Reality is finally catching up

**David Pakman** (0:00)
We have a packed show today. And there's a strange theme, I think, running through almost all of it, which is that we're starting to see a lot of consequences. We start with the death of Dolly Parton, an extraordinary American life, a reminder about decency and success coexisting. And then some of Donald Trump's own voters are turning on him in really brutal terms while Republican candidates are discovering that having Trump plastered all over your website might not be just might not be a very good idea heading into November. And meanwhile, Donald Trump picks another fight with Canada, but Canada refuses to surrender and the consequences could reach your bathroom, your toilet. I will explain. We also have a very disturbing public health story. Measles deaths are back in the RFK junior era.
And meanwhile, while a lot of people are understandably distracted by the daily chaos, Donald Trump has cleared a huge obstacle to try to take federal control over the upcoming midterm elections. It's not getting the attention it deserves. We will give it some attention and I'll tell you what is happening there.
Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80 and the United States and really the world have lost one of those kind of increasingly rare public figures who did transcend just about every cultural and political divide. She was a musical icon. She was a brilliant songwriter. She was a very successful businesswoman. And by every indication, she was just genuinely a good person. Now, the story of Dolly Parton is very interesting. She was born in a one room cabin in Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 kids in a family with almost no money. And she wrote some truly classic songs, Jolene, nine to five. I will always love you. She sold more than 100 million records and built this incredible entertainment empire. But I am maybe even more interested for the purposes of this show about how her legacy goes way beyond just music. She has this imagination library which has mailed hundreds of millions of free books to kids under five. Back in 2020, she donated a million dollars to covid research at Vanderbilt. She funded work connected to the covid vaccine. And she didn't really get involved in partisan politics. But you could see from her world view that she believed in, I don't know, I guess we would say, like compassion, allowing people to just be who they are and live as they are. And here is video of Dolly more than a decade ago.
This is this is Larry King, by the way. This is not Dolly Parton. This is Dolly defending the LGBT community.
And this was more than a decade ago. It really says a lot about who she was.

**Larry King** (3:05)
Didn't you recently, though, throw support to the LGBT community?

**Dolly Parton** (3:10)
Oh, I'm always encouraged. I'm not encouraged. They've made me the poster child, I think, only because I'm so outspoken as far as just being accepting of people in general. I do not believe that we should criticize and judge other people. I think we should be accepting and loving. We are all God's children. We are who we are, and we should be allowed to be who we are.

**Larry King** (3:34)
Did any of the faith-based communities that deeply believe the other way take umbrage with you?

**Dolly Parton** (3:40)
Oh, absolutely. They did? Oh, yes. I get it all the time. I keep saying, well, if you're the fine Christian that you think you are, why are you judging people? Why are you... That's God's job. We're not God. We're not judges. You know, we're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to not judge and we're not supposed to take vengeance on other people. That's God's job. So I got too much to do. I don't try to do God's work too. I mean, not to get into trying to do all that. So, yeah, I suffer for everything I do. I'm not out to make any... I just think that we should be more loving, more caring. We are who we are. If you're gay, you're gay.
If you're straight, you're straight and you should be allowed to be, you know, how how you are.

**David Pakman** (4:27)
And what's very interesting about this is that, as you can tell, Dolly Parton was very religious. She was culturally southern, but she didn't say, well, my religion says I've got to be cruel to people or the environment I grew up in in the south means that this is my view about LGBT people or whatever the case may be. She had this instinct where her Christianity said, oh, you should include people. And she had this instinct, which was, oh, my wealth should be used to improve the lives of other people, which is the opposite of everything that Donald Trump stands for. Now, Donald Trump seemingly realized Trump often does this thing where when people die, whose views are antithetical to his, he just attacks them. He just absolutely brutalizes them on social media. But even Donald Trump seemed to realize, hey, Dolly Parton is so universally loved that I'd rather avoid saying anything vicious or strange about her. So he put out a truth social post where he said, quote, but he does start to make it about himself, though. He says, quote, Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest country singers and far beyond ever, has just passed away. This is a true loss for millions of people. There has never been anyone like her and never will.