Who's on your ballot, and did they poop in the Capitol?

Plus more union memes, Country for Commies, and a bar story of sorts.

Words from John

We’re 22 days out from the midterm elections on November 8th. Voting is the absolute least thing you can do if you care at all about our political future, so make that plan and follow through!

And if you’ve ever found yourself in the ballot box wondering what the hell millage is and who the hell all these people are running for various offices you’ve never heard of, then allow me to share my voting method, which is simply googling your sample ballot so you know what to expect on game day. Here, I made a whole video about it.

@heyjohnrussell#Vote. #democrat #republican #politics #unions #ohiovalley #fyp #appalachia #leftist #ohio #wv #pa #yallternative #redneck #wealthgap #populist

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Who’s on the ballot and where have they pooped in the last two years?

@heyjohnrussellWho pooped in the Capitol and is also on your ballot? It’d be good to know. #election2022 #politics #billionaires #leftist #yallternative #wealth #unions #news #usa #ohiovalley #appalachia

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Video Transcript:

Oh man, there are a ton of insurrectionists on the ballot in a month, and a bunch of them are gonna win at every level of office. Does that concern anybody else? There are like 45 in Ohio at every level.

But where do you draw the line? I mean, there are people that supported it and people who pooped in the Capitol on January 6. There's got to be a difference, right?

But then again, what's the difference between today's Republican party and someone that took a dump in the Capitol? I mean, are we sure it wasn't any one of these guys? And if there are this many people running in Ohio, think of how many are running in a state like… wait, Ohio is cold Florida. That checks out.

Most Republicans running for national or statewide office in 2022 have publicly stated that they believe the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. In many cases, these candidates are running for offices — like secretary of state — that would help oversee future elections.

But these are bad dudes, man. I thought we pretty much figured out that elections are good and one person wins and the other loses. That's how it works. But these people only believe in elections they win because a right-wing tanning bed told them it was rigged if he lost.

It'd be one thing if these insurrectionists were insurecting for cool shit. These are some working-class people, throw an insurrection about the fact that ten people are enjoying all the fruit from our labor!

As the U.S. crosses the grim milestone of 1 million deaths from Covid-19, U.S. billionaires have seen their combined wealth rise over $1.7 trillion, a gain of over 58 percent during the pandemic.

But no, they went all the way around that point and arrived at pooping in the Capitol because their billionaire didn't win. Get a cause man!

And Good Lord, we got to Google the people on our ballot. There are probably some Capitol dumpers in there. They belong in porta johns okay, not elected office.

The weird masculinity of defending your bully

@heyjohnrussellSomeone explain this please. #politics #unions #labor #billionaires #solidarity #ohiovalley #appalachia #yallternative #leftist #wva #wealth #eattherich #bluecollar

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Video Transcript:

I'm a very open leftist and a bartender in a dive bar where a lot of right-wing people drink. And I really do love the people in my bar and get along with everybody. It's great. But this has been hanging around my head forever, and it's hard to square.

The people, mostly dudes, who are big and scary and tough and they want you to know it, are also the ones who just lay down and take it from a system that is essentially a bully. This system we have going on right now is going to make them work until they die a death much earlier than they should have or they can't work anymore and they don't have any money and they're going to become a ward of the state.

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We now interrupt this video transcript to present a brief sampling of recent articles talking about how it’s healthy and patriotic to work until you die.

Ready to Work Until You Die? America Needs You. Pushing older people out of the workplace was a last-century solution to make way for “strong and eager” younger workers. Now the country is paying for it.

A top financial adviser says we should all expect to work until we're 105 — and that's not a bad thing

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And that's the system that they defend to the end of the earth. They get manliness from defending that system. It's almost a competition of like who can take it on the chin more from this system.

And you can't just say they vote against their own interests and they deserve it because that's turning your back on half the working class and we need the working class united to end this stuff, you know? Help me understand it.

When workers and owners lived in the same town and drove the same car

@heyjohnrussellWhen workers and owners drove the same car. #politics #unions #labor #billionaires #solidarity #ohiovalley #appalachia #yallternative #leftist #wva #wealth #eattherich #bluecollar

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About this:

Another in the retro union-man meme series. This one is set to Cadillac Style by Sammy Kershaw and is about a time in our economy when the pay gap between owners and workers was close enough for both of them to live in the same community and afford the same kind of car. That is of course long gone now, with CEOs earning $671 for every dollar earned by workers.

More reading…

• CEO-worker pay gap jumps in 2021 at low-wage U.S. companies

• The Productivity-Pay gap

Country for Commies: Batch add

@heyjohnrussellReplying to @anonymousamphibian Country for Commies plaits in bio! #countrymusic #politics #yallternative #appalachia #leftist #wva #ohio #ohiovalley #bluecollar #country #music #billionaires

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Video Transcript:

I just added nine more songs to Country for Commies, the playlists that I'm building in my bio... (self-explanatory). This is a great comment.

We added the ones that are more known and we'll make videos as we add the ones that are lesser known talking about them. But there are less well-known ones to add as a batch than I thought, so I did.

There are 14 on there, so check it out. It's in my bio. One of them is playing right now which is Nose on the Grindstone by Tyler Childers. You probably know it. If you don't, listen to it now.

And I cannot recommend enough, speaking of Nose on the Grindstone, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown episode about West Virginia. It closes with the song. Gets me every time. So great. And as always, you guys have had amazing suggestions. Drop them in the comments. Give me those Country for Commies songs and we'll see you when we talk about the next one!

Some Fun Stuff

Paying cash at the Apple store

@heyjohnrussellPaying “cash” at the Apple store. #apple #android #tech #skit #comedy #satire

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About this…

Purely fun and not political. The sound on this one is some rednecky dude trying wasabi for the first time and having his mind blown. My guess is you’d get a similar reaction from paying cash at the Apple store.

Rita at the bar

@heyjohnrussellRita’s old. #serviceindustry #bartender #divebar #appalachia #ohio #smalltown #wva #chaotic #redneck #yallternative #ohiovalley

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There are all kinds of fun surprises at my dive bar, but one of my favorites is the Mango-Rita that’s been hanging out in the back of the cooler since the Clinton administration. Everything else is fresh though!