time to give as little as possible. So, um, so they're trying to blame that on crime and I don't know. Yeah, well, the solution,
Daymon Ferguson: the solution to mass [00:20:00] incarceration isn't People are in a situation where they don't have to commit crimes.
It's giving people opportunity and hope. It's not ignoring
Host Brian Copeland: crime. That's not the solution. That's what she says. And you're breaking up a little bit, Damon. Sorry about that. Yeah, your audio's breaking up a little bit. Uh, but that's uh, you know, that's exactly where she's coming from.
Maureen Langan: I don't know. I don't understand this.
I got to be honest with you. I'm like, way liberal. Uh, and I, Oh, I'm going to be doing, I tell you this as an aside, I'm going to be performing comedy on Huckabee's show. And when they called me, I go, uh, do you know that like, I'm a bleeding heart, uh, liberal, like who believes in gay marriage and women's rights and birth control.
They say, just don't do politics. But what I don't get is if I took those boots out of Nordstrom, I get arrested. You're supposed to get. You're not supposed to do that. I don't understand this. I'm sorry. I didn't have a lot of opportunity growing up. You don't steal things. I don't I mean, I don't. You just don't do that.
I don't care. You don't have the people who are stealing running in there. I live above a Dwayne Reid in Manhattan. And I go down there and I'm friendly. I got to [00:21:00] stop being friendly. The guy next to me is grabbing three, six packs out of the next to me where I'm grabbing, getting, buying something. I go, wow, we're having a party tonight, huh?
And I looked at him. No, he's stealing them. He's stealing.
So I say to the girls at the counters, I go in there all the time and go look at me. No eye contact. You don't see anything that's going on. You don't risk your lives. They call the cops, the cops show up 20 minutes later, like, where's the security guard? Oh, he's off at 11. Oh, that's awesome. Because it's midnight.
So I say, don't look at them. Don't stop them. Just save yourself, honey, save yourself and go get a job at Trader Joe's during the afternoon. That's what I
Host Brian Copeland: said. Well, I wouldn't risk my life, you know, for, for a store. I mean, I worked in, I worked in retail, you know, when I was in high school and college and, and, you know, I, we, we would rarely, we would see shoplift, shoplifters every once in a while, whether even then there was no way I was risking my life or my safety, you know, over, over their merchandise, you know, and it's not your job.
I mean, it's not your job as, as an employee, I don't [00:22:00] think. I wouldn't do it. It's certainly,
Daymon Ferguson: it's certainly not, not for what they're paying anyway. Uh, why do you need to manage a milestone? Didn't you get it? They're regularly, people would come in and steal most of our, our supplies. That was the, the, the big take item because they're easy to resell on eBay or whatever.
And she would see them all the time and, uh, she would Uh, they just ate the loss and, uh, she couldn't, she
Host Brian Copeland: wasn't going to risk her life for Senator Andrews. Let me stop you. Damon, if there's anything you can do at all I just think
Maureen Langan: Brian,
Johnny Steele: there was a case in San Francisco. You remember that? It might have been a Walgreens.
I can't be sure. And the guy went installed and there was a security guard that confronted him and a fight ensued. And I don't remember if the, uh, suspect was punched or whether he was shot. But [00:23:00] remember that a while back and it was up and they were going to. Charged the, the da, they were trying to get the, to charge the, uh, security guard with some kind of murder or, or manslaughter or something like that.
Yeah. So, I mean, why would anybody intervene at all? I mean, you know, I hear this a lot being a guy who has done things like play football and box and stuff like that. You know, people always say, well, there's too much force. Well, if you've ever been in football or a fighter, there's no perfect amount of force bedlam.
I think if Tyson once said you have a plan, you get punched in the face and you see red and white spots and then it's just bedlam. Right? And so I just think people are afraid to lose their job or go to jail if they intervene. And here's another quick note or get killed. Here's another quick note about it.
I, from what I read, the majority of this crime is committed by a small number of people. So it's not like there's far more criminals. It's like the criminals realize they're not going, did you see, what about the two kids who rolled, uh, ran over people on their bicycles in Las Vegas? Have you followed this
Host Brian Copeland: story?
No, I don't [00:24:00] know.
Johnny Steele: Pretty famous stories. Two kids, very young 115 at the time when I think 16 had, I think I stole a car. They went around town and started running over people on their bicycles and they, I think, knocked two people off who went to the hospital and they killed one guy and in the car and the police car.
I believe the guy is saying to the cop. Why are you even bothering me? I'm a juvenile. I'll be out in 30 minutes. Well, they're on trial. They've both been charged with murder, and they're smiling and laughing at the widow and daughter of the man they killed. And I don't know if they've had priors, but it's just, uh, you know, it's brazen, crazy crime.
My point is they're criminals who don't think they're going to get caught. And if they do get caught, they're not going to suffer any consequences. So there's a there's somewhere on the Internet. You can look it up where there's a listing of people who've been murdered by people who were let out because in places like San Francisco folks fought against cash bail.
Say it was classist or racist or [00:25:00] whatever. Or it is. And so people were let back out
Host Brian Copeland: in some cases, in some cases, you know, I agree with in minor cases, getting rid of cash mail. Because if you, you know, if you are wealthy, or you are of means, you don't spend a day in jail, you're broke, or you're poor, you do.
However, for things like murder. For, you know, for things like attempted murder, uh, you know, absolutely there should be a bail. You know, your story about Las Vegas, it made me think of something. Remember the great Sam Kennison? No, who is he? No, yes, of course. I have to say remember because I had to explain to somebody recently who he was.
That makes you feel old. Really? My daughter, my daughter, I had my daughter who Kennison was. Well,
Johnny Steele: you raised her wrong.
Host Brian Copeland: That's your fault. It's my fault. Blame me, . Uh, but when he got killed, he, um, he was driving to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and he got hit, uh, by a drunk driver, I think head on when , he was gonna Laughlin, wasn't he?
He [00:26:00] was going to Laughlin to do a gig. He'd just come back from his honeymoon. He and his wife were together. He just come back from his honeymoon. So when they, when they, the guy was arrested and when he was arraigned, he was wearing a T-shirt that said, I killed Sam Kennison. Wearing a t shirt. So is that true?
No, absolutely. That's true. Wow. It's absolutely true. What happened to him? Um, I don't know how that played out. I mean, I know he got jail time. He was convicted of Something but you know, it was so ironic for so many reasons because Kennison, you know had had a long history of alcohol and drug abuse Cleaned up and then he cleaned he used to encourage people to drive drunk in his act Yeah.
He would encourage people to drive drunk at his act. So it's just, it was ironic.
Johnny Steele: So yeah. But so this all started from, uh, you know, Brian, we have all, all three of us, most of us have had radio TV shows and the producer says, I get back to the point about the Democrats and why they don't. Uh,
Host Brian Copeland: but yeah. Hang on a second.
Say it in my ear. You got to [00:27:00] say it. I'm happy. How about the IFB? Like
Johnny Steele: get back to the book. Get back to the book . Okay. So, yeah, but I probably watch more media across the board than probably most people do. And you know, I don't know who has said this, maybe Maureen, but yeah, it's, I mean, the Afghanistan, the pullout of Afghanistan, um, $6 gas prices, crime, all these things are mm-Hmm.
pretty much dropped in Biden's lap, you know? And, um. You know, uh, what are we at now? The inflation, the, uh, the, uh, interest rates went up again cause I have an adjustable mortgage. So I know, and, uh, you know, Inflation is just
Host Brian Copeland: a little mortgage for, pardon me. Why in the world do you have an adjustable mortgage?
You never know month to month, what your house payment is going to be.
Johnny Steele: It's uh, well, it's the same for, you know, 20 some years and then it shifted. I'll tell you off. It's a, it's an investment thing where I was going to condo units in a building. And so, blah, blah, blah. But anyway,
Host Brian Copeland: because it wasn't going to be in the butt.
Now, the Fed is by the
Johnny Steele: butt. Well, my, my, uh, procrastination is biting me in a [00:28:00] buck is it was going to be a short term loan and I was going to. Get a multiple building and blah, blah, blah. But anyway, you know, the, the, the Paisan knows about this. Maureen's Pal . Oh, oh, the Paisan, yes. Paon knows about this stuff, but yeah.
But when you look at that stuff, it's all crime in the streets. Um, and, uh, the, the, the, the Alameda DA comes up. Uh, you know, it's also not, it's just, it's Seattle, Portland. Um, all towns run by liberals with 90 percent liberals on the, you know, city council or the board of supervisors. And this is presented out there that this is what will happen to your town.
Of course, well,
Maureen Langan: well, I hope not not all Democrats, but. What is happening to get their way, Johnny, but who came up and I'm asking you is who came up with this, uh, this under 1, 000. You can steal whatever you want. Let's not persecute. Was that California came up with that? Or is
Host Brian Copeland: that a state law? Or didn't we, wasn't that like a proposition?
Yes, it was part of it.
Johnny Steele: Yes, we voted [00:29:00] on it. Yeah, we did it.
Host Brian Copeland: We did people. That's insane. That's insane. And it wasn't that they don't. Yeah, they don't prosecute because it was a lot. It used to be a lot lower what the deal was. It was like under 500 bucks, I think. And then they raised it. They raised it. They won't
Maureen Langan: prosecute you is what happened.
Will they arrest you? What's the, what's the point of arrest?
Johnny Steele: It makes it
Host Brian Copeland: a misdemeanor is what it is. It was, it would have been a felony and that's what they did.
Johnny Steele: And there's another quick note because I know this because Berkeley, and there's a lot of homeless people, another one that we didn't vote on the state legislator in California did vote on, which was whether or not to make the 2nd or 3rd, uh, conviction for porch theft, porch piracy.
A felony. And I don't remember exactly, but the Democrats voted against it largely. And because I have, you know, cop friends in the neighborhood and I'll say, well, why don't you go after that guy? I saw him and I went to his house and he's like, it's a misdemeanor. It's worthless. It's meaningless. It's a jaywalking.[00:30:00]
Uh, if he still has a package off your porch and you see him walk as
Host Brian Copeland: an infraction, that's different than
Johnny Steele: a misdemeanor.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, what if you walk I think you got to cross state
Johnny Steele: lines for that to work, johnny. Is that right?
Host Brian Copeland: It's crazy. I mean, it is crazy because yeah, I mean, I have ring, uh, and you know, they, there are videos that come up on ring. Most of them are from Oakland all the time where, you know. They, there are videos of, of cars that are just driving down the street, looking for stuff. And they stop in front of a house when they see, uh, an Amazon package or a UPS package on the ports, and they run out and grab it and throw it in the back and then pull up to the next house and see what's, you know, I mean, it's a whole organized.
Thing, believe it or not, just as this, this massive shoplifting people who go in and steal all the batteries at the, at the Rite Aid store, um, what they're doing is they're, they're, you know, as you were [00:31:00] saying, it's a handful of people because they're part of a ring. They're part of an organized ring.
There's somebody, they take it, they sell it to a fence and then the fence puts it on eBay. Or or puts her there. It goes
Johnny Steele: to Vietnam. In the case of phones, I think they go overseas right away. There was very recently in downtown San Francisco, downtown San Francisco. Some people hopped out of the car and start just clubbing people with bats.
And what? And I think a couple of her women, I think one of them had a stroller and they just take their phones and run off. And the lady had her laptop somewhere and she pulls it out and they're pinging the phone. It went all the way to the East Bay. And the next thing you know, it's they found him again, I think, in Vietnam.
So
Host Brian Copeland: why
Johnny Steele: other? They're rings, they're crime rings and gang rings and it's international and yeah, I don't think the junkie is fencing that stuff. I mean, he's fencing it. He's giving it to somebody and he's getting a dollar and then that's ending up at the flea market at, you know, the Oakland Coliseum flea market or
Host Brian Copeland: something catalytic converters stolen twice in a month.
It got stolen, he got it replaced, and they stole it again. [00:32:00] Wow. And they stole it again. Wow. You know, and it's like they're trying, I think that, that, uh, that Newsom signed something, if I, if I'm remembering correctly, or he was either signed it or was going to sign something that, uh, to try to cut down on catalytic converter theft, which is, is huge by, by stating that you can't have more than one, or you can't sell, resell more than one at a time.
You know, because I guess that there are places where guys will walk in with 10 catalytic converters. Well, gee, where the hell do you think they got them?
Maureen Langan: They'll just come back the next day. Wow. Okay. Here's 1 on Monday. Here's the other 1 on Tuesday. All right. I mean, come on.
Host Brian Copeland: Well,
Johnny Steele: here's 1 more quick thing about all of this.
Is then there aren't enough cops. I mean, uh, Vallejo, Oakland, even Berkeley. Um, back in the The local newspaper said wrote that was the fewest police per capita on a Saturday night. Berkeley has had in like 40 years. I mean, San Francisco, the, the number of they're down by literally hundreds of police officers in places like San [00:33:00] Francisco, they fled.
They said, screw it. I'm not, you know, we're spat upon. No one were considered bigots and monsters and screw it. So they, I mean, wouldn't you, I mean, I'm going to go, I'm going to go to Danville. What are you going to get there? Some ladies. Poodle's haircut is off or something like that. Well, I was
Maureen Langan: in San Francisco.
I was working at Cobbs and I was walking back to my car. This is about a couple months ago and some guy's beating the crap out of his girlfriend and I can see it blocks down like about right on top of it. I'm not going to walk. I'm like, Oh man. So I call, um, 911. You know, nobody fit ring, ring, ring, hit, hit 1.
If you'd like a copy of your hit 2. If you want to count and hit, I go, this is ridiculous. He's hitting her. I'm not going to hit these buttons. I finally, it rings and rings. I hang up call again. And the woman goes, well, what's the cross street? I go, I don't really know all the cross streets here because I'm from New York, but I'm on this street and it's 2 blocks over by, by a 7 11 or whatever I go.
And she's like, hold on and connects me. And it rings, rings, rings. Nobody ever picked up ever. So I don't know what happened to that woman. Nobody came. I couldn't even reach a person to not show [00:34:00] up. And I said, can you help me understand when she finally, that woman did pick up, can you help me understand why it's taking me so long to find somebody?
What's the emergency? I just told you, well, if you don't know the street, we can't send anybody. I'm telling you the street I'm on. And it's two blocks over in front of a little store. I could see the nobody. That's it. No, but I'll connect you to the police. Well, who are you? I just called 9 1 1. I don't understand.
Am I, am I calling the wrong numbers? I'm not joking. Should I be calling 3 1 I don't, is there another
Host Brian Copeland: number? I have never gotten, I've never been able to get it. And there've been a couple of times where I, I witnessed things and had to call 9 1 1 and I've never ever called 9 1 1 on my cell and, uh, and, and been able to get, get connected.
No,
Daymon Ferguson: it goes to a dispatch
Johnny Steele: center and, you know, they pick up if
Daymon Ferguson: they can.
Maureen Langan: I don't know what happened to her. I tried. I waited around for about 10 minutes calling. How can you help somebody if nobody will come? I don't know. I was shocked. I said in San Francisco, you can't get somebody. [00:35:00]
Host Brian Copeland: Wow. Well, it's not, it's not as limited to San Francisco, but it's San Francisco getting all, it's getting all the grief heaped on it.
I mean, do you, you think that the city, a lot of people saying that the city is over, you know, between the homelessness and the, and the, as you were saying, Johnny, the needles and all this other stuff that, you know, it's, it's lost the, the, the, it's a city in decline and, uh, and you know, uh, pretty much as, as a hub or one of the, the, the Condé Nast top places in the world to visit where it was always either number one or number two, that all that's over.
All that's over. People are fleeing in droves. That, that, that's what the rap is. I mean, in terms of the actuality, do you think that that's true? I think a lot, a lot of the soul of San Francisco is
Daymon Ferguson: gone, yeah. I mean, working as an artist and trying to work there, it's just, it's not the same as it was even 10 years ago.
Uh, and I don't know what's happened. I don't know if it's been
Johnny Steele: economic decline that's caused it or, uh, just the increasing prices,
Daymon Ferguson: driving people that were, you know, actually fun to be around out.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. [00:36:00]
Daymon Ferguson: if it's the drugs and hom don't know, but it's
Johnny Steele: defi answer is, it's all that. Uh, you had a very anti c left.
So you've got
100 fe roaming the streets. You called fentanyl that's co truckloads. That's really addictive and really nast Uh, you have an industry that allows people to not have to go into the city anymore and work. So there aren't people roaming the streets at lunch or six o'clock in the evening from, you know, I mean, if you've ever been downtown at like six o'clock on a Wednesday or even at noon, it was mob people sitting all over the, you know, people in office buildings coming out for their lunch or after work to meet friends for drinks.
That is greatly diminished. You're trying to turn all these buildings, many of them into housing, but it's very hard to do. And it takes a long time and. So it's it's all of that and more the cost got crazy. Um, you know, just a lot of factors those and more probably but certainly Availability of cheap [00:37:00] nasty drugs, uh police and there's a thing, you know I know a lot of cops that grew up in a blue collar town slow roll.
Have you ever heard of this thing? I mean The idea that there's a violent crime going on and you're going to go in there. It's it's too What a friend of mine calls mutual combatants It's not, you know, and so he's going to go in there and he's 2 years away from retirement and he's going to go in there and there's going to be a tussle and he's going to shot or stabbed or he's going to grab somebody and hit her head and someone videotapes it and there's riots in the street.
Screw that I'm not turning on the lights and I'm not speeding through intersections.
Host Brian Copeland: Okay, well then, then, then resign. That's what you signed up for. Yes,
Maureen Langan: and no, yes, and no, yes, and no, yes, and no, because I don't think there's anybody here who would disagree that there are cops who have totally overstepped the line.
And we know this, you know, there is, we know all this, but also having 2 cousins who were cops are retired. Now, you know what? You want to go home to your kids and there's lunatics out there, domestic violence stuff. There's a lot of stuff. And now. You have to be [00:38:00] perfect. Like, if you're a cop, you have to know everything's going to be in hindsight.
Everything's going to be, did you use the exact amount of force? I'm not talking about things that are clearly abusive, but did you use too much force? What is the right amount of force? Everything's going to be micromanaged to the point that you don't have any autonomy as a police officer to To do what you need to do.
I would not want to be a cop. I would not want anybody in my family to be a cop. I think it's a horrible job right now because there's the ones that suck that make it worse for all. And the ones that really want to do a good job, they're so micromanaged that forget it, whatever
Host Brian Copeland: they do. Let me tell you, I, I agree with you.
They have a very difficult job. I couldn't do it. And I'm not anti police by any stretch of the imagination. I think that, that those that do it in there. And I know a number of good police officers, five police officers. Uh, uh, who are truly are there to, to protect and to serve. And there are also some bad ones, as you said.
You know, of course none of us are gonna, are gonna disagree, but the fact of the matter is you have that uniform on, you got a badge, and you are not gonna [00:39:00] intervene because of the fact that you might get hurt. There's no conscription here. You know, I think they're basically, basically, hang on one sec. One sec.
One sec. John. There, there, you know, you decided that you wanted to be a police officer. And you knew when you, when you put that, that uniform on for the first time, and you learned in the academy that anything can happen to you, what you're doing is dangerous. You know, the most you're talking about calling 911 of this guy beating his girlfriend, that's the most dangerous situation that cop can get into.
That's right. Domestic violence, right? The most that is the most dangerous. You know this when you sign up. So, it doesn't make any sense to me that you wouldn't do it. It does because
Maureen Langan: after 20, I'm sorry, after 20 years, you're like, I got two years left, man. I'm like, slow rolling. I knew you're like, I just got to get through two more years.
I did the hard crap for 20. I'm in for two more and I'm making sure I'm getting out in two. Anyway, that's my thing. Sorry, Johnny, back to you.
Johnny Steele: I sort of agree with Maureen after the, after the 300th time, you've gone to one of these events and you start pulling the man off of the woman. And you handcuff him.
Then she comes over, hit you on the head with the frying pan saying, what are you doing to my [00:40:00] man? I mean, you know, come on, we're all human. At a certain point, you're gonna go, you know this, this will diffuse. And then, and then he's in jail and she's down there pulling him outta jail and they're having ice cream.
10 minutes later you're probably like, you know, I love him. Yeah,
Maureen Langan: I love him. But the whole point,
Host Brian Copeland: go ahead, go, go ahead.
Maureen Langan: No, finish your thoughts. I was gonna change the subject on.
Johnny Steele: We live in an era and you know, I'm doing a little bit now and so I haven't followed politics that closely because I've got other things I'm working on.
And so that's why I don't weigh in as much in some of this other stuff. But we live in a time where everyone thinks they, everyone's weighing in on emotions and not knowledge. I'll go to parties and people will say things about police or police violence or whatever. And I'll say, can you answer me some questions?
And they'll say, yeah, and I'll say, cause I have a brain for this. I don't have a brain for much more. How many police officers are there in America? No idea. I'll give you a multiple choice. Quarter of a million, half a million, 3 million. Thank you. No idea. How many interactions do police make with the general public in a year on average in America?
No idea. 10 million? 50 million? 100 million? No idea. How many police are shot and [00:41:00] killed, uh, or shot or otherwise killed on the job every year? No idea. Can you name one police officer who's been killed on the job so far this year? No idea. What percentage of white people Are killed by cops relative to blacks and Latinos.
No idea. So you have people speaking because they saw seven minutes of videotape and because they're part of a club or cult that allows them only to say and think this or that. It's useless to even get in discussions with most people on many issues because they don't, you can go online and find data on many subjects.
Yes, the Middle East, uh, what we're going to do about homelessness. Complex problems. Surely people are weighing in on things and they have no idea. And I asked him, you ever been in a fight? Never. You ever like getting a football stance and running into a guy who's 280 pounds all day? Never ever been in a situation where you thought you might have to stand up and grab a, grabs a blam and save your life.
Never. You ever have an adrenaline rush? Never. But you know how it should work when two cops are trying to do 22 year old guy who's on meth. [00:42:00] And
Host Brian Copeland: and fentanyl sure.
Maureen Langan: And I got to tell you, and you make a good point, you know, living in Manhattan and the subway systems. There's like, every train has a lunatic every car.
It's like, okay, this is not job. This 1 is whacking off. This 1 is snorting something. This 1, she's mumbling. Lunatic subjects for a little child, and I'm supposed to know as a citizen, how to handle that. I'm supposed to know there's no cops down there. They're washing their hands of that. Now they're coming back and more, but you're there and they're telling you, like, that guy, he put somebody in a headlock who was lunatic and the guy died.
The guy who put him in a headlock. But it's scary with these people. You don't know if they're spewing things. They're, they're nuts in there and you, you don't know what's going to happen to you. And that one guy, he did put somebody in a headlock and the guy died. Well, he shouldn't have done this. He shouldn't have done this.
Well, how do you know what to do? Why do we have to even be in the position to know what to have to do? Because nobody's protecting us in the subways.
Johnny Steele: And there is a, you can go online and find this. You know, everybody makes fun of you two getting your. [00:43:00] Information from YouTube. There's all sorts of news on there from the BBC to whatever, but there were just video after video after video on some sites on YouTube of cops just waltzing up and going, what's going on here?
People, it takes one 10th of a second to turn around gun in your pants or in your pocket or whatever, whatever people in their cars, every second, every vehicle, they pull over every door they knock on in our society with 350 million guns and how. , many tens of millions of homicides a year. Tens of, of millions of, of millions of hun, hundreds of thousands of homicides.
I don't know that number personally, but, um, uh, it's just an incredible job wherever it's the only job where every day you go to a dozen environments where somebody might kill you. Mm-Hmm. . And I just, I'm amazed at the number of people who are complete, who tend to speak about compassion and understanding.
Who won't acknowledge that poss that, that that's a reality for them. But, you know, every time you turn around somebody, you know, did you pull over for the smallest traffic violation [00:44:00] can probably is not probably is possibly armed and is going to start shooting at you. Well, I will
Host Brian Copeland: tell you this, I am on the police, the community police review board.
I am a commissioner on the community police review board in my town, 30 hours of training. Um, you know, prior to getting to getting sworn in and, um, a police training and it was a real eye opener about a lot of things because 1 of the things that we had to do was the police simulator, you know, where, you know, yeah, where there's video of, of a different, of a certain situation and you've got a gun on 1 side and you've got the taser on the other side and you're supposed to decide what to do and assess the situation and like, it's sure what, you know, you know, 1 of the commissioners who was with me, you know, he's, he's talking to a guy, Or, uh, having a confrontation with a guy.
What are you doing? What's going on? And two seconds, the guy turned around, grabbed a gun and shot him before he could reach, reach his, his, his weapon. Me, the one I had was, uh, called to a disturbance at a, [00:45:00] at a motel and the door, I go to the, the, the, the way the camera works, it's like a big screen video.
And you're standing in, uh, like you're, you're standing in front of this video and you're supposedly interacting with, with the, the, the images you see on the screen. And so the, the door is, is, is partially opened and then it opens all the way. And you see this guy, uh, who's behind the bed hitting his girlfriend, beating his girlfriend beating.
And, um, I reached for my taser and instead. Well, I, I gave the command, stop, stop, put your hands up, put your hands up, you know, law enforcement, whatever doesn't do it keeps beating. So I reached for my taser and pull it out and shoot. And it was my gun. It was actually my gun. And here's the thing. The officers who were there said I did, I did it right.
I did exactly the right thing because this was potentially a life and death situation. And the fact that the matter being the guy wouldn't stop and he's beating this woman, he could [00:46:00] beat her to death. That that was the right thing to do was to use. I accidentally did the right thing, but it was a real eye opener to see.
And again, you know, like you look at, at, at, uh, at, um, No, geez, Fruitvale Station, Oscar Grant, uh, where, where Johannes Messerly was reaching for his supposedly reason for his taser and pull the firearm and shot him instead, I did exactly the same thing. And now I can understand how that could happen. You know, not held liable for it.
No, but I could certainly understand how, how that could happen, but it was real. It was, it was a real eye opener.
Johnny Steele: It really was. There's, there's a video on YouTube. I wish I had all these links, but you can dig it up. And there were some. Minister of some sort, maybe Baptist. I think the state was Arizona, always dogging the police for acting too soon, choosing violence first and all that.
And they said, Hey, come on down to our simulation program. And in every instance, he was either killed or murdered. Somebody innocent just about, they've got a guy, this real guy bigger than me. I'm six, three, two 30 bigger than me. They've got a big guy and he's in front of. [00:47:00] This car doing something and the cops say, your your situation is someone is stealing something off of a car and then he goes and then, you know, he said, excuse me, sir.
Can you stop? Can you stand up? And the guy doesn't and he gets over to where the guy is. And the guy just comes out with a gun and blast him. Boom. He's dead. Another situation. Similar later. The person was innocent top shoots him. It's just like, in every situation. And to his credit afterwards, you said, okay, I really, I see now the other side of, um, of the, you have to make instant decisions, instantaneous
Host Brian Copeland: decisions.
Well, I'll tell you the one that the simulation I did after I got done, the officer who was running it, uh, said now somebody comes with a, with a, with their phone and they catch the last, the last 30 seconds or the last minute of this. And you've just, all they got is you shooting an unarmed guy. You know, they don't know what's happened, what's led up to it or anything else.
They've got you now shooting an unarmed guy on video. Yeah. So he flashes
Johnny Steele: this, which, what does this look like? You know, he flashes this, you know, what does, what does that look like in my head? [00:48:00] And you've got one 10th of a second to make a decision. And, you know, and, and another thing, this is another thing.
I don't know that there's any data. There must be, that tells you whether or not this is a bad thing, but it costs more for cities to hire cops than it does to give cops, um, overtime. Because it does, you know, all sorts of new stuff. They need to train the cop and everything was cops doing over him. So more and more cops are working overtime, partly because there's fewer police officers in each city.
I can't imagine doing a 12 or 16 hour shift in some of America's neighborhoods, dealing with everybody. You know, I didn't do this and I didn't do that. And you police are all monsters. And I can't imagine day after day after day. So I would imagine that a certain point. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm cranky for a second show
Host Brian Copeland: on Friday night.
Johnny Steele: I'd tase everybody in that audience if I had a chance.
Host Brian Copeland: Zap! Who's next? Zap! I'm offended. Zap! Uh, complete change of subject, uh, Gavin Newsom signed a [00:49:00] law today that raised the minimum wage to 25 an hour for healthcare workers and 20 an hour for fast food workers. So, curious that any of you guys, when you were at 16 work minimum wage jobs, what did you do?
And what'd you get paid mine? Uh, when I first started working minimum wage was 2. 65 an hour. I was phone soliciting for three bucks an hour. And I thought I was, I was the shit because the fact that I was making 35 cents more an hour in minimum wage, I
Daymon Ferguson: started three 45
Host Brian Copeland: working in great America. Really?
You worked at Great American. Yeah. Yeah. I was, uh, I was
Daymon Ferguson: a games barker. I was the amazing Alfred did, which is
Host Brian Copeland: the weight.
Daymon Ferguson: Yes, sir. And uh,
Host Brian Copeland: it's hilarious. But the way you do this
Johnny Steele: 345 job. Now, somebody would sue you, you know,
Host Brian Copeland: Madam, 34
Maureen Langan: pounds. Stay away from me. Taste. [00:50:00]
Host Brian Copeland: It
Johnny Steele: doesn't exist anymore. I just went there with my kids. It doesn't exist. So I don't, I don't know.
Host Brian Copeland: But you would do that.
Maureen Langan: You would, you would guess that person's weight. He wasn't gotten good at it.
Daymon Ferguson: Yeah. Uh, I,
Host Brian Copeland: you always guess alone,
Daymon Ferguson: uh, just because it's never that scene in the jerk where, uh, Steve Martin's playing the weight guesser. Yeah. And, and he's upset that he's, you know, lost all this money or all these prizes. And they, they explained to him that you're taking in 10 and giving away 45 cents worth of crap.
So it's, that's the scam. That's the game. So it, you know, they wanted you to guess accurately because they want their 45 cents, but it wasn't that big a deal. Mm-Hmm, . So, uh,
Johnny Steele: that's not like a tough job, man. I, I can't guess my own weight. Once a month I go in the bathroom. Okay. I'm thinking about 124 . I get 31.
What's wrong with the scale? It,
Daymon Ferguson: I can't guess get well
Johnny Steele: people's date of birth, month of birth,
Host Brian Copeland: and,
Daymon Ferguson: uh, uh. [00:51:00] Month of birth
Host Brian Copeland: and I don't remember
Daymon Ferguson: gender. No. Yeah, gender. This was the 80s. We knew what everybody's gender was. It was pretty
Johnny Steele: I did you ever have a I would be nervous that if ever I had a heavy person and I would say date of girth
Daymon Ferguson: When I
Johnny Steele: would get a heavy person
Daymon Ferguson: I would make sure to guess low because
Host Brian Copeland: I just did not want to you know, I
Daymon Ferguson: For you know women you never go over like 150. You just don't
Maureen Langan: I wouldn't even go that high. What's wrong with you? Listen to me. You know, let me ask you this. I don't understand how you made money with this, like 45 cents versus 10.
You said, what was the scam? What
Johnny Steele: was the deal? Okay. Well,
Daymon Ferguson: they, they would charge, I think at the time they were charging 2, uh, a chance. And then if I would fail, the prize only costs them 45
Host Brian Copeland: cents. Oh, I see. And it wasn't a great, it wasn't a great prize anyway. It was just a little stuffed animal
Daymon Ferguson: they'd bought in bulk.
I mean, it was, you know, they were small, they were about this big. And, [00:52:00] uh,
Host Brian Copeland: It's just
Daymon Ferguson: they didn't, they didn't care that much. Right. Because they already got the two dollars, so. Yeah,
Host Brian Copeland: yeah. The
Daymon Ferguson: guest experience is what they wanted me to work with. They wanted me to make sure that I. Experience,
Host Brian Copeland: yes. Experience, yes. I was supposed to make them have a good time, make them feel
Daymon Ferguson: good about themselves.
Yes, fun.
Maureen Langan: Yeah. Well, my, my, uh, gig was at stop and shop. I got the job when I was 16 after paper routes and mowing lawns and all of that stuff. I think I paid 3 something, but I had health insurance, a dental health
Host Brian Copeland: insurance and dental dental. Yeah, if you
Maureen Langan: worked part time, 20 or
Host Brian Copeland: more hours a week. Minimum wage, part time job, where was it?
Stop and shop.
Maureen Langan: Yeah, it's an East Coast supermarket chain, though. The dentist did put me up against a wall, try to molest me. But other than that, it worked out really
Host Brian Copeland: well. There's so many lines. I'm not going to say, because I don't want letters. I'll say I'm
Johnny Steele: just wait. Were you able to guess?
Maureen Langan: Well, I know, but I did get his curve.[00:53:00]
Host Brian Copeland: Very good. Johnny, you first game. I
Johnny Steele: was mostly a football jock trying to get a scholarship. So all summer long I was running up the stadium with a 25 pound dumbbell in the pack. But I did, I was a windsurf instructor for a couple of summers. And yeah, I was, uh, you know, you could already assume that job wasn't really about the money.
It was like, let me help you back up on the board.
Maureen Langan: No.
Host Brian Copeland: Bet you paid them. Yeah, really. Yeah. You paid them. Uh, study I read today said that children's lack of independence, there are experts who are saying children's lack of independence today. Um, you know, cause parents have their kids scheduled for everything and you know, they're on a real short leash and you're scheduled for stuff from the time they get up to the time they go to bed.
Their lack of independence is, uh, is. Very, it gives them very little time to, uh, by themselves to think and [00:54:00] to explore. And as a result, they say that the kids are having more issues of anxiety and depression. And I'm thinking that that's true. And I just wanted you guys thought your thoughts on it. Like when I was a kid on Saturday, I would leave the house in the morning and the rule was I just had to be by home by the time the streetlights came on.
Yeah, that was the rule. We could go wherever we want to do in. I know my kids. No, you know, I knew where they were at all times. There were played dates arranged. I mean, when I was going to go play dates, you know, you go over, you know, is Billy home. Can he, can he come out?
Maureen Langan: Yeah, that was the play
Host Brian Copeland: date, right?
Yeah. So you think that, that there is, um, legitimacy to this, to this idea that, that the kids not having enough, uh, independence is, is, is causing them grief. Yeah. I think it probably is. I
Daymon Ferguson: have two, I have two kids right now, 12 and 14. Well, 15. She just turned 15 today,
Johnny Steele: actually. I got a 15 year
Host Brian Copeland: old girl.
You're not going to sleep for the next couple of years. She's a
Daymon Ferguson: good kid. She's smart. She makes [00:55:00] good decisions. She doesn't get in trouble. She's committed to dance. She's a serious athlete. Uh, I'm lucky. I got a lot less to worry about. My point is that, you know, when they were younger, we, I, we definitely.
Supervised them more than I was supervised. I remember days I was told, uh, to go out in the morning and not
Host Brian Copeland: come back until dinnertime. Like that was the instruction. Don't come back.
Daymon Ferguson: So, uh, we definitely supervise them more, but, uh, we were on, turns out we were on the low end of supervision because, you know, like we would let our kids go to the park and just play.
I
Host Brian Copeland: mean, it's, I wouldn't do that. The fact that you said that just made my heart beat faster.
Johnny Steele: I live in a pretty good neighborhood.
Daymon Ferguson: There's not really a lot of problems there that we know our neighbors, like the kids had
Johnny Steele: three or four houses on, on our street where they could go if they were in trouble and, uh,
Daymon Ferguson: you know, they couldn't get to our place.
Uh, you know, we had neighbors that I knew that were walking in the park all the time. We, I [00:56:00] mean, maybe it was a significant, maybe it was just specific to us, but we didn't, we didn't feel like we needed to supervise them that much.
Johnny Steele: Uh,
Maureen Langan: yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry.
Daymon Ferguson: Obviously, as they got older, the supervision decreased.
Uh, you know, that's kind of the deal we have with our 15 year old. You stay out of trouble. You don't make you make good grades. You don't get in trouble. Uh, you get more freedom.
Host Brian Copeland: Uh, and, uh, stay out of your face and out of your stuff
Daymon Ferguson: pretty much. Yeah. Well, she's not getting in trouble and making good grades.
Why should we? And it's going to be the same deal with the 12 year old when she gets to that age and we're kind of gradually bringing them up to that. But, uh, I know there were parents that, you know, would show up to every school function and watch the kids, uh, like even if it wasn't something that they necessarily needed to be a part of, you know, they would just show up
Johnny Steele: for when they had a visiting art teacher
Daymon Ferguson: in class and just watch it.
and you know,
Johnny Steele: just kind of hover
Daymon Ferguson: and we never did any of that, but we were definitely on the low end of the supervision scale, [00:57:00] uh, for normal. And I, and I see a lot of kids, like, especially with my younger daughter, because she really was impacted by COVID a lot more. I mean, it's been a year inside without.
Much social interaction really affected her a lot more than, uh, my older daughter, but, uh, I definitely see among her friends a lot more, uh, anxiety and, and things like that because, and a lot less, less freedom. Parents are more afraid, and I don't know that their fears are all that rational. I mean.
There's not any more child molesters out here than we were,
Host Brian Copeland: than when we were kids. We just know. And the other thing too, is people don't realize that the stranger abduct, there were more stranger abductions in the 1950s than there are today. Yeah. Most abductions are.
Johnny Steele: Uh, somebody, you know, it's a
Host Brian Copeland: relative or a friend.
Yeah. No, we're paranoid
Johnny Steele: about it. I was also reading like a lot of that stuff that became urban myth wasn't true. There wasn't any rampant, uh, amount of razor blades or drugs at Halloween
Host Brian Copeland: night. There's not a single case on record of somebody. I went to, when
Johnny Steele: I was young, I went [00:58:00] to, yeah, I went to house after house looking for candy with drugs.
Host Brian Copeland: Nothing.
Johnny Steele: Nobody's going to give your kid
Daymon Ferguson: free drugs. I remember one year my, my, my mom took our candy to be x rayed. Right. Right.
And like, there was a, there was a thing at the hospital where you can do that and, uh, and she only did it once though, because she decided it was ridiculous, but
Host Brian Copeland: well,
Johnny Steele: God, God, we've, we've x rayed this candy and we know there's no needles or razors in there, so enjoy your hydrogenated palm oil and high fructose corn syrup and diabetes.
With a little bit
Host Brian Copeland: of radiation in there. We don't know exactly when I was a kid, they used to make, you know, there was people used to hand out handmade stuff, balls, that kind of stuff.
Maureen Langan: Oh yeah. That's long gone. Oh, that's right.
Host Brian Copeland: You can't even bring a homemade
Daymon Ferguson: cake to school or homemade cupcakes to school anymore.
They have to be store bought. Yeah.
Johnny Steele: Well, I brought, I brought, you're supposed to bring something to a party. So I brought, it was, [00:59:00] it was a play I did a few years ago and I brought Reese's peanut butter cups. The building evacuated like there was a bomb threat. I'm like, what's the matter? Peanuts.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, you can't get peanuts on an airplane now because that's, that's why you're not serving them at all because you don't know who's, who's allergic and it could kill you.
You know, if you're, if you put, you know, if you put someone who's allergic in proximity to a bag of peanuts, in theory, it could kill them. Not in theory, in actuality, it could kill them. So,
Johnny Steele: uh, M Tyler, maybe we're just trying to weed out. It's a good way to weed out the week, Brian. So what's gonna happen one year?
because the terrorists are not gonna need weapons. They're just gonna drop peanuts,
Host Brian Copeland: bags of peanuts. Jesus capacitated Maureen, when you were a kid, what, what, what kind of freedom did you We, was it like us just allowed to go out and come back, you know, when the lights came on, or were, or were your parents tighter on you?
Maureen Langan: There were 6 kids and they had no problem with only 4 coming back. We didn't have a lot of money. There's a lot of mouths to feed. Good luck to all yet. Uh, you know, you just, you're on your bike. The 1 thing we couldn't do was hang [01:00:00] out in town because that's what the Darrell, we call them the derelicts, you know, the guys who the kids smoking.
So you could go to town, but you have a purpose. You want to have lunch with your friend. Great. You know, we can ride our bikes with 3 people on a bike, 1 on the handlebars, 1 standing behind you and 1 on the banana seat and no helmet. No helmet. I was talking to my cousins. My mom's from Ireland. This is my 1st cousin.
He lives in America now, but he grew up on the farm. He was Jace Mo helmets. What the heck is kids? We had guns. We were shooting rabbits and pheasants. We were the Irish Taliban,
Host Brian Copeland: right?
Maureen Langan: I said, Jesus, but now we had a lot of freedom, but the elementary school. Which we always walk to. My little brother, seven years younger than I, he would run up before he'd go to school and look in all the windows trying to find us.
I said to the cop, there was all these cars, like what's going on in school today? He goes, oh no, people don't let their kids walk anymore. I was home visiting my parents. Lines and lines and lines. I think that student kid's such a big disservice. Not having a pal to walk to school with or get [01:01:00] made fun of.
You know, you have to go through all that.
Daymon Ferguson: Kids also need to learn to take risks. I mean, uh, they need to learn risks and
Johnny Steele: consequences like I remember one time my daughter was about
Daymon Ferguson: seven. I let her climb a chain link backstop, uh, at the softball field and parents were freaking out. I mean, I'm like, I'm right here.
If she falls, she'll get scratched up.
Host Brian Copeland: It's okay. Yeah.
Daymon Ferguson: We're going to be all right. They need to learn to take risks. They need to learn, you know, what they can and can't do. And, you know, hopefully you, you give them enough background that they, they, they take appropriate risks and don't get banged up too bad, but they have to learn that.
Right.
Maureen Langan: My 11 year old. Sorry. Oh, sorry. I didn't like that.
Host Brian Copeland: Oh, go ahead. We're out of time. So this is a great place to stop. So, uh, Damon, where are you playing? Uh, I'm dealing with some
Johnny Steele: personal
Daymon Ferguson: issues right now, but check my website, DamonFerguson. com, uh, for upcoming dates. Okay.
Host Brian Copeland: Thank you,
Johnny Steele: Johnny. When is this air?
Oh, well, I'm the first weekend of, um, November, Saturday night. I'm way out at EJ [01:02:00] fair brewery in my lovely hometown of Pittsburgh. I'm doing a fine show out there. Um, and then also I'm at the punchline a couple of times in the next few months and, uh, some corporate private holiday gigs. So come to, uh, my Facebook page or my website.
What's your website? URL, Johnny steel. com. It's J O H N N Y S T E E L E. com.
Host Brian Copeland: All right, Maureen.
Maureen Langan: I'm going to be at Rooster Teeth Feathers this Thursday through Sunday, uh, in Sunnyvale, California. And if you want to book me for holiday parties, events, you can go to Maureen, L A N G A N. com, MaureenLagan. com.
And on the social media stalking sites too, Facebook
Host Brian Copeland: and Instagram. Maureen Lang and Johnny Steele, David Ferguson. Thanks. I appreciate it. Bye little doggy. We'll see you soon. All right. That is going to do it for us. Uh, if, uh, you like the show, please do, uh, you want to help us out? You know, if you're listening to it, uh, as opposed to watching it, go to whatever platform that [01:03:00] you're listening to it on and give us a five star review that helps people to find the show.
If you are watching, we are trying to 1, 000 people to subscribe. It's free. And once we get a thousand people to subscribe, then I can do this live. And so we can get interaction from, uh, from viewers while we're doing the show. So, uh, just go to, uh, uh, go to YouTube. If, uh, well, if you're watching, you know, there's a place to subscribe right there.
Just click the subscribe button. Doesn't cause you anything and help us get closer to our thousand subscribers. So we can have, we can have live broadcasts. So, uh, until next time, be kind to your neighbor. He knows where you live.