Pelosi & McConnell Fall (again,) Banning HFCS, & How To Fight Insurance Companies

Summary

American Fever Dream Episode: Pelosi & McConnell Fall (again,) Banning HFCS, & How To Fight Insurance Companies
Release Date: December 17, 2024
Hosts: Be Spehar & Sammy Sage
Presented by: Betches Media

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Introduction

In the latest episode of American Fever Dream, hosts Be Spehar and Sammy Sage dive into a whirlwind of political upheavals, cultural debates, and practical advice, all wrapped in their signature blend of humor and insightful commentary. The episode kicks off with light-hearted banter about the impending TikTok ban and the personal impacts it has on creators, setting the tone for a candid and engaging discussion.

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Political Falls: Pelosi & McConnell in Trouble

Time Stamps: 03:00 – 07:00

The episode delves into the recent political missteps of prominent figures Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. Be expresses frustration over Pelosi's recent hospital stay in Luxembourg due to a broken hip, pointing out the hypocrisy in how wealthy politicians receive top-tier healthcare while average citizens struggle.

Be Spehar [04:19]: “Nancy Pelosi broke her hip while she was in the burning bush. Was in Luxembourg. They have the best healthcare there.”

Sammy highlights the irony of Pelosi's continued influence despite her personal setbacks, questioning why she remains a formidable force in Congress.

Sammy Sage [04:30]: “Could Nancy Pelosi step down? Let my people go, Nancy. Let my people go and run for chairman of the oversight committee and not be up against a separate 70-year-old man who has cancer because you don't want AOC in the seat.”

The hosts also critique Mitch McConnell for his perceived inability to effectively lead, especially in the face of legislative challenges like passing a stopgap measure to fund the government.

Be Spehar [05:07]: “They're ignoring them. Sammy, we are not going.”

Banning High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS): A Cultural Battle

Time Stamps: 07:00 – 11:00

Transitioning from political figures to policy, Be and Sammy discuss the movement to ban high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Be criticizes RFK Jr.'s efforts to eliminate HFCS, arguing that such a ban would devastate Midwest farmers who rely heavily on corn production.

Be Spehar [21:48]: “Do I think we should have it in all our food and all that? Absolutely not. Like there's something we should be doing. But you're crazy to go up against the corn kings and queens of the Midwest.”

Sammy expands on the challenges of implementing such a ban, emphasizing the deep-rooted economic structures that support corn and soy production.

Sammy Sage [22:05]: “We build whole summer festivals around corn and corn queens. You can't go after the farm dynasties.”

The discussion highlights the complexities of agricultural subsidies and the political power wielded by farming communities, making policy changes in this area exceptionally contentious.

How To Fight Insurance Companies: Practical Advice

Time Stamps: 40:35 – 44:59

Shifting gears to a more practical topic, Be and Sammy provide listeners with actionable strategies to contest denied insurance claims. Drawing from a lawsuit filed against United Health Insurance, they outline steps to hold insurance companies accountable.

Sammy Sage [42:00]: “If you are in a scenario where a treatment is denied, what you should do is ask the insurance company in writing for the name, the board, specialty, and the license number of the doctor who determined that your treatment was not medically necessary.”

The advice includes requesting detailed information about the decision-making process and challenging the legitimacy of the denying doctor's credentials. This segment empowers listeners to navigate the often frustrating landscape of insurance claims with confidence and knowledge.

Be Spehar [43:34]: “They definitely can. And I'm sure that they don't want you to put out there that you found out that the doctor who denied your claim denies 97% of claims, 80% of claims, 20% of claims. Whatever it is, it's going to sound bad.”

Cultural and Technological Concerns

Time Stamps: 12:34 – 29:55

The hosts do not shy away from critiquing broader societal issues, including the sensationalization of violent incidents and the cultural obsession with turning tragic events into symbols for political agendas. They discuss the Daniel Penny incident, reflecting on how such events are exploited for culture wars rather than addressing the underlying issues of mental health and community support.

Sammy Sage [12:34]: “They're like the biohacking tradwives kind of.”

Additionally, Be and Sammy touch upon concerns about technological advancements, referencing the reopening of nuclear reactors to power AI initiatives and the tragic death of an OpenAI researcher, highlighting the high-stakes pressure in the tech industry.

Be Spehar [33:27]: “Microsoft purchased defunct nuclear reactors so that they could run them. Not to make energy cheaper for everyone or to improve the electric grid, but to power AI.”

Future Topics and Listener Engagement

Time Stamps: 44:59 – End

Wrapping up the episode, Be and Sammy tease upcoming segments, including a mailbag episode featuring holiday stories from listeners and an interview with Holocaust survivor Rhodey Glass. They encourage audience interaction through emails and social media, fostering a sense of community among their listeners.

Be Spehar [44:59]: “Politics show during the lame duck session, we're gonna let you know what we know as we know it.”

The hosts promise more structured content in the new year while maintaining their characteristic spontaneity and humor.

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Conclusion

Pelosi & McConnell Fall (again,) Banning HFCS, & How To Fight Insurance Companies offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of current political dynamics, cultural debates, and practical advice for listeners navigating complex systems. Be Spehar and Sammy Sage balance critical analysis with relatable banter, making American Fever Dream a must-listen for those seeking both information and entertainment amidst the chaos of today's political and social landscape.

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Transcript

[Sammy Sage]

Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton? And time just stands still?

[Be Spear]

Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm Be Spear.

[Sammy Sage]

And I'm Sammy Sage.

[Be Spear]

And this is American Fever Dream, presented by Betches News, where we explore the.

[Sammy Sage]

Absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience.

[Be Spear]

And where we also put on makeup.

[Sammy Sage]

Sorry you're gonna blow me up like that.

[Be Spear]

Sammy is putting on makeup as we're starting the show. This is an American fever dream, where I'm. I'm here to let you know, listeners. Sammy and I are gonna get so hot this year, it's gonna make you sick. You're gonna be sick. Sick of us. Sick of us. Because I have time.

[Sammy Sage]

You have time. Where's your time? Where are you getting time from?

[Be Spear]

From the TikTok ban. That's where I won't be spending. Do you know that I get my weekly, like, how much time I spend on the Internet, and it's like nine hours. It's like a full day that I spend on TikTok. So the TikTok ban is going through. It is my job, and I. I appreciate everybody tagging me and all the solutions that folks are coming up with. I've been dealing with this for three years, almost four years now. It's been trying to ban Tik Tok. And I've never told you they're going to ban it before. I've told you they don't have a way. I'm telling you now, they do have a way. And even the people who wrote the legislation are a little bit scared by how ironclad what they wrote is. We're not getting a fair day in court, and now nobody wants it banned. But they have to keep up the ruse of, oh, it's for national security. And to me, that has nothing to do with it. I think it goes back to the time that TikTok exposed Mark Warner's restrict act legislation, and everybody dropped it. And I'm upset. And now I gotta be on YouTube and I can't use the filters, so I'm gonna have to, like, actually, you know, learn how to, like, do YouTube makeup or something.

[Sammy Sage]

You know what? We should just play underneath this whole segment. You're so vain.

[Be Spear]

I spent the last four years staring at my face, and that was very difficult. It is weird when you're a creator to constantly look at yourself like, it's weird.

[Sammy Sage]

That's why I don't do more stuff.

[Be Spear]

Yeah. Nobody loves me like I love me, and even I'm sick of my damn face. No wonder they banned TikTok. Well, here we are. They're like, we're sick of that girl's face. We're done with that.

[Sammy Sage]

They're like, I'm turning this episode off because I'm also sick of their voices.

[Be Spear]

I'm sick of them. Right?

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah. Okay. We promise this episode will get better.

[Be Spear]

Can you tell? We're preparing to see our parents. I'm preparing to see my mom for the holidays, and I always get, like, insecure that I think that is relatable. Every time I know I'm going to see my family I haven't seen in a while. I, like, get nervous that they're going to perceive me, and then I start, like, being like, oh, my God. I have to, like, immediately do skin care and, like, what am I going to wear? And, like, they don't give a shit.

[Sammy Sage]

I. I don't have this feeling now, but I've had this feeling in the past, and it is annoying, you know, especially if someone's going to be like, oh, you look like you gain weight.

[Be Spear]

Yeah. Or my mom will be like, do you ever try a little lipstick? I'm like, no, Ma. No.

[Sammy Sage]

You got to get that Monica Lewinsky lipstick.

[Be Spear]

I know. That was my first and last lipstick, but, yeah. We're gearing up for the holidays. It's a weird time. It's a time in between the end of the year where nobody wants to do anything and everybody's weird. We're like part reflecting, part wondering if we bought enough presents for people, part wondering if I'm going to have money after I buy presents for people. All that shit. I do have a segue for our first topic, and that is, while I may be feeling down, I'm not down as bad as Nancy PELOSI and Mitch McConnell were this week. I mean, two of them taking big falls out there in the world.

[Sammy Sage]

God is sending the signs that they need to step down from leadership, and they're just not taking them.

[Be Spear]

They're ignoring them.

[Sammy Sage]

They're not taking them.

[Be Spear]

You know what? I saw a musical this past weekend called Moses, and I didn't really know about Moses, because in the. In the Catholic faith, we like to start at Jesus and go from there. We'll, like, sort of tap about. We'll be like, okay, yeah, Moses. Okay, Joseph, you know, a little bit Noah, but. But they don't really dive deep on Moses. And I think Moses is my favorite of the Bible characters now. He did a lot of Cool stuff.

[Sammy Sage]

Moses is quite right.

[Be Spear]

Let my people go. Yeah, well, that's why they don't let the Catholics know about it, because they're like, no, we really want you to focus on Jesus. But I'm like a Mositarian now. I was like, moses was dope.

[Sammy Sage]

Moses was Moses.

[Be Spear]

Could Nancy Pelosi step down? Let my people go, Nance. Let my people go and run for chairman of the oversight committee and not be up against a separate 70 year old man who has cancer because you don't want AOC in the seat.

[Sammy Sage]

Not to disappoint you, but I don't know if Moses would allow AOC into the seat because he famously would not. He didn't cede any. No. He was a fan of women. He didn't cede leadership until he literally died. So just saying, maybe it really.

[Be Spear]

Moses is soft.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't know, maybe we're looking in the wrong direction for a lesson. No, it wasn't quite like that. The story was more complicated, but to the point. Nancy Pelosi broke her hip while she.

[Be Spear]

Was in the burning bush.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, listen, she was in Luxembourg. Nothing makes me more upset than the fact that Nancy Pelosi, who has $200 million, is gonna get this hospital stay for like €3.

[Be Spear]

Yeah, they have the best healthcare there. That's what they were saying. They're taking such great care of them and it doesn't matter, like, who you are. You don't have to be a citizen. They just like take care of you. And the thing that pissed me off about it was when she was like, I fell, I broke my hip. Don't worry, I'm still working. I'm like, please don't, please don't set that example anymore of being like, your hip still work. I. She ain't going to run far with that hip replacement. Oh, I don't know what she's going to do. I can't do another Dianne Feinstein moment, though. And I. And you know who will be? It was her daughter, Christine Pelosi that was pushing Dianne Feinstein around the halls of Congress. And I can't have Christine back to push Nancy around. Mitch McConnell freezing up again. You know, it just. It's too much, guys. It's too much.

[Sammy Sage]

He looks so ridiculous and he freezes up in front of the cameras again. I don't. How is this happening? How is this. How is this allowed?

[Be Spear]

Because the. Because everyone is plays this, like, gentlemanly game in D.C. this is the thing I hated about D.C. always, is that everyone's like, oh, well, we have to be the bigger person. We have to be gentlemanly. We have to be this and that. And it's like, no, we don't. We don't. We have to tell people, like, why are people still so afraid of Nancy Pelosi? Like, at some point there has to be a collective mass that could be like, we have so much respect for what you did, but we have to continue the work and that work. We're getting behind AOC or we're getting behind Jamie Raskin or whoever. Like, why is she still trying to put her finger on the scale against young people taking leadership? That just is weird.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, I have an idea, V. Because I'm in D.C. at this very moment, and you're going to be in D.C. in just a few short hours. Why don't we make that our mission, to figure out why are people so afraid of Nancy Pelosi at this point especially we. I think maybe that's what we want to get to the bottom of. Because why, like, are you guys afraid of the will split 200 something ways? You're not getting much anyway.

[Be Spear]

I know, but it's. But that's how they act.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, it is how they act. But what confuses me is, like, is there some real form of harder power than we're aware of at play? Because why doesn't she want AOC to be on the oversight committee specifically? It's not like that's her position. Do you know what that's about?

[Be Spear]

We should have gone to see the play, and then we would have known. Me and Sammy were supposed to go see the play at Lincoln Center, N A which was about Nancy and AOC and we missed it. So now we can't bring you the story, and that's on us for being bad theater patrons.

[Sammy Sage]

That was a fictionalized account.

[Be Spear]

I'm just saying there's a little truth in all. I think it's a threat not to Nancy's power or position. Okay. When going back to this theater that I went to to see Moses at, I was sitting next to this older gentleman, Ed, who immediately told me he voted for Trump. And I was like, that's cool, man. And we ended up chatting, and he was like, I just couldn't look at Biden. He just was so weak. And Trump, you know, he's like the same age, but he presents strength. And I was like, that's why we lost. There was something about older men. Men see other men as a mirror. This is what my new friend Ed told me. And he saw himself more In Trump, he felt like that made him less face his own mortality or his own age than looking at Biden did. And I'm gonna bet that when Nancy's looking at aoc, she's like, I used to be that girl. And does she feel like she's, you know, is Nancy willing to face that she's more at the end than the. The middle, even. And maybe that's something that she should work with her therapist on as she retires and counts dear off her back deck.

[Sammy Sage]

Right. Doesn't seem like that's coming upon us anytime soon, though. But maybe the health experience will change her tune, though. I kind of don't think so. Her husband was beaten with a hammer, and she's still running again and again and again.

[Be Spear]

The universe will teach you a lesson kind the first time, a little bit stronger the next, and then it will break your hip in Luxembourg. Like, you know, the ways that your destiny is supposed to unfold will unfold. You can't cheat death, and you can't keep going after the point that you're actually supposed to. And I think we're just at a point with her. Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, like, there's so many people, even Bernie Sanders, where I'm like, I got it. We've absorbed your wisdom. I'm grateful for the things you did. I truly am. But I'm. You're starting to ruin it. You're starting to ruin it. Your legacy.

[Sammy Sage]

Right. If it is true that she sees herself in aoc, which I don't know if she. If she necessarily does, because if you think about when Nancy Pelosi came into office, she had five children. She was already kind of in the act two of her life. Yeah. She grew up in a. In a political family. It wasn't so of reach for her. She is quite a religious woman. And, you know, it kind of like went in accordance with her faith. AOC is like a. Of our generation.

[Be Spear]

She. I just think people look to AOC for answers now, and they used to look to Nancy for answers, and I'm wondering if that somehow, like, sort of lucked out. Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, yes. Although I feel like the people around Nancy Pelosi still look to her for answers enough that she. She gets the good feels.

[Be Spear]

Leave us alone. After what she did to Ken Russell in Florida, in Florida's District 17, and then lost. I don't know. I have a lot of feelings about a lot of things, but this is not a show about my feelings. And we are, for all of our dysfunction, not the most dysfunctional people in Congress right now by a long shot. Congress is supposed to be passing the stopgap measure to keep the government funded, and Speaker Johnson can't put together a budget to save his life. He did make time to go to the Army Navy game and sit in Trump's suite with Daniel Penny, who killed a guy on the subway for reasons that the court now disagrees with public opinion on who was responsible and how responsible and what the punishment should be.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, I mean, the. He did have a trial of his peers. He had a trial of his peers, Daniel Penny. But regardless, that is too much of.

[Be Spear]

A. Yeah, we're not going.

[Sammy Sage]

Honestly, I think. I think the Daniel Penny thing, and this is why it's upsetting that he was then brought to this Army Navy game, which is that this is a tragic thing that happened on this subway. The people who live in New York City, who have severe mental health problems, who are in and out of homeless shelters, potentially arrested dozens of times, who clearly have a mental illness. And it is a sad situation that should not be fodder for a culture war and us versus them. For me, a story like this should tap into everyone's humanity. Like, that's really sad situation. And I believe that what Daniel Penny did was try to protect people who, by their account, this was a very sad, scary thing. From what I understand, Jordan Neely was still alive when the cops came, and they did not administer any form of help for him. So this is a complicated situation. And just because this guy was not held responsible by law does not mean that he is a hero. You know what? Forget whether or not you evaluate him as a hero does not mean that this story needs to be nationalized and exploited.

[Be Spear]

It's. And also, it doesn't mean you. You get invited to the President Elect's box suite for, like, a VIP night of football, because that's when it does get extra weird and super political. And that's when they are making, you know, what happened be separate from the way they're going to treat it now. It's like what they did with Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle Rittenhouse also got off. And then they were like, he's our hero now. Like, is Daniel Penny going to be speaking at cpac? What does Daniel probably have to do with the Republicans, who are also on the same side, saying, oh, everybody on the left is a sicko for thinking that Luigi is hot, or whatever they have with that?

[Sammy Sage]

Because they have turned him. And they, as they always do, they always turn these sad situations, these messed up, violent situations into a culture war. That's how they capitalize on everything. That's how they capitalize on every conversation and turn. That's how, if you really think about it, post 2020, after Trump was out of office, that is how they made their comeback because they kept hammering immigration, crime, everything's so dangerous in all the cities. You, Everything's so expensive. It's because of the immigrants. That is how they got back their power. So this is actually very effective for them. And it's very, very sad and fucked up. And to your point about how they'll turn around and say something about the Luigi who shot Brian Thompson, it just shows the hypocrisy of these people and in so many people when they discuss this situation. Because either you believe death is bad, cheering it on, murder, killing people is bad on a karmic level, or you don't. And you can have your gripes with the establishment, with the insurance companies, which are so fucked up and also, you know, kind of like murder by spreadsheet if you want. Like, that's how I would, I would categorize it murder by P and L. But the point is I don't. You don't cheer that on either. And just because you've now found a target for your anger does not make it karmically and spiritually cool with me. And I think part of the problem is that people like me who have this issue with it, who I don't give a. About the establishment, I don't care about the insurance companies. I do not think they should be in business. I do not think health should be insured. I believe that. But I get lumped in because I don't think that cheering on Luigi Mangione, who we don't even know what happened with his mental health cheering him on matter.

[Be Spear]

Well, that's the. And that's, that's what we're seeing play it on the Internet is again, we're in a situation where the actual act and who the people are matter less than what people have decided they represent. And Luigi Mangione represents an eye for an eye, represents a place for people who lost people because of the decisions that Brian Thompson made. Feel like, you know what? I suffered and now you suffer too. And it's this whole pulling down situation too, where it doesn't matter who Daniel Penny is, It doesn't matter who Jordan nearly was. It doesn't matter who Brian Thompson is. It doesn't matter who Luigi Mangione is. It matters what the media and people have put on them to represent. And that's why we're in this kind of like again, fever dream, weird space.

[Sammy Sage]

That's what's so fucking sad about this moment is that everything just becomes like an avatar for something else. Nothing can be nuanced and what it is and everyone has come to stand for something that is in opposition with something else. It feels like the incentive structures all across society have broken down so that the situation basically incentivizes all the worst behavior and all the worst most antisocial. I don't mean this as an introverted. I mean this is in the opposite of pro social behavior. So corporations are, are incentivized to exploit people and then hide themselves away when their consumers try to hold them them accountable. I don't mean by murder, I mean in general like this. Not even just in the insurance industry. People are incentivized to stir up frenzies online and share false things because it will make them, their posts go farther, it'll make them richer. Literally it will make them richer. They're incentivized to not follow science and real information and to have real conversations because you're not going to get the most views. It's like how can we ever function? At what point do we turn the norms around to be encouraging of pro social behavior? How do we do that?

[Be Spear]

Sammy and I, before we got in to recording today, I told her I didn't want to talk about Luigi because I it's so hot on TikTok that I'm like, Sammy, I don't have the mental capacity to say the wrong thing about him right now and have it become like the way that it does. Which is where we center a tiktoker for what they did that wasn't exactly perfect. And then that's going to be my last 30 days of TikTok. I don't want to deal with it and that, that you know, this is where we're at.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, I'm sorry I brought it up.

[Be Spear]

No, I'm glad we're talking about it. I think it's important for other people who I'm sure are listening right now and going, yeah, I never know what to say anymore because I feel like that it's like you never won't know what to say because we're in a surveillance where everything you say you could be recorded, it could be repackaged and put online. And I'm not just talking about like big tiktoker people like anyone. How often do we see a stranger be recorded and then context is added and then millions of views later and that person made thousands of dollars off of it. We don't know what happened that day. And then what's worse is while we're spinning on all of this and people are making literal 3D printed chia pet heads of Luigi Mangione so that they could grow his hair out or, or any of the other fan edits that are happening, they are trying to pass.

[Sammy Sage]

Paying his legal bills.

[Be Spear]

Yeah, and that'll happen. We loving a violent man has is just about as American as apple pie, Right? If we were just in this situation a couple of months ago when they were saying that, people were saying Jeffrey Dahmer's hot and they were all upset about that, right? America loves a violent man. Okay? I'm not surprised that they love Luigi. It is what it is. What we're not seeing. America is a violent man. They're calling it the American guillotine. Death by gun. Right? There's a lot to talk about. We don't get to that because we all argue about should we think Luigi's hot or not. Who cares? People are like, I, I love a bad boy. I. I totally get it.

[C]

Hello, oversharing listeners. It's Dr. Naomi Bernstein with some exciting news. Starting January 13th, our Oversharing Calm the Down subscription is getting even better. Subscribers will get oversharing episodes a day early, plus additional exclusive bonus content on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Here's what's new. One bonus episode with even more emails and advice, and another where we follow up with past email writers who could be you. While we won't be releasing new meditations in the new year, don't worry. All of our past meditations will stay available on the feed for you to enjoy anytime. Plus, we'll have a new Meditations playlist for our Spotify listeners. To sign up now, head to subscribe.basches.com and select Oversharing Calm the fuck down. We're so excited about creating this new bonus content, talking to more of you, hearing your stories, sharing some of our own, and reminding us all to calm the fuck down.

[D]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report.

[Be Spear]

What we're not talking about though, is that the government isn't going to be funded. Right? And Mike Johnson can't put a budget together. And the thing that he won't put in his budget is $14 billion in farm aid for the Midwest. Now you may not know this, but there is a fight, a bruin, between Republicans, which I think will surprise a lot of people and farmers, because normally the farmers vote for Republicans. Mike Johnson is one. Because the farm, when they're going through with Doge and everybody and saying how they're gonna cut the budgets, they're talking about cutting farm subsidies, which is what keeps this country running. Add to that the amount of farmers who are retiring and the amount of farm foreclosures we're seeing, we're in a tough, we're in a weird spot that the farm subsidies cannot be on your line item to say, well, just grow more corn. That's not how it's gonna work. Right. They don't know how the government works. And then on top of it, on top of them just looking at it and going, well, why should we give the farmers any money? Fuck em. You got RFK Jr. In there saying, well, I'm going to ban high fructose corn syrup now. You're crazy. You're crazy. Do I think we should have it in all our food and all that? Absolutely not. Like there's something we should be doing. But you're crazy to go up against the corn kings and queens of the Midwest and expect that they're gonna let that happen. They, they build whole summer festivals around corn and corn queens. You can't go after the farm dynasties.

[Sammy Sage]

Of America V. I look at the corn farmers of Iowa and the Midwest. Like Afghanistan, empires fall. When you try to go to war against it, you will not.

[Be Spear]

You will not be corn. No. And I don't.

[Sammy Sage]

They'll never beat the big corn.

[Be Spear]

I'm gonna take up. No, I'm taking up arms for big corn and I don't like it. Right.

[Sammy Sage]

Why?

[Be Spear]

Because there are just certain things that happen in this country that need to continue. You cannot shut them off. You cannot shut off the entire Midwest and starve them, can you?

[Sammy Sage]

I'm not saying. I'm just saying as an, as an example of a solution, could one scale up or down the production of corn and supplement it with something else that they're perhaps growing or producing in order to create that income?

[Be Spear]

Because for the last dozens of years, they have forced us to scorch earth and, and make cheap crops like soybeans and corn and all these things that can be made not just into animal feed, but into people feed and into products often, like, you know, like your corn straws and all that kind of stuff comes from that. It's not that we had to produce this level of corn for the subsidies and for, like, what was going on at that time. What they actually need to do is start incentivizing farmers to grow food for consumption and not food for product making, not food for corn syrup, not soybeans for fuel, all that kind of stuff. But that actually means breaking down the oligarchy at the top, because you got the farmers, which is who you think of, and then you've got Montesano, who own all the seeds and, like, you have to buy their kind of seed and all that. And I don't even want to talk about it on the show because I fucking know better, okay? I came from the food world, and I am. I'm not here to mess with. That's not my job. But the Secretary of Agriculture and our elected officials should be looking at that stuff and going, why are farmers so poor? Why are Americans so overfed? Corn syrup. Why do we need to add cheap preservatives to all of our food? And it's because that's the product that we make here because of years of mismanagement. Not from the farmer side, but from the big industry side. And they need to be growing food for a more local level. It's a government problem.

[Sammy Sage]

And the government subsidies.

[Be Spear]

If the government was subsidizing like they did for me in Maryland, farm boxes, CSAs, stuff like that, from local farms to families, you could do incredible things. And we can scale that program out. But I'm telling you right now, Mike Johnson, if you're listening to this podcast, you don't want to mess with the corn.

[Sammy Sage]

He must be.

[Be Spear]

You don't want to start with the corn. Don't start with the corn and the soybeans. You have bigger fish to fry. And RFK Jr is not going to stop production of high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup or corn at all. He doesn't know anything about this industry. And while we hear, you know, high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, and it is. You have to look at what it takes to move that ship. And it's not dead stop in the water. That's not how it works. Like, we can't bankrupt the entire Midwest. But I do think that farmers can't kill workers. Well, they're trying, right? And the farmers are still reeling from Trump's tariff war in 2018, which is what Republican legislators from the Midwest are saying to Mike Johnson. Look, you wanted Trump, we gave you Trump. He has to give back to them because they're still messed up from his tariffs in 2018. And we're not even to the new tariffs yet. So they are gonna learn a very hard lesson and that is gonna unfort impact all of us because I did not fuck around and I still have to find out. But I think we're going to see the absolute like stupidity of some of these Republican Republicans. I don't even, I don't know what they are like these RFK Jr Elon people when they try to go up against something like corn.

[Sammy Sage]

They're like the biohacking tradwives kind of.

[Be Spear]

They are. And it's like, girl, those supplements don't work. There's nothing in them. It's just sailing solution. Like, it's not, it's not.

[Sammy Sage]

Look, if you're lucky, looking at everything.

[Be Spear]

I know you're looking at everything as a line item. It's the way they look at TikTok. They look at it as a widget and they say, why won't you just sell me the widget and just give it to me? And it's like, because it's not. That's not how it works. You don't understand how complicated this is and the people that rely on it.

[Sammy Sage]

And so I've never heard of the butterfly effect before.

[Be Spear]

They've never. No. Or the burnt toast theory.

[Sammy Sage]

What's that?

[Be Spear]

It means like if you burn your toast in the morning, you might have to make more toast and that makes you two minutes late. But by being two minutes late, you avoided a car accident or you've ran into the love of your life. It's burnt toast theory. A minor inconvenience can actually better your life.

[Sammy Sage]

I didn't know it was called that, but I did once hear that if you leave some, if you leave something at home and you have to go back, you should just take a little extra time because you might have miss. Avoided a, an ill fate. So just a thought. Is that true or spiritual?

[Be Spear]

They say, Is that something they say, like when you get on by a bird and they're like, it's lucky. Is it?

[Sammy Sage]

I don't, I don't, I don't know if I believe that. I don't know. I believe in clearly some form of spirituality and, well, I hope sexuality. Here we are.

[Be Spear]

Mike Johnson, because he is in a world of trouble with the. With. He cannot handle what he has going on. And the Democrats have said they'll not support him again if they do another recall. Like, if Marjorie Taylor Greene gets up there and says, I want to do another speaker recall, they won't support him again. So.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, then. Hakeem. Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.

[Be Spear]

I'm here. Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. There's. There are so many things I hate when people on the Internet, I'll report something, and they're like, what are they distracting us from? But they are. There are a lot of distractions right now. Like the drones in New Jersey. Nobody cares about the fucking drones. Drones.

[Sammy Sage]

Yes, we do. I don't know what you're talking about. No one cares.

[Be Spear]

I care.

[Sammy Sage]

Who's they?

[Be Spear]

Like, the public will be distracted by the idea of drones more than a lot of the stuff that's going on with, like, United Health Care or like the budget, stuff like that.

[Sammy Sage]

Okay, the health drones, yes. The health care, yes. The budget.

[Be Spear]

I'm gonna tell you. The drones are.

[Sammy Sage]

You tell us. Please tell us. I hope you. I hope you're right.

[Be Spear]

The drones are an exaggeration of people's imagination. Half and half military exercise. I promise you there are people who think they see it, and then every single thing they see in the sky. I used to think I saw Santa Claus in the sky. It was an airplane. But my parents let me believe it. People heard there are drones, and now they're calling in every single thing they see in the sky.

[Sammy Sage]

No, if there were real lawmakers, they.

[Be Spear]

Would shoot them down.

[Sammy Sage]

They are our real lawmakers who have seats on committees that. Where they would know. There are people who have military backgrounds who are saying that. This is fucking weird. This doesn't make sense. And it doesn't make sense that the president and the. And the administration are saying, we don't know what it is, but we know that they haven't done anything malicious that. That logically breaks down in about one. One step like that.

[Be Spear]

What is going on military. And they just don't want to tell us what it is because if it's.

[Sammy Sage]

Why would they say it?

[Be Spear]

I don't know. They don't want people to know about what they're exercising. You know, what's coming out in two days. Also, do you know about. The. People are asking me about the 45 days since the election. Do you know over the last. So there was the election, and then for 45 days, there's a certification, there's the. The ability for everybody to investigate if there was international interference in our election and raised like a concern. Well, that is Wednesday. I believe it's Tuesday or Wednesday. So either the day you're watching this or it'll be the next day is the 45 days where like the FBI, the do everybody gets to put forth there how much foreign interference was there in our election and in what ways? That's what I'm waiting to drop.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, I'll be waiting as well.

[Be Spear]

I don't care about the drones or the aliens. I don't care about anything else. I'm like waiting on this 45 day thing to drop.

[Sammy Sage]

I hope that you are correct to not think about it and to just ignore it and assume it's fine. Because I am curious what the drones are and I also am also curious about the foreign interference report. My eyes will be on that immediately.

[Be Spear]

Drop a special. We'll drop a special.

[Sammy Sage]

Assuming there's something.

[Be Spear]

If there's something, you know, not noteworthy. Welcome back. By this point that you're listening, I am in D.C. and Sammy and I have already gone to Hanukkah at the White House, which I'm so excited for. We're also going to Christmas at the White House because we're going as each other's plus ones because our I think we said last week our spouses are not interested in going, but I'll so excited to be included in Hanukkah.

[Sammy Sage]

Look, I think we're gonna have a great time sans spouses because we can. We have submissions to go on. What did we say we were finding out why people are so afraid of Nancy Pelosi that was afraid of little old she. Yeah, that's number one. What's mission number two?

[Be Spear]

I want to know if Joe Biden's getting a presidential library. That's hot gossip that he's apparently like, not raised enough money to get a presidential library. And by this point, Barack Obama already had it fully funded. And I'm like, please, if the Obama Biden teams could stop their pissing contest, that'd be great. But I want to know, is Biden getting a presidential library? What will happen to the state of Delaware and in particular Wilmington without the Bidens in office? Like, what's the new hotspot for the Amtrak DC Commuter? DC DC is the Wilmington, Delaware.

[Sammy Sage]

Palm Beach.

[Be Spear]

Palm Beach. Oh, God. The amount of people who are going down to kiss the ring of Trump is wild. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg giving a million dollars to the inauguration. ABC is paying $15 million because they like misspoke about him one time. Like there's a lot of Joe Scarborough yelling at everybody.

[Sammy Sage]

You know who else is donating a million dollars to the inauguration? Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI. They each threw in a millie. ABC News.

[Be Spear]

That's nothing to them. That's like 10 bucks, right?

[Sammy Sage]

That's why it's like, yeah, I believe I see it as like an ante more than anything. It's like, oh yeah, we're all here at the table. And then with the, with abc, they had basic. George Stephanopoulos had used the phrase rapist to describe Donald Trump in the context of the Eugene Carroll case. And what it was was that he has been found liable for sexual assault. So that's the correct term. And as a result, Donald Trump sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos. They settled yesterday because they were going to depose him this week and they obviously didn't want to do that. So they meaning everybody. And so instead they're giving 15 million to his inauguration fund. And Joe Biden can't even pull together a few bucks for an Encyclopedia Britannica over here.

[Be Spear]

I know. Well, you just said OpenAI and I didn't like plan to talk about it, but did you hear about. Unfortunately, this 26 year old kid who was a former Open AI researcher was found dead on November 26th in his apartment. Terrible, horrible story. He had accused OpenAI of violating copyright law with its popular chat GP GPT model. Also, I didn't know one query on Chat GPT takes the the same amount of energy as one AAA battery.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't know that particular statistic but yes, it does use quite a bit more. Way too much energy than your average Google.

[Be Spear]

Well, they're restarting the nuclear reactors off the coast of Manhattan so that Microsoft can power AI. Like there's just too much.

[Sammy Sage]

Maybe that's what the drones are for.

[Be Spear]

That's probably what the drones are for. They're looking for more nuclear reactors. Can you imagine? Like, can you believe that's a real sentence I just said to you? Microsoft purchased defunct nuclear reactors so that they could run them. Not to make energy cheaper for everyone or to improve the electric grid, but to power AI.

[Sammy Sage]

Like unsurprising, deeply unsurprising to me. Well, I know this is speak more.

[Be Spear]

Of course, but they're saying, you know, that this kid was a whistleblower. He was saying that the, the modeling that they're promising people is not true. And I can't imagine the pressure that this person was under for coming Forward. And it's just incredibly sad news. And I'm not gonna like, you know, shit talk and speculate about what else may have happened or if something different happened. But super sad story that I think really speaks to the pressure that people feel right now in this like, rapidly moving tech space that we know is over promising and potentially ruining the planet.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah. I mean, this is a bigger economic question of kind of the. The Ponzi scheme of it all.

[Be Spear]

I know, I know. We got the Hawk to a crypto now. We got the. The chat GPT.

[Sammy Sage]

She rugged her whole audience.

[Be Spear]

She rugged them.

[Sammy Sage]

Basically. She put out a coin. I'm not going to explain like the mathematical or.

[Be Spear]

We put out a coin. How do you just put.

[Sammy Sage]

Because we're not going to. We're not scammers and we didn't hawk to on that thing on that microphone. So. Okay, so she put. Puts issues the coin. Her. She basically buys most of them. Other people are also buying them. The price is going up. And then she sells all of the. All of the Hawk coin that she bought. All those people lose their money because now it's worth like basically nothing because it was all hers. So. Yeah, that's essentially what she did. She made like $50 million.

[Be Spear]

Good for Hawk to. I will not feel bad for.

[Sammy Sage]

Good for Hawk to a. Yeah, no.

[Be Spear]

I'm not going to feel bad for her because if you are a man who invested in a Hawk to a coin, then I don't know what else you would have spent your money on and perhaps it's best that you've been parted.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, I hope that. No, look, that's feminism. I hope that no women were. Were harmed in the. In the. Actually, you know what? If you bought that, I don't know what to tell you.

[Be Spear]

I can't get with you on that.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah. I mean, the thing is that this. This whole thing is kind of taking over culture. And the one. I know we started. We've talked about a million things and we've gone in every direction Talk going back to the Army Navy game with Trump and J.D. vance and Elon Musk. And you know, Mike Johnson, always in the corner with his little peek, peeking his little head over.

[Be Spear]

Hi, I'm here.

[Sammy Sage]

Not working on the budget.

[Be Spear]

Such a loser.

[Sammy Sage]

It's all about. It's like this aesthetic. I don't know what it will eventually be named, but this techno scam scheme vibe that glorifies like very innately violent masculinity and punching down has become.

[Be Spear]

They're bullies.

[Sammy Sage]

Such this like toxic Glue and. I don't know.

[Be Spear]

At least it's schoolyard bullshit. The stuff they're doing is so nerd. It's like, you could write a movie about, like. Like, really? Trump is your strong man? I mean, come on. I don't know. I don't want to rehash all the. All the weirdness of maga, but it is sort of like Revenge of the Nerds, but not the cool nerds. It's like Revenge of the Incels, I guess. Like, remember when nerds used to do cool stuff and they were, like, the good guy? I'd like to bring those days back.

[Sammy Sage]

That's what Silicon Valley kind of sold themselves as in the beginning.

[Be Spear]

Yeah, the good guys.

[Sammy Sage]

And then they became these, like, techno capitalist coin people.

[Be Spear]

Well, the actual cool people left and became, like, contestants on the Bachelorette. Like, the. The guy who founded, like, Venmo or something sold it and then was on the Bachelorette.

[Sammy Sage]

He did.

[D]

Who?

[Be Spear]

Yeah. Oh, my God. John. His name was. The world. The world is a weird. Is in a weird place. But I won't be here for inauguration, so I won't be able to bring you that news. Where are you gonna be that day? On a farm. You know, just getting ready for when RFK Jr puts everyone on SSRIs. On a farm. I'm gonna go to a farm. There's a here in Rochester that I like that you can, like, rent. You know, you can, like, go and be there. And I'm going from, like, the 19th to the 23rd to just not be a part of it because it's somebody else's turn to report on that. Like, what am I gonna do? We already made a deal with my audience that I won't show pictures or videos of Trump. They're like, I need to know what he does, but I can't look at him. And I was like, that's totally fair.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, I mean, I don't really like looking at him either, unless it's, like, necessary. So what am I gonna do? There's a clip I would recommend everyone watch where he's talking about on Steve Bannon's war room podcast about how much he loves the Phantom of the Opera. I sent this to you last night at, like, probably 1:00am about. I guess the man. The man is. Is a friend of Dorothy.

[Be Spear]

He definitely is, because he's, like, an old New York person who thinks that, like, Broadway is still the Phantom of the Opera. And his favorite song is, like, Memory from Cats and stuff, like, the ymca. Please, girl, please.

[Sammy Sage]

You need to get ymca he was.

[Be Spear]

Listening to better lyrics are about, yeah, he wouldn't hate us. But I'm not the only one just included him. I know he's. I'm not the only one who is planning to not attend Donald Trump's inauguration. There is, like, apparently, like, a Democrat boycott that's being organized of.

[Sammy Sage]

Okay. He didn't go to Biden.

[Be Spear]

No. And 44 Democrats are attending, which I think is weird. 20 are undecided. In 13 are definitely not. I'm looking at Axios right now and I'm looking at their pictures. I just don't see any reason to go. I. I don't know. Are you guys. Why would you go watch? Are you going to be involved or are we gonna, like, go do something else? I wouldn't watch, like, any of my exes get married or something. Like, I wouldn't, like, come and lurk their wedding. Why would I go watch Donald Trump's inauguration? I wouldn't want to watch somebody else's moment. Like, I don't need to be there. I shouldn't be around for that. I didn't choose this. We will have, by that point, done the nine documents to create a legal marriage. We will have, like, done a revocable trust. We will have, like, organized all of my stuff to get ready for Trump's inauguration. And this horrible first hundred days, which will. Will be bad, guys. It will. And we're gonna give it to you as gently as we possibly can, but it's gonna be bad. I'm like, I can't. I can't be there on the coronation Day to watch this and, like, get myself all worked up. I'm gonna have to do the first hundred days.

[Sammy Sage]

So don't, like, scroll on your phone that day, I guess.

[Be Spear]

Oh, no, I'm not going to. I. I'm waiting. I'm sure there's going to be a spectacle and all kinds of craziness. Right. If something really nutso happens. My mom watches the news 24 hours a day for me, and she's my number one reporter. She's like my tips list. And so she'll call me if something happens. Yeah, Maureen's always watching.

[Sammy Sage]

We'll text, we'll text, we'll text.

[Be Spear]

But I'm not. I'm not trying to be involved.

[Sammy Sage]

Honestly, I don't blame you. Well, in the spirit of leaving you with something practical with our episodes, because you have just been listening to us talk shit the whole time, we have.

[Be Spear]

Promise in the new year, it gets more structured again. We're just holding on by a thread here. I'm having fun.

[Sammy Sage]

Do we promise? Well, yeah, me too. I like it this way. But you know, what does everyone think? Let us know. Email us American fever dreams dot com. But this time we're going to leave you with something that we saw on the Internet. This sprung from a lawsuit that was filed by a patient against United Health Insurance, someone who had chronic pain. And basically through his lawsuits, some of their processes were, were revealed and uncovered. And basically this is what, this is some advice. If you have an insurance claim that is denied, this is how you should approach it. This is what you should ask the company for if they deny your claim. I had a friend explain this to me who her dad, you know, is a doctor and she was like helping with his practice in some way and basically like it. Think of it like a game of chicken. They are going to deny you because that's kind of what their business model is. And you want to get them to change that. And you kind of have to do it with a combination of badgering them and showing them that they are wrong and that you could potentially sue them in some capacity, although they know that most people won't. Most people can't. So this is what you do. If you are in a scenario where a treatment is denied, what you should do is ask the insurance company in writing for the name, the board, specialty and the license number of the doctor who determined that your treatment was not medically necessary. As you know, United was just in trouble for using AI to make those determinations. So that's why you have to ask that information the name of the doctor, their board, specialty and their license number. Then you should ask for, in addition to that, copies of all materials that they relied on to make their determination. So, like, what were they looking at to decide this? In addition to that, ask for proof that the doctor who made the determination to deny your claim has maintained their registration in your state and documentation that they meet all of their continuing education requirements. So is this doctor liable? Is the insurance company employing doctors who might be liable might not have all of their certifications. Correct. Might not have their registration legitimate in your state? Not in the company's state, in your state, because that's the one you are getting the care. And also ask for. And this is some data they're going to have to look up for you, but they've asked you for plenty of data, so make sure to do it. Ask them for the aggregate rate at which similar treatments to the one that you are asking for is denied versus Approved by the doctor that's being used to review your claim. Ooh, so, meaning, like, is that Dr. Systemically denying claims or claims like yours for what you need?

[Be Spear]

Yeah. And, you know, really putting it on your claim. Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

Yes. And basically, by law, they do have to cover you for certain things, and you can push them into this. Like, I grew up listening to my mother push insurance companies, like, all damn day for my brother. Like, just constantly, just. You have to keep. It fucking sucks. It sucks. Yes. Even if they're answering them honestly, like, they're gonna have to probably answer them honestly. Unless they're gonna manufacture the information, but then it gives you evidence to potentially use against them that maybe they don't have the right doctor, maybe, you know, right specialty, they don't have the right license or qualifications, and maybe they're not up to date on all of their continuing education. So that's a liability. So for them, make it harder for them to deny your claim than to just accept it, because they can afford it.

[Be Spear]

They definitely can. And I'm sure that they don't want you to put out there that you found out that the doctor who denied your claim denies 97% of claims, 80% of claims, 20% of claims. Whatever it is, it's going to sound bad. It could be 3% of claims, it's going to sound bad. And then you're going to mail that to us, and then we're going to put their ass on blast.

[Sammy Sage]

Right? And I mean, it's really, like, about. But you know what?

[Be Spear]

That's why they want to shut.

[Sammy Sage]

Goals TikTok. Look, we got this on the good old RSS feed over here. You don't even need TikTok for this. You got us. And more helpful advice to come.

[Be Spear]

Yeah, it's wild out there, kittens. We will. We will get through it together. But politics show. During the lame duck session, we're gonna let you know what we know as we know it. But most of the time, this is a time of reflection. And I hope that y'all are taking some time, too, to just, like, shit talk and speculate, reflect on what's gone on, Stay focused on what matters. Our next episode is a super important one. Sammy had the chance to speak to holocaust survivor and incredible storyteller and just incredible human, Ms. Rhodey Glass. And we will have that for you on Thursday. And then next week, it's back to you guys. We're doing Mailbag. It's Santa's Mailbag, except it's Sammy and V's Mailbag. With all your horrible stories about the holidays, your favorite recipes, anything goofy that you want to tell us about. And I do have a submission from my friend Andrea Salatino. I'm using your whole name. You're on the show, baby. It's getting on. We're going to tell your story about the worst Christmas you and I ever had together as friends.

[Sammy Sage]

I can't wait for that. This is, you know, this is the holiday season. Two more weeks to go, and we've got mailbags, entertainment.

[Be Spear]

We.

[Sammy Sage]

We got you. We got you.

[Be Spear]

Yeah. We're going to cruise it on.

[Sammy Sage]

We love you. We really love you. We're so happy to have gone. I mean, we're not really happy. I don't know if you can call it happy, but we are grateful to have gone through this election season with you. Think about where we were on July 4th. We could not have done it without the American fever dreamers. We could not like your email. We got comments, your DMs, everything.

[Be Spear]

We got your notes about cities that you want us to come to. So we're going to start looking at that and seeing what we could do with that, which will be so fun. But, yeah, send us your holiday stories. Fun stuff. It could be political or not political. My story is just something that will make you laugh because it is the stupidest thing that ever happened to me on a holiday. And my friend Andrea was a front seat witness to it all.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, my gosh. Do I need to bring some lore?

[Be Spear]

Yeah, you need to bring, like. Cause this was when we were talking about, like, being in your New York City moment slut era. And mine is not, like, a slutty story, but it is, like, such a New York. You're not. You can't believe, like, how absolutely unhinged this thing is that happened and everything turned out all fine.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, I got some lore for you if you want to do that. Maybe I shouldn't even share some. I don't think I should share some of these things. It will make people question my judgment too much.

[Be Spear]

We'll do the night Before Christmas and hear our Sammy and V's lore. And also our listeners lore. You know what I love?

[Sammy Sage]

We love you dreamers.

[Be Spear]

Gossip. We love you dreamers. I love Idol gossip. I want to know just the dumbest things about you. The little tiny things that are gossipy.

[Sammy Sage]

I heard a piece of Idol gossip. American fever, dream oriented. But I think we should save it till our first subscription episode that we're gonna do. And that'll be, like, the free one. It's not even that crazy. I mean, it's in. It's.

[Be Spear]

I'm.

[Sammy Sage]

I found. I was like, oh, but it.

[Be Spear]

I love gossip.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't. Maybe I'm over teasing it. I don't want to over prompt or deliver. Like, when the DNC said they were bringing Beyonce and then they brought Leon Panetta. I'll never, never really forgive them for that, but. Shall we?

[Be Spear]

DNC said that they were bringing Beyonce and she didn't sing. She just spoke. Whatever.

[Sammy Sage]

It's pretty rare to get a Beyonce speech.

[Be Spear]

I know, but everyone was, like, waiting for freedom to start and her to come out and start singing. And then she was like, hello, I'm Beyonce Knowles. Yeah. Anyway, until next time, I'm Vitus Spear.

[Sammy Sage]

And I'm Sammy Sage.

[Be Spear]

And this is American Fever Dream.

[Sammy Sage]

Good night. Night. American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzick social media by Candice Maniga and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok betchesnews, and follow me, Sammy Sage at Sammy&V at under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to American Fever Dream.com betches.