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C
Hey everybody. Tim over the bulwark here with our managing editor, Sam Stein. It's Sunday afternoon. We did this a couple weeks ago. Just a little weekend potpourri where, you know, I'm like looking at the Internet and you know, there are a few things out there that don't merit a full video but that either fun or sad or annoying and we can just chop it up real quick. Does that sound good?
D
It sounds great to me. It's like, you know, my family, we would go out to Sunday night Chinese food and we get like the, you know, all the appetizers. It's like that basically.
C
Yeah. Food. Some dumplings, you know, some spring rolls.
D
Spring rolls.
C
Oh, jinx. Okay, here we go. We're going to start with yesterday. There was an. It was a pretty boring sports weekend, I will say, but yesterday we had the Army. It was a good Spurs Thunder game. We had an Army Navy game yesterday they invited the president to the event and. Okay, an interesting thing that happened was they asked him to do the coin flip and we just should just watch it together. Mr. President, would you do the honor? Are you all set in his tails. Army revamp.
D
It's like a little bird.
C
It's right there in the name. It's flip. It's a coin flip. You're supposed to flip the coin. He let it.
D
He let it fall. He looked on fall.
C
It dropped.
D
Yeah.
C
I mean, at least turned over one time.
D
No, it had to turn over. What? I mean, it couldn't have just landed like that. There wasn't much rotation. Let's put it that way. I don't know. Do you think he had someone more time? I just don't know. Why?
C
I just don't think he knows how to do it.
D
No, he's just really gentle with the fingering. All right. How would you. I would done the like little bing. Like that.
C
Right.
D
Pop.
C
Yeah. Not that hard.
D
It's not something you practice. I suppose maybe he. Maybe he got a little like the yips, you know, where you're just sort of anxious about the flip. You want the flip to look nice, and then you're suddenly like, ah. And then it just falls.
C
A normal person that doesn't live in his own hotel would know how to flip a coin. That's all I'm saying. Wait, you kind of.
D
You kind of just glossed over. Spurs, Thunder. That was a great game.
C
Amazing game. And so absolutely needed for the NBA because the Thunder was run rush.
D
If they just. I was worried. I'm so worried about this season. It's just looking, like preordained. But my boy Steph Castle. My boy Steph had a great game last night.
C
Yeah. UConn grad. Yeah. WEMBY and Jokic are gonna have something to say about it. Okay. I had one more thing on the army nav. This I've noticed a couple times, but I don't think we've mentioned it. And I'm going to have do a big interview later this week on Palantir. And what's happening over there, folks who don't know Palantir. It's like the government contractor Peter Thiel started it. They do spyware. Let's just pull this up here. This massive Palantir ad at the Army Navy game. I find this very gross. This is the military academies and we're having like, spyware company.
D
Yeah.
C
Defense company, contractor, spyware company that has like a very, like, upfront political perspective among their leadership. They're doing ads at the game. I don't know.
D
I mean, they obviously knew Trump was there, Right. So they're trying to get on his radar. But yeah, it was like there's a little bit sort of like, we're all going to be basically soldiers for Palantir down the road. Yeah.
C
It felt like it was out of a creepy dystopian movie. You know, it's like, you know me, Sam. I'm going to be probably more pro capitalist than the median commenter on this YouTube feed. I do love capitalism, but, like, it feels like that we should have some safe spaces from capitalism in the country. Like a military academy football game. I don't know.
D
It's either that or it's sports betting. It's like one or the other is going to advertise right there. So it's like, pick your poison. Right?
C
I would feel a little bit better about. I would feel a little bit better about DraftKings than Palantir. No, I agree.
D
I totally agree. But the DraftKings, it's everywhere. Like, you cannot escape the sports betting advertising at these events, too. That makes me uncomfortable a little bit as well.
C
Okay, here's one more little Politics. Sports, take us over.
D
We are, like, absolutely rifling through these.
C
Times we're rolling through. It's a potpourri. You don't have a full meal of dumplings. You take a couple of pies, then you move on. It's a fucking potpourri, Sam.
D
Oh, we have the spare ribs portion of this meal.
C
We're something a little gayer than spare ribs. There's a little teemu. Charlie Kirk. He's trying to sell himself like the new Charlie Kirk. Have you seen this fella? Bryland Hollyhand?
D
Oh, yeah, that guy Will's written about him. He's.
C
Yeah, he did a post over the weekend. I just, you know, I just. Did you see it? No.
D
You gave me some prep work, but I didn't see that one.
C
Great. He wrote this. This is a tweet that he posted. This is one of the worst tweets I've ever seen in my life. Instead of this, instead of the Super Bowl, I'd rather watch President Trump as Tom Oman, mass deporting illegal aliens, exclamation point.
D
You're just trying so hard.
C
How are we losing to these people? What?
D
This is like. I know. It doesn't make sense. It's the equivalent of like, some lib being like, you know what I really want during the super bowl halftime show? A Hamilton reenactment. It's like, oh, God, no. Just watch the fucking game. Brought to you by Palantir.
C
Okay. You should feel bad watching the Super Bowl. You should not be at a soup kitchen. No, it's just like, Come on. The, like this little fucking white. This guy's kind of laser.
D
I know. He's sort of notorious, right? For trying way too hard, right? Like, that's his thing. He's, like, going around trying to beat Charlie Kirk, and he's. I think he had a polo shirt with the Masters logo on it. When he was on his private plane, he was pictured doing that. At that point, I feel like part of me feels bad because he's like, what, 22? Something like that.
C
And it's just, I don't feel bad.
D
Your should be spent this way.
C
This is. This is. This tweet is bad across all different metrics.
D
It's a bad tweet.
C
It is morally reprehensible.
D
What was the rate? What are the responses? I haven't seen the response.
C
Not positive. I just did the Taylor Swift doing the Loser.
D
The fact that you engage this stuff. I don't know. Amazing.
C
You did a bad tweet over the weekend. Actually, I hadn't seen it, but it was brought up to me irl. I had an IRL person say to me that, what was up with Sam's bad tweet? And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.
D
There's so many bad tweets.
C
You said that Illinois should take the high road now on redistricting, now that Indiana has done the right thing. It's like, let me just. The Democrats win one little battle, and you're ready to just fold.
D
Okay, I did see the reaction to this, and I just. I feel like I need to clarify because I think people are misinterpreting the point here. I said one state. I didn't say, oh, Maryland should take it off and Virginia should not do it. There's. People have to understand behind the scenes, these. These conversations happen like Democrats are trying to position states to correspond with other states. Illinois is supposed to correspond with Indiana. Okay. Virginia is supposed to correspond with Florida. Maryland's kind of out there figuring out what it's corresponding with. And if Indiana, which is two seats that could go Republican, says, we're not going to do it, then Illinois should say, which is one seat. Should say, potentially, we won't do it either. It's a net gain of one for Democrats. Now let's say the reverse. Illinois does go forward now, and a bunch of the Indiana Senate Republicans are like, wait a second. What the fuck? Like, actually, we change our mind now. You're in a bad. You're in a worse spot. So I stand by the tweet. The haters. I told Bill this this morning. It's always good to be flooded with hate online every once in a while. It keeps you. Yeah, that's fine. It keeps you sane. It keeps you grounded. I'm happy to take it. Okay.
C
Which side am I supposed to do once for the loser?
D
Oh, you got loser. Whatever.
C
You're a loser.
D
It was brought up to you in real life. Wow.
C
So, yeah, it's a loser mentality that you have and strategic mentality. Don't like it. Disagree. So for all of you who disagree with Sam, know that you have an ally. Fucking JB Pritzker. Man up. Okay. Don't let Sam Stein give you the air cover to whip out here. If this squeeze squeezing out one more seat.
D
If we're going with the Chinese food metaphor here, this was the worst dish.
C
Okay. Republicans need pain. This one might be worse, actually. Cause I expect you to have a bad take on this, too. A lot of discussion on Twitter, unclear yet in the real world about the Erica Kirk Town hall with Barry Weiss on cbs. My for your page on X, it was just entirely Erica Kirk. Like people deranged, takes on all sides. Just people have very strong views. We'll see what the ratings were for being an actual tv. I should start just by saying I don't like, have that as strong views as some people in the media commentary space on what happens with CBS, because I've not watched CBS News outside of 60 Minutes in probably 12 years. So 60 Minutes does matter, but it's not like I've watched the CBS Evening News. When was the last time I watched CBS Evening News? They made the announcement who the new anchor is. It's Katie Church husband. So congrats. I like Tony, but I know Katie.
D
Big Tony guy.
C
Who did he replace? I'm not really sure. I'm not 100% sure. So it's not that big of a deal. That said, so we'll. So maybe it's one of those things where nobody was watching before, nobody's watching now, but a lot of chatter about it. I had one thing in particular that caught my eye, but was there anything about the Bari Weiss Erica Kirk discourse you want to weigh in?
D
Well, two things. One is on the Erica Kirk discourse. I, you know, I'm public with this too. Whatever. People can throw hate at me all they want. I find the attacks on her and what she's doing totally uncomfortable. Like people grieve in different ways. People want to do different things. She wants to, you know, continue the legacy of her husband. She Needs to be out there. That's helping her process it. Fine, who cares? Grow up, Let her do her thing.
C
I don't mean, I will say if she's going to do that, you can criticize her takes because she's had, she had some pretty bad ones.
D
Yeah, yeah, totally fine. But the idea that she's like, why.
C
Aren'T you parenting your child, woman? And stuff like that, I'm like, everybody.
D
I don't know what you're talking about. Shut up. Just shut up. So that's 1, 2 on the Barry Weiss thing. Look, she's obviously a dynamic figure. I would just say, look, she's now overseeing this entire news agency. I was a little bit surprised she took the interview. Like, if I were her, I, you know, I would have, you know, I, I would have given it to someone else, said, any Tony? Yeah, anyone. I would have been like, I am now the manager. I need to show that I have. I need to give, get buy in from the people. I'm not gonna bigfoot or take this interview. That was, that's the only take I have on this. Yeah, I might, there might be some reason why she took the MMA was only granted to her. But yeah, that seemed like a weird choice to me.
C
The thing that I found weird about it was, well, I guess I'm just going to be candid. It was Saturday night. I was a Tip of Teenas. I live in New Orleans. I have. I'm like, it was at 8 o' clock on Saturday night. I wasn't watching this town hall. Like, okay, like the only people watching it were 80. All right, so network TV on Saturday night at 8pm I think is when it was aired. I'm not 100% sure because I was at Tibetan enjoying dragon's milk. It was a good show. So I've seen a couple of the clips though. And I saw the Sunday morning clip of Barry talking about the interview. This is a meta take here. It's me commenting on Barry commenting on her interview. Let's watch Barry.
E
I think the thing that was baffling for many of us that watched that, I mean, I remember watching it and thinking, I can't understand this. What does this mean? She was able to explain the distinction between forgiveness as a personal choice to almost let go of something, to not let it be this anvil around her and forgiveness in the mode of her, her faith and to make a distinction between that and her desire for justice, which is quite different. It doesn't mean that she forgives the. Like, it doesn't mean that she does not want this alleged murderer to be held accountable. To be held accountable. And I think that's the really, really important distinction.
C
Here's the thing that I, that I, you know, it's like, take the interview. I'm fine. Whoever do. I don't, I don't really care who is doing the interviews for cbs, but you do the interview. And then afterwards, rather than, like, being an analyst who, like, is saying, like, she has some good points, she had some bad points. It's like, it's doing this thing where, like, you're puffing yourself up like you're a Don King, Don King promoter for your own work, and you're just, like, so amazing. I just, I had to bear witness. I got to bear witness to this historic moment, an historic moment where Erica Kirk taught the world how to handle something I don't think people could understand, which is that you can forgive somebody and also want the justice system to work. And I'm like, that's the most anodyne take in the world. That's one of the first three things you learn about when you learn about Jesus. It's like, the good side go, she did the Golden Rule. It's like, it's great. It's praiseworthy that she did it, but, like, this notion that, like, what we saw was something that we. That nobody could possibly behold, and that Barry Weiss was, like, navigating the Amazon and found this remote culture of Christians, and here's what the Christians do out there in the woods. They forgive people. It's like, okay. And that was that just. That caught me a little. I just, you know, I want a little bit more balanced analysis of the, of the, of the interview, I guess. Yeah.
D
And it suggests that, like, the stuff you got from the interview wasn't. I mean, it's a good interview. It's important, I suppose, but it's not like a high profile. I don't think. It's like, you're not, you're not. People aren't going to remember this.
C
You know, what's happening with the for you page. What's happening with the algorithm?
D
Oh, it's awful.
C
Why does the algorithm want us to know to see every terrible opinion about Erica Kirk, do you think?
D
I don't know. In this morning, it was every. I mean, I woke up, it was all the Bondi shooting, but it was like the most grotesque, horrifying stuff from that shooting and corpses all over the place. You know, 10 minute long segments of people, like, sniping at each other. It felt like we were in some sort of, you know, movie, like some horror show movie or some like, video game reenactment. And I was just like, you know, if you're just an average kid hopping on this platform like that, that I just like. There is just. It is wild west shit and it is rewarding bad actors and it's. People need to get. People need to go to the following page, get off the. For you page.
C
It's bad. Bad. Yeah, it's really bad, I should say. You, you already talked to Bill this morning about both the Brown shooting and the Bondi shooting. And again, and I think again, that's just another. It was one of the reasons I was like so annoyed by getting this town hall like pushed in my face so much. It's just like we're in this. That is, you know, some news judgment.
D
But there are no new. That's the problem. There's no new. There's no one judging the news on, on this platform, which is the biggest purveyor of the news. It's just, hey, whatever people are like spending their most time on. And of course they're going to watch horrific, you know, gunfights and dead bodies all over the place. I mean, we're primal people. And it's like, I don't know, it just, it feel. It felt very raw and kind of irresponsible, frankly.
C
You sent the, you sent also the story about the girl at Brown that had been shot in a school shooting already and she was then at Brown was going to be at the area where the Browns. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Anyway, this is, this is why if you go on my jubilee video, people are like, why did you argue about guns? Why'd you choose guns? Is one of the topics with. To argue with the kids about. The reason is because I'm like, I just think. Think it's crazy that we've now just. It's kind of like, okay, well, now that, you know, now that we didn't solve this after Sandy Hook, what's the point of talking about it anymore? I kind of feel like maybe we should talk about it a little bit. If somebody. There's a kid, that is in college that's been in two school shootings now and that's this. She's not the first one, but just.
D
No, yeah, this is not the first. And I found all these people in my pl being. Well, these are two gun free zones. Like, of course there's going to be shootings there. It's like, come on, man. What do you just. You Know, do like basic research, just any fundamental, basic research about gun violence and educate yourself. Before doing this.
C
I want to take you over to the New York Young Republican gala. I followed these guys around for a while. This is like a MAGA youth group.
D
Maga? Unlike cocaine youth group.
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, they're like, the mag ended up not happening. But I spent a decent amount of time with them because I was pitching kind of a broader project before I got, you know, kind of busy making 100 videos a day for the YouTube about this group because they're really important because, like, people do forget this. There was a moment in time between the January 6th insurrection and Trump announcing he was going to run again, where like most of the right wing institutions were kind of like, we just want to move on to desantimos.
D
Yeah, yeah.
C
Like, you know what I mean? Fox was for it, Rupert was for it. Most of the Young College Republican groups were more DeSantis. Like, you know, the New York Young Republicans were the first group to be like, we are endorsing Trump again after the insurrection. And they, they kind of made a name for themselves this way. And so anyway, to your point that they're Mike MAGA on cocaine. That's their, that's their deal. They had their gala last night. The first to endorse President Donald J. Trump in 2024. And Mr. President, the new York Young Republican Club is prepared to endorse in 20. You go. So, I mean, obviously there's some trolling elements to this, but, like, that's the type of folks that you're getting out there.
D
Yeah, I mean, this is just them trying to like, be, you know, the most Trumpy, most, you know, provocative people in the room. And of course, there's a little New Yorker mentality, obviously, like they don't give a. They want to like, fight. But it's cult. Like, it's very cultish. Right.
C
It's a cult. I will say there was one sign from outside that these internal MAGA tensions are existing, though, like even in this place where it's like you're self volunteering to be the most maga. Yeah. Outside the event, there was a guy protesting. He appeared to be a left wing guy wearing a Nazi costume protesting New York Young Republicans, accusing them of Nazis. This is like a pro tip, like as a protester, like, don't even if you're making fun of Nazis, you're really dressing like a Nazi. It can send some mixed messages. So just, just a little pro tip for protesters out there. I wouldn't Wear the Nazi gar myself.
D
That's when you're taking the trolling a touch too far. When you look in the mirror and you got a swastika on.
C
Exactly. So you got the guy in the Nazi suit, then hands one of his swastikas to a New York Young Republican attendee gala attendee, who's a groiper. The Nick Frentes type, who takes the swastika and is like, you're right, I am a Nazi. Okay. Basically. And so he holds it.
D
Thank you.
C
And then starts yelling at the guy. Yeah. And then another New York Young Republican, kind of a portly fella, comes out, and I guess he is an anti groiper. So he's a mega anti griper. So there you go. And let's see what he does to the griper guy. You invited him to your fucking club. You gave him a ticket to the fucking club.
D
Whoa.
C
Okay. Get the fuck out of here.
D
There you go.
C
An open hand slap. An open hand slap. I gotta tell you, I chuckled in bed this morning watching.
D
No, you love to see that. I mean, this is so. These people are so. It's like, tough to know who to root for sometimes. But in this one, I'm rooting for the slapper.
C
The slapper, yeah. So you're not. Violence is sometimes the answer for you then, Sam, is what you're saying. No guns. Yes, slapping.
D
Yeah, I can get down with slapping. Sure.
C
Open hand slapping. All right, my final topic for you. We've, like you said, we've been. We've been banging through. This is the dessert. This is your fortune cookie. And this was from TMZ. Takashi69 caught a stray shot for being a snitching Mexican in a lace front wig during 21 Savages three hour interview. And now he's clapping back.
D
I have no idea what any of that means. Like, that just completely went over my head.
C
That was a TMZ headline. Tekashi 69 caught a stray shot for being a snitching Mexican in a lace front wig during 21 Savages three hour interview. And now he's clapping back. A lot of numbers.
D
Numbers in that headline. I would not have gone with that headline if it were us. But, you know, the fact that you caught your attention, maybe we should put, like, a bunch of weird numbers in names in our headlines.
C
I wonder what he's saying now that he's clapping back. It did. I did click. And. But then it was too confusing to restart.
D
It's like, what? Who are these people?
C
All right, anything else catch your eye.
D
Any other po Man, I gotta go watch some football.
C
Yeah. Your kids sound like. Sounds like you're dading down there. Sounds like you're doing a great job.
D
There's chaos bags there. I thought I said Harry, I gotta go do some YouTube. Get out of here.
C
This is where. This where you get all the gold. The real gold right here. We'll see you soon. Quick choose a meal deal with McValue. The $5 McChicken meal deal, the $6 McDouble meal deal, or the new $7 Daily Double meal deal. Each with its own small fries, drink and Four Piece McNuggets. There's actually no rush. I'm just excited for McDonald's for a limited time only.
D
Prices and participation may vary.
C
Not Valder McDelivery.
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Date: December 15, 2025
Hosts: Tim Miller & Sam Stein (and guest audio from Barry Weiss)
This episode of Bulwark Takes features Tim Miller and Sam Stein tackling a variety of current-news oddities and political potpourri, with a signature dose of humor and irreverence. The show’s jumping-off point is Donald Trump's awkward coin flip at the Army–Navy football game, which spirals into broader conversations about political theater, defense contractor advertising, viral Twitter outrage, pundit discourse around high-profile interviews, and even a bit of pop-culture celebrity beef. The hosts riff on these topics in rapid-fire, appetizer-style segments, keeping a tone that is conversational, satirical, and self-aware.
[01:51–03:24]
[03:46–05:14]
[05:39–07:30]
[07:43–09:45]
[09:45–15:12]
[15:23–16:38]
[16:38–17:46]
[18:03–21:40]
[22:04–22:44]
[22:44–23:17]
On Army-Navy Coin Flip
On Military-Capitalism Infiltration
On Bryland Hollyhand and Twitter Outrage:
On Twitter Pile-ons:
On Bari Weiss’s Meta-Analysis:
Tim and Sam’s take is unmistakably Bulwark: equal parts political snark, earnest outrage at real-world issues, mainstream skepticism of both left and right tribalism, and a recurring theme of "can you believe we’re living through this?" High-velocity cultural analysis mingles with personal anecdotes and Twitter meta-commentary, giving the episode an informed yet casual vibe that’s accessible to regular listeners, deeply online politicos, and newcomers alike.