 Joining us from Hollywood is our entertainment correspondent Jim Earl you have your finger on the pulse of Showbiz you are a Peabody award-winning comedy writer. How many Emmys have you won? I've won one Primetime Emmy David. Mm-hmm Mm-hmm for excellence in writing and And the Peabody of course was for excellence in journalistic writing With a comedic pinch and you're the author of morning Remembrances it's a collection of Yes, I'm more mourning morning remembrance It is a collection of obituaries as you have written Throughout the years very funny book if you think death is to be laughed at I think death that should be greeted every morning with a big smile and a big frothy hot piss And you're also on Jimmy Dore's show Which is very damn. I'm a very popular. Yeah It is it's over 200,000 Subscribers I think on YouTube On YouTube, yes, I also write I write a lot of the calls and you know some lance for him As well, I do it a lot of writing sometimes. I'm on the show sometimes and not do you ever get recognized? For my achievements Well, you're on YouTube or Or just for you know people seeing me in the street and yelling. That's the man You've had a storied career You're a renaissance man. I talked to Mark Hirshon last week and Mark does a lot of things very well You are a writer and you're also an amazing musician You were the original band leader for this podcast the clutter family is incredible How do people buy the clutter family music? Well, a lot of people just said they lit they can hear it, but they don't really buy it They just don't understand why it's a band. Oh, you mean what how do they buy it? Oh, yeah Well, they they could go on YouTube Or they could go directly to CD baby.com and look up the clutter family and get one of or both of their albums And the minute I heard you play are you still there? Yes, I asked you to be the band leader for my fledgling podcast and You were right the early years of this podcast we had a band I would put you up there with R. E. M. I Think you were as original. I thought your lyrics might have been a little more perverse political and Pithy Then you wanted them to be more pithy. I wanted the rapid eye movements To be as pithy as the clutter family the rapid eye movement well, you know We we didn't have much time to write songs and and we were hopped up on X and cocaine most of the time Now you're I hardly you're hopped up on x-lax now, right? Because I'm old you're old in fact Michael Stipe is so old R. E. M. Now stands for the rapid bow movements Because right I heard that yeah, hang on you have a body How many how many you have? How many You have one and me or two at me prime time. I don't know. I don't I just I think I have to return it They can have my pee body back So what do you say you have a pee body does that mean the award or you're just like your body is Huh My body. Yes, my body looks like a cartoon character from the early 1960s Oh, I was gonna go for just Your your body just has You're an invertebrate. You have no spine and you're just fluid like yellow piss You have like a pee body. You don't stand up for your rights. You're yellow. You're a coward That's that's what I thought hey, yeah Well, you're half right I'll tell you so what do you talk about on Jimmy Dore show? Are you talking about everything and anything and how much he hates me? The way we never discussed you he hates me He won't return my calls Well, maybe you think it's your cold-collar or something. No, I've invited him on this show Jimmy needs an enemy So I've become his enemy. Yeah Well, you're not you How many subscribers do you have maybe that's a problem? Oh? I'm not famous. Yeah You don't have a big enough following maybe That's well, I have a YouTube channel, but it's all audio your thing is video, right? Yeah, yeah, it's a his channel's video It's pretty good. And it's with the young canvas now. It's with the young church Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's connected to it. Yeah And when did it take off when did it all come together for him? There was a grad that's a good question about two years ago. Maybe if I don't I'm not really sure I think that there was one one period when I really Subscribers really peek and started coming. I think it was during the election the primaries in the election. Mm-hmm But are they left-wing? Well, yeah, we're pretty much. Yeah, they're Bernie supporters, you know Are are you I am a Bernie supporter. I Endure you're not you're not you're not one of these, you know Yeah, I supported Bernie, but you know, we can't talk about Hillary We can't say anything bad about Hillary, you know There's a lot she's but go ahead Democratic Party because she's the Democratic Party one of the things I've learned is Women are very defensive when you bring up Hillary That as a well, let me just say something here as a white as a white man. I understood the value to electing Barack Obama an African American I Saw why that was significant. I also saw that it was significant to elect a female. I Think a lot of men Don't understand how powerful It would be for women to see a woman in the Oval Office and I will confess to Having a blind spot not understanding Why it was so important to see a Woman in the Oval Office for women considering what they did to our African American president You know the symbolism to me didn't feel as important as Getting somebody in there to do what has to be done somebody like Bernie Sanders who's going to address income Inequality, but I feel that Bernie pushed Hillary so far to the left that she'd be one of the most progressive Candidates since one of the most progressive presidents since Johnson. I think yeah, I don't believe that for a second I think she was she put on the appearances of taking on some of Sanders Platform points out of Necessity and and she was I don't think she was sincere in it And I think she would have rolled it back immediately or just abandoned it immediately as president Abandoned you know Margaret that's my Margaret Thatcher was a woman remember. I bet you that you don't fuck that I'm sorry. I'd rather have somebody who's gonna do what they say they're gonna do and and and not Not be a neoliberal corporate mouthpiece Regardless whether they're male or female male. Well hang on for one second there Jim Margaret and another thing hang on for one second. Hang on hang on. Yeah, Margaret Thatcher wasn't selling a false bill of goods She was what she was you picked her up Off the street you reach down there and you find a penis You know what I'm saying? She was a conservative. She was a Reagan conservative. She didn't suddenly have a penis. I don't know if that is Tracking but the point I'm making is Thatcher was Reagan Hillary was You know kind of a liberal in many ways a neoliberal, but she was a liberal Think she I don't get how she was liberal at all. I think she would have moved us towards free tuition and Medicare for all I Don't think so. I think she would have kept things going along fine I think I'm not fine, but I think she would have kept things going along as they were I think the only way a Clinton Does the right thing is if they're forced into doing it and that was true for Bill Clinton and for him mostly the right doing the right thing was Enabling and sucking up to the Republican Party In order to save his skin in the last few years of his tenure I don't see anything to benefit with having Clinton in the office Hillary other than the fact that she's not Donald Trump And that's why that's in my opinion, that's why Who said that one was I think it was Cornell West or was it Cornell Wilde Cornell West That one was a A shot in the head and one was what what was the nimes screwing up But he had he had kind of a Ralph Nader summation of the two candidates Which was what Ralph Nader said about the two parties, you know one party's driving it Us off the cliff at 60 miles an hour and the Democrats are driving us off the cliff at 40 miles an hour Yeah, but I think had Hillary won She would have tapped into the populace rage from both both Bernie and Trump There's something definitely going on in this country that she had to address and if she's a politician she would have read you know the leaves and Said the season has changed and I better get on board You don't think she was cave you think I Don't think she no, I don't think it's in her DNA to do that. I think she would have You know, no Democratic Party is in this to Defeat making money the way they always have and That was more likely to happen with the Republican in office then a progressive like Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders threatened the Democratic Party's Lifestyle and livelihood that was that was one of his big negatives to the DNC Right. Yeah, I like you know, the lobbyists the money and put my fucking ex-president getting four hundred thousand dollars for What the fuck is he doing? You There's no optics to these people no shame You know, it's a whole could be cliche about well, I'm not gonna Give me some you know, I'm not gonna do anything with this money. Yeah, Wall Street is giving me How was that gonna influence me cut to them? Three weeks out or four months out of office getting a $400,000 speech from one of one of their ex lobbyists Give me a fucking break These people are worthless Well Yeah, I I like Obama. I I think speaking Is it Goldman Sachs? No, no, it's the 9-11 people that he speak speaking it, right? 9-11 the people I thought I was speaking to some Financial organization. Yeah, it was a financial. It was the financial organization that got decimated after 9-11 Yeah, I forgot that Cantor Fitzgerald, but is it Cantor Fitzgerald? Yeah, I think it's Cantor Fitzgerald's million You know, yeah, he's a politician. He was always a corporatist We always knew that Adam, but when we elected him we knew he was he wasn't John Edwards He wasn't speaking about two Americas When he was running for president the way John Edwards was he was no John Edwards would have been great had he not Done some really stupid things but you know his I Think he was a better candidate thing Well, you don't you don't you don't think Obama did anything. I mean Obama used his executive orders to Reverse climate change he got a sense of that parrot Paris climate accords. He instructed the APA to crack down on coal emissions he issued orders about Financial advisors having a fiduciary Responsibility, I think given that he had no support From the Republicans and very little support from Nancy Pelosi. He did as Good as you can do unless you're gonna say take, you know, it's my ball and I'm I'm going home with it You know, if you won't give me a Public option no no health care for anybody He was willing to compromise Well, he didn't more than compromise. He never used his to use a cliche that his bully pulpit to go around the country and and Raise up attention for the things and needed to be I think he did on I think with black never he gave he gave away single-payer He didn't fucking say a damn thing about the Dakota pipeline that was that was disgraceful. Oh, yes, he did the army Corps of Engineers said no to that And he said no to the yeah, well Right, right, but he should he should have been out there He should have been out there sporting He should like he should have been out in in the strike lines too. He should have been out on a picket line like Bernie Sanders was and and he gave Gulf of Mexico back to BP and BP has spent virtually nothing cleaning that up Is it another Exxon is not a huge disgrace and is another blow job to the oil industry and the and Wall Street and That's what he is. He is a corporatist. I think he's a worthless. I think he's a corporatist But of the positive stripe, he's a smart constitutional lawyer and had Hillary won She would have taken from his playbook not bills and she would have extended the Obama presidency and moved it Move the country as far to the left as we possibly could given how stupid This country isn't how anti-progressive it is. There are more. I don't think yeah, there are more solar Jobs now Then there are coal and oil in America and that's because of his stimulus plan He he fundamentally changed this country You know given the resistance From the Koch brothers, I think I think he did a pretty remarkable job I Do you think for a second that if Hillary were president today that you Or most of your people, you know your friends would know who their City council members are and when the elections are and even care about them Do you think that we would in California today be have just passed a single payer initiative or bill That's just about to go to the assembly Do you think that it would ever have gotten this far that the whole country is talking about single payer now Do you think under Hillary? that would have been a In anybody's consciousness, I Don't think so at all. I think people we would I think Congress I think we would have lost more of Congress and then Congress would be be even more of a block a bro block to her than It was for Obama Who didn't fight enough Here's another damn thing Obama did He lost both houses of Congress. He gave up Congress in 2010 did not fight for it did not use the resources that He had available during his election two years beforehand You know, even I knew during that during the 2010 election that this is really stupid Why isn't he out there? Why isn't he using the the same ground game that he did in 2008? to keep The house didn't he lose the house because of Obamacare Wasn't there a concerted? I think you got Yes, I'm sure that has something to do with it, of course, but he didn't go out He's a good speaker. He should have done what Woodrow Wilson did for the League of Nations Had a stroke all around the country and I had a massive stroke And this No, no, it Wilson's day of life for most of his president. Oh, Edith ran it Edith ran it, huh? Yeah, he yeah, Edith ran it, but he came out for what what's wrong? That's my eat of it. Oh Yeah, you're talking I'm doing my Edith bunker Go ahead. You're wrong, but go ahead. You know what? We're talking about women and women's rights and their health You should know I don't think you should ever put a wasp nest in a woman's vagina. Yeah, yes Yes, eventually somebody's gonna get stung at a party Well now apparently goop Gwyneth Paltrow's Website for all things female speaks of this vaginal rejuvenation where you put a Wasp nest up your vagina, right? Yes, yes Didn't you once say to me? Isn't a vagina already a wasps nest? I think you were the one who used to say that all the time and I would say Jim be nice to the people Hey, you know I Grew I grew up. I grew up believing that wasp nests came from there but You know my girlfriend, you know my girlfriend as you put an eagle's nest in her vagina And now every morning Marlon Perkins has to climb up the ladder to check it Marlon Perkins from mutual vomaha Yes, mutual vomaha. Yeah, Marlon Perkins. Yeah, my my mother mothers are important aren't they? Yeah, but my mom always told me. Yeah, my mom always told me never put a wasp Never put all your wasp eggs in one vagina You never know what'll happen Well, what is it? I just heard about this on the social media, but they're saying that Is it are they live wasps? No, you take one of those little blasts but bulbs that grow on the side of oak trees. Have you seen that? No, I don't know You know, you never went out when you were little. No, okay, you know wasps have this special Chemical that they they inject into a Tree and then the tree will grow a special a special bulb to protect the wasp Eggs or some crap like that and what you're supposed to do is take one of those wasp bulbs and grind it up And then put it up your woohoo. I didn't know you were pre-med Well, you know all the latin Berkley, yeah, you know all the UC Berkeley, you know all the medical expressions Isn't it true if I remember correctly you had a girlfriend and You put Some wasps upper woohoo, but it turned out the the wasps had endo endometriosis Right Yes, it's amazing what a coincidence that was it was a horrible wasn't endometriosis Michael do caucuses sister It's a good question You should get one of your researchers on that your interns Didn't you what's it? Dave correct me if I'm wrong didn't you want to contract? Yeah cancer like like Michael Jack and Michael Yes, Michael did that Doc Michael Douglas did that from a going going down on your girlfriend I guess, you know, that's what you get for filling your girlfriends vagina up with uranium 235 Thinking this is a powerful and stable elephant. I'm I know I'm never gonna do that again It was it was a mistake Yeah It's too late now. I Love discussing politics with you. So where do you think things things go from here Dave? Well, they can only go I Think I think it's really bad. I really do I Think that I Get re-energized and I start fighting for my country But then I get tired because everyone around me is either Stupid immoral or dishonest And I have a rule for people you have to you can suffer from one out of those three But if you have two of those three, I can't have you in my life anymore. So I'm spending a lot of time alone because most people Have two of those things stupid Dishonesty in morality They all right if you have two of those things so I would say You're okay. I'll tell you why you're not stupid your You're not dishonest. You're honest to a fault, but you are immoral What one out of those three? So I'll keep you as a friend. I Think that's a fair statement. That's a fair assessment of Jim Merrill, isn't it? You think I'm immoral? Yeah, I think because you're so honest you Lack empathy and you don't care if you hurt people's feelings. I think you lack morality Plus you've killed puppies Only for sex there was love in it, you know This is it was sincere. Do you think you're guided by a moral conscience? I know I am yes, I believe I am yeah, you don't believe in God How can I can do one reason? That's one reason I think I'm guided by a moral conscience. I don't Have faith and and anything faith is an evil thing But without faith Jim Merrill without a fear of retribution from the Almighty How can you do good in this world? How can I do good in the world? Yeah fear of retribution. How do you know right from Ron? That's a good question. That's a good question When did you discover you're an atheist? You're an atheist When did you discover that you were an atheist? probably When my My god, that's a nice show into me When I got my father eat it into me your father when you got the tonight show Your father beat you as a child No, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding, but you know my both my parents were atheists and I Think I only asked them about one one take well I asked my mom where we go when I die and She said well Everybody goes and divides up your things and then no, that's that's very late We go to the lawyers and divide up your things No, no my mom just my mom said I Think she tried to say well you you're you're Soul goes up this the sky and on on nothing happens Did your mother go to college? Yes, she went to Denver School for for women back then it was a it was only a women's school. It was only four women Back in the 40s. It was for women There were you mean there were four women or there were there only oh Only four women and no University of Denver and as I remember at the University of Denver your mom Started the mile-high club Yes She did, you know, I've always wanted to become part of the mile-high club but I've never been able to Get that far but I came very close to the other day when I ejaculated into an air-sick But you know Really surprised the guy who was using it. Excuse me Reverend But that's my bag. Oh Your mother was college educated. Oh Yes, yes, she was so was my grandmother. She graduated from Bay City College in 1890 eight or 1905 We're in in San Francisco Bay City, uh, no Bay City, Michigan And Arbor University of Ann Arbor. I mean, yeah, and did you know your grandmother? Oh Put on a click. Yeah, I love talking politics with you She was she was from Michigan She do you know what she studied when she went to college because it's very rare for a woman to have gone to college back then You know back there, you know, I also looked up my my grandfather And my great-grand my great-grandfather's her father went to Yale and I looked up there for courses basically it was a lot of Latin and Greek and ancient history and few languages So there was a bit it was Basically nothing having to do with everyday life and then my my grandfather would after he graduated from college he became a lawyer in Bay City and He also owned a a sawmill and he would ride the The sawmill every day on his bike and and get taunted and beaten up by his Polish employees That's that story. Well, when you get beaten up by a Polish employee they What do they do they They hit you over the head with a mug if that has the handle on the inside He had Polish employees, huh? Yeah, there's a lot of sawmills had the Polish and yeah, yeah Isn't it sure they went on great didn't they go on strike to stop getting paid? Because they were They're Polish Right, that's interesting, but there were a lot of strikes back there. Yeah, there were people were very active back then there are all kinds of Socialist candidates. I don't you know look go into the Chicago Daily Tribune Digital archives that they have up now and you can go back in the 19th century They're every every day of their paper. I remember that famous headline that they got wrong Debs Beats Lafayette. Oh You don't get that Yes, I do I think do we beats Truman that this is a do we beat from you? So I'm going for Debs Beats Lafayette, but Lafayette They were from Wisconsin. It was a it was a that was just bad bad bad joke That's beat Debs Beats Gompers Name the funny named Gompers mm-hmm Samuel L. Gompers What do you think the L stood for? Larra be So what are you reading there, Jim? What are you reading before we wrap it up? What are you reading these days? I? Haven't read any fiction in years because I don't have the attention span for it anymore, and I I've kind of been embittered You to life in general, so I just read nonfiction And are you dating? No, are you meeting anybody? Am I meeting anybody? Yeah, are you afraid of? Spending eternity alone without a god or a wife? well these are all very personal questions and Hard for me to answer at this moment because of the restraining order and And The my ankle at bracelet, but things are fine. Yeah, I'm all right Well, yeah a lot better. You know, I had a family. I don't want to get into specifics, but One of the things I've learned now that I'm pretty much divorced is except for Muhammad Ata Most of us die alone Well, at least he didn't die alone. That's all I'm saying but So what do you think of Russia? Are you what you're not one of these? Dorks that's screaming trees and left and right. Are you I? Think anything you can do to slow this president down anything you can do to to debilitate and just Just flood him with subpoenas and depositions anything that just grinds Him and ban into a complete stance still is a good thing Yeah Well, I thought that's how we got to this position in the first place that kind of stuff Well, you certainly want to give this guy free reign Do you? Free reign I mean you want you want to be You just want to be anything he says is wrong, but ever comes out of this guy's math. I'm against it No, and I know I don't I don't believe that at all because That's one of the reasons The Democrats lost so fucking badly and they did lose badly Are you saying to work with Trump? No, I'm saying I'm saying the Democrats played an electoral college game and fucking lost and they lost because Part of the reason was because Trump could say Fucking bad things about the Democrats and Hillary Clinton in particular and they were true We ran no and we we should have run Elizabeth Warren Yeah Yes Well, we should have run fucking Bernie Sanders and and Elizabeth Warren Yeah, that would have been a dream ticket. Can you not use the F word please because we have to bleep it for the radio So, I'm sorry. Yeah, you're sorry It's your passing aggressive stuff. It's it's what you do I didn't know you were on like a real radio that had to be bleep Well in case we run any of this I have to have somebody good. I thought I thought what I Thought you were on some sort of like podcast thing and you know Or subscription service Well, this is a good Judeo-Christian podcast and we don't curse Do you are you still where do you worship nowadays? I'm in New York You go down and they still how is New York and they still have those corner delis that with the same fruit cup and Beer and the fruit salads and stuff egg salad sandwich New York asks about you all the time and what what do they ask? I don't know. I feel like Johnny sack Talking to Paulie about Carmine Remember that episode you're not a sopranos fan. Yeah, remember when Paulie wanted to go work for Carmine In New York and Johnny sack was playing him and said to Paulie He always asks about you Paulie believed him You don't remember that Hey, I don't remember that in particular Will you come back? Yes do this more often Should we do this more or if the If if the connections okay last time we did this, you know, like I said, there was the timing delay was all over the place And it made it sound made me sound horribly unfunny Maybe maybe that's just me anyway Maybe there was something wrong with your earbuds Maybe you just didn't hear it properly Could be there there was a delay all right, and I'm not a technical guy. I'm still Yeah All right, I had it in cylinders Let's plug some gigs how do people follow you on Twitter? I'm at the Jamerrill 666 And on Facebook Just said Jamerrill mm-hmm You'll you'll recognize That is just this Jamerrill not the four other Jamerrill's Your music the clutter family can be downloaded on Amazon Jamerrill is a man who can trace his DNA all the way back to the Mayflower right Aren't you know landed gentry when it comes to America No, no When was the Mayflower 1630 or 40 or some shit like I said, I'm sorry something like that. Yes, I Heard yeah, I heard they became a My my or the Earl's came like in the 1690s. I think That's very impressive a few years after you went on ancestry.com and Traced your DNA and Discovered that you were married to your aunt correct That's how It was a Morgan it was a Morgan Morganatic Morganatic Marriage yes, what does that mean? I know that they were going to try to do that with the Duke of Windsor King Edward What does Morganatic marriage mean it wouldn't be recognized by the search Yeah, there is you don't have to be recognized by the church I don't think that's what the that famous Jan van Eyck painting from the 15th century Oh with the glass with the mirror. Yeah, yeah, the wedding of Something Arnold fee Arnold Feeney Arnold Feeney wedding that was a wedding document because it it showed the People witnessing the wedding in the reflection of that the con Convex Convex the mirror would be a convex. Yeah Yeah Yeah, and it had a signature on it. So that was supposedly a wedding document That made it Morganatic Yes, I believe so there's I think they're various types Morganatic weddings or Documents, but all right Very quick, but you're Cassie Griffin Yes, I think I Could kill us. I I think she's I think what she did was stupid and And kind of dangerous and a hypocritical and it's a double standard All those times people hung up after G's and threatened Obama Hmm doing you know is why was it dangerous I Think it's well, I think it's I think it could get for the same reason that Insighting violence Implicitly or directly by Like Trump did Or anybody beneath him did I Think it's a connect and can have the same effect and she should expect to have the Civil said the secret service visitor just like anybody else She should expect that for when they did the same thing or to Barack Obama Like Ted Nugent getting a visit from the CIA Yeah, and what I don't think I don't think I don't think she should lose her job But right about Bill Maher. What about Bill Maher? I I I don't have no, you know, I looked at that clip and I have no idea what in the heck He was trying to do I think he just screwed up. I think he was trying to make a Statement that he wasn't a slave yet. It was Nebraska. They were talking about who knows what's going on It's my night. It was a dumb stupid thing and he should have apologized and he did Now you've been on the radio for 25 years Live radio, yeah, give her right how many times have you said the n-word? Said the n-word. Yeah, how many times have you you've done live comedy? How many times has the n-word slipped out of your mouth? I used to be like, well, we used to have a bit with nothing but bad in it. Remember and No, I've never we've never done that before I know never used that word once It was a slip of the tongue Speaking of slips of the tongue. Why don't you like to go down on women? That's the word on the street That's what hug is telling me All right, it's a it's a vicious rumor. All right, buddy Jim Earl. Thank you, buddy Hey, okay. See you in court Bye