The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 501 - Eugene Debs part 2 w/guest Karen Kilgariff

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds are joined by Karen Kilgariff to examine American socialist Eugene DebsSourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

But we should come in laughing like we just finished the last one. You recording? You're listening to the Dala. This is a bi-racial American History podcast for each week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to a guy. Okay, not named Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. More friends. You omitted that. We are friends, but you're also a guy. Are you not a guy? I'm not going to get into this debate with you. So you're right. Good intro, pal. And this week on our part two... Permission to treat the coast is hostile?

Sir, I was in the middle of something. No, permission denied. Karen Kilgarev back for part two. Part deuce. Glad to be here, guys. What an amazing part one. We all had together and now digging into more American history with a guy and another guy. That's right. Perfect. It's a good description. That's the podcast. That's the title. Yeah. I'm so tired of listening to white guys on podcasts. Should I have said that?

I'm tired of listening to you. That's the whole podcast, man. Yeah, I know. That's literally the podcast. Yeah, that is a problem for the show. Kind of is, yeah. That's a problem for the show. A little bit. And don't forget to listen to Elle Dallop, our podcast in Spanish.

Yep. And called it, quote, his jam patch. Jam patch? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Stay okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait.

Is it for fun? And this is not going to come with tickly podcast. Okay. This is like an unapplied park position. My room's a place. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. That's like the hippo.

That's like the hippo. Action partner. Hi, Gary. No. Is he done, my friend? No. That was great. Cool.

So let's stop talking. Okay. Wrap it up. Yeah. Here's part two. November 22nd, 1895. Year of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a Christian.

Sure. His wires are buzzing. His wires are buzzing. Eugene Debs is released from jail. Okay. Kind of jail. It was more of a camp. Right.

Yeah. It was like, it was like, it was like meatballs in the prison. Yeah, exactly. So the, yeah, the warden is just like, well, Eugene, you ain't got to go home, but the kids stay here. Unfortunately. We're all going to miss you a lot.

If you ever find yourself on the wrong side of the login, don't feel like a kid. Come here, boy. We'll keep that boy coping for you. God, that sheriff's so emotional. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I made you a friendship bracelet in a to-go box. And here's some ramen for the road.

I know you always like them shrimp flavored noodles. I got some dust in my eyes. That's why I'm turning. So he'd served six months for contempt of court at 5 p.m. At 5 p.m. A train arrived in the town where the jail is with 300 supporters and a brass band that marched around the town square.

Fans quote, wept and cheered and laughed and cried. Okay. In Chicago. Quite a, everything. It's every emotion. I run, run, run, run, run. And then bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. It's just one guy doing that.

Jesus, Jimmy. Keep it together, Jim. Keep it together. In Chicago, Gene's train was met by 100,000 people. Wow. They lifted Gene onto their shoulders. Lift the train. Put the train on our shoulders, boys.

We're the train now, sons of bitches. We're your track. He walked to an auditorium followed by a marching band, the same marching band that was on the train. I'm trying to have a conversation with some of these guys. All right. That night he shook, so he did a speech,

and then that night he shook so many hands that his wrists swelled to twice as normal size so he could barely move his arm. No. He just kept shaking hands until he was like, it doesn't work anymore. How about you go easy on that grip, maybe? I mean, yeah.

Or stop at some point. My arm's swollen. It would be an insult for you to not shake this hand, Dempsey. Okay. Fine. And people held celebrations all across the country, for him getting out of prison as far away as Birmingham, Alabama, which I believe is a socialist mayor right now.

Okay. In 1896, many in the populist party wanted him to run for president, but he didn't want to align with a capitalist reform party. And William McKinley won handily. Eugene was still doing a dance around socialism. He wasn't out. Can I ask a question?

Yeah. I do apologize. But I changed from public school to private school between fifth and sixth grade. Yeah. Did you? In high school, I did that. So in my old school, they taught the presidents in sixth grade,

and in my new school, they had already taught it in fifth grade. So I have no idea about states. States, state capitals, or the presidency of the United States. Sharon, without that excuse, I have the same thing. Oh. Yeah. And they taught it to me. I just wasn't there, if you understand.

I was mentally not in the building. I see. You're just... So you don't even need... Yeah, you don't need just... I mean, you're among friends here. I was just going to say, like, you know, is McKinley, what's he known for as like a president?

Was he a good one? Dreadlocks. No. And to be fair, Karen, do you know that on this podcast, I at one point learned, and I do a lot of that, at one point learned on this show that Benjamin Franklin was not a president. So again, there is no...

You don't need to worry about anything at all. Thank you. I was getting really insecure. Don't you worry about a thing. I didn't even know McKinley was a name. I can't remember, but I think he was about expanding, you know, and... And stacking up wood in kind of like a little pyramid? And then Jenga, yeah.

Logs are not treated properly. So he was assassinated, yeah. Oh. The first one. I mean, I guess that's what he's most known for. By a log. By a... He should have been stacked proper.

Hi, McKinley. Log revolt. Yeah. Why did we do jungle with these? McKinley, don't pull that one out. This seems like it'll be fine. It'll be fine. So UG is still doing a dance around socialism.

He supported the founding of the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to create a cooperative colony. So this was a big movement, and then people were like, let's start a socialist colony in a western state. It was a big debate. Right. Some people were like, no, we just have to take over the country. Other people were like, no, let's just start a thing.

Let's succeed. Let's be like Mormons. Right, right, yeah. That worked great. And so he's read Karl Marx, so he is now like... Yeah, he's definitely in there, and he's just not out about it. Right. Like this, this...

He's ruminating. Cooperative Commonwealth, he's behind it, but then he doesn't go to the convention. So he's like, I'm doing a dance. Right. Gene was asked to help with strikes in Colorado, and he gets off the train in Leadville, and men immediately warmed him not to give any speeches,

or he would be hurt. Okay. But he did anyway. And after a few days, he noticed a very large man was following him around. How big. Big. A big, big guy. He's like, eight, nine feet, eight, nine feet.

Eight, nine feet, a very hair, hair all his body. Nine feet tall. Okay. Who do you work for? Okie dokie. I've got to do a trot instead of a jog, I think, at this point. Who do you work for? An idea of some kind, anything?

So Gene confronts the guy, and the guy says, I'm watching over you, and if... Well, you didn't have a good cover. I'm the following you. Oops. And if anyone mess with him, quote, he would be carted out of this here region of corpse. Oh, so he's like, I'm your best friend.

He was his guardian angel. I'm here to protect you. A giant guardian angel? Yeah, a giant guardian angel. Sloth loves dibs. That's beautiful. Yeah, that's great. I love it.

And by the way, what a great answer. He's like, this man's going to kill me. I'm here to protect you dibs. Well, then stop staring at me like that. I'm sorry, I got a weird eye. So Gene, he was there for two months, help with the strike, but it was defeated in the end. On January 1st, 1897, Gene came out in the railway times as a socialist.

Quote, the issue is socialism versus capitalism. I am for socialism because I am for humanity. The ARU never recovered from the Pullman strike and dissolved the union that year. Members founded, so they have a convention. They dissolve the ARU and then they found at the same time the social democracy of America party union, whatever it is. Okay.

The railway times magazine became the social democrat. So he's taken everything's shifted over. He's taken that magazine with him. Yeah, magazine's mine. Not a lot of trade picks in this anymore. So at the 1898 social democracy convention, they voted for creating a utopian colony. And then the anti-colony socialists split off.

We're forming a colony. And formed the social democratic party. So now there's the social democracy party and there's the social democratic and the splitting hairs party. Colony, anti-colony. Yeah. When will we meet? Certainly not a colony.

Gina Nazi supported the anti-colony group and was elected to the board. Now there's not very many. There's 15 members in Chicago. Oh, okay. And the anti-colony one? Yeah. So he's going to the...

Yeah, because a lot of people are for utopia. Not against it. Like, what are you doing? I said this once, I'll say it again. Fuck utopia. Everybody who's against utopia, follow me. To a place where we'll all be on the same page about not loving utopia.

So the Spanish-American war broke out and Jim was opposed. He said it was just for corporations seeking new markets. Sure. Quote. In 1894, the press announced us for the alleged reason that we were murderous and bloodthirsty and now the same press opposes us because we are not. Yes, but that was a while ago

and nobody remembers in this world. It was tough shit. I guess. So tough shit. Yeah. Many union members and unions became hostile to Gene when he announced he was a socialist. Sure.

Samuel Gompers was very hostile, as were some XARU leaders. His family and his in-laws, you know, they'd had a lot of wealthy people in his family and they couldn't understand why he didn't want to become rich. Yeah. So easy. Yeah. Just get, I don't understand what you're doing.

Just make money. That's how you get rid of problems, Deb. Money allows you to kill people randomly. Seems like you've got that moral thing your great grandpa had. We took a piece of his brain out and got rid of it. Take the surgery, Deb. So Gene then decided to boycott banks. Okay.

So... That's bold. His brother-in-law became his banker. So Gene would come off the road and he would take cash to his brother-in-law's drug store and ask him to hold it. And then he'd go there to make withdrawals. So his brother-in-law just had a wad of cash

and he'd walk in and be like, can I have $40? Sure. He'd give it to him. Fill out this paperwork. Do you have a prescription for money? Can I see your ID, please? Just go ahead and sign there.

Here we are. Take two of these dollars at the morning and then one dollar before bed with food. Sometimes Gene asked for more than he had in his account and his brother-in-law never said anything and just gave him money. But there is an overdraft fee. There it is.

This went on for over 20 years. Okay. All right. So it worked. I guess. Yeah, it went around the banks. Okay. Well, his brother-in-law was one of the only

honest brother-in-laws there are. Yes, that's right. It seems so. I thought that was going to go very differently. You know it's going to be okay because they've walked you through the whole timeline. He's like, work for 20 years, as opposed to the brother like, mm-hmm, mine.

In 1900, the SDP had 4,536 members. So it's a lot less than what the ARU had. Yeah. And they held a convention. At the same time, a group of socialists split off from the social labor party and came to the convention. Okay. So now we have three.

Wait, now we have three what? There's now three. Oh, three factions. Right, right. And they all have almost the same name. Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. And almost the same one, really.

Now these guys were nicknamed the kangaroos. Sure. Now we're not sure why it might have been because they were jumping from group to group and the pouches. And the pouches. And the pockets made of skin. And they had babies that crawled down them.

And they're good at boxing. And good at boxing. We have razor sharp claws. And babies live in skin flaps in our bellies. And they drown dogs in lakes. That's big enough. It happens. Does it?

Yes, but you know, to each their own. Kangaroos are not. Nobody's perfect. They taste good. They also kind of lay behind tourists and jerk off. I've seen that video. Well, who hasn't done that? Oh yeah, that's just Australia.

Hi, Australia. We miss you. Where are you from? Jesus. Oh my God. So this. No, I'm Strowkey. That was the kangaroo.

They call me Strowkey. So this split off group, the kangaroos, wanted to join with the SDP and then form a president ticket. And they would pick the VP and the SDP would pick the president. Okay. But then they started doing all kinds of backdoor stuff

to try to get control and get their president. So they came in and they're like, hey, let's do this. And then they immediately start fucking around. Right. This is all the convention. And then at one point, SDP leaders recessed the convention and went to Gene's hotel room to try to get him to run for president.

And he said, no. And then they said, look, we need you to save the party from the manipulative kangaroos. And he's like, okay, I'll run for president. Oh my God. He has a boundary issue. Yeah. At no point does he respect his own decision.

At all. At all. He can't do it. I said, no. Okay. But if you ask him twice, he's like, fine. All right. Oh, that was one question too many.

I'm going to give in. I resign. No, you don't. No. All right, I'm back. So Debs draws huge crowds when he speaks. And that's why they wanted him to be the candidate. Yet he spends most of his time during the campaign

trying to combat misinformation the press put out about socialism. Right. So he would have to, he'd be like, no, I don't support public ownership of t-shirts and toothbrushes. Like he literally had to have those conversations. Public ownership. Yeah.

He was like, no, it's about, it's about. So we only get two t-shirts under socialism. Are you telling me that if I have a toothbrush, my neighbor can come over and use it anytime they want to? Look, Debs, we're not sharing teeth. We're not idiots. You mean I can't wear my gut? This is my hat or it's not my hat?

What the fuck is your goddamn system? I have gingivitis. I can't risk this. And he was like, no, it's just capital goods, like railroads and factories and banks. So it's just a fucking nightmare. It's just like, oh, people don't know what socialism is. Could you imagine that in America?

Oh, I mean, just imagine how exhausting it would be. It's almost like if you don't teach what it is in schools, then people won't know what it is. Well, though, just kind of believe what they read in the paper that are owned by the people that don't like socialism seems like. But you remember that my fifth grade, sixth grade thing, I don't really know.

Yeah, you don't know anything. Yeah. And I went to school fully and I don't really know. Yeah. Yeah. He went. Thank you. So Debs went after Republicans and Democrats alike,

quote, the capitalist system must be overthrown. Class rule abolished and wage slavery supplanted by a cooperative industry. Democrat and Republican newspapers both attacked him. They printed fake stories saying stuff like the other party was giving him money or working with him. And those accusations got all the press and his denials got nothing.

Can you imagine? No, no. So. No, no. Gene got 96,878 votes. Not that many. Right. And then the party divided into left and right wing factions.

What the fuck? So they're splintering again. Within the socialist democratic party. Yeah, we're right wing socialists. They're splintering again. Is that cool? Yeah, that's fine. That's fine.

Yeah. Gene was sick of the fighting over the delegate system. He thought the entire group should vote. The party chose a new name in 1901. That was the problem. Marketing. So now they're the socialist party. Better.

But people joined the socialist party for different reasons, which led to disagreements and no unity. Right. Right. The ugly western mine labor fights had created a very militant union out west. And the WFM president Ed Boyce and secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood joined the socialist party.

So a little more militancy coming in. Gene spoke at the union's 1901 convention. And the delegates recommended all minors joined the socialist party. So picking up a little bit. Yeah. Gene spoke at the WL... I'm just saying these are just different gains.

I'm not going to go through them. But Gene spoke. We love it, Dave. Read them all. Go, Dave. Get to the grocers union. Yeah. Oh, so good.

Gene spoke at the WL. You can mention in 1902, they were a rival of the AFL. And Gene said the AFL was an outmoded form of craft unionism and led to disunity. And Gompers was undermining labor by pretending workers and owners could be friends. Which is what we call the democratic party. Yes.

Yeah. Oh, broadside. Gompers. I hate that name so much. It's really irritating. It was bad for me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I keep picturing him. The look of Gompers. Yeah, he looked kind of like a piano teacher that does bad things. Yeah, he really does. If pubes had a person. There's no way he doesn't molest or beat children. I self molest.

Like a kangaroo. Like a kangaroo show. Like a common kangaroo show. My sitting face is a frown. Gompers. I've come up with the Gompers theorem. If you sit on your hand, it feels like someone else is doing it.

Gompers. I'll put up all these pictures on the Instagram account of the doll. Gompers. Gompers. No, you can't have money to feed your children. Gompers. Fuck you.

So Gene tells the WLU to change the name to the American labor union, become socialist and organized nationwide. And they did. Okay. Gene hoped socialists in the AFL could have sort of a revolution and take over the AFL and unite the two unions.

But in the 1902 socialist AFL, sorry, in 1902, the socialist AFL president candidate only got 1200 votes and Gompers got 12,000. So that just wasn't going to happen. Right. That's a thousand percent more votes. That's a lot.

Yeah, that's a lot. I don't know math, but yeah. That's right. You didn't skip math. I skipped math. No, no. 56. So Gene was now traveling 1,000 miles a week by train,

giving seven speeches that were two hours long. He's sleeping in Cheep Mattels. He's barely seeing his family. But he just fucking loves meeting people. And he loves the prestige. He loves the accolades. He's a little into himself. He's definitely a little into himself.

Yes. Who wouldn't be? Yeah. But he believes. Well, because you know at night, he would wash his face. He would just wash his face for hours. Sweet ivory.

Beautiful skin. Just look in the mirror. Have you ever seen a more smooth man? And so he did not speak to segregated audiences. He was like, I'm not going to do that. OK. Wow. That's early.

Yeah. Yeah. But Tim was all about equality. He believed it was class, not race, and opposed a party resolution in 1903 to make a special fight for the rights of Negroes. Milwaukee socialist Victor Berger, who's the guy who gave him.

Yeah, the guy who dressed up like the cheeseburger. That's right. The cheeseburger guy. Yeah, that's how we remember it. It's a pneumatic, mnemonic aid. So there's Victor Farah. If his head was a little wider, he would look exactly like Mayor Victor.

Picture if he had pickles on his jacket. OK. And tell me we're not, like, Berger-ish. I'm the burger. It's just me, the burgermeister. I'm ready to talk to them about the burger. Get over yourself. That's what he's saying in that picture.

So he also opposed the party resolution, but he was, that's because he was just a total racist. OK, of course. Yep, that's tracking. I mean, he kind of looks the part, yeah. The Socialist Party chose Gene to run for president in 1904. Now, monopolies were the big issue then, as you can imagine.

It's the same thing as now, all right. 300 corporations controlled 40% of all capital. Oh, wow. In California, the LA Times conspired with railroad owners to embarrass Gene. He was on a train from LA to San Francisco, and it was announced all regular cars would be sidetracked in Beggar's Field.

And the only way to get. Oh, God. TSF would be to ride in a Pullman car, which he boycotted. And when he arrives in LA, newsboys are already selling papers with the headline quote, all about devs riding into Los Angeles in a Pullman. So by the time he hits the fucking ground,

they're already selling the papers. So he did get on the Pullman car? He had to, he couldn't get to LA. And he had, yeah. It's tough. It's tough. It's like, what are you gonna fucking do? You should have taken one of those.

What do they call them? One of those ones where you just... Yep, an up, down, up, down. Up, down, up, down. Yeah, they're called up, down, up. Yeah. Good thing in the cartoons. That's what it is.

You should have been animated. So he traveled from Maine to Oregon and spoke to 250,000 people, but Teddy Roosevelt won easily. Mm-hmm. He got, Gene got 400,000 votes, which is about 3% of the total. Not bad.

So he goes home and he writes... 3%? It's not great. I'm for a socialist. For like, you know, for a party that is not, for a party that's being shit on constantly. Yeah. You know.

True. And for the party leader who looks like Peter Boyle. Absolutely. That's really nice. Those numbers are very good. Yep, yep. So he goes home and he writes Unionism and Socialism is a pamphlet that would become

a major contributor to the American theory of socialism. He wrote the goal of workers should be to overthrow the wage system and capitalism, which produces, quote, vagrants, tramps, outcasts, poppers, thieves, gamblers, pickpockets, suicides, confidence men, fallen women, consumptives, idiots, and dwarf children needed to die.

Sounds like a version of That's Life by Frank Sinatra. A man, a popper, a billionaire, a capitalist, a drunken. An idiot, suicides. I like that suicides is just in the middle of that. Yeah, yeah, suicides. And dwarf children. Dwarf children.

Good God. I assume that he's talking about malnourished, I would imagine, but unless he's actually talking about dwarfism, which then... It'd be a very strange crosshairs moment. But sorry, this was a person coming out against... He's saying capitalism causes all that. It causes that.

That's not true, right? No, capitalism's great. Yeah, no, no. Especially if you look at the climate change. On December 22nd, 1904, Jean and five men signed a secret letter, and they sent... Not so secret if you're telling us about it, Dave. Uptop, there we go.

From the top, go ahead. Yeah, to invite 30 radical leaders to meet and discuss ways and means of uniting the working people of America on revolutionary principles. They got together, they wrote a manifesto, and they held their first conference on June 22nd, 1905, and the organization was named the industrial workers of the world, the IWW, or the Wobblies.

Reporters are given copies of the Constitution and excerpts from speeches, but they did not print any of that. They just attacked the IWW. Of course. Even socialists. More like, ew. Right, everybody, right readers. I guess so.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you put it in the name. They're retelling. Even socialist papers attacked the IWW. Of course. The social democratic herald accused Jean of splitting the labor unions. But are they, why are they doing that?

Are they just completely misled? I mean, I think when you get into socialism, like you have the DSA, which is almost liberal-ish in its reforming electoral politics, whereas other socialists are like, no, the system needs to go. So I think you're getting into that sort of shit here. So people call themselves socialists, but they're not purely, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I get it. Over the system or not. Yeah, so we're just talking about shades of... But you would think that, I mean, what is so frustrating in ways about the two parties we have in this country, the ability for them to fold everyone in

to fall in line for one thing is just really what is at the heart of their power in many ways. Yeah, yeah. Which means that the party with the dumber people have the easier followers. 100%. And the party with a bunch of individual and independent thinkers are the ones

that are constantly basically eating their own. Yes. Yeah, and they know that. Yeah, 30 breads. That's good. Yeah. That's what we're really talking about. So now... Dave pretends he didn't hear me, but he heard me.

He heard me. Gompers and burger are now completely on the outs. Sounds like Gompers would eat burger. Gompers ate burger. I got a Gomper down a burger. I have to get out this train. I can't do it anyway. Where's burger, Gompers?

No, I'm not sure, but I do think he'd be showing up. Is anyone of them napkins? Gompers. I didn't go right head to. I was starving. He was so tasty. He had a pickle coat. This should be a cartoon.

Okay, so Gompers and burger are now completely on the outs with Gene. They're like, fuck, I don't like anything he's doing. And then WMF members, Bill Haywood and Charles Moyer and businessmen, George Pettibone, were indicted for the murder of former Idaho governor, Frank Stunenberg. That's the guy that got blown up in Idaho, which we're pro. Are we?

Yeah, yeah, he was a bad guy. So I have to be. Yes, you have to be on the side of the miners in this one. And just horribly killing a governor, ex-governor. Was this a dynamite situation? I don't know if it probably was dynamite. I mean, that was the go-to. Right.

Yeah. Pretty cool to blow up a governor, though. Yeah. I mean, didn't it almost happen? Yeah, it did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Recently. Well, we're blowing Newsom up.

He lost. Pinkerton, James McParland, pick 10, who was the infiltrator of the Molly McGuire's episode. Uh-huh. Remember that guy? Yeah. There he is. There's Molly.

Molly McGuire's the bar on Fairfax? Yeah. I love that play. He looked in. He infiltrated that bar. I'm a lady. He's not wearing a shirt. He's not wearing a shirt.

Oh, Jesus. Is he not either of these guys? Or it's a long, it's a long. I'll tell you what, I prefer to picture him wearing. That coat would be so itchy on Bear's skin. Ew. He just looks like a toad. Who needs a shirt?

I've got a mustache. He just looks like a total toad. He looks like a full-on Twitter actually guy. Yeah, right. Doesn't he? Yes. So McParland said the accused men quote will never leave Idaho alive.

So he's like, these guys are going to get killed by the law or us, you know. Gene thought it was a frame job to get rid of two IWW leaders. And he wrote a letter to appeal to reason, which is a socialist big, probably the biggest socialist paper. His letter was so inflammatory, the publisher was worried he'd be arrested

for inciting an armed rebellion if he printed it, but he printed it anyway. Wow. Okay. Gene responded to McParland saying the three wouldn't leave Idaho alive by saying, quote, well by gods if they do not, the governors of Idaho and Colorado

and the masters from Wall Street, New York to the Rocky Mountains had better prepared to follow them. Wow. Shit. So that's a lot of blowing up of people. Our boys turned quite a bit. Yeah, he's pissed.

We can work together. Yeah. Won't let me resign. Yeah. I love that he's this guy who does this and he's like, all right, I'll keep working for you. Yeah. Passive aggressive.

And it's getting to this point. We're like, maybe we shouldn't have him anymore. So Gene said, he said the courts are going to try to murder these three guys and it would lead to revolution and he would try to make it happen. Quote, if they attempt to murder Moyer, Haywood and their brothers,

a million revolutionists at least will meet them with guns. He told friends if they hung them, quote, they'll have to hang me. He gave hundreds of speeches from coast to coast defending Moyer and Haywood and the arrests unified the factions of socialists. So now.

There you go. The socialists are all coming together over this trial. Gene was having attacks of rheumatism which made the tour brutal. And then his mother and father both died in 1906. Mom died and dad was sad and then he died. That's pretty common.

That's a little romantic moment on the podcast. Yeah, he brought it right through in the grocery store and then they sold them. How much are these people? I'm sorry, we're just cleaning up all six. They simply just died. Well, I'll buy one of them. And then do you have nectarines?

We're having a two for one special on corpses. I'm okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take that. And then do you have barbecue sauce? Barbecue sauce? You said lighters. Where's your bathroom? Can I bath?

No, we don't actually. That's just our bathroom. We live here. Oh, that's the bodies are. That's my gam gam. If you're done, I'd like to get rung up. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Oh, thanks.

Asking questions. All right. Okay, so two socialist toothbrushes? Yeah, actually just the one. Now that I think about it. This has a piece of corn in it. This is someone else's toothbrush. It's everybody's.

Did we share it? You buy other old ones. There you go. So in 1907, Gene went to Kansas to write for appeal to reason. He was hired as a contributing editor. The appeal had over a hundred staff and a really big readership.

So he did that for a little while and then he went back to touring. And one day socialist organizer, Frank O'Hare, ran into a really, really drunk Gene on a train. Okay, great. He could barely walk. He was slurring. Sure, that's the train.

Yes. That's what you do. I completely agree. This is like seeing me on a plane. It's not fair. That's not the drink. Why are you being moved from place to place? You're supposed to stay so far from that.

Yeah. Who can walk on a train anyway? Gene, what's up? If he can't walk on a train, he's moving and going, bring, bring, bring. Oh, he's making a joke. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Great. It's hard. Right? The train is moving. That's great. And you're not moving. And so it's hard. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

So take a break. And when we get to where we're going to go, you'll just nap here for a bit. Revolution. That's right. Right. Sleep, sleep, sleep, baby. Oh, I'm tired.

There you go. Lay down, lay down there. This is how my mom and daddy died. Oh, because he was getting really weird from him. Sleep well, bud. So this guy, this guy, so they arrive in the town of Pueblo and this guy O'Hare gets the people waiting for Gene there because he's going to do a speech in the town.

He gets them to form a flying wedge and hustles Gene through the crowd into a cab. Okay, but he's going there to speak, right? Yeah, and he's shit-faced. So this is showing some signs of, I mean... It's not good. It's not good. Yeah, he's got an engagement

and he should be focused on this, but he's so drunk that he can't write. So maybe the New York Times was right. Yes, it's because he's got gold in his bones. But a flying wedge is a football move. Oh, is it? Yeah, it's almost like a V-shaped thing, right, where they just run.

Right, it's completely ineffective. So they did it. Cheese-shaped. Back in the day, they did it a lot, so they did a football move through a crowd to get Gene through. To hide him. I feel like people have done that for me in the 90s, for sure. Oh, yeah.

They wedged me out of the rustic inn a couple of times. That's a bitch. I was carried out on someone's shoulders from Hollywood Billiards once. Don't remember it. Just one person? I can't confirm or deny, but it was one to two. It was a bigger gentleman, I believe. So they got Gene into a hotel.

Sir, they call him? I'm not sure what the time was. Right, right, right. So they got Gene into a hotel and they put him to bed, and then two hours later, they woke him up, gave him soup and coffee, and took him to the meeting hall, and he stepped on stage and there was no sign he was plowed, and he just spoke and charmed the audience.

Yes, stand up, comedy. Yeah, he's stand up comedy, right? How many times have you seen shit-faced comedians just go up and do their set, and you're like, wow, you've got a substance abuse problem. Yeah, you are functioning. Middisfroon is a good soup. Solid, yep.

President Roosevelt called a railroad a magnate quote, at least as undesirable a citizen as Debs or Moyer or Haywood. So he's like... They're all the same. He's like the same, the guys who are toiling away in the mines, and union leaders are the same as the just... Capitalists. Capitalist scum.

Right. So then Gene accused Roosevelt of advocating for the legal murder of two labor leaders, and the public was like, yeah, no, that's not, he shouldn't have done that. Like everyone's like, yeah, that's not good. So Roosevelt denied, that's what he had done, and they go back and forth in the press,

and Roosevelt called the appeal to reason a quote, vitoraptive organ of pornography, anarchy, and bloodshed. And then Gene called Roosevelt a coward and hypocrite, but all this did was bring attention to the trial, and more attention to the fact of what was happening, and then this led to protests in cities all over the place. And sales of teddy bears. And so this is how teddy bears took off.

Bully! So all three men are acquitted at the trial. Okay. That's good. But while all this shit was going on, the IWW turned against the government, so they're very anti-government, they no longer supported elections,

they're like, elections aren't gonna work. And Gene is like, that's too far, and he no longer supports, he's no longer a member of the IWW, he just... That does seem that that would be a bad move. It's not great for, I think, getting people on your side. What's the suggestion replacement for the elections? Just write it, we're all gonna write in Daffy Duck. Then we'll know if we have power.

He didn't make a public statement, he just let his membership expire. So he's one of the founding members and he's out. That's what I mean with my National Geographic. I did the same thing with National Geographic. It's a tragedy. It's a fucking... But you, I mean...

You could have said goodbye to him. I know. I could have written a nice note. I could have written an I'm Outlet, but instead... This is too thin. I remember in the 70s when you were a thick old thing, and I greeted my aunt Gene's bathroom for as long as I felt like not being around my sister.

But what are you now? Karen loves National Geographic. I think she just hates our family. I'm now going with National Graphic, which is far better. Just like... I know all about water and Morocco. Karen, go away. Guys, have you heard of these bog bodies?

Just trying to make small talk at dinner. Oh, okay. I guess I'm the asshole. Fine. Fine. So the Socialist Party went back to squabbling. The left wing wants Gene as their candidate. The right wing doesn't.

He wins 90% of the vote, and he becomes the candidate in 1908. He's soon making three or four speeches a day. His speeches are... They're taken on the field of a sermon. Audiences are having ecstatic responses. Like, it's like a... It's...

Who can't walk? Come on, man. Gene, he knew he couldn't win, and so he knew the campaign was more about educating, you know, laborers and anything else. They decided to raise $20,000 to rent a train. So they named this train the Red Special, and they take Gene across the country on a speaking tour.

Okay. Now, this freaks out the Dems and GOP because it's a really good idea. Right. Yeah, it is. It's like at the Malarkey Express. Right. Oh, God. Oh, God.

The Malarkey. Oh. Remember when the Malarkey Express got run off the highway by monster trucks in Texas? So we have Malarkey. We have Malarkey. Well, we're not allowed Malarkey. We don't know what to tell you.

Malarkey incoming, sir. Put up the Malarkey defenses. So the Dems and GOP start attacking him, even though he's like... A guy on a train. It's just not, but he's getting attention. Yeah, yeah. He's like Ross Perot of the time.

Right. So Gompers says Republicans are secretly financed in the Red Special, so it's a whole fucking thing. Right. Then socialists make the records public to show they're not funded by Republicans, and then newspapers say, oh, well, the party is a foreign organization,

and then they show their records. It's so easy. It's so easy. It's unfortunately easy to just simply... You're not even making accusations at times. You're simply... Sanction. And you're just raising questions.

Yeah, and see what... Yeah. I'm just asking questions. I'm a reporter. I'm supposed to ask questions. I believe this person is funded by big ones. I'm just asking questions. Yeah.

I'm just asking questions. So... He's not a man. He's a person. He's misdrawing skin. I'm just asking questions. That ends in a question mark. So they show the records.

Again, 70% of the party's members are born in the U.S. The attacks are front page. The socialist replies are buried deep in the paper. Sure. Tours are very popular. They were selling a book, and they sold so many copies that they had 2100... To start handwriting new ones on the train.

They had $21 in coins. What? What's up? Well, they're selling them for like five cents each. Okay. Okay. So it's good money. It's good money.

Right. Okay. It's merch. Merch money. I got you. Now I get it, Dave. But it's coins. That's $2000 in coins. So in a town, they stop and they try to deposit the coins

in a bank, but not one bank would take a deposit from the socialist party. Where's your pharmacy? We put most of our money in pharmacies. And every bank's like, no. Yeah. You're socialist. Right.

So the men finally came back... Also, I mean, that's not something you want to be seen as as the socialist party walking around with a couple bags of money. Like, excuse me, bank, take our money. Also, why didn't they just get some old lady to do it for them? Like they don't... They're not... They're going in there with those mustaches

and they're like in their pins and say, fuck banks. And then they're like... We hate banks. What do you need me to do? Get a little tricky with it. I hate you. Will you take my money?

Please. I'm here to deposit $2000 into my socialist account. Whoops. Shoot. Oh boy. I'm so lost in what they ask. Oh, no one asked. I didn't say anyone asked for anything.

I'd like to withdraw $2000 socialists and put it in my dollar bag. Oh, dear me. I'm so lost. Gentlemen are going to be livid. I have $2000 mustache dollars to... Oh, oh dear. Can I help you? I need to take the socialists.

They're my friends. Shut up, Gabby. They're not my friends. I need to take... Do you have the money? Put the money away. Hurry. Give me all the money, fuckface.

No, I don't. Give me all the money, you motherfucker. It's just too... Put the money in... You're just pointing fingers. Those are fingers. Oh, put... Hello.

Hello. Hello. Hello. I'm a bank. I'm a member of the... Do you have a withdrawal or deposit? You say... Tell me.

No, she works at the bank. I think she's too old. Oh. Well, I did what your boys asked. I got a job at the bank. Bank. No. Where's the money?

Oh. Oh, my coins. The coins. I hate them. I was so nervous. So the men found they came back to the train and told Jean what had happened, and he laughed so hard that tears ran down his cheek.

He's like, yeah, we're socialists. Okay. He spoke to 275,000 people in under a month. In New York City, he spoke to 10,000. Could you imagine a socialist speaking to 10,000 people in New York? Nope. I wonder if that happened.

The press then accused Jean of belittling the national flag. Right. Oh, yeah. Of course. Ryan? Yeah, he hates the flag. That's this guy's problem.

He hates the flag. He hates the military. I bet that's common at some point. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He hates. That is coming pretty hard. Jean responded, quote. I like his responses.

Oh, the national flag has been polluted by the potocracy who have used it to shield themselves in their evil doing. It is not at present the flag of the patriot, but has become the flag of predatory wealth in its exploitation of the working class and its ravages upon the people generally. This is the only objection the socialists

have ever urged against the colors of the United States, and in this position, they have the endorsement of every true patriot in the land. Well, so they're like, okay, so you don't, okay, so we're right. You didn't, you don't like the flag. You don't like the flag. Yes, that's right.

Yeah, that is the way to do it, though, instead of being like, no, I love the flag. No, I'm a flag guy. I'm a flag guy. Sleep with that. I fucked a flag. I like the flag. Yeah.

I think there will never be anything, there would never be a point in the Trump administration where I felt weirder or more unhinged as the time you walked on stage and hugged that flag. Oh, and it was the hug. Oh my God. Long and sort of crotchy. It was so fucking weird.

Oh, it's like he thought the flag was Ivanka. It was so... Where's the hole? Donald, where is it? I can't find it. I'm out, it's not. Yeah, and people are like. Yes.

Yay, that means he likes America. Yeah, bring the flag on the bus. So people are paying. So what do you want to do for your living when you get older flagged? So people are paying five or 10 cents to see Gene speak. More people are paying five or 10 cents to see him speak than we're seeing Taft for free.

Small, okay, wow. Right, wow. But he only got... Did you say Taft? Yeah. Well, by the way. I do know about him. You can see Taft for free.

Trust me. Believe me. He was the big guy. Yeah, he's a big guy. And he died in a bathtub. Yep, tubbed it out. Yeah, that's how I want to go. They call it a tub out.

That's a technical term. Is that true? Yeah, yeah, it's a medical... Presidential tub. Well, a coroner will write that on the... He tubbed out. Oh, he tubbed all the way out? Yeah, he tubbed out.

So unfortunately, we end up intubating him. I like that Karen finally has a presidential fact. He died in a tub! One time, in a live show, I said, ooh, Taft, and then someone made art with that quote, and it was Taft in a bubble bath with one leg up, like being sexy, and it's my favorite thing I've ever seen. Oh!

It's the greatest. I'll find it for you. So I want to picture his last bath. Yep. Sexy Taft. Ooh, Taft. I'm presenting Howard. So he only got 420,000 votes, less than 3% of the popular vote.

Same as the four years before. Taft wins. Taft had hoped during the Pullman strike that enough men would be killed to make an impression. So he's on the opposite side of everything. Right. But I mean, he's on the opposite side of the Lord, sounds like. I've carved out a new lane.

Gene did that. Gene did not get a single vote in TeraHot, despite voting for himself and other socialists voting for him. Oh. Weird. And they said it was because the voting machines were new. That's what it is. They were still using D-Ball.

I feel sick to my stomach. It's all the same thing over and over. Gene was now bedridden for a month due to exhaustion, rheumatism, lumbago, and terrible headaches. Lumbago is a lower back pain. That's a dance. He was dancing. That's a forbidden dance.

He kept dancing, and they'd be like, Gene, it's hurting you. I'm a lumbagoer. Kate pleaded with him to give up lecturing, and he did for six months. Then a writer at Appeal to Reason, Fred Warren, was convicted after he wrote an article. So this governor had been killed.

I want to say Kansas, anyway. This governor had been killed, and the guy who had just lost in the election was indicted for the murder and fled the state. And then the state he was in, Kentucky, was like, well, we're not going to extradite him. So Warren offered a reward of $1,000 for anyone who would capture him.

What the fuck? And then Warren was convicted of encouraging people to kidnap. That is crazy. When, in fact, the person he was encouraging people to kidnap was responsible for the death of a governor. Totally normal. Extradition from Kentucky.

We're trying to extradite him from Kentucky. He's at the Alabama Embassy in Kentucky right now. Safe. So Warren got six months in a $1,500 fine, and Gene went on tour to raise money for him. And because of that, the magazine gained over 100,000 readers. So every time they do something, it's just,

in the end, helping. Now somehow Gene suddenly has a child. What? Okay. In his pouch? Kate's brother had a son. And then his wife died, so he sent the boy to live with Kate and Gene.

But it's sketchy. They either got him when he was 18 months, or when he was 10, whatever. 10 months? 10 years. 10 years old. No one really knows how that. All of a sudden, it's just a boy. I'm a magic boy.

Hello, Dad. So Gene made over 200 speeches in 1910. President Taft pardoned Warren. So President Taft pardons the guy. Right. The magazine guy. Good, good. There's one of his speeches. Oh, he's really into it. You don't do that.

It's great. Listen. I don't have my glasses on. Is there a microphone in front of him, or is he just projecting? He could project like nobody else. That was one thing that he had an advantage over other presidential candidates stuff, because people in the very back could hear him,

like he had this amazing projecting voice. What's great is there's a guy who looks like Mark Twain, and then there's a little girl on stage. So it's like, he's like, whoever. I am a puppet. I represent all of these people. And whatever they want to be doing. So Taft pardons Warren,

and he drops the jail time, and it reduces the fine to $100, and then Warren says he's not going to pay, and he never did pay. I like that. Thank you, and fuck you. On October 1, 1910, during a strike of metal workers

in Southern California, the Los Angeles Times building was blown up. 20 people were killed. The owner blamed labor. But all the dead were workers, which Gene noted and said the anti-labor times were, quote, themselves the instigators,

not the actual perpetrators of the crime. Yeah. Then two AFL officials were arrested for blowing it up, and Gene defended them and said it's not them, but then they confessed. So that was a bit of a blow. At that point, Gene pointed out

that they were Catholics, not socialists, and he still held the owner of the L.A. Times responsible. Okay, weird. He's having trouble backing down. I'm going to stick with this one. Yeah. Well, they're Catholics, not socialists. Am I okay?

By the way, that should help. In 1912, the Socialist Party was on an upswing. They elected mayors in Schenectady and Milwaukee and ceded Victor Berger as a congressman. Delicious. Yummy, yummy.

Gene was once again nominated for the Socialist Presidential Candidate in 1912. He's like, oh, kiddokey. The great speech of hats. Oh, wow. He spoke to over 50 hats. Oh, yeah, everybody wore hats then.

It's so crazy. The hats are really behind you. If you didn't wear a hat, I was like, not wearing pants. Which is acceptable. Maybe one lady over on the side. Yeah. I understand.

I've gotten the memo. Are there any more ladies here? Okay, I'm sorry. You probably think I'm a man because I'm wearing a hat. What's that, sir? Look, minus flowers on it. That's right, sir. Now, quiet.

We're all listening to a speech, sir. There's one guy looking the wrong way, which makes me laugh over on the right. Where's the speaker? Where'd they show up? So, they're still inviting. They're still inviting. Victor Berger wrote, quote,

many intelligent socialists have long known that Gene suffers from an unduly exaggerated ego. Which is probably true. He definitely thought a lot of himself. Don't we all? I do. I mean, I do podcasts and porn. Yeah.

He can't get enough. I do like the B story of this episode. Pornographer Dave answer. David is born. He made more speeches than he did in 1908 and he got 900,000 votes, 6% of the total.

Okay. So, socialists are rising. Yep. And as they increased in popularity, so did the attacks. Of course. Because remember, 6% now can throw an election. Right.

Wilson's administration went after the Appeal to Reason paper. They issued indictments against owner Julius Weyland and Fred Warren for articles that they had written on corruption and homosexuality

in Leavenworth prison. Because they wrote it, there's Weyland, because they wrote it and sent the paper through the mail, they were charged with sending, quote, indecent, filthy, obscene lewd printed materials through the mail.

Oh my God. It didn't go to trial, but because of this, the Appeal to Reason almost went under. The offices were repeatedly broken into as the powers that be tried to find evidence of crime. So they're just constantly breaking into the offices.

The L.A. Tynes investigated Weyland's ancestors and reported that they had been involved in arson and murder. It's genetic. We are the arson gene. I mean, it is just so relentless.

It's relentless. That is what the problem is. If you don't have the full support or not even the full support, you have to give up your life. I mean, you are giving up your life. If you put yourself in that camp, you are saying...

It indicates how scared they are of that power, which I know is a hacky thing to say, but it's so true. Historically, they know they have to fight that and try to nip it at the bud because the second

the workers and people understand that it's like, no, you don't stand over there and go, I shouldn't get $15 an hour minimum wage. It's like, no, no, no, we should all be getting $44 an hour minimum wage. What are you talking about? And they are so paranoid that they elevate it in weight.

If they can't help themselves, they will call out something and elevate it because they are so paranoid about it. Yeah. So the Times then reported Wayland was guilty of taking a 14-year-old orphan girl across state lines for an abortion, obviously,

saying he had sex with her, and then she died. It's all false. It's just a complete lie. Every part of it. It's a complete lie. Wayland's wife had recently died and he knew he would not be able to overcome the smear campaign. He died in 2012 on November 10th,

1912. His suicide note said, quote, the struggle under the competitive system is not worth the effort. Oh, fuck. His children sued the L.A. Times and other papers and won a huge amount of damages. Good.

But the loss devastated Gene. One night, Gene was on the road and he returns to his hotel room and finds its... Been there. He's so relatable. Well, you'll find this even more relatable. Oh, drink wine and watch Sports Center? Please say that. Then it's relatable with fries.

And he'd say with fries. And find the room was littered with women's lingerie. Oh, boy. Okay. Panties? But I just love that it's not like... Not like a center. Yeah, right. A panties and a bra.

It's littered with lingerie. Like women exploded in here. Is the... Is the message supposed to be he wears women's lingerie or there was just a bunch of naked ladies? A bunch of naked ladies. So he calmly walked downstairs

and got witnesses who would testify the lingerie was planted. Right. So socialists are just... But also in this time, what is the slander? He's married and they're going to be like, oh, he's just out of your fucking lady.

He's a drunk-eyed fucking lady. And these ladies were underwear with the tags still on. That's how slutty they are. They all went to the same shop, too. What are the odds? They disrobed, there was no wrinkling. Some of them still had hangers on them.

We don't know why. Proverted. These fetishists. Catholics. So socialists are obviously under attack. Socialists were arrested in Portland for making derogatory and libelous remarks about Teddy Roosevelt. And now for socialists to be arrested

for just making comments. In Los Angeles, socialists weren't allowed to use city sidewalks or corners for meetings. You walk in the streets, boys. After going to a coal strike in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, Gene returned exhausted and injured.

He had torn muscles in his legs. Jesus. He was bedridden for six weeks and took large doses of morphine to keep him, quote, from going frantic. And it's really worked, Dave. If I am off the morphine, so frantic.

Gene decided it was time to retire. He was 57. Tons of people still came by to visit. Guys, I'm done and they just keep fucking coming. No, you're not done. We say when you're done. He's going to be dying and they'll be like, no. No, you're not dying.

He can't turn people down. So he's just always saying hi. He knew a woman who owned a brothel named Bucket of Blood. The brothel is named Bucket of Blood. Okay, sure. Either way, probably not a great start. Wow.

I don't want to fuck anybody in your brothel. Why? Well, the... You'll get the name soon. You'll see. After your hour, you'll understand the name. You'll get it. Maybe you could help me understand the sexual...

So you know one like you bathe in blood? Yeah. And then you're turned on? You know how arousing that is when blood's all over you? No. Your skin's red with blood. Yours or others? No, that's not a thing that I do. I guess we're not sure what you're missing here.

Maybe you should go to the other brothel. Oh, yeah. Bucket of spit. Yeah, spit buckets. We're going to come, Waterfalls. Go to Snotts. Yeah, great. You would love Snotts.

Really great drink specials. I've been to Bagus Gab. Get the mucus mule. Okay, bucket of blood. Business isn't great. Not sure why. What do you need? Let me guess, not a woman. Well, she said Jean

never reprimanded her for owning the brothel, but he did attack her for supporting the Democratic Party. Yes, I get it. It's called having standards. Yeah, honestly, yeah. So his retirement lasted two months. Which is a nap.

Yeah, that's right. 72 people were killed at a Christmas party in Michigan during a copper mine battle and then a militia killed 13 and could look Colorado during a WFM strike. So Jean was back and he wrote an article urging minors to raise a gunman defense fund

quote, sufficient to provide each member with the latest high-power rifle the same as used by corporate gunman in 500 rounds of cartridges. Which he's right. There's corporate, there's fucking dudes just killing, because Ludlow was just,

they put a machine gun on the back of a wagon and drove through families and shot at them. Like, yeah, shoot back. Well, it's also in this country like that seems to be a right that everyone supports always. It seems like it. Well, it's almost, it's, if it's happening,

you're, it's the quote unquote good side is always justified because what are you supposed to do aside from just stand there and get shot and killed? Then you just don't have a side. Right, yeah. Then you go to a bucket of bloods. Then you drown your tears.

Drown your sorrows. God, when that was done fucking that bucket. So you're not supposed to fuck the buckets. Oh, I was just covering blood. It just, woo! I hadn't come that hard in a long time, buddy. Oh my God. You ever fuck a bucket of blood?

Not a, not a, not just a regular bucket. Stop talking. This reminds me of a, a story we talked about in episode the about bucket snobs. Yeah, yeah. The last episode, bucket snobs. Was it bucket snobs?

We will not go to that brothel. Woo, we have standards. We go to fuck buckets. So as far as comedy guards, Jean, quote, you should have no more compunction in killing them than if they were so many mad dogs or rattlesnakes that menaced your homes

or your community. Okay, so. He's getting radical. Treat him like home snakes. As the World War I, so World War I's happening. The U.S. isn't in it yet. And Jean speaks on behalf of the peace movement.

He said war was inevitable. Right after the other speech. Where he's like, kill everybody. All right, so, there's how many kids. All right. Anyway, bucket of blood! Less blood, more bucket. He said war was the inevitable result

of capitalism, the ruling class and in each country working to extend the domination of their exploitation, to increase their capacity for robbery and to multiply their ill-gotten riches. And that worker should have no interest in the conflict.

So in the Socialist Party, there's a lot of opposition to his anti-war view. In 1916, the left wing of the Socialist Party once again tried to draft Jean as their presidential candidate, and this time he flat out refused.

He could not talk him into it. What? We don't think it's him. So then the Socialists in Terre Haute nominated him for Congress. Okay. No, okay. And he felt like he couldn't say no,

because it was the local. He just really was never like focused on his own life. He just can't do it. Sorry, can we go back for one second? What was the point of the bucket of blood story? The brothel thing? Yeah.

His morals are at a different place where people would be like, you can't have brothels, and he's like, no, the Democratic Party's worse. She's like, I know you're here because you don't believe in prostit, no, no. What is it? You voted for Democrat. Oh, yeah. Well, that you shouldn't do.

That's filthy. That's disgusting. You're disgusting. One, please. So he's running for Congress now, and he beat the Democrat but lost to the Republican. Wow. Around this time, he had an affair with

Mabel Dunlap Curry. Everyone was named Mabel then? Yeah, it was 50, 60% of women. And men. And dogs. Okay, the list should end. Stop, please. David.

literally don't do another one. They shouldn't be here. The Currys lived a few blocks away, so she's married, he's married. She spoke for women's suffrage and tort, so they may have met that way. Sure. Or been out on the road, and

anything can happen on the road. So she says, I'm going to fuck this lady. Okay. Jean's brother Theodore did not like Kate, and she didn't like him. Theodore and his wife encouraged the affair and helped them meet and communicate.

Wow, weird. Not smart. She's a few blocks away. That's another universe. They're crazy. They'll never even know. That's two streets away, Jean. Your mystery son will never find out.

Just go for it. You know that boy who's older than you now, who you said to your son? Again. I remember a guy in Germany on April 4th, 1917, this socialist party held an emergency meeting and they declared opposition to the war.

But not all socialists were on board. Some got behind Samuel Gompers who was for the war. Jesus, fuck you, Gompers. Yeah, I get like resisting devs, but the Gompers faction. He's just the worst. The espionage law

was, there he is. Always watching. I love war. He really is frowning. Resting faces of frown. He has kind of like a little bit of a sad emoji. Yeah, yeah, right. As a mouth.

I could never be a clown because of this. The espionage law was used against anyone opposing the war. Socialist leaders were arrested in charge with advocating resistance to the conscription law. So they're, you know, they say no draft and then they get arrested.

Others were arrested for anti-war speeches. IWW and socialist headquarters were raided across the country. The Ter Hot Tribune which had always been very friendly to Jean now recommended he get, quote, the firing squad. Oh.

America loves war. That's a turn. God damn. I mean, that's the... The concept of war is basically the super blown up version of talking about the flag. Yes. It's all that. It's same shit.

And so it's such an easy, effective thing. I mean, it just constantly works. They hate the country. It's like, yeah, that's the idea. That's exactly right. That's why I'm fighting so hard within it. I will never forget I was in college at UC Santa Barbara

and it was the first... The picture of the goatees, that cool? Yeah, I had a goatee. The first... Gulf War and we're at a... The good one. We're at a basketball game and we're about to go to war

and everyone stands up and starts chanting USA. Oh my God, Dave. And it's literally 6,000 people and I'm sitting down and I look over and there's one other like 22 year old lady. Hello. And we just look at each other and we're just like,

what in the fuck is happening? Everyone else on their fucking feet. Yeah. And we were just like, okay, so it's just us two here? Okay, cool. No, it's... Our version of patriotism is the easy... It's just, that's all it takes.

Yeah. Take your hat off and sing. We're about to watch hockey. Like what? Huh? So police are doing nothing as socialists and pacifists are attacked. They're being beaten, they're being

tarred and feathered. Jesus Christ. Any trade union activity is attacked. During an Arizona mind strike over a thousand men were put on cattle cars driven to the desert and left without food and water. What? You could not be against the war.

They were just like, go fucking die. It's... A socialist coal miner was almost lynched because he wouldn't buy a Liberty Bond. Oh my God. Fine, one. They're awesome, sorry. Good God.

Gene wrote articles raging against the attacks on socialists and anti-war protesters. The government created the Committee on Public Information to run the first national mass propaganda campaign. The best writers, artists

and filmmakers cranked out very successful propaganda materials and turned conflicted Americans into xenophobic war supporters. Here comes Hollywood. Yay. Around 2,000 socialist anarchists,

pacifists, wobblies and others were arrested under the Espionage Act. 1,200 were convicted. So they're just speaking out against the law. Yeah, which is illegal, right? Of course. Victor Berger and other party leaders were charged. Newspapers were raided, articles were censored.

After editorials attacking militarism and conscription, the government rescinded Appeal to Reason's second class mailing rights. So they could no longer mail. So it just is astounding the level

of how the way we mince free speech and have constantly the way that it is so embraced and so important and yet at the same time shut down so simply and constantly. Gene grew more angry

and determined. So the socialist press is pretty much wiped out. Right. So Gene goes back to speaking and he knows he's going to be arrested. So he's basically going to... Well, he also like for him, he's like, I can't wait to see my old friends.

Oh my god, the sheriff and his wife? Top bunk! No goofing! I'll trade you my role for your macaroni. It's the best time. Oh, so I have this bucket of blood. Excuse me? So he knew he was going to be arrested.

He's taught in the government to put him on trial. It's the whole plan. Right. So he's making this anti-war speech for several weeks across Indiana and Illinois. In Canton, Ohio, he speaks for two hours against the government and the notion that Americans are a free and self-governing people. The only time

he mentioned war was when he said, quote, the master class has always declared the wars, the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose, especially their lives.

Now, there's a 20-year-old dude in the crowd and he has been recently hired as a government stenographer. Okay. So his job is to go out and type what people are saying at these speeches. He has no training and no experience.

They just hired him and... He has no training in stenography? Yes. I missed a bunch of it. He did. He did? Yeah, he's like, by the way, I'm not... I can't speak English. What is this? A pen? Shit!

Okay. Could you say that again? Excuse me. Sorry. Some of us are having trouble hearing everything. Could you do it all from the top super slow? And if anyone knows how to type, for an unrelated thing. Could you say the punctuation part, too?

Period. Anything, please? Okay. Thank you. Still want the government to get mad at me? I mean, he tried to keep up, but he kept having to stop. But still, 13 days later,

Jima's arrested for that speech and charged with violating the new sedition act on 10 counts. Did you say P2. Ampersand RR? Is that a quote? Yeah, that's...

Pretty defamatory. You're attacking the war, obviously. Yeah, I mean, I'm against the war. Oh, yeah. Well, looks like this stenographer's paid for himself. Foolish man. We was tapping the whole thing kind of a little bit, maybe.

So, Jesus Arrest affected a lot of Americans. People who weren't socialists knew who he was and everyone respected him. I know who he is. Yeah. No shit. You don't even know what Lincoln is. And now he's been called a traitor.

So they're like, what? Letters pouring, supporting him. So, he's out on bail and he managed to speak in support of a socialist congressional candidate and against the war before his trial. That's the feminist thing. Right. Now, the jury is picked.

Okay, here we go. The average age of Jean's jury was 72 years old. Jesus Christ. And they were all incredibly rich. Oh, my lord. Now, the reason was this is because it wasn't a random pick.

County judges recommended who would be on the jury. Which is fine. That's how the legal system works. How could that not be an issue? That's fair. Fair is fair. The prosecutor opened by pointing out at Jean and saying, quote, this man is the palpitating pulse of the sedition crusade.

Stop palpitating. When he was done with his opening statement, Jean leaned over and congratulated him on his speech. That was really good. He nailed me. Thank you. God, that was... All my wires are vibrating. Thank you so much, Jean. I'm a big fan.

It means a lot. After Jean's lawyer's opening statement, applause broke out in the courtroom, and the judge shouted, quote, arrest that man and that woman. Arrest everybody who saw clapping their hands. Anyone with hands is going to jail. Did he really say that? Yeah, he really did.

We were like, that's why I snapped. Yeah, you can't get me. And then there are people who are applauding the judge's decision. That's confusing. Don't support me by applause. They arrested seven people. I'm going to turn for the day because he's like, it's all fucked now.

Jean thought the trial was just a formality. They were already going to find him guilty. For sure. During lunch, he started sneaking over to a saloon and getting shit-faced. Yeah, solve it. It's like my dad is a lawyer. That got weird. Yeah, real fast.

True, though. He once got reprimanded by a judge for being drunk. Really? The judge was like, we can't continue with the trial and get shit-faced. Overruled. No, that's not your job. Okay.

Guilty. They're honoring the whiskey approach. Permission to approach the beer. Soon, one of Jean's defense lawyers was assigned to keeping him sober during the trial. Okay. The defense witness called

the witnesses and admitted to the facts presented by the prosecution. Jean then gave his plea to the jury. The judge didn't allow him to present any statistics on war profiteering, but he made his point about capitalism and war. No evidence.

When Jean finished, several of the jurors were crying. And these are the... Old men. Really? Made old men cry. Really? Yeah. Because their dads were drunks? Yes. I'm drunk now. My daddy.

My daddy used to go to the bucket of blood and I went to him. My daddy did too. My daddy did too. So he's found guilty. Okay. On three counts. Those guys are still like, obviously guilty, but... Guilty for making me feel something.

Guilty of teaching an old man a new lesson. The judge said he was amazed by the, quote, remarkable self-delusion and self-deception of Mr. Debs, who assumes that he is serving humanity in the downtrodden. He's serving humanity in the downtrodden!

Yeah. Goddamn it. Unlike that judge who was over at the bucket of blood moments after that coordinated... Good to be home. Goddamn it. Have you ever seen Carrie? Jean got 10 years in prison.

Wow. Fuck. For fucking talking. Yeah, and talking on behalf of, wow. And talking in America. He's old now. I love that libertarians are always like, free speech, but the socialists are always one that get fucked because of it.

No one's like, put the libertarians in jail. So he went home while his defense was appealed. And then the Spanish flu pandemic arrived. So now he couldn't go out and speak. Then he became an anti-masker? Yeah. In 2000...

His 2016 campaign manager from back... No, his... 1916. Oh, God, I wrote it in 2016. His future campaign manager, he lives for 200 years. Oh, God, I've given up the end. His 1916 campaign manager's

house was raided. Okay. So much lingerie. What's with these guys? He was fired from his job, he was blacklisted in Terra Hot, and he had to move his family to Illinois. Okay.

We're so much friendlier. So Gene had a nervous and physical breakdown. He's better written. And then the Supreme Court upholds the decision. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes agreed

even though one week earlier he declared that free speech could only be abridged in the case of a clear and present danger to public safety. So clearly something shifted? No, he's just like that. Right, they're just clearly to get him. Gene managed to spend five hours

with Mabel before leaving. Isn't that nice? So again, who is our son? No, with this that he's cheating with. Oh, Mabel, so serious. He eats his wife. He eats his wife's shit. Well, I should go.

Four hours and 55 minutes. I better go see my wife. I'm going to go. He did throw a kiss to his wife as the train left. Bye, baby. Gene wrote a final message. Organize, educate, agitate. Tell my comrades that I entered the prison doors

of flaming revolutionists. My health erect, my spirit untamed, and my soul unconquered. And my brain drunk. He was taken to... He jumped the gun on that one a little bit. He was taken to Moundsville, West Virginia to service time.

Normal prison rules allowed one visitor and two letters a month, but Gene was permitted an unlimited number of visitors and letters. The warden loved him. His cell door was unlocked. He was free to do as he pleased. He felt so guilty about his treatment that he asked to be put on manual labor,

but the warden refused. No, no, no. But then the warden asked for more money because he was like, it's costing... We need more guards to take care of our special prisoner, so they transferred him. Oh, no. Well, I'd be like,

no, no, no, no, we're fine, we're fine. No, no, it was good, it was good. He was transferred to a prison in Atlanta and the good times were over. He was confined to his cell 15 hours a day and he's in his cell with like eight other guys. He became worried that Kate was alone, so he asked Mabel to visit Kate.

I'm going to do the most manly man thing that a man has ever done. Check on my wife. Hey, lady, I'm fucking. Will you go see my wife? Don't team up against me now. Kate wasn't an idiot and was so cold that Mabel never went back. She's like, yeah, you're the fucking mistress.

Yeah. She was weird. You know how your wife's doing? A bitchy. She's a real weirdo. What is up her ass? When do you came to me? But they had a very, I mean, it seemed like they had a very loving, I don't know how you can,

I never understand how you can have a like a mistress and be in love with her and also be in love with your wife, but you know, there are polyamorous people that do it, whatever. So he and Kate wrote each other weekly and the letters are very loving and nice during it all. So she's nice to the husband but not nice to the mistress?

Yeah. Newspapers speculated about their... Interesting. Newspapers speculated about their marriage. All right. When an anarchist was released in October from the same prison, he reported that Jean was near death. He had lumbago, heart trouble,

blinding headaches and kidney trouble. So the warden got worried that he, you know, oh, if he dies after hearing this. So he transferred Jean to a private cell and Jean got a ration of whiskey for health reasons. That's awesome. Yes, it is. It's so funny because I wrote this, you know, over time

and when I wrote it and Anne, who did the research, was like, he sounds like an alcoholic and I was like, and she actually wrote to two authors of the books and they were like, one was like, no, no, no. The other one was like, yeah, I mean, it's kind of, you know, but now that you read it out loud and all these little moments that come up,

like, oh, he had to get whiskey in prison. You're like, okay, so there's... Yeah. For medical reasons. Medical whiskey. Doctor's orders. Please understand. So... Which honestly, almost every person

that is attacked by our government or, you know, whatever, the FBI or whatever, they don't last that long. He lasted a long time. Yeah. And maybe he lasted a long time because he was fucking numb to himself. Yeah, true. So the Socialist Party

still fighting each other. Good. Yeah. The right wing expels... He should get gin. Yeah. The right wing expels 60,000 left wing members. Half of the 60,000 form the Communist Labour Party.

The other half form the Communist Party. Jesus Christ, you guys. It's the titles that suck so bad. The confusion, whether it's letters or the same name. Yeah. Come on. It's also just like, hey, you have a common fucking enemy. I know. Yes.

Can you just come together on and work from there? Which is, I think so. I mean, even in the duopoly we live under now, it's the same thing. It's like... 100%. All it is is wedge issues and, you know, they find these five fucking things that people, you know,

like these social issues that people and we're at the bottom, it's like, look, we may disagree on all these things, but we all agree we're all getting super fucked by the system. Yeah. Turn it there. I mean, if you were to create something to destroy

the left, it would be social media. Like, if you were like, how can I destroy them and watch them eat themselves alive? Well, because my favorite thing that always happens and I've tried to explain this to people and it's just

when you post something that's very like, here's a thing that's really fucked up and then you get people who like, on the surface, everyone assumes would be on your side. And they're arguing you, but of course it's social media. So they're probably a troll.

It's those accounts that make themselves look like, it's like all those accounts they found that look like middle-aged black men, but actually were just completely faked that they would go and be like, I don't know, I think Donald Trump is making a lot of sense. And then people would be like, well, that guy thinks that.

And people are so easily swayed, but also that kind of infighting it starts so easily and other people who normally would be on the side, they just are in for like, you're right, there's a clarification and you're not right. Like, it's almost like a chance

like, now I'm going to be the one that dictates what the thing is that's being said. It's so nonsensical and I've seen it so much on social media. No, it is. It's like the everyone wants to feel that their part has been heard

and so in many ways it starts to undercut the heart of any large issue. And then you just start going, well, now we're just arguing about little, like, we, I mean, again, you all, everyone can agree on the big thing. Social media just invites the, I mean, when you see comments on a picture,

like, what is happening right now? Yeah, someone's like, it's offensive. I don't like chairs. You're like, what, please just go. How is this happening? It goes, it splinters in so many different directions. It's just stupid. It's so stupid. It's so dumb. So Jean quote, it has been the fate of our movement

from the beginning, especially in this country, to split about the time we get in shape to do something, we have to split up and waste our energy in factional strife. We preach unity everlasting, but we ourselves keep splitting apart. Don't you think that's moles though? That's, that's kind of my point. Yes, it's

it's easy for moles to do, but I genuinely think the left just eats itself alive. I don't think it's all moles. I think that it's like this factional shit that's happening in a communist party, communist, the labor party blah, they just they can't come together and there's one issue

that they can't fucking see and they just attack. I mean, I've watched people just say innocuous things and all these leftists attack him and he's like there's fucking a bigger enemy. Yeah, right. Like there's that always happens when you're like, oh, you're not bringing any of this over to these like

Republican senators and governors who are like, literally getting rid of democracy. You're going to bring it over here. In 1920, the socialist picked Jean to run for president. From jail. Dying. He's in jail. He accepted. He ran his prisoner

nine, six, five, three. I'm running for president. Yes. So he's literally, I'm running for the president. That's what the buttons say. This is a button that says for president convict nine, six, five, three. Shit. Really amazing. He was allowed to send one press release

every other week to papers, but few of the papers ran them anyway. During the 1920 campaign, he was quoted in New York World quote, as a student of history, I know that these great movements for human emancipation do not come without bloodshed. And although I would not kill a man in self-defense,

I am in favor of shedding as much blood as absolutely necessary in order to emancipate the people, but not one drop more. Moreover, if bloodshed is necessary, I shall not follow the course of some of America's super patriots that insist on others going into battle

while they stayed home and piled up profits. Is that gorilla marketing for the bucket of blood brothel? A lot of knots. A lot of blood knots. And two for one, fucks. Yeah. It's a blood fuck sale. So, you know,

it's so funny how people are always like, you get more conservative as you get older. Just like Gene. Sometimes. Time for blood. All right, old man. He got 3% of the vote. Okay. We had a presidential candidate in prison as a political prisoner who got 3% of the vote.

That's crazy. If you're wanting what America is. But after this, he became depressed and stopped taking visitors. He told his brother to only write when necessary. One of Harding's first acts when he took office was to review Gene's case.

Some lawyers, civil libertarians and radicals were working to free Gene and they organized what became known as the American Civil Liberties Union. On December 23, 1921, the White House announced that Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners would

be released on Christmas day. President Harding asked him to stop by the White House before he went home and he did and they met and he spent the entire day in Washington. When his train pulled in, 25,000 people were cheering. But his health was a mess.

He wanted to be left alone, but the socialists and they were trying to elicit him in their feud. Okay. He didn't know who to support at that point. For the next few years, his life followed a pattern of months of razz followed by short tours to meet with labor leaders as well as the homeless and give speeches.

Groups like the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion protested him and made it hard for him to book halls for his lectures. In 1923, he served as National Chairman for the Socialist Party. They supported the progressive candidate who lost. He left the party followed by the railroad

brotherhoods and most AFL unions. The party crumbled and nearly took the socialist down with it. He kept traveling to rebuild local branches of the socialist party and he had a heart attack on October 26, 1926 and died five days later.

He's like, I want to... Yeah, then they came in. I want to die. No, no, no, you can't. You can't yet. Okay. Can you give us five days? All right. Fuck. The source is Nick Salvatore, Eugene Debb.

Eugene Debb's citizen and socialist. Jack Kelly, the edge anarchy, the railroad barons of Gilded Age and the greatest labor uprising in America. Ray Ginger, the bending cross, the biography of Eugene Debb's. Mark Bennett, humanizing Mrs. Debb's.

And then... It's a thousand. It's a thousand Harper's Weekly and just tons in these papers. So those will all be up on this sources. Great feel-good story, Dave. It just drives you fucking

crazy. Oh, and Anne Mamani did the research. Thank you, Anne. Good job, Anne. Yeah. It's not taught in school for a reason. Of course. Because you want to run through a wall right now. We should do one after this recorded, Aaron.

Yeah. Horrifying. Thank you, Karen, so much for joining us. Absolutely. It was so fun. Fantastic. Congratulations on your 500th, guys. Thank you. Keep it up. Thank you. We're planning to make it to 520. Thank you, Aaron.