C (2:19)

Yeah, it's the corruption and the self enriching of this president is just, it's wild and it's so wild to watch country club Republicans, national security Republicans that are about words like integrity, the aura and the decor of the office, you know that it is a, a very serious position and that they just see this guy Who's a grifter. He's got his online riff raff and knickknack store selling all that shit pumps. Did you hear that? You know the little, the dining hall right outside the Oval Office. People that have been in there said it looks like a gift shop now because he's got all of his like Trump 2028 and like his Trump watch, Trump Bible, it's full of merch. Like this is a president that has a merch store off the Oval Office. It's just, it, it's insane. Okay, now this relatable man of the people, here's what he has to say to any of you peasant Americans that may have problems buying Christmas gifts or problems in this horrible Trump economy. Play the clip.

B (3:33)

Buying their holiday presidents presence they're planning.

D (3:36)

Look, don't be dramatic. No, no, don't be. Here's, here's what I want.

F (3:40)

Next year's what I want.

D (3:41)

I know. And what I want to do is help them. So will I want to give go up. I'm giving them money. I want to give the money to the people to buy their own health care. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. The Democrats don't want to do that. They want the insurance companies to continue to make a fortune. The Democrats are owned by the insurance companies. They want the insurance companies to get this. Trillions of dollars we spent. We spent trillions of dollars goes to the insurance companies. I want that money to go to the people and let the people go out and buy their own.

C (4:14)

Okay? So don't be dramatic. Don't be dramatic. He says, and there is some truth about what he says about the Democrats being beholden to the insurance lobby. There's truth to that. And that's something the Democratic Party is going through right now. We need to start calling balls and strikes and calling out members of the Democratic Party and pass policies that were overtly favorable to corporations and neglected people. But here's what all you need to know about this whole thing. All it's going to take for him to change his opinion on that, which really isn't a really formed opinion. Somebody just told him that the insurance companies can make a gold statue in a medal and they can go to the Oval Office and tell him how attractive he is, what large hands he has, how great his Marie Antoinette makeover of the Oval is. They can go into the merch shop and drone on and on about all of his trinkets and how fabulous all that white trash is. And then they will receive the biggest sweetheart deal imaginable that will make the Democrats look like their mass regulator, which we all know the Democratic establishment is not.

F (5:31)

And correct me if I'm wrong, but he was going to give the American people money back from the tariffs. He's, he's going to write him checks for all the tariffs. Never going to happen. And if I remember correctly, the amount he was talking about was $2,000. $2,000, that's like three months of insurance premium on most insurance policies.

C (5:52)

For some people, one.

E (5:55)

Pardon.

C (5:56)

For some people, that's one month, right?

F (5:58)

I mean, so $2,000 would. But he wouldn't know that because somebody taking care of that for him, he's never had to worry about if has he paid the deductible, if he hasn't paid the deductible, can he get the mri? He rolls up and gets the MRI and says, oh, I don't know what it was for, But I mean, $2,000 is the most ridiculous amount for insurance or any kind of medical coverage that I've ever heard in my life. Which tells me he doesn't know how much it is.

C (6:26)

And exactly to your point about his marvel at the word groceries and that he thinks it's some antiquated word because he's never been to a grocery store. He's never had to go buy groceries. They've always been stocked from the time that he was a young. I'm sure he was just a nightmare as a kid all the way up to the nightmare that he is now. His food pantry has always been stocked. And so as we hear this out of touch.

C (6:52)

Corrupt president of the United States that's using the office to enrich himself and how detached he is from the needs of the citizens of the country that he is the leader of. Time magazine has some very alarming reporting. Pop this up. The United States is showing signs of a rapid authoritarian shift. The Civic Freedoms Report warns so it is. The authoritarian shift is moving so rapidly. Which brings me pumps to the midterms, which I know you and I both lose a lot of sleep about, that we've spoken about in other episodes. You're ingrained as an American to think, okay, we made a mistake as an electorate. Not we, not you listener, but the country at large. And we can correct, correct it. That's what the midterms are for. The pendulum swings. This is the first time like I start to feel that because that's for 51 years. That's been the way it's worked my entire life in this country. And as I start Thinking about the midterms and I think about all of the crimes, the murder for sports, the quid pro quos, the shakedowns. And this is just the we know about. Think about all the Elon Mus did with Doge. And there's just so much illegal stuff these people have done. They are not going to allow for free and fair elections. I just don't think they are.

F (8:22)

Now, I completely agree with you because here's the thing. Look how he acted on January 6th. He incited a rut. We found out he gave $3 million of his own money. This man notoriously doesn't pay his own bills and is tight as and he rolls out $3 million for January 6th. He was not going to leave. He, he wanted the people to violently overflow the overthrow the government so he didn't have to leave. They've had years to plot against this. Years. And they're gerrymandering. They've got the Supreme Court in their pocket. This tore down the east wing of the White House. Do you really think he's leaving? He's not leaving.

C (9:01)

I know, I know. It's just, it's overwhelming to think about at times. So if there's anything that can happen between now and the midterms, it's going to be, we know the Supreme Court is going to do everything they can do to consolidate power to him. They have created this monster and they're not going to stop. They're going to continue to give this toddler more and more power. So we have some fissures in the Republican Party, starting with Marjorie Taylor Greene, and that Cascades into allegedly 20 Republican Congress people that are planning to resign because they'd rather resign than stand up to Trump. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is still on her rebranding tour, but she's starting to sharpen her language to Trump a lot more. And here she was on CNN just yesterday. And my opinion is using this type of language, she is trying to capture disenchanted MAGA because, you know, we've been on a Marge watch now for about four months. He's running for president. Listen to what she says here and how much sharper her language is.

B (10:09)

It has to be a hard place for someone that is constantly so hateful and puts so much vitriol, name calling and really tells lies about people to get his way or win some kind of fight. And I think that's exactly what's wrong in America today. That's what's wrong in this toxic political environment that has ripped our country apart. And I personally think that that's poor leadership from a president. It's a very bad demeanor and Americans are very tired of it. His executive orders, which make him literally a temporary president. He called me a traitor. And because of his words, that brought serious threats against myself and my family. We had a pipe bomb threat on my home, a pipe bomb threat on my family, construction companies or disagreements or politics. All of our children and our family's safety should. Should matter to anyone, no matter if they're mad at us or disagree with us. I think that's. That should be something we respect. I sent those death threats directly to him in a text message and informed him of what his name calling and words were doing. The direct result. And it was a direct assassination threat on my son. And he was extremely. I won't repeat what he said, but it was extremely unkind. No sympathy, no care.

F (11:37)

She acts like that's a surprise. I mean, like we've all been witnessing this. Remember the Georgia election workers from your state, Marjorie? They had to leave their houses. Bonnie Willis had to leave her house. Like this is what he does. And I hate to break it to her, she was every bit as much of part of it as she could get her little grubby hands on. I mean, she's.

C (12:00)

She, she incubated it. There's no question. And I, obviously, us, our little community here, nobody's buying into that. What I think we have to watch here. And if the Democrats were smart, they'd be watching this. She is following the mindset of the MAGA base. They're exhausted, they're fatigued. They think he's gone too far. And she is an opportunist and she is grifting. She's never stood up for, you know, Nancy Pelosi's husband. This isn't a bipartisan cry for help against magnets that are making death threats. You know, we could call her and say, hey, we get them all the time too. She could give two shits to know that we get. Every time we're on Fox News, we get all these same death threats. She could. She couldn't care less. But I think it's important, important for those of us on the left to keep an eye on what she's saying. And I just want to say it pisses me off personally that she's out right now outflanking all the Democrats like she's view on cnn. She's everywhere all the time. And I just. I just get so fucking mad because I know what an opportunist she is. I know that she's colluding with Steve Bannon. They're going to figure out because I think this is something we all need to talk about. We need to watch. When the Trump thing ends, either by, either by biology, he dies or term limits. Okay.

F (13:39)

Or impeached or incarceration, which is my fantasy.

C (13:45)

Okay. I think there's going to be a, a MAGA civil war that is going to be like right now the Democratic base versus the establishment is kind of going through a civil war. War seems too strong of a term. But we're going through a metamorphosis. I think there's going to be a full blown MAGA civil war and it's going to be the following parties. You're going to have the Marjorie Taylor Greene's of the world versus the oligarchs because they positioned JD Vance in that position to be the heir apparent so that they could have their CEO because none of those dipshits are electable. They're all freaks. They're all crackheads. You know, we've seen the videos of all of them. And so it's going to be like the JD Vance's versus versus the Marjorie Taylor greens. Marjorie Taylor Greene hangs out with that Steve Bannon all the time. And he's a nut, total nut. But he's a pretty good political strategist. And he's all about populism, economic populism. Marjorie's all about economic populism. And she's starting to use this lower the temperature. She's starting to brand Trump. And I just think it's going to be something that we just really have to keep an eye on. But I'm telling you guys, she's going to be running for president. I think Tucker Carlson may run. We all know Ted Cruz is running. Little Smokey, the failed drag queen, is going to run unless he relaunches his drag career. But anyway, there's another person that shows just a tinge of courage. So we have Marjorie Taylor Greene showing courage and then Rand Paul comes out and he shows some courage from time to time. Rarely listen, have moments of clarity. And I just want to point this out because if there were to be any sort of massive stop to what he's doing foreign policy wise with Venezuela, with the murder for sport boat strikes in the Caribbean and the capitulation to Russia, it's going to have to be Republicans that stop him. So that's why I want to play this clip and get your take pumps. Play the clip.

E (15:46)

No senator that you have concerns About President Trump going to war in Venezuela or at the very least mounting some sort of an invasion. Do you think that that is in the cards? You know, I'm kind of old fashioned. I kind of like to obey this thing called the Constitution. The Constitution says that war only occurs when it's declared by Congress. President doesn't have the power to take the country to war. Now, if he does, he wouldn't be the first, first president to disobey the Constitution. But I think we should obey the Constitution because I think it makes war less likely. This would be a war of choice. It would be an offensive war, albeit a war to get rid of people we most, most of us find distasteful. But it would be unconstitutional for the president to do this alone. So if he thinks he wants war with Venezuela, he should come and ask for permission from Congress. The way it was intended, perhaps.

F (16:37)

Here's my thing, here's my thing with all that.

F (16:42)

We all find Maga distasteful. I don't want them dead. You know, they're saying, by his logic, well, we find him distasteful. They said there were drug boats. I hear that all the time on Fox News. Well, you know, these were drug dealers. How do you know? How do you know? Nobody did the legwork, which is just how Trump rolls. He just throws up at the wall and then he asks questions later. And we are, it is going to acquire courage from Republicans. And Rand Paul, remember, he had some clarity around the Easter Egg Roll then Trump didn't invite him to the Easter Egg Roll, remember? And he got his feelings hurt and then Trump invited him and then he.

C (17:19)

Shut the fuck up.

F (17:20)

So I understand that Rand Paul, and he knows the deal. He knows Pete Hexeth is indiscriminately murdering people without any kind of due process. He knows Trump is doing up things. But when push, push comes to shove, I do not believe that Rand Paul is, has the stones to stand in the breach, just like I don't think Mitch McConnell does, because Mitch McConnell is older than dirt. I mean, he is literally one foot in the grave and he won't come out against this. We know Lady G is not going to come out against it. I mean, she can come out against Russia with Ukrainian children and how they're kidnapped. When it comes to stopping Trump from capitulating and from helping Ukraine, he's out to lunch. So my.

F (18:06)

My faith in these leaders. I agree with you. It has to be from Republicans. I, I mean, if Rand Paul's the best, we've got he caved over the Easter egg roll.

C (18:16)

We got trouble. Yeah, no, I mean, look, they're not going to stop him. The Republicans are not going to stop him. I just in these episodes like to point out that he does not have the absolute support that he thinks. And as I agree with every single point you made about Rand Paul, especially the point about.

C (18:39)

Him saying these are bad people, like, normally I'd want to kill him, but we have this, you know, this obnoxious obstacle called the Constitution. I do think him being on Fox News and saying those things to the people that are totally the most uninformed people on the planet, which are FOX News viewers, and that that's a study. They, they've studied this. And that a fact.

C (19:03)

Reminding them of these things is going to be important as we start heading into the real headwinds of this, which I think we're going to start from January until next November of 2026. We are going to have massive, massive headwinds. And as that Time magazine article reported, that it's a rapid authoritarian shift. And so perhaps I'm reaching here, but I'm hopeful. I don't think anybody's going to do anything, but I am hopeful that at some point some of these people realize how dangerous this stuff is. And I think the Democrats, if they have on these Republicans talking behind his back, then you get in front of camera and, and loose lip it immediately. All right. This is all very uplifting and depressing all at the same time. All right. We'll be back later with more Sam.