Manifest This, As*holes

30:57Wake up the next day feeling hungover, strung out. Why did I hang out with all of these radical leftist anti-fascist? We're not going to do that because we're pro-matinee, we're pro-democracy, we're anti-MAGA, and we're anti-fascist. Come see us. It's going to be so fun. I love getting together at a live show with all of the people. It's such a community. All right, listener, a big part of my life, and this is going to sound like the little things but it is so important to me is a great blanket i love to fluff up on my sofa or in my bed with a really nubby just cozy blanket and that's why i want to share with you the lola blanket i chose this gray kind of furry blanket it's very large it keeps me so warm it feels great on the skin and here's the thing you know valentine's day gifts are so difficult because what are you going to do?

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33:23That's honeylove.com slash had it. After you check out, they're going to ask how you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Experience the new standard and comfort and support with Honeylove. Hi. Hey. How are you? Well, I was great until I read your bio, actor, writer, producer, and podcast host. And then I feel like pumps and I are just total slacker losers. No, no, this is the, you know, what's funny about bios and it's like, they take 20 years of your career and it's like five lines. So it looks like you've done it at the same time consistently for that length of time.

34:09And nobody wants to talk about like, I remember one of the first talk shows I went on, I think it was, it was like, Craig Ferguson or something like that. And I started telling a story about like, all the jobs you have to work to save up your gas money to go on auditions. And he cuts me off. And he's like, nobody wants to talk about that. You're on a talk show. Nobody wants to hear that. Tell us the juice about making the movie. And I'm like, okay, okay, I understand. All right, Cal Penn, what have you had it with? Let me just pull up my list because I've made a list. I love a grievance list. I have a grievance list.

34:45I know it makes me sound more grievancy. The pedier the better. That's sort of how I felt about it. And I'll give you the first one. Okay. It's this idea of manifesting something. Oh, yeah. And it's usually said with, I think what we all call Instagram influencer voice. This year I'm manifesting that I'm putting the energy out there. I'm like, guys, I think that's called coming up with a plan. Right. I think that's right. Or it's the opposite. It's I put the energy out there and I manifested it and nothing happened. Like, well, cause you didn't put, it's the plan and then the action behind it.

35:36Right. So anyway, so that's like a big pet peeve of mine is like, either you're talking about planning or you're talking about luck. It's, it's one of the two. It's one of our, um, long time grievances. There's this woman. Oh, is it really? Okay. Yeah. There's this woman on Instagram and this was like, right when we first started the, the, I'm like looking at Instagram, looking at influencers to like come up with content. And this woman, she has like a Birkin bag and a Rolls Royce and she pulls up to the plane and her husband has a matching Rolls Royce. And it's this big giant, like private plane.

36:16I mean like big fucking Gulfstream, right? And she writes in the comment section, like I manifested this life, hashtag, you know, hashtag Gulfstream, hashtag Birkin, hashtag Rolls Royce. And I just, I mean, I just thought, are you kidding me? And here's, here's the problem. It's, it's kind of like, okay, I get one narcissistic nut job. I get that. Right. Yeah. Is this aspirational for people? Because that's the problem. Like are people doing that? And then all of a sudden they've got a mood board with a Gulfstream and a Rolls Royce and zero job? This is the thing is that you hit both of them at the same time.

36:58It's like the, I'm all for a board of goals and timelines and how I'm going to execute and all of that. But the mood board of energy is not that. And also the flashing it and saying, I manifested this implicit in that is that anybody who does not have, if they want one, a private jet or a Birkin or whatever, just didn't do it hard enough. Yeah. Right? Like they're the lazy ones. I'm like, okay. I think we need a lesson on capitalism. It's kind of like, I feel the same way about when people say we need to pray for the family. after a horrific school shooting. They're like, we need to pray for the family.

37:41The prayers doesn't help. What you need to do is put action into, you know, it's just like praying with, it's just not helping anything. If it were, we wouldn't have all these massive school shootings and this continue to go on. So that's what drives me crazy too, kind of on the same line. Maybe it's all just a coping mechanism. Maybe. I mean, I just, I think the thoughts and prayers crowd Yeah. All have a lot in common, which is what we say in Oklahoma, all hat, no cattle. I mean, it's a big performative. We're going to pray and we're going to do all this shit and we're for family values and we're for life.

38:22We're, you know, we're, we're for all that shit, but then, and then they just do the perform, like Ted Cruz, when he starts talking about praying, I'm like, there's never been a bigger walking, talking advertisement against prayer, against men, against Texans, against senators, against husbands, than you, Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz, I feel like doesn't get it. Like there are a lot of politicians who I've met who have walked me through this idea of like they want to endorse another politician or actors. We get this all the time, right? Like someone's like, oh, can you help me out on a campaign? Or the opposite.

38:58Please don't help me on this campaign because your presence would do more harm to this political campaign than good. I don't think Ted Cruz understands that calculus. No, he thinks he runs around saying, you know, he's got an exploratory committee for the 2028 presidential election. And I always, every time I see that, I'm just like, why does he not know everyone hates him? Like universally? It's unbelievable. Yeah. That's wild. All right. Moving along. Let's go to what I think I have on your list of grievances, something pertaining to tips. Yes. So tell us about this. Here's what it's not going to be.

39:37It's not going to be, I agree with this also, but it's not going to be like somebody poured you a glass of hot water, handed you a tea bag, swiveled the screen around and wants two extra dollars. That I, I understand the grievance. And also that that's like complicated because of the way our minimum wage works in the United States. That said, the grievance that I have is when you get your bill and tips are automatically calculated. Like it'll say 20 % check here, 15 check here, you know, 25 check here. But when you look at it, those numbers have been calculated after taxes. Like you don't calculate tips after taxes.

40:17It's on the net. It's on the service provided. And I generally, at least I'd like to think of myself as a generous tipper. I think it's important having had service jobs in the past. I know how much you rely on that. But the pet peeve is that that added thing is like, don't tell me it's 25 % if it's actually not 25 % of what I ordered. If it's 25 % of the, because like I'll tip 25%, but it shouldn't actually then be like 32 % that I'm tipping. Unless I want to tip 32%. Like just let somebody tip what they want to tip. It's the hoodwink. Yes, but it feels icky saying it because again, having had those jobs back in the day and having so many friends in the service industry, I know how many shitty tippers there are.

41:03Oh yeah. I know how many people are just like, they didn't do much, here's$2 or the food sucked, so I'm not going to tip. It's like, all right, things are a lot more complicated than that. But the little pet peeve is the just like, just be honest about how it's calculated. it. I'm with you regarding tipping because I waited tables all through college, bartended, and it was a really good job for me. Not only was it good money, but you know, when people did tip, well, if I didn't work Sunday morning with the thoughts and prayer crowd, notoriously terrible tippers in the south, just had to throw that in there because I didn't realize that by the way.

41:38Oh, they're terrible. Horrible. Nobody wanted to work Sunday church because you're not getting tip. Jeez, I would have thought the opposite. It prepares you for life. It's so good. Oh, no, no, it's not the opposite. They're the worst, the worst tippers. But anyway, there is an abuse going on, tip abuse, and it's harming people in the service industry. These machines that are kind of like, I forget what they're called, but it automatically sets up the tip screen. Here's an example. I go to the gym. I always like to get this bottle of lemon water, I go to a self service refrigerator, I open the door, I grab the bottle, I walk to the counter, I scan it, the bottle and then a person has to like, push a button to populate where I can do my Apple Pay.

42:29Yeah, all they do is push the button. And there's a tip option. Yeah. And this really, I think the employee has nothing to do with the way the computer system is set up. But it damages workers that are really, really hustling where their minimum wage for waiters has been$2 for like 40 years or something. It's crazy. It's crazy. Minimum wage has not increased in 20 years. And so it's damaging them. But I think that I'm hopeful that we can start targeting if we ever get our country back, that the corporate exploitation of this. The corporations are not only exploiting and giving their workers a bad name, but they're exploiting you, the customer too, because they don't want to pay them a livable wage.

43:17That's very well said and much more succinctly said than my little rant. And a great example of that, I remember that, you know, the restaurant Sugarfish? It's like a sushi chain. Yeah, I love that place. So they're one of those no tipping restaurants. And at first when I heard about this, you know, I'm skeptical. Is that because, what does this mean? And then you dive into it. It seems at least from people who I've talked to who work there as well, that they're a living wage restaurant. The tips are built into the price of the food that you order. And that's generally a protection against shitty tippers, right?

43:50Because they want their staff and their members to be taken care of. So if that works well, and to your point, if that gets rid of the corporate greed, What a nice stopgap until we finally have a living minimum wage for people in these wonderful professions who service our food when we go in. Yeah. Wouldn't it be nice if these corporations or some billionaire opened up a Starbucks style chain and at every register it said, please do not tip. We pay our workers a livable wage. Yeah. I mean, is there a psychosis to once you become a billionaire, you just become a horrible person? Can there be a benevolent billionaire that emerges and takes over, or is that not possible?

44:42I mean, like I've heard smaller scale examples of this, like a sugarfish chain or something like that. I love that. They do the livable wage thing, but also real small businesses, right? There was a family friend dentist that I knew when I was a kid and my parents' friends. And they told me, you know, they pay full benefits, health coverage, everything to all of their employees. And it's just a small like, you know, eight person dental clinic at the time. And I remember being in high school or college and kind of realizing what that meant. I'm like, aren't you guys losing a lot of money doing that?

45:20And they both were like, well, first of all, we're immigrants who got to come here for a better life. Most of our employees are first generation immigrants who went to trade school. And we just think it's a no brainer. Like they are the reason we have this thriving business. We have to cover their health care and their benefits and all of that. And the way it was explained, I was like, oh, yeah, wait, why isn't this just a thing? where is the human decency aspect of it that comes that cuts ahead of the greed there to your point? Anyway. All right. Is it true that you are, have been friends with Mayor Mom Donnie since you were 14 years old?

46:08So what I love about this question is it implies that he and I are like the same age and I'm like way older. So that makes me feel good. Good on you. It makes me feel very good. So thank you. So I've known him since he was 14. Not you. Not me. I was in my, I guess, late 20s. His mom is a wonderful academy nominated film director named Mira Nair. And when I was a kid, one of the first movies of hers that I saw was called Mississippi Masala, which was incidentally one of Denzel Washington's first movies. And it's, you know how like when you're young, there's like a couple of movies or actors or directors that make you go, oh wait, maybe this is a thing that I can do too.

46:51So she was one of those people for me when I was a kid. And then cut to this movie called The Namesake that she was directing that I, for whatever, could not get an audition for this movie. My agent couldn't get me in. So I wrote Mira a letter that basically said, you're one of the catalysts for why I became an actor. I love the book that this script is based on. you have to let me audition for the lead in your movie. And she called and said, fly to New York. I was living in LA at the time, fly to New York and audition for me. And I walk into this audition. And the first thing she says is, I just want you to know, I read your letter.

47:24And my 14 year old son Zoran is a huge fan of your stoner movie, Harold and Kamara go to White Castle. And for the last three months, he and his best friend, Sam have been begging me to audition you for the lead in my independent drama. And they showed me clips from Harold and Kumar, and it just showed me that you're the wrong person for this job. But then I got your letter and I was like, all right, let's let them come in. It'll mean a lot to them. And then thankfully I did well in the audition and I ended up getting cast in the job. But so, so the day of the audition, actually, she says, once you're done, my, my son would love to say hello if you have a few minutes.

48:01And so he'd stop by after school. And I said, once I got the job also, I like half jokingly was like, Hey man, if you ever need anything later on, I got your back. And I'm just glad when he ran for office, he wasn't like this crazy right winger who I would have owed a favor to, you know? Oh my God. That could have been really bad because you made the promise so long ago. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Do you live in New York or LA? I do. I'm in New York. I was in LA for a long time, but I'm in New York now. How about you guys? I'm in New York. Pumps is still in Oklahoma City. I just recently, my youngest son graduated and I decided to flee the Bible Belt.

48:37I'm a Bible Belt refugee. But were you able to participate in his, did you campaign for him? Were you, did you go to his inauguration? I went to his watch party and it was just electric. Oh, awesome. Yeah. You know, he, I, I helped him from, from the time that he ran for state assembly. I was really honored to kind of give him a hand with some fundraisers and a few events and things like that. And I was also really floored, like, look, you're asking the most biased person in the world. I've known him since he was 14 and he's the reason I got one of my favorite jobs. So just clamp that little nugget as you will.

49:17But, you know, he texted me a few years ago when he was an assembly member and was on a hunger strike with the New York City taxi workers for debt forgiveness. And he was just like, hey, man, And, you know, you come down and just sort of say hi to the folks who are on the hunger strike with me. You know, it sort of helped with morale and we're hoping to put a lot more pressure, whatever. And I was like, oh, you're actually on a hunger strike. Like I read your Twitter that said you were doing it, but you're like actually living there for this. Yes, of course, I'll come by. And I had texted a guy I knew in Mayor de Blasio's office at the time and just doing one of those things privately.

49:54That's like, hey, I'm going to go see my friend who's on a hunger strike. Like maybe somebody from the mayor's office could come out and that would kind of help get this taken, you know, put a little pressure if you can privately. And the response I got was like, yeah, we're aware of the hunger strike. Obviously, we're not doing anything about it. There's not going to be any debt forgiveness, but thanks for letting us know that you're going. I was like, well, that's gross. And then I go. It was very inspiring to see Zoran with all the taxi workers. And, you know, cut to a few weeks later and they achieved this debt forgiveness plan.

50:27against all these odds. And I was just so proud of him and was following all of his, you know, whether it's his human rights advocacy or this free bus pilot program and seeing how, I mean, you saw this with the Trump video in the Oval Office, but he definitely appreciates, there are plenty of people who may disagree with him on policy or tactics or anything, but he's not afraid to actually have a conversation. Friendly is too trite of a word, but a like a human conversation with somebody about shared goals and things like that and i just feel like who who does that anymore you know so it's been it's been exciting and yes went to inauguration it was so cold uh but but a really special special morning were you surprised how trump just fawned all over him in the oval office after he'd been you know he's a communist all the he has said and then it was just like he was like i love you so our hun I was, I think like a lot of people, like I watched it live and, you know, I was like sitting like this very seriously as it started.

51:32And by the end, I was just like, this is amazing. I think, I think two things. One, you know, the Zoran you see is really who he is and who he has always been, even since he was a kid. So it does not surprise me that he charmed the president in that sense. Right. Um, and wasn't, cause I feel like if you look at all these Democrats, whether it's Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries or any of these people, they're clearly intimidated by Trump. Totally. If the only thing you can do is to either agree with him or continue to fund ICE or take a picture with a baseball bat and be like, we did it, then there's nothing real about that.

52:16And I think Zoran was not is not intimidated like i said he's he's happy to have a conversation with anybody and he does it in a very human way the flip side to that also is i feel like we're now in this place where there's this manufactured outrage about anything the president does as if he didn't promise he was going to do it exactly he is an emmy nominated reality tv star totally you don't replicate that if you're a Democrat. The mistake that I think even Gavin Newsom is making is you're punching down, trying to get all this traction on social media. It feels good. It tracks because, but it's all a response to this Emmy nominated reality TV star.

52:57You have to craft your own path in a positive, progressive, forward thinking way that gets results if you actually want to drive the narrative. And there are no Democrats right now who are doing that. They're all only doing a response to what the president is. So it was refreshing to see Zeron in the Oval Office having an actual conversation with the president in a real way. Like the stakes are really high and he didn't hold back, obviously, in that meeting, but it was still a great meeting. And so it doesn't surprise me that they get along and hopefully that lasts, you know. Yeah. You know, I think that shows how much of what Trump does is performative.

53:38And there's no question he's a racist. However, this man has no conviction. Trump doesn't have conviction in anything except for him and his ego and protecting his fragile ego. So when Zoran walks in, a brown skinned Muslim, is Trump Islamophobic? Sure. Is he racist? Sure. All of those things. There's no question. But he's such a prostitute, Donald Trump, that when Zoran walked in, he saw a good looking winner. And that superseded even his racism. And that is the con. This man is the world's best con artist. Because when Zoran walked in, he didn't see brown skinned. He didn't see Muslim. He saw, well, here's this good looking winner that took on all these asshole hedge fund guys that probably used to look down on Trump, you know, because they knew Trump was full of shit in Manhattan, et cetera.

54:40And so I thought it was a really fascinating, I was boarding a flight and I'm like refreshing my Twitter, refreshing my Twitter, trying to get like inject this into my veins. My favorite part was when they're like, you called the president a fascist. Would you like to take that back and trump's like don't worry about it it's okay you can say yes

55:06i'll just add to what you said that i you know the the and this is true and it's my understanding is this is what um what the mayor shared with the with the president is that um one of the ways that he won obviously was by expanding the electorate and and registering new people to vote. But there were a lot of people who voted for Zoran who were Trump voters. And so he reached out to them and said, what was it about the president's campaign that made you want to vote for him? And it was all affordability. And so I think they, I assume at least it seems from the readout of that meeting that they connected on that and that Zoran presumably shared a lot of that with the president that, look, there are a lot of people in New York who were rooting for you and are rooting for me also.

55:50So maybe we can deliver the things that they voted for both of us for. And how refreshing would that be if we actually got results from that? And let's not kid ourselves. Yeah, I was going to say. I'm not saying. Zoran is surrounded by a lot of very smart people and they had the psychological profile. And I'm sure that he went in and flattered him in a way that Trump responds to. Like you see anybody who wants to get something from Trump has this psychological profile. What's so crazy about this whole thing, Cal, is the president of the United States is the easiest motherfucker on the planet to manipulate.

56:29Like if I wanted to manipulate him, I could go, you know what? I think your hair looks great. And honestly, I don't care what Stormy Daniel says. I bet your dick is bigger than Obama's. Yeah. Hook, line, sinker, he'd be in. You have the easiest motherfucker on the planet to manipulate. But I do think there is a very important component to what Zoran did in taking on the billionaire class. And more than anything, he's able to walk into the White House in a way that Schumer and Hakeem are unable to do. Because he walks in with full blown conviction. He has conviction. He stands up if he sees an injustice, he stands up to it immediately.

57:12If he sees or hears somebody do something that is racist, he stands up immediately. It doesn't sit on the side and percolate. All of these other Democrats are just, there's no conviction. It's all for show. It's either for show or it's somebody as awful as Kristen Gillibrand, who doesn't even show up or comment. She's like agreeing with Trump on all this. Yeah, let's continue to fund this nonsense. It's just, so it is very, I'm not foolish about how difficult the next four years will be for him, but I am hopeful that the new leadership style with a lot of the coalitions that Zoran has built is, it's exciting.

57:53It's hopeful. It's hopeful at a time where there's not a lot to be hopeful about. If only he were born in the United States. Oh, I know. Honestly, it's going to be refreshing to have somebody who can't be president in an office like this because so often people are like, oh, I can't make this choice because I'm going to run for president one day. And it's like it's limiting. That's a great point. Yeah. Although I would sure like it. Yeah, no, for sure. It's the same. But I'm just finding I'm just kind of outlining the silver lining there and the fact that he can't be president. Okay, it's time for a fresh start, fresh energy of the new year and finally launch your business with Shopify.

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1:01:09The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Okay, Cal, let's play had it or hit it. Oh my God. Welcome to had it or hit it. I would hit it. Had it. Had it. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. All right. Had it or hit it, faux food allergies.

1:01:37Had it. Had it. Had it hard. Let me just, so I'm allergic to tree nuts. It is an anaphylactic allergy. I have to go to the hospital if there's cross-contamination, if there's a little bit of like somebody doesn't know there's cashew paste in something, all of that. When I'm out at dinner with a friend who has elected to be gluten-free or something free. Now, again, I just want to be clear. I'm not talking about somebody who has a medical illness and can't have gluten. That's obviously in the same category as a medical allergy, which is what I have. I'm talking about the faux ones that I read an article and two weeks ago, I decided to start going gluten-free.

1:02:22And so when I say something like, I'm deathly allergic to tree nuts, and they're like, and me too with gluten. Like, no, you're not dying. You are not dying. You might have a little tiny tummy ache that what you're doing is really awful because there are people who medically cannot have gluten. And you are now screwing it up for everybody else by pretending. Just say that it's a preference. There's nothing wrong with a preference. I don't eat pork. It's a preference. You know what I call this? I call this histrionic, histrionic allergy disorder. You have people that have celiac disease and that is real and that is a problem and it's less than 1 % of the population.

1:03:06And then you have the histrionic allergy disorder people who all day long, they talk about I'm gluten free. I can't eat gluten. I can't eat gluten. Then they get fucking all liquored up just knockers all get out and then it's 2am and it's gluten galore and there's absolutely zero fallout from it and it's those people the lying liars that are hijacking other people's allergies for histrionic purposes that i have a huge problem with i feel like uh i and the tree nut allergy crowd should get together with the actual celiac crowd and do a really funny doc short about the people you described who like just will get shit faced at 2 a.m.

1:03:52and then eat all the gluten. Like there's a funny documentary there. I completely agree. You can get producer credits, Jennifer. Exactly. I can add to my bio like the next time I'm on a podcast. I have as many qualifications as cow does now. because I'm at it. Fuck you, Cal. Great. Hey, you do it. You don't need me. I'll do the voiceover. Okay. All right. Had it or hit it. Smartphone charging plugs. Oh, Lord. Just had it, man. Had it. I get that they are built to make us spend money every couple of years, and you got to get an adapter for the thing. And like, look, I've got, I've got, is this a video pod also?

1:04:38Yeah. Or is this just for us? Okay. So, you know, you got this thing, but then you have to put this on it now. You have to buy that if you want to. But then that's not going to work either, so then you just have to buy a new. Like, I get it. I understand that it's built for this, but man, that's just annoying. Yeah, like Apple doesn't have enough money. They can just let us all keep the same chargers. Here's what irritates the shit out of me on it. Yeah. Right when hotel rooms started using, just don't use the electrical outlet. we'll just make a place for your charging cord it's like five minutes later then we all went to the usb cord so now they don't have plug-in available and you can't charge your phone that drives me fucking crazy yeah it yes so so we're all in the same boat here yeah yeah i almost feel like everybody says well no it's better did it i'm like at some point we have to call a racket a racket every time i go get a new phone it's a new charger making my then ear pods require a different charger the wall you know it just it's it's a never-ending road of rackets and from these corporations and i just think we need a universal cord across the board yeah i don't want my bundle of wires as if i'm an 80 year old man like next to my plug no shade to all the uncles who I based that comment on, but they know what I'm talking about.

1:06:03Just bundles of wires and chargers, just clear electrical hazard. I don't want to be that guy. Okay. Had it or hit it. You're going to have to help us with this. Fad drugs. Fad drugs meaning, for example, ayahuasca or things that have had actual uses in native cultures or communities that are now like, pay$9 ,000 and go on an ayahuasca retreat somewhere in Mexico. Like the fad that like, this is a cleanse. Like, first of all, it's okay to say that you have$9 ,000 and you want to just get high with a bunch of other venture capitalists in the middle of Mexico disguised as a thing that's apparently based in native culture, even though a massive corporation is putting this tour together.

1:06:56Totally fine if you want to acknowledge that. So to me, it's that. If that's what we mean by fat drugs, yeah, I don't know. Look, also with all this stuff, something like that, what a personal choice. It's not for me. It's only irritating when you have to hear about it. It's like your friend who goes to Burning Man and calls Burning Man home and then says that Like the real world, I don't know, they have a term for this. The real world is not the actual real world. Like their actual home is the two weeks at Burning Man. And they're so high for the next six weeks. And you just, you have to interact.

1:07:31So that's, to me, that's the category. I'm not saying don't do it. If that's your thing, man, go for it. Who am I to judge? It's just that when it comes into your day to day, it's like, oh, right. He just got back from Burning Man. We need to keep our distance for six weeks and make sure he drinks a lot of water. And exfoliates. And exfoliating. Yeah. Make sure your feet are clean. That's like, I've never been, so I shouldn't talk, but I'm just like, I don't think you can pay me enough money to go. It just sounds absolutely horrible. All these people rolling around in a kettle pedal, like, I can't imagine anything grosser.

1:08:05The art looks incredible. The experience doesn't seem like it's for me. I have plenty of friends who have gone and have loved it. I haven't met anybody who went and was like, it was okay. So I feel like whatever you see on Instagram is probably pretty accurate in terms of like, should I go or should I not go? Yeah, not for me, but definitely right for, you know, the next door neighbor who went 10 times. Okay. Had it or hid it, eyes. Oh, had it. Had it. Had it. Had it. I mean, what more is there to say? Even the idea of what it was supposed to be of, I mean, it's just so far beyond the pale of, they're going after innocent immigrants and American citizens shooting them in the face.

1:08:55Both parties continue to fund ICE. I mean, it's completely ludicrous. I think ICE needs to be abolished. But furthermore, let's talk about what is called the Kavanaugh rule right now. And this is a Supreme Court ruling where because of the way you look and those of you that are listening, Cal is a brown skinned man. and because of the Kavanaugh rule, you can be stopped legally by ICE or looking the way you look in the United States of America. Yeah, it's really clarifying because the Supreme Court for years and years, the precedent was you cannot racially profile that it was illegal. And now it's like, oh, well, if Trump and his administration want to do it, we're all for it.

1:09:43I mean, it's sickening. It's sickening. And it also like, imagine what this does too, right? You, if you are a person with privilege, as I am, imagine there was some ICE agent who decides to detain me. Pretty cursory, a pretty cursory Google shows you that I was born and raised in the U.S. and what I do for a living. Now imagine you don't have that luxury or that privilege, whether you're a citizen or not. There's just completely no grounds for this. It's all just, it's not just the racial component, but then the privilege aspect on top of it is that somebody like me doesn't have to worry because of what I do for a living, but somebody who looks exactly like me or the majority of New York has to worry because what do you do for a living?

1:10:27And is there a record of who you are? And do you have the right ID on you when you're just running to the grocery store? I agree with you. It should be abolished. And I think there were plenty of rational people who just sort of thought, oh, let's, it can be, it can be fixed. ICE can be fixed. Like, no, I think it's clear that it's, it's past that point. And I, I keep going back to this because we have to remember who funded it. I mean, I hope our, I hope people on the left lawmakers and you know, are feeling that pressure. I hope so. But I don't think that Chuckles or Hakeem are going to do a goddamn thing about it.

1:11:08You bring up a very important point and it is that most of these Republican laws, whether they are abortion bans, the Kavanaugh rule, which apparently Justice Kavanaugh, that whining, snot slinging, crying beer drinker during his confirmation hearings, you know, men are not emotional, therefore fit for office. He doesn't like that this is being called the Kavanaugh rule. And so I want to always bring it up and rub that in his face that he is the one that wrote the affirming opinion on such a racist piece of shit legislation. And his name should always be linked to that. But the poor are attacked first.

1:11:48From our home state, Oklahoma, there's an abortion ban. And if Pumps has a daughter, if her daughter were pregnant for whatever the reason, it's nobody's business, but her daughter's, they would have the money to fly to California, to Colorado, to a safe space. and the poorest people get hit the worst by all of these Republican laws. And at the same time, these are the family values, the Jesus people, the moral high ground, the Lord this, the thoughts and prayers. And to me, and I'm just going to say it, and I've been saying this on and on and on again, MAGA is a death cult. It is just all of their policies, all of their actions lead to death.

1:12:32the dismantling of the EPA, the dismantling of the FDA, the vaccine rescheduling, Mr. Brainworm, piece of shit, RFK Jr., the abortion bans, the ICE raids, the concentration camps, Alligator Alcatraz, Seacott, and others. It all leads to death. and so none of this helps anybody and the the you know there's a there's another budgetary fight that's coming up like now in the next few weeks so we saw the last time schumer was like the affordable care act doesn't matter enough let's go ahead and you know open up the government so now we've got that fight again plus the ice fight tack on abortion human rights obviously young people who happen to be LGBTQIA, like on and on and on.

1:13:26You know, my boyfriend Josh is from rural Mississippi. You talk to young white kids in rural Mississippi and the access points that they have for healthcare education that are being cut off as well. Like I hope that anybody who is, I don't know how many actual, aside from like in AOC, Bernie, et cetera, there are, But, you know, I hope that in the coming weeks, the views of yours, which are pretty well reflected in everybody who's so pissed off right now, I hope they take that to heart and say, you got to give us some concessions here if you want things to be open. You bring up something that I've been so passionate about all of my adult life.

1:14:07And it is young, queer and gay people in really deeply red spaces. And it in the 90s and the early 90s, when I was a student at the University of Oklahoma, I was an atheist in the Bible Belt. I didn't want to hang out with all the Bible study girls. I hung out with gay men and they were the most welcoming. And the same people that bullied me bullied them. So we were able to have this, you know, relationship. And what so many of these men went through as the AIDS epidemic was, you know, still very, very dangerous in the early nineties. I mean, they just started the cocktail of drugs, but it was, I had some friends that were on it and they were so sick from taking the drugs to treat their AIDS.

1:14:53And, but more than anything, the, uh, their peers and their families and their churches and the isolation and the bullying that they were exposed to and the lack of love and emotional safety that they felt, that still very much exists. And this administration has exacerbated this homophobia. And in red states, this type of homophobia is institutionalized. It's taught to children. It's embraced. It is nourished. It is watered. It is still so insidious. And it's one of the bigotries that white people kind of get a pass for and even did in more liberal times in the country. And it really is something that I have really fought hard for and continue to fight hard for my whole adult life.

1:15:43Because so my mother told me when I was younger, and I asked probably like six, like, why would somebody be gay? And she goes, well, darling, all you need to know about that is nobody in their right goddamn mind would choose to be gay in the middle of the Bible Belt. So immediately taught me, you know, this is not a choice that our responsibility is to love these people. So to your boyfriend from Mississippi, I mean, that is, these are very unheard voices that need our support because their governments bully them, their churches bully them, their friends' parents bully them. It's just awful. Yeah.

1:16:20Well said. And there are so many great organizations that are doing that real work, who don't trend as much as some of the larger great organizations that do a lot of this work. So yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Hopefully, are you still in touch with all those friends? Yeah, all of them. That's awesome. Yeah. All right, last one. Had it or hit it, the United States of America. Oh, hit it. Hit it. We live here. This is our home. You can't abandon your home. the, I'll overuse the phrase that boring politicians overuse, like the experiment of the American democracy or whatever. But the true part of it is, look, I'll be super transparent and biased.

1:17:07Living in a place like New York City, which has a hard left turn as of the last two weeks, is for those of us who are on the left, a pretty hopeful place to be, especially when And there's so much regression at the federal level and in a lot of other supposedly blue states. So I am not ready to abandon yet. If it continues down this path, I would like to explore Ireland. No, I'm just kidding. No, I think hit it. This is our home and you have to continue to fight for what you believe in. I think one of the most insidious things that the right certainly does, but even frankly, Kamala and Biden did so well, is if you speak up and protest, making you feel like you're anti-American or you're part of the problem, right?

1:17:58Kamala did this with a lot of the human rights protesters on the Gaza issue when she was running. Biden obviously did. Trump and Vance do it now regularly for almost any issue, including ICE protests and abortion protests and all of the above. So the second we start believing that raising our voices means we're un-American, And I think that feeds into the like, should we move somewhere else? It's like, no, don't believe that. That thing is false that they're asking you to believe. They're asking you to believe that so that you feel disempowered and that you feel complacent. And then that's how they continue to win.

1:18:31So I'm going to say hit because I'm still a believer that we have to keep showing up and doing the right thing. I love it. And you know what I love about New York City and some other really brave cities in the United States when they're called sanctuary cities. And this to me is so important because so many people are marginalized or vulnerable and to feel like you have a politician like Zoran or like Mayor Frey in Minneapolis right now, who is really meeting human suffering and providing sanctuary in a time of mass abuse. It's like, I think about the Trump administration as being like life beaters.

1:19:10You know, they're just beating everybody up. They're toxic. They're drunk. They're horrible. and you want sanctuary and you want safety and you want emotional safety and camaraderie. And it's interesting coming from a space like Oklahoma, which claims the moral high ground, they're so religious, BFF with Jesus Christ and all this stuff. And the cruelty that is injected into Oklahoma politics, like they banned all trans care. Schools are allowed to fire a trans professor at the University of Oklahoma because her student is a dumb shit that wrote a dumb shit essay. And so thinking about that trans professor at the University of Oklahoma, knowing that Turning Point probably has her identity as targeting her, I think about the idea of sanctuary cities and how much more quote unquote alpha that idea is and how much more manly it is.

1:20:08And I mean, manly in the sense that women can be in this too, to take care of people, how much more courage it takes to stand up and look at a bully or look at a bigot or look at a homophobe in the face and say, no, little dick, you're not going to do that. And we're going to keep these people safe. And I'm so fucking sick of these alphas, like celebrating the biggest dorkiest villains in America. And so I'm with you. I hit it. And I think we need to keep emphasizing our friends that are getting targeted by this administration, the poor, all of those beautiful blue dots and horrifically red spaces.

1:20:49And we have to fight for sanctuary, not just in New York, not just in Minneapolis or Los Angeles, but everywhere. That false, the false self-defined alpha thing is clearly just massive insecurity. Totally. It's just, it's, and it's so obvious that it's massive insecurity. It just is, it makes me kind of laugh, except then the stakes get real for really vulnerable people. And, you know, that's why we got to keep showing up. Yeah, so true. CalPen, you're cool. You're so cool. You both are awesome. This was really fun. I've had it. Yeah, thank you. I'm going to work on my bio. Yeah. She's going to write that documentary so she can be a producer, and then you can do a true writer.

1:21:39Yeah, I should add a line of like, was hungover for nine years or something like that, just so it's clear that that all didn't happen in the same year. We can do like a tit for tat back and forth as we do podcast appearances. All right. It's so lovely to meet you. And I hope to connect with you again. Oh, I want to plug your podcast. It's called Listener. It's called Here We Go Again. It's distributed by iHeart and it's available on the iHeart radio app or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And can I do a quick 30 seconds on what it is? Because I realized I didn't do that yet. Here we go again.

1:22:16I wanted to explore the past, present and future of specific topics in a way, mostly history and pop culture. in a way that kind of makes you feel like you learned something from it. So there, I didn't want to replicate, there's so many great political podcasts, but I didn't want to replicate the doom and gloom thing of like, here's how shitty something is and here's why it'll continue to be shitty. So for example, our first episode was Bill Nye. Everybody loves Bill Nye. And he joined me to outline the space race. So in the eighties, the space race or sixties, even, you know, how do we get to the moon was all between the U S and the Soviet union in competition.

1:22:50And so much of the competition today is now privatized. It's between billionaires, right? So like, why did that happen? What's the direction of it? Are we still funding space exploration? And how does it like help us on earth? So those are some of the kind of, it just, it's a fun, light listen that hopefully makes you feel like you learned a little something at the end. I like it. I'm going to check it out because that's interesting. Yeah. If you're, if you're a little bit of a nerd. I hope you hit because it's been a fun. And also there are things like, so we had Pete Buttigieg on to talk about, actually we talked about infrastructure, which is a horrible word that you should never put in the title of what's the podcast about.

1:23:29But he was the transportation secretary, so he was able to outline certain things. But I was like, you know what, this is my podcast and I just have my grievance. Actually, you might like this. So my grievance was like, you're probably the only person in America who can answer this question for me. When your flight lands early somewhere, and you might even be like 30 minutes early, why does the captain get on and say something like, ladies and gentlemen, we're 30 minutes early and there's no gate ready for us because they didn't know that we were coming. What do you mean they didn't know we were coming?

1:24:01Literally, the technology is such that they knew we were coming. That's how you were able to land, right? So I was like, Pete. What'd he say? So he said, I was hoping for like some conspiracy answer, but he was like, well, yes, they shouldn't lie to you about that. The real reason is that certain types of planes have to occupy certain types of gates. So even if you see that there are like 10 gates open, the gate may not have been assigned to that type of plane. To that airline. Right. And then the ramp operators also, they may not have enough ramp operators at that airport for all of the flights going in and out.

1:24:38So if you're early outside of whatever that slot that you were allocated, you just have to wait. And I was like, ugh, well, all right. Thanks for the real answer, Pete. But he was great. He was such a great guest. Before we go, I just had to remind everybody as Donald Trump is sitting around with like 95 ,000 ass kissers behind him and somebody mentions Pete Buttigieg, he just like looks up and he goes, Pete Buttigieg. edge. Have you seen this? I've seen that clip where he just he can't say it, but he's like not even paying attention. But it's such a trigger. Yeah, because somebody described to him how to say it.

1:25:15It's Pete boot, like a boot on your foot edge edge. He always goes Pete boot edge edge. Now Pete our toddler fucking moron president. Cal Penn you're cool cooler now that you've been with I have I have ladies. You can add that to your intro guest on I've Had It. Thank you both. You have a good one. This was a lot of fun. Thank you for having me. Okay, let me tell you how I feel about him. First of all, I loved Designated Survivor and I loved him in it. So I've been aware of him for a while, but he's one of those people that you're with and you just feel like, he's a very optimistic, sunny side person, I feel like.

1:25:58And I like that because you and I probably won't get classified as that. So I just enjoyed him. a lot. Yeah. I love that. And as you say that, I agree with you about that's the feeling that I have after. And then I immediately start to empathize with how Cal must feel right now as he gets off of this podcast. And he's probably like, you know what? Those are the two biggest Debbie Downers. All they do is bitch and moan and cry. Bitches on the planet. I feel like I need to go exfoliate right now. Yeah. No, that would not surprise me. Like he brought us up. We brought him down yeah yes all right listener please buy your tickets for our live show in atlanta the first day sold out because we're high shed right nobody's nobody i saw that nobody was more shocked than we were at the sales left for sunday uh february 1st in atlanta at center stage pumps tell them we will see you next tuesday and thursday

1:27:04I'll tell you what I've had it with. Let's hear it. I've had it with that. Listen up, patriots, gaytriots, and natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called iHip News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20-minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America, always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Caw-caw!

1:27:46A little bit more enthusiasm. Caw-caw! That's it. That's the patriotism that this country needs right there.

1:28:00Thank you.