Pheaturing Phile Alum Steve "Lips" Kudlow And Robb Reiner From Anvil

 

Hello, kids., how are you doing? Welcome to the Phile for a Monday. Following his announcement that he would challenge GOP Rep. Liz Cheney in the 2022 Republican primary back in January, U.S. House candidate Anthony Bouchard admitted that when he was 18-years-old, he had impregnated a 14-year-old girl. In a Facebook Live video to his supporters, he said, “So, bottom line, it’s a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant. You’ve heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.” The Republican party politician had announced his running a week after the U.S. Capitol, gaining popularity in challenging Cheney after she voted for former President Donald Trump‘s impeachment after the January insurrection. In an effort to be transparent, he told the Casper Star-Tribune, “I don’t want to hide anything. I don’t want people drug into this. This is just crazy over politics,” and harshly criticized the media in his 13-minute video, advocating against “dirty politics,” the media, and “the establishment swamp.” He said that he just wanted “everyone to know.” In anticipating that this story would become well known and published soon by an opposition research company, he posted the video admitting it all. He said, “This is really a message about how dirty politics is. They’ll stop at nothing, man, when you get in the lead, and when you’re somebody that can’t be controlled, you’re somebody who works for the people. They’ll come after you. That’s why good people don’t run for office.” According to the Star Tribune, after Bouchard had gotten the young girl pregnant, he married her at 19-years-old and when she was 15 years old. They were both living in Florida, which meant that the marriage was legal because people could marry at any age with a judge’s approval if the parent’s consent and pregnancy was in the picture. However, their marriage was short-lived, as the young couple got divorced three years later. “A lot of pressure. Pressure to abort a baby. I got to tell you. I wasn’t going to do it, and neither was she. And there was pressure to have her banished from their family. Just pressure. Pressure to go hide somewhere. And the only thing I could see as the right thing to do was to get married and take care of him,” Bouchard explained. But the story didn’t end there. His ex-wife committed suicide when she was 20-years-old, which Bouchard explains was from “problems in another relationship,” and that “Her dad had committed suicide.” He also admitted to the rocky relationship he has with his son, saying, “Sadly, he’s made some wrong choices in his life. He’s almost become my estranged son. Some of the things that he’s got going on his life, I certainly don’t approve of them. But I’m not going to abandon him. I still love him. Just like when he was born.” Bouchard also made sure to note that he believes Cheney is not responsible for trying to get this story out to hinder him in furthering her campaign. And Cheney’s spokesman, Jeremy Adler, said, “The Cheney campaign had no involvement in this at all.” 

An Amazon construction site in Windsor, Connecticut has been shut down after a seventh noose was discovered there, according to WTNH. The first six nooses were found last month. Now, a local chapter of the NAACP is connecting with Amazon workers at the location to address fears and concerns of racism. During a press conference with the Windsor Police Department, law enforcement revealed that on Wednesday afternoon a rope noose was found dangling in a section of the warehouse construction site with no security camera surveillance. That alone is freaky. But it turns out this was the 7th noose discovered at Amazon’s Windsor construction site. The first noose appeared during the last week of April and soon after that, local police officers found five more. However, it seems no serious action was taken then. Of this most recent incident Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told NewsNation, “We continue to be deeply disturbed by the incidents happening at the construction site in Windsor and have ordered its shut down until necessary security measures can be put in place.” FBI Special Agent David Sundberg added that, “The New Haven Division of the FBI is lending its resources and support to the Windsor PD for this ongoing investigation. The implications of a hanging noose anywhere are unacceptable and will always generate the appropriate investigative response.” The site is shut down until further notice, but will likely reopen today. A $100,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can provide useful information about the culprit. Considering 300-500 people pass through the site each day, including many non-Amazon contractors, it’s difficult to begin determining suspects. Many of those contractors, though, come from the south: a fact not lost on the CT NAACP president Scot X. Esdaile. Esdaile said, “It’s kind of ironic that they are from Lynchburg, Virginia, and they were brought on the site, and a lot of individuals from Florida and Texas and Georgia from the south have come up here to work on this particular site.” Apparently, racism at the location is not uncommon. At the news conference, one employee shared his personal experience of racism at the site. Carlos Best, an ironworker, explained that he had to fire an individual over racist remarks. “We hear a lot of stuff on the job site but it is kept quiet, some guys just want to get a paycheck and go home. But personally, on this job here, I have seen a lot of racism. This is not the only construction site that these things occur on, and it has to stop,” Best said. The Greater Hartford NAACP, a local chapter of the Connecticut NAACP, is working with the site released an official statement about the nooses. “These forms of hate crimes have had a detrimental stain on the current state of America’s reality and for them to hit so close to home and with such consistency, shows a robust disrespect for the not only human decency but also for our ancestors who lost their lives due to the hate represented within the knots in those ropes.”  

In November 2019, a 25-year-old woman in central California woman was arrested and charged with murder after delivering a stillborn child with methamphetamine in its system. According to a news release from the Hanford Police Department, an autopsy from the Kings County Coroner’s Office revealed toxic levels of methamphetamine in the stillborn baby. Chelsea Becker, 26, “further admitted to law enforcement she used methamphetamine while she was most recently pregnant as late as three days prior to giving birth to the stillborn fetus,” the department noted. Becker was arrested several weeks after the stillbirth on a felony charge of first-degree murder. She was booked into the Kings County Jail with a bail set at $5 million, which was later reduced to $2 million. Unable to make the $2 million bail, Becker remained behind bars until this March. Becker was finally released when Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert Shane Burns granted her attorneys’ request to relocate her to a drug treatment center pending trial. Civil rights groups and reproductive rights activists have rallied behind Becker, claiming she needed treatment, not prison time. There is no evidence that drug use results in stillbirths, advocates claimed. Calling for Becker’s murder charges to be dropped, advocates warned that a conviction would keep pregnant women from seeking help and criminalize the choices women make while pregnant. “We are deeply saddened, horrified that this case has been continuing for 15 months, keeping someone incarcerated because she lost a pregnancy, which thousands of women do every year,” Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, told NBC Los Angeles. The organization is providing legal counsel for Becker. On Thursday, Judge Burns dismissed the case on the grounds that there is inadequate evidence to prove that the mother had taken methamphetamine with the knowledge or intention of terminating the pregnancy. As Becker’s lawyers argued, there is no scientific evidence linking the cause of death with methamphetamine use. “There is no medical knowledge that” the drug would have that effect, Paltrow told The New York Times. Phil Esbenshade, executive assistant district attorney with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, disagreed. “It is the opinion of our office that sufficient evidence was presented at the preliminary hearing to hold Ms. Becker to answer for trial,” he wrote in a statement emailed to The Times. “The judge who presided over that preliminary examination, upon hearing that evidence and considering arguments from both sides, did find such sufficient evidence existed. Judge Burns, the judge who dismissed the case this morning, apparently disagrees with that finding.” Becker’s lawyers also argued that California’s homicide law should not apply to pregnant women, a position backed by California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra. In an amicus brief to an appellate court in support of Ms. Becker, Becerra maintained the court’s interpretation of the law would “subject all women who suffer a pregnancy loss to the threat of criminal investigation and possible prosecution for murder.” “Whether a stillbirth or a miscarriage was due to drug use or some other reason, there is nothing in the statute that would constrain a district attorney’s ability to investigate the most intimate aspects of the circumstances of a woman’s pregnancy and to bring murder charges against that woman who suffered a pregnancy loss,” Becerra wrote. One of Becker’s attorneys, Jacqueline Goodman, told The Times that she was happy with the results but regretted that the judge has left open the potential for pregnant women in similar circumstances to be criminalized. “I think that ruling preserves the right to prosecute a different case with different facts,” Goodman said.

The forthcoming book Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump offers a glimpse at former president Barack Obama’s real opinions on former president Donald Trump. The book, written by the Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere, examines how exactly the Democratic Party came to defeat Donald Trump in 2020… including some juicy tidbits about how Obama went OFF on his Republican successor. Dovere’s new book is not released from Penguin Random House until next week. But a preview published in The Guardian is already generating buzz. Reportedly, the book claims Obama called Trump a “madman,” a “racist, sexist pig,” “that fucking lunatic,” and one “corrupt motherfucker.” That last insult came after Obama learned that Trump talked to foreign leaders, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, with no aides present. The excerpt included in The Guardian quotes Obama as saying, ” ‘He’s a madman… big donors looking to squeeze a reaction out of him in exchange for the big checks they were writing to his foundation… I didn’t think it would be this bad.’ Sometimes: ‘I didn’t think we’d have a racist, sexist pig.’ Depending on the outrage of the day … a passing ‘that fucking lunatic’ with a shake of his head.” Of course, Obama had many personal bones to pick Trump... even before he became the 45th president. When considering a primary run back in 2012, Trump perpetuated the (objectively racist) birther conspiracy, which alleged that Obama was not born in America. Obama also had some harsh words for the Tea Party movement which preceded... and galvanized... Trump’s “MAGA” presidency. According to Business Insider, Obama trashed the group at the Obama Foundation’s 2017 holiday party in Chicago. Some staff had questioned the former prez about whether it irked him to be labeled “anticapitalist” by Republicans... especially considering he bent over backwards to bail out big banks after entering the White House in 2008. In response, Obama “gave a long, reasoned answer” then added “As for the Tea Party, Obama said, well, they were ‘racist motherfuckers.'” Looking back, it’s hard to believe that the Tea Party was once a fringe faction of the GOP; their inflammatory, racialized rhetoric used to make for some shocking, mid-aughts headlines. Now it’s the base level POV for an entire American political party. Though, as Battle for the Soul points out, the election of Obama’s own vice president Joe Biden signals a changing of the tides. And reflects some serious strategizing on the part of Democrats.

A family in Montgomery County Pennsylvania was recently told by the Homeowners Association that they needed to take down the American flag they were hanging. Rocco and Darlene Lacertosa stated that they recently installed an American flag in the front of their home to honor their two sons, both of who are actively serving in the military. The family apparently made several arguments against the Homeowners Association after being told to take their flag down, citing that there are no written rules in this Association contract that forbid a flagpole in common areas. But despite this, the Association is still persisting and says that the row has been laid out in governing documents. Through a social media post, Darlene stated, “Very upsetting since we have two sons in the military and this flag pole was Rocco’s dad’s which he proudly flew every day until the day he died.” Darlene also stated that HOA sent a letter to the family saying they, “trust that as a homeowner at Indian Valley Meadows you recognize that keeping the entire community looking good helps to promote strong values.” A spokesperson for the Galman Group confirmed that they had requested their residents to comply with the architect’s rules and standards. The spokesperson stated, “The standards specifically permit the American flag to be flown when mounted to a house but do not permit in-ground flags in the community. The Galman Group and the Board at Indian Valley Meadows welcome its residents to display the American flag, and other appropriate flags, in accordance with the guidelines established for the benefit of the community.” This isn’t the first time a family is ordered to remove the American flag. Back in 2018 the Bryant family also pushed against their Homeowners Association over their display of the American flag. According to Jennifer Bryant, the U.S. flag was located in their yard and had the Gadsen insignia with the words “Don’t tread on me.” The family had purchased a flag from Amazon which showed a rattlesnake coiled up and ready to strike. The family said that the flag was a freedom of speech, but according to the Keene Ranch HOA, it was a violation of its flag code. 

Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album..,

I was thinking of getting a new tattoo but someone had the same idea I had...

I have no idea who those kids are. Haha. Any stroll through a store would have you believe that "pink is for girls" and "blue is for boys" are the associated gender roles are the very backbone of our society. Products from nail clippers to hand lotion are assigned genders when last time I checked, inanimate objects don't have gender identities. Like these bathroom doors, again...

That's the worse I have ever seen. If you're looking for a graphic design job, you may want to contact whoever employed the people responsible for this following design fail. They are most likely hiring. 

Keeping up with the youngins and their lingo is tough. Kids these days like to use "emoji," which use small pictures to communicate how they're feeling... kind of like hyroglyphics. When using emoji, it's easy to confuse laugh-crying for just regular-crying, and these boomers and old folks made the unfortunate mistake of using the wrong face at the wrongest possible times.

Hahahaha. Get well soon. Everyone wants their parents and their in-laws to get along. But maybe not this much. A bride has emailed the Phile to ask for advice because her dad wants to sit with her fiancé's mom at their wedding. The only issue? His actual wife isn't that into the idea. The dad says that because he's paying, he should be able to sit with who he wants. The bride disagrees. She says her dad and her fiancé's mom are best friends.

"I grew up with my fiancé. My dad and his mom are best friends. I can't even emphasize how close, and as an adult I've noticed that not many married adults have that type of closeness with any friend. They have spend every Tuesday night together for the past 30ish years and no one else is invited. They go on trips, sometimes share a bed, talk literally every day. My dad is adamant it has never been romantic because she is ugly (she is far from ugly but he claims he doesn't like her race) I don't know what to believe. I almost believe that because my dad seems to have a huge virgin whore complex and I don't know if he could have maintained the friendship if they did hookup. Also he treats her somewhat like a sibling, intentionally pisses her off a lot, but then again I don't cuddle my adult brother, so who knows. I have a couple of issues with their friendship. Mother-in-law is disrespectful towards my mom, helps him hide his cheating, and they bad mouth my mom together. My mom hates their friendship (father-in-law is also involved but truly doesn't care, and him and mother-in-law seem to have a happy marriage) My second issue is mother-in-law is a pretty shitty mom and my dad has enabled that over the year. She would run away a lot when my husband was a kid and my dad was constantly leaving to go calm her down. They would just sit on the beach all night and talk, and he never told her to grow up and go home. I said they can't sit together at the wedding because it makes my mom uncomfortable, and because the two of them can be obnoxious together (he untied the back of her dress at a beach wedding once, so think casual sundress and the whole thing came down) my dad is furious. He said he paid for the wedding and I am not going to disrespect him. Mother-in-law says I'm bullying her because she doesn't want to be stuck sitting with father-in-law's family because they are mean. to be clear i'm not making her sit with them. My dad is pissed and we got into a fight over the phone, but my mom is really happy and my fiancé is backing me." This "friendship" is totally inappropriate and weird. I’d double check that your fiancé isn’t your brother first. You mean you mother-in-law helps your dad cheat?? I’m sorry but they’re so disrespectful to their own relationships and it’s not okay. I’d tell them so and stand your ground with them not being able to sit together. They have something weird going on and if you don't want to see that shit on your wedding day, that should be you and your fiancé's decision. and dad seems shady as hell. They are best friends (or more) but he doesn't like her race? What the fuck? I think they're best friends with benefits: They sleep in the same bed and he TOOK OFF HER DRESS?! Yeah no, they're definitely fucking. Honestly, you should give him back his money and uninvite them both. Otherwise, it's not going to be a pretty wedding. Yikes all around. Hope they figure it out! If you have a problem you want my opinion on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. 

If you spot the Mindphuck then let me know. Hahahaha. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Things Said By Mid-Westerners

5. Old beer sign: exists Midwesterners: this is a decoration I have to have in my house. 

4. People always make fun of mid-westerners for not taking cover during a tornado when it’s literally called “tornado watch.” 

3. Hey could you help me with this thing? Absolutely no pressure though. Totally okay if you can’t. If you’d rather run me over with a car that’s cool. Are you mad at me?

2. Official statement: mayonnaise doesn’t belong on popcorn. 

And the number one thing said by a mid-westerner is...

1. Growing up in the midwest is understanding that there is a 50/50 chance you are opening leftovers instead of butter. 

Charles Grodin 

April 21st, 1935 — May 18th, 2021 

Heartbreaking.

Another day, another dress code violation. But this time, instead of a school sending girls home for the crime of wearing crop tops, administrators are being accused of editing clothing onto girls' bodies to cover them up. Yikes. Action News Jax of Jacksonville, Florida, reports that parents in the St. Johns County School District are demanding an apology after photos appeared to be altered. Eighty photos appear to be edited, they say, and all of the photos are of girls. From Action News Jax, "The district said the yearbook photos must follow dress code guidelines and they deemed the 80 pictures inappropriate. Since then, the school district told Action News Jax it was a female yearbook teacher who made that decision. After constant efforts, no officials have spoken up, while the ninth-grade students are speaking out for change."  “The double standard in the yearbook is more so they looked at our body and thought just a little bit of skin showing is sexual,” ninth-grade student Riley O’Keefe told Action News Jax. “They looked at the boys, for the swim team photos and other sports photos and thought that was fine, and that’s really upsetting and uncomfortable.” The school is offering to refund yearbook money, according to Action News Jax. So how egregious were these alleged dress code violations? 

Most people on Twitter don't find the photos inappropriate at all. Some would argue the shoddy editing is much more offensive. The edits are what really ruins the photos. And the fact that a bunch of adults apparently made the decision and carried out the edits... gross. 

The 151st book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Richard will be on the Phile a week from today... Monday. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?

The Seawolf is not by the dock. And it's in the 60s today... kinda chilly. 

Me: Hey, guys, welcome to the Phile, and Steve, welcome back to the Phile. 

Steve: It's good to be back. 

Me: Robb, it's been almost 15 years since the documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil came out. How did that film change your life? 

Robb: It changed every way you can imagine. We don't have enough time to tell you everything. 

Me: Haha. Okay, give me a highlight. 

Robb: Well, in the last few years before COVID we did about 400 shows. 

Me: How many were you playing before that film? 

Steve: Twenty-five or thirty. 

Robb: Yeah, 25 or 30. 

Me: What were the venues like? 

Steve: Half empty small venues. 

Robb: Well, yes and no. There's a lot of folklore to that. Depends. Certain markets we always did well. 

Me: In the the film it shows you're playing small, half empty vocals, am I right? 

Robb: Well, the film focused on that, yeah. 

Steve: It tried to show some of the horrible situations. 

Robb: I think that had more of a sympathetic effect on humans. 

Steve: People want to see the negative and they wanted to focus in on that. 

Me: You have a new album out called "Legal At Last." How much did the documentary enable you to do more albums, Steve? 

Steve: We're in an incredible role here. Since the movie came out we've been doing nothing but touring and writing and releasing records. Not that we hadn't been doing that before but it's much more thicker, wilder and bigger and great. 

Me: Could you have imagined that when you were making the film that you guys would be making music still? 

Steve: I knew. When my ship came in, when the director sat me down at his uncle's place 17 years ago pretty much he said, "I'm going to make a movie about you." It was one of Steven Spielberg's guys my boat just came in. My attitude and the way I look at life gives me a chance and I'm going to go for it. When that guy give me that chance I knew my boat came in. 

Me: How did Anvil's fans like the film? 

Robb: Well, with the fans a lot of the fans didn't need a movie to tell them about the band. 

Steve: Particularly the fans in Europe have always backed the bank and that's why when we went and did the movie we were already 12 albums had been released at that point. 

Robb: With the movie we made a lot of new fans. They're the new pounders. 

Me: I told Steve the last time he was here in 2013 I discovered the band when you were on the Conan show... here's a pic. 

Me: And I loved the movie. Robb, you were working on catering and I think Steve you were working in construction. I take it you guys are not going that now. 

Robb: We haven't done that in 14 years. The band is our shitty day job. 

Me: Looking back why did you want to tell the truth as struggling artists? 

Steve: Because it is the truth. 

Robb: Yeah, and everybody should know the truth. What's wrong with that? 

Me: There's nothing wrong with it and it certainly helps with the film but that's hard to do, right? 

Steve: That's our biggest mistake, most bands would never think of doing. Whenever anybody made videos or movies of them doing with their band they want to show the best possible light and it's all a big facade and a lie and it never goes anywhere. So why don't they tell the truth and let people know what it's really like? Like I said at the top of the interview people love the negative. So we show them that and now we give them something to bite down on. There you go. 

Me: It makes a good film, right? I understand why you did it. 

Robb: It also was going wrong in real life. It wasn't made up. 

Me: Did you think the Anvil fans you already had wouldn't like to see that part of your lives though? 

Steve: Listen, we love what we do. 

Robb: We don't look at it as a struggle. It's a challenge, we find solutions and we keep moving forward, and we believe in ourselves. 

Me: What did you two learn about your relationship with each other while working on that film? 

Steve: I don't think it was a question of learning anything. I think off anything to see it in an objective sort of way is we both have the same goals. As long as the goals stay the same it doesn't matter about the approach. And ultimately that's if we ever going to argue it's about the approach. No, we should do it that way. No, we should do it this way. We both want the same result so ultimately we are in agreeance. 

Me: In the movie you guys have a really big argument. What was that like? 

Steve: The director was rubbing his hands, "I've waited two years...!" That was two years into filming. 

Me: Does that stuff still happen? 

Robb: He stopped smoking a few years ago so he's been a little edgy. It took the director two years to get that. It's not like a fight like that all the time. 

Steve: There's just moments. 

Robb: Yeah, there's moments where we get angry but we come and do. We're humans. 

Me: I might've asked this question when Steve was here before but do you have to be a metal fan to like this documentary? 

Robb: No. The documentary taps into something that goes beyond making music, beyond the kind of music we're making, beyond a group of musicians trying to make a comeback. It's a human spirit story. 

Me: Tell me about that. 

Robb: It is what it is. It's about not giving up. 

Steve: On the things that we love. People ask us "why didn't we quit?" Why would we quit something we love? I can understand quitting something we hate to do but why would we quit something that we love? I don't comprehend that philosophy. I just don't get it. 

Steve: We take on challenges and we overcome them. 

Me: In the movie you took about your sacrifice your life for the music. What is that? 

Robb: Yeah, we sacrifice our lives for the music but it all worked out for us. We got lucky. 

Me: What kept you going? 

Steve: I never really had doubts. And to be really be perfectly honest, I've always been successful. Unsuccessful would mean I never recorded music and never sold anything and it ended after the first album. This is a band that is 18 albums in. I knew that, and I knew I would be doing this for my entire life. It's really what we envision what success is. For me what success is is writing a bunch of songs, getting them recorded and getting them to my fans. Ultimately I've been doing that the way I want to, how I want to, when I want to, who I want to do it with for over 40 years! That's not being unsuccessful, that's a hundred percent successful. 

Me: What about you, Robb, what keeps you going? 

Robb: Just self belief in the band and ourselves. We're extremely talented musicians. We don't just walk away from that. We're pretty prolific artists and we've always been doing what we want which is the best thing. 

Me: So, now you're a lot more successful and famous how does it feel? 

Robb: The struggle continues. We want to reach more people, we want bigger audiences. 

Me: So, what's next for Anvil? 

Steve: More. Another day, another gig, another record. 

Robb: We want to maintain our health, hopefully that will continue, that's the most important thing. And we have a set goal that we have to make minimum 20 albums. 

Me: How long have you two been friends? 

Robb: We've even friends since school. We made a pact when we were 14-years-old that we were going to rock together for ever. 

Me: A lot of bands make really great music and break up, but you guys are still making music together. Why do you think that is? 

Robb: Well, that's them. 

Me: But why is that so important to you? 

Steve: It's not a matter of being important. We took a lot of that for granted. 

Robb: We own what we do. We own it. Nobody sounds like us. Us two together create this Anvil thing. Nobody has been able to decode it. 

Me: Thanks for being on the Phile, guys. 

Robb: No problem. 

Steve: Thanks for having us.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Steve Kudlow and Robb Reiner. The Phile will be back on Friday with Howie Mandel, one of my favorite celebrities ever. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain!

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...