All About The Joy
All About The Joy is a weekly hang-out with friends in the neighborhood! We share insight, advice, funny-isms and we choose to always try and find the positive, the silver lining, the "light" in all of it. AATJ comes from the simple concept that at the end of the day we all want to have more JOY than not. So, this is a cool place to unwind, have a laugh and share some time with friends!
All About The Joy
Curfew Arrests, Press Freedom, and No Kings Day
A burger run after a high school football game should be forgettable. Instead, teens were pulled from their cars, handcuffed, and taken to a station for violating a 10 p.m. curfew - no drugs, no fights, no vandalism. We follow that one night in LA County to its bigger meanings: how “law and order” becomes spectacle, how small policies teach big lessons about power, and how a first brush with policing can harden into lifelong distrust.
From there we widen the frame. A leaked trove of messages from young Republican leaders celebrates Hitler, throws racist slurs, and jokes about rape. It isn’t an outlier - it’s an accelerant. We talk about what broke for some white Americans during Obama’s presidency and why euphemisms no longer help. If you’re tired of talking about race, imagine living with it daily. Allyship can’t be a bumper sticker; it’s the choice to speak up in rooms where it’s easiest to stay quiet, to challenge family myths, and to back policy changes that stop criminalizing kids for being kids.
There is light. Nearly every major outlet just rejected a Pentagon demand to sign a gag agreement, drawing a line for press freedom. Organizers are mobilizing for No Kings Day, a reminder that power answers to the people, not the other way around. We share practical steps: push for diversion over arrests, demand proportional policing, support local journalism, and rotate rest so burnout doesn’t win. The throughline is simple: dignity should not be a luxury, and a late-night order of fries should never be a criminal act.
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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
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Hey everyone. Welcome to All About the Joy. This is Culture and Consequence with Carmen and Andrea. So what's up? How you doing? You're great. Yeah, I'm great too. I'm not. I think I told you this. Well, I think I told you this week. I'm just tired. I think I'm also sick. But I think mostly I'm done. Sick and tired. Sick and tired. I'm done. I'm tired of the everyday conversation of um this administration.
Andrea:Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah. Yeah. So that's our show for today. Uh, thank you for stopping by. No. You said you were gonna share something that happened regarding um the police recently.
Andrea:Yeah, I don't want to talk about it. Uh this was just uh a small and relatively insignificant addendum to the conversation that we had last week about um about cops.
Carmen Lezeth:About how much you love the police and how much I am loving ice.
Andrea:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um I don't even know where to begin. So my god, what happened? No, for real, what happened? Yeah, yeah. So I'll just tell you the story. I'll try to make it relatively brief. So um, across the nation, across the United States, Friday nights in the fall is football night, right? For high schools, it's high school football night, Friday night lights, right? Um, so that's a pretty normal thing that a lot of the high school kids do. Um, no different up here where I live, I think there's eight or nine high schools or something like that. And um there also happens to be in a lot of places uh curfews, juvenile curfew ordinances, right? And so is that normal? I I mean I don't know. It is, I found out, because of course, you know, whatever. So there's curfews and it's generally like uh 10, 10, 80 p.m. to dawn or 10 here, it happens to be 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Right. So uh last Friday night, uh there was a football game, and or there were a lot of football games, but there was, you know, so it's uh 10 o'clock ish, nine, nine, they end at like nine between nine and ten, right? So uh the kids tell me the kids as they do go out to get like a burger and fries and hang out after the football game, right? Like what's more American than going out to get a burger and fries after a football game? Pretty much nothing, right? Um so here in LA County, I live in the LA County Sheriff's jurisdiction, um, they decided to have an enforcement action where they went around to the places where the kids hang out. We're talking In N Out, Taco Bell, because there's, you know, maybe a Denny's, I don't know. There's nothing else that's open late. Um, and they started arresting, arresting, handcuffing, putting kids in the back of the car, taking them to the station for being out after 10 p.m. They were not doing anything else wrong. As far as I know, this has never been like truly, truly enforced. So this is something that they do all of the time. It's an ordinance, so they could have very easily given all of these kids tickets and had their parents come pick them up or whatever. Instead, they are literally pulling kids out of the kids in the drive-thru line it in and out, which we know is like a 30-minute line.
Carmen Lezeth:It's a 30-minute line.
Andrea:Taking them out of their cars, having them park, leave their cars, get their car searched. The kids don't know what they've done wrong. The kids think like, oh, they're looking for drugs or whatever, right? Kids haven't been told. They are up against the cop cars with their hands up, they are cuffed with their hands behind them, they are put into the cop cars, they are taken down to the station, and their parents are called to come and pick them up, and then they have to go get the car and all of this stuff because they were out after 10 p.m. I'm confused. This happened like the other day. Yeah. This happened Friday night, last Friday night. And so, me being who I am, like my kids were not there. My kids happened to be home, but I heard about this like second hand or third hand or whatever. Um, a good, I don't know how many kids, but one girl got picked up at the gas station putting gas in her car to go home. Right. Um, so I do all of my research. I made a bunch of calls. I called the LA County Sheriffs, I called the board of supervisors, I called the school district. Oh, I forgot to mention the school district sent an email sometime on Friday, maybe I don't know, two o'clock, three o'clock, whatever in the afternoon. Just as a reminder, the curfew is 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. And I was, and I I didn't think anything about the email, right? I was like, yeah, and you're supposed to stop at a stop sign when no one's there, but do we do that? No, we don't. So I know you do. I mean, I got you, I got you, I got you. Right? So I was just like, okay, whatever. So in my head, I'm like, school district knew this was happening and left their kids out like lambs to the slaughter to go get arrested, right? Um, so I called everybody, right? And of course, me being me, one of the things I said when I was talking to the lady at the sheriff's department was, this is why people hate cops, ma'am. That's uncalled for. And I was like, I'll tell you what's uncalled for. Arresting kids doing kid things. Like, she's like, Well, that you know, our job is to enforce the law, ma'am. Do they have nothing else to do?
Carmen Lezeth:So wait, is this was actually the sheriff's department? This is LAPD.
Andrea:Yeah, this was one of the things I said was number one, do you not have enough to do? Number two, if you don't have enough to do, there's probably too many of you. So maybe we should start laying some people off. And number three, why are you doing this to families? Because now these kids have, you know, they've got this thing on their record, so their insurance is gonna go up. There, they have a fine that they have to pay, they have to go and do community service.
Carmen Lezeth:And it's on the record.
Andrea:Yeah, it's on their record. I mean, they're you know, teenagers, so maybe it won't matter when they turn 18. I don't know. The all the ins and outs of the stuff. And I would think it's a little traumatic. Uh yeah, and a lot of the one kid who I actually heard from specifically, not that it should matter, straight A student, AP classes, does like hands and research at UCLA, has a part-time job, model model kid that you, you know, who just was like hungry and wanted to go get something because he was at the game. Did they answer why they decided to do this as they're meant to do? That's this is what I was told, right? I didn't get any good answers from anybody, right? It was like, well, that that's the law, you know, the kids aren't supposed to be out. And I'm so it's just a show of force, right? Like to me, I'm like, this is just a show of force. Maybe they were jealous that ICE was getting all the attention and they needed to like, you know, get in on some of the fun. I don't know, but you know, my my main reason for even talking about this is because I sort of shared my story about my first interaction really with the cops and the uh you know tone that that set for the way I feel about the cops really for the rest of my life. And so, like you were saying, they were traumatized, right? They were scared. A lot of these kids, I'm sure, had either a neutral or even a good impression of the police. Really? So now, well, okay, you know, like they like whatever they're not thinking about. Maybe, I don't know, right? Um these mostly white kids from your neighborhood. I don't know. The one kid that I heard from is Asian. I did ask my daughter to ask the question when he was sitting in like the holding area, of course. You know, me first question I was like, can you ask him what the ethnic makeup of uh was of the kids who are in the room? Like, I'm not gonna ask him that, mom. You know, um, but I love I was hot. I'm like taking notes, I'm in there like looking up the laws and all of this kind of stuff, you know. Uh, because I was pissed. I was like, why would you do this to all of these kids and their families? What is the purpose of this?
Carmen Lezeth:I don't even understand the part of like yeah, I don't understand the part of actually handcuffing them and bringing them to jail. I could see them stop. I mean, back in the day, look it. I hate cops. There's no doubt about it. I as we talked about last week, there are some good cops that I have interacted with, but if you're part of the whole collective and you do nothing to talk about the bullshittery, you become lumped in with the bad cops. So there you go. But I just remember we would be told you guys have 10 minutes to disperse. You know what I mean? Like you need to go or whatever. Like it just seems weird to me that they went through the whole thing of actually arresting them, putting handcuffs on them, bringing them down to the state. That seems excessive. Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I that's those are the words that I use. This is excessive. Why why would you put the kids and their families through this? Like, what is it? Uh, we're enforcing the law, ma'am. You know, the families should know that their kids shouldn't be out after 10 p.m.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, and the reason why you're mimicking it that way is because you do live in a predominantly white area. That's why I asked the question.
Speaker:That's why I would say it's majority at this point. It's not necessarily predominantly anymore, but it's majority white, yeah. And it's kind of uh, we'll call it purple, right? I mean, there are definitely some very, very conservative pockets, but it's you know, we have a democratic rep, democratic rep right now. They do this kind of thing, and then they wonder why community doesn't trust them. People say all cops are bastards, people say I hate cops, you know, like like I told the lady on the phone, this is why people hate cops. Man, that's not called for. I was like, is it though? Is it well how how do you think these kids feel who were maybe didn't have any bad impression, and this is what you've done to them?
Carmen Lezeth:I think one of the most interesting TikToks I saw this past week was um a whole bunch, like there were people protesting. I think it's Oregon or whatever, and there's a cop or a military person with the sh, and he's black, and he has the helmet on with the with the clear shield, so you could see his face. And they're all chanting, and he's chanting with them, but trying not to, like, but he's trying not to, and the thing is, is you can see the the the conflict, you know what I mean? And and people on the TikTok were like, oh my god, this is making me cry, this is making me so sad, because he's clearly doing something he does not want to be doing, you know what I mean? And he's just standing there with the whole with the bunch of them, but the somebody zeroed in on his face because they caught it, and it was like, it must be a weird thing. I'm not saying that I know you're not feeling that way about the cops in the situation you're talking about, but I mean, just to bring it to the bigger picture, I just think we're in a weird place. Like if they are actually escalating because they're not getting enough attention or they want to prove that they're being hard on crime and then going after teenagers, like yeah, I don't know what the reason was.
Speaker:I just that was like my impression. I was like, okay, whatever. I I have no idea. It's the first night of football. I don't know. No, yeah, that's what I'm wanting. Like, I'm trying to figure out like what is the logic. We're all trying to figure out what the logic was. I mean, there was like I you know doing all kinds of research. I guess there was some kind of issue with some kids hanging out in one of the parks uh back in August or whatever, like after 10 years. Yeah, and I'm like, makes sense. Okay, so deal with the kids at that park. Like, what why are we literally arresting people who are getting food? Like, I don't know, you're not doing anything other than regular yes, they were probably being loud. Yes, they were be doing, you know, doing teenager things.
Carmen Lezeth:And I mean, this is the kind of thing that like all Okay, but you can't okay, but here's the thing now. Now we have to be careful because this is exactly what JD Vance is saying about the fucking young Republicans. Like, no, they're doing teenage boy things, and of course, these boys are like 18 to 45 or something. I'm fucking they are getting burgers after the game. I know, Andrea, but I'm just saying, I'm trying to get us a segue. You're like totally missing the point, Anna.
Speaker:You're so stressed about it. I don't know how to fix it. I know, I'm hot about it. It's a small thing, but like I'm just it's not looking.
Carmen Lezeth:I no, no, no, I'm not saying it's a small thing, but the idea that they are just kids and that they are doing this, it is a big deal, you know what I mean? But yes, uh, to move on to your the Mine, you're the one who brought it up. I hadn't I didn't even know. I didn't even know you sent it in the email, and that's how well I was so look at I I had two projects I was working on for my clients, which yeah, and I got really into it because one of them I was learning so much. You know how like that happens when all of a sudden you're like doing something like, wait a minute, I did not know. It was like so. I was working on this project, and I just I like for two days didn't watch or listen to the news, and I actually took it off my phone just because I was like, I just needed a break because I'm tired. I'm I'm winded, you know. And then you emailed me and you said we should talk about the young Republican. Well, you didn't say it was the young Republicans, but that's who it is.
Speaker:I did say it was not.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, you did say that okay. Young Republicans, um, whose let me just uh their private chat called whatever, I'm not gonna say what it is, was leaked to political revealing 2900 plus pages of messages from young Republican leaders across multiple states. The messages included, you know, this stuff does not surprise me, but I know everybody else is hot about it. But praise for Hitler, including fantasizing about using gas chambers, nice racist slurs like watermelon people and monkeys to describe black individuals, anti-Semitic tropes, white supremacist whatever references, and jokes about rape being epic. Wow, nice. Um, the endorsements of slavery and violent fantasies against political opponents. Um I am not trying to act like it's not a big deal. What I'm saying is, like, I'm I I'm not surprised. I I feel like this goes on all the time. This isn't even like a Trumpism thing. What's like, and as a woman of color, and I don't care if it bothers you that I say that. I got I got a couple of emails of people saying, Do you always have to talk about race? Yes, yes, we do.
Speaker:Yes, yes, because we have to bring this up because it's not surprising, it happens all the time, and when I say racism, this is why. Yeah, it's permeate, it's not even like it's it's a completely a part of who these people are.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, well, and part of who the United States is. Let's just be straight about it. So I'm gonna play a clip from uh Chris Hayes' show. It's Jennifer Welch, who is one of the co-hosts of a podcast called I've Had It Podcast. I didn't really know who she was, but it's uh two white women who do a very comedic, funny podcast. And she happened to be on Chris Hayes' show last night. So I'm gonna just play this and then we can talk about it because it goes with this. And she's she is uh referencing their they're talking about this exact subject, and she's coming up with an idea as to why this is happening. It's interesting.
Jennifer Welch :I think this is a part of their authoritarian play. The rules don't apply to us. We're gonna rub it in your face. And Megan Kelly said it best on her podcast. We haven't felt the same since Obama. And something broke in white people that had some racism. Some white people. Some white people had some racism stewing in them in communities that I grew I grew up in and a totally red state. And something broke in them when there was a competent, wonderful black president, maybe they disagreed with, that was eating off the China, sleeping in the bed at the White House. And I remember in Oklahoma City when Obama came, he was greeted with Confederate flags in Oklahoma City. So all of this was there. You remember that uh John McCain debate where John tried to tone that woman down? It was all there. This none of this surprises me. As a person that lived in a red state, I always looked for the federal government to temper all of this. And to Miles' point, now that this is mainstream, it's just devastating.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, she's kind of touching on a point that I want to talk to you about. I I've lost like four white friends this past year, four very good, close white friends, because they won't talk about racism to other white people in the way she just did. I don't know who she is, but I have absolute respect for her because she totally said something that feels like it's so taboo, but that something broke in white people when Barack Obama was president and when she said he slept in the bed and he ate off the china. I was like, Yep. Just wondering what you think about it.
Speaker:They can't bear it. They just they literally cannot bear it. And it's like I, you know, I don't have people like that in my life who, you know what I mean? Like I have managed to call whoever I need to call. Um, so I I'm not, I don't hear any of those kinds of things from people, but um that's my impression exactly. What she talked about, right?
Carmen Lezeth:Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? Wait, wait, back up. I'm sorry. What you don't hear that type of things from people. What do you mean by that?
Speaker:You don't hear racist remarks from like no one is saying any of those kinds of things to me in a private conversation, right?
Carmen Lezeth:But if they were, so let's say you go and have dinner with your friends and uh or a family or whatever, and you have like Uncle, you know, the stereotypical Uncle Joe who's 104 says something and everybody laughs about it. Would you say something to Uncle Joe? Yeah.
Speaker:Well, that's what I'm talking about. I mean, you know, I will come with my fact be like this, this, and this, you know, um, if if it's a factual thing, or I'll just call them out and be like, well, that's But I think, but I I think that's what we're talking about.
Carmen Lezeth:Like, I don't I don't surmise that oh surmise. I don't I'm sorry, I'm using words I don't use. I don't even know what it means. It just came out of my mouth. I don't assume that people, um, white people, when they see other white people, especially people that I know and consider friends, are uh engaging in the bullshittery. You know, now some of my black friends and Latino friends would be like, yes, they are. You know what I mean? But whatever. I know my friends pretty well that they would not be engaging in the bullshittery. However, in the same respects, it is not good enough. It will never be good enough for me that you do not do the work that needs to be done, but yet you're touting all the time that you are an ally, that you care, that you are doing something when you're not doing nothing is affecting your life at all, but it is affecting my life every single day. And the reason why you tap into me is so you can feel good about your motherfucking self. Sorry, that's what I've been pissed about. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, so it does not surprise me that these uh men, these are not young men, but these people in the Republican Party in this chat room or whatever were saying this stuff because I've heard it my entire life. I heard it when I was in college in Vermont in a classroom of 300 people, I heard the teacher saying shit, the professor saying shit that was inappropriate and uncalled for, or call or I heard it everywhere, you know what I mean? Like, and it's not, you can be as quiet as you want, but your behavior tells you so much more, you know? Um, and again, it's just that kind of thing where it's like if you are a white person in this country and you are not racist, and I say racism and you get offended, that is a you problem. That's not a me problem. Why are you getting offended if you're not fucking racist? If anything, you should be acknowledging the racism and doing something about it when you can, when you have the opportunity. Because here's the thing white people are gonna hear what she said, yeah, much easier than everything I just said for the past five minutes. Well, and but look, bottom line, black people can't fix this.
Speaker:They cannot fix this. We've tried, they tried, right? Like they and and continue to try, God love them. You know what I mean? Like, this is not as you said, it's it's not a problem that lies in the black community. This is a this is a huge, huge, overarching problem, uh, the overarching problem, in my opinion, in this country, in the white community. Fucking deal with it.
Carmen Lezeth:Call that, but that means people who are allies do things like this. You have the conversations, you call people out, you say what the truth is. I don't know what it is. Seriously, I I am trying to understand what it is about white people that they fear about people of color, whether it's Asian or black or Hispanic or whatever, anybody who isn't them, you know. Um, I I don't I I know people like it's power, it's blah blah. But when you talk to individual regular people, they're not don't get mad, although maybe you should because we'll get ratings. No, I'm just gonna like I don't think people are most good people are intentionally being racist. I think they don't know what they're doing. These guys, they knew what the fuck they were doing. You don't call people watermelon and monkeys and all that shit, whatever. But the rest of you who are so offended by talking about race, bitch, you think I want to talk about this all the time. Like, I don't want to do this, but we need to fix this shit because I'm tired. I'm tired, and I am the most patient person when it comes to this shit. I think I'm I'm at my limit. I'm mad in a way that you told me about this. I I mean I would have seen it anyways. Yeah. Because it got me so upset. Like in a like, usually I get upset, I cry, and I'm like, whatever, and we move on, and I just, you know, pick myself up by my bootstraps and like brush myself off and walk along, anyways. But this is like infuriating me. And it's mostly because JD Vance, that piece of crap, JD Vance, who has a wife who is not white, who has children who are biracial. Somebody said, I forget who it was, said if he's not gonna take care of his own family, why would he take care of you? I she might have said it. I don't know. Somebody said it. I was like, he used to call Trump Hitler, and now he's all up in his business.
Andrea:Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:People, if you're tired of racism, I promise you every other person on the planet who is of color is exhausted talking about racism, but we will keep doing it because it's so bad. It's so bad. And if you can't figure that out, if you can't see it, yeah, what I said it's survival.
Speaker:Like you can't you can't not talk about it or deal with it, it's in your face every day.
Carmen Lezeth:Somebody dropped to the N-word at the grocery store the other day.
Andrea:Oh my god.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh my god. I also live in a predominantly white neighborhood, and uh, although I have to say it's much uh it's what did you say, not predominantly, but majority? Majority. What is that? What's the difference? Because I don't know.
Speaker:Well, like it's just closer to whites not being like the mass, like predominantly says like a big, you know, large, like I'm thinking like 60, 70 percent.
Carmen Lezeth:So, okay, so if you see like three or four black people during the day, maybe okay. Anyways, there's a lot more people of color that live in this neighborhood now than when I first moved here for sure. But uh yeah, but uh it was in the grocery store, and then and I I never do this because I don't want to react because I don't want to get my ass kicked by a bunch of white people, you know what I mean? Like I well, you grow up knowing that, you know, you know, like if people say something bad, you just walk along, you know? And they weren't saying it to me, but they didn't see me coming, right? They didn't, they were saying it in some jokingly music something way or whatever. I stopped that cart, I slammed that cart, I looked right at them, and then I moved my cart, like they knew, and then I was like, fuck, what did I just do? Oh my god, my god, oh my god, like it was like five of them. You know what I mean? Like, what am I doing? But other people heard it too, and there were other people who were also like, oh, that is a shame, that is disgusting. And I was like, all right, well, whatever.
Speaker:Um when I tell you it's every day, it's every day, it's every day, every day, every day in all kinds of different ways, you know, not not just the more overt of someone calling you name, but you know, the institution.
Carmen Lezeth:They didn't call me a name, I want to be very.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, I know. I'm just saying, like hearing hearing that, right? There's the institutional, the financial, that you know, like it's it's all encompassing.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah. And I think um, I don't know how this became the thing, but I think the other part of this is that when we have the administration who is clearly, I don't, they're clearly trying to make sure. I mean, it's it's so obvious what's happening.
Speaker:Uh why there's no there's no denying that this is what's going on. I mean, the you know, there was they had oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court yesterday to gut the voting rights act. I mean, like, it's just as you're saying, this relentless stream, uh, even just multiple in one day.
Carmen Lezeth:Right. Of absolute bullshit. And it's the framing, right? The voting rights act, the reason why they're trying to get rid of that another section of it, because it's it's be it's been being deleted, you know what I mean, like for a long time now over the years. But the way it's framed, like, because it makes white people feel good, like, yeah, we want it to be equal, we want it to be there. That's racism. No one should be favored, right?
Andrea:Right.
Carmen Lezeth:And it's it makes people feel good because then they don't have to deal with the fact that there actually is institutional racism here in our country on a regular basis. Yeah. So how do you fix it?
Speaker:Um, I I mean, I've said this before, like, you gotta call it out. Like the the clip that you showed, you know, in our own small way, us calling it out. Like you can't just let it blow by.
Carmen Lezeth:Speaking of blowing by, can we talk about Pete Hegzeth and the journalists? Yeah. There's some good news.
Speaker:Like, there's okay, there's yes, let's find our joy here.
Carmen Lezeth:I I take it in the smallest way possible. So, Pete Hegzeth, for those of you who don't know, is the Secretary of Defense. I refuse to call it whatever the hell he thinks we're calling it now. Um, tried to force journalists covering the Pentagon to sign a restrictive agreement that would bar them from reporting any information not officially approved by him and the Pentagon. Nearly every major outlet refused, calling it unconstitutional and unprecedented, including his Fox News. Um, so they all walked out and they all gave it their press badges back because they refused. That's good because you know, First Amendment and all.
Speaker:Yeah. And I bet you they get some fantastic scoops from people.
Andrea:Right.
Carmen Lezeth:But even that, like even the idea that somebody in that high, first of all, he's so incompetent, but we can talk about that another day. Just that whole everybody that Trump has hired is incompetent. That it's not even just saying it, it's actually true. Yeah, by design. Um, but the idea that anyone would think that would be an okay thing to make journalists sign, did you not watch all the president's men? Like, did you? I'm just saying, you clearly you've never read the Constitution because it's the first one, right? It's the first. It's not buried. It's not even hard. It's really easy to understand. But I was like, I can't even believe like the cojones, right?
Speaker:That I think is again by design, right? The cojones of it all. It's like, let's just do some crazy shit. Let's do a bunch of crazy shit that's just, you know, who cares if it's constitutional or not? Like it's impossible to find it all, and some of it will slip through.
Carmen Lezeth:But you know, it doesn't even make sense because they're trying to, I mean, they're trying to say it's like for the safety and the preservation and the company, but it's all bullshit. Right. It's all bullshit. We've had journalists at the Pentagon reporting on things forever. Like that's not, but I it it just shows to me how um I don't know what the word is, but like I keep saying Kohona is, but like just the audacity, right? To steal Barack Obama's word, but the audacity to think that you could do this and pull one over on the American people in this way. I mean, but here's the thing. When I first saw it, I was like, oh my God, they're gonna capitulate, right? Because so many places.
Speaker:Yeah, I totally was like, oh, yeah, they're gonna sign it. I'm I'm actually surprised, pleasantly surprised that so many didn't.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, only one did, and I'm not even gonna say who they are because they're not worthy, but I mean who is it? Newsmax.
Speaker:No, no, Newsmax didn't. Oh, they did.
Carmen Lezeth:I thought it was no more than three dozen outlets, including no no, it wasn't. It's the O OAN or whatever. Oh, they're all the it's it's a bullshit. It's it might as well be Trump Network. Um more than three dozen outlets, including Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC Newsmax, Washington Examiner, refused to sign. Yeah. Okay. I was actually surprised by Newsmack and Fox. What I said, my bad. No way it's not, but we we would have thought. Yeah, we would have thought, you know what I mean? So um, are you doing anything this Saturday? Um so this Saturday is No King's Day. Is that what they're calling it? No King's Day. I don't know if they're calling it that, but yes. But it's no kings.org. Go check it out if you want to join uh what they think is going to be millions of people protesting that we don't have kings in this country, right? That we do not want kings in this country. And I think that's what Trump is really trying to do. I mean, we can call it all the other words we want, but he really, really, really wants to be a king.
Speaker:A king, a dictator. I mean, all the gold in the White House is a good indicator that he wants he wants the pump in the circumstance of being royal and having some lineage so his family can carry on after him and all of that. Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:I I don't even understand why somebody doesn't tell him that all that gold looks tacky. Do you know what I mean? Like it just doesn't even look good.
Speaker:I think he loves it. I think it looks good to him. It makes him feel good.
Carmen Lezeth:I think he loves the new Time magazine cover of himself, too.
Speaker:I think I noticed actually on that cover that his ear has miraculously healed so well.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, Andre, what you don't know is that they probably retouched it because you know that's what they would do for the ear, but not the neckline. That I I think they did it on purpose. That's a horrible picture. Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Speaker:I mean, not that there are any really fantastic pictures of him, but that's a bad picture.
Carmen Lezeth:I think they did it on purpose, which is you know, everyone protests their own way.
Speaker:If you can't make it this Saturday, there are plenty of other things you can do.
Carmen Lezeth:That's right. And you can use your social media, you can, you know, wear yellow and and do your little videos on TikTok or whatever, because yellow seems to be the thing everyone's wearing. Um, but yeah, I was cracking up because I thought like it was uh, you know, again, not all heroes wear capes, you know. We all do things. I I thought it was mean, but I laughed a little tiny bit, you know.
Speaker:So I saw it and I was like, I mean, it was like a jump scare. Like I was like, oh shit, what's going on there?
Carmen Lezeth:Um okay, so I'm gonna bring it back to our original conversation because I want to ask you a question. What is the final result of the kids that were arrested by the cops? They were let go, clearly, when their parents their parents had to come and pick them up.
Speaker:Um, as I said, they got um essentially there were written tickets, uh, which could have happened before all of the uh drama, but they were so they got tickets and then also have to do like community service classes or something like that. I know. I know. Like what, what, what I don't it's it's yeah, uh it's my little small part of the world, and it's like a little thing that got me all hot under the collar, and you know, it's not uh comparable to some of the many of the other things happening around here, but I was just like, why are you doing this to people?
Carmen Lezeth:I don't think it has to be I mean, I think this is part of the other thing that's happening, right? Like we also are living our lives every day, so it's every day having to hear the administration doing something ridiculous, stupid, out of the norm, whatever, the racism, the the you know, the ice agents, the bullshit, like all that crap, you know. I mean, calling, I mean, my I I think one of my favorite things this past week is seeing Portland having all their, I don't even know what it is, all the puppets, all the like everybody in costumes.
Speaker:Oh yeah, their costumes, they're fine.
Carmen Lezeth:All their costumes and like the juxtaposition of like these all these military ice people or whatever it is, and then like all of these costume-esque people, which is totally what Portland is like. 100% and and and and them calling it, you know, like this is a horrible zone of whatever's happening. And then, of course, the marathon happened this weekend in Chicago, which is supposed to be some on fire military zone place as well, and all of these like people were running a marathon and it was a beautiful sunny day out, and it's just this weird thing where we're having our actual lives, right? Then there's all this other bullshittery that makes no sense that in normal times, any other president, we'd we would be talking about this as the podcast, right? That would be the topic, like, why is this happening? Whatever, but you can't, you can't rest because then you have to deal with all the other stuff, even if you're not paying attention to it.
Speaker:Yeah, well, and I think, you know, look, we you when you wrote me, you were like, I'm tired and overwhelmed, and and I think that's part of the point, right? That's part of the point. And you know, you hear people say this all the time like this that's why you need community, that's why you need coalitions, because everybody can't be like on it all the time. You have to step back, like you were talking about, like you didn't look at the news, and you you know what I mean? Like, you have to take some time to build your energy back up to fight this, because we need everybody in the fight, but we don't necessarily need everybody in the fight every single day, you know what I mean?
Carmen Lezeth:Like, you have to there's a difference between being in resting and just avoiding. Yes, like yes, no, no, because that's I mean, I'm going back to the four friends that I am not talking to anymore, and I don't give a shit if it's for the rest of my life because you show me who you are, not when things are good and not when everything's easy, it's when things are hard. And look at I don't think they've lost anything by me not being in their lives, clearly. You know what I mean? But to me, it's such a good indication that even the best of people suck when it comes right down to it, you know? No, I'm I'm just saying it's like we do need everyone in the fight. You do need to rest, but avoiding the fight because you can, because it's no problem for you to go travel and go skiing and go doing whatever it is you have to do, and you don't have to worry about ice agents when you come back. I had two people call me and be like, oh my God, it was so easy when I came back from blah, blah, blah. It was so easy. It was like, I mean, it was no problem. I'm like, you're white. I didn't know how else to say it. And they got mad at me, and I'm like, I don't know how else to explain to you what is happening. Yeah. How do you not see it? Like, please don't act oblivious. So, yes, you need to rest, rest. Use your privilege to rest however you need to rest. I'm serious, you know. I'm trying to rest as well because I'm I it's not even that I'm just exhausted, I am so sad. I am sad. It's not depression, like it's sad for my country. Yeah, you know, and you know how much I have loved this country, right? I have always been the patriotic one out of the two of us. Not to be mean, I'm just saying, you know, like look at J's like, yeah, no problem. No, I'm just saying, like, I always believed in, and and it's I think it's disheartening to admit that I was wrong, and that and I and and and it's doubling down on how much I was wrong, you know what I mean?
Andrea:Well, and it hurts it true. I mean, it truly does hurt your soul to know that this many people, even if it's not a majority, but that so many people do not give a shit. They don't care, they are perfectly fine with the racism, with the violence, with the destruction of our country, with the financial destruction, all the corruption. It just feels like it just truly does hurt to to know that so many people don't care about any of that as long as they get to, you know, be racist.
Carmen Lezeth:I I think the thing that um made me really sad, and I was like, I just need a break, was I was watching on TikTok, somebody went and interviewed all these people in different countries, and the question was, would you want to go visit the United States? And it was all these different people from different countries, you know, and I was like, wow. And it's not they didn't just say no, they said no and then gave reasons, whether it was the gun violence, whether it was uh the racism, whether it was the lies that we have freedom. Somebody was like, 120 other countries have freedom, like we actually have freedom, like and it just made me so sad how little we know as Americans in the United States about geography, this country, history, you know what I mean? And and now, on top of it all, like we've always had this big ego for no reason. Um, but now other countries are just like, yeah, you're kryptonite, bye.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, somebody said something like, um was talking about uh, you know, a lot of people don't realize that the the coup has already happened or something. Like I saw that somewhere on social media. And and then somebody under that was like, the coup happened in 2000.
Andrea:Right. Wow. And I was like, I was thinking about it and I was like, I have been like kind of low to mid-level enraged for 25 fucking years about like where this all is. And I remember even like you know, traveling outside the country and having a real wake-up call, the difference of being outside the country in let's say the early 90s versus the early 2000s, yeah, and how much people hated Americans. You remember, like it used to be like, I'm an American, and then you're like protected and everything's good. I remember very specifically people telling me when I was out of the country, don't tell people you're American.
Carmen Lezeth:But you know, when you say that, I mean it goes back, and and we might have to close this out or edit or whatever, but um if you say early 2000s, that's when Barack Obama was president, right?
Andrea:Yeah, I mean, and there was a stretch in there. There was, I'm not trying to deny that there was a stretch in there where we had some hope. But when I talk about the rage, let's talk about exactly what that woman was saying. Yes, Barack Obama was elected, and look at what happened to the Republican Party as a result of that. You remember that State of the Union where the dude stood up and was like, liar, yeah, and it was never happened. Shocking, shocking. How fucking dare that man do that, right? Well, no, because he's a black man. I know, but I'm just saying, like for me, I was like the fuck, how do you do that at the State of the Union? And and then you sit down and nobody does anything, right? Right? Like, so there was a part of me that was still enraged for that whole eight years about what was happening with the Tea Party and all of those kinds of things.
Carmen Lezeth:And for someone like me, and and I'm not speaking for all people of color, but remember Barack Obama was elected because of the bullsittery of the Bush administration. Like we forget how bad the Bush administration was. I mean, we don't forget, but so he was elected, and and then I think I told you this for eight, at least the first four years for sure, but the whole eight years, I thought he was gonna be assassinated. Yeah, like that was a common thing that most people of color just assumed was going to happen. We were waiting for it, right? We're waiting for it. We were waiting for it. It was like this weird, like, oh my god, this is great. Oh my god, this is gonna be hell. You know, terrified. Yeah, terrified. And and and you know, whether you like him or not, he was a respectable leader, right? Whether you agree with everything he said or not, he was a respectable leader. And and then and then we came to this. I don't know what else to say. Like, I don't know, and here we are. Um it's a shame. And here we are. Yeah, I don't know. God, imagine this world if Hillary had been elected afterwards. Jesus. If Al Gore had been elected, I know okay. On that note, I'm gonna stop. I can imagine there's a parallel universe somewhere. It says in quantum physics, right? In the in the crazy people who think about quantum physics in this way. There's a parallel world where Al Gore won that race. Well, we won the race and the Supreme Court agreed with him. We should be clear, right? Yeah, I don't know. Anyways, all right. Well, Andrea, thank you so much. Thank you. All right, thank you, everyone. Remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. Bye. Bye. Thanks for stopping by, all about the joy. Be better and stay beautiful, folks. Have a sweet day.
