July 8, 2022
Season 4, Episode 1
Gil and Eric Continue their discussion on Hot Topics
Transcript
Eric:
Hello and welcome to the Q lounge, I'm Eric
Gil:and I'm Gil.
Eric:join us as we discuss news stories and life situations, as they relate to the LGBTQIA plus experience, please visit us at theQloungepodcast.com and hit that subscribe button or listen wherever you get your podcasts. If you would like to follow us on social media, you can hit us up on Facebook @theQloungepodcast or on Instagram or Twitter @theQlounge. Hello, welcome to the Q lounge. I'm Eric
Gil:and I'm Gil.
Eric:And welcome back. We are officially off of hiatus. Hello? Hi, we're back. Sorry. I know we were, we dropped an episode a couple weeks ago, a week and a half ago. Yeah. A week ago. Yeah, about a week ago ago. ago. I I don't remember. Everything is just a blur cuz everything is just so fucked up, but we wanted to actually make an official comeback or return. So hello, here we are. Before we dive into a whole bunch of stuff, how have you been Gil? What's new with you since we last saw you or heard from you in 634 years?
Gil:Years ago. I remember it. Oh my God. Okay. So let's see. Since we last. Spoke on this podcast. I let's see finally have gone to the doctors. Try to get, health, and line. I'm gonna be doing lab work actually tomorrow Oh, awesome. Yeah. So as well, so that way you're not going down the same roads. I've my body's put me through. So yeah, I I have to there doctors, I'm already a few pounds plus some over my desired weight for my height. I told the doctors never reveal my actual height, cuz my ego tells me I'm six feet, obviously. Yeah, I'm trying to get my health more in check now, I realize I'm getting older, more matured in life. I should get that going. I actually, oh, I didn't tell you. I purchased a. Oh, congratulations. Yes. Cuz I have my little baby car forever. Yeah. And I it's hit its, 200,000 plus miles and oh wow. It's had a great life. And I decided to get a big boy car. So I have a mini Cooper country, man. So it's the bigger oh nice. Yeah. It's a nice, it's cute. It's little four door, it's real nice. It's really nice. It's used obviously. Cause I'm a millennial. Look at
Eric:you rolling in the dough.
Gil:Put some money to the side, but I decided, instead of spending all that money on repairing my little car, I ended up saving it towards this car and then the little car is gonna be donated to PBS. So that's something that, Chris wanted to make sure that it's not like we has a lot of value, so it's let's go at least sentimentally. We're gonna,
Eric:I think that's, I think that's awesome. Someone can use it.
Gil:Yeah. So that's, some. Other things, obviously you have some vacations finally coming up and been busy at work in a sense of, a lot of hiring, firing holding my team and, just been getting caught up with that and, keeping up with family kinda a little bit more closer to them during this time period. So it's been a lot of that and then exploring Northern California. Okay. So getting out of the bay area, going to the Redwood, going to like Fort brag guess to have like sea glass beach and going to lake Tahoe and I'm like, wow, this is all in my backyard. I've been flying across the country instead. It's definitely, I've been Chris and I've definitely been doing a lot of little road trips, half a bay going to the little beaches along highway one. Oh, that's cool. Just, I dunno. Just kinda more familiarized. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm paying the damn premium to be in the state might as well see. True.
Eric:That's fun. Yeah.
Gil:So it's been really. It's been nice in that regard, kinda slowing things down. Focus on my health because of my previous employer. It was just very stressful. And I didn't realize what my body was going through with the weight, gain the hair, going really gray quickly. And my, some of my health stuff were going out of whack to say the least. And I caught that in anxiety and stuff like that, that I never had prior. So when I came to my new job, then I was like, okay, let's refocus on personal life. Your, just get back to basics. Yeah, absolutely. So that's why this year slower in some regards in last year, but I'll take it. Oh, it's you?
Eric:How about me? Let's see. Every everyone knows we were on hiatus because I have graves disease. So think I've honestly just spent my entire time wrapping my head around that. It took me many months to wrap my head around it, to even get comfortable with it, to accept it. Yeah. I haven't really done a whole lot. I've honestly become like a total home body. I've actually started reading. Oh, not read to and I'm not being well. No, I it's full. Okay. Cause, cause I do audible. Okay. but I actually have, I actually am reading and I actually just finished a book like three days ago. I finished the mountain is you, which is a great book. Okay. So that's been mainly everything. Grave's disease. I don't know. I don't know if you guys want me to go into detail about Grave's disease, but Grave's disease a little bit. Yeah, go ahead. It's an autoimmune disease. That is like one in 200 people have it. So it's not super common. And men usually it's like a three to one. This, my figure might be a little off, but it's like a three to one split of women to men. So I happen to be like that one. Yeah, got it. It's also like one of it's the main cause of hyperthyroidism. Okay. So I had high, I have hyperthyroidism due to graves disease. And basically what that means is the body creates antibodies and they attack your thyroid and they block your thyroid simulating hormone from attaching to your thyroid receptors and then thyroid immunoglobins attach and then they start mimicking thyroid stimulating hormones. So that causes your thyroid to go into overdrive. So my thyroid has just been like working like nonstop, like crazy. So like I'm a pretty active person. Yes. So my resting heart rate prior to graves had always been like, 58 to 62 ish. When I was younger, it was a lot lower, but it was like 58 to 62 ish. My resting heart rate with the graves disease. My resting heart rate was like 98 to 120 beats per minute. Holy shit. And me walking from like my bedroom to the bathroom, which is like all of 10 feet. Yeah. My heart rate would go up to 1 30, 1 40. I couldn't do anything that I liked as far as I couldn't be active. I couldn't ride my bike. I couldn't dance. I couldn't do any type of cardio or high intensity training because it would just cause my heart rate to go up. Like for a while I couldn't even do yoga or Pilates because my heart rate was going up to 1 70, 180. So I was on antithyroid medication and beta blockers to help with the heart symptoms for a while. I was getting acupuncture like weekly and that helped with a lot of the symptoms that I was having. Okay. As far as like the anxiety and the I wanna say, I was basically borderline manic. And I was just like go. Having extreme anxiety, like I just said, and just like all these weird thoughts, I was very suicidal through the whole thing, had extreme suicidal ideations. And it's all a thyroid cuz your body's in a panic the whole time because it's working. It's like on a thousand the whole time. So I was responding well to medications initially, although I broke out in hives, but after the hives subsided, I was responding pretty well. And I was able to cut back on my meds and I was able to get back to the gym. I still couldn't do any cardio or any type of dance or anything like that, but I could still I could lift weights and I could do some yoga and I could do some Pilates. And so that was fine. I was able to get through and that helped to fill a little bit of a void. But then I went hyper again, because my meds were too low. So then as soon they upped my meds. Then my white blood cell count started dropping damn. And that can be a side effect of it. So I was actually more prone to illness and infection so anytime, so they had to decrease my meds. I would go hyper. They would increase my meds even just a little bit. And my white blood cell count would drop again. I wasn't critically low, but I was still low. So I actually opted to have a total thyroidectomy. So I had my thyroid removed now. Oh, wow. And I had that done. How's your recovery had that done two weeks ago. Oh, okay. Yeah. The recovery's been actually pretty easy. I slept for three or four days. I'm now on thyroid replacement hormones. So we'll see how that works. Cuz it takes five or six weeks. Okay. After the surgery to see where your body's at, because you still have all this natural thyroid hormone still circulating through your body. So it's like a five or six week, like turnaround time. So we'll see what happens when all those drop out and I'm just on my medicine. But as of right now, I feel really good. I went back to work today. So day one. I know joy. Yeah. But that's really been my whole life right now is just getting better, getting comfortable with this new autoimmune disease. Cuz I do have another autoimmune disease. That's why I was like, I applaud you for getting your labs in and autoimmune just attacks whoever it's not. Oh yeah. But it's still good to stay on top of it and yeah, I think that's been mainly it, I will say though, as soon as I. Up from surgery. It was really weird. And someone had told me that this would happen and I believed them, but I it's different when you actually experience it. I woke up and I had no anxiety. Like literally, how was that feeling? Zero anxiety. It was actually weird. It was very like surreal and uncomfortable. Cause I had gotten so used to being anxious all the time and being so like wound up all the time. Yeah. That I was like almost looking for my anxiety. I was like, where is it? Because it's not here. And I don't know what to do with it not being here, which is sad. but yeah, it was, it's been really cool. I'm also not ruminating as much as I used to. Okay. So that's been cool as well. Like I'm not, I still overthink things, but I'm not. It's only been two weeks, but I'm not overthinking things to the point where they're consuming me and overwhelming me, like when we did our last episode with the R V w that was the Friday after not, that was the Friday after I had my thyroid removed. So I was what, four days? Postop. Yeah. And three days postop and I was super mad and super angry, but I didn't take it on. So it didn't completely consume me. Correct. So I was able to actually like, be a little bit more methodical in my thoughts and be a little bit more analytical and not just get like emotionally bogged down so that I could actually look at things and read things. And so it's, that's been actually cool and interesting.
Gil:I was gonna say it's a whole new life. Change style because now it's a huge life change. Yeah. Oh, what I mean, it's great though.
Eric:Yeah. And then I knock on wood, according to the ophthalmologist, cuz you have to start seeing ophthalmologists and OCU and oculoplastic surgeons when you have graves because you're more susceptible to thyroid eye disease. Yes. And so according to the ophthalmologist, my eye pressure is fine and I'm measuring the same as when I, he first saw me and everything else. My eyes are a little wonky. They're not as bad as they were, but they're, who's his a little wonky. But I also did notice cause I cleaned out my phone the other day Uhhuh cause Google said I had no more storage so I was like, I don't need these pictures and I don't need these pictures. And I was actually saw pictures of me from five six years ago. And there were certain times where I was like, oh, look, my eye was actually wonky there too. So it could have just been that. And I could just be more aware because I'm so paranoid about thyroid eye disease, correct. That I'm like, oh my gosh, my eyes are completely off. And they really not, may not be, they look better in person than they do, like in a photo right now. Yeah. But my scar is really pretty. It's pretty, as it can be for a scar, it's it's actually not bad. It's really low. So my shirt covers it most of the time. Yeah, that's basically, what's been up with me. I haven't really done a whole lot because I honestly really couldn't. I could do stuff to a degree, but I couldn't do anything that would get me excited or get my heart rate up. And because of the medication I was on, I couldn't really go out. I couldn't have a drink, which you don't need to have a drink to have fun, but I just really couldn't do a whole lot of stuff because I was getting that all under control.
Gil:That makes sense. But at least you're, road to recovery. You're doing your follow up. Yes. You're being proactive.
Eric:Yes. I actually just had labs done on Friday cuz I have a doctor's appointment in two days.
Gil:so I was gonna say, even when I come back for my vacation, I have another, I have to go see the see the sleep doctor OK. I'm just like, I am so booked out right now. I'm like, okay, this is what I'm doing next.
Eric:Yeah. And I have same thing like in, in August I have yeah. Two more doctors appointments.
Gil:So it's funny. Yeah. I have my optometrist. I'm gonna eventually sometime in August, it's just, it's welcome to the your later thirties.
Eric:life, early forties. So don't get old people just kidding.
Gil:I was sure I agree to this
Eric:yeah, just embrace it. So yeah, that's what's been going on with me and. Yeah. So let's talk about some stuff. Gil
Gil:happy, believed pride, everyone also. Huh? We got outta pride month.
Eric:We got out pride month. As you can tell all the corporate sponsorship is gone. Yes, it is. It is. There's no leak in the store. Yeah. There's no rainbow anything. Yeah. But happy elated pride. Cuz I know last year we did like a whole like month of pride episodes. Yes. And we were super excited to do that and we wanted to do that. We actually wanted to do that for you guys again this year, but because of where I was at, I just couldn't. So thank you guys for bearing with us and thank you guys for coming back to our nice little humble podcast. We really appreciate you guys back
Gil:So the last time we spoke was just a remind everyone. Also, we were what, in here in Cal, I was curious. I'm like how much has changed? It was $3 and 21 cents for gasoline in New Mexico, four 60 in the bay. The last time we spoke or last time we did our podcast, which where we're at
Eric:now. Oh it is it's
Gil:here. I filled up today at 6 79. Oh, wow. Yeah, I just gouged stuff. It
Eric:did get up to 4 99 here, but coming back down. Okay.
Gil:Yeah. We're chipping away. We almost hit seven. Wow. Some in the city it hit seven. It was like seven, 10 in some spots. I was like, oh wow. I was cringing. Now have to pay premium gas. Oh, I'm not happy. oh yeah. And that also
Eric:yeah. Affects
Gil:it too. Yeah. I was just thinking about like, when we last did this for the entire year of 20, 21, if you could imagine it, and I don't mean this lightly, there was mass shootings. Some countries have gone zero. We've already had seven and it's July perspective. Just today
Eric:was cause we've actually had, what was the number?
We
Gil:had one 4th
Eric:of July right off the bat. No, I know that, but we ha we've had 309 mass shootings this
Gil:year when they double it's like they, the number was over God, how many people have to be injured? It was the list I was looking at. It's four people have to
Eric:be shot.
Gil:Yeah. It's sad. Yeah. Yeah. We've already matched 20, 21 already.
Eric:We've already passed it. And we're only like seven months in We've had like almost 90 mass shooting since Uvalde. Oh
Gil:my God. Yeah. It just, it's just crazy. Some of the things that like we had said back in November, December when we last did is yeah. Versus now we're back in July. I'm like, what the hell happened? Literally the world went on fire
Eric:well that, and then you have a Supreme court that just. Basically told everyone, like we talked about in our last episode, he can carry guns wherever you want on you, because you could, you might need it for self defense. Yeah. How's that going? Exactly. Seriously, it's self offense basically is what's happening. Correct. I know people who are terrified to go anywhere right now
Gil:and you can't blame them. No I don't blame 'em because if it's not the gunshots gonna get you, it might be COVID. Yeah. We're still, we're
Eric:still people. Yeah. We're still very much in COVID.
Gil:Yeah. And I think that was also like, even when I was going around, like the pride celebrations, I was very, we were very aware if that makes sense. Like we're not your atypical, let's go to Dolores park and sit amongst the rest of the, I was very hesitant and we didn't do it. We, yeah. Even when we did drag brunch, we were sneak against the window wide open, it was just, it was very. Different and, prayed everything. We were just separating away from people. It was not the typical kumbaya. Let's just, I don't know who the hell you are. Let's stand next
Eric:to you. Yeah, absolutely. Cause
Gil:CO's still
Eric:a thing. Very much. So like I went to our pride parade and it was fun and it was nice. And I was like right up front and yeah, I took some nice little pictures and I rocked my little pride crop top from our shop that I saw the Q lounge podcast.com. And it
Gil:fits great material.
Eric:Thank you. Yeah, the material's amazing. It's actually very soft. All organic. Yes. It was, I got to wear my little crop, which was nice and I got to wear my pride jock strap, which was cute. So yeah, that, I that was fun. I was actually gonna go to the whole big meet and greet event, but it took an hour to get from the parade to the fairgrounds. And if you're not from Albuquerque, it's really not that far. If you're from Albuquerque, you know exactly how it's like walking distance almost from silver. And I was like silver and Amherst to the fairgrounds, took me an hour. And I actually hadn't even reached the fairgrounds yet. So I just said, fuck it. I'm going home. you're done. And I didn't go out for pride. Like I'm one who loves to go to a club, but I couldn't dance. Correct. So that wasn't gonna be any fun for me. And CO's still very much a thing yeah. And I just, I don't like wearing a mask when I go to a club. Oh God, no, just because I will be waterboarding myself with as much as that. But other than that yeah, pride was fun. It was cute. But I didn't really do a whole lot and the parade was outside and I was like, of course, six to 10 feet away from every everyone.
Gil:right. Yeah. I just couldn't bring myself to be that close. Like we were near people, but not. Up against I'm like we were in 2019. I saw photos from then. Yeah. And I was like, remember when? And I'm like, holy shit. I'm good right now. I'm good. Yeah. San Francisco had a cool light installation that Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was called welcome. Welcome SF. And it was just stunning. So it had the lights, the rainbow going, literally the link from ferry building to the Castro. And then from Castro, it would beam up to suture tower the top of twin peaks. Nice. So the highest point in the city. Nice. So it was, it was brilliant. Granted, the fog came in obviously with San Francisco without fog but it was really, it was just gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. I hope they do it next year.
Eric:you sent me some pictures and it was beautiful.
Gil:Yeah. If you went there, Eric, oh my God, you would've enjoyed all just, you could take so many photos. I was very photos shy. I like, oh, let me just take photos of it. But,
Eric:You love to take photos though.
Gil:I do. I like I'll take
Eric:photos of everyone else. yeah. I You, I'm not saying you like to be the subject of the photo, but you like to actually take the photos. Oh
Gil:Yeah.
Eric:I live for it. But you were also like a photography major, like a double major, right? So yeah, I had my
Gil:degree yeah. Yester years oh yeah. So yeah, probably was interesting. COVID still a thing. It's just everything. January 6th happened while we were away, we had the
Eric:insurrection. No, that happened
Gil:20, 21. Oh no. Yeah. Sorry. I'm all off on my thing. I'm like,
Eric:we're not two years. We're not going back.
Gil:So watching the dance, the hearings I'm like is yesterday
Eric:I was like, no, I think we, I know we talked to some of our guests about that. Yeah, but the hearings are going on. So the hearings have still been going on, like reminds you of that. What did you think of the hearings? Have you been watching all the hearings?
Gil:Not all of them. I've been watching here and there and it just. I did watch when the oh God, what's her name? The gal was speaking press. She was I Meadows
Eric:assistant
Gil:the assistant. Yes. Yeah. And like I said, a lot of the things is it's pretty much confirming what we suspected. I don't think I've really been in the sense of shocked in the sense of where oh my God, no, he's innocent. No, absolutely not. The Trump's guilty as fuck. Everyone involved should be treat treated with treason. This is what it was. It's been interesting. The hearings have been very interesting. The ones that I have watched when I can have you been watching Cassidy Hutchinson
Eric:by the way? Casidy okay, good. I like you, I haven't watched all of them, like from beginning to end I saw the first prime time one. And then I saw a few clip. I saw clips of them as they were going on, but I didn't get to actually sit and watch them. Correct. And then I did see the one with Cassidy Hutchinson because I was off, so I definitely watched it and watched that one. I agree with you. It wasn't like earth shattering oh my gosh, the stuff that we didn't know happened. Correct. But it was further validation or verification of everything that we've been saying happened and everyone's oh no, that didn't happen. I was a little shocked with the, oh, let them in. They're not here to hurt me situation with all the weapons and getting rid of the mags like that. I was like, oh, wow. Okay. He literally was trying to like whip up this whole little militia to just go and then. I was a little, like throwing it back with the whole recounting of the third of the second count of second account of he put his hands on the steering wheel and went reached for Bobby Engel's throat. That was like, oh, wow. Okay. He really finds himself untouchable. I know a lot of people are saying that, oh, that never happened, but there are people who have corroborated her story now. Correct. At least to the point that, oh yeah. We also heard about a scuffle that happened in the limo, so correct. And of course you also know that she, her life is in danger because absolutely of the right wing, not jobs. And
Gil:it's very brave of her. It courage. Yeah. I know a lot of people have been praising Liz Cheney, but I think to remind everyone that at the root of her, she's still a conservative Republican,
Eric:a very conservative Republican, and that's a good point to bring up cuz everyone's oh Liz Cheney. She's doing what's right. And sending up. We're not,
Gil:yeah. It's not disagreeing with what she has said. She has said correct everything. Like I totally, I get it.
Eric:But also remember she is very excited about this overturning of R V w correct. So there's that to keep in mind.
Gil:Yeah. I, like I said, I am very thankful that at least a Republicans on body has some kind of conscience about it,
Eric:about that situation. And Adam, you have Adam Kininger on there too. So he isn't running for reelection though. So that's why
Gil:now he's more willing. And a lot of them are like, when they're at the end of their term limits or something term limits, everyone keyword, let's start using that more often. we need to have em yeah. We need to have him. And that's something that I've talked about before and just term limits everywhere it's needed. Yeah. Because otherwise you get stuck, you can get stuck with these people and it's just gonna, oh, let's just keep revoting 'em in. We know what they're about. No, we, we don't want any of that. Yeah. Electoral college years ago go to steam. Need to
Eric:revamp it. Let's talk about the SCO tie, the SCO cause we talked about R VW obviously in our last bonus episode. So since then they have also, I don't know if this was before or after. I wanna say it was, it might have been before where they did away with the EPAs. Yeah, ability to fight climate change. And then they are now allowing prayer in school and I'm sure, I'm sure it's a little, it's more nuanced and fines than me just saying it that way, but they ruled in favor of that coach and I forgot where he was from to say that, oh, he could prey on the 50 yard line with his football team at games.
Gil:I just, I don't, I just don't get it. So what, because because I'm not saying that I'm against religion, obviously not. Cause everyone's entitled they're God given. That they're entitled to these. If
Eric:you wanna go lead a prayer, like off to the side, And whoever wants to go with you can go with you. That's fine. But when you make it a big, huge spectacle, and then people who are on the team feel like they have to participate, whether it's completely stated like, oh, you must be here or not. There were parents who testified that their children felt like they were being pressured to be part of that group
Gil:because it is it's anyone who's done sports it's
Eric:like that. Yes. It's still, it's peer pressure. It's peer coercion to participate. And so now you're allowing prayer. Christian prayer, obviously that's Christian. Yeah. Let's be specific to happen on school. Now, what I want to see happen since the SCO DDI or that's SCOTUS ruled in favor of it's going against his religious freedom. I want to see like a satanic ritualistic prayer happen on the 50 yard line. And I wanna see what they say. Yeah. I want to be different. Of course. Yes. And I know that's an extreme example, but it's really not. I want to see a Muslim prayer happen on the 50 yard line. I want to see a whole bunch of yogis get on the football field and start chanting and see what happens. Cause they're asking for it. They said we're allowed to do this now. So any religion, you, you can't say it's good for the Christians, but not good for anybody else, which is what they are saying. They
Gil:are. Yeah. And that's what they're taking side with. And that's the part that I never quite understood when they're SOS on shoving their goddamn belief down everyone's throat, their forefathers fled Europe because of this per the persecution that they were getting in Europe, even, and then it come over here.
Eric:Yeah. And even what's Reagan, who is an as hat in his own, right? Oh God Reagan. Yes. But even he was against yeah. The inclusion of church with the states. He was very much, there needs to be a separation. Religion and church has no place in politics. There must be a division between the two. And I know this isn't the Republican party of Reagan. It wasn't a good party then either. But yeah, it's gotten completely bat shit crazy. You have people like Marjorie Taylor green who are now mad because they voted against, or they voted for the quote unquote gun reform bill, which obviously has isn't gonna do anything. She's putting the 10 Republicans who cross the aisle and getting her people after them. Having press conferences saying how they betrayed their constituents and they're going against the second amendment. And I am so tired of the second amendment. The second amendment seems to be the only amendment that means anything anymore. And the first amendment only is valid when it helps them get their point across and helps them Gaslight people saying, oh, our feelings are being hurt.
Gil:Yeah, this it that's the thing with the second amendment. It, we, I read it on the last podcast. Yeah. And. It does not off the bat say, private citizens are allowed to have guns right off the, anything like that. It's it was very, to me, I took it. It was very specific as to the need to have guns for it. It's to protect the people against the government. Obviously it does not say that the government is not allowed to protect itself because Lord knows the government will protect itself. Yeah. And it should have in January 6th anyways. But when it comes to special to like the first amendment, a lot of it, I, at least whenever I took this course, when I was taking my classes, I've always interpreted the first amendment, everything within it, for the press assembly your speech and religion. It was pretty much, you were entitled to those to do whatever it was within it, within your sphere. But your sphere ended. When it compromises someone else's fear they're, they're right to it, to do it freely, as long as it's not, like I said, that's the way I've always interpreted the first. That's why I never understood. Especially when it cuz of religion or it comes to what people are out there protesting for the good or the bad, like I said, as long as it's not hurting anyone else necessarily but that's the first amendment. Guns is not in the first amendment. No, that's not the first thing they thought of,
Eric:but it seems to be the only one that people care about.
Gil:Yeah. And that's the only one that suddenly it's an absolute, it's an absolute. Yeah. And I never ever understood it. And I think that's something that maybe we go to an extreme because Lord knows. And it's something just to put in context, the second amendment is one of the least amount of. Supreme, like with regards to Supreme court cases about the second amendment people need to be real. They make this, Republicans are great. It's creating an issue. They always pick a social issue, guns, for instance, it is the least amount of sued to go to the Supreme court regarding guns being taken away from their, second amendment. The second Amendment's one of the least sued to get to the Supreme court specifically. it's gonna be the 14th amendment, or always the most sued something about the 14th will get to the Supreme court. That's what they'll be
Eric:arguing about. They're already turning everything in the UN included in the 14th. So
Gil:yeah, it's not the second. That's why I don't understand when they make hit sea. It, like I said, it's a typical Christian thing. I don't know how a billion people strong in the planet feel oppressed, still get off the fucking cross, let someone else cry. So here's
Eric:the thing. Here's the thing though. And I was having this discussion the other day. I'm sick and tired of this crowd that wants to equate inconvenience with oppression. You're not truly being oppressed, you're being inconvenienced. But it's not oppression. No.
Gil:Ask a minority group,
Eric:ask a minority group, ask a group that has to freak out every time. There is a new administration that comes in are my rights being taken away. Look at what we just did to women. Look at what they're planning on doing to the Q I a plus community based on Thomas's concurring opinion, which I think we did talk about that in our last podcast, but and
Gil:that's the thing it's I don't know if you're on tech TikTok and that's the same thing where other minority groups need. Okay, good. So there was that video that white gay going through bitching in his kitchen about how we should not be worrying about, what happened in Roe V. Wade, his bullshit thing is sweet. Sweet eat Taylor. Okay, I'm gonna call it out because that was such, oh, I'll send it to you such bullshit, because this is the thing. When it comes down to when your rights are taken away from one group, it will affect everyone else. Absolutely. It doesn't stop. Oh, just one group are gonna no, and
Eric:it's not a true snowball effect. It's an avalanche effect.
Gil:Yes. This is the thing. It will, as a, as minority groups. You're not untouchable. It's not like you're. Oh, it's they can't get to me. Absolute fucking
Eric:not you actually, you have to look at it this way and I'm buying no means playing devil's advocate here. And I'm by no means adding any type of support to that train of thought. It's a, I'm assuming CIS white male.
Gil:Yes. Check, check. He's a CIS white male passing gay man.
Eric:Yeah, there you go. Because Uhhuh, he can still fall back on his CIS ness and can fall back on his whiteness. Correct.
Gil:Yeah. And that's the thing. They have no fucking idea.
Eric:Let's talk about true inequality here for a minute. We'll get back to this conversation Uhhuh. Cause I don't wanna not go here, but look at what happened yesterday. We're recording this on July 5th. So July 4th, which I did not celebrate cause I will not celebr. I did not either independence for when we've taken rights away from people. And it's a holiday based off of raping and pillaging innocent people as we sold their land. So anyways, we had this parade, there was parades all around the country. We had this. CRA's right. Wing fuckhead, who went on a shooting spree from a rooftop and killed a bunch of people. And shot a bunch more people who was apprehended without incidents. And then we have Jaylen Walker where that video was just released from Akron, Ohio, who was shot 60 fucking times for a traffic violation. Yes, I know. Oh, he, they had to chase him and he got out of the car and they said that there was a gun fi a gunshot, whatever he was unarmed when they shot him. He's a black man. I'm sure. Just, oh my God. There's cops and there's sirens after me. Of course he's gonna run. Cause he knows he is gonna get killed anyways. Correct.
Gil:But so that's the thing. Yeah. But that's the, exactly the thing the guys running. So did it warrant 60 shots? Exactly or the guy who's clearly shooting someone. People, family members are dead now because of this guy and he's still alive to tell the tale. Yep. So that's what I'm questioning because again, he was another boy male. Yep. I'm shocked in to just take you to dinner. Ask how was this day? Oh my God. How is your mental health? Oh, I know. Are
Eric:you triggered now? Hate is not a mental health issue
Gil:and that's the thing they immediately it's. We know that. Yeah. It just I recently had a discussion and I probably was, I was becoming unprofessional because with my, I will be very Frank. I was not professional. I've been in the retail industry for far too long and. I have a CIS female straight not have her ID, we're doing the whole back and forth. Why don't you have her ID? We need to scan it to do the return. But it came down. She said, I've never been, like I asked her, I was like, how could you be driving without your ID? Everyone has, should have their ID on them. Yeah. I drive, I've never got pulled over. If I get pulled over, I have a great record and I'm like, I have an excellent record. She's you probably don't. And I'm like, because I'm brown. I have to have my I, because I said, I'll get pulled over regardless. And I will get thrown in jail. That's what happens. So when brown person, and of course, like I said, she has that's ridiculous. Nope, because she's a white female. And that's the thing. And I got very snip about it goes oh no, she has no fucking idea. Not at all. We've and that's the thing we've talked about it. Yeah, I know that as a male, as a brown male Even though I'm gay. Yes. I have my alumni logos and Woohoo on my card and it's a decent car, but the fact is I could still get pulled over and they will treat me differently. And I know that if I don't have my ID or if I don't have my proper paperwork or something gonna, I could cry all I want. They don't fucking care.
Eric:I might get shot. Yeah. They don't care. And
Gil:if false black, I can get shot for sure. Absolutely. 50, 50 harass a little,
Eric:The fact that you're brown and you're driving like a nice car, you may have sold it.
Gil:Yeah. And it's a good chance. They be like, huh, who's the P for.
Eric:Yeah.
Gil:So technically some, my paperwork has my husband's name. True. Yeah.
Eric:And that's the thing too, is that unless you live that experience, you don't necessarily understand that experience. Yeah.
Gil:It crosses my mind.
Eric:And like the thing is people. People live in this thing. And this goes back to homeboy on TikTok as well. Yeah. it shouldn't have to happen to you for it to matter to you. Correct. Like you should be able to objectively be like, wow, this country's pretty fucked up. Look at all the inequality around us. Correct. Something needs to be done. Yeah. And people are like, oh, that doesn't affect me. Ha hair toss hair, tos giggle. Giggle. It doesn't matter because I'm not directly affected by that. It's the indirect effect does trickle down as the avalanche actually happens and everything gets destroyed and gets taken away.
Gil:Yeah. Perfectly
Eric:so let's circle back around. I don't remember exactly where we pinned our last conversation. I wanna talk a little bit, okay. If we'll hopefully get back to it. I wanna talk a little bit about R V w some more. Okay. I'm still very angry. I'm still extremely mad at the men. Especially the straight men. Yep. Who and not, this is obviously not all. And I actually wanna make a comment too. I think the exception is built in when I say men suck. Obviously there's some good men out there that exception is already built into it. So I have an issue with straight men. Who are like, okay. Yeah, whatever. Oh, no, I'm not getting a vasectomy. That's you're not going cut my balls off, which that's not a castration people, but they act like it is right. It's a snip of the VAs Deen. And these dudes are not stepping up. Okay. If you don't wanna get a vasectomy, that's fine. We'll take that off the table. Everyone knows my opinion on vasectomies and everything else. I know I'm a little like out there, but I'm not the thing is that you need to be fighting for the women in your lives, rights And by you staying silent, you are telling those women and society that you're okay with it. Dudes need to stand the, and support these women because they need our voices. But it goes back to what we talked about in one of our earlier podcasts. I don't know if it was season one or season two was one of our earlier podcasts. About, we're gonna strip rights away from one group so that they can no longer fight when we start stripping rights away from another group. And that's exactly what's happening. Yeah. And it's crazy to me that such a small percentage of people in this country have so much fucking power.
Gil:Yes. Especially as a minority party as well. Absolutely. Let's look because let's yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say we've discussed it. The Republican party is the minority party in this country. Yes. White men will become the minority. White in general. Caucasian will be the minority by 2030. Boomers are still dictating and they are the, this is yeah. The Las rah gen Z is in full mode.
Eric:I love gen Z. You, did you see, I don't know if you saw that pastor from she was at a Trump rally and she said, thank you, Scotts for preserving our white babies. Yes. And I'm like, oh, she just said the quiet part out loud. yeah. Right. We were all like mm-hmm yeah. We knew you were going there. Let's talk about some of these states that trigger law and all that other stuff. Oh, man. We are seeing the happenings of it. When did you, I don't know if you saw that story from about that girl from Ohio 10 and a half years old girl who was raped. Yeah. Who was raped and had to go to Indiana for an, for her abortion, for her healthcare. And you have disgusting. It's disgusting. It is fucking gross. It is horrifying. It is tragic. It is abhorrent. It is disgusting.
Gil:If somebody could tell this parent tell her parents that was okay, that the fetus is more important than their 10 year old, 10 and a half year old. Being raped and being forced to carry full term to this baby. You could go to hell. I'm assuming they believe in it. Go to it, go
Eric:to hell. Jump. Yeah.
Gil:I could not believe it when I read it. I was like, are you fucking kidding me with this?
Eric:No, I know. And then like you have Christy nom, the governor of South Dakota who refuses to answer the question about their trigger law. So basically saying yes, she should still carry the child a term. We need to be harder on the rapist. Yes. I agree. We need to be way harder on the rapist, but we're not, you have Brock Turners, you have Jacob Andersons out there. You have that. I think that guy from Wisconsin who got like probation, you have the SCOTUS has now set it up so that rapists can literally choose the mother of their child. So let's get back to this 10 and a half year old little girl. Yep. You're expecting. She's probably just, she's hitting puberty. You're gonna make her just from, just go, going to taking the emotional and mental part out for just a second. Her body's going through all these changes already and having all these like weird influxes of hormones. And now you're putting this on top of it and you're expecting her body to go through the changes of carrying a child, an actual childbirth, and the trauma that, that puts on the body. You are expecting that to happen to this girl, you add in the emotional components. And this little girl was raped. Yeah. She was raped. I'm still healing from all the sexual abuse in the child molestation that I've dealt with as a person. And that was 35 to 37, 38 years ago. A lot of it. I'm still healing from it. I'm still fucked up as it is because of the trauma from it. Yeah. And you are expecting this little girl you're it's okay. That she was raped and that she is now you're gonna force her to have this child. That is absolute bullshit. That is fucked up. That is gross. Beyond belief. I can't even think of any other words. It is like a total fungus infected CU scap filled bag of Dery. It is horrible.
Gil:I don't know how anyone can support it. Neither do I never quite. And I know they're trying to argue from that privacy is not explicitly stated to any constitution. Brandon, we should probably get an amendment going and get the bitch stated. Apparently. Yes. Cause I thought it was pretty much implied that you are entitled to your own. What the fuck you do in your own bedroom or who you talk to your doctor to me that is not of anyone's goddamn concern. It's none. It's none of your business. None.
Eric:It's and like we've talked about this too, like them trying to overturn Lawrence and be Texas, which is the sodomy right to sodomy or correct. Non-regular penal into vaginal missionary sex. So pretty much once they overturn that so that they can overturn same sex relationships and gay people, LGBTQ people Like they're doing away with blow jobs. They're doing away with like salad tossing. They're doing away with they're doing away with all your fun foreplay stuff. Which is stuff that I actually prefer in a lot of ways. Yeah, they're gonna do away with all that too. So yeah, this whole RVW has implications that come down to the LGBTQ community and the LGBTQ community needs to be more upset. And there are a lot that are upset and I applaud them and I thank them for that, but there are a lot that are not, or not as upset as they should be. Because it's not happening to me right now, bitch. It's gonna happen to you sooner or later. Again, time, if we can stop it, then we should stop it from happening and falling further down.
Gil:Yeah, because an attack on one is attack on all and it's the mentality they need to have. And I don't understand it's none of this individual. Oh no. Cause once you started isolating, the majority starts isolating you're screwed because at the end you'd be like, oh my God, I need support. Oh wait, everyone's locked up. Yeah. What do I do now?
Eric:It's the whole thought process of if we keep these groups so deprived that they have to, their focus is on survival. Correct. We can start taking all this other shit away from them because they won't even see it because they're just so focused on surviving. That we're taking all these rights away from them because they're not gonna see it because at that moment in time, they are not concerned about it because I don't know when I'm gonna get my next piece of bread. Right.
Gil:It's funny how they are completely ignoring, loving the Virginia. Oh, absolutely. I don't know. Absolutely. I'm just saying privacy was the issue there. They were talking about racial interracial
Eric:and I'm glad that people are starting to bring that up again. Clarence Thomas should not be on the Supreme court. No, he should be that at all. And so should Kavanaugh and so Gorsuch and so should Barrett because they all lied. I know there's this whole thing of you can of change your mind and it's more, those interviews are more performative than they are actual interviews. No, you are still lying under oath to Congress, correct. Which I think should carry a pretty hefty weight. You are a judge. So therefore you have studied law. Correct. And I don't like this whole I'm above the law because I'm now creating the law.
Gil:And that's the thing is if you were to apply for a job, because a lot of jobs now you do virtual, not virtual, but there's like recordings of your questions to the interview. Because, since the pandemic, you don't wanna go in person do physical interview. So a lot of 'em gone digital. A lot of them save it, just like your interview guide. I've referred to someone who wasn't performing or said they could do what they could do to their interview guide. I said, Hey, this is what you said, this is what you said you could commit to. This is what your quote qualifications are. That's something that we use. So I don't understand why are the justices excluded from that same critique? When companies like yr for we'll hold them to accountable accountability with. What we hired you for, but you're not performing. You're not qualified. Like you said you were. Yeah. I just,
Eric:these justices, absolutely. I'm flabbergasted and jaw dropped on how they are getting away
Gil:with it. Getting away with murder, just getting literally,
Eric:literally, you look at women with ectopic pregnancies. I was reading a story the other day where I forgot what state it was in. And I don't wanna just name out a random state, but it's one of those states that has now taken away healthcare and
Gil:Mississippi let's just call
Eric:probably it wasn't that it honestly wasn't Mississippi, but Mississippi's at the root of all this shit. because it was their case that did this. No, there was the doctor, this doctor was talking, I think it was Texas actually I think it was Texas. Okay. And they were saying. This woman had an ectopic pregnancy. No, this was a different story, but there was this one had an ectopic pregnancy and they were told that they could not treat her until she was going into sepsis. So literally she had to be dying in order for it to be the life of the mother. Not that she was gonna die. She was gonna die because it's an ectopic pregnancy and let's stop it before it actually gets there. No, she had to literally be in medical crisis before they would do anything about it.
Gil:It's like knowing you found out you had stage one cancer. Yeah. But not doing anything until you stage four. Absolutely. Now let's go to do something. That's not how shit works and it's go. I was gonna say, like these politicians and these justice stuff like that, why don't you guys stay in your lane? You're not doctors. They're not qualified to make these judgment calls that affect everyone.
Eric:Yeah. The Texas story that I was thinking about is Uhhuh. This woman was pregnant. She was 24 months or 24 months, 24 weeks pregnant. I'm like, shit. Yeah. She was 24 weeks pregnant. And all of a sudden the child started having seizures. And it, oh, no. Was became the life of the child. And the child, they said was not probably gonna make it to term. And if it did, the child would be dead shortly after delivery. She could not have an abortion because it wasn't life of the mother and she had to go elsewhere for it. You're. Expecting these. I'm just so I can't even speak. I'm like speechless. I'm so angry about this stuff. That's going on. You have other people who have health conditions who should not be getting pregnant or can't, their bodies just cannot sustain. The embryo cannot sustain pregnancy and you're forcing them to go through pregnancy when they might die. And then a lot of times they may have other children. So guess what? Now their child is motherless. These their other children are motherless. When you decide that, oh, we're gonna prosecute these women who have abortions, a most women who have abortions already have another child right now, we're gonna say, oh, we're gonna prosecute you and send you to prison because you had an abortion. What happens to your other kids?
Gil:I genuinely do not get it.
Eric:We do have a new SCOTUS, our new, a new on the SCOTUS. Sorry. It's not gonna do anything as of right now, correct. We're too afraid to expand the court
Gil:and tell you had to be like an FDR, just bully it away.
Eric:Yeah. Because you have to minimize what they think their power is. You have to keep them in check as well. And right now that's not happening, but I am happy that she, that Katri brown Jackson is on the court. It's about time that we have a black woman on the court, it should have happened many years ago. I'm super happy for her. I'm not taking that away from her, but it seems very performative and it seems almost token ish. And I hate to use that phrase. Given the state of where our world is right now, right in this country is right now. You have, the world is oh my God, what the fuck did the United States just do? You're like, we're actually showing our true colors, which is sad. Cause I will say like I was blinded to it for many years.
Gil:Yeah. I think this is that part where, like you said that when you're in your youth, there's that blind, the almost blissful ignorance that you carry. And so in the early indoctrine indoctrination that you receive through your K 12 in the states and then it slowly starts coming off as you're getting older and the shit that hits the fan and it's the way things are.
Eric:I think that's how it was for us, for sure. Yeah. I don't think that's how it is for gen Z and below.
Gil:No, because information's also quicker now than it was information
Eric:is also a lot quicker too, but yeah they have to live this shit all the time now. We have elementary school kids through high school kids who are literally being targeted and who are just victims of massacres and mass shootings. It's crazy that to think of this, like in this country, we live our lives as basically live target practice. Like we're literally just there for someone to shoot now, like yesterday, July 4th, that parade situation proved that we're literally just moving targets for whoever's having a bad day,
Gil:correct? Or cause that's what
Eric:it down to just throwing a fit because they're inconvenienced.
Gil:So they didn't get that extra whip yeah. Whip on
Eric:their ice cream or something, or, oh my gosh, they didn't get a low fat cappuccino. They actually gave them whole milk instead of almond. But so I don't think the kids now, and I could be totally wrong cuz I'm not of the Z generation or younger Uhhuh but we've, they've been raised in trauma, like literal trauma. Not only like the individual trauma that we go through as kids. And I have my trauma that I carry with me that I mentioned a little bit. You have your trauma that you carry with you but now they have societal trauma of oh yeah. You're just target practice. You have a target on your head or on your back because. Those these guns have way more rights than you do to your life. Correct. So I think the younger generations have had to be more political. They've been forced to be more political, because they've been raised and born into that society in which yeah. The society doesn't give a fuck about you. So what are you gonna do about it? Hopefully nothing. And they're actually being pretty smart in the fact that oh no, we're going to get together. We're gonna become activists. And we're going to speak about it. We're going to get our voices heard. Sadly, they are not of age. A lot of them are not of ages to vote right now. So that sucks. Yeah. And we're trying to say oh, we're gonna take everything away from you. So you'll never get to the life that you deserve.
Gil:It. Yeah. Cause I know I saw millennials, like the dream is oh my God, someone owns property. Oh, woo. Look at you. Fancy and I think, we were always teased about, oh my God, your, guys are always on your phone. That's the most fucking expensive thing that we could have. Yeah. Let's be real. If you're taking a trip, our trips are through Airbnb. We're staying at other people's houses. We're not staying at a hotel. The Ritz Carlton, are you fucking kidding me? we're not staying there. We're at the air. We're at someone's house. We're renting, we're buying used car. Like I said, I, part of that, I'm like woo 2018. That's close enough to 20, 22. Let's, that's what it is. I think a lot of millennials took a very passive, almost apathetic. We're not gonna buy into the system. Because it's not gonna benefit us. Yeah. And I think a lot of us took a very apathetic view towards politics. Like I said, I got riled up. I'm probably, I feel like I was like one of the few that got riled up about gore. I'm still bitter. I gore did not lose to me in my mind that election. I think he got fucked.
Eric:How many people did not win the popular vote and became president and look at how many Godi they put on that bench?
Gil:That's all I'm saying. Yes. Isn't that kind of interesting. And Jeff, that was just like what I could speak to, and I'm glad that gen Z's fired and ready to go and ready to burn this bitch down. Cuz someplace what? Maybe this time,
Eric:I think it is time. I totally posted are we getting to start blowing shit up now? Come on. I'm totally.
Gil:And I believe in the constitution and I believe that is a living, breathing document. It's not an absolute, it is made to be changed. It's made to be updated things, change shit. It's,
Eric:it's the
Gil:foundation. It is. It really is. Yes. I under, like I said, you, and I've talked about this. I get it that the founders were not pure. They were not they're of course they weren't they're men. The white men, they Europe. But the concept of which with this country was founded in comparison to our Europeans, that everyone loves who, put them on a pedestal. Let's be real. They raped the planet. Let's not push out away the British alone. They all had thousands of years though, of having to deal with Kings and revolutions and everything to get to where they are now, where now they could just sit there and have a Crump and a cup of tea. And talk about yes, three years. Like it it just happened, but let's be real. They came, deck it centuries to get to, a failure to get to where they are now. And this thing with the us, we're still an infant in the grand scheme of things. And we're gonna work through our kinks and little issues and I believe you let's get rid of who we have in SCOTUS. Definitely. It is a living briefly document. It needs to be updated. We need to add a few more amendments shit for privacy. That's apparently it's the biggest issue.
Eric:yeah. We need to codify some shit too.
Gil:We do. There's some things that we do need to change. Absolutely. Scotts is done. An absolutely should not be this lifetime appointment. Get rid of that. Yeah. Cause the people that we're putting in are young, they're starting in their fifties. They're guaranteed at least 30 more years.
Eric:I think that they need to, I'm gonna venture to say eight years tops, maybe 12.
Gil:I always think at 12 and on a rotation so that you're guaranteed to lose seats and that everything would be like in pair, like everything would keep moving. Kinda like your senators kind of thing.
Eric:Senators need to also have term
Gil:limit. They need a cap because mean don't get Diane Feinstein was good back in the early nineties. This bitch is still trying to keep going, but she's so in California, she
Eric:done she's done and
Gil:she's trying to rerun again. I'm like, you're gonna be 110 Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm a Democrat. I don't get me wrong. I did vote for one of the times.
Eric:my thing is though, like there needs to be a cap there, there needs to be a cap for sure. But you look at the democratic party and our democratic party is basically where a lot of the rest of the world, a world's conservative party is. Correct.
Gil:Yeah.
Eric:Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would be considered moderates pretty much anywhere else. Correct. And we're trying to sit there and say that they're well, we're not trying to say that those as hats on the other side are trying to say they're extreme liberals, they're extreme. And I hate this whole comparison of, and I'm sorry that if I keep cutting you off in this podcast I hate this whole comparison of the extreme right wing versus the extreme left wing. Oh my God. They both have extremes and people are in the middle and these extreme it's. We have to stop these extremes. Okay. One extreme is literally trying to take your rights away and say that only one group, the white men are. Allowed to say anything, and they're trying to strip out rights away from everybody else. Then you have the group on the other side saying, Hey, we just want equality in a level playing field. Correct. We are not trying to take your rights away. We're just saying, Hey, we deserve those same rights. Correct. And that group over there is oh my God, they want the same rights as us. They're taking our rights away. They want no, you're seeing it through the eyes of how you've treated us and all these groups this entire time. And now you're afraid that you're gonna get that same treatment back once everything's equal. We're just asking for equality. We're not asking for superiority, correct.
Gil:It's simple. So it's just we're just asking for a simple, nice life. We're not asking for a million dollars. No, that'd be nice, but we're not asking. We're just asking to say, Hey, can I actually buy the house in the same city that I grew up in? Yeah. I I'm not asking or I at least,
Eric:no, go ahead. So can I at least afford that two bedroom apartment?
Gil:That's all we're asking. People have always been asking and we're not asking, oh, I need six jets. I only have five. I need the six. This is ridiculous. Convenience.
Eric:You look at like other countries too, and they actually get like time off, paid time off in other countries to travel the world or to live or to rest or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I was reading an article. I think the guy was from England and he was saying that I always wondered why people from the us didn't travel more. And then I got to the us and realized, holy shit, you guys can't travel more because you guys have been brought up in this society that work, and you don't have time to travel. I'm like, no, that's pretty much it,
Gil:right? No, absolutely. It's not like I said, we're not asking for the fucking mood at this point. We might as well. We are behind. And it's how do we, like I said, when they always try to blame the worker, oh, you guys are just lazy. Oh, you guys just don't wanna pay for stuff. It's American companies who have relocated to other countries, if so, wanna become American and export everything out. But yet it's the American worker who somehow at fault for this. Yeah. It's the American worker who we did lose the jobs. American corporations chose to leave because they won't pay their fair wages. They won't pay the fair
Eric:taxes. And everyone's oh, all this inflation is because workers are too lazy to work or no, they want what they are worth and they deserve to be paid. Correct. Oh, that's just gonna cause prices to go up. No, that's actually just corporate greed. Correct? Inflation is corporate
Gil:Greed. They're maintaining their profit margins.
Eric:Like turkeys, Turkey just went up 80%. I was just reading this yesterday. They, their whole they've inflated like crazy, like up 80%. I'm not a big Biden fan. I did vote for him, but he's not responsible for Turkey's inflation. Nope. He's not responsible for the gas prices in iron. And those are pre, those are like, what? Those are the like 12, $16 a gallon. Yeah. I don't know if that's the actual figures, but I know that's higher than even California and that's not his fault, but people are like, oh, it's his fault. It's his fault. It's his fault. No, it's corporate greed. I don't care if you're a CEO and you wanna pay yourself twice, what your employees make. That's fine. Like they make 60,000 a year. You wanna make 120,000 a year. Cool, fine. Whatever. I don't care about that. Honestly, that's fine. It's your company. Cool. But then when you get to the point where you are making 2, 10, 30, 40 million a year and you're giving yourself six, 6.5 million bonuses or 10.2, 4 million bonuses every year, and your employees are making 20,000 or 30,000 a year there, we have an issue. Yeah.
Gil:Like I said these companies, ultimately, especially if they're publicly traded, have to answer to the stockholders, that's why they're concerned about ensuring that their profit margins are still there. No one during the recess during gonna be a recession of like during the yeah, during the when, during COVID, when COVID first hit that's the first thing they were concerned about was the profit margins. They would rather see, like I said I was part of the group who was furloughed like I said, for months and we did, I did come to it. I realization oh my God, what the fuck? Wasn't I doing all that time? I actually enjoyed when I was furloughed. I dunno that some people might have got bored. I enjoyed it. I was focused on my health doing my thing. And it's kinda where the light of hit. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? And I think there a lot of Americans and I don't blame us. We woke up, it was kinda like, huh, I could do this job at home. Or why am I getting yelled at for this kind of money I should ex for war?
Eric:Absolutely.
Gil:because at the end of the day, even though, some CEOs try to pull the whole, oh, I'm not gonna get paid every this time. No problem. I'm just gonna give away my money. They still got buyback options. They still got stock options. Like I said, they all got paid at some point, they, as soon as the company started regenerating again, generating again, they all cap bonuses
Eric:again. And guess what? They weren't hurting for money for those months to couple years, I think it was months that things were closed down. No, because you know what? They still have their millions of dollars. Correct. It's the person who makes 7 25 in some places. An hour who is shit. I am not even bringing home $800 this month and I still have to pay rent or I still at least have to pay like electricity and gas or food. Correct. That's the person that was hurting. Correct. I don't the person who is worth X, millions of dollars. They were fine.
Gil:They're fine. They all made money. Oh,
Eric:no. You had to go live in your four bedroom, three story house instead of your 17 bedroom mansion. Okay.
Gil:Correct. I don't think it was that but it was still
Eric:ridiculous. It's interesting too, because like it plays into this whole narrative of being gas lit and correct. Manipulating the situation or the narrative. Yeah. And you have the, those in power, the wealthy, they love uneducated, the uneducated. And I don't think by any means I'm the most educated person at all, but I'm also not ignorant. And. You have this group of people, the people in power who wanna keep people uneducated and you want to keep people dumb. So that all you do is oh, this is what's happening. This is what's happening. Come on our side, come on our side. Now you're going to be the bullies who are gonna knock them down and you're gonna do all the physical work and do all this and beat the other group down. And
Gil:Yeah. And I think that, especially with the democratic party, if we wanna keep it that way or starting a new party or however we wanna, like I said, go about it. I think it's really about big photo. What do we wanna accomplish? Because I think a lot of the times we get stuck playing catch up. Oh, now we have to go after Roe V. Wade. Now we got it's we keep chasing all these things as they're dismantling. And yet they, the Republicans especially have shit going on to the side, but it's, I think as a democratic party, we need to figure out how do we dig big photo? What are we gonna go for? How are we gonna make it happen? Stuff, the courts do what we need, and that's the same thing with this. What happened with Roe V. Wade? How we got overturned is that year after year, after for the last 50 years, they play for the long haul. They're gonna throw different lawsuits purposely and see if this is the right wording in which this court could finally say yes to overturn the bitch. And that's what happened. Yep. And it came to it,
Eric:they got their conservative majority, they
Gil:got their conservative and that's I think with the democratic party, they don't think long term. I know there's been a lot of concern about, oh my God, the Democrats, they're getting all this funding from corporations. Here's the thing. The Democrats weren't winning into seventies, the eight eighties, south side of Carter into even the late sixties, because they went to that extreme left at the time. And the party was choosing, all these people that Republicans dub, extreme left. These are your leftist, communist and Democrats were getting white. Wiped out at the state level, at the city level up to the, obviously the presidential that's why after really? It would've been right after FDR. Yes. Like I said it, it was just how many Democrats were elected into office minimum. Yeah. They all, it was a conservative swing because the democratic party had no idea after FD really what to do. And we, I don't still don't think we do have an
Eric:idea what to do messaging isn't there. Yeah. It's great. There is a lot of infighting yeah. Cause you want, you have people who actually want progress and then you have people that are just happy with the way things are. Yeah. It is tragic, just R V w specifically that it was on the books for 50 years or 49 years. And it was never codified like, oh that's just not our priority right now. Cuz everything is fine Uhhuh. No it should have been codified right to privacy should have been codified and made like an absolute but it was like I'm it was, it basically goes into the whole and we talked about this on our last podcast of when they go low, we go high or let's play to both sides and get both sides to kumbaya with each other. That's not gonna happen. That means no. The Republicans have already stated and shown that is not gonna happen. Yeah. They have each other's backs regardless. Collins and Markowski are supposed to both be pro-choice Republicans. And they both still voted against doing away at the filibuster to codify RV w and Collins has gone on the record, a state that, oh, they lied to me. That was not what they told me when we had private discussions in my office about Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. And of course, yeah. So they still are gonna get each other's back.
Gil:Yeah. It, I'm not sure dispatch of the party system.
Eric:I think so. I honestly think so this two party system is bogus anyways
Gil:and yeah. And I don't think the. I know that I know for a fact I'm asked the family follows, this was a concern of theirs, that it would be party over country. And that's what it is. It's definitely become as of late it's party over country.
Eric:Yeah. That's my way or nothing. Yeah. I thank you guys very much for listening to us, to our faces again. It's so good to be back. Welcome. Thank you guys for joining us. We, you can follow us@theqloungepodcast.com. You can follow us on social media at the Q lounge. I think that we're at the Q lounge on both Instagram and Twitter. Yes. And at the Q lounge podcast on Facebook. So you can follow us on all those socials. I'm trying to be good about updating stuff, but I'm not always the best. And so I do apologize for that and yeah, that's what I have to say. Remember to live. It's great to be back Yes, it is. It is great to be back. So thank you. Living your ity and we'll see you later or talk to you later. Yes.
Gil:thank you for listening to us. We hope you enjoyed your time in The Q Lounge. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions on topics, or if you would like to be a guest or contributor, please email us info.TheQlounge@gmail.Com or through our contact page at theqloungepodcast.com. Don't forget to subscribe to continue listening wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to be our sugar, daddy hit that donation button.
Eric:Until next time live in your authenticity.
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