Jon Stewart Can’t Save Us From Doddering Old White Men

[0:01] If police know an assailant is intending to commit suicide by cop, shouldn’t the cops get in trouble for assisting suicide? And what is up with the news media focus on President Biden’s age? And why am I spending two segments complaining about that coverage? I’m Doug Burger And this is Secular Left.

[0:26] Music.

[0:34] I have a love-hate relationship with the police. You know, it’s a very tough job, very dangerous job that they have to do to protect the citizens out there. It’s a thankless job for the most part. And a majority of police officers do their job diligently and for the betterment of the community. And then of course we also have what people like to call bad apples and these are police officers who should not be police officers because for whatever reason they can’t handle the job it’s too much for them and usually it’s because of some kind of god complex they have or a power trip up, I want to tell a story.

[1:24] Years ago, decades ago, one of the jobs I had, first jobs I had out of college, is I worked in risk management for a large grocery store concern. And what my job entailed is I would babysit certain stores in certain areas of town and watch for shoplifters. My job was to apprehend shoplifters, prevent theft. We also, you know, if we caught an employee stealing, you know, we dealt with that as well. But one of the stores that I worked at was in…

[2:07] For lack of a better word, a high crime area. And so they would hire special duty police officers. And these special duty police officers would be paid overtime wages from the store in order to protect the store because they had a gun. You know, they were armed. Some stores would have unarmed security that we called them rent-a-cops, even though they weren’t cops. But this particular store had, at least at night, an armed off-duty police officer. And this guy was a trip and a half. And usually, these guys that worked this extra overtime, they had the God Complex, the power trips. They took the power trips. and I remember one time I was went to stop a shoplifter and I was you know fat and pudgy and slow and this guy ran on me and got away and he ran out the store well the off-duty officer was hanging out in the vestibule of the store it saw the shoplifter run out and then saw me follow so he gave chase as well and he drew his weapon.

[3:26] Now, I’m going to tell you right now, shoplifting is not something that you use deadly force. You know, if a police officer is using deadly force to stop a shoplifter, that’s somebody who should not be a police officer.

[3:41] You know, because shoplifting is a property crime. It is not a violent crime. Now, if the robber had, if the guy’s committed shoplifting and he had a gun, then it became robbery. Robbery at least at the time that i worked with risk management and of course that you can use deadly force in some situations but in general for shoplifting if some guy ran out, uh with the thing that they stole a lot of was uh infant formula if the guy got out with meat or infant formula or whatever i was not allowed to chase him but anyway so this off-duty police police officer chased him and and he comes back 10 20 minutes later 10 15 minutes later comes back with the guy and the guy had is in handcuffs and he has his shirt pulled over his head and he’s crying he’s yelling he’s like oh my god my eyes my eyes and what had happened was the the cop was was telling me he was chasing him and the guy had a rope for a belt on his pants and he had come loose and was dragging on the ground and he stepped on the cop stepped on the belt and the guy fell.

[4:57] So he put him in handcuffs and he’s you know raising a ruckus because he’s in handcuffs and the police officer sprayed him in the face with mace while he was handcuffed and then pulled his shirt over his face.

[5:15] I was just, I was dumbfounded. I was so mad. And it wasn’t like I could do anything about it because he was a police officer. You know, I complained to my supervisor later, you know, hey, the guy did that. And he’s like, well, he’s our best guy. He always takes these hours. So we’ll keep an eye on it. And nothing ever happened. So I know all about bad eggs and people that should not be police officers because I’ve worked with some. So the reason why I bring that up is because recently we had an incident. It was.

[5:59] Back in January, there was a high-speed vehicle pursuit, and at the end, the guy, I guess, wrecked his car. And he exited his car, brandishing a gun, and he was shot by all the cops that were chasing after him. He was shot 35 times by a barrage of gunfire from four police officers after he pointed a handgun at them after exiting his vehicle at the end of the pursuit on January the 14th. So like all kinds of violence, use of force against people, especially if there’s a death involved, it goes to the grand jury. The grand jury decided, found that no further investigation was necessary. And it said that the conduct of officers Zach Carroll, Carol Grady, and Aaron Manders, and Sergeant Rob Reed when they shot Albert Alderman was justified.

[7:05] So you’re like thinking, okay, you know, that’s how it goes. I’m still thinking 35 times. The guy was shot 35 times. He had one gun with maybe six bullets in it. These guys were by their patrol cars, four of them, four guns. 35 times he was shot. How many shots does it take to kill somebody? If it’s taking them 35 shots to kill him, they need retraining. They need some military training.

[7:44] So it says, in the article that I read in the Toledo Blade, it says, Police Chief Michael Trendle said during a news conference several days after the shooting that the gun was recovered with its safety on and no bullets, but that Mr. Alderman’s actions were consistent with a relative statement that he intended to commit suicide by cop. So not only did he was he shot 35 times but he fully intended to be shot by the cops and so he got out of his car waving this gun and pretending to shoot it the officers that foot and then the article goes on the officers filed a total of of 35 rounds from a rifle and 38 rounds from pistols. So they shot, how many?

[8:46] 64, 74 shot rounds, and they hit him 35 times. You know, and the point that I want to make, and the reason why I’m talking about this is that, at least here in Ohio, as far as I know, No, committing suicide is against the law. So if this gentleman, Mr. Alderman, was intending to commit suicide by cop, then aren’t the police officers culpable of facilitating suicide? And shouldn’t they be brought up on charges for that? Because they knew that he was intending to commit suicide by cop before they had the shootout, according to this article. So, I just wanted to mention that. It’s just a little odd for a couple of reasons. One, that the guy was shot 35 times, and that he intended to commit suicide by cop, and nothing happens to the cops. It’s like, oh well, whatever. For more information about any of the topics covered in this episode, check out our show notes at secularleft.us.

[10:07] Within the past couple of weeks, there was a special counsel report for the handling of classified documents by President Biden during the time that he was vice president and after he had left office. What happened was that during the whole event surrounding Donald Trump having classified materials and wouldn’t give them back and got charged with obstruction of justice, etc. Et cetera, they decided to check on Biden and they found some classified documents in an old office in Philadelphia for a foundation or something that he headed up. And then they checked at home and found some additional documents. He returned all the documents, but of course he still had to get investigated. So the attorney general appointed a special counsel because Biden is the president And the special counsel came back with his report and did not recommend any charges, even though he said that President Biden had willfully disseminated the information that was in some of those classified documents.

[11:23] But again, the special counsel said that there would be no charges. Now, of course, what the media talked about was some side notes that the special counsel put in. The special counsel is somebody who had worked previously for President Trump and was a Republican.

[11:45] Because, of course, any time that a Democrat is investigated, it has to be a Republican. And when a Republican gets investigated, it also has to be a Republican or else people complain. Well, Republicans complain. Anyway, so this was a Trump acolyte that did the special counsel. And he had noted in the report that President Biden was old and couldn’t recall some details, including when the death of his son took place. And so that led some people to believe that maybe that’s why he elected not to forward it to possible prosecution is because he’s a doddering old man who should be forgiven for being a doddering old man. And of course, that’s all that the media talked about was old President Biden. And of course, President Biden didn’t help himself by giving a press conference and having a few gaffes, speech gaffes, and that didn’t really help his position.

[13:00] Uh president biden is 81 years old and what’s funny well not funny but what’s ironic is he’s always done he’s always had speech speech gaffes uh he always has forgotten things and said one thing and meant another he’s always done that when he was vice president i remember they used to make fun of his gaffes all the time. They would broadcast it on comedy shows like The Daily Show and Bill Maher’s show and stuff, where Biden would be giving a speech as vice president or doing some kind of public press thing, and he would misspeak and say something stupid. And everybody would be like, oh, he’s so funny. But now, because he’s president and he is running for re-election, now the media is like, oh no, he’s feeble-minded, he’s senile. Oh, woe is us. We don’t want him to be president.

[14:03] In the meantime, Donald Trump is 77 years old, and we know that he’s cognitively deficient because he gives perfect examples all the time. When he was president, they used to catalog all his gaffes. He’s still misspeaking today. day. In one of his rallies, he mistakenly identified Nikki Haley as Nancy Pelosi.

[14:33] But of course, the media is not talking about how feeble-minded Donald Trump is.

[14:39] You know, they’re not talking about that. They hardly ever talk about his 91 criminal indictments. But President Biden, oh no, he’s feeble-minded. He’s senile. He should retire. And I know there’s been some MAGA congresspeople like, what’s her name, Mary Tyler Green or whatever her name is. I forget what her name is. The screecher from Georgia who’s saying that Biden should resign because he’s not fit to be president. And when I respond to people that say that is, you really don’t want to run against the person who would take his place if he resigned. Nobody, no Republican wants to run against Kamala Harris. They think they do, but they really don’t. Do you really want to run against the first black woman vice president who would now be the first black woman president if Biden resigns and be an incumbent? Right?

[15:42] You know, they make fun of Kamala all the time because they don’t like women in general. The Republicans don’t like women in general, women in power in general. And so they would, you know, they make fun of her constantly, but they really don’t want her running as president. They really don’t. So that’s all that the media has been talking about is how senile President Biden is. and totally ignoring how bad Trump is. So they had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with Jake Tapper on CNN, and she made a comment, because Jake Tapper, of course, that’s all he was talking about was the president’s age and mental acuity.

[16:32] And he had asked her, AOC, if she would have any concerns about his age and whether or not he should be the nominee. And AOC rightly pointed out that the president is 81 and Trump is 77 and she said that they could have gone to high school together.

[16:52] And so she said, and what I know is who I’m going to choose is going to be one of the most successful presidents in modern history while applauding the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan.

[17:06] Of course, you get this where people come out of the woodwork and start saying, well, they’re both the same. Trump and Biden are both the same. The only people who believe that they’re both the same is the media. And they’re not, but they don’t play it that way. They always play the Democrat in a negative light. Look what they did with Hillary and her emails. You know, she got sick. I remember she was going to some kind of campaign event and she became ill. And they had to help her to her car and she had to cancel. And that was in the news for like two or three days. Like, what’s wrong with Hillary? Is she sick? You know, and that’s what the media does, is they’re in the bag for the Republicans. Because you have this guy that fostered the insurrection. He’s been judged to be a sexual assaulter. He’s been convicted of being a fraud. And he has 91 criminal indictments pending. And he obstructed justice. And he wants to put people in camps and deport immigrants willy-nilly. And he praises Putin.

[18:35] And they’re saying that Joe Biden, because of his age, shouldn’t be president.

[18:41] What world are we living in these days? I just don’t understand it. The fact that the Republicans are fawning all over Putin. Reagan would be turning over in his grave right now if he knew that the Republicans were in the Putin fan club. And I think some voters are finally starting to catch on about the Republicans that they can’t govern. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re beholding on Trump. Trump doesn’t want to govern. He just wants to be president because he can add it onto his resume and go around and thump his chest. He wants to be a modern day Mussolini. That’s what he, or an Orban for modern people, the dictator of Hungary. That’s what he wants to be. He wants people fawning all over him. Um, and, and, and, and it looks like maybe some voters are catching on because there was a couple of special elections recently, uh, one in Long Island and one in Pennsylvania that Democrats won, which was unusual, especially the one in Long Island, because Long Island has gone firmly into the Trump camp for over several election cycles. They’re the ones that elected George Santos, what turned out to be the fraud George Santos.

[20:09] And so this was a seat to replace him because he had been expelled from Congress for his criminal behavior, which is unusual that they would expel somebody for criminal behavior, a Republican. Anyway, so the Democrat that had originally lost the seat to Santos in 2022 ran again and won the seat back. And one of the things that voters said was that they believed that the Republicans couldn’t govern and that they had scuttled the bipartisan immigration bill that was supposed to be passed, which they did. It was a bad bill because it gave the Republicans everything they wanted, but because they didn’t want to give the Democrats a win at any cost, they threw it away. And so that’s what a lot of the voters in exit polling said, was that they didn’t believe that the Republicans could govern and that they failed on the immigration issue.

[21:15] But hey, you know, the media is like, what about Biden’s old age? Come on, guys. Trump is different than that. It just, I keep remembering why I don’t constantly watch the news anymore. I get my bits and pieces so I know what the gist is. And I read some blogs that summarize a lot of the news. but the media is just out to lunch. And they have been for quite a while. The mainstream media, the national networks, they’re just useless. And they’re going to continue to be useless, especially when they focus on stupid crap, like whether or not Biden is senile. Hello, this is Doug, host of Secular Left, reminding you that I like to be validated. dated. If you like this podcast and want to thank me, feel free to buy me a coffee. Go to buymeacoffee.com slash secular left and donate some cash to help make this a better show and validate me as a person. You’ll feel better in the morning.

[22:34] Now that the Super Bowl is finally over, we are starting to have our premiere weeks on our regular TV where some of the show’s new seasons are coming back. We had the writers and actor strikes during the summer, and those ended in the fall. and so they decided to move the TV season till after the Super Bowl, so in February. And there’s going to be 13 episodes of different shows, in most shows.

[23:07] The ones I like, the Chicago shows, the Chicago Med, Fire, and Police, they started two or three weeks ago. And then the FBI’s, which was another one I kind of like, they started up this week. week. Now, the one return show return that I was really looking forward to was, uh, John Stewart, uh, former anchor of the daily show on comedy central had, it was announced pretty suddenly, like within, within a couple of weeks before it happened that he was coming back to anchor the daily show. Now he’s not going to be doing it full time. He’s not doing it. Uh, I think they’re, I think they do new shows four days a week. Most of those cable channels, they only do four shows a week. But he’s going to host on Mondays only through at least the election.

[24:07] And that’s kind of similar to what on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, she cut back her hosting duties to one night, one evening a week on Mondays as well. Well, so I was like, cool, he’s coming back because I always liked his take on politics of the day. And his segments were really fact checked and they would show the video and everything. I mean, it was great. It was funny and it was great. And I’m like, cool, he’s coming back. I did have a reservation because in recent years especially when he had his show on Apple TV just recently he’s kind of mellowed he’s kind of I don’t know if it’s like an age thing where people that get older tend to become.

[25:09] Like trying to balance things that don’t need to be balanced or think that they’re being moderate if they consider both sides of an issue. Things like that. And so he had been, I watched a couple of his Apple TV shows and episodes and I didn’t care for him. Because, well, there was one that I did like when he was talking about gun, gun control. And I really liked the interview that he did with somebody in Tennessee, a legislator in Tennessee. And if you go on the YouTube or Google it, you can find it. It’s a real good interview. Anyway, so I’m like, cool, he’s coming back. And I hope it’s good. Hope it’s funny. Hope it’s on on point. And like I said, I always know that it’s going to be factual.

[26:03] So I watched it. And needless to say, I was disappointed. I really was. I was disappointed because he fell over himself to both sides, Trump and Biden. I know in an earlier segment, I was talking about how the The media, they couldn’t talk about anything but his age, about President Biden’s age and how he forgot things and misspoke. And had a press conference where he thought that he called the president of Egypt the name of the president of Mexico or mixed up Egypt with Mexico or whatever.

[26:44] Well, that’s what Jon Stewart led with. and uh you know the the title of the episode wasn’t too bad it was uh the rematch that nobody wanted and so um suzy madrick in uh crooks and liars kind of started off she said john stewart returned to the daily show last night and i watched it because i wanted to see if the past decade had made a dent in its compulsive both sides default position on everything political, Nope, not that I could see. And so they kind of quote him as saying, These two candidates, they are both similarly challenged, Stewart said, and it is not crazy to think that the oldest people in the history of the country to ever run for president might have some of these challenges, he continued. We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive, or even capable, but they’re both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world. What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones as voters who must silence concerns and criticism. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns. Stewart noted that while Biden is not Trump, who among an array of legal woes, faces four indictments as it’s found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, the stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny, the host added, it actually makes him more subject to scrutiny.

[28:10] Before wrapping the end of his first night back, Stewart concluded, If your guy loses, bad things might happen, but the country is not over. And if your guy wins, the country is in no way saved. So the good news is, I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election, he added. I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after forever. That last part, I agree with him. And I try to tell my friends that. that. You know, especially when they’re saying, well, Biden supports Israel, so I’m not going to vote for him. It’s like, no, you can’t do that. You can’t do it just based on that. You know, because Trump is not normal. Trump is not a typical politician. He likes to blow things up. We know this. We have proof that he does this. You know, he’s lawless. He doesn’t abide by any law. He thinks he’s above the law. You know, he wants to run for president to shield him from all the corruption and other charges that he’s facing. And I can tell you right now, I’m sure he’s going to try to pardon himself if he wins. You know, this is the kind of guy we’re dealing with. This isn’t a repeat of Al Gore versus George Bush.

[29:31] Because you knew that democracy wasn’t in peril if either guy won because they both had the country’s values at heart. Trump only believes in himself. He only does things for himself. And so he just recently wanted, he just recently endorsed his daughter-in-law to become the new Republican national chairperson because they want to do a co-chair people. And in her comment, she said all of the party money is going to go to Trump’s campaign, which means they’re not going to give any money to anybody else, just to Trump. You know, that’s what he does. That’s what Trump does. It depends on what’s in it for him. Screw the country. Screw everybody else. And what I tell my friends is it’s not Trump I’m necessarily afraid of. It’s the people that work for him. It’s the people that he hires. Because he hires some doozies. That Stephen Miller, the racist Stephen Miller, that worked for him during his administration.

[30:48] You know, and the judges that he put on the bench. Those are the people that we need to worry about and keep him out of the White House. And I don’t give a shit if Biden is in a wheelchair and needs to be in a polio torpedo torpedo to breathe.

[31:16] As long as he’s competent to hire people, good people, and he does, he needs to win the election. So, you know, fuck Jon Stewart. Fuck him, as John Oliver would say, fuck him all the way off. You know, but then again, Jon’s a white, cisgendered man. So just like me, it doesn’t matter which old white guy gets elected for us. But it does matter for people that I love and respect and that have been hurt all these years, by bigots like Trump and his cronies that run the Ohio Statehouse like Derek Maron and Josh Williams and Teresa Gavirone. Those people can go all the way to hell. And I don’t believe in hell, but they should go all the way to hell.

[32:19] And so that’s what I have to say about Jon Stewart. I mean, I’m glad he’s back. I’ll probably maybe find out if he has a good episode, because I’m sure that other progressive people will be keeping an eye on it. It’s like why I don’t watch Bill Maher anymore. Bill Maher is an asshole. He’s a bigot. An anti-vaxxer. I don’t watch him. I don’t care how funny he is. Because he was better when he did his show on ABC before he got canned during the first Iraq war.

[32:57] And so, you know, I can not watch The Daily Show. I haven’t watched it in a while. And so I’m going to keep an eye out. And he’s got to stop doing this. There’s not going to be a kumbaya moment. You know, we’re not all going to gather by the fire and sing kumbaya. And it’s going to make this country whole. That is bullshit.

[33:25] You have to go to the ballot box. You have to vote. You have to support candidates that want to bring this country together. And it’s not the Republicans. Nobody on the Republican side. It’s not even a valid comparison. The Democrats have to keep coming in and cleaning up the Republican crap. They’re the only ones that want to govern. They’re the only ones that wanted to deal with immigration, Even though that immigration bill, that bipartisan, quote unquote, bill that got torpedoed was bad.

[34:02] And some of my more progressive friends are like, dude, we can’t vote for Biden because he hates immigrants. It’s like, no. Because look at the other hand. You know, you might have to wipe a little bit of crap off your hand if you vote for Biden and he gets elected. You’re going to have to cut your whole hand off if Trump gets in office. And those of us that don’t end up in a re-education camp and people are like, oh, that’s a hyperbole, Doug. Well, this guy Trump, man, he admires Putin. He admires Oban. He admires the dictator of Turkey. He admires all these dictators and strong people. And that’s what those people do. is people disappear. People get put into camps.

[34:57] And so enough of this both-side bullshit, this no-labels, oh, we’ve got to bring the divisiveness down. Well, it’s not our fault. It’s not the progressive side that is causing the divisiveness in this country. It’s the racist bigots like Trump and his cronies. They’re the ones that need to go straight to hell, all the way to hell, and don’t pass go. and don’t collect $200. Thank you for listening to this episode. You can check out more information, including links to sources used, in our show notes on our website at secularleft.us. Secular Left is hosted, written, and produced by Doug Berger, and he is solely responsible for the content. Send us your comments either using the contact form on the website or by sending us a note at comments at secularleft.us. Our theme music is Dank and Nasty composed using Amplify Studio.

[36:17] Music.