Twelve Chimes It's Midnight Podcast -"Spooky"

I play Agent Gusterson in this radio drama:

Twelve Chimes It's Midnight · 26 - Spooky: Bonus Episode with SARP Cast!

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DEAD AIR L.A. #8 WITH BRIAN HOLTZMAN - KARLA WATKINS - RONNIE BEDELL & JAMES TRIPP

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DEAD AIR with Brian Holtzman #13 - James Tripp and Gary Bruss

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Ardent Atheist - September 11, 2013

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James Tripp, Matt Kirshen and Dylan Brody join hosts Emery Emery and Heather Henderson on Ardent Atheist.

"Breaking Taboo" - December 24, 2012

I was a guest on the holiday edition of "Breaking Taboo" with Suzanne Monk and host Lakota Phillips. We pre-recorded it on December 23:

"Deconstructing Christmas, the end of talking about Mayans and a plug for The Hierophant"

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Trippitorial - The Debates II

The debates are over and it’s about time. If this is the price for living in a democracy, I’m glad I don’t live in one.

The last debate was the debate of the smiley face versus the serious face. Obama had a different face for each debate. Romney just had the one---smiley face. In the first debate, Obama didn’t bring a face. He wasn’t there. In the second debate he brought a smiley face like Romney, but it didn’t fit him. In the last debate he brought his serious face, which sometimes bordered on annoyed. At one point during the last debate, I thought Obama was going to turn to Romney and say, “Mitt, you ignorant slut.”

In the second debate, Romney said he had a five point plan. He never named any of the points in his plan. That’s a good plan. In the third debate Mitt Romney said he had a plan for the future, which he will tell us about in the future.

Romney said pay equity for women was an important topic, but not to him. The first question in the foreign policy debate asked the candidates what they would do if there was a threat from abroad. This sounds like a question for the GOP! “You do what you’d do to any dame who gets out of line. You take away their charge card! And their reproductive rights.”

Romney has a bold plan for day 1 of his presidency: "on day 1, I will name it day 2!" his five point plan has six points. I would prefer 9-9-9.

Romney’s talking point on Benghazi was wrong, but he kept going.

“Go on.” That was the smiling Obama.

Romney wasn’t backing down from his debate prep. “That’s not how we rehearsed it! I just want to make sure you repeat what you said because that’s not what your understudy said in rehearsal.”

“Go on.”

If Mitt Romney gets elected president, he’ll send a Mormon mission to Iran. That’ll get them to disarm, or to zero in on a new target.

Romney’s plan for Syria? It’s worth more broken up.

Romney wants to be the education president, as long as the kids aren’t educated about him. "When I was Governor, our 4th graders came out number C."

When Mitt Romney talked about Israel, he started rhyming: “If Israel is under attack, Mitt Romney has got your back. Word to your mother. And would it kill you to call?”

Mitt Romney said he was a son of a…you’re darn right he is. At one point he referred to the audience as “folks” because he’s “folksy.” Mitt said he wanted to be America’s leader, but he needed the support of American voters and the support of magic underwear.
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Trippitorial - The Debates

If I learned anything from the vice presidential debates, it’s that clearly, Joe Biden likes a good laugh. Laughter is the best medicine, although that’s not what the Doctor wrote on my prescription. I wonder if my stand-up act could get as many laughs from the Vice President as Paul Ryan’s answers. If Joe Biden was in the audience, I’d book Paul Ryan to headline a night of comedy.

I expected them to be standing at podiums like the presidential debate. Instead, it looked like Charlie Rose, although this Charlie had long, blond hair. Joe Biden acted like a schoolmaster and Paul Ryan was Peck’s bad boy. I was expecting the vice president to give him the switch. “Stop lying, boy!”

Biden was the big dog, Ryan was the puppy. Biden schooled the boy. Paul Ryan got his ass kicked. He needs to go back to the gym. What distinguished Paul Ryan was how much water he drank. He must have been getting a work out. “I have to stay hydrated.” He probably needed to pee half way through the debate. No wonder he didn’t do better.

If that debate were a prison, Paul Ryan would have been Joe Biden’s bitch. It was like shooting a dead horse. I think I heard Karl Rove's head explode during the debate, which may be a good thing.

Joe Biden’s face stole Ronald Reagan’s line, "There you go again!" He also alluded to another vice presidential debate when he said, "Now you're Jack Kennedy." That joke always works.

When asked what he could give to this country that no one else could, Paul Ryan said, “Honesty.” He is a pretty honest guy except for that answer. He didn’t even believe it himself. He couldn’t finish saying it. When he caught himself saying what he was saying, he tried to stop himself from saying it, but it was too late, because he had already said it, so he just started talking about something else. That’s why Joe Biden was laughing.

Maybe Paul Ryan would be a good student government vice president. I’m not so sure about Vice President of the United States, or on second thought, student government vice president.

Paul Ryan’s smile was even more uncomfortable than Mitt Romney’s. Romney had a smile on his face the whole debate that made me wonder about the material from which his magic underwear was made. “Boxers or magic underwear?” Whatever magic underwear he was wearing for the first debate, he should keep wearing them. Not only are they magic, they’re lucky too.

Romney finally figured out how to win a debate. Defund the moderator. PBS is too Big Bird to fail.

The first debate was on domestic issues. Romney prepared by making sure all his household servants had their green cards. Domestic issues. Hmmm…

I would have liked to see a debate between candidate Mitt Romney for President vs. candidate Mitt Romney for Governor. I wonder who would win. Candidate Mitt Romney for Governor showed up at the first debate. Obama wasn’t expecting that. He was prepared for that other Romney. But Romney thought, “This would be a good time to shake my Etch A Sketch.

“My campaign office will gladly issue a retraction Tuesday for my statement today.” Romney will say whatever you want him to say. His campaign can always disavow it later.

Mitt Romney’s biggest concern in the debate was that corporations won’t buy corporate jets if the corporate jet buying tax break is eliminated. I know I won’t.

Everybody was expecting zingers from Mitt Romney. In preparation for the debate, I drank Red Zingers. That was gonna be my drinking game. I was gonna drink every time Mitt Romney scored with a zinger. It’s a good thing I was already drunk. Mitt Romney needs to take my comedy class.

It was a boring debate. It could have used a streaker…As long as it wasn’t Chris Christie.

I live tweeted the debates this year. Who is reading debate tweets when everyone is tweeting? Nobody. Nobody’s reading anybody else’s tweets. It’s not social networking. It’s social masturbating.

During the debate Romney said he knew what to do with government land; sell it to corporations. There are no small businesses, only small business owners.

The next debate will be in the form of a town meeting. That’s my kind of town.
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"Independent Thinking" with Steve Gelder

Here's today's podcast:

 
Episode 208: A Tripp Through The Headlines

Steve welcomes comedian, former journalist and author James Tripp to the show. They talk about James' new book, "The Hierophant", how the media is failing to do their job when it comes to reporting on the candidates, the role of religion in society, how the Internet will eventually be taken over by corporate interests, and summering in Martha's Vineyard with Gary Hart.
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Trippitorial - "Pledge to America"

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Trippitorial - "Guns Are People"

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"Comedy Nation This Week" - July 27, 2012

Here's the final podcast in this series with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

Panelists discuss the Colorado shooting, new DNA evidence about some of our ancestors, the Russians in Cuba and more.

Trippitorial - Guns Are People

There’s been a lot of bad talk about guns in the news lately and I think it should stop. If the corporations that manufacture guns are people, aren’t guns people too? Do they not have feelings of their own?  If you cock them, do not people bleed?  If you hold one, do they not feel like a prick? Everybody on the news is talking about how they feel, but nobody’s asking the guns how they feel. If you tickle them, do they not misfire? I’ll tell you how they feel: Cheap. Used. Misunderstood.

If it was up to them, they’d be shooting themselves up in the air everyday in celebration. Sure, sometimes the bullets that go up come down into somebody’s head, but that’s not the gun’s fault. That’s gravity. What are you gonna do? Shoot Newton? And how are you gonna do that without a gun? That’s what I thought.

Guns are some of the most misunderstood weapons of mass destruction. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a bar and heard some guy say, my gun, she just doesn’t understand me.” Well, you know what? That works both ways, pal.

It’s like the N.R.A. says, "guns don't kill people, we do." guns aren't the problem. It's people who don't have guns who are the problem. We've got to put a gun in the hand of every man, woman and child in America.

Why, some of my best friends are guns. I know a girl who married a gun. She has ten kids. The gun is always going off.

Guns aren't the problem. It's people who are the problem. That's why we need guns---to get rid of the problem.

Of course, if guns are people, and people kill people, maybe guns do kill people.

I’m James Tripp and I’ll be back with another Trippitorial.

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Trippitorial - "Election Money"

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"Free Speech Show" - What's Luck Got To Do With It?

Here's today's podcast with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

Panelists celebrate Friday the 13th with a discussion about luck.

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"Comedy Nation This Week" - July 13, 2012

Here's today's podcast with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

Panelists discuss Mitt Romney at Bain Capital, Lesbian Super Pacs, outrage at Chinese made Olympic uniforms and more.

Trippitorial – Election Money

Elections are big business in this country. It is estimated that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama’s campaigns will spend one billion dollars each. That’s two billion dollars. That’s more than I’ll make this whole year.

I guess the more the rich try to fool the poor, the more money they have to spend to get the poor to vote against their own self interests. If they want people without health care to vote against a plan to get them health care, that costs a lot of money, and cuts in education.

Speech is not free if somebody is paying for it. The rich would have you believe that money equals free speech. The more money you have, the freer you get to speak. Apparently, poor people must have nothing to say. It’s a good thing too. They’re so gauche.

In America, nothing is free unless the rich are paying for it or speech unless the rich are saying it. And that’s a good point, which is their point which makes me wonder if it’s such a good point.

You never hear about the poor influencing elections. All they have is a vote. Big deal. That doesn’t mean they’ll get to keep it. The poor can speak for free, but they’re gonna need some voter id. The peasants are revolting and so are the people they vote for.

The rich want to raise taxes on the poor---a poll tax. They also want to eliminate public education. Slaves don’t need to read. Next thing you know, they’ll be getting ideas. They’ll be thinking critically. They’ll be wanting two weeks of vacation.

The poor should be educated but they shouldn’t be so educated that they vote for someone who might represent their interests.

It’s time to get money out of politics. Any professional gambler knows the odds favor the house unless Sheldon Adelson is playing the House of Representatives. Then everyone loses.

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Trippitorial - "Supreme Tax"

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"Free Speech Show" - The Affordable Care Act

Here's today's podcast with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

Panelists discuss the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act

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"Comedy Nation This Week" - July 6, 2012

Here's today's podcast with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

 Panelists discuss the SCOTUS Affordable Care Act ruling, Presidential politics and the weekly Trippitorial.

Trippitorial - Supreme Tax

America’s health care system is ailing and I don’t feel so good myself. The affordable Care Act is compromised legislation. It’s compromised because the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists had to let some of the politician’s staffs write part of it. Instead of implementing a streamlined one payer, not for profit model, it preserves a failed model of limited coverage based on profit, not patient care. It preserves a market not worth preserving and insures increased future profits for those corporations with little thought given to cost containment. This happened because the campaign contributions politicians get from the insurance and pharmaceutical interests are too big to bail.

The for profit private insurance model of health care is a failed model whose life should not be prolonged. It’s time to pull the plug. The constitution does not begin, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect market…”

Chief Justice John Roberts said the penalty for not participating in the private market is a tax. The whole thing is a tax. It’s a tax we can pay to a private corporation, or for a smaller fee, to the government. I would prefer to pay it to the government for a single payer non-profit model like Medicare. The government should not be coercing its citizens to buy products from corporations, although I did recently incorporate.

Probably not since Rome hired private companies to collect taxes from their conquered territories has a citizen been mandated to pay a tax to a private corporation. And we all know what happened to Rome…What happened to Rome?

It’s like the government ordering us to send our taxes directly to Halliburton to pay for the Iraq war with no other bidders. Oh, wait, that happened. Halliburton was essentially the single payer provider for the Iraq war and yes, they did have death panels. But the affordable care act does not have death panels. Private insurers have death panels that deny coverage or delay it until you are dead. “The doctor will see you now…oh. Next.”

Forcing everyone into the private market keeps the unfair market alive. It’s like making us pay for protection: “I’d advise youse to peruse a primary plan from Blue Cross. And I put the emphasis on ‘blue’ and ‘cross.’”

The insurance companies are the pimps of our whore health care system. That’s why you see their executives driving around in pink Cadillac’s.

Corporations want to be people? I say let’s let some of them die. And hopefully they’ll be uninsured. Let some markets die. Corporations may be people, but guess what? I don’t like people.

Mitt Romney says the penalty is a tax unless it was signed into law by Mitt Romney. He’s an idiot. He said he wants to repeal Romneycare, although he may be confused. Republicans would repeal common sense if they had any.

Getting money out of politics is the real cure for health care reform. Any elected politician who is not actively pursuing campaign finance reform is corrupt and should be voted out of office, although he’s probably not in his office. He’s probably at a fundraiser somewhere. And I think that describes most of them.

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Trippitorial - "The Supreme Corporation"

Citing its own 2010 Citizens United ruling as precedent, the Supreme Court struck down a century old Montana state campaign finance law that limits corporate political spending. The court stated, "Political speech does not lose first amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation."

That’s why from now on I will no longer be known as James Tripp. I will be known as James Tripp, Inc. I am incorporating to avoid federal election spending limits and for the limited liability because I’m liable to do anything. Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet. Twas Hamlet’s corporation.

When corporations incorporate, they do it to limit their liability. So when people form a corporation, they do it because they know they’re going to do something they don’t want to be liable for.

Corporations are artificial creations whose sole purpose is to increase profit.  For them to have a profit, somebody else has to have a loss, in this case, real people.

If corporations are people, let them walk my dog and pick up his shit. Of course, I don’t have a dog, but that’s not important to the point I’m trying to make. “Down, boy.”

People are not corporations. Sure, anybody can put an Inc. On their name, but a corporation is so much more than an individual. For example: an individual would not think to patent his own DNA, but a corporation would. As a matter of fact I don’t own the licensing on several of my chromosomes, which can sometimes be a problem.

Why, some of my best friends are incorporated. The fed, Citibank, the Republican Party…I wouldn’t want my sister to marry one.

Corporate spending makes voting obsolete. Now if we could just make corporations obsolete by voting.

Over the years, the court’s become more diverse. There’s an African American, women and a Latina on the bench. Isn’t it about time the president appoints a corporation to the Supreme Court? I think there may be one on there already.

America is not a corporation or a Democracy or a Republic. I don’t know what it is, but I owe it taxes.

This is James Tripp, inc., a Delaware corporation, and I’ll be back with another Trippitorial.

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"Free Speech Show" - My Life Is A Hobby

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"Free Speech Show" - Hobbies

Here's today's podcast with panelists Laurie Buckley, Dave Plunkett, James Tripp and host Bill Bronner:

Panelists discuss their hobbies

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