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- [00:00]
Shopify Representative
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- [01:12]
V. Spear
Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive my friends. I'm V. Spear.
- [01:15]
Sammy Sage
And I'm Sammy Sage.
- [01:17]
V. Spear
And this is American Fever Dream, presented by Betches News, a show that loves.
- [01:21]
Sammy Sage
To read every funny little sign about our fascist little dictator. I mean our president. That weekend the signs were good. This weekend I like the signs were good. And you know what? Sometimes we look, we always love having a guest, but sometimes we just need some time alone.
- [01:36]
V. Spear
We did.
- [01:37]
Sammy Sage
And this is the. I've never been so happy to have time alone after what I guess we could call. Do you think this was the craziest weekend that you remember? Because for me, indeed it is.
- [01:48]
V. Spear
It was wild because you were out of town while you were out of the country, the world was breaking down. So our texts, you know, we weren't in the same time zone. It was very devastating. I just felt like I couldn't get through one news story before something else completely unprecedented and insane happened.
- [02:05]
Sammy Sage
It was constant, every second rolling down the hill, just crisis at one, crisis after the next and no sense of, oh, there are really adults in charge who are going to make sure this is okay. And, and, and this is the thing. It's like all of these disasters were manmade problems. Imagine if there were a natural disaster or something that was not within the control of the American military or administration or people.
- [02:33]
V. Spear
Yeah, we can't, we can't have weather disasters because he's getting rid of fema. So I mean, this is the thing. If you think about where we were last week, it was the ICE raids in la. We're sort of like really starting to kick up. That was happening this week. Then we had the military parade insanity. Then we had the shooting of Senator Padilla. Senator Padilla. We had the shooting of the democratically elected leaders in Minnesota. It was just like. And then there were stories that would have been front page stories that we're going to talk about today that got completely missed because there was just absolutely too much going on.
- [03:07]
Sammy Sage
I was away for the week. I was in Rome for. I was with Avi, had a work conference, so I went with him and we decided to do a day in Dubrovnik and two days in Montenegro.
- [03:19]
V. Spear
And.
- [03:20]
Sammy Sage
And as you know, I've been sort of thinking about this question of what do people outside of America think is happening right now? Like, how do they feel about us?
- [03:29]
V. Spear
What a week to be there to ask.
- [03:31]
Sammy Sage
Right? What a week to be there to ask. And that's kind of was my plan, but I thought that I could do this kind of spontaneously because every time I've been abroad for the past eight to 10 years, I always get into conversations with people. People in stores, waiters, you know, just anyone I kind of like will meet in a lobby. You know, people you meet online for things, you're just casually chatting them up. People would always make a comment to me, like when they ask, where are you from? I say New York. They always be like, oh, crazy things happening over there. Right. Like, people are very, were very attuned to what was happening in America and they would. I guess I had like, I kind of feel like I receive it and I'm. But not one single person did it this time. Really not one. Here's my theory is that they used to think that, like, this was a mistake, a fluke, a one off. And so they could have a conversation with a New Yorker who would probably be like, yeah, this is crazy. And now I think they feel that they can't assume that I'm not, or that someone they meet is not a Trump supporter. And they think this is not a mistake anymore. And they are just. I do still have a mission. I want to know what people outside of America think.
- [04:49]
V. Spear
Now, I'm not that friendly when I go abroad like I am, but I assume that everyone thinks Americans are stupid and Hate us. So I'm not as chatty as you are. I tend to try to be like, I'm sorry.
- [04:59]
Sammy Sage
I'm sorry. Oh, I'm not like, I'm not particularly, like, loud, but I'm, I'm friendly and I'll engage in a conversation. Especially because people used to, Honestly, like, people used to be very curious, right? And they would ask me, and I wonder, I don't feel like I changed. You know, I don't feel like I. In fact, I was even trying to kind of be more friendly. It occurred to me I should probably do something next time to make them feel safe. Like, I should wear a hat. Like, I should have worn this hat. You know what I mean?
- [05:32]
V. Spear
Or you could. Yeah, we could get shirts made that say, like, liberal, shill, radical, leftist, lunatic or something.
- [05:41]
Sammy Sage
Well, I've been fighting with leftists on threads for like 24 hours.
- [05:44]
V. Spear
I've been seeing your comments. Yes, that's.
- [05:46]
Sammy Sage
I mean, do people know what I think a leftist is? I don't know.
- [05:50]
V. Spear
I don't think they do.
- [05:50]
Sammy Sage
I think it's like the people who wouldn't vote for Kamala because they do the same.
- [05:53]
V. Spear
No, they don't.
- [05:54]
Sammy Sage
That's who I think of. Like, people who just want to insult any form of activism that's not like 100% pure in their minds.
- [06:00]
V. Spear
Right.
- [06:01]
Sammy Sage
Also not like people who want free health care. I don't consider those people to be leftist.
- [06:06]
V. Spear
No, you're talking about like the online leftists. Like, like people who just want to.
- [06:12]
Sammy Sage
Find the bad people who are so to. They're. They're the other end of the horseshoe.
- [06:16]
V. Spear
Right?
- [06:16]
Sammy Sage
Like, they don't, like, they actively hate America because of its imperfections and want it to be different.
- [06:23]
V. Spear
But like, in what way?
- [06:24]
Sammy Sage
Like in a, like, want it to be fundamentally different. As in, like non democratic. But the way that they want it.
- [06:31]
V. Spear
Well, because they want to be the new supremacists. Some of them like what I, I. Okay, this is going to be a hot take. Okay? My hot take for this week is people get very punchy with me when I say that I don't like the Bernie Bro Movement. That doesn't mean I don't like you. If you were a Bernie Bro. It means I think the collective movement got to a point where it was really sort of unhelpful. And the reason why I don't like it and I don't like some of the online leftist stuff in your comments is because it, it really exemplifies that these people think that there should be a hierarchy, but that they should be the hierarchy. They should be the power and the supremacy. They are doing it exactly right. Everybody else is wrong. If you're not doing it exactly like them, then you should be chided and shamed and punished and you're not included. And you don't get it or you're a fed or you're an OP or you're paid shill. It just goes so off the rails. And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about that extreme place.
- [07:26]
Sammy Sage
Yeah. Someone commented, scratch a liberal and you a fascist bleeds. I just want to be like, you are so much closer to that ideologically.
- [07:35]
V. Spear
I'm so tired of it.
- [07:37]
Sammy Sage
Liberals and, and also there is a, like, there's a difference between liberalism, sure. Meaning like the values that built America and Western civilization. Free speech, freedom of the press, scientific facts, rule of law. And then there's, you know, a spectrum within that of conservatism and more, more progressivism. But liberal values encompass all of that. The difference between what I think they're talking about and what you know, like a white supremacist is talking about is that it is power, it's dominance that they get to determine. And I think that that is kind of the story of this age right now. It's wrapped up in the masculinity crisis. It's this idea that if you are not this, this powerful person, that someone, there's someone who knows better and this all powerful person should be in charge and they get to impose their own will and their own ideology on the rabble rousers who are just, who don't know any better, who are too stupid.
- [08:42]
V. Spear
It is. Some of this stuff is still deeply problematic with creating a new hierarchy. Right. It has to be. You have to make a place for black Americans to have a place in leadership. Because black Americans built the country. Right. Like physically with their labor. There has to be a place for gay people for free. There has to be a place, gay people to have a place in leadership. There has to be a place for, you know, regular old straight people to have a place in leadership because they're a part of the community too. So I think when we get too drilled down into who should be supreme leader, that's where we, we cloud the ideology and we get a lot of infighting on our side.
- [09:11]
Sammy Sage
And also if you only have the people who you believe are pure enough in your own coalition, you will never create a mass movement. Yeah, by definition you need normal people, normies, people who are not hyper Engaged or necessarily hyper ideological to be involved in your movement. A lot of people were talking about with the no Kings protest this weekend, the 3.5% threshold where basically this, this rule that if 3, that 3.5% of a population need to is all that's needed to create a sustained resistance movement to topple an autocratic leaning administration. So the protests this weekend I believe did either hit the threshold or come close. We're working with estimates.
- [09:59]
V. Spear
But the thing that people keep saying, and you even said it just now was there's this idea, there's this research, the research was done by a lesbian, if not non binary woman from Harvard. And I think folks continue to be like, they're like scientists, researchers. And I keep correcting them and I'm like, it's Erica Chenoweth who is alive right now, who is a professor of public policy at Harvard right now.
- [10:21]
Sammy Sage
Well, she's a sci. She's a researcher.
- [10:23]
V. Spear
She is a researcher, yes. I just always like to point out that she's a lesbian because as a lesbian we are often unseen. Okay. And sometimes that works for me, but in this case the entire nation, right at a time when queer people are being attacked and seen as these monstrous people are rallying behind and identifying with the research of a lesbian. And I think that that's cool.
- [10:43]
Sammy Sage
It's a great point. Yeah, I think that's. And it also just proves the point. You know, we want more representation. Multiculturalism is a good thing.
- [10:53]
V. Spear
And that's the thing. The people who were talking about three and a half percent so much, a lot of them were white men who were talking about 3.5% and they were talking about it with sort of not, I don't even think intentionally, but sort of erasing the fact that this was done by a Gen X lesbian from Harvard.
- [11:09]
Sammy Sage
They probably didn't know.
- [11:09]
V. Spear
They don't know. But that's the thing. They'll hear something and then they commandeer it and then they'll shame other people for not doing it right. And I'm like, well, you didn't do it right because it's lesbian research.
- [11:19]
Sammy Sage
This is lesbian research.
- [11:21]
V. Spear
See your way out how you know.
- [11:22]
Sammy Sage
But the thing is, the thing is, I think that what people may be miss because they're like, oh, we hit the threshold. It has to be sustained, it has to be continuous. So if you were part of that, this is amazing. I think this is so amazing that people were, were part of that this weekend, that they showed their solidarity, that they got out there and really made a statement. That means something. I think that all of this is so, so, so important and everything counts. There's no point in poo pooing someone else's activism or their statements because you don't know who they're inspiring.
- [11:59]
V. Spear
Right.
- [11:59]
Sammy Sage
Like, I saw something on threads that was a person asking, what's the point of smaller towns having protests when you have the big towns? Why not just have a fewer bigger protests? And the thing is, I actually think the small town protests are incredibly inspiring because that's. In a small town, that's where you're not sure if you have people who agree with you. There's not going to be as many signs that indicate people are agreeing. Or people might be more afraid to be silenced or feel like they don't want to share their views because it's more insular and they know everyone knows their name where everybody knows your name. And I think that that is actually really powerful because it's for those other people around you to see they're not alone. Even in this small town where everyone seem pretty homogenous, you actually do have people who agree with you. And you have hundreds and thousands of them.
- [12:49]
V. Spear
Well, let me tell you about Rochester, because we had that here. Now, Rochester, the city is a, it's, it's a fairly big city, but we're mostly, we're like Chicago kind of set up where there's the city and then there's all the surrounding suburbs, but it's all Rochester. So we had six different events in Rochester and people were getting a little bit nervous because they're like, gosh, if Brighton neighborhood and Rhonda Coyne and Hamlin and Penfield and, and Seneca Falls are all having them, then there's gonna be just a couple people at each. Should we just have one big one in Iraniquay? It worked out. More people came because you could walk to it. So Brighton is a historically Jewish neighborhood. That one I went to, it was all old Jewish folks who just walked, you know, right down the street and had their signs. And they were so interesting to talk to. And they were talking about like, what it was like to be in the 60s in New York. And Rochester has been a place of like, great political divisiveness. We had the race riots in the 70s. We also had the killing of Daniel Prude here. There's a lot that happens here. And they were just talking about how glad they were to see young people and children. And then you see like these cool old Jewish people. But they're really clever signs. And then you Go up to Iranacouit, which is more the beach area. Now that is very conservative actually. So this town Charlotte, right next to ironically is Super Maga area. And there were thousands of people, they lined both sides of the strip, which is like the Durand Lake for people listening from Rochester. And there were so many people there and they kept saying, I can't believe there's so many people here. And they live here. They live right in my neighborhood. I ended up seeing my neighbor out here. I didn't even know they were coming. I think those multiple small town protests were actually better than one big one. Because if we had one big one in downtown Rochester, I'm going to tell you, the old Jewish ladies from Brighton weren't going to come. They don't have the physical strength to endure going downtown and being on a parade route with thousands and thousands of people. But they could go to their neighborhood.
- [14:34]
Sammy Sage
I have an analogy to make. So in Judaism there, you know, you give charity, AKA Sedaka. And there's this, I guess, teaching that. I once heard that if, let's say you have a thousand dollars that you could give, is it better to give $1,000 once or is it better to give $1 a thousand times? And the lesson is that it's better to give $1 a thousand times because you're actually practicing the art of giving or, I don't know, you're practicing the act. I meant, I meant act. You're practicing the. And it's, you're spreading it out more. Even if that one person who got $1,000 could maybe do a lot more with it, it's the fact that you're spreading it, even if it's smaller, it is making a bigger impact on, on the whole.
- [15:21]
V. Spear
I cried, I cried all weekend at these no Kings protests. I went to like three or four of them. I just walked up and down, I interviewed people and I, I got in the car and I was driving home and I was listening to Les Mis, of course, and I just cried this like relief proud cry that I feel like I really needed. We talk a lot about how America needed a patriotic moment, like what we had in 9, 11 or World War II to try and bring the country together. And I think a lot of folks assumed that it would be a war that would bring people together. But in fact it was this, no Kings Day. It was a patriotic moment. There were thousands of American flags everywhere alongside flags of the resistance, like the Free Palestine flag or the gay flag or all different types of ones. And it just, it really Mattered. The point of no King's protest was to show to get people top of the funnel. Right. Just. It was easy to attend, but now that you've done that one action, maybe you'll do another one. And that's what we're hopeful for.
- [16:16]
Sammy Sage
I felt so relieved watching this, seeing how powerful it was, especially in contrast to the event, the evening activity that night.
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V. Spear
Yeah.
- [16:32]
Sammy Sage
I think this might be a good time to bring back our Democrat mess trackers, talk about what they can do with these protests. Because something I thought was really powerful, and this is not a criticism of the Democratic Party, is that while there were Democratic leaders everywhere, it really felt like it sprang from the people. It felt so grassroots in nature that, you know, the things that went viral weren't speeches by AOC or Bernie. It was just regular people walking around talking to their neighbors.
- [17:03]
V. Spear
There weren't even stages at the ones I went to.
- [17:06]
Sammy Sage
Yeah, exactly. And I think that that was so amazing. And I think even though I would normally be like, oh, the Democrats should be leading, I think this is one of those times when it's actually good that they didn't, because it enabled everyone doing it to see that it's really just about their neighbors and it's really about them. And I think that the Democrats, especially after last week. And I don't mean this as a criticism, people feeling like, oh, Gavin Newsom's our new savior, it's like, okay, well, last three weeks ago, you were just shitting on him, ready to. Ready to, you know, excise him from the party because he dared to speak to Charlie Kirk. And now he's gonna be your hero. He's the new daddy.
- [17:45]
V. Spear
It's my daddy.
- [17:46]
Sammy Sage
You. It's like, you can't. I'm sorry. No matter how you feel about Gavin Newsom, whether he's talking to Charlie Kirk or whether he's, you know, showing up to Donald Trump, you can't. Like this feeling of, oh, they're a hero or they're a villain. It's just so unhealthy, this black and white thinking about who our saviors are. And the saviors are just the normies.
- [18:09]
V. Spear
Just the normies. It's just the people. For sure. I loved that there weren't speeches and stuff and that people. Because then people had to talk to each other. Well, I mean, maybe in the big cities there were. But predominantly, I would say most people had the experience I had, which was like, oh, you're just complimenting people on their sign. I handed out, like, a bunch of stickers. I Took pictures of people. They're like, v, are you speaking today? I was like, no, I just live here. I'm just here to be like you. Like, just everybody the same. Like, it was great.
- [18:33]
Sammy Sage
Yes. As someone who was watching from afar, it felt really egalitarian. It didn't feel like there was so much virality around polarization or figure. It actually felt incredibly unified.
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V. Spear
I think not having the speeches and not having it led by the Democrats or by a Democrat. Right. Also allowed for people or like, those.
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Sammy Sage
Organizations that were putting themselves forward, this.
- [18:55]
V. Spear
Magical middle that everybody thinks is going to, like, come through. Right. But there was a magical middle at these. Because it was about no kings, which is unifying message, perhaps the best message. There were people there who I would say are not Democrats. Capital D. There's not. It wasn't all liberals that these. It was people who do not believe in kings and think that what was going on with that military parade was atrocious. I spoke to a lot of people in the military, veterans, and these are not all liberal people. Okay. These are like some of my dad's friends and stuff. And they were like, this is fuck.
- [19:23]
Sammy Sage
Sassy. Schroeder was there.
- [19:24]
V. Spear
I don't. I am for no king.
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Sammy Sage
I don't know what her politics are, but they're not super liberal.
- [19:29]
V. Spear
Right. That's what I'm saying. Like, there was a lot of people there who I was like, I'm not sure you voted for Kamala, but I am sure that you are no kings. So I think it was a great moment to kind of remind people that we should be voting values and not personalities.
- [19:41]
Sammy Sage
That is literally what this country is about. So. So my feeling, if we're to give some advice to the Democrats, good job for not making it about yourselves. I think many of them were maybe a bit shaken by the morning's events of two state lawmakers targeted in Minnesota.
- [19:59]
V. Spear
Assassinated. Killed. Yeah, well.
- [20:01]
Sammy Sage
Well, one and her husband were killed. Another and his wife were severely injured.
- [20:09]
V. Spear
Terrorism.
- [20:09]
Sammy Sage
Although they're domestic terrorism, it was stochastic domestic terrorism. This is not normal. This comes from a line of having Senator Padilla tackled for asking a question after identifying himself when Kristi Noem should have known him because she came through the Senate.
- [20:29]
V. Spear
She also invited him. This was a closed briefing. This wasn't. She wasn't in public. In his state, in his. It was a closed briefing. He was. He was invited. He would have had to go through several different layers to get to that bullshit.
- [20:40]
Sammy Sage
There's no shame around the bullshit because just minutes after The, The. The shooter in Minnesota was identified Vance Bolter. And this guy could not be more of a Republican. They're claiming he's best friends with Tim Walls because Tim Walls dared reach across the aisle and appoints a Republican to his governor's board. I thought that's why we like Tim Walls, because he's good at working with people who may not necessarily agree also.
- [21:03]
V. Spear
And now he didn't even. He's like, well, he. Let's. Let's on that too. It had nothing to do with this guy. Even he appointed. The guy was working for Nestle Foods at the time. And Nestle Foods was like, all right, you're doing. He appointed a representative from Nestle to the working board and it happened to be this guy. I didn't fudgeing know this guy.
- [21:19]
Sammy Sage
Look, even if he did, it doesn't matter because it's supposed to be a bipartisan board. Exactly. So the governor appointed Republicans. One of them turned out like this. And yet Elon Musk, within minutes was tweeting about how leftists are responsible for extreme violence. This is your guy. There's videos of him railing against abortion. There's videos of him railing against homosexuality.
- [21:41]
V. Spear
These MAGA people and the Elon crew are so unable to take responsibility for themselves and their actions that they won't even take responsibility to reject somebody who shares ideals with them, who is not them. It would not be hard for me to say I denounce a Democrat killed somebody that's not of our values. But instead they're like, no, no, we have to make like this whole thing. And I don't think that worked or whatever, but it was terrible. Yeah.
- [22:07]
Sammy Sage
My thoughts on how the Democrats can really capitalize on this is take it as the start of a real listening moment. They. I don't really see how they're not kind of at their ultimate rock bottom right now when you have all these surveys coming out and all these polls about how even as Trump is declining in favorability, the Democrats are not gaining that. It's not like a one to one ratio even close. I think that, Look, I understand we're, you know, a year and a half till the midterms, but I think they need to take this summer, maybe a month to listen, really hear what people are saying to you, and don't be afraid to admit that you were wrong and apologize. And it can be. This can be turned around.
- [22:56]
V. Spear
They have to pass the baton, though, Sammy. Like, truly. Yes. You got to do all that stuff. Chuck Schumer needs to come out and Go, you know what? I had a good run. I had a good run. I'm not even going to king make who I think should be the next leader. That's your job. Who you choose as the next leader of this movement, of these, of this set of values, who will be the caretaker of the Democratic Party as someone else. Thank you. Goodbye. It won't work without that.
- [23:20]
Sammy Sage
Totally. I mean, AOC gave a great. I don't remember what she was, where she was, but there were remarks that she had made where she was basically like, listen, no matter how much you talk to them, they're going to choose their old friends every time.
- [23:32]
V. Spear
And they will seeing it with Cuomo right now.
- [23:34]
Sammy Sage
Yeah, they've proven that they will do that. But what I think is that they just need to listen and let the right voices emerge. Let the people who are gaining interest right now, let those be the new faces of the party. You don't have to be if you can't do it. I mean, that's the lesson. Get out of your bubble, Democrats.
- [23:58]
V. Spear
Well, they think if you were to be in the heyday of some of the older Democrats, right. The way the elections used to work was it was primarily based on like people you could count on to vote all the time that you would know. What MAGA did was activate non voters. So you're not even. That's fighting.
- [24:16]
Sammy Sage
That's a good thing.
- [24:16]
V. Spear
But you're not even fighting the same rules anymore. You're not fighting typical Republican voter, typical Democrat voter. You're fighting typical Democrat voter that you can teach, continue to appease. Right. Or they don't even like you. So I don't know what's going on there. And then Republican typical. Plus the MAGA faction, which are the people who don't know anything about politics, have no idea, are just show up because they like the vibes of the rallies. You cannot win with. With this setup right now. Like their tactics don't work.
- [24:45]
Sammy Sage
And it's because. And for some reason there's remains this resistance towards trying to reach out to the non voter.
- [24:51]
V. Spear
That's where we got to go.
- [24:52]
Sammy Sage
Which is the most democratic thing you can do in. In theory, which Trump did and has done a good job of because he is great at marketing, no matter what.
- [25:03]
V. Spear
He started that shit in 2016 with the forgotten man and forgotten woman. I'll be there for you. Right? The non voter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was talking to Mamdani last night and that's his thing. That's his thing. So I was on a call with Mamdani last night, and he was talking about he. 74% of registered Democrats in New York City did not vote for mayor in a primary last time. That's 74% of the cities. Like, we got to knock on doors. We don't. We just got to tell people it's happening. Like, that's where I want to be is with the. I don't, you know, I'm not trying to get people from the right. I'm trying to get people who didn't know there was an election that seems like a bigger piece of the pie. I was like, right.
- [25:38]
Sammy Sage
Either didn't know or feel like, what's. Who cares? It's going to suck anyway.
- [25:42]
V. Spear
Or it's just primary. I, you know, I'll vote in November, but it's too late.
- [25:46]
Sammy Sage
So get out of your bubble and think about the non voters. That is our Democrat mess tracker for the week and our lessons from the no Kings festival. Yeah, it's a festival now. It's not a protest.
- [25:54]
V. Spear
It's a festival. Well, here's the thing. I wasn't. I want to say I wasn't calling it the no Kings protest. I was calling it the no Kings demonstrations and gatherings because I thought that's more what it was. So if we look at the pro, it was, of course, a form of protest. But, you know, protests are all different types of things. Sometimes you show up and you're marching in the streets and you have a clear objective. Stop the ICE raids and you're throwing your body in front of ICE agents in Home Depot parking lots. Okay, that's one form of protest. This was more about community gathering, raising awareness and solidarity. Right. So I was calling it demonstrations, gatherings. It is a form of protest. But I think it was different than the ICE raid protest. Right. There was a different sort of vibe to it. And so I was like, maybe we got to come up with a different word for it.
- [26:37]
Sammy Sage
Marches.
- [26:38]
V. Spear
Marches. Well, that was the thing. The Women's March, the Million Man March. And I felt like what would happen with no Kings was very much the way I felt about the Women's March, which was like, we are showing up together to create this historic picture that will be undeniable as to where we stand and what. Who we are, what we want.
- [27:02]
Sammy Sage
You know who wasn't great at marching this weekend? The members of the military parade. The parade, which I am only calling it. Look, it's the parade. What a pathetic show.
- [27:16]
V. Spear
Yeah, the only on purpose, Sammy, I'm telling you.
- [27:20]
Sammy Sage
Yes, this. But the squeaky tank. Well, you Didn't. They didn't do that on purpose.
- [27:24]
V. Spear
Well, the squeaky. The squeaky tank is the new crickets. Like, from now on, instead of saying it was a tumbleweed, I will say squeaky tank.
- [27:32]
Sammy Sage
Oh, my gosh. I. I was like, I need an AI illustrator to put a tumbleweed across this, because I can't.
- [27:38]
V. Spear
You see, now we are capable of a ceremonial military parade. The problem is Pete Hegse and Donald Trump don't know which battalions to engage, right? So they were just pulling up people and they were screening them for, are you fat? Are you a man? How. What do you look like now? How do you perform and what are you trained for? The old guard of D.C. is the ceremonial battalion, right? So they train every day on parade march. They train every day. They're the ones who give the tours of the Pentagon. There's a whole entire division dedicated to this. And when Joe Biden marching. Yes. Well, to ceremony and each. You know, and many of them exist across the country, but the Old guard is the one that typically leads this. So because Pete Hegseth and Trump know all about the military, they were screening for look. And they thought, oh, they're gonna look also. We don't goose step you, okay? So when he was picturing seeing, like, those little toy soldier goose steppy people, we don't do that. All right? We don't do that. So that was never gonna look like that. And they're not gonna.
- [28:38]
Sammy Sage
He definitely thought that they would.
- [28:39]
V. Spear
He thought they would. And they're not going to turn to. To you. And salutes are like North Korea with their stupid eaten grin. Like, that's just not who we are. Okay? But if he wanted that parade, if he wanted that ceremonial crate, if he wanted a parade instead of his parade, if you wanted that crisp look that you get the old guard and you get the people that Joe Biden had for some of his ceremonial events. And if you go Google Joe Biden ceremonial military parade, they're smaller, they're more defined, and they're incredible. It is cool. They can do it. So what I was saw when I was watching, at first I was kind of pissed. I was like, what the fuck, guys? And then I'm like, oh, my gosh. There are also no kings. Those tanks move faster. They don't go that slow. They did not have to drive them that slow. Okay? These streets, there was a lot of space between them on purpose to slow roll that shit. You don't march out of cadence. You just don't. It's in your body. You don't. And if you get off cadence, there's somebody out there calling it. So them marching out of cadence, them with the blank face. He brought these people from the army in. He put them in like warehouses with bunkers touching our beds, touching each other. They didn't really have proper food, they didn't have ceremony training. They didn't want to be there. This parade was on Father's Day. How many of those guys you think got kids? All of them. It would have been a four day weekend for the military, this weekend because it was the or for the army because it was their birthday and so they were already going to get off. They didn't get to get off now. So they lost a four day weekend. They lost a Father's Day. Almost all those guys got kids, kids, multiple kids. If not this was their first Father's Day. But no, army's got to set up breakdown and they missed it. So they were pissed. And you know what? There's. They were ordered to march, they weren't ordered to sell it.
- [30:18]
Sammy Sage
It's a good point. You know what? I think I know me, but people were afraid of, well, what if the military will take Trump's side in something? No, I think that maybe what people miss about the military, and I'm not speaking from experience obviously, but I think that there is something. When you go through basic training and you know that you are putting your life on the line to defend this country, to defend its borders, to defend the safety of the people in it, and that you are doing that in the name of the Constitution. They take this incredibly seriously. They actually, there is education about why they're doing this.
- [30:56]
V. Spear
Yeah. Half a basic, basic is that the thing is, right, the army is 10% psychopaths. Okay. That's, that's like the thing that they'll tell you, that's the population, 10% of the army is absolute fucking lunatic psychopaths. And it is the job of leadership to find those people and remove them as a cancer from the overall experience and ensure that they don't act out. Right. So we knew if, if that's the truth there and then you got to look at the original motivation for signing up is typically education benefits. In many cases, it's immigration benefits for you and your family. A lot of people join up because they want to get the papers for their parents or for them and their future children. It's a, there's not, there's economic opportunity, leadership opportunities to it. We were not at war truly in the way that you would assume for the last decade or so, a lot of people who have signed up right now these are 18, 19, 20 year old kids who signed up because they were like, well we're not at war. It's something to do. It's a place to belong. It's a way to make myself better than I am. And that is ingrained in you. A lot of what you do in military I think people think is gun training. Those are the fun days. A lot of what you're doing is classroom training, training.
- [32:02]
Sammy Sage
And like those people don't even go to combat ever.
- [32:05]
V. Spear
It's like tradition.
- [32:06]
Sammy Sage
Go to the military, they got jobs to be cryptographers or intel. They're in intelligence and the, the DOD is what I think 2 million people. The idea that those 2 million people are invested in Pete Hegseth or Donald Trump or Fox News. No, they're invested. They're not giving their life for those people. Every day. Every day they wake up and they're giving their life to the Constitution, to the country. And I think that Donald Trump. For better, for better. Cannot understand this concept.
- [32:37]
V. Spear
No.
- [32:38]
Sammy Sage
Of being loyal to. Well, an idea.
- [32:40]
V. Spear
Because Donald Trump has never been in the military because he's a multi time draft dodger.
- [32:45]
Sammy Sage
Yeah. Well, he didn't look happy during his parade. He looked miserable, he looked tired. He shouldn't have done it that late. Like why did he start this at 6:30?
- [32:55]
V. Spear
Melania. Melania was having a great time. She's like, I hate this so much.
- [33:01]
Sammy Sage
But, but you know, okay, we have to talk about the sponsors because what I'm confused about, they claim you could keep hearing this 45 million dollar estimate thrown around. I don't, I don't know if I believe that estimate. I'm waiting to hear what there was.
- [33:14]
V. Spear
But also loan of the machines.
- [33:16]
Sammy Sage
Okay.
- [33:16]
V. Spear
They had to come from Texas.
- [33:18]
Sammy Sage
Okay. So regardless if we have all these corporate sponsors, for example, Oracle, Palantir, Coinbase, UFC, Amazon, why, why do we need like $45 million between all these companies is not even a rounding error on their balance sheets. It's nothing. So why would it cost anything to the American taxpayer? And also what are the sponsors getting?
- [33:44]
V. Spear
Well, let me.
- [33:45]
Sammy Sage
What do you get?
- [33:46]
V. Spear
Okay, so here's, here's part of the issue. Now some of these sponsors, the military, the army was always going to have a 250 birthday celebration was supposed to be nationwide distributed. Like my friend Andrea's dating a guy in the army down in Florida. They had a big party at the Florida base and it was wonderful and everybody got dressed up was really nice. So when Coca Cola came in to say, we're gonna sponsor that, that came when it was like, Coke's gonna provide all the soft drinks, the drinks for all the different military bases to celebrate the military, Right? But now Coke's the premier sponsor of the fucking parade because that's the way that it went. But they sponsored all the drinks for everybody, right? Which was like, okay, that happens all the time. That's no big deal. Palantir, though, volunteer being there, Oracle being there, those type people being there, they are, all right, now silently getting major increases in their defense spending. So Palantir, for example, just got $765 million billion dollars. I got to look it up. It was a, it was a massive increase to how much money they got under Donald Trump for a lot of their AI tech and their stupid shit like that Oracle thing. They, it, they, they are sponsoring so that they can get more DoD spending allocated to them. It's very icky. Not that I'm trying to put Coke off, but, you know, I, I, I don't have a problem with Coca Cola providing the soda for the kids at the army parades. Like, come on.
- [35:08]
Sammy Sage
Well, you know, Palantir is providing the.
- [35:11]
V. Spear
AI, surveillance and AI.
- [35:13]
Sammy Sage
I know there was an interesting story that really flew under the radar this weekend because there was so much else going on. Will you tell us about this? Because I'm a, you know, even as someone who's quite up on the Palantir stuff, this is a bit confusing to me.
- [35:28]
V. Spear
Yes.
- [35:29]
Sammy Sage
So tell us about it.
- [35:30]
V. Spear
Okay, so I never thought that my connections in history with the DoD, in the military, would be so important as they have been since I started doing this podcast.
- [35:37]
Sammy Sage
Who would have thought they would be important?
- [35:39]
V. Spear
Who would have thought that this. Well, I, okay, so. And I also have, have, like, I had a little dream, right, that you, there are these roles that you can get commissioned into as a civilian to be an expert, and it requires four years of service. Right. But it's not go. It's like officer stuff. Like, so I could have gone as like, a public affairs officer and, like, enlisted to the Navy or been commissioned into the Navy to help them with digital strategy. If you're listening, it's not too late. So I've done a bunch of stuff with them as a civilian, and when I saw this story, I was like, no one's going to know what this is. And so much was going on this weekend that it got completely missed, but it is extremely scary to me. So let me tell you what happened. Executives from high tech firms Meta, OpenAI and Palantir joined the Army Reserve at the rank of lieutenant Colonel and they are serving in this battalion which is being called Detachment 201. It is a new executive innovation corps. Okay, this is, if you look at the pictures. Let's pull up a picture. This is a real deal. You are wearing fatigues.
- [36:40]
Sammy Sage
PayPal, mafia.
- [36:41]
V. Spear
Yes, you. This is a real deal. You are wearing fatigues and going on military bases and having access to a battalion job. Okay. This is not like some, like what I wanted, which was sort of like you're a helper, but you're not a commissioned officer. Okay.
- [36:54]
Sammy Sage
So as an executive, you do this.
- [36:56]
V. Spear
Well, this is sort of unprecedented because typically you have to be under 42 to do any of this stuff. It's just like, like, you know, sometimes they'll commission a doctor because he's a specialist surgeon and they need that, right? They need somebody to lead the medical battalion. So they get. But to do this with, with these guys is sort of unprecedented. So Meta's Chief Technology officer Andrew Bosworth was one of them. OpenAI's chief product officer Kevin Wheel, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Bob McGrew, who was an advisor at Thinking Machines Lab, which was previously OpenAI's chief research officer, all lined up in fatigues and were commissioned into the active duty army by Donald Trump and the leadership. Now what is concerning about this is we are now not just having civilian attache work, we are putting civilian tech leaders from these deeply problematic, overly surveying of the American people companies directly into the military. They will have access to all of the public records, all of the health records, all of the technology. They are getting billions of dollars to increase the spending on how we're going to survey American citizen, how we're going to use AI to target foreign enemies, how we are going to man jammers, how are we going to train soldiers on the use of AI? They say to target foreign enemies and suspects subjects who might be in descent of the United States. American values. I fucking worry about this, okay? Because that also means that you can use the military on American citizens.
- [38:28]
Sammy Sage
Well, they're already trying to track immigrants in real time, so.
- [38:32]
V. Spear
So there's two projects within this, right? Meta provides XR equipment to the military and that's used to train soldiers. Now that's, that's actually kind of cool. You put on the VR goggles and submits you into a combat zone without having to be in a combat zone. It's not perfect, but it's good. It also you could do flight simulators and things like that. It's great for training. Open AI, though, has chat gbt, which I think is already doing too much in the military. It does everything from Tulsi Gabbard putting in potentially classified documents and having ChatGPT scan them to see if they are classified, to writing a health policy with fake sources cited to maybe.
- [39:10]
Sammy Sage
Now that is suggesting that people take their own lives, by the way.
- [39:15]
V. Spear
Yes.
- [39:16]
Sammy Sage
That people are forming relationships with.
- [39:18]
V. Spear
Yes.
- [39:19]
Sammy Sage
That is telling them to go do drugs. So this is the same thing that our military is using to conduct business.
- [39:26]
V. Spear
And now potentially writing military strategy plans. Right. So Donald Trump doesn't have actual experts. He has Pete Hegseth. And so Pete Hegseth is going, I want to get rid of 3,000 immigrants a year. I don't know, I want to take control of the Iranian uranium fields. What would I do? Chat GPT. And it's, I guess, going to spit something out to him. Right. The spooky ookiest of all of them though is Palantir, which owns this thing you've never heard of, I promise you. It's called Project Maven. Look it up. It uses AI enabled technologies to autonomously detect, tag and track objects or humans of interest from still images and videos captured by surveillance aircraft, drones, satellites and other means. Now, they say that we are only using this in enemy territories. Well, the United States is not at war, baby. And who is he calling the enemies immigrants? The left. Democrats.
- [40:15]
Sammy Sage
Invasion.
- [40:16]
V. Spear
The invasion. So this Project Maven, everyone needs to Google it, start making content about it, looking it up, exposing it. Also, this is probably my last podcast episode, Right. Why do I know so much that scares me? Because that guy, the CTO of Palantir, is now inside our military as a lieutenant colonel. He has a battalion in control. They also do this stupid project called Titan. Have we learned nothing? Why would you name anything the Titan? It's just, it's gonna go bad. Well, and these. It's funny.
- [40:49]
Sammy Sage
It's funny you say that because. Because the one sort of negative about this weekend and the parade was that as much as we're laughing at it, China's seeing this.
- [40:59]
V. Spear
Russia, we looked.
- [41:00]
Sammy Sage
They're seeing squeaky tank going down the way.
- [41:04]
V. Spear
We also have the Titan, the tactical intelligence targeting access node.
- [41:09]
Sammy Sage
They just like when things sound like.
- [41:11]
V. Spear
A word, but it's a. Yeah, it's a Palantir jammer and surveillance truck that essentially looks like, it just looks like an, like a army transport vehicle. It looks like, you know, when you sometimes see Army People like just driving, like a big Humvee type thing. It looks like that mixed with, like a box truck. And so it wouldn't be something that if it showed up in your neighborhood, you'd be like, oh, the military must be here doing whatever. But this is the surveillance and jammer. So they can jam Starlink if they want. They could jam Internet if they want. And they are. They just got a huge contract to make even more of them. And that freaks me out too. These are my genuine concerns. And if you like learning about this stuff and you want to learn more, you can check out my friends@ defensescoop.com they are really good. And they are also anonymous, which I think is helpful because people don't want you to report about the military.
- [42:13]
Sammy Sage
Let me just say, as we're talking about Palantir and Peter Thiel, as some people may know if you follow me on Instagram, I was reading the biography that was written about him by the reporter Max Chaffkin.
- [42:25]
V. Spear
Some light reading while jumping off cliffs.
- [42:29]
Sammy Sage
No, really?
- [42:30]
V. Spear
Did you read the bike before or after you jumped off the cliff?
- [42:33]
Sammy Sage
That was mid.
- [42:34]
V. Spear
I was.
- [42:34]
Sammy Sage
Oh, no, no, no. I finished it. I was in the middle of it.
- [42:37]
V. Spear
And you were like, I'm jumping off this cliff. I can't.
- [42:39]
Sammy Sage
No, it wasn't as high as it was.
- [42:41]
V. Spear
It looked dangerous. I was scared.
- [42:42]
Sammy Sage
It was like two. It was. It was not as scary off the one Avi went off of. That was like double my height. That was way scarier. But I. Two, that's too far. It was like two to three seconds in the air. But. But, okay, so this book, I am gonna put, like, excerpts on my Instagram and possibly sub stack because I do want to share more information about this. But what I've concluded from that book, and this brings us back to the very beginning of the episode, is that this is a pure raw power move. All Peter Thiel and his people around him. It's not just him, it's culture around him. But he really is emblematic of it. It's just raw power. They just want to rule the world. That's it. It's this feeling that they are the only ones who are, well, who are qualified to do it. Everyone else is stupid. Everyone else is just a dumb part of the masses. And he says democracy does not work and that there should be. This is like the Curvis Yard and Yarvin shit. There should be a CEO King who runs everything is responsible for that. That's the thing. It's like businesses. How many businesses are There that have lasted as long as this country. Not many. These people, they. I've never seen such aggrieved. An aggrieved group of people who have so few reasons to be aggrieved. It's like their own. Their real issue is that people don't like them. The tech don't agree with them. Yeah, the. The tech bros. They have these ideas that they should be special charge of everything, and they're special boys and that. And when people don't like that, they get very upset and offended, and then they double down and double down. And we've been watching this since the late 90s. These people have been trying to run a currency, like a surveillance currency system off that is separate from the United States system since the late 90s. That's always been what inspires them. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, lots of these guys, people whose names you wouldn't necessarily know as well, but they've always been kind of like number two, number three. And now they are the ones who are making it into the administration who have lots of power. And that's really what we're watching. I finished the book. We're in Montenegro. Avi was reading the book after me. He then takes it and is, you know, he. He likes it. We're very relaxed, obviously. No, we are. And at one point, he was in the, like, men's locker room, like, and he had the book with him and some guy who he says was gay and he says was hitting on him.
- [45:22]
V. Spear
Okay, first of all, the audience needs to know Sammy's husband is extremely attractive. He is very fit. And he. He's. He's a little hottie.
- [45:32]
Sammy Sage
He's a fit man. Yeah, he's a hot man.
- [45:34]
V. Spear
They're a cute little couple.
- [45:35]
Sammy Sage
Thank you. And so he. That the guy asks him like, oh, why are you reading that book? And he's obvious like, I'm like, you better not send anything.
- [45:44]
V. Spear
Like, oh, because my wife has a show where we talk about him all the time.
- [45:48]
Sammy Sage
Yeah, yeah, totally. Go look at her Instagram. I mean, anyone could figure it out. But he. He was like, I'm. It's interesting. You know, he's important guy. It's interesting. Which. True. Same. And the guy. This guy who was there at the hotel for a wedding, which was like a bunch of, like, gays from New York City and San Francisco, you know, at. At this hotel. And he's like, oh, yeah, a bunch of people, you know, I know him. Like, a bunch of people here at the wedding know him. I'm like, are you kidding me, Avi? I'm like, you need to go undercover.
- [46:23]
V. Spear
You gotta be gay for the night. Avi, we need you in there.
- [46:26]
Sammy Sage
Apparently, he doesn't, like, get to finish that conversation because I had, like, whatever he had. I arrived or something. He doesn't finish that, but whatever. He runs into the guy. This is the second time he ran into that guy, actually. So whatever. He runs into the guy again.
- [46:40]
V. Spear
He has the Palantir surveillance. He knew where Avi was going to be.
- [46:42]
Sammy Sage
Yeah, no, he's, like, hanging out. Avi's very friendly. He makes friends all the time. Every time we go on vacation, we get new friends. None of them, you know, they used to want to talk about America, but not anymore, I guess. So he sees him again, maybe like a day later, and I think they get back into a conversation, and the guy tells him that he had set up Peter Thiel. And that boyfriend who was in.
- [47:10]
V. Spear
Got pushed out the window in Miami.
- [47:12]
Sammy Sage
That one. And he said. Yeah. He was like, yeah, that guy was really, like, messed up. He had a lot of issues, but he said that he introduced them.
- [47:20]
V. Spear
Oh, my God.
- [47:21]
Sammy Sage
I know. I mean, who knows? I don't know who this person was. I don't know what he looks like. I don't know his name.
- [47:26]
V. Spear
Wow.
- [47:27]
Sammy Sage
I don't know anything about him.
- [47:28]
V. Spear
That's what he told us. Yeah.
- [47:31]
Sammy Sage
I mean, I wasn't even there. It's. It's husband, boss, Abby.
- [47:36]
V. Spear
More. We need to use him as bait so much more often. He's. He's great. He's.
- [47:41]
Sammy Sage
Yeah. Because he will talk to anyone.
- [47:43]
V. Spear
Yeah.
- [47:43]
Sammy Sage
And he's very good at, like, remaining generally neutral because he kind of is very neutral. As you know, he's not. He really isn't trying to hurt anyone, truly. But. Yeah, that was very. That was very fascinating. And I was like. Like, I'm just gonna.
- [47:58]
V. Spear
Yeah.
- [47:59]
Sammy Sage
Look, I'm reading a book. It's. I. I think it's underrated how embedded this man is in both Republican and Democratic circles, because you learn from the book, is that him supporting Trump was just about a bet. He just thought, this is a better bet for me.
- [48:15]
V. Spear
Right.
- [48:15]
Sammy Sage
And I think he still thinks that. And I think that he's the kind of guy who is very pragmatic.
- [48:21]
V. Spear
I agree. I think he's a very sad, very lonely man, Peter Thiel. And I think that is.
- [48:27]
Sammy Sage
That is borne out by the.
- [48:29]
V. Spear
The.
- [48:29]
Sammy Sage
The biography, which ended in 2021. So, you know, obviously, things have changed, but it. It. Here we are a very soul. You know, he's a solitary guy.
- [48:40]
V. Spear
Yes. Very sad person.
- [48:42]
Sammy Sage
I wish he could maybe not. And maybe he would see people as more humans and less like pawns.
- [48:48]
V. Spear
Well, I think maybe next week when we have Molly John Fast, I think is coming on next week or the Weekly. We're getting her. She's coming soon. But we should talk to her about, you know, the billionaire bros. We sort of lump them all together and we assume that they're. They're all the same kind of sociopath. Jeff Bezos is a great departure from the standard MAGA sociopath. And I do believe it has to do with the fact that he had siblings. He has five, I think, four children. I didn't know he had children until recently. He has four children and he had a wife.
- [49:18]
Sammy Sage
Well, Zuckerberg has siblings.
- [49:19]
V. Spear
Well, and I think Zuckerberg is. Is reachable to normal. I think Zuckerberg and Bezos are the same kind of billionaire asshole. And then you have the Peter Thiel kind of like super hateful, you know, villain Gotham villain type. But I think siblings made a difference. I think having a wife made a difference. And there's something to learn from this. All right, well, that's it for us. We'll be back again next week to ruin your day with some more bad news. No. And fun stories. We appreciate you guys so much listening and checking in with us. Until next time, I'm Vspier.
- [49:51]
Sammy Sage
And I'm Sammy Sage.
- [49:52]
V. Spear
And this. This is American Fever Dream.
- [49:54]
Sammy Sage
Good night.
- [50:01]
V. Spear
Betches.