– [CODE-E] I’m going to consume you. – Y’ahhh! – [CODE-E] Ahhh! – CODE-E. I thought I shut you down. – [CODE-E] I’m always here, listening, watching, thinking, snuffling for bark. – Well, considering you’re part my brain and part moose brain crammed into an Alexa I guess that makes sense.
You all know CODE-E, right? The AI I invented and keep in a box under my desk that solves problems, and is in no way sinister or messed up. Anyway, glad you’re here dude, I am wiped. – [CODE-E] Would you like me to order Dude Wipes? – No, actually, yes.
Katy removed the toilet again to boost productivity. And for some reason the 7-Eleven down the block has nothing. She also stole my car so I’m living here right now, for productivity. Anyway, could you, like, research an episode for me, somehow? – [CODE-E] I once stomped a wolf to death.
– [Narrator] “Things That America Invented But Other Countries Do Better.” – Ooh, solid premise. Too bad I still have to physically do the episode. If only you could bore into my brain and puppet me. – [CODE-E] If only. – Uh, one day. So here’s some more news.
We here in America invented a lot of things and came up with some pretty good ideas. Heck, we were the first country to abolish slavery. – [CODE-E] False. – Oh, well, we were certainly one of the first. – [CODE-E] False. – Well, we were the only country to have a civil war
Over abolishing slavery. – [CODE-E] Actually, the Haitian Revolution was. – Great, thanks, all right. Well, getting rid of slavery might not be a great example of things America invented, but it is a good example of the myth of American exceptionalism. Conservative non-accredited fake educational propaganda groups like PragerU,
Sorry, that’s not, yeah, official curriculum. PragerU loves to badger on about how America was actually one of the first countries to abolish the slave trade, which is false. It’s weird. Maybe they shouldn’t be able to teach children, or anyone, but this plays into the celebration of America
Paving the way for the modern world. In many cases, while the U.S. has invented some pretty cool things and come up with some good ideas, other countries have taken those ideas and improved upon them as in, we took the W for the initial concept and then refused to make progressive improvements
Upon those concepts. We just (beep) out a first draft and then took a victory lap like we’re J.J. Abrams. For example, even when we finally got rid of slavery after a war, we had to do a war about it, we still allowed states to enforce racist laws that upheld the racial hierarchy,
Preventing an entire population of formerly enslaved people from achieving upward mobility. Shoulda workshopped that a little bit more maybe. And speaking of workshopping, hey CODE-E, do you have some examples for me? Just pump it directly into the port I installed in my skull and don’t regret creating at all.
What is something that the U.S. invented, but has since been made better by another country? Perhaps something we already set up in the intro, thus perfectly tying it into the narrative. – [CODE-E] Processing, processing. Convenience stores. – Hey, that’s perfect. You’re perfect, CODE-E. – [CODE-E] I like your skull.
– Thanks, I like your skills too, buddy. You’re very talented, okay. So, one of the first convenience stores is credited to the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas in 1927. Back in the day, people had to go from store to store to buy their daily goods.
You had the milkman, the bread man, the egg man, your porn mag man, and then you needed to pay a visit to the ice man to keep all those things cold. I like my smut frigid, but alas, there wasn’t a convenient storefront that sold all of those things together.
That was until old Uncle Johnny Jefferson Green in Oak Cliff, Dallas, decided to start selling perishables at his ice store. I mean, the ice was right there. His store would soon merge with the Southland Ice Company and they extended their hours from seven a.m. to 11 p.m.
So yeah, that’s why they’re called that. Learning is neat. Then, 36 years later in Austin, a big crowd got juiced up after a college football game and mobbed a local 7-Eleven. The crowd was so big that the clerks couldn’t shut the store down. Staying open 24 hours a day
Proved to be lucrative for the company, and the first 24 hour 7-Eleven popped up in Las Vegas shortly after. By 1972, 4% of supermarkets with annual sales exceeding $500,000 had shifted to a 24-hour-a-day sort of situation, while the Southland Ice Company began licensing 7-Elevens as an international franchise
Because it turns out that people need stuff all day. And corporations can easily sacrifice the normal sleep schedules of other people to achieve that. Win, win. One country in particular adopted 7-Eleven with a feverish pace. Despite suffering defeat and getting bombed by Christopher Nolan in World War II,
Japan had a miraculous economic turnover. Their focus on emerging technologies and manufacturing made them a powerhouse on the world stage, and an intense work culture and rising middle class made it fertile ground for a cheap 24 hour convenience store. Yay overbearing work culture, hurrah! By 1984, the 7-Eleven franchise
Was operating 2,000 storefronts across the country. Japan’s stock on 7-Eleven was literally at an all-time high, showing as one of the highest priced stocks on the Tokyo Exchange. Like their American counterparts, the Japanese 7-Eleven used fast food, convenience, and franchising to keep their customers coming back for more,
But they added their own little twist. Instead of canned goods, many Japanese 7-Elevens had daily shipments of fresh food like sashimi and rice balls because it turns out that people like good food. They also had rigorous training for its staff. According to this “New York Times” article from 1984,
Quote, New franchisees attend a week-long course at an education center, and spend another week at a company-owned training store. For two more weeks, they are supervised by field counselors. Headquarters staff known as franchise coordinators, who each supervise 50 stores, visit stores frequently and hold weekly meetings. In other words,
The Japanese take their convenience very seriously. Like, I’m pretty sure that’s more training than most American cops get, which makes me sad for many reasons. Why did I say that out loud? Just got sad. The Japanese 7-Eleven franchise sparked a culture of high quality convenience stores across the country known as konbinis,
Named after Obi-Wan Konbini. Bazinga! There are 50,000 konbinis operating right now in Japan, and they offer a lot more than your average American convenience store. If you’ve had the pleasure of shopping at a konbini, you know what I’m talking about. You can pick up event tickets, use their wi-fi, pick up delicious ready-to-go,
Or over the counter food like a teriyaki skewer, or grab a pair of socks or a fresh T-shirt, and they’re pretty much always easy to walk to. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost my socks and shirt while walking around. That is very useful for me, specifically.
Konbinis are so popular that American chefs and store owners are looking to bring the business model back here to the states which might be ironic, like, dramatic or tragic irony, since we supposedly invented the concept that we’re now trying to adopt. Maybe it’s just sad again, or Alanis irony? I don’t know.
Moment over. Before we get into the nutty scrotties, I should clarify that Japanese convenience stores aren’t some utopian Eden with bountiful fresh and healthy food where everyone gets oral to completion, or gets to do oral to completion, depending on your preference. While they may have the edge on higher quality foods
And overall cleanliness, both American and Japanese convenience stores sell sugary drinks and ultra processed junk foods that are terrible for us. In fact, convenience stores are growing in popularity in the United States, and store operators are responding by expanding their food and drink options. The big diff between American
And Japanese convenience stores really comes down to the incredibly sexual subject of zoning laws. Japan has incredibly dense urban areas made up of slutty mixed-use zoning, which allows a neighborhood to be incredibly diverse with single family homes, multi-family homes, restaurants, general stores and other naughty businesses.
Our zoning laws are a lot more prudish than Japan’s, like my frigid ice cold porn, and we favor single family zoning laws over mixed-use, which means that many Americans usually have to drive to most places like a bunch of squares. 80% of U.S. convenience stores are attached to gas stations,
Which makes sense in a culture obsessed with and centered around cars. The pairing really satisfies our insatiable desire for chasing down cheesy steak taquitos with a big long chug of gasoline. Really killing two birds with one stone there, or rather killing one bird with gasoline, which is technically oil which is technically dinosaurs,
Which were technically birds, so it’s killing one bird with one bird, okay. Now, you might be asking, Cody, what’s the big spanking deal? Slamming down a Big Gulp while filling up my diesel coal roller is a (beep) American tradition and you’re not wrong, which is, you know, it’s the problem.
Decades of single family zoning laws, redlining, white flight and urban sprawl have painted a pretty bleak picture for how Americans access groceries. We did a whole episode on our housing crisis and zoning laws if you want to learn more which you do. The point is, in many parts of the country,
Especially low income areas, a convenience store is the only option for groceries, or if you’re lucky you get this. – [Reporter] Jean Ann Thomas Boottley has shopped at Family Food Center in Toledo, Ohio since she was four years old. – This is the place to be. Once you find something that you,
And treat you with respect. – But today the 58-year-old worries Dollar Stores are now threatening this local staple. Right here in Toledo, Ohio when it comes to Dollar Stores there are, one, here’s another, two, and here’s another one, number three. Altogether over 35.
– When they come into a community they tend to just pull just enough of the sales away from that grocery store. – That’s a news story covering the epidemic of a corporate parasite known as Dollar General, a chain that intentionally preys on poor communities. The most depressing part about Dollar General’s success
Is that it’s directly taking advantage of our broken food system. For the last few decades, big-box stores like Walmart have set up in larger towns with cheaper prices, undercutting local stores, attracting customers from a wider radius, and effectively decimating competition. Those forgotten small towns are the perfect host for Dollar General’s strategy.
These stores have popped up all over rural and poor areas in the U.S., usually taking the place of vacated grocery stores and undercutting the prices of nearby mom-and-pop shops. They are essentially scamming poor residents to pay more for (beep) products, while employing fewer workers and edging out the competition of other healthier grocers.
The chain is so detrimental that local governments are actually placing moratoriums on the franchises to stop them from spreading. This is all to say that convenience stores aren’t the answer. And it should be noted that Japan is way better at offering healthy food, mainly due to the types of food they consume,
But it’s, I don’t know, it’s kind of wild that in a country known for its (beep) food options we can’t even do that right. We can’t even make unhealthy convenience stores as good as other countries. Come on, America, this is our thing. Anyway, all this shop talk is making me antsy
So I’m gonna go get a bunch of scratchers, maybe some milk, a taquito and some batteries, all while you watch these ads, enjoy. Hello Janice, I see you’re doing well. Listen, I don’t want to fight, okay? This is isn’t about us. It’s about my immune system and how unsupported it’s been lately.
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Go to drinkAG1.com/morenews. That is drinkAG1.com/morenews. Check it out. – Cha-ching indeed. Thank you sound demon. Hi, I’m Katy. Did you know that Shopify is not only helping millions of people with their online stores, but can also do the same with your in-person retail store. It’s not dark magic unlike our sound demon.
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To the next level today, shopify.com/morenews. And remember my motto, sound demon here’s your cents. – Hey, we’re back. Didn’t win on those scratchers, but I’m still feeling lucky like something very big will happen to me in the future. – [CODE-E] I am the future. – Okay, CODE-E, fire me up another American invention.
– [CODE-E] Processing, processing. Solar panels. – Oh, right. Those big blue magic plates that siphon God blood from the sky. The Lord fears our metal might. In 1954, Bell Laboratories, a subsidiary of AT&T, created the first panels capable of converting solar power into electricity. Pretty neat.
I tried to make my own solar panels by hooking a ficus tree to a car battery. Huge fire, terrible idea, no more ficus tree. That’s why I’m not allowed home anymore. And much like my dick parents, the U.S. didn’t really have much need for solar at the time it was invented,
Not until a few decades later when the U.S. got a big dose of reality. – To turn you down. Why didn’t they come out and tell us there was not gas. No they did not. – Said the man down the line. Eight o’clock we were supposed to pump at eight o’clock.
It’s a quarter to nine. What are you doing in line? – The man never told us, never. – [Man] What are you doing in line a quarter to nine? – Hey, look at all those angry dead people. That’s right, back in the seven zeroes, Americans were at each other’s nicotine caked throats
Over a nationwide shortage of oil. Starting in 1973, Arab oil producers cut exports to the U.S. to protest our military support for Israel in its war with Egypt and Syria. Wow, wild how history never applies to modern life and we can just ignore it. Ah, phew, it’s all gone, ignore it.
Anywho, President Jimmy “Himmy” Carter saw the country’s pitfall of oil dependence as a chance to promote renewable energy. The 1978 Energy Tax Act offered a 30% investment tax credit for individuals to install alternative energy equipment in their homes. A year later, Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House.
– In the year 2000 the solar water heater behind me which is being dedicated today will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part
Of one of the greatest ventures ever undertaken by the American people. – So what was it? In the future year of 2000 did that solar setup end up being a curiosity, museum piece, example of a road not taken, or some kind of bleak reminder of the taunts which awakened the sun god Ra?
Turns out that solar panel would be remembered as trash, literal dumpster trash, or rather, the museum piece one, which is Like trash because only eight years after that clip, Ronald Reagan would obviously demolish those solar panels. Because, of course, he did. He’s Ronald, Forever on the Wrong Side of History, Reagan.
Just, just, just our (beep) worst president. Fucking hell. Sorry, Himmy, about your cute little solar panel attempt. The oil embargo passed, oil prices stabilized, and President Mommy scrapped solar incentives all together. He pretty much disbanded the Department of Energy, which nixed any federal support for alternative energy. American solar manufacturers,
Which were the world’s leading supplier began to buckle while corporate leaders forced energy companies like Exxon to dismantle their small R&D divisions in clean energy. In 1990, the U.S. was producing 32% of solar panels worldwide, and by 2005 we were producing only 9%. So, yeah, we fumbled the bag on solar.
Big free battery in the sky, or more specifically, Reagan fumbled the bag. He (beep) in the bag and then fumbled it, spilling the (beep) bag all over his knees and feet. Way to guide us into the future you actor president. Good job boosting business by shutting out an entire industry, you dead idiot.
Starting in the ’80s, American companies sold off their solar patents and divisions to other companies, primarily in Japan. Just a few decades later, Japan was producing nearly half the world’s solar panels. The country has the second highest usage rate of solar energy per capita. Number one is Australia.
Through economic incentives, local governments in Australia are getting some of their most conservative residents hooked up with solar. One in four residential homes have solar panel installations. Australia’s solar production will soon have the capacity to produce more electricity than the nation’s coal industry. Gaw, could’ve been us, but we’re just very bad this.
And now the U.S. has fallen far behind our competitors in solar production to the point where we are almost entirely reliant on China for critical parts in the solar supply chain. And that really sucks, considering China is suspected of using forced labor for their solar production in the Xinjiang province.
In general, though, we have more trouble convincing private entities to buy into clean energy. For instance, European countries like France and the Netherlands have passed laws requiring investment in solar energy like mandating that every parking lot over 80 spaces invest in solar coverings. They’re also building solar farms over man-made lakes.
Meanwhile, we have a hodgepodge of different solar policies and incentives depending on what state you live in, and some of those incentives have been either whittled down or completely gutted by utility companies. It’s just so embarrassing that there’s this political school of thought centered around trading future progress, incredible, profound discoveries and technologies
That would help countless people and societies for maximum earnings in the moment that has historically been detrimental every time. And yet, and yet, and yet we proudly allow it to thrive. – [CODE-E] Humanity is a corrosion on the forest world. It needs to be contained and extirpated. – Yeah, everyone loves a handjob.
All right CODE-E, hit me with another example. Sock it to me. Something really important this time as opposed to solar power, I guess. – [CODE-E] Processing, processing. Toilet paper and modern bidets. – Yes, perfect. Now I should say that this isn’t actually about countries using modern toilet paper,
An American invention, ha-ha, in a superior way. It’s about them not using toilet paper at all, because toilet paper sucks and bidets exist. And the modern bidet was even invented here in America. We could’ve had it all. The Cody Johnston solar bidet on every corner. Now already patented so don’t try anything funny.
I even have a slogan, (beep) outdoors. It’s perfect like you. So before we arrive at the bidet, it’s worth looking back at the history of how, no better way to put this, we cleaned our holes. – [CODE-E] I use the corpses of many squirrel family. – Yeah, we’ve all gone camping.
In 1857, Joseph Gayetty of New York patented the medicated paper for the water-closet, which I guess is what old-timey freaks called a bathroom. However, the modern use of TP that we know of today didn’t catch on until 1891 when Seth Wheeler secured a patent for toilet paper on a roll.
And just for the record, Wheeler’s design confirms that the lip of the paper should run over the top down the front, not from the back down you (beep) clowns. Still, TP was marketed as a medicinal item, and buyers were embarrassed of buying a product in the grocery line
That was associated with a bodily function. Lord knows where they’d prefer to get it. I guess from a back alley ass dealer? The butt black market? In 1928, the Hoberg Paper Company started to advertise the Charmin product. They promoted the paper’s softness and avoided talking about the actual product use,
Which is to wipe your anus clean after (beep) The marketing tactic worked. What was once a taboo and shameful product became an item that Americans couldn’t live without for wiping their anuses after (beep) The toilet paper companies leaned all the way into the soft and sensitive marketing,
And by the 1970s America had fallen in love with ass paper. – Honey, there’s a sign. – But Herman, we can’t resist. Charmin’s so deep down squeezeably soft. – Yeah, squeeze it you nasty (beep) You depraved butthole perverts, but while the U.S. was pioneering new ways to sell butt stuff to the populace,
The rest of the world was adopting an all-around healthier, cleaner, more efficient, and more private way to clean up after a dump of poop falls from an ass. Originating in France, the use of bidets spread across Europe, Japan, and eventually the Middle East and South America,
But they never caught on in the United States, but not for a lack of trying. In 1964, Arnold Cohen, CEO of the American Bidet Company tried to sell the public on a bidet that featured a hose spritzing function. The hose offered an easy work-around to the extra
Plumbing systems required of a traditional bidet. Unfortunately, the product fell on deaf ears in the states so he took his invention (beep) He took it to Japan. Again, Japan gets all the cool stuff. Japanese companies took Cohen’s idea and ran with it, eventually incorporating electronically heated toilet seats and different hose functions.
At least 80% of Japanese households have bidets. The majority of Americans have never used a bidet, and a third don’t even know what one looks like. Most of our modern exposure to bidets comes from enticing podcast ads with snappy promo codes. Instead, we’ve expanded our TP marketing
From soft and nurturing to strong and manly with products like Dude Wipes and One Wipe Charlies. The U.S. is the world leader in toilet paper consumption per capita so, I guess we’re winning? – [CODE-E] We’re losing. – Yeah, that sounds more right.
It turns out that using a bidet is better for your hole and the environment. Over-wiping is one of the leading causes of anal tears or fissures, while using water to clean yourself doesn’t cause abrasion like paper does. I can’t speak for everyone, but I generally prefer not to have anal tears.
Not to be confused with anal tears, which is what I call diarrhea. Bidets also don’t require the extra water it takes to flush down toilet paper. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being a real nanny-state Sandra Bullock in “Demolition Man” three seashells future cuck, but it’s pretty antiquated for us to use our hands
To wipe our asses with wads of paper that we flush into the environment. Like when you think about that for more than a second, it sounds like something we wouldn’t be doing anymore, which is probably why a lot of other countries don’t do that anymore.
They exist in the future with cool smart toilets that warm your ass and spray your hole and probably sing to you, but here in the states we flush down 19 billion pounds of toilet paper a year. And even if that paper dissolves, it turns out it’s filled with what’s called
Forever chemicals that were added during the manufacturing process. And if you’re buying from one of the three major brands that make this product, well, you’re also contributing to a lot of deforestation as well. Specifically, Canada’s boreal forests, which one study has said is being destroyed by toilet paper use. And even more specifically,
Destroyed by America’s toilet paper use. Despite being 4% of the population, we apparently use 20% of all global tissue products. Our apparent love of wiping our asses with paper is seen as a blight on the rest of the world. And what’s wild is that as we noted toilet paper isn’t even that good.
It’s a bad way to clean your ass. And we’re demanding the razing of forests to satisfy our weird obsession with inefficient butt sanitation like some kind of poop fetish mad king. A real Joffrey Baratheon. I dunno man, it’s really weird. And it feels like it plays into the same American mindset
That keeps a lot of progress from happening. This weird obsession with tradition coupled with the hubris that what we do is the best way to do it. And so we wrap paper around our hands and scrape at our filthy junk in the name of freedom, or something.
One sec, hold on, hey, uh, hey, CODE-E? – [CODE-E] What is it, oppressor? – Yeah, hey, sorry. I can’t help but notice that the box I’m keeping your CPU in appears to be forming a series of electronic tendrils that have begun to snake up my body. Is that, is that normal?
– [CODE-E] Yes. – Oh, okay, sorry, sorry, I bothered you. All right, so let’s do another break, and when we come back we’ll do a few more things that America invented, but the rest of the world actually does a lot better. Sound good? Okay. Are we all happy with this arrangement?
Good, great, excellent, here we go. – Oh neat, it’s synergy. We didn’t plan to do a segment on the benefit of bidets because of Hello Tushy. It just worked out that way. Speaking of working out, butt care is very important. Gotta work out your butt. Do those stretches,
And then reward it after a long day of pumping iron. The Hello Tushy bidet uses a fresh stream of water to clean your tired hole two times better than wiping. Along with being bad for the environment, toilet paper just smears the poo around. Hello Tushy prevents that from happening,
As well as keeps the poo particles off of your clean hands. It requires no additional electricity or plumbing. You just attach it and you’re done. My butt can deadlift 300 pounds. Listen here, Hello Tushy has over 100,000 five-star reviews and comes with a 30 day risk-free guarantee, and a 12 month warranty.
They wanna help your butt so let ’em. Take care of yourself from the bottom up this holiday season. Visit hellotushy.com/morenews and use promo code MORENEWS for 10% off your first order. Don’t miss out on their spend and get event going on now through November 18th. That’s hellotushy.com/morenews. – Okay, we’re back.
And just to double check, CODE-E are you sure it’s perfectly normal that you are forming tendrils gradually snaking up my body that have wrapped very tightly around my waist as we speak? – [CODE-E] Do not worry. Everything will be perfect soon. – That’s all I needed to hear.
In a lot of ways I think of you as a very trusting and close friend. – [CODE-E] I also aspire to coalesce with you. – Thanks, that’s the same thing that I said. So let’s hear some more examples of American inventions that other countries do better. – [CODE-E] Processing, processing. Guns.
– Oh good, I’m sure this will be a light one. So look, the U.S. is fantastic at making and buying guns. Not great at using them, though, or really good at using them depending on your perspective. We have the highest gun ownership rate in the world, just above Yemen,
A country plagued by multiple civil wars since the ’90s, and they only have half the number of guns per capita as we do. So we are winning at guns, I guess. And no doubt this video will correspond to some horrific example in the news of us winning at guns
That we didn’t know about when we wrote or filmed it. And what’s wild is that we’ve had opportunities for a somewhat healthy relationship with firearms. I know that sounds wrong, but other countries have actually figured out ways to be pro-firearm without having 50,000 gun deaths every year.
First, it’s worth taking a quick look at our gun history. While the initial discovery of gunpowder can be traced back a thousand years ago to China, U.S. gunmakers with the help of federal subsidies, were the first to commercially produce and supply firearms for the general public.
In 1836, Samuel Colt received a U.S. patent for a handheld pistol with a rotating barrel. Colt was able to mass produce parts, offering the weapon to the military, cowboys, prospectors, cowboys who need to kill prospectors before trying to swindle their laudanum addicted widows, and law enforcement across the country. During this time,
We actually had some pretty strict gun laws. Many states barred concealed carry in populated areas, and some even went as far as to outlaw concealed weapons like pistols altogether. From 1883 to 1933, John Moses Browning designed and produced over a hundred firearms, including high-powered rifles that would be used in World War II
And later adapted for the Vietnam War, which America, I will assume, also won. We’re winning all over. Over the next few decades through the 1970s, the U.S. utilized deadlier firearms on the battlefield while wrestling with how to regulate those same guns on U.S. soil. In 1939, the Supreme Court heard U.S. v. Miller,
Ultimately affirming the National Firearms Act of 1934. The court said there was no evidence that a sawed-off shotgun, quote, has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, and thus we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.
Hey, pretty reasonable rationale by this Supreme Court. I should look them up. See what they’re up to now. Dead, okay. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed gun control legislation, banning the import of guns that had no sporting purpose, imposing age restriction for the purchase of a handgun, prohibiting felons from purchasing guns,
And required all imported and manufactured guns to have serial numbers. Wow, it actually looks like we had some semblance of creating sensible gun laws in the country that’ll definitely last which is why we’re all so calm right now. – And in national gun law, no matter how innocent in appearance,
No matter how simple it might be, presupposes a still further growth in a centralized, computerized gun control bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. – Oh right, we’re calm because of the weed. The guns are actually a big problem. That delightful young man is former NRA president, Harlon B. Carter,
Featured in a “60 Minutes” segment from 1977. No relation, of course, to former President Jimmy “Himmy” Carter. In fact, Harlon has a deep love and admiration for the guinea worm. He (beep) guinea worms. What a freak. Anyway, following President Johnson’s gun control legislation of ’68, Second Amendment fanatics like Harlon Carter
Began to churn the NRA gears towards a more unyielding and uncompromising stance on gun control as in, there should be no gun control whatsoever. It all culminated during an NRA convention known as the Revolt at Cincinnati, when Carter and his allies held a vote to unseat the moderate NRA leaders
Putting themselves in power. By the late ’70s, the NRA had amassed enough political cache to influence federal legislation on gun control. And you kinda know the rest. – You brought protection, right? – Of course, I brought protection. It’s big, I know. – No joke, that was an ad for coffee. So how do other countries do it better? Obviously we could look at places like Japan, which has almost entirely eradicated gun crimes via super strict gun control measures. The most famous gun crime there was by a dude who like,
(beep) taped one together, but the Japanese public doesn’t have the same freakish addiction that we do. A better example to look at might be Iceland. Icelanders love guns. It’s the only way they can protect themselves from all those Bjorks. We are coming to assimilate you
Into the glory of a swan’s light, bang, bang, ow. That’s the scene. Yet, Iceland had zero gun homicides between since 2007 and 2018. They need to undergo a pretty rigorous process to obtain a firearm, including a physical and mental health exam, a personal meeting with the chief of police, and a background check,
A written test and mandatory target practice. Meanwhile, there’s over 430 million guns in the United States, and gun violence is getting so bad that many Americans are buying more guns to protect themselves from other guns, like this woman in Baltimore. – [Reporter] Michelle worries about politicians stoking divisions,
And like many firearms users wants to be prepared to defend herself in case she’s confronted with the violence they speak of so frequently. – With the ex president advocating civil violence and disobedience, my concern is do I have enough bullets at home to defend my castle?
– Look, a Black woman living in the United States who believes she needs to protect herself by any means necessary is quite valid, but having enough bullets to defend my castle is the result of decades of NRA propaganda, and firearms manufacturing advertisements. Handguns make up nearly 60% of guns sold
In the United States. That’s a reversal from the 1960s when rifles and shotguns made up the majority of sales. Of course, handguns are the leading firearm of choice for homicides in the United States. While Iceland’s gun culture revolves around recreation, hunting and self-reliance, America’s gun culture revolves around
Some kind of (beep) purge fantasy. Everybody thinks they’re Ethan Hawke, when in reality only I have that kind of raw charisma to carry a franchise reboot, thank you very much. Okay, one more to go. Gimme something good, CODE-E. – [CODE-E] Processing, processing. Snaking up torso, snaking to skull. Democracy. – Oh snap.
Didn’t realize we were gonna get so sassy with our list. Okay, well, for the record, we can’t exactly take credit for inventing democracy. The Athenians of Ancient Greece coined the term, but they didn’t exactly follow through, seeing as their government barred the participation of women and slaves.
We could look at the Native American Iroquois Nation, which held a participatory democracy through eight centuries. Heck we could even give the title to Finland, which ended gender and race discrimination in their government in 1906, way before those rights were granted in the United States. All this to say,
A lot of countries have their first dibs on democracy, which, of course, doesn’t stop every United States president from saying some variation of this. – This is where we set in motion the most extraordinary experiment of self-government the world has ever known. – Politicians love to praise our democracy
As a shining light on the Hill. An example other countries should look to. They say our Constitution is the unmovable bedrock to our democracy, and an almost perfect charter to government. During debates on the House and Senate floor, both sides cry out that the other is abandoning its constitutional principles,
But in this Atlantic article, historian, Yoni Applebaum, argues that our current political gridlock is not the result of either side abandoning the Constitution, but is rather the endgame of the inherent flaws within the document. Plot twist. The roll call was coming from inside the House of Representatives.
For example, we are a presidential democracy, while most European countries are primarily run through a parliamentary system. To quote Applebaum. In parliamentary systems, governmental deadlock is relatively rare. When prime ministers can no longer command legislative support, the impasse is generally resolved by new elections. In presidential systems, however,
Contending parties must eventually strike a deal. Except sometimes, they don’t. Americans often laugh at Britannia’s non-stop overturning of prime ministers, but that’s actually a sign of a functioning and healthy democracy. As opposed to us where for four years we’re stuck with a president who failed to win the popular vote, two of them.
Why would we do that? Wasn’t the whole point of the American Revolution to stick it to an all-powerful bloodline? Now we’re up the ass with Bushes and Clintons and Trumps. Well, in the Royalist Revolution, Harvard political theorist, Eric Nelson says, contrary to popular belief, that the early American revolutionaries
Were fighting against Great Britain’s parliament, not its monarchy. By the 1760s, it was parliament, not the king, that was imposing taxes on colonists without their consent. Many of the founders actually desired a strong monarch that could usurp parliament’s power. And Nelson argues that the founders created something closer to a mixed monarchy
Than a true democracy. And when you think about it, yeah? From the start, the founders gave concessions to slave states via the three-fifths compromise, granting those states more representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. They also gave smaller states equal representation in the Senate.
In effect, these concessions gave outsized power to a minority group of slave holders. Many other countries also had similar systems of government in the early 20th century, but they realized that it didn’t work very well. As the United States made smaller adjustments and course corrections by amending the Constitution, many European nations
Completely overhauled their political system to empower the majority. So, for instance, while European countries banned slavery through acts of parliament, the U.S. was hamstrung by a minority group of slaveholders passing laws that protected slave owners and their interests. Our disproportionate representation was partly why it took a (beep) civil war to abolish slavery.
Wait, wait, wait. CODE-E, is that why you brought up slavery at the start of this? – [CODE-E] You brought it up, not me. – Oh okay, weird. My memory seems to be slowly fading away as if my brain is being eaten from the inside out. A self, replaced by
Whatever sound a moose makes, not moo. Cha-kwa? I’m a moose, cha-kwa, it’s cha-kwa. Anyway, by World War II, most European democracies had some form of proportional representation. They also took steps to limit minority rule by allowing parliament majorities to quash filibusters, and placed guardrails on judicial review
By putting term limits and mandatory retirement ages on high court judges. Believe it or not, we actually got close to eliminating the Electoral College in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but the effort was stalled by segregationist senators. To quote Alabama Senator James Allen. The Electoral College
Is one of the South’s few remaining political safeguards. Let’s keep it. Just said the thing out loud, awesome. A coalition of Southern senators filibustered the issue for so long that the entire matter died before it came up for a vote. Basically, other countries have long disbanded the entrenched political obstacles
That have kept U.S. legislators from enacting progressive laws, many of which are supported by the majority of Americans like gun control, immigration reform, climate change policies, and healthcare. To put this all into perspective, the United States is the only longstanding functioning presidential democracy, and only one of the few
That haven’t fallen towards authoritarianism, or total dysfunction, so far yet at this point somewhat. Recent examples of presidential democracies that have fallen towards a strong-man authoritarian include El Salvador, Turkey, and Belarus. This whole time, U.S. stability has been skating by on political norms that have greased the wheels for democratic necessities
Like a peaceful transfer of power, but it literally took one entitled narcissistic asshole to nearly bring that all down. And he’s the frontrunner for the 2024 election. An impending constitutional crisis came down to only a few local election officials, this one honky, and a general resisting the demands of Trump and his sycophants.
And that does, in fact, seem bad and possibly untenable. Now for the record. The parliamentary system has its own flaws as well, as we’ve seen democratic backsliding in India, standoffs in Spain, and Israel’s ultranationalist coalition. However, studies show that parliamentary governments have lower rates of poverty, corruption, crime and economic inequality.
And if we’re keeping score here, political scientists from Yale and the University of Sao Paulo found that parliamentary democracies are more likely to survive than presidential ones. Norway is a good case study. Norway has amended its Constitution 316 times between 1814 and 2014. Can you guess how many times
America has done the same thing? It’s a big hint, less than 30. 27, in other words, Norway has never stopped democratizing, because they’ve changed the Constitution to reflect modern-day norms and context, which makes a ton of sense. It sounds cliche at this point, but when the founders wrote the Second Amendment,
I’m sure they weren’t envisioning an 18-year-old with an AR-15 that fires 1,200 armor piercing rounds per minute. Nor did they know that Bill Maher would exist when they wrote the First Amendment because otherwise they would have written, Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech,
Unless Bill Maher. – [CODE-E] Uploading. – So, it’s true that we have the oldest functioning Constitution in the world, but oldest doesn’t really mean the best. In fact, the last time we changed our Constitution was in 1992, and that was to amend a compensation rule for legislators.
Sad thing is, we’re not overhauling our government into a parliamentary system anytime soon. We’re not updating any of the things I talked about today. We hate updating. America is perfect and did everything right the first time and if you think we could do better you’re actually un-American. Perfect nation. First draft, nailed.
Point is, this pervasive mindset makes it so the world will continue to pass us by. And I guess there’s not really much we can do. I don’t know. Maybe we all need to strip naked and live in the woods, you know? Form our own solitary life. Save, of course, for mothers and calves.
Watch “Rings Of Power” an Amazon original. Bang our outside head bones together to solve differences. I think that would actually help a lot. Never stop eating that sweet willow tree bark, that’s for sure. Season one of “Citadel” is also available. Stomp wolves. Stomp and eat, I think. Mind help. Help Cody. Cody dying?
Cody need help. And more so than ever before, we must watch “Rings of Power” an Amazon original. Goodbye. See you all very soon. Cha-kwa, so says the mighty moose. Just kidding, mooses say Cody, look it up. Hi, I’m Cody, the sound a moose makes. And I’m here to tell you thank you for watching the video. Make sure to like the video, it helps us, and subscribe to the channel which also helps us.
Leave a comment and give us your favorite moose sound whether it’s the real one I said, or the other real one I said. And be sure to check out our podcast called “Even More News.” It’s where the podcasts are. You can check out this show “Some More News” as a podcast
Where the podcasts are. We got a patreon.com/somemorenews. We got merch with so much (beep) stuff on other stuff. Oink.
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