Political Predictions: Trump, the Supreme Court, and What Lies Ahead
This episode of the All About Nothing podcast dives into the complexities of the current political landscape, particularly focusing on the implications of Donald Trump's presidential ambitions and potential legal troubles. The hosts discuss whether Trump could mount a candidacy while facing serious legal challenges, with opinions varying on his likelihood of avoiding prison time and what that means for his future in politics. The conversation also touches on the broader theme of election strategies, emphasizing how both parties need to effectively leverage their power when in control to enact change. Additionally, the episode explores the challenges faced by Columbia, South Carolina, in attracting major events and economic growth, highlighting the importance of local leadership and community investment. As the episode wraps up, the hosts encourage listeners to engage with their voter registration and stay informed about local issues that directly impact them.
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Transcript
The all about nothing podcast may have language and content that isn't appropriate for some.
Speaker B:Listener.
Speaker A:Discretion is advised.
Speaker B:Welcome, nothingers, to another episode of the all about nothing podcast.
Barrett Gruber:I am Barrett Gruber.
Speaker B:This is episode number 227.
Barrett Gruber:Please subscribe and share the show.
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Barrett Gruber:All of that helps drive us higher in the show ratings on all of these podcast platforms.
Barrett Gruber:We're going to jump right back into the show.
Barrett Gruber:The episode that ended last week sort of ended abruptly, and I get that, but that's really because we had about.
Speaker B:Two and a half hours of recording and frankly, we didn't want to leave anything out.
Barrett Gruber:So we're going to pick right back up where we left off with Donald.
Speaker B:Brock Junior and Zach's replacement for the week, Mister Leroy Green from nerdy by nature, uh, productions.
Speaker B:Uh, we try in on YouTube.
Barrett Gruber:So we're going to pick right back up here.
Speaker A:Then you have a couple questions you wanted to ask.
Speaker A:And by the way, if we, if we go like 20 more minutes, you can make this a two parter.
Speaker B:That is true.
Speaker B:That is.
Speaker B:That is undoubtedly so.
Speaker B:Um, I, I assume I'm going to ask the question.
Speaker B:Uh, you guys are paying attention to the presidential election, right?
Speaker B:How can you note kind of, sort of a little bit here and there?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B: he will not seek election in: Speaker B:So what's the over under?
Speaker A:Do?
Speaker B:We think that's true?
Speaker B:I mean, could he potentially mount a candidacy while serving time in federal prison?
Leroy Green:So, one, I don't think he's ever going to prison.
Speaker A:I would agree with that.
Leroy Green:I think people need to let that go.
Leroy Green:I don't think that's the one thing.
Leroy Green:I think I have a couple of co workers who's like, I want to see you go to jail.
Leroy Green:And I'm like, hey, man, you got a better chance of meeting the real Santa Claus.
Leroy Green:And it's just not happening.
Leroy Green:I do think it's going to be hard to run for election in a foreign country.
Leroy Green:So I think that's what's probably what's going to happen, because I don't.
Leroy Green:This is one thing.
Leroy Green:I think if you think about the type of person that he is, whether you believe the conspiracy theories or not, I don't think this is a man who's going to stay here if he doesn't have to and watch someone get a job that he thought is his.
Leroy Green:And that's, and you have to understand, when someone believes something is theirs, which he firmly believes this, whether you agree with the man or not, whether politics aside, he firmly believes he should be the president.
Leroy Green:He firmly believes that he won.
Leroy Green:If he loses the next one, do not think he's going to stay at Mar a Lago watching an inauguration.
Leroy Green:Do not think he, like this man is not staying here, in my opinion.
Leroy Green:This is my humble opinion.
Leroy Green:Some people believe he's not staying here because the walls are going to be closing in.
Leroy Green:He's going to make a run for it, kind of like Russell Simmons.
Speaker B:That's my opinion.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:I think that if, with three likely court cases coming up, probably within the year after the election, I think that he will get on his plane and he will take off for either Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Russia.
Leroy Green:Yeah.
Leroy Green:That's a man who's not, if you think about the type of person he is, if you look at him, he's not a man who takes losing well.
Leroy Green:And if you look at him throughout, throughout his entire career, throughout his entire life, he has done whatever he wants, however he's wanted to do it.
Leroy Green:So for a contingent, for a large swath of the population, because I don't know if you watched the debate, one of the things Kamala said that really got under his skin was that people didn't like him, that his rallies were small, he lost the election.
Leroy Green:And that bothered him probably more than anything else.
Speaker B:Oh, he's still talking about it a month later.
Leroy Green:And so that's somebody who, again, if the country decides after this election, that's not what we want.
Leroy Green:Do not expect to see him regularly in the continental of the lower 48.
Speaker B:He will, he will have his place on Twitter because I think, I think we're probably about five or six months away from seeing true social wind up not having enough money to run the servers or they'll have to borrow space from Elon, because I think, I think they closed at just about $13 a day from a height of 70.
Speaker B:What was it, 79 something?
Speaker B:I mean, you know, that's, you mentioned Elon.
Leroy Green:That's probably another person who's probably not going to stay in the lower 48 in the next few months.
Speaker B:I mean, while I, while I want, I want there to be a, I want there to be an electric car or an electric vehicle brand that does.
Speaker B:Well, I don't own.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Well, I'll just say I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way.
Speaker B:It's not that I have any grudge against Elon, but I have ridden in four.
Speaker B:I've written.
Speaker B:I've written in four of the five Tesla models, the Cybertruck, and then the s, the x, and the Y.
Speaker B:And of those four, the Cybertruck feels the cheapest, even though it's.
Speaker B:I think it's the one that people seem to think is the nicest or whatever, or as far as, like, they are all basically just dodge neons with electric motors on the wheels like that.
Speaker B:That is what they feel.
Speaker B:It feels like.
Speaker B:It feels like a Dodge.
Leroy Green:Do not you.
Leroy Green:No, no, no, no.
Leroy Green:I own the Dodge neon.
Leroy Green:And you will not impugn the credibility of the Dodge neon.
Leroy Green:I own the very first Dodge neon iteration.
Leroy Green:I know how bad that car is.
Leroy Green:And you will not put that cybertruck on it, sir.
Leroy Green:No, take a ride is a better vehicle.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:No, the Dodge is a better vehicle.
Leroy Green:I say that.
Leroy Green:Say that after I totaled it, because the.
Leroy Green:The wheels almost fell off of it, the top rusted.
Leroy Green:And I.
Leroy Green:So make a long story short.
Leroy Green:When I owned it, the cars had a bad problem with rust.
Leroy Green:And I knew because the top of my car, the paint chipped off of it.
Leroy Green:So I was leaving with a friend of mine, a woman I was dating.
Leroy Green:We left in her car.
Leroy Green:We came back, and I looked and I was like, that car looks familiar.
Leroy Green:It was my car.
Leroy Green:Someone was stealing my car.
Leroy Green:Do you know how I know they were stealing my car?
Leroy Green:Because I knew my rust spot from my Dodge neon.
Leroy Green:So you will not impugn the great Dodge neon by putting that goddamn geometry vomit.
Leroy Green:And I say that.
Leroy Green:I say that.
Leroy Green:And I actually like the Tesla cars.
Leroy Green:I actually like the cars.
Leroy Green:But I hate that cybertruck.
Leroy Green:Go ahead, Brock.
Speaker A:You were saying something.
Speaker A:Whenever I see the Cybertruck, it makes me think of Tron.
Speaker A: Like the: Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:And I said that to somebody, and they said, how dare you compare that monstrosity to that great 80 Sci-Fi flick or whatever.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, that's fair, because I did like the original Tron.
Speaker A:And I liked the new movie that came out with the bikes and stuff.
Speaker A:No, I think the cyber truck is hideous.
Speaker A:It's not a truck.
Speaker A:I've seen them up close.
Speaker A:I've never ridden in one.
Speaker A:I think it's just like, oh, look what I can spend a hundred thousand dollars on.
Speaker A:I'm like, no, sorry.
Leroy Green:I test drove somebody in Columbia, selling theirs for 122,000.
Speaker B:I test drove two cybertrucks because the first cybertruck, we got to the end of the parking lot to turn onto the.
Speaker B:Onto the road, and it died.
Speaker B:All the lights in it turned red and it would not run.
Speaker B: ecause they went through like: Speaker B:Sat there a whole process.
Speaker B:They did a whole reboot of the system.
Speaker B:Would not run, would not.
Speaker B:So they put me in another one, and we got on the road.
Speaker B:We drove for about 15 minutes before the same lights came on.
Speaker B:And I was like, yeah, well, I wasn't really considering this in the first place, although I will say the one that I am considering would I do.
Speaker B:I do like what scout Motors is going to, is going to have coming out of Blythewood.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:And I'll just, I'll give that.
Speaker B:I'll give that a dinghead.
Speaker B:But I also another Volkswagen company, I like that new Volkswagen, the electric bus that they've got.
Speaker B:I don't know if you've seen it, but it looks pretty cool.
Speaker B:But if Honda ever gets its act together and comes out with an EV Honda element, that's what I'm going to get.
Speaker B:If I had the money, I would convert mine into an electric because I think that element could go for another 20 years.
Speaker B:So it's a two.
Speaker A:Talking about the Volkswagen Buzz.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it's.
Speaker B:That's what they're calling it.
Speaker B:Yeah, the id buzz.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's ugly.
Speaker B:Sorry, I.
Speaker B:It's not about.
Speaker B:It's not about.
Speaker B:Look, look, the Honda elements.
Speaker B:Not a pretty car, but it's the most utilitarian vehicle.
Speaker B:You can hose it out, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, my buddy.
Speaker B:My buddy had gone.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's got rust holes in it.
Speaker B:I'm sure that.
Speaker A:It'Ll wash itself out.
Speaker B:Well, guys, I want to thank you both very much for being on the show.
Speaker B:Leroy, thank you for standing in for Zach.
Leroy Green:I'm here for you.
Speaker B:You know, he's got a lot of weird hair now.
Speaker B:He does, but he cut it.
Speaker B:You guys haven't seen his hair unless you've been watching any of the most recent episodes.
Speaker B:He had to cut his hair because he took a new job at Michelin.
Speaker B:So if you guys are interested, he's got a Michelin allowance that, you know, if you're coming up on replacing tires, send us an email.
Speaker B:The all about nothing.
Speaker B:It's the show@theallaboutnothing.com.
Speaker B:dot.
Speaker B:I'll forward those over to Zach's work email.
Speaker B:We'll get that taken care of.
Speaker B:But leroy, thank you very much for standing in for zach.
Speaker B:It's always a pleasure to have you on.
Leroy Green:When you hit me up, I was like, I'll get off work and I'll go to another office, and I'll sit under these nice, wonderful lights, because my office does not exist.
Leroy Green:Yeah, they offered me one, and it was very weird here.
Leroy Green:They were kicking people out of offices, and I was like, I don't want one right now.
Leroy Green:You guys seem to be very territorial about them.
Leroy Green:I was like, I'll stay right here.
Leroy Green:So, yeah, I'm still at work.
Leroy Green:So my wife was texting me, making sure that I'm still alive and I didn't die in a flood because there are a lot of roads flooded out and there are a lot of people.
Leroy Green:When I drove back into work after picking up my son, his school clothes, there were three accidents on 77 going charlotte.
Speaker B:Goodness.
Leroy Green:77 was blocked for 10 miles going to charlotte.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's this Hurricane Helene.
Speaker B:I know we talk about climate change and sometimes on here, but I think the likelihood.
Speaker B:Look, here's a simple fact for people that either deny climate change or they go along with climate change, we are still technically in an ice age.
Speaker B:As long as there is ice at the poles, we are still technically in the ice age.
Speaker B:We do not exit the ice age until those poles have no ice.
Speaker B:So that's just.
Speaker A:Well, just, just so everybody knows that the three named storms that have hit the coast of the US are all female.
Speaker A:So I don't know if it's climate change or attack of the fee of the, you know, the gender wars, but the females are winning this year.
Speaker B:I was gonna say, here's a, here's a trivia question for anybody listening.
Speaker B:You can email the show at the allaboutnothing.com dot.
Speaker B:The one that there's.
Speaker B:There's three of us on here, and only one of us is not married.
Speaker B:Who can make those comments?
Speaker A:I would make those comments anyways.
Leroy Green:He would, I believe.
Speaker A:I didn't even get a comment about what I thought about Trump and where he's going to end up.
Speaker A:He said he's not going to end up in jail, and I don't.
Speaker A:I think that, yeah, he stacked the Supreme Court and he's, you know, he's got three.
Speaker A:I don't see him.
Speaker A:He's not going to go to jail.
Speaker A:He might get convicted.
Speaker A:And most of the crimes that he's been accused of are, they're not.
Speaker A:They're not where you'd send somebody to jail.
Speaker A:They're just not, they're not.
Speaker A:Also, he's a first time, he'd be a first time offender.
Speaker A:And, you know, so they don't send somebody worth $4 billion to jail.
Speaker A:They just don't do it.
Speaker A:And also, it complicates the fact that he's a former president and he has Secret Service protection 24/7 you don't stick a former president in jail.
Speaker A:Now, he may get subject to house arrest or something like that.
Speaker A: , will he mount a campaign in: Speaker A:No, he'll be 82 years old if he's not dead.
Speaker A:So, and I'm not advocating that I know anything that somebody's going to get him or old age or anything, you know, who knows?
Speaker A:But, you know, at some point, just like anybody else, you know, he, you know, but you becomes one with the earth again.
Speaker A:So, no, if he loses, I don't think he, I don't think he mounts another campaign.
Speaker A:I don't think he's going to leave the country.
Speaker A:I think he has too much pride to leave the country and essentially run away.
Speaker A:That's because he would be labeled a coward and a deserter.
Speaker A:And he's already been tagged that one time.
Speaker B:So, you know, he's, he's already a coward and a deserter.
Speaker B:It happened.
Speaker A:I know, like I say, it was Vietnam, so, you know, all my foot hurts.
Speaker A:But nevertheless, I don't think he does that.
Speaker A:I think that he'll, he'll plan his flag in Mar a lago and he'll just, he'll fight and fight and fight, and he's got enough money to do it.
Speaker A:And they'll run it all the way up to the supreme court, and then they'll throw him.
Speaker A:They'll throw him a bone because he stacked it.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:I will.
Speaker B:I will say, I will say that.
Leroy Green:That I agree with.
Leroy Green:I do.
Speaker B:I think I, and this comes purely from someone that believes that the Supreme Court should not be partisan.
Speaker B:And if it's going to be partisan, that it at least needs to be even, that you have moderates in there that will offset some of the Clarence Thomas and the Alitos.
Speaker B:I think that once the election happens, I think that that would be the best opportunity.
Speaker B:Once kamala gets the win and Joe Biden can then do what he needs to do, that would potentially take away from her, I, uh, her votes.
Speaker B:If it did happen before the election, I think that Biden needs to go ahead and pack the court, go ahead and bring it up to 13, even it out give the, give the, the moderates and liberals a one point lead.
Speaker B:And then from that point on, we don't see any new Supreme Court justices, uh, as cause Clarence Thomas has no point in being on the Supreme Court if he can't sway.
Speaker B:If he can't, if he can't make a.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:A decision going the direction of some corporation that's given him money.
Speaker B:Same with Alito.
Speaker B:I think that at that point, if the Democrats are in control of the House and the Senate, that they go ahead and impeach John Roberts, because it's under John Roberts watch that this entire fiasco happened and he did nothing.
Speaker B:And he was considered, I considered him to be sort of moderate, but he allowed for the Supreme Court to basically become what it is.
Speaker B:And he didn't put any cap on anybody.
Speaker B:He didn't hold any of the extreme conservatives.
Speaker B:I think you see Kavanaugh and Comey Barrett.
Speaker B:I think you see those two become the moderates they probably already were.
Speaker B:I don't think that they are the extremists that they've been portrayed as.
Speaker B:And then you, just as people retire, you let the court work its way back down to nine.
Speaker B:And here's the thing.
Leroy Green:That's, I love that you believe that.
Leroy Green:I like that you do.
Leroy Green:It's never happening.
Leroy Green:What I will say is what the Supreme Court needs is ethics reform.
Speaker B:They hold themselves responsible.
Leroy Green:Hold on.
Leroy Green:You have a better chance of ethics reform coming from Congress than you do.
Leroy Green:Theme I understand the argument of expanding the court.
Leroy Green:I understand that you're never going to get enough support to do that unless you get a supermajority in both the House and the Senate.
Speaker B:Sure.
Leroy Green:And the way our elections are set up, you're just not going to get that either way.
Leroy Green:So the best thing that you can do is have Congress agree to an ethics reform and ethics for Supreme Court judges.
Leroy Green:They're the only judges in this land that do not have to follow any ethics code legally, any ethics code.
Leroy Green:I think you have a better chance of that than any of the things that you mentioned.
Leroy Green:And you, right now, the idea of, and I will say this to both parties, and I don't remember who said it first, you got to win elections.
Leroy Green:And that's the problem with a lot of people, whether on the left and the right, they run candidates and they don't think about the fact of you have to win an election, you have to appeal to both left and right people.
Leroy Green:Now there's arguments about gerrymandering, and I understand that.
Leroy Green:But at the end of the day, after what you're seeing in North Carolina with the lieutenant governor running for governor, which you saw in Georgia with Herschel Walker and all these different candidates, you have to win elections.
Leroy Green:So that means you have to, yes, you can run right or left, but you have to run and get enough people on all sides to agree that you should represent us.
Leroy Green:And that is the biggest problem we're seeing in candidate selection.
Leroy Green:Mitch McConnell talked about it a couple of years ago.
Leroy Green:Nobody listened to him.
Leroy Green:And that's why we have some of these crazy people running right now.
Leroy Green:If you do not win elections, you do nothing.
Leroy Green:Get the things that you want.
Leroy Green:And I think the Democrats, as much as they want to pack the court, guess what?
Leroy Green:You didn't win.
Leroy Green:You did not do enough to win and you did not do enough to get the people who are on your side to do the right thing.
Leroy Green:Because as much as we want to blame John Roberts, we want to blame Clarence Thomas.
Leroy Green:Guess who else you need to look at who passed, who should have stepped down.
Speaker B:Oh, Obama.
Leroy Green:No.
Leroy Green:Oh, you passed away.
Speaker B:You're talking about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Leroy Green:That's who you should be mad at.
Speaker B:Well, and I don't deny that.
Speaker B:I don't think, I don't think in.
Leroy Green:This conversation that's who you should be mad at.
Leroy Green:Because at the end of the day, you have to look at where the court is.
Leroy Green:Then you have to look at who's in power.
Leroy Green:And if Mitch McConnell decided I'm not going to give you all a hearing and you don't win elections, guess what?
Leroy Green:You left the Supreme Court in someone else's hands.
Leroy Green:And that's what Democrats did.
Leroy Green:And Democrats unfortunately do not know how to fight.
Speaker B:And I think that because here's the.
Leroy Green:Thing, both of you are fathers, right?
Leroy Green:At the end of the day, you have to teach your kid to stand up for yourself because at the end of the day, the teacher is not always going to be there or the teacher is not always going to be on your side.
Leroy Green:And you have to learn to punch a bully in the mouth, speaker one.
Speaker B:And that's why, that's why my suggestion is the Democrats, that's why Biden should go ahead and pack the court once the elections over because I will.
Speaker B:But that's what I'm saying.
Speaker B:That is how they fight back.
Speaker B:That is how you take control here.
Speaker A:Let me speak.
Leroy Green:Let me speak.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:First of all, you can't impeach the chief justice of the supreme Court.
Speaker A:Think about the horrible precedent that establishes you just can't do it.
Speaker A:And they everybody wants to throw around an impeachment because you don't like somebody or don't like their politics.
Speaker A:That's horrible.
Speaker B:Oh, it's not his politics.
Speaker A:No, that is.
Speaker B:He's in.
Speaker A:No, it's absolutely politics.
Speaker B:No, it's his.
Speaker A:No politics.
Speaker A:Put him in there.
Speaker A:Politics is trying to take him out.
Speaker B:Well, that's, that's true.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:I do think he's in comfort.
Speaker A:That's okay.
Speaker A:And you're welcome to think that.
Speaker A:Oh, God.
Speaker A:What did, Leroy just said something.
Speaker A:I forget which.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:The difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Speaker A:And I will summarize this for you in one very clear, concise sentence.
Speaker A:When Democrats are in, when Republicans are in control and have power, they use it.
Speaker A:When Democrats are in control and have power, they don't.
Speaker A:That is why you see a six three conservative majority on the supreme Court.
Speaker A:That's why for the, for a lot of times, you don't get a lot of major legislation.
Speaker A:You get some when Democrats are in control, but you get a hell of a lot more societal moving and economical moving policy come out of DC.
Speaker A:When, when conservatives are in control, Republicans are in control.
Speaker A:Because when they get the majorities, they are not afraid to use the power.
Speaker A:And they say, damn the consequences.
Speaker A:This is what we're gonna do.
Speaker A:It's like Leroy said, you gotta win elections.
Speaker A:Cause they win elections.
Speaker A:Elections.
Leroy Green:And not only that, they also realize it's harder to get something off the books once it's already there.
Leroy Green:And that's, and that is the one thing Democrats do not understand and they don't do when they get in there.
Leroy Green:Perfect example you have usually when, look at Obama's first two years, Biden's first two years.
Leroy Green:Look at Trump's first two years.
Leroy Green:Look at the legislation.
Leroy Green:Each one of them got a legislative victory for their side.
Leroy Green:You look at Obama, it was health care.
Leroy Green:If you look at Trump, it was a tax cut.
Leroy Green:If you look at Biden, it was the infrastructure plan.
Leroy Green:That's the difference.
Leroy Green:When you win elections, you have to use the power that you have to deliver a win for your constituents.
Leroy Green:What you were put in office for.
Leroy Green:I'm not saying the infrastructure bill is not the, is not a good thing.
Leroy Green:That's not what I'm going to say.
Leroy Green:What I'm going to say is when they got in office, the Democrats had a litany of things that they wanted Biden to do.
Leroy Green:How many of them did he do?
Speaker B:Like six.
Leroy Green:So that's the, that's the difference.
Leroy Green:And they, instead of running on those six things that they did.
Leroy Green:They're literally constantly fighting off this attack that says that they did not do enough.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Leroy Green:And that is the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Leroy Green:And that's why I said when Democrats left that the supreme Court in their enemy's hands, you know what?
Leroy Green:I don't want to use that word.
Leroy Green:Their adversaries hands, opponents, they did not do the honorable thing.
Leroy Green:And then Democrats were like, oh.
Leroy Green:And they went to tell the teacher, and that's.
Speaker B:And it's like, no, you're right.
Leroy Green:And that's the biggest problem.
Speaker B:That's absolutely one of the biggest problem with the Democrats is that the Democrats try and play.
Speaker B:They try and play within the rules, and the Republicans shit on the rules.
Speaker A:Well, they make their own rules.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:That is.
Speaker B:Yeah, I, I mean, people look back and the question of whether Donald Trump was a good president, and I can look back and say the tax cuts did not affect me positively.
Speaker B:I mean, not in a positive enough way for me to be like, oh, yeah, I'm definitely voting for the guy that gave me an extra dollar, 500 a year.
Speaker B:It doesn't make sense.
Speaker B:I would rather see somebody come up with some sort of a public option for healthcare than me having to pay $1,600 a month in insurance to a premium to an insurance company that's going to cap out at $80 billion in profits this year, and they're going to buy back more of their own stock with those profits and not do anything to lower our premiums.
Speaker B:You know, so I would rather see a public option than to continue to pay for the private insurance that I wind up having to fight every time my kids go to the doctor.
Speaker A:Well, there's an easy, there's an easy solution to this.
Speaker A:And this, this definitely goes against all the capitalistic tendencies that I have.
Speaker A:Single payer.
Speaker A:And it's the us government that solves your problem.
Speaker A:Yeah, but they're the lobbying and the money from all these corporations, these insurance corporations are, you'll.
Speaker A:You'll never get it.
Speaker A:But if you have a single payer and everybody has the same health care, then if the government says, we're gonna pay $20 for this drug, whether you like it or not, that's the price.
Speaker A:And now that falls back under socialism, and there's gonna be a lot of people that say, you know, we don't like socialism, but unfortunately, a lot of people don't realize we have a lot of socialistic tendencies in this country.
Speaker A:You get shot if I pull out a gun, full disclosure, this is not going to happen.
Speaker A:But if I pull out a gun and I walk up to somebody and I shoot them on the street.
Speaker A:And then I carry their ass to the hospital and I wheel them in there, say, hey, we got a gunshot wound here.
Speaker A:Whether they've got insurance or not, they're going to get treated.
Speaker A:And if they can't pay for it, Cela V so be it.
Speaker A:You know, we have that already.
Speaker A:So, you know, we have, we have welfare, we have, we have social services.
Speaker A:Social services that, for helping people out.
Speaker A:So, you know, people, oh, I don't believe in socialism.
Speaker A:We've got a blend.
Speaker A:We don't have pure capitalism in this country.
Speaker A:Capitalism is a good thing.
Speaker A:When some of my democratic friends love to say, and I'm not saying I'm a Democrat or Republican, they would say greed.
Speaker A:Greed is the problem in this country.
Speaker A:Greed is actually the number one, in my opinion, innovator in this country.
Speaker A: cate on a Thursday night past: Speaker A:You know, greed is responsible for a lot of innovation and a lot of cool things.
Speaker A:You know, uncontrolled and unbridled greed can be bad.
Speaker B:But yeah, no, I fully believe in capitalism as long as there is regulations to it that prevent it from some of the issues that we see now in our defense program or the fact that this isn't anything against the military or our defense, the Pentagon or anything like that.
Speaker B:But it's basically a trillion dollars a year now that our country spends towards our defense.
Speaker B:And while I certainly appreciate that some of the spending, I would also like to see some of my friends that are veterans, I would love to see that the Veterans affair be fully funded out of the defense program in a way that actually shows the veterans that, hey, we appreciate all the things that you've done or the sacrifices that you've made or the limbs you've lost for the, you know, why we get to be here.
Speaker B:You know, those are, that that should be a much larger chunk of the defense spending.
Leroy Green:Yeah, but that's, but that's not defense spending.
Leroy Green:So I would say, I would say to that that's not defense spending and that's not what defense spending is for.
Leroy Green:It should be, but that's not what it's for.
Leroy Green:What I would say is you could have that.
Leroy Green:The biggest problem is the one problem everybody fights over is education.
Leroy Green:We do not have a educated populace to actually look at all the things that are important to you because everybody's tired, man.
Leroy Green:Everybody's working hard.
Leroy Green:Everybody's busting their ass trying to take care of all of these different things.
Leroy Green:So they have to want to be involved.
Leroy Green:They have to want to learn what issues they're facing next time you're out.
Leroy Green:When you're talking to somebody, ask them who their state rep is.
Leroy Green:I bet you they're asking who's on county council.
Speaker A:I know.
Leroy Green:And that's part you don't.
Leroy Green:No, nope.
Leroy Green:No, I know, but I mean, but to Brock's point, Democrats, Republicans, whoever you are, all problems are local.
Leroy Green:And most of the things we get hyped up for the presidential election, we get hyped up for that when it's actually the midterms, is what we should really be focused on.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Leroy Green:And that is the biggest problem, that we do not have an educated populace who pays attention to the things that are important to them on a regular, everyday basis.
Leroy Green:And not to bring it back, but it does.
Leroy Green:If you look at something like Soda City, if you look at something like Soda City, Comic Con, the idea that we don't have to go someplace else to enjoy something that is part of our nerddom, part of that pop culture, culture ecosystem, the only way that this can grow, that Brock is talking about is that our city leaders have to get involved.
Leroy Green:Me and Brock have had this conversation quite a few times.
Leroy Green:The reason why San Diego is San Diego Comic Con is because San Diego invested in San Diego Comic Con.
Leroy Green:This city shuts down the downtown to where you cannot drive through certain parts.
Leroy Green:They literally turn it in where there are bus lanes, the local community, the hotels that are from the airport have an entire shuttle system that runs every 15 minutes downtown San Diego.
Leroy Green:The local restaurants, the local bars, everybody gets involved.
Leroy Green:And that has to happen on a city and a county level.
Leroy Green:And until our city politicians start paying attention, that if you want to grow and you want to not necessarily beat or be better than, but if you want those economic dollars to flow, like in Greenville, like in Charleston, like in Myrtle beach, then you need something here that is going to attract people to this place.
Leroy Green:And that is the one thing that I have a problem with.
Leroy Green:Not to the bash city council or the city.
Leroy Green:That is the one thing that I've always had an issue with when it comes to Columbia, that you have this huge monolith of a university, and we're a capital city.
Leroy Green:We have an airport and you let Greenville grow and be a better destination.
Speaker A:Than Columbia, one of the largest army bases in the country.
Leroy Green:Yep.
Leroy Green:You literally, Fort Jackson literally trains 75,000 troops a year.
Speaker B:And Columbia, how does Greenville.
Leroy Green:How does.
Leroy Green:Think about that for a second.
Leroy Green:How does Greenville grow faster and better than Columbia, South Carolina?
Leroy Green:That has the University of South Carolina, Benedict College, Allen University, that has Fort Jackson.
Leroy Green:How do you let Greenville outgrow you?
Speaker B:Well, it is.
Leroy Green:And you have the state capital.
Speaker B:Part of the problem is the residency here in Columbia, South Carolina is seasonal, and that university is part of the problem when it comes to Columbia, South Carolina, because per capita of the SEC colleges in the southeast and up to Missouri over to Texas, we have more student housing availability per capita than any other university in the southeast.
Speaker B:We have student housing that in some cases is going unoccupied because they just continue to build student housing.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:It is insane.
Speaker B:And I think that is part of the problem for Columbia as to why we don't see some of these venues getting their expansions is because university, every time property comes up, University of South Carolina gets somebody to go in there and buy it for them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you know, that, that to me also.
Speaker A:Go ahead, big.
Speaker A:I can also shed a little bit of light on this simply because Richland county, we talked about taxes, right?
Speaker A:We talked about cheap taxes throughout the state, but Richland county has some of the highest taxes in the state, and it has a lot to do with the tax base.
Speaker A:And quite simply put, especially in the city of Columbia.
Speaker A:Think about it from a tax perspective, how much property from the city and the county's perspective is off the tax roll.
Speaker A:All the university, all the military, all the government, all of the religious, all that.
Speaker A:No tax revenue.
Speaker A:So what do they have to do?
Speaker A:The businesses have to.
Speaker A:The businesses and the residents have to shoulder the tax load for, for the city and the county, and it creates a very unattractive place for businesses to come and expand.
Speaker A:Now they've got creative, you know, fee and lieu and deferring taxes and stuff like that to attract, like a Mark Anthony brewing up on Shop Road and the scout motors out here in Blythewood.
Speaker A:I saw today that Google is going to invest $3.3 billion in Berkeley.
Speaker A:And maybe it was Calhoun or Dorchester.
Speaker A:It was Dorchester, and it might have been Berkeley, but it was a couple of low country counties where they've already got a data center and they're building one or two more and they're expanding one other one to do a lot of the AI processing and data warehouses and stuff like that.
Speaker A:That's a $3.3 billion investment in South Carolina.
Speaker A:And they're certainly not.
Speaker A:They're certainly not coming to Richland county, but, you know, they're going there because it's fucking cheap.
Speaker A:I mean, let's just be real.
Speaker A:And that's great because it's going to create some good jobs for those areas, and they need it.
Speaker A:And they've got land.
Speaker A:You know, another thing like downtown Columbia, you know, there's not a whole lot of place to grow.
Speaker A:Blythewood is suffering from the same problem unless we start annexing large swaths of property.
Speaker A:Blythe, it's pretty fully developed.
Speaker A:It's like playing the game Sim City, where you.
Speaker A:You make, you know, you build all your little things, and then you can only build so far, right?
Speaker A:You know, kind of the same problem.
Speaker A:So, you know, city, Columbia, Richland county, you know, faces some challenges.
Speaker A:And you're right, a piece of property comes up, University of South Carolina swoops in and buys it before anybody else gets a chance.
Speaker A:You know, fortunately, the convention center does have a little bit of space that they have that they can expand, but some of the property behind is owned by Ben Arnold.
Speaker A:They were supposed to build.
Speaker A:They were supposed to make this kind of.
Speaker A:This huge epicenter where they were going to expand the convention center.
Speaker A:They were going to build a big parking garage, a couple of boutique hotels.
Speaker A:It was all going to be connected.
Speaker A:Colonial life arena, the convention center, the hotels, and you could.
Speaker A:You could get from one to the other without ever having to go outside.
Speaker A:It completely removes the elements.
Speaker A:Couldn't agree on a parking deck.
Speaker A:Ben honored one of the county to buy, to build it and then lease it back to him.
Speaker A:The county said, no, we're not going to build it.
Speaker A:And the whole thing fell apart.
Speaker A:And now, from what I can tell, he's not even interested.
Speaker A:He'll do his own thing.
Speaker A:Thing.
Speaker A:And basically, you know, screw the local leaders and screw the city and the county.
Speaker A:They don't carry.
Speaker A:So, you know, there are challenges.
Speaker A:And you say, who knows their representative?
Speaker A:Of course I do.
Speaker B:Mine's under investigation for child pornography distribution.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker B:I know who mine is.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think I've read about that, too.
Speaker A:Nice.
Leroy Green:Your face.
Speaker B:You were like, yeah, one of the leaders of the Freedom caucus there, fellas.
Speaker B:Good work on him.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's going to.
Speaker A:He's going to learn real quick.
Speaker A:Free to make free.
Speaker B:Yeah, fingers crossed.
Leroy Green:But.
Leroy Green:But you talked about that, and that's something.
Leroy Green:And so going back to that thing that you talked about, Columbia hosted March Madness once that flag came down and the band for the NCAA ban came down.
Leroy Green:And that's the kind of stuff that the community leaders have to understand and local leaders have to understand.
Leroy Green:If you do not build these things, we can't host these events.
Leroy Green:And if you can't host these events, then you can't have people from outside the community come in here to see Columbia for what it is.
Leroy Green:And that's the one thing that those places who have the five star hotels, who have the boutique hotels, when they're able to host these events, you get other people coming in because they're like, oh, I remember Columbia.
Leroy Green:Oh, we should have our event here.
Leroy Green:Oh, I remember when we went here for this.
Leroy Green:When you don't have those things, that infrastructure that brock talked about, you cannot grow.
Leroy Green:And that is what we have right now.
Leroy Green:We have a capital city that is not growing because we don't have those things because people would rather, and I don't know the reasons why.
Leroy Green:I just know that we don't have them.
Leroy Green:But, and I also look at who does have them, and I also look at who does.
Leroy Green:If you look at the concert tours of your major acts that come to South Carolina, we're the three places that they go.
Leroy Green:And the one place they don't go.
Speaker B:Well, they don't come to Columbia.
Speaker B:They go to Charlotte, they go to Atlanta, they go to North Charleston or Charleston.
Speaker B:They go to, they'll go to Greenville or Spartanburg.
Speaker B:They'll do the peace center or whatever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I can't, I can't, I can't get an AC DC here in Columbia.
Speaker B:Well, I might.
Speaker B:Could get AC DC.
Speaker B:I can't get, I can't get Ben Folds to come to Columbia even though South Carolina, University of South Carolina has one of the most fantastic pop orchestra.
Speaker B:Orchestra.
Speaker B:You know, their orchestra is one of the best.
Speaker B:You know, but, you know, Ben Folds isn't going to come to Columbia and play with the USC.
Leroy Green:We talk about USC.
Leroy Green:This, the soccer match they just had with Liverpool and Manchester, that was a great thing for the city.
Leroy Green:That was a, like, that was amazing.
Leroy Green:If you, if you, if you remember.
Speaker B:To sell its soul to the University of South Carolina to get.
Speaker B:To use Williams Bryce.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, the, the requirement is, is that the, basically what Columbia had to, I don't know what they had to give up, but I guarantee you they had to give up some shit to be able to use Williams Bryce for that.
Speaker B:I mean, you don't see any Kamala HaRris well, you see her roast going down there at USC.
Speaker B:I guess that's something.
Speaker B:But you don't see, Obama was here.
Speaker B:He held a rally at Williams Bryce.
Speaker B:I mean, didn't Oprah show up for it?
Speaker B: I mean, in: Leroy Green:And so that's what I'm saying.
Leroy Green:Our community leaders, your local leaders, have to actually find a way to work together to put Columbia on the map, because as we started this talking about, Hori county is one of the fastest growing counties in South Carolina.
Leroy Green:It used to be Lexington.
Leroy Green:It used to be.
Leroy Green:Lexington county was one of the fastest growing counties.
Leroy Green:It is not anymore, because Lexington county does, has, does not have what Horry county has.
Speaker B:It's by the beach and immense amounts of land.
Speaker B:Orey county is, is, is Myrtle Beach.
Speaker B:North Myrtle beach.
Speaker B:That makes up a, that's a pretty good chunk, but that's basically where all the money in Horary county is made.
Speaker B:Horry county is a big county that has a lot of development potential.
Speaker B:Lexington, literally, they had to put a moratorium on building homes because people were complaining about the fact that the homes, there wasn't enough space between them because they're trying to pack so many homes into, you know, a 50 acre lot.
Speaker B:They're trying to put 400 homes into 50 acres.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then figure out the logistics of getting roads in there, you know, so they, they, they screw themselves.
Speaker B:And it's, it's poor city planning.
Speaker B:It's poor county planning.
Speaker B:It's, it's, you know, Horry county has the opportunity to really take advantage of the space they have and the, the community that they're building.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, y'all are absolutely right.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:I don't know what else to say.
Speaker A:We can go for another hour.
Speaker A:We'll solve all the world's problems.
Speaker B:I gotta go pick up a kid from work, but I will just say this.
Speaker B:18.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Daddy.
Speaker A:I didn't realize you were that old, son.
Speaker B:Listen.
Leroy Green:Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Leroy Green:You're not gonna have dreams about him.
Speaker A:I don't have dreams about you.
Speaker A:I was thinking about.
Speaker A:I was concerned about your well being.
Speaker B:He was thinking about you in bed.
Leroy Green:Stay focused.
Speaker B:Look, I'll just say this.
Speaker B:If you're listening to this and you haven't done it, do it often.
Speaker B:Go check your voter registration.
Speaker B:You can do that@theallaboutnothing.com.
Speaker B:voter because ultimately, regardless of how you vote, you gotta vote.
Speaker B:And you need to check your voter registration.
Speaker B:There are plenty of states out there right now, in the southeast especially, that are trying to, uh, either pull people off of the, uh, uh, the voter rolls.
Speaker B:In Georgia, there's a website where you can actually literally report somebody that you don't think should be a voter and it pulls them off the rolls and then they have to go and re register in person.
Speaker B:Like there is, there is some nonsense going on in this, in the, in the country when it comes to the voter, uh, registration and things like that.
Speaker B:South Carolina.
Speaker B:I also want to make sure people are aware there is an amendment question on the, that could potentially change the constitution here in South Carolina.
Speaker B:It's mostly just an exclusivity.
Speaker B:They're changing quite literally one word I say literally.
Speaker B:They're basically changing one word about who has the right to vote in South Carolina to make it less, make it more exclusive and less inclusive.
Speaker B:And the League of Women Voters has basically said that this is an unnecessary change to the constitution.
Speaker B:And I agree with them.
Speaker B:I think that this constitutional change is potentially mostly just put in there to confuse voters and shorten or lengthen the amount of time that people are going to be trying to understand what this question says.
Speaker B:So if my suggestion is you read it, decide what you think.
Speaker B:If you want my suggestion, I would say no.
Speaker B:That is my opinion, but I think it's the right way to go.
Speaker B:I think that anything that makes things more exclusive and less inclusive is probably to the detriment of the community.
Speaker B:So that gonna do it.
Speaker B:Thank you guys for being on.
Speaker A:This is definitely a one parter.
Speaker B:Yeah, this is gonna be a two parter.
Speaker B:And thank you for that, because what that does, it means that I can take a week off.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:There's a fair amount of editing, especially this.
Speaker B:We did say hotels, we can't edit that out.
Speaker A:And my mom called, so we're probably, probably.
Speaker A:This is our third video, so you'll have to splice this all together.
Speaker A:What you can do, this is what you can do, man.
Speaker A:You can like throw some little commercials in here or something like that.
Speaker A:Or.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm gonna email you the thing for a boardwalk.
Speaker A:And so you'll have the little teaser.
Speaker A:All that, and I'll throw that in there.
Speaker A:Let me see.
Leroy Green:Boom.
Speaker B:Yeah, please do that.
Speaker A:Hold on a second.
Speaker A:Let me see.
Speaker B:Let me, let me see.
Speaker A:Let me, let me, hold on.
Speaker B:Let me do the credits.
Speaker B:I was gonna say if I do the credits, then we'll talk about it.
Speaker A:After it's 14 megs.
Speaker A:I think I can email you that.
Speaker A:I was just something like that.
Speaker A:Now we're good.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker B:No, 14 megs is emailable.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Thank you very much, Leroy, for being in and standing in for Zach.
Speaker B:I'm sure he appreciates it as well.
Speaker B:Brock, as always, it is a pleasure.
Speaker B:You know, Brock, do you have a business or anything you want to know outside of the comic con?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Just literally spent 2 hours promoting.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, he's got a regular job.
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker A:I do have a candidate for you.
Speaker A:I do have an.
Speaker A:Actually, I will tell you that he did have a challenger, but it was a third party challenger, but said challenger has dropped out.
Speaker A:So now it's a one person race, ie senator elect.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Okay, so overture.
Speaker B:Overture is running over to Walker.
Speaker A:Over to Walker will be the next senator for District 22, which is my district.
Speaker B:That's fantastic.
Speaker A:Cheap.
Speaker A:You want to go into a business to plug?
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm a plug.
Speaker A:Overture.
Speaker A:That's my business.
Speaker A:No, I've known him for almost 25 years.
Speaker A:We are that.
Speaker A:We are probably the best of friends.
Speaker A:I've talked to him multiple times.
Speaker A:Weekly if not daily.
Speaker A:We are thick as thieves.
Speaker B:And I'm.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, obviously I'm a fan too.
Speaker A:And he's a fan.
Speaker A:He's a fan of mine.
Speaker A:So we compliment each other quite well.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, Leroy, but if I was gonna have dreams of a black guy, it is overture.
Speaker A:Walker.
Speaker A:It is not you.
Speaker A:Sorry, buddy.
Leroy Green:I just took that as a challenge.
Leroy Green:I will get back in the gym.
Speaker A:Accepted.
Speaker A:Right.
Leroy Green:Gotta work on these guns.
Leroy Green:We gotta get back in shape.
Speaker B:That is gonna do it for episode number 220.
Speaker B:I wanna say 220 because we started at 226.
Speaker B:That's gonna do it forever.
Speaker B:Episode number 227.
Speaker B:Thank you guys again very much for being on links to past episodes, podcast platforms and merchandise, and social media available at our webpage, theallaboutnothing.com dot.
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Speaker B:If you'd like to be part of the show, you can call and leave us a message.
Speaker B: -: Speaker B:Links available@theallaboutnothing.com dot.
Speaker B:Thank you all very much for listening.
Speaker B:You all stay safe, be kind, and have a good week.
Speaker B:Also, keep your hands to yourself.
Speaker B:That's most important.
Speaker A:Stay dry.
Speaker A:Do not drop through standing water.
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