From Desert Heat to Political Beats: This Week on Newsday Tuesday

tual Broadcasting System Band: 00:00:06

In the morning light, the headlines flash. Richie and John making a splash. Voices from the corner, stories untold, we gather the truth, let the truth unfold. It's Newsday Tuesday. Hear the call.

Every story matters, let them all stand tall on Tuesday. Tuesday we stand together, uniting the voices in any weather with facts in hell, we push for peace in a world of love. May the judgment cease.

Thirsty Announcerman: 00:00:37

The Mutual Broadcasting System presents Richie & John, the podcast that connects you with the people, events, headlines, and lifestyle interests of the global LGBTQ community.

tual Broadcasting System Band: 00:00:49

Through the airwaves, we break the silence. LGBTQ lives. We promote the resilience from the streets to the stage, we amplify every struggle and trial. We won't let die. It's news day Tuesday.

Hear the call. Ever call.

Thirsty Announcerman: 00:01:07

Here's Richie Roy and John McMullin.

Richie Roy: 00:01:10

Hello and welcome to another episode of Richie and John. It is Newsday Tuesday here, and I'm here with my co host, John McMullen. John, how are you doing?

John McMullen: 00:01:20

I'm great, thank you.

I hope you had a nice weekend and are ready and set to go talking about the stuff that's affecting our community around the US and Canada and Mexico and the rest of the globe.

Richie Roy: 00:01:33

Yes. Yeah. And actually, our first story, it comes from somewhere close to home for you, isn't that right?

It does. A little too close to home, frankly.

And I almost managed to stay completely away from it because until Friday, I was in Tucson, Arizona, and we got back on Friday evening, and the next morning, all hell began to break loose.

So, yeah, what happened was hundreds of Donald Trump supporters were left stranded in the California desert after attending thousands. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah.

John McMullen: 00:02:06

It was probably upwards of around 15,000 total who attended the event, and they, of course, said 100,000. But that's, you know, that's vintage Donald Trump.

Richie Roy: 00:02:19

Totally. So, yeah. Thousands of Donald Trump supporters were left stranded in the desert after attending a rally in Coachella Valley this last weekend.

Temperatures sweltered over 100 degrees, and despite that, showtime. Oh, my gosh. Thousands gathered to hear the former president speak.

I saw video clips of people fainting, waiting for the former president to speak, and they were calling out for medics, and there weren't really enough medics there, of course. And so, yes, you know, a bunch of people collapsed from the heat.

And then for the rally, the organizers provided buses to transport attendees to the rally. But after the rally, no buses.

John McMullen: 00:02:58

Let me explain a little bit about that for just a second, Richie, because a lot of people go, well, isn't this the same Coachella as the big music festival. Yes, the Coachella and stagecoach music festivals, which happen every spring here in the Coachella Valley.

They actually happen in another city near Coachella called Indio, which is actually the biggest city in the greater Palm Springs region. In terms of population. About 80 plus thousand people live there.

And that is where they have these two side by side polo grounds, which is actually where the festivals are held.

And the company that owns them also happens to own a ranch in right on the border of Indio and Coachella, the city of Coachella, which is called the Calhoun Ranch. And what they. That's where the event was being held at.

And they didn't want the general public parking at the ranch, so people had to park, like at park and ride lots and things like that, and they had to be shuttled in to the property. But there's another reason for that, too.

I'm sure you've been reading about the problems that Donald's been having, going all the way back to the RNC convention in Milwaukee at holding onto the people, into their seats while he's still yammering on endlessly.

And so to make sure that nobody left early, the former president apparently didn't pay the bill for those buses to hang around and to make sure that everybody who came got back to their vehicles.

Now, let me tell you, I've been to the Coachella grounds for music festivals, and that is a part of our valley that is pitch black when it gets dark, for the most part, unless they have special lighting put up for an event. Not the case in this situation.

So people weren't just going to have to walk, I don't know, three, four, five, in some cases 10 miles back to their cars that night in weather that was probably north of 80 degrees. Still, even in the middle of the night, they had to do it in the dark, and it created quite a mess.

I saw a lot of these kerfuffles display themselves in social media posts this week on, like, on Instagram, and people had video, and there were a lot of unhappy campers. And all I can say is, I hope you enjoyed your visit here to our valley.

Richie Roy: 00:05:16

Yeah, it was, you know, it's a mess, and this is not uncommon. The former president's ground team is just, not surprisingly, just trash. They're not good at putting on events.

reminiscent of there was, in: 2020

And there was a lot of social media posts around this event where people were frustrated over lack of transportation talking about elderly people who weren't able to hike the, the several, the two hour walk through the desert in the pitch black to get back to their cars. Right.

John McMullen: 00:05:53

And it does seem, you know, some reports are that, like you said, it's because Trump didn't pay the bill. And, you know, the company was like, well, sorry, we're taking our buses and we're going home.

Richie Roy: 00:06:06

I have to tell you a little personal story about this also. So yesterday, on Monday, I am one of the people who is part of the communications team for the Riverside County Democratic Party.

And Riverside county is the county that Palm Springs and Coachella are located in, in southeastern state of California. And it's also one of the largest counties in the state. And it is the 10th largest county in the United States of America.

And we have a pretty interesting mix in terms of our electorate here because a lot of people think that so many people who are in California are, you know, all liberals and all that. We definitely have our share of mega weirdos here, too.

But I got a text message yesterday on one of our social media platforms for the democratic party, and it was a woman writing to tell me about somebody else who had posted something to Reddit yesterday and that they had written about their father, who was one of the bus drivers, and that person and another person, it was both a man and a woman who were drivers for this event that worked for the company that was handling the buses, the shuttle buses were assaulted by these mega maggots. And it did not sound very good.

But, but at the very least, apparently this, as well as not being paid, had a great deal to do with why I, the bus company did not return the buses at the end of the event to take these people back to their cars. They had not had adequate protection. And, you know, what do you expect?

Because the authorities in that area are from the sheriff's office and they are under contract with those cities to provide those services.

And lo and behold, our sheriff is one of those constitutional sheriffs that you and I have talked about on many occasions who think that they have more power than God almighty himself. So I'm not surprised that this is what happened. It seems completely in the realm of possibility.

And considering the fact that they have done this, the Trump campaign has done this in other cities around the country. They've left people stranded. You know, what do they care? They got what they needed out of you, which was the photo op.

John McMullen: 00:08:23

Yeah, yeah, no, exactly.

I mean, and that's, it's kind of emblematic of, you know, his, his style you know, really like nothing, not caring about the details or even kind of the broad strokes, really just getting what he wants. I'm reminded of the time when he went after a disaster and threw rolls of paper towels out to the crowd in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico.

Just the callous disregard for human life and human decency, abandoning his superfans, essentially, out in the desert at night rather than pay an extra, you know, couple thousand dollars to get the buses going.

Richie Roy: 00:09:07

Yeah.

John McMullen: 00:09:08

Amazing.

Richie Roy: 00:09:09

Well, you know what's sitting on the buffet in my front foyer in my home right now, and it's going in the mail today.

I was going to send it yesterday, but I forgot that it was indigenous people's day yesterday and that there was not any mail service or banking or things like that. But I filled out over the weekend my ballot.

John McMullen: 00:09:30

Oh, nice.

Richie Roy: 00:09:31

It arrived on, it arrived here on Friday and on Saturday I filled it out. And I was very excited to send it yesterday, but I couldn't because of the holiday. And so it is going out in the mail today.

And it felt so good to fill in that circle for Kamala and Tim and to look at all the other losers who were on that ballot, not, not just Trump and Vance, but, you know, some of those other third party groups as well. There's a lot of craziness out there in this world.

And then also to be able to fill in the circle for Adam Schiff, for United States senator, filling the seat that was vacated by Dianne Feinstein. And that's something that's needed to happen for a long time, quite frankly. Yeah, it just felt really good.

Steve Garvey, who is a legendary baseball player, is running as the republican challenger in California. But it doesn't matter how popular your name is, not anymore, anyway, not after what we saw happen with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Nobody who has an r after their name is ever going to win statewide election in the state of California again, at least for some time, because they really, the Republicans in the state are at third party status almost. So, yeah, it's just, it's such a super majority of registered Democrats and independents that they just can't win.

So, yeah, it felt great to actually be able to be on the right side of history and to vote for some really great progressive leaders that I hope are going to be able to serve us well for the next four years or six.

John McMullen: 00:11:11

That's awesome. Yeah, that's, that's fun. And, you know, our next story has to do actually, again with the election.

And this story was actually kind of a cool one to me, you know, we talk a lot on the podcast about. About gay media and things like advertising dollars and when they're going to gay media, when they're not.

But this isn't a situation where some serious dough is going to gay media, and it's from an unexpected place, actually.

Richie Roy: 00:11:38

Yeah.

This is coming to a number of LGBTQ owned and operated media entities that serve our community, and it is going to be involved in critical battleground states.

And beginning this Friday, the Democratic National Committee is going to be unveiling this six figure ad campaign in 16 publications across eight states, and that is expected to reach over a million voters in its first week alone, which is really good news.

John McMullen: 00:12:09

Yeah. And that includes things like the Washington blade out, South Florida, the Dallas Voice, and a bunch of other LGBTQ publications.

Richie Roy: 00:12:17

I hope that they're making the right choice in terms of some of the markets. I can definitely understand going after markets in places like Texas and South Florida and other places maybe.

I don't know if it's in the plan, but, you know, Tennessee or, you know, other places like that where they have the ability to reach people where they might really, truly make a difference.

I would hate to see them waste those resources in places that are naturally heavy in having democratic support already because, you know, then you're just preaching to the choir and burning cash, I think.

And Rivendell marketing is handling the ad placements as they are, like a advertising rep firm that deals with or that manages these kinds of buys for a lot of queer publications around the country, and they have for decades now. Why am I forgetting his name now? Todd, it just escaped my mind, and I'm sorry for doing that.

But the guy who is the owner of Rivendell, and we should have, you know what we should have done? We should have asked our friend John Nash to come on and speak about this, because he's worked very closely with Todd Evans.

Todd Evans from Rivendell Marketing. They've worked together a lot, especially during the years that John was involved with the national campaign for Subaru of America.

It would have been interesting to have his take on this particular buy, but I'm glad to see that, officially, that there is a chunk of money that the DNC is spending in the LGBTQ media marketplace.

John McMullen: 00:13:47

Yeah.

And I think it's a smart spend, actually, because you have folks in places like Dallas, I mean, Texas, and you have an LGBTQ population that's probably pretty passionate about LGBTQ issues, but maybe don't feel seen by a national campaign, a huge national campaign for Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz. But this is really the message that they're going with is freedom is on the ballot. That's sort of. That's their messaging here. And it's a.

I think it's a great way to kind of whip up enthusiasm amongst targeted demographics and specifically the LGBTQ population. I'm happy to see this. I think that the Harris campaign is doing a really smart job of media generally.

They're kind of bypassing a lot of legacy media that really has not shown itself to be very kind to democratic candidates. And instead, they're going on podcasts, they're out there on social media.

They're doing ad buys like this that are targeted and specific and basically sort of saying, yeah, you know, I don't really have to play that. Play the game, you know, like, again, the Oprah interview is a great example.

Doing it on your own terms, you know, and getting a message out there in the way that you want to, getting your moments.

I think they're really smart to do that, and I think that the mainstream media is pulling their hair out because they've lost some of the control that I think that they thought that they had over the race in general.

Richie Roy: 00:15:19

And I would also want to acknowledge that. I hate that so many people have tried to paint the word progressive as a dirty word and break the word down. And it starts with the word progress.

And that is definitely when you see a move like this being made by the DNC, it's definitely progress being made in this organization.

And I hope that when you combine what they're doing in terms of this marketing effort, not just specific to the LGBTQ market, but more broadly than that, and when you look at how they conducted themselves with the production of the DNC convention this year in Chicago and the fact that I have been at almost every political convention in the last quarter century, and I have to tell you, I felt bad that I could not be at Kamala's party because this was clearly the best produced DNC convention I have ever seen. And I've been in person at a number of them, but the shenanigans that I've seen them, you know, basically do democratic politics as usual.

And it's like they just don't get it. How could they not get it?

Why don't they get more people involved who get it and do a much better, more effective job at communicating why we are the leading edge? And I think that the Harris Waltz campaign has done a magnificent job of embracing those ideals. And I think that it started with President Obama.

But I think that she has really carried that forward and that I am super charged. And I got phone calls from a couple of people who are.

One who's older and one who's much younger, who are both equally very worried about what's going to happen. And we're just fretting, my God, what if we lose? And I said, you know, why would you think that? Like, let's break it down rationally.

Let's talk about what's going on, and let's talk about the fact that the polls, they haven't been right in a dozen plus years. They've just not. So don't invest anything in this. But the polls say. I don't care what the polls say, as I always say to my friends.

Have you ever been called by one of those real pollsters? I haven't.

John McMullen: 00:17:37

Right. Right. It's a good point. And, you know, I think the polls have. Have shown themselves to be a mess.

And I think that, again, the Harris campaign, I think, is not operating from the traditional playbook. And I think, rightly so. They're not.

From what I can tell, they're not just looking at the normal, normal polling and looking at Nate Silver's, you know, average of averages and following the numbers and, you know, tilling around, trying to chase the polls. It seems like they have an idea of what they're doing, and they're sticking with it, and they.

And they have surrounded themselves with really good company. You know, I'm so glad, like, this time around to see Pete Buttigieg out there, not James Carville, you know, just like, the.

The timbre is different, and Marvel is.

Richie Roy: 00:18:26

Still good, but Buttigieg is really relatable to so many people on both sides of issues, and he makes a really compelling argument no matter who he is talking to.

So I think the spend is really cool, and I'm glad that they're doing it and throw some much needed money in the coffers of LGBTQ media, too. Let's not overlook that.

John McMullen: 00:18:49

Totally agree with you. Moving on. A European Union court has ruled that meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

And what's that other crazy thing that's supposed to be kind of like Twitter. Oh, threads, threads.

Anyway, and let's not forget, WhatsApp, at any rate, really pissed off the folks over in the EU, and it turns out that they cannot use public statements about users sexual orientation in the Eudez to target them with advertising. The decision stems from a lawsuit by austrian privacy activist Mac Shrims, who claims that meta violated the EU's general data.

Shrims argues that meta deduced users sexualities from online behaviors, tailoring ads based on the information, a practice that meta denies.

According to Wired magazine, the the Court of Justice of the European Union overturned a lower austrian court decision that allowed targeted ads based on shrems public statements.

The court states, quote, Mister Maximilian Shrems has made a statement about his sexual orientation on a public stage, does not authorize targeted advertising. And Shrems commented that this case highlights, quote, a niche problem, end quote.

Okay, well, Meta spokesperson Matt Pollard said that the company will review the ruling and claims, quote, Meta takes privacy very seriously. Schrems attorney notes that the EU law mandates data minimization, significantly reducing Meta's usage of personal data for ads.

And Schrems warns that the walls are closing in on Meta's practices. I have mixed feelings about this. I'll tell you about it, but I'm going to let you go first. But I do definitely have mixed feelings on this.

Richie Roy: 00:20:47

You know, I have, I guess, mixed thoughts, too.

My first thought is just, there's so much data that is being harvested about us in all sort of manners by companies like Facebook and Instagram that in some regards, I'm kind of like, you know what? You're on the platform. Sorry.

Like, I know I'm on Instagram, and I know how much data it scrapes about me because the ads it serves me are incredibly perfectly targeted. It knows exactly what I like, and it serves me up ads for things I want to buy regularly.

John McMullen: 00:21:21

I used to be pissed off about that, you know, about having all the cookies and everything that, you know, give them this endless ability to feed me all of these, this onslaught of things that I might have had some interest in something similar, too. But in the end, actually, it doesn't bother me.

And I found that as a business person, it bothers me even less because there are times when you want to connect with the right people.

You don't want to spend money needlessly going after people who might, for instance, mega morons, and instead want to talk to people who, you know, share points of view or share common goals with you. And that's one of the things that concerns me about this.

As somebody who, with you, is building this podcast, I want to be able to use meta as a method to reach people. And recently, I went to buy a targeted ad campaign to let people know who might not know that we exist yet, that we exist.

And I couldn't buy the LGBTQ market. And I thought, what in the hell are you kidding me? I can't buy that group of people.

And it's dumb because it is a resource that we're trying to communicate, is available to people who probably would, if they knew it existed, would want to, you know, at least give it a try, especially since it's free.

Richie Roy: 00:22:46

It's like everything. It's like there. It could be used as a force for good or a force for evil. Right, right.

John McMullen: 00:22:53

You go to the grocery store or, I mean, to the drugstore and they keep a record of all the drugs that you buy and they give you one of those discount club things where you earn points and can, you know, spend those points in, you know, Walgreens or wherever.

And even if you go to Safeway and use their pharmacy or something like that, they have all of these things that keep track of what you buy and therefore they know the things that they should be marketing to you.

I don't have a problem with that because they're giving me usually a discount or some sort of premium benefit for giving them the right to have that marketing information personally. Just don't have a problem with that.

Richie Roy: 00:23:29

Yeah, I mean, this to be clear, you know, I think that this has to do a lot with specific regulatory regimes. I think that this is a European Union thing. The GDPR is very strict about what data companies can and can't collect.

It's not that like this ruling would not affect, for instance, american users of Facebook and Instagram in the same way, but they have very different, their regime. There is just extremely different.

For instance, you can ask companies to, there's a right of erasure under EU kind of law where you can go to a newspaper, you can go to a published thing and say, I don't want you to have that you to mention me anymore. And there are certain times when by law you have to strike the reference of that person.

And so there's just a very different idea of moral rights and personal data protection rights than we have here.

And to your point, I think that, that I don't mind the potential of targeting because I was thinking about our show, too, that I would love for us to be able to reach directly a game market and say, hey, we have this show. But at the same time you can see potential for misuse of targeted ads to discriminate. And so it's tricky how to use it for good and not for bad.

But at the same time, and taking another look at it, I also think about how I feel about the fact that I contributed to a campaign in California or I contributed to a national campaign.

And the next thing I know is that somebody in West Virginia or, you know, Alabama or somebody in Oklahoma has my name from a source like ActBlue because they have my email address and all that information, and I'm getting solicitations to fund campaigns that I'm not in those districts or for a person who I wouldn't otherwise be concerned with. I mean, yes, I'm concerned that our party that can fix certain problems has the ability to do that, but I can't afford to fund everybody.

And the political campaigns, you know, this time of year or this time of election cycle, go hog wild and drive us nuts because it's a nonstop assault on the marketing front.

It's exhausting. I mean, I know that there's a. I believe his name is Colin Allred in Texas, who's running against Ted Cruz.

And I get at least ten emails a day from Colin Allred, and I can't make them stop. I've tried. They just come, like, you know, just this tidal wave, this tsunami of emails from Colin Allred.

John McMullen: 00:26:12

I'm right there with you.

And as much as I want him to kick Cruz's ass out of the United States Senate, I have to tell you that I would like to make his backside all red with a belt.

Richie Roy: 00:26:22

It's really too much. Yeah. So we actually, you know, we recently had an important marker day for the gay community.

National coming out day has come and gone, and that day was marked by a pretty nice donation by, of all organizations, the NFL National Football League.

John McMullen: 00:26:41

Yeah, I was surprised to see this, and I was actually, as somebody who likes professional american football, I mean, I. I'm not head over heels about it, but.

But when my team is headed towards the Super bowl or something like that, or, you know, are playing in a very exciting manner, not like they did in the last couple of weeks. You know, it's really. It feels good.

It's just like, it felt good when the Seattle Seahawks organization kicked a guy who's been part of their press corps for years out of their stadium and took his credentials away because he said on the radio, on his talk show, he started talking shit about transgender people and that the organization took a stance and said, you don't reflect our way of thinking and we can't be associated with you. I thought, wow, this happened in the National Football League. Wow.

But even more so, to see them donate $100,000 and basically match the contribution that was made by Carl Nasib, who was the first openly gay acting player in the NFL to be out there and who had also given to the Trevor project the fact that the NFL followed suit. That was pretty huge. We're headed in the right direction when we see things like that happening.

much that we're going back to: 1950

Richie Roy: 00:28:25

Yeah.

And especially you hear some of the things that the Harris campaign or Harris has talked about not taking off the table, talking about things like maybe right away doing away with the filibuster to ensconce the right to abortion nationally. That's the kind of, of thing that democrats and progressives have been craving forever, and we have not gotten it.

John McMullen: 00:28:49

Shove that up your ass, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the rest of you, because that is exactly the kind of forward thinking that we need leading this country. And if you've got a problem with it, either move back to earth two or move to, you know, Iran.

Yeah, I just, I'm, I love, I love the kind of, of street fighting, no holds barred tactics.

You know, that the Harris walls campaign, I mean, for me, the idea that they're even floating, getting rid of the filibuster is giant because it's brave. It's brave because some people, you know, some people want everything.

They want things to happen, but they're not willing to do what's necessary to get the things done.

And we've seen, you know, with the filibuster, we've seen Mitch McConnell back in the day use every lever to screw up democrats and their ability to govern using every rule and trick in the book.

And, you know, and then there's always, there's this fear that, oh, but if we get rid of the filibuster, then the Republicans, when they're in control, they'll do something really bad. Well, they already have been doing bad stuff now for decades, so, and by.

Richie Roy: 00:30:00

The way, if they do somehow wield control back, I say let them do that.

Let them have their way, because there is no faster way to fix that at the polls than to actually be able to point at the evidence of what they did that fucked everybody. Right. No, it's so true.

John McMullen: 00:30:18

Yeah. It can't be any more of this game of, well, you know, prove it. Prove that they're going to do that. Okay.

Well, the only way you can do that is if you let them do it, and then you're motivated enough to actually get off your backside and get out there and create change, which is.

Richie Roy: 00:30:34

Why Project: 2025

I mean, because the Heritage foundation put this thing out that basically says, here is our evil plan, our evil plot, literally straight out of a bond movie, our evil plan for this country. And on day one, under a Trump administration, this is what's going to happen.

They said the quiet part loud, and it galvanized people at a time when, you know, when really people needed to be galvanized. And then it kind of. The momentum continued once Harris and Waltz were the ticket.

But I think they made a huge error doing that because it's just the gift that keeps on giving.

John McMullen: 00:31:22

Truer words were never spoken.

Richie Roy: 00:31:23

So we have a story that's a little bit, I guess you get what's coming to you. Something like this.

John McMullen: 00:31:30

I was using the story last night in a Twitter space with some of our friends right before we started working on the show, and I said, you know, we are going to have a story about a content creator on Tuesday. And they were like, oh, wow, really? A news story about content creator? And I said, yeah. I said, turns out that somebody's having second thoughts and.

And it's just another turd. So, Richie, drop that turd on us.

Richie Roy: 00:31:58

So Corey DeAngelis has been fired from his senior fellowship at the cutely named but totally evil American Federation for Children, which is an anti LGBTQ hate group, after admitting to appearing on a gay adult video website as someone named Seth Rose. Oh, I say Pinky Winky. A spokesperson from the American Federation for Children says that Corey no longer works at AFC and we wish him well.

John McMullen: 00:32:24

They say, oh, they don't either. They fired him. They don't wish him well. They just get as far away from them as he possibly could and that they had never, ever met him.

Richie Roy: 00:32:36

And despite appearing on gay porn sites, he claims that he was misled into performing during his college days, saying, there are images and videos circulating that I'm not proud of. They're embarrassing, end quote. Whoops.

John McMullen: 00:32:51

You know what? I actually. In that space that I was in last night, our friend, the content creator named Jordi Massive was in there at the time, and I. I accused him.

I said, you're going to regret your stuff, too, aren't you? Someday you're going to. You're going to say that you were manipulated into having to do that to those poor men. He wasn't buying it.

Richie Roy: 00:33:14

So DeAngelis recently admitted in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that his past actions are being used in. This is a funny part. This is funny. In, quote, a cancellation attempt from the left, end quote.

John McMullen: 00:33:26

I have to ask you, when I read that part of the story, do you think that as they were doing that, do you think that Pat Robertson. That he actually had an erection while they were having this discussion on the air? Oh, my God. I don't want to even think about that, Robinson. Good old Marion. You think he could actually attain an erection anymore?

Richie Roy: 00:33:46

I know. It's.

Yikes. The American Federation for Children quickly removed his bio and articles following the news.

He does, however, continue his role at the Cato Institute and the Reason foundation and is an advocate for redirecting public funds to private schools. Opposes public school practices he claims focus more on LGBTQ issues than academics.

John McMullen: 00:34:07

Boy, I wish if they did, I would go back to school in a heartbeat.

Richie Roy: 00:34:12

Right? Wouldn't that be nice if they actually.

I mean, yeah, you know, if they had said one single word about elderly LGBTQ existence when I was in school, my life would have been a lot different.

John McMullen: 00:34:24

Same here.

Richie Roy: 00:34:26

Despite his firing, DeAngelis vowed to press on with his activism and writes that school choice defeats the woke mind virus. I love that quote. Unlocked.

John McMullen: 00:34:36

Yeah, because that's a virus that I wish that I had a lot earlier in life than I did. I totally do. Because it means that you're a kind human being. You're a respectful human being.

And not that I wasn't, but there are things that, you know, I can admit that at various stages earlier in my life, I certainly, like anybody else, was ignorant to and that I really had to kind of grow into, you know, into my understanding of the world that we live in and tolerating people who are different and, you know, people who have different priorities and focuses in their life, who have to deal with all kinds of issues that we have no idea until we walk a day or two in their shoes. And, you know, it reminds me of a conversation that I had several years ago. God, I can't even believe it's been almost.

It's been over 20 years ago now that I had this conversation with Harvey Fierstein, the actor and performer who was the voice of God from my satellite radio station when I was at Sirius satellite radio. I love Harvey. He is one funny guy. But one night, he was on his way from the theater. This is back when he was performing in Fiddler on the roof.

Either fiddler or he was in hairspray at the time. And he was driving home to Connecticut from New York City and he would listen to my show at night as he was going home.

And he called in to basically rub my nose in the fact I was only joking, but to rub my nose in the fact that I had said something that kind of picked on older gay jewish men and it was trying to be funny and it didn't really come off that way.

And he and I talked about being PC and whether or not we have to say things that can sometimes be just taken outright if you don't have the full context of being mean to other people. And in that time and space when we discuss this thing, Harvey admonished me and he said, you know, here's the deal. People call it PC.

Well, now we call it woke. And there's nothing wrong with being that way. How about if we just call it non offensive?

How about if we just treat people with enough dignity not to offend them and their senses over something that we don't understand, we don't know about, or that, you know, we're just simply doing it to make somebody else feel less than. And, boy, I felt about an inch tall when he called me out on that. And you know why? Because he was right. He was right to have done that.

And I never forgot that moment. And I felt, you know, and especially since he's my friend, I felt really bad about it.

Richie Roy: 00:37:20

Yeah. And, you know, the word woke, too, is, you know, it's the weirdest.

It causes the weirdest kind of, like, bedfellows because you have people like this Coryde DeAngelis who talks about the woke mind virus. And then you have some comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, who gets all bent out of shape that you can't tell jokes now because people are too woke.

First of all, Jerry Seinfeld is actually not that funny and never has really been. So he'll cancel us.

Richie Roy: 00:37:50

Right.

But you have these people, it's usually kind of disgruntled straight white men of a certain age who are just upset that they can't be rude and shitty to people like they used to be. And it's like, well, sorry, you know, actually that's a, that's a step forward. Like, you can still be fun. There's a lot of humor out there.

There's a lot of funny stuff that doesn't need to.

John McMullen: 00:38:13

We got a phone call. Hello? Richie and John. Yeah. Jerry. Oh, come on. Jerry. Come on. No, you are. Don't be so hung up on this thing. I gotta go. I gotta get back to the show.

Thanks. That was Seinfeld calling. He's upset now, and we've been uninvited from driving around in one of his cars with him on Netflix.

Richie Roy: 00:38:33

I was really looking forward to that, too.

John McMullen: 00:38:35

I know.

Richie Roy: 00:38:36

Alas.

John McMullen: 00:38:37

I know. Yeah.

Richie Roy: 00:38:38

So our last story is actually, I think, a really fun one. And just kind of. I love this. I love the youth are always endlessly creative.

John McMullen: 00:38:49

Yeah. And also, I would say that this once again goes to show for those people who just are like, you know, activists.

I can't stand activists because, you know, why do they have to ruin everything for all of us? And, you know, they. They force themselves in our faces and all that.

And, you know, and I am here to tell you, and Richie, I think you backed me up 100% on this, that activism can be fun. It can be fun. And here's a perfect example of how Richie.

Richie Roy: 00:39:18

youth activists released over: 6000

The group, who claimed responsibility is named trans kids deserve better. And they capture the moment in, you know, videos showing the cricket swarming seats as attendees are urged to leave. I mean, this is class.

This is like, this is amazing.

John McMullen: 00:39:51

I just, you know, when I read this story, honestly, I thought about picking up the phone and calling our friend Laura Meeks, who we had on the show a while back, who was a. Prior to transitioning, she was a United States Air Force bomber pilot.

And I thought, you know, this is something that she would love because she used to draw, like, nuclear type weapons.

And she would have, I'm sure, have loved to have flown over someplace in Florida or something like that and dropped a whole bomber bay of crickets on a bunch of anti trans activist freaks. I think that that would have been just too much fun.

Richie Roy: 00:40:31

Yeah, no, it's.

I just love, I love that they came up with this idea because, you know, one of the things that's fun about it is the police were called to the scene, but, you know, there were no arrests. They were escorted off the premises. But, you know, just so they, they released some crickets. You know, it's not.

They didn't threaten with violence, they didn't use knives or anything, just some crickets.

And, you know, Kate Barker, the CEO of LGB alliance, called it attempted sabotage and added that it's distressing to see thousands of insects used disruptively and JK Rowling, you know, famous, like sort the anti trans, you know, sort of ne plus ultra.

John McMullen: 00:41:10

Yeah. Cunt.

Richie Roy: 00:41:11

She commented on social media, questioning whether the incident ironically supports criticisms of gender identity ideology. The speaker, Jamie Reid quoted, said, quote, I will not be silenced after the bug incident. And the trans kids deserve better.

Maintain their stance against anti transactions, emphasizing their fight with antennae held up high, and commit to advocating for trans rights. So fun. I love it.

John McMullen: 00:41:39

I love it, too. That was a really great way to end this edition of Newsday Tuesday.

And I like it when we can have a combination of the good, the bad and the ugly, but also the good humored in here as well, and be able to create change by sometimes bugging your enemies.

Richie Roy: 00:41:59

Exactly.

John McMullen: 00:42:00

Well, you know, I wanted to share something else before we hop out of here on this Tuesday edition. Something arrived yesterday in a big box that was sitting on my doorstep.

And there's a number of people who are coming here to Palm Springs for Palm Springs pride the first weekend in November. And we're looking forward to having them with us because we have a new limited edition water or beverage bottle.

And this is what they, I don't know if you can see that, but this is what they look like. I'm trying to do it looking at the camera backwards.

But anyway, we're having a pool party gathering and we have the company imaging on both sides of it, and I think that they're pretty cool.

And maybe, just maybe, we will come up with a, another one so that if you are interested and you would like to have one and you saw this on our video feed this week, maybe you'll be able to get one. So we'll see. And we'd love to hear from you, Richie. Our telephone number is.

Richie Roy: 00:43:01

-: 8825

John McMullen: 00:43:15

Have also on the website, if you haven't gotten it written down, you can always find it on our homepage@richianjohn.com. in the email.

Richie Roy: 00:43:24

The email is info@richieandjohn.com. and if you don't want to type that into your email application, there is also a contact us feature on the website. So you can do that.

Too many ways to reach us, but we'd love to hear from you, hear your thoughts and comments on this episode or any episode you've heard, any secret dish, any stories you'd like for us to cover that we haven't covered yet, just drop us a line.

John McMullen: 00:43:48

You know, it's been a while since we've gone to the kitchen and the bar. I'm thinking that maybe this coming week, our weekend on our Saturday episode, that it might be time to imbibe a little bit again.

I'll just tell you that. So maybe you can. And I think actually that you should do the show with no clothes except for your Richie and John Apron.

Richie Roy: 00:44:10

Exactly. That would be, that would be a look, for sure.

John McMullen: 00:44:13

Yeah. We could even have you, like, do a little twirl around so we get a little cheek action, you know? I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing.

Folks, this is not a onlyfanse production.

Richie Roy: 00:44:23

Not yet, at least. Maybe that's, maybe that's the way we'll monetize this.

John McMullen: 00:44:26

Exactly.

Richie Roy: 00:44:27

But until next time, thank you for joining us for another episode of Richie and John. And we will see you on Saturday.

John McMullen: 00:44:35

Absolutely. Have a great week. Thank you for joining us on Richie and John.

This podcast is a production of the mutual broadcasting system and is available@richianjohn.com as well as most major podcast portals, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify.