O Say Can You UFC

Summary

Lovett or Leave It: “O Say Can You UFC”

Podcast: Lovett or Leave It (Crooked Media)
Date: August 16, 2025
Host: Jon Lovett
Guests: Mayor Karen Bass, Ron Funches, Tom Papa
Location: Dynasty Typewriter, LA (live show)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Lovett or Leave It is a sharp, comedic, and biting look at the latest in political news and culture, with a heavy focus on the spectacle of American politics under Trump’s second administration. It’s a live show in Los Angeles featuring Mayor Karen Bass and comedians Ron Funches and Tom Papa. From the Trump-Paramount-UFC-White House circus to LA’s response to federal ICE raids, homelessness, and the state of the film industry, Lovett and guests deliver a mix of trenchant political critique and absurdist humor.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Political Stunts and the UFC-White House Fiasco

• Paramount’s $7.7B UFC streaming deal and plans to broadcast a UFC fight live from the White House on July 4th (America’s 250th).
  • Lovett describes it as “the perfect embodiment of the two great engines of Trump’s life, corruption and stunts.” (02:40)
  • Satirical Trump and Lee Eisenberg impressions run with the idea, mocking the event as a distraction and symbol of Trump’s media manipulation.
• Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in DC and threats to do the same in blue cities.
  • Lovett: “It’s a stunt to deploy the national guard and 700 marines to Los Angeles in response to a few protests that the LAPD made clear it could handle on its own…” (10:50)
• Real-world consequences of “governing by stunt,” including ICE raids and damage to trust in institutions.

Notable Quote:
“Stunts are exciting. Stunts get attention... Stunts change the subject. But the subject doesn't disappear.” — Jon Lovett (13:33)

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2. The State of Los Angeles: Mayor Karen Bass Interview (17:11–36:15)

a. Federal ICE Raids and Legal Showdowns

• Bass calls ICE raids and Border Patrol stunts “bullshit” and recounts ICE’s provocation at a press conference on redistricting at LA’s Japanese American Museum (17:36–18:27)
• Describes a Penske truck ICE raid at a Home Depot, agents in masks “bundling out” to chase people—filmed and seemingly in “open violation” of a court order. (19:09–19:32)
• Discusses legal status: LA has an upheld restraining order on such targeting, but the administration continues raids to “give a big FU to Los Angeles.” (19:49)
• Legal recourse pending: Supreme Court appeal, potential for a trial to make restraining order permanent (21:28).

Notable Quote:

• “It was basically to give a big fu to Los Angeles to say that we don't care what the courts say.” — Karen Bass (19:49)

b. Limits of Local Power & Democratic Crisis

• Lovett asks about LAPD’s role in protecting Angelenos from federal agents breaking the law. Bass stresses: “...our democracy right now is being challenged, because we've never been in a situation where... an administration... is not abiding by the rule of law.” (22:33)
• Bass: LA can keep ICE out of city/school buildings without warrants but not open parks. (23:30)
• LA’s crime stats improvement vs Trump’s “war zone” rhetoric: city homicide rate at 60-year low despite official claims and “terror” from raids. (25:39, 25:56)

Memorable Exchange:

• Lovett: “So, as I said, Stephen Miller says the crime stats in big blue cities are fake. … Where are you hiding the bodies?”
  • Bass: “If you find them, let me know.” (25:39–25:56)

c. Homelessness & Housing

• Street homelessness has declined for two years; challenge is lack in interim/permanent housing and insufficient funding. (26:41–27:50)
• The “mansion tax” and unintended consequences—revenue cliffs, impact on multi-family housing development, complications for fire survivors. (28:24–29:22)
• Cumbersome governance: ballot initiatives, overlapping city/county roles; Bass calls LA’s democracy “messy.” (30:39–31:07)
• Lovett floats (joking) secession of LA from LA county; Bass notes serious intergovernmental collaboration is vital. (31:26–32:35)

d. Film Industry & Bureaucracy

• Bass: Film tax credit expansion is good; LA is hiring a new “point person” to help productions navigate red tape. 11 TV shows have come back to LA recently. (33:21–34:17)

e. Unusual but real mayoral problems

• Lovett rants about illegal window tinting on LA roads. Bass shares the public safety concern but is wary of adding enforcement burdens. (34:25–35:48)
• Complaints about Waymo (self-driving cars) presence in parts of LA (35:44–36:09)

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3. News It or Lose It!: Panel Games and News Quiz (40:05–62:45)

Panel: Jon Lovett, Ron Funches, Tom Papa, Lee Eisenberg

Sample Segment Timestamps & Highlights:

• 41:17 – Inside jokes about Ivanka Trump’s supposed jiu-jitsu skills; Ron Funches, a jiu-jitsu practitioner, rates her (AI-generated?) moves.
• 43:11 – News story about a man throwing a Subway sandwich at a CBP officer in DC: “Attacking with a sandwich is always funny.” (Lee Eisenberg)
• 45:03+ – Prolonged riff on Los Angeles driving habits, window tinting, and the lack of traffic enforcement.
• 47:13+ – Tom Papa on Trump-fueled urban “hellscape” rhetoric: “It is complete, utter optical bullshit.” (48:46)
• 49:59 – Stephen Miller’s condiment of choice? Mayonnaise.
• 52:07+ – Bread banter: differences between real bread and processed bread, the food pyramid, and artisanal baking.
• 54:15 – Controversial plans to re-erect Confederate statue of Albert Pike in DC; collective agreement this is “stupid.”
• 54:48 – Ron Funches talks about being on The Traitors TV show: “I didn’t enjoy it at all. I got to be in way too much contact with Michael Rappaport.” (54:59)
• 56:28 – Quiz on Trump’s Kennedy Center honorees; Lovett confirms Trump genuinely loves “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.”
• 58:40 – Jellyfish—yes, jellyfish—shutting down a French nuclear plant.

Humorous Banter:
The segment is interspersed with playful ribbing, improv, and quick pivots from politics to the absurd (e.g., bread ingredients, bagel flavors, or complaining about McDonald’s menu logic).

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4. Rant Wheel (65:41–75:00)

a. Tom Papa: Flying with a Rabbit

• Papa vents about airlines only allowing rabbits on Spirit Airlines—"Spirit is basically whenever Indiana Jones wakes up on a plane, it's chickens." (67:24)

b. Ron Funches: Stop Being Surprised

• Funches draws a parallel between his own divorce and America’s stunned response to “unprecedented” Trump actions—at some point, you have to stop being surprised and start taking the threat seriously:

  “You’re gonna have to stop being blindsided by every single thing... We need to start acting accordingly and start protecting each other and stop acting like this is normal.” (69:30–70:45)

• Lovett and Funches agree: individual and community action is crucial because responses always feel "too early or too late." (71:00)

c. Jon Lovett: The Confusing McDonald’s Menu

• Lovett, in classic style, rants about the new, nonsensical McDonald's combo pricing logic:
  “It used to be you get two things for $3.50… Now you can buy one at full price and the second one is only a dollar. But every item on that list is not the same price!” (72:47+)

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Notable Quotes (by Timestamps)

• On Trump’s governing style:
  “Stunts are exciting. Stunts get attention. ...But the subject doesn't disappear.” — Jon Lovett (13:33)

• On ICE raids:
  “It was basically to give a big fu to Los Angeles to say that we don't care what the courts say.” — Mayor Karen Bass (19:49)

• On breaking rules:
  “We used to have a society, there’s no rules here.” — Jon Lovett (45:33)

• On media “hellscape” narratives:
  “It is complete, utter optical bullshit.” — Tom Papa (48:46)

• On coping with abnormal times:
  “You're gonna have to stop being blindsided by every single thing.” — Ron Funches (69:30)

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Memorable Moments

• Lovett gets smashed with a (breakaway) bottle by Ron Funches on stage “to demonstrate the power of stunts.”
• Judges and audience jeer John Lovett for admitting to being pulled over for texting while driving. (46:22)
• Extended, philosophical-absurdist bread discussion with Tom Papa.
• Lovett and Bass roast “tinted Teslas” as a new street menace.
• Papa laments flying Spirit Airlines for his daughter’s rabbit, comparing the airline to an Indiana Jones cargo hold. (67:24)
• Funches’s impassioned plea: “No one redecorates a place they don’t plan to stay in.” (implying Trump intends to never leave the White House again) (69:30)
• The panel’s gleeful confusion and catharsis over the “Rant Wheel”—and over McDonald’s math. (72:47–74:30)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – Lovett’s monologue & Trump/Paramount/UFC satire
• 13:33 – Lovett on “stunts” and their impact
• 17:11 – Interview: Mayor Karen Bass (ICE raids, legal battles, housing)
• 40:05 – News It or Lose It (panel quiz and discussion)
• 65:41 – Rant wheel: Tom Papa & Spirit Airlines/rabbit
• 69:30 – Ron Funches: Stop being surprised, call to action
• 72:47 – Lovett’s McDonald’s menu rant

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Tone and Style

Lovett or Leave It continues to balance pointed political critique with irreverent, improvisational humor and a sense of communal catharsis. The panel format and live crowd foster a sense of unpredictability—combining genuine outrage (over legal abuses, ICE raids, etc.) with comic relief (absurd news, food and bread tangents, and group rants).

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Summary for the Uninitiated

This episode is both a crash course in the spectacle and consequence of “government by stunt” under Trump and a snapshot of Angelenos’ civic resistance. It’s a blend of high-level critique, personal and local stories (especially around LA’s struggles with homelessness and ICE), and comedic relief—from a bottle smash to a failed attempt to understand McDonald’s pricing. If you want to see how politics, culture, and civic life collide (and laugh about the absurdity along the way), this episode is an excellent entry point.

Transcript

[John Lovett]

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[Lee Eisenberg]

It is definitely going to happen.

[John Lovett]

I talked to him last night, him being the President. July 4th, 250th birthday of the United States of America. Live on CBS from the White House, straight from the Gazprom T Mobile ballroomarena. Dana, it's President Trump. I'm so excited for this UFC fight. It's gonna be amazing when I release the lions. The ratings are gonna be huge. It all fits. A UFC fight on the White House lawn on America's 250th birthday. It's the perfect embodiment of the two great engines of Trump' life, corruption and stunts. That and the fact that we replace newspapers with nothing in the stunt department. Trump announced after an attempted carjacking against the former Doge staffer known as Big Balls that he would deploy the national guard to Washington D.C. and put Attorney General Pam Bondi in charge of DC's police department.

[Donald Trump]

Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals. Roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people.

[John Lovett]

Look, I hear you on the roving mobs of wild youth, but there are always gonna be 8th grade field trips in DC. That's just part of it. Trump. The same Trump who pardoned January 6th rioters convicting of assaulting police officers and whose senior advisor at the Justice Department shouted to kill cops at the insurrection. Had this threat for anyone who disrespects the police.

[Donald Trump]

They love to spit in the face of the police. As the police are standing up there in uniform, they're standing and they're screaming at them an inch away from their face. And then they start spitting in their face. And I said, you tell them you.

[John Lovett]

Spit and we hit and then what? What happens next after we spit? They hit face to face. What happens next when it gets rough? Trump also demanded that homeless people leave the city or face fines and jail time. The jig is up, boys, said DC's Homeless finally returning to their homes. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump's deployment of the National Guard unsettling and unprecedented, though without statehood, there wasn't much DC could do to stop it. Meanwhile, the city's violent crime rates hit a 30 year low last year. And D.C. doesn't even crack the top 30 cities when it comes to having the highest crime, a list that obviously includes many cities in red states. Red states have plenty of violent crime. It's not called no country for Woke men. Nevertheless, Trump and his allies are eager to take this show on the road. Here's House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer. We're going to support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington, D.C. and again, it's unfortunate, but we spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades, walking the streets, trying to reduce crime in other countries. We need to focus on the big cities in America now, and that's what the president's doing. Yeah. Why does Kandahar get to have all the fun? I believe it was RuPaul who said, if you can't deploy the military to occupy yourself, how in the hell are you going to occupy somebody else? As Trump threatened to deploy the military to other cities in blue states, including Los Angeles, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has plans for a National Guard reaction force, which would dispatch hundreds of troops into cities to respond to protests and civil unrest. The troops are already training for their special assignment, practicing such maneuvers as extinguishing Waymo fires and Waymo CPR and breaking the bad news to a Waymo's wife. According to Axios, the whole DC Plan came together hastily after Trump, quote, saw a report on Fox about how bad it was in D.C. but Fox was ramping up crime coverage to respond to Trump disliking all the Epstein coverage. So Trump ordered a distraction and then was himself deeply distracted by it, like a dad playing peekaboo with a toddler covering his eyes, and then in a panic, calling 911 to report a missing child. What it means is this was all done for the cameras without much of a plan at all. Pam Bondi, nominally running the Metropolitan Police and coordinating with the Secret Service and multiple federal departments, has never run a police department before. How hard could it be, she wondered, accidentally poking herself with the pin on her new badge. And just when she's got it all figured out, in comes Detective Brett Savage, the tie undone, looking hungover. And yeah, he nabbed the crew that did the Mount Vernon job. But now she's got the Buildings Department up her ass because Savage took out the power to three city blocks to do it. But it's hard to get too mad at him because his methods may be unconventional, but Savage bleeds for this city. And he hasn't been the same since his wife disappeared. On Tuesday, National Guard troops were deployed to high crime areas like the Washington Monument, and federal agents were patrolling the mean streets of Georgetown. For our Los Angeles audience, Georgetown is like the Grove, but for uggos. Deal with it. On Wednesday night, about 100 protesters gathered around a checkpoint at 14th street, run by local police and federal officials from Homeland Security and ice. In fairness, that checkpoint did prevent a crime wave from breaking out on that block between the bakery and the sweetgreen. And on Thursday, Trump claimed that the mayor had faked D.C. s low crime numbers.

[Donald Trump]

Sadly.

[John Lovett]

What?

[Donald Trump]

I guess the mayor did. But whoever it was, they asked the numbers to be fudged so that it would show less crime than the fact. The fact is, it's worse than it's ever been.

[John Lovett]

Trump simply put himself in the vulnerable headspace of a leader who receives a set of numbers that that he or she doesn't like, and naturally imagined one might do something drastic and wrong to change the public perception of those numbers. A textbook empath. When Pam Bondi spoke at the press conference on Monday, she said this.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Let me be crystal clear. Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today.

[John Lovett]

And if it doesn't end today, she's gonna ask to speak to crime's manager. Bondi gives away the game here. None of this is actually making sense as a plan to reduce crime. But it does make sense if you're doing a stunt with two goals. One, to claim you solved a problem, and two, to exert dominance and control. Because if those are the goals, the images alone are a success. Videos of checkpoints and angry locals and uniformed service members on the streets of an American city are proof enough. And all Trump has to do when the consequences of government by stunt become clear is move on to the next one. And it's not just military parades and Teslas on the White House lawn, which we loved. Doge was a stunt. Elon Musk set a goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending, then humbly set expectations at 1 trillion. He and Big Balls rampaged through the government, destroying USAID, gutting scientific research, firing thousands. And sure, some of those federal workers reheated fish in the office microwave or sent nuclear level cunty emails while signing off with cheers, but many were good people. We also don't know how many people died because of the abrupt end to food and vaccine programs. But some estimates put the figure in the hundreds of thousands, and Doge didn't save any money. It will likely end up costing the government hundreds of billions of dollars, in part because cutting a quarter of the workforce of the IRS means a lot more people cheat on their taxes. But no one here. It's also a stunt to announce tariffs on the whole world, including uninhabited islands, all on the same day. It's a stunt to deploy the national guard and and 700 marines to Los Angeles in response to a few protests that the LAPD made clear it could handle on its own while painting a picture of our city that is unrecognizable to the people who actually live here, much like La La Land or Vanderpump Rules. In the end, the Marines had nothing to do. And LA doesn't need any more hot guys pretending to be busy in the middle of the day. They're called actors, and we have enough of them. It was a stunt when Trump fired the Labor Department's statistics chief because he didn't like the job numbers. His new nominee, by the way, his name is E.J. antony, a heritage foundation economist who was in the mob outside the Capitol on January 6th as a bystander, according to the White House. Can't believe Trump would appoint someone who was part of something so embarrassing. The group of pussies who were too afraid to enter the Capitol. And it's a stunt for the administration to lobby on social media for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And sure, canceling vaccine research, shutting down food aids, throwing people off of their health care, providing military support for Netanyahu's campaign of ethnic cleansing. All of this is deadly. But isn't death just eternal peace? Some might say he's brought the most peace. If we keep letting him run things, he might bring peace to us all. Wow. A lot to think about. And here's the thing. Stunts are exciting. Stunts get attention. Ron Funches, everybody. For those at home, Ron Funches just smashed a glass bottle over my head. Now, what was I talking about before that happened? Oh, I remember. Stunts changed the subject. But the subject doesn't disappear. On Thursday, we learned that producer and manufacturing prices are rising in the wake of Trump's tariffs. Inflation that will ultimately hit consumers. And that's us. 53% of Americans say the cost of groceries is a major source of stress in their lives. More than 60% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation. And fully half of the country now believes Trump's economic policies have made them worse off. Here in Los Angeles, that's more than double the number of people who blame Mercury for being in retrograde. When Trump dispatched those Marines to la, it was a response to protests against ICE raids in our city. In the months since, as raids have continued, the country has turned against Trump's crackdown. His approval on immigration, once his strongest issue, has dropped to 35%. That's lower than the rating of the time traveler's wife on Rotten Tomatoes. He has a genetic disorder that causes him to travel through time. And where does he go to meet his wife when she's a little girl? 38%. And more remarkably, according to Gallup, 8 in 10Americans are now pro immigration. That's the highest that number has been in decades. The number of Americans who believe immigration should be decreased has already also fallen from more than half to just 30%. Now, why, when there was so much propaganda on the right vilifying immigrants, when Trump is on TV day after day declaring our country overrun, why all of a sudden have Americans suddenly decided that they want to embrace immigration? One reason is because of all the stories that we're seeing day after day of what actually happens when the stunt is put into effect. On Monday here in Los Angeles, a 15 year old boy was with special needs was waiting in his car outside of Arletta High School with his grandmother. Federal agents surrounded the car and handcuffed the terrified kid at gunpoint before letting him go in what they later called a case of mistaken identity. The boy wasn't, it turns out, an adult MS.13 gang member. There have been so many stories like this, of innocent people swept up in this madness. And those stories matter because they help make what is real feel true for people, and what is true feel real. And while stunts are loud in between, what is real and true can still carry the day. And so when Pam Bondi says, this.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Crime in DC is ending and ending.

[John Lovett]

Today, we have to make Pam Bondi pay for this promise. We have to do everything in our power to make sure Washington, D.C. has more crime than any city in history. Wait, that's not right. That's not right. Okay, how about this? Bernie Sanders has to learn to ride two horses at once. No bad ideas in a brainstorm, all right? Okay. Coming up next, it's obviously Mayor Karen Bass.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love it or Leave it coming up.

[John Lovett]

This is an ad by BetterHelp. There's a lot of information online about what you need to do for your mental health. You know what I tried the other day, John?

[Lee Eisenberg]

What?

[John Lovett]

I put my face in ice water.

[Lee Eisenberg]

How did that work out?

[John Lovett]

It's nice. Okay. It's nice. I didn't solve my problems, though, and created a new problem.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Cold face.

[John Lovett]

Cold face. These days you can feel like there's advice for everything. Cold plunges, gratitude journals, screen detoxes. But how do you know what actually works for you? With the Internet and information overload about mental health and wellness, it can be a struggle to know what's true and what actions to take these days. Using trusted resources and talking to live therapists can get you personalized recommendations and help you break through the noise. We're therapy boys.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Sure are.

[John Lovett]

Although I've been doing cold plunges instead of therapy lately. Yeah, well, seems like I gotta get back in.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It seems like. BetterHelp is for you.

[John Lovett]

With over 30, 000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews is convenient. You can join a session with a therapist at the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life, plus switch therapist at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expert out. With better help, our listeners get 10% off their first [e-mail] Love it. That's BetterH lp.com Loveit. Are you ready to get spicy? These Doritos Golden Sriracha aren't that spicy. Maybe it's time to turn up the heat or turn it down. It's time for something that's not too spicy. Try Doritos Golden Sriracha. Spicy but not too spicy. And we're back. Please welcome to the stage, she's the mayor of Los Angeles. It's mayor Karen Bass. Hi. How you doing? Thanks for being here.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Thank you for having me.

[John Lovett]

All right. Has a lot to cover, so I want to start with what's obviously been happening in Los Angeles. So Border patrol chief Greg Bevino said in response to your comments describing certain ICE raids as kidnappings. What he said was, we're going to go even harder here in Los Angeles. If she wants to continue that rhetoric, it makes me want to go harder. What is your response to that?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, aside from the fact that that's bullshit, but that just verifies the stunts. Do you know what he did Today.

[John Lovett]

What'd he do today?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

So today the governor was having a press conference around redistricting, Right. Because we want to make sure that we can stop the administration in the midterms, and so we have to win the House. So while he's having a press conference at the Japanese American Museum, where the main exhibit in there is about the internment of the Japanese, Greg Bovino and a ton of agents from the Border Patrol surround the Japanese American Museum. Talk about a stunt. So they essentially do an ICE raid in front of the governor's press conference at the Japanese American Museum.

[John Lovett]

So that's obviously to get headlines and to stoke some controversy and to get responses. Right. How could you do that? How could you do that? But their point, right, is to exert control and to say they can go anywhere, do anything to that point. The city won a restraining order against the Trump administration's raids that were kind of targeting people based on where they were working, based on the fact that they were Hispanic. And the restraining order seems to have had an impact. The number of arrests went down. The restraining order was upheld about two weeks ago.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

That's right.

[John Lovett]

By an appeals court. And then a few days after that, a Penske truck rolls up to the Home Depot in Westlake.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Exactly.

[John Lovett]

The driver, apparently, according to reports, said, does anybody here need work? A bunch of people gather around the truck. The back rolls open. ICE agents and masks come bundling out of the thing, chasing people around the parking lot. That seems to be a violation of the order. You agree it's a violation of that order.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Exactly. And they even filmed themselves jumping out of the truck.

[John Lovett]

So now, to your mind, was it in response to the fact that the order was upheld? Was the order holding till then? Was this only the most brazen violation? Like what. What was the status of the order until that raid? And what. What did you take that raid to signify?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, first of all, it was an open violation of the order, as you said. It was upheld twice in two different courts, but it was basically to give a big fu to Los Angeles to say that we don't care what the courts say. And if you think about it, just right by here in MacArthur park, remember, Bovino also rolled out the troops. We had Marines there. We had National Guard, and they marched through the park, and they marched through the side of the park where the summer camp was. So the children had to be taken away. So they didn't see that. So it's about exerting power and saying it doesn't matter what the law says. And the court Says we're going to take over Los Angeles whenever and wherever we choose to.

[John Lovett]

But so I hear that. I'm just genuinely trying to understand what the status is like, to your mind, was the order holding? Were there lesser violations, and this is a brazen escalation or what?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

No. I mean, again, the order has held, and there has definitely been a decline. So they're not doing what we had seen before, which is going down the street and snatching people off the street and literally kidnapping them. They haven't been doing that, but they have continued to do the Home Depots. They've had continued to do raids on specific locations. But the one today, the gentleman that was detained was right outside of the museum. He was actually driving a truck.

[John Lovett]

So what are the tools that you have that the police have, that the city has, that the county has to combat the Trump administration? If it isn't going to follow the orders, what happens next?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

So what happens next is that the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court. So we'll see what the Supreme Court says. Now, we don't expect the Supreme Court to really do what they are supposed to do, but it still could be a judgment that could keep the temporary restraining order in place. Then there is also a trial at the end of September to decide whether or not the temporary restraining order is made permanent or whether it's lifted. So what could happen is the Supreme Court judgment could come down before the end of September or maybe not. We would wait and see.

[John Lovett]

So, you know, a lot of the ways law enforcement at various levels works with each other is predicated on the fact that they're all following the law.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Exactly.

[John Lovett]

If there is a temporary restraining order in place and they are violating it, what does that do in terms of the LAPD's obligations to the citizens of Los Angeles? If there are federal agents breaking the law here, at what point do you, as the mayor, have an obligation to deploy the LAPD in ways that protects people if there are people breaking the law, whether they're federal agents or not?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, but see, this is why our democracy right now is being challenged, because we've never been in a situation where we had an administration that essentially is not abiding by the rule of law. So in theory, you could say, well, why can't the LAPD go out and arrest the Border Patrol? That's just not going to happen where you're going to have two different branches of law enforcement. Just imagine that, both armed, going at each other in the middle so that the federal government still supersedes the local government.

[John Lovett]

If the Border Patrol continues to break these restraining orders, what do you hope to do? Obviously, you don't want. I'm not talking about an OK Corral style shootout between agents on the streets of Los Angeles. But you have, you have the school police that have obligations to protect the school once people are on the grounds. You have. The federal government has the ability to protect its buildings. And around those buildings, which they'll be able to do. Like, what are the steps to kind of try to block them or stop them? Short of that.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

So, for example, if they wanted to come into a city building, we can prevent that unless they come into. And by the way, this is the same thing with the school district as well. If they come in with a bona fide warrant, then that just is above any level of law enforcement that would be on a local level. But they can't randomly come into city buildings. Where we get into trouble in Los Angeles is, for example, our parks that are not gated, they're open. And so you can't really stop them. There's nothing there to stop them. There's no physical barrier.

[John Lovett]

So as part of this, you have Trump and his allies and people in the administration describing Los Angeles as basically a war zone, that crime statistics are fake. Trump today had this to say in the Oval about why he had sent the Guard.

[Donald Trump]

If we didn't go to Los Angeles to help this incompetent governor and a mayor that doesn't know what the hell she's doing. If we didn't go to Los Angeles, you wouldn't have a big part of it burned down. The other part of it would have burned down, too. You would have not had. I don't think you would have been able to have the Olympics. We have the Olympics. I have a lot at stake with that.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

He Free associates.

[John Lovett]

Right? Right. So it's very strange being in Los Angeles and having it described in a way that isn't true. There were pockets of violence, property damage, unrest that the LAPD could contain. Later in this press conference, Trump says that at first, the sheriff or police commissioner welcomed the federal support, and then later, after it was resolved, said he didn't need it because somebody got to him. Do you put the screws on the lapd?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

That just never happened. Just like nothing else that he said actually happened. If you remember, he. He deployed the National Guard on a Saturday night after the first raid. Okay. They didn't actually arrive here until Sunday. So what he was saying, the Guard hadn't even arrived. He was taking credit for Essentially dealing with the vandalism that happened. And by the way, we all know that Los Angeles is 500 square miles. And the protests took place in about 2 square miles of our city.

[John Lovett]

So, as I said, Stephen Miller says the crime stats in big blue cities are fake. We have reports now that the homicide rate in Los Angeles has hit a 60 year low. That's not to say there aren't problems, there aren't issues, but it's a 60 year low. Where are you hiding the bodies?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

If you find them, let me know. I mean, you know, you're absolutely right. Crime is down, violence is down. Our city was not having any problems at all on June 5. Everything started on June 6 at the first raid. And they have continued. They have created a sense of terror and fear around our city. You know, I started off my morning this morning on the west side. We had a press conference. Predominantly Jewish men and women in solidarity. The one thing that has happened is, is that our city has stood together. There have been no division here. Every community has stood in solidarity because we understand how egregious this is.

[John Lovett]

So you ran on addressing homelessness, and for the first time in decades, street homelessness is down for two years. That's an achievement. At the same time, it's still a big problem in Los Angeles.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Absolutely.

[John Lovett]

What are the obstacles right now? Like specific obstacles right now to achieving what you had pledged, which is to end street homelessness in the city. Like, what are the things that are standing in the way of getting that done more quickly?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Sure. Well, first of all, I think one of the most important things we did accomplish was dispelling the myth that people who are living on the street don't want to leave. They absolutely do. And if you offer people housing, they will leave. So as far as I'm concerned, there's only two things that stand in our way. One, of course, is money paying for the rooms for people to go. What we're doing, our current strategy is to place people in motel rooms. We don't have enough of them. We don't have enough housing where people could stay in while they're waiting for permanent housing. So interim housing, where someone could stay and receive services for about a year because it takes a while to build in the city.

[John Lovett]

And then now one other issue here is just building more housing, as you said, affordable and just market rate housing. All kinds, all kinds of housing. More than 70%, roughly of the city still zoned for single family. Do you see that as being a big part of the problem?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, I think it can be. But even in the areas where people don't want to have their single family home blocks disturbed, in a lot of those neighborhoods, people are willing and supportive of housing that are built in the commercial corridors. So to me the best way to get it done is to have it done in collaboration with the neighborhoods.

[John Lovett]

So one thing that LA did to try to address homelessness and to build more housing was this mansion tax, which I thought was a great idea. I have a problem with it as a math person, and the problem with it I have as a math person is it isn't graduated. And so there are these cliffs in it, right? It clicks in at 5% and 10 and at 5 million and 10 million, which means rich people game the system. They do a bunch of maneuvering to get all the houses to be 4.999, which means it doesn't raise as much money. Then in another way, the tax doesn't just apply to mansions, which is great, it applies to the building of multi family housing. Is there any hope of changing that? What is the process? Because that seems stupid to me because you have this tax, it's getting a bunch of money in, which is great, less than they thought because somebody was not good at math, who wrote it. But also it's causing a decline in revenue that's coming in for things like schools and other things. And it may be making the problem in the long term worse by restricting the number of multi family buildings. So what do we do?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

So let me just tell you that there are groups that are working on that right now to see if it can be adjusted, changed in some kind of way. We want to make sure we keep the resources for housing. But is there a way to address some of the unintended consequences? Let me tell you another unintended consequence. The people who survived the Palisades fire. If you survived the fire, your house was burned down and you for whatever reason have to sell your lot, you shouldn't have to pay a tax on that. And so we're looking at that as well. Carving out an exception for survivors of Palisades. It doesn't apply to Altadena, it doesn't apply to Malibu, because they're not in the city of Los Angeles.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, look, it's interesting though because some of these things seem to be like ad hoc ways of addressing what are problems for everybody, like permitting issues and then moving to get the permitting done much faster. But LA has a permitting problem, right? These, these tax issues create problems, so you try to solve them here, but seem to represent A problem more broadly, it seems like we have a problem of these interwoven different levels of government. We have the county government, we have the city government, we have these ballot initiatives. Like right now there are these potentially dueling ballot initiatives. You have the Unite here service workers battling the industry groups over the Olympic wage and the potential repeal of attacks that fund whole parts of the city. This doesn't seem like any way to run a railroad.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, let me just tell you, our democracy is messy. Everything that you described is the case. I can add on to it too, and say that a lot of times, whether you're talking to the ballot or initiatives that are done legislatively, people will pass laws, but they don't always take into consideration unintended consequences. A lot of times policies are passed very quickly with nothing in the policy to say, hey, let's check it out in five years and see if it's working, or maybe we need to make some adjustments.

[John Lovett]

Are there any bigger reforms that you would like to see now that you've been mayor for a couple years, that you've seen the city government so closely from the inside about what explains some of the challenges LA has, whether it's the relationship between the city and the county, the public ballot initiatives at the local and state level. Like what?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

How long are you gonna have me on?

[John Lovett]

I have a crazy pitch at the end of this, so you. Okay, I got two. I have a crazy pitch, cuz what if LA county and LA City parted as friends?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Yeah, well, there is actually, you know, that's not that crazy.

[John Lovett]

Hey, we'll still be friends. We'll exchange things like garbage, you know, we'll exchange garbage.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Well, you know, one of the divisions is the county provides social services. The city does not. Considering how big LA is. What if LA was its own county and city?

[John Lovett]

That seems like a really good idea to me. Let's do that.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

You gonna do that ballot initiative?

[John Lovett]

Well, we gotta do a lot. It's a lot of messy. It's messy. That's messy because we gotta go to the state too, don't.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

It is, yes. But let me just tell you though, all seriousness aside, one of the things that I think is really important is that you gotta fight for collaboration on all levels of the government. And it's fortunate for me, I have served on other levels of government and so relationships, you know, transfer and I think it's very important that we try that, that we do that.

[John Lovett]

So you think it's very important that we try leaving the county? No, I said that we continue collaborating okay, okay.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

And we fight.

[John Lovett]

I hear you. Two more things I wanted to touch on. So it's an emergency in Los Angeles. What's happened to our film industry? Shooting things, making things in Los Angeles. It's heartbreaking because it's what made LA special. It helped make the United States, the city, the state, the country, like a beacon of culture. And we're losing business to Vancouver, we're losing business to Atlanta, we're losing business to Hungary. For some reason, they're expanding the tax rate. There's a lot you can't control, but the tax credit's being expanded. You've done executive orders, you've assembled a council, you've talked about how to make. Cut down some of the bureaucracy. What are the other obstacles to getting more production back in LA right now? And under the previous mayor, there was like a single point person that people could call if there was an issue. Do we need that?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Yes, we do need that. And we actually are in the process of hiring a person to do that as we speak. That would collaborate also with film la. But it's an issue that's been very, very important to me. 13 generations of my family have been involved, either directly or indirectly. But the film tax credit was something I worked on when I was in Sacramento. But when we did it, it was very small. We were just hoping that it would grow over time, but it didn't grow fast enough. So I'm happy what we did or what the legislature did now, but also focusing on what we can do here. So I met with people in the industry to say, why is it hard to film here? It isn't all doom and gloom, though, because we had about 11 TV shows that came back to film in Los Angeles, so I think we might be on our way more to go.

[John Lovett]

And. And what is the hold up to having that. That point person? Because it. The part.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Nothing.

[John Lovett]

Nothing.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

There's no holdup.

[John Lovett]

Okay. So it's going to happen. We're gonna have that person.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Yes, yes, yes.

[John Lovett]

Great. All right, last question. This is just something that's bothering me. You're the mayor.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Oh.

[John Lovett]

Something is happening out there on the streets, which is more and more people are tinting their front windshield and their passenger windows and their driver's windows. Now, the law is you can't tint your windshield and you have to have 70% of lights. Gotta get through the driver side and the passenger side. It's nice. Look, I'd love to be wearing sunglasses as a car during the day, but there's this thing called Night.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Yes.

[John Lovett]

And there are stop signs and you'll be in the. It'll be night. It'll be high noon in Los Angeles. You pull up to a stop sign, you're looking at a Just a pitch black Tesla.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Yes.

[John Lovett]

What are we going to do? We got to stop this. It's really dangerous. I really think this is crazy what's happening.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

I do too.

[John Lovett]

I think it's an unaddressed issue, you know?

[Mayor Karen Bass]

And it would be interesting to look at the data in terms of car crashes and how many of them get in crashes. But what would you like to do? Because we don't also want to put that on the police department. Now they have to go around and stop everybody in a car with tinted windows. Right. We don't.

[John Lovett]

I'm like an ideas person, but I would, I, I'm not.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

As opposed to solutions.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. I, I, no, I am a problem guy. You're supposed to be the solutions person. I'm coming to you with a problem solutions. What are we going to do? Yes. I don't know what you do about all these tinted windows. I think you gotta, you gotta, you gotta send a message. You gotta go after the most tinted ones.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

It would be those Teslas. What are those weird cars? What are the.

[Ron Funches]

Oh my God.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Aren't they awful? They're God awful.

[John Lovett]

Hey, should be legal to just cut off waymos whenever you want. They're not people in there. I don't know how. They're everywhere. I don't see them. I don't see them as funny waymo.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Stories, but I'm not gonna tell now. I'll tell you off the record.

[John Lovett]

Do you feel anger towards them? I feel anger and resentment towards them. I feel mad.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

I just want to see them in some parts of town.

[John Lovett]

Okay. Oh, that's a lot to talk. That's interesting. That's interesting. Mayor Cameron Bass, thank you so much for your time. Really good talking to you.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

Thanks for having me on.

[John Lovett]

So great. Thank you so much. Really good to see you. Mayor Bass, everybody. So appreciate it. Thank you so much.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love it or leave it coming up.

[John Lovett]

Love it or Leave it is brought to you by Haya. Typical. Children's vitamins are basically candy in disguise. Filled with two teaspoons of sugar, unhealthy chemicals, and other gummy additives growing kids should never eat. That's why Haya created a super powered chewable vitamin. Haiya is made with zero sugar and zero gummy additives, yet it tastes great and is Perfect for picky eaters, Haya fills the most common gaps in modern children's diets to provide the full body nourishment our kids need with a yummy taste they love. It's formulated with the help of pediatricians and nutrition experts. Haya is pressed with a blend of 12 organic fruits and veggies and supercharged with 15 essential vitamins and minerals. It's non GML, vegan, dairy free, allergy free, gelatin free and nut free. Haya is designed for kids tune up and send straight to your door so parents have one less thing to worry about. John, you've given Charlie Haya and now look at him dunking.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Superhuman. Yeah, he likes them because they taste good, but I like them because they don't have a lot of sugar in them. And I like them because it's giving him all the nutrients and vitamins he needs that he's not getting from junk food.

[John Lovett]

Are you tired of battling with your kids to eat their greens? Haiya now has Kids Daily greens and Superfood plus chocolate flavored greens powder designed specifically for kids. Packed with 55 plus whole food ingredients to support brain power, development and digestion. Just a scoop. Shake and sip with milk or any non dairy beverage for a delicious nutritional boost your kids will actually enjoy. We've worked out a special deal with Haya for their best selling children's vitamins. Receive 50 off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to hayahealth.com love it. This deal is not available on their regular website. Go to h I-Y-A h e a l t h.com l O-V-E-T t and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV. It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar. Your lucky jersey, your chairs and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space. And when it's go time, your 11.3-inch diagonal touchscreen's got the playbook, the playlist and the tech to stay a step ahead. It's more than an suv. It's your Equinox Chevrolet. Together, let's drive. Please welcome to the stage two people who aren't the mayor. It's Tom Papa and Ron Funches. Come on in, guys.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Hey, everybody.

[John Lovett]

Thanks for being here.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Thanks for having us.

[John Lovett]

Good to see you both.

[Ron Funches]

Sorry I hit you with a bottle.

[John Lovett]

No, it's okay. It was part. It was a bit, you know. Yeah.

[Ron Funches]

No, they made me, and I volunteered gleefully.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. Yeah. You like?

[Ron Funches]

It was.

[John Lovett]

It's. I'm a fun person to hit with a bottle, I think.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

Just temperamentally.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Did it hurt your ear even? You know, it wasn't real, but still, it was ear.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, it was more aimed at. No, he got it. He got me here. It's more than. It's a loud cracking sound, so it's just loud, you know, because it is getting hit with a bottle.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Right.

[John Lovett]

But it was perfect. He executed perfectly. It was an amazing. He did an amazing job.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Great call on the tinted windows, by the way.

[John Lovett]

You agree, right?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Oh, my God.

[John Lovett]

It's crazy what's happening.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah. Yeah. Between the tinted window guys and the Honda Accords going 200 miles an hour, I'm terrified to leave my house.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. So there's a lot of news we talk about, and there's so much that can be hard to cover it all, which is why we have a segment called News it or Lose it.

[Lee Eisenberg]

News it or lose it.

[Ron Funches]

You better lose it before you lose it.

[John Lovett]

That's so good. All right, let's kick it off. First question, Tom.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yes.

[John Lovett]

A White House official told USA Today which members of Trump's inner circle will help Dana White plan the White House UFC event due to their love of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Is it A, Ivanka Trump? B, Jared Kushner, C, Lara Trump?

[Lee Eisenberg]

All of the above.

[John Lovett]

It is Ivanka Trump. We have a clip of Ivanka doing Jiu Jitsu. So long.

[Lee Eisenberg]

So long.

[John Lovett]

First of all, that was. AI. We made that. No, it's real. No, it's real. Or is it? Did he make that?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I don't know.

[John Lovett]

It's real. He said on Monday, I want Ivanka in the middle of this. So Ivanka reached out to me and her, and I started talking about the possibilities. That's what he said about Ivanka. He wants her in the middle of this.

[Lee Eisenberg]

This being the UFC 250th birthday in that big ballroom. You do.

[John Lovett]

You.

[Lee Eisenberg]

You are Jiu Jitsu.

[Ron Funches]

I do Do Jiu Jitsu.

[John Lovett]

Is that good?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Jiu Jitsu.

[Ron Funches]

That wasn't the best Jiu Jitsu, huh? Wasn't the best, but Jiu Jitsu is fun. I was the only thing where I go, oh, okay, that cool. But I don't believe it.

[John Lovett]

It's Jiu Jitsu. It's a lot of that. It's a lot of, like, throwing and moving.

[Ron Funches]

It's a lot of throwing. It's mostly on the ground, though. It's a lot of Grappling. Not too much striking. It's mostly hugging and choking, so. Well, good evening.

[John Lovett]

Ron. You're a WWE fan, right? What's your vibe on the ufc?

[Ron Funches]

I was talking to Tom backstage. I'm not a big UFC guy. I do like Jiu Jitsu. I forgot that they were tied together. And then I had bought stock in the WWE years ago because I'm such a big fan. I was like, it looks like they're going to. And then they did sell. So then when they got this new merger, it helped me make money, so that was a positive. But the whole thing about it happening at the White House just makes it feel like we live in idiocracy, and that's not fun.

[John Lovett]

America's 250 years old.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[Ron Funches]

Yeah. Doesn't look a day over 180.

[John Lovett]

Ron, a man was charged with felony assault of an officer Wednesday after throwing what? Fellow food. At a Customs and Border protection officer in D.C. oh, I don't get multiple choices.

[Ron Funches]

No, I just put the pick between all the foods in history of mankind.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ron Funches]

I'll take chili.

[John Lovett]

Oh, chili. Oh, you had that queued up quick. It was, in fact. Well, here's Janine Pirro to tell us. He took a Subway sandwich about this big and took it and threw it at the officer.

[Mayor Karen Bass]

He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn't think it's funny today because we charged him with a felony.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It was funny.

[John Lovett]

It was funny.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It was definitely funny.

[Ron Funches]

That's probably like $40 worth of sandwich.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah. Attacking with a sandwich is always funny.

[John Lovett]

It felt so impulsive because there's a video of it. And first of all, he just. He throws the sandwich and then he turns around and he runs. And it's not fast. It's not. It's actually like not. No one is moving fast enough in the wake of the sandwich throwing. I don't know if he was drunk. Probably drunk, but he throws the sandwich, he turns and he's. I don't. It looks like a jog. Then appearing to hit the officer in the chest with a foot long Subway sandwich. Not that fast. It's just not bad.

[Ron Funches]

That's a toddler trot.

[John Lovett]

According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the sandwich store worked for the Justice Department and had been fired. Oh, expensive sandwiches, right?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

Tom, your podcast is called Breaking Bread.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yes.

[John Lovett]

You literally bake a loaf of bread and share with your guests.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yes.

[John Lovett]

Why does every Subway restaurant smell the same? That some. That smell. What is that smell? It's not bread.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's not bread.

[John Lovett]

What is It.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I don't know.

[John Lovett]

But you know, that's smell.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I do know that smell.

[John Lovett]

And it's. They claim it's bread.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's not bread. It's not bread. It's probably chemicals and rodent hair. Doesn't smell like the bread in my house. I gave you my bread. I drove it to your house.

[Ron Funches]

Yeah, he brought me bread.

[John Lovett]

What kind of bread?

[Lee Eisenberg]

It smelled good.

[Ron Funches]

It smelled good. It was delicious. It felt like getting a Paul Hollywood handshake. It was. I feel like getting bread from Tom Papa. Is the. The status symbol that you want.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's like the topic.

[John Lovett]

I thought it was a euphemism for a hand job. I thought that's what that was. Yeah, it's like that's your coconut cake from Tom Cruise. What kind of bread was it?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Sourdough.

[John Lovett]

Wow.

[Lee Eisenberg]

A country loaf.

[John Lovett]

A country loaf. Wow. Right here in the city?

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's possible. Right here in the city? Yeah.

[John Lovett]

You can make them here now?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah, I just get in my car, put up the tinted windows and deliver bread.

[John Lovett]

Get up into a stop sign. You get supposed to make a little eyes with people for safety's sake. Especially now when people just. You ever know when you're at a stop sign now? So a car arrives, then you arrive, then a third car arrives here. This car turns left. This person, it's like, I don't care about the rules. This is my opening. They turn right before you can go straight.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah. Because you're blocked by that other guy.

[John Lovett]

We used to have a society, there's no rules here.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I was behind a guy on a Sunday morning, it wasn't that busy, but we got up to the light and he made a left on red. And I was like, well, why am I following the rules?

[John Lovett]

But that's the thing about rules. That's how rules work. I know you see someone break the rules. You're like, no rules anymore. That guy could do it. I can do it. And next thing you know, everybody's storming the fucking gate.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's what's happening. Have you ever seen a cop hold someone over for a traffic violation in any of your drives, ever? Have you ever seen a copy of on the side writing out a ticket?

[John Lovett]

So yes, it keeps happening to me. What? But I got pulled over twice in a two week span for texting while driving.

[Ron Funches]

No.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, yeah. Boo then, please. Yeah, all right. Yeah, boo me. Yeah, Wear your robes and gavels.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Did they know you have your own show and so you're busy?

[John Lovett]

But. So the first guy, I was like, he got me Just dead to rights. Eye contact, phone. It was bad, it's a stoplight. But he got me. Wow. And then the second person, I tried to persuade him not to give me the ticket by telling him, please, I just got one of these. Which didn't work because it's like, so it seems like it didn't teach you a fucking thing.

[Lee Eisenberg]

God, I can't believe you saw a police officer on the streets.

[John Lovett]

I know.

[Ron Funches]

What a privileged sentence you just said.

[John Lovett]

I can believe it. You see him, I run across him.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Really?

[John Lovett]

It's a good segue. Because, Tom, you know, Trump has a certain way of describing our city as being a crime ridden hellscape. What do you think about that, man?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I have. I'll tell you.

[Ron Funches]

Pro that or you.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I'll tell you what happened. I went to, I did a little experiment in the first Trump when he was saying that Portland was a hellhole. Remember that? He was saying Portland was on fire. Portland was a hellhole. They were protesting at City hall and they were saying, don't go there. And he was saying all the same stuff he's saying about us he was saying about Portland. And this was after the pandemic and I had a gig up there and this little club, you know, like just a no audience kind of a situation. We're just coming back and I was with my daughter who was like 17 at the time, and she. I don't know if we should go. Did you see what's happening in Portland? I said, we have to go, let's go see. And we got on a plane by ourselves and we went to Portland. And within 20 minutes we were at a food truck eating tacos and sunshine with beautiful people and cats and dogs and rainbows. It was beautiful. And I quickly realized that it's a lie. It's a lie. And I feel the same thing here in la. I tour all over. You tour and when you tell them you're from la, they're like, oh my God, how is it, how is it out there? And they're buying the same bullshit that they were sold about Portland. So, you know it's the same about D.C. and you know it's gonna be the same about Chicago. It's bullshit. It is complete, utter optical bullshit.

[John Lovett]

Yeah.

[Ron Funches]

I mean, I will say that the, the parking at the Equinox in Erewhon in Studio City is hellish, though.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Worse than Trader Joe's.

[John Lovett]

No, not. No, no. Speaking of sandwiches, in a new interview with Vice President J.D. vance, Katie Miller, wife of Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller revealed her husband only eats one condiment. Which one is it? Either one of you take it. He only eats one condiment, which is the one condiment that Stephen Miller eats.

[Ron Funches]

Yeah, of course. That would be my guess. Yes. Easy guess. You just assume mayonnaise.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I was thinking mayonnaise, too. Yeah. White.

[John Lovett]

I believe we have a clip. If you could only eat one condiment for the rest of your life, what would it be? One condiment. Does barbecue sauce count? Yeah. Okay. Barbecue sauce. Not mayonnaise. No, no. Mayonnaise is, like, in low doses, is good, but it's kind of like. I had a buddy who used to eat French fries with mayonnaise. I thought that was disgusting.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's the only thing my husband eats with French fries.

[John Lovett]

Or like, period. Period. Okay. Wow. He's only a mayonnaise guy. Okay. I learned something about Steven I didn't know. Yeah, it's whatever.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Him trying to be chummy and funny.

[John Lovett]

It's. It's a little window into a world that you just want no access to. You just want to stay. You're like, oh, my God. Yeah. Like, the chitchat is horrific. What horrific chitchat?

[Lee Eisenberg]

It hurts my soul.

[John Lovett]

He went to Yale Law School. He knows that barbecue sauce is a condiment. If it's not, what is?

[Lee Eisenberg]

This is the problem. Funny people. It's that when you watch him talk this way, you know, in his mind, he's thinking, I'm killing right now. Right.

[John Lovett]

There's something about Vance I talked about on the podcast or something. It doesn't matter. I'm always being recorded. But the. You know, he grew up in this, you know, in rural Ohio. He then goes to these elite places and, like, passes. He knows how to pass.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

And that's what he does. He's very good. He's very smart, very ambitious, very observant. You know, he writes the book. It's the perfect book to get his foot in the door into this world. And then he realizes to pivot into this trump direction opposite of the direction he had been traveling, because that's what's next. He's really smart about that. And you see this guy that's like just such a character that he's created and all of it. I listen to a lot of 90s rock. He's 41 years old. He seems like he's 100 years old.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's the talented Mr. Ripley, right? Yeah, it's that thing. It's like he adapts. He's a chameleon. I haven't seen it.

[Ron Funches]

Don't ruin it for me.

[John Lovett]

We said before this show that there were no spoilers for 1998's the Talented Mr. Ripley.

[Lee Eisenberg]

My apologies. I was told.

[John Lovett]

Why'D you start making bread? You think.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I always cooked. I love hosting people. I love cooking for people. And when I learned about making real bread, it really bothered me that bread has been around for centuries. And when we become people, they say, bread's bad. And I was like, that's wrong. That can't be. Why are we the unchosen people? And I realize it's because we never eat real bread. And if you make bread with flour, water, salt, and yeast, the proper way to make it, with a sourdough starter, you can eat it. It's not filled with all of this other stuff. And my friends that were gluten intolerant were able to eat it, and it just wasn't real bread. And once I hooked into that, I just couldn't stop.

[John Lovett]

You know what I saw? And I don't know if it's true. Cause it was on the Internet that if you overcook pasta, it gets less healthy, right? That it's, like, better for you if it's more al dente. And I feel like. So there was the food pyramid, right? And I've talked about this, but it was evil. But it created a beautiful moment because you could eat as much carbs as you want. And everyone's like, that's what's good for you. You're not getting enough carbs today. You need your 10 carbs. And that was crazy.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It was crazy.

[John Lovett]

And then America gained a trillion pounds. Like, exactly a trillion. About, you know, about, you know, 30 pounds each. And they were like, no more bread at all. And it was like, hey, hey, hey. I'm not the one that fucking made the pyramid. That had. We overdid it. Yeah, stop telling. I don't wanna feel guilty about one bread. Yeah, I get not 10 bread. Why do I feel bad about one bread? I wanna eat one to three bread and feel good about it.

[Lee Eisenberg]

If this is your way of asking for me to bake you bread, I will do it.

[John Lovett]

Thank you. Next up, the National Park Service announced it would be re erecting a statue of which historical figure toppled during the Black Lives matter protest of 2020. Is it a, Confederate general and war criminal Albert Pike, B, Confederate general and KKK grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, or C, infamous British traitor Benedict Arnold?

[Ron Funches]

I know this one, but I think it's your turn.

[Lee Eisenberg]

A.

[John Lovett]

You got it. D.C. congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a statement the decision to honor Albert pike is odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable. Anyway, the statement goes on. It's stupid. We shouldn't do it. Then Norton reintroduced a bill to permanently remove the statue, saying of pike soldiers under his command were found to have mutilated the bodies of Union soldiers. And he was ultimately imprisoned after his fellow Confederate officers reported they had been misappropriating funds. He absolutely has no claim to be moralized on the federal land in this nation. Capital. Yeah, seems right to me.

[Lee Eisenberg]

They should just give him a theme park.

[John Lovett]

Speaking of traitors to America, Ron, you're going to be on the next season of Traitors. Yeah.

[Ron Funches]

Oh, now I earned your respect.

[John Lovett]

What can you tell us?

[Ron Funches]

You got soft missions. They lock you in castle with terrible people. And it was crazy. I had a panic attack. I didn't have. I didn't enjoy it at all. I got to be in way too much contact with Michael Rappaport.

[John Lovett]

So I was on Survivor and I was loving it, and they voted me off. I would have stayed longer.

[Ron Funches]

Yeah, you crazy, though.

[John Lovett]

That's what I learned.

[Ron Funches]

Because we got. We got Survivor people on the traitors. And then I learned they're like, oh, you survive off of like a grain of rice a day, and you learn not to poop for three weeks. And I just don't trust anyone. That's not regular. Look.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, I was only there for three days. I really only missed three dinners. And people were like, how was it? Was it hard? I was like, yeah, I missed three dinners. Why did they vote you off? Jealousy. All right. All right, Tom. On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced this year's Kennedy center honoree. Which of the following is not one of this year's award recipients? A, Sylvester Stallone. B, Betty Buckley, who originated Grizabella in the original Broadway run of Cats, a musical Trump is obsessed with, or C.

[Lee Eisenberg]

The band Kiss Kiss is on there. What was the first one?

[John Lovett]

Sylvester Stallone.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Oh, yeah, I think he's got slide the middle one.

[John Lovett]

Yep. It was. It was Betty Buckley. Did he make the cut this year?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah. He wasn't obsessed with Cats.

[John Lovett]

Oh. But Broadway performer Michael Crawford did. He is the original Phantom in Broadway's Phantom and the Opera, one of Trump's other favorite musicals. He does genuinely like Cats.

[Lee Eisenberg]

He does.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, he likes Cats, he likes musicals, and he likes Phantom of the Opera.

[Ron Funches]

Really?

[John Lovett]

I think he likes the part where the chandelier falls and the woman pays the ultimate price.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Sounds like we're back in your camp.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, Trump. That's right. Trump Also announced that he himself will be hosting the Kennedy center honors. Won't that be nice?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I can't wait for his monologue. Yeah. And kiss.

[John Lovett]

And kiss.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

Gene Simmons sticks his tongue out very far.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah, he's got a big long tongue.

[John Lovett]

Do you think? I guess now that Ozzy is dead, there's only.

[Ron Funches]

It feels like you two had just met at a bus stop.

[John Lovett]

Us? You don't. You don't think this is a good report? I like it. I think it has a big, long time.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

I'm enjoying. I'm all right. All right, fine.

[Lee Eisenberg]

You ever see Mini Kiss or Little Kiss? What is the. Yeah, mini Kiss. There's a little kiss, there's a little kiss. Little people kiss.

[John Lovett]

I haven't seen that.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

Wow.

[Lee Eisenberg]

They're not great musically, but they're adorable.

[John Lovett]

Do you think Trump could. Speaking of performing, did you see Mark.

[Ron Funches]

Nice? I derailed it.

[John Lovett]

Nah, it's okay. Speaking of nothing, four reactors at the Gravelines nuclear facility in Nord, France went down after its cooling system became clogged. With what? A, fromage. That means cheese. B, jellyfish. Or C, Frenchman.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It sounded like Frenchman was gonna be a two part word.

[Ron Funches]

Okay, I'm gonna say jellyfish because the other ones sound real jokey.

[John Lovett]

Nice. Yeah. Hey, jellyfish. The power. This is. These shutdowns are the result of the massive and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish in the filter drums of the pumping stations. The shutdown did not pose a safety risk to the plant or the environment. But not great for the jellyfish. I assume they've got too many jellyfish because of climate change, but I didn't get to that far in the article.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It always ends up there.

[John Lovett]

Do you ever put raisins in your bread?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I tried a cinnamon raisin. It didn't come out that great.

[John Lovett]

I didn't ask about that.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yes. Yes, I have.

[John Lovett]

Cool. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. What about pumpernickel? What is that?

[Ron Funches]

That's a good question.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's got a little molasses in it.

[Ron Funches]

It's got pumpkin at all.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Pumpkin? Yeah. It's not pumpkin Nicker.

[Ron Funches]

You don't gotta call me that.

[John Lovett]

Do you really think Tom Papa and I don't have a good report? I've been enjoying it. I'm even aware. I'm aware.

[Lee Eisenberg]

No, we have a great.

[John Lovett]

I'm aware of his heart out. I'm keeping an eye on him.

[Lee Eisenberg]

We have a great report.

[John Lovett]

We have a great report.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's so good. We don't care who else is interested.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. I don't need. I don't need these people. I've said this before. I said it again. They are a tool to make the podcast more enjoyable for the real audience.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Like raisins.

[John Lovett]

Oh, yeah. I think they're great. I really like them. I think they are unfortunately too tied to cinnamon. I don't understand.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Hey, hey, do your own thing.

[John Lovett]

Bagel places. Just throw some raisins in there. You don't need the cinnamon. What about a cinnamon salt bagel? What about a cinnamon sesame bagel? Tell me it won't be great. You can't. Because it will be great. It will be great because I like sometimes putting. I'll tell you something. I'll put whitefish salad on a cinnamon raisin bagel. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. You fucking sheep. You fucking sheep. This is what you listen to. It's great. Oh, yeah. What would be so bad? It's terrible. Sweet and salty together. Everyone will fucking hate it. Shut up.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Her reaction came from the back of her throat.

[John Lovett]

I think everything tastes good together. I think anyone who says things that. That are good, that don't taste good, they always taste good together. Everything, everything, everything. You put orange and milk together. Creamsicle. Ooh, Good.

[Lee Eisenberg]

It's pretty good.

[John Lovett]

You can find a made of weight made of made awake.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah, that's good too.

[Ron Funches]

That bus is running.

[John Lovett]

I can't believe I let you hit me in the head with a bottle. And finally, as a tiebreaker, finish this headline from the hill. Jurassic World Rebirth is the perfect metaphor for what? Is it? A, Trump's relationship with Zelensky, B, Pam Bondi's Metropolitan Police takeover, or C, Zoran Mamdani's social.

[Ron Funches]

This is yours?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I don't think so.

[John Lovett]

It's both. It's a tiebreaker.

[Ron Funches]

Oh, we both say it.

[John Lovett]

Either one. What do you think? What is B. Wrong.

[Ron Funches]

Nice. I win.

[John Lovett]

It's a metaphor for Zoran Mamdani's socialism.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Really?

[John Lovett]

Jurassic World Rebirth is a summer blockbuster. People are lining up to see it. People are also crowding to see Mamdani's socialism. What a stretch that is.

[Lee Eisenberg]

What?

[John Lovett]

And if they. And if I think. Because the movie's not. Apparently he says if he wins a Mayo race, they will also be lining up to get out.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Ew.

[Ron Funches]

And his socialism has like a mid credit sequence end credit sequence too.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, yeah. They want you to stay hooked for the next time that we do socialism. When we come back, the rat wheel.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Tate, don't go anywhere more of Love it or Leave it Coming up.

[John Lovett]

Love it or leave it is brought to you by One Skin. Okay, you know you need to protect your skin from the sun, but what if you could protect it from things like collagen loss and inflammation? It'd be great and even repair some of the damage you did when you were younger. The good news is you can. Thanks to our scientist friends at One Skin. Not only does their whole line of mineral SPFs for the body facing lips protect your skin from UV damage, now they work at the cellular level to help repair the sun damage from your youth. Get smoother, more even skin with a noticeable reduction in age spots and wrinkles. The face SPF is a super lightweight, breathable and comes in tinted or untinted. The body SPF is water resistant and helps prevent collagen loss. And the new lip SPF hydrates instantly and is scientifically proven to keep your lips healthy, bouncy and firm.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Bouncy bouncy lips firm.

[John Lovett]

The whole line is made with mineral non nano zinc oxide antioxidants like vitamin C and the OS1 peptide so you get protection, nourishment and repair in one step. It's advanced sun care that performs like skincare. Try them all with 50% off your first purchase using love it at Oneskin Co. A huge fan of One Skin. I'm a big believer in tinted mineral sunscreen because like it just feels better and like it's just, it's great. So I highly recommend it. Where on your body have I tried using it? Where haven't I tried using it? That's what I'll say about that. One Skin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, One Skin keeps your skin looking and acting younger for longer. For a limited time you can try one skin with 15% off using code love it at oneskin co. That's 15% off at oneskin Oneskin Co With Code Love It. After your purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show. Tell them we sent ya. Surprise beach day. No excuses. I'm in. Gimme five. With Bic Soleil Glide Razor, you'll have hydrated, smooth skin that's ready to go on the fly. No shave cream needed. You can prep, shave and hydrate all in one step thanks to moisture bars that hydrate your skin during and after shaving. 5 flexible blades hug your skin for a close shave. Glide into smooth. It's your time to shine with bixsolil. Buy now at Amazon and Walmart. Ready your skin Looks amazing. So smooth and beach ready.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Let's go.

[John Lovett]

And we're back. One quick note. Crooked is on substack for the very first time. If you're already a subscriber to our friends at the POD community, nothing changes for you. But if you love substack, Crooked's content is now there too, along with Supercast, Apple, YouTube. You can subscribe to us wherever you are. That's kind of. You can be a subscriber wherever you want to be, but we have a lot of great stuff on substack and we're trying to build an audience there. So go check us out on substack. Give us a subscribe over there. We're trying to build a progressive media company. We talk about everything. Trump Godzilla. That's it. And so visit crooked.com friends to learn more. All right, time for the Rant wheel. Here's how it goes. We spin the wheel wherever he lands. We rant about the topic. Let's spin the wheel.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Rant wheel.

[Ron Funches]

Rant wheel.

[John Lovett]

And it's landed on Tom Papa.

[Ron Funches]

We gonna rant about Tom?

[John Lovett]

No, no, he rants, Adam, we can if you want. And what's this guy's deal with the fucking bread? What do you want to rant about?

[Lee Eisenberg]

I would say my daughter has a rabbit and she got it in school and she adopted a rabbit cause she's lonely. And the only airline that accepts rabbits is Spirit Airlines. Yeah, American did up until last month. And all the other ones said no other animals other than dog and cat. And this is. Cause people, like, brought peacocks and stuff and they're just like. They just don't want to deal. They just don't want to deal. So they're just like, you know, screw it. Just dogs and cats. And my daughter has this little rabbit and she's going back to school to finish up college and I have to go with her and I might die on Spirit.

[John Lovett]

How long of a flight are we talking about?

[Lee Eisenberg]

Cross country.

[John Lovett]

Wow. Wow.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah.

[John Lovett]

Huh. Have you thought about a rabbit?

[Lee Eisenberg]

A rabbit's more docile than everything, I feel like.

[John Lovett]

I guess you'd have to put it through the radar or whatever, the X ray, if you really wanted to sneak it through, which you don't want to do.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I know. I was thinking just make. Pretend it's a cat, right?

[John Lovett]

Get a cat suit for it. Get a little cat costume for it.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Pin its ears down.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, I mean, that's. That. That. That rapist skunk would pretend to be a cat all the time.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Yeah, yeah. And just be like, oh, My little kitten. But. And then I don't know what it is. I mean, good on spirit. Yeah, just like, bring whatever you got.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, right.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Just buy a ticket.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. I mean, spirit. Spirit is basically whenever Indiana Jones wakes up on a plane, it's chickens. That's like. That's where spirit's like. That's our business.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Right?

[John Lovett]

That's our business.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Wooden crates.

[John Lovett]

Wooden crates with chickens. That's how you.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Feathers.

[John Lovett]

Yeah. I love that about spirit.

[Lee Eisenberg]

So sad.

[Ron Funches]

Bring whatever you got. That felt like a solid punchline. I liked it.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[John Lovett]

Bring whatever you got. We liked it.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Thanks, guys.

[John Lovett]

Do you. You have a hard out. You can go if you want.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I can.

[John Lovett]

You can get out. Tom.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Pop the Comedy Store.

[John Lovett]

Go to the Comedy Store.

[Lee Eisenberg]

My problem, my. Thank you.

[John Lovett]

Tom Bob, everybody. So great.

[Lee Eisenberg]

I love your show.

[John Lovett]

That was so fun. See you again. That was fun.

[Ron Funches]

Come closer, Come closer.

[John Lovett]

Don Bob, everybody. Let's spin it again. Ron, what do you got?

[Ron Funches]

Well, I think my general rant would just be that I was watching your talk with Mayor Karen Bass, and I talked a little bit to her before she came out, and she said something about, like, oh, can you believe what Trump did this week with the. With the raid while they were having a new conference? And I keep hearing that, like, a lot. And it reminds me of, like, when I was first getting divorced and I was, like, blindsided by it. And I kept being like, I can't believe this is happening, and then something else would happen, but I can't believe she's doing this. She's acting like this. And at one point, my mom just kind of put me aside and was like, you're gonna just start believing this. You're gonna have to stop being blindsided by every single thing. And I just feel like we've reached a point with this where we, like, know what it is, you know, like to have someone come over and kind of take over our government and do an insurgency in a very ISIS type fashion. That's something that we've been taught to protect and defend against and turn around and use those same techniques on us and instill this, like, just level of fear. And that's one thing I hated. That's what I hated so much about the first presidency. Because I used to live in Koreatown and a lot of my neighbors were Hispanic and a portion of them were probably undocumented. And just seeing the fear and the children's faces of not knowing if their parents were going to come home or not knowing what's going to happen when they get back from school. It doesn't allow you to live an everyday day to day life. And I just think that we need to stop acting as if this is a regular thing and this is something that we need to just like get through and do normal tactics to just wait out or go through the proper channels. I don't think that this is it. He's redecorated the whole fucking White House. No one redecorates a place they don't plan to stay in. So I think if people think that in three years he's planning on getting out of here, that they're foolish and that we need to start acting accordingly and start protecting each other and stop acting like this is normal.

[John Lovett]

Spin the wheel. I'm thinking about what you said. I think it's obviously true. I think it's actually clearer for what individuals can do in that to protect each other.

[Ron Funches]

Absolutely.

[John Lovett]

Step up. We've seen that in Los Angeles. To me, the question remains, and it is an open question, is Donald Trump obviously a terrible, terrible mistake. Is it a door that locked behind us or not? And I think anyone who says with certainty that it's locked doesn't know that. But anyone who says they're sure it's open doesn't know that either. And that to me is the challenge of living in the uncertainty of this. Because how you react to what Donald Trump is doing, to what his administration is doing, everything feels like your response is either too early or too late. Everything, every response feels like it's too early or too late. And that to me is a lesson about not worrying about is what are the steps we wish we will have taken if it turns out that things were as bad as they could possibly be? And what are the things we wish we were doing right now?

[Ron Funches]

Well, I think anything we're doing right now is that this is the most important time to like, step up and stand up and have dissent is just. Because the longer it goes, the more normalized it gets and the more, like, just hopeless it feels. I feel like going through this because I think we still live in this world where we were like, oh, Republican and Democrats and that. And it's just like we need to put all that aside. There's like, as us as Americans and then there is an insurgent group. And if we look at it like that, it becomes a lot clearer to me.

[John Lovett]

Yeah, I think that's right. Let's spin it again. The McDonald's menu has gotten too confusing.

[Ron Funches]

Good segue.

[John Lovett]

Because yesterday I went to McDonald's for one of my secret trips. And it used to be you get two things for $3.50. Then Joe Biden was around, went up to $4. You can pick two items from the list for $4. Now you can buy one at full price and the second one is only a dollar. But every item on that list is not the same price. And so if you want to get four items from that list, I want the spicy McChicken for a dollar because that's 60 cents more than the McChicken.

[Ron Funches]

Yeah, they're not going to do that though. They going to go off the highest price item.

[John Lovett]

That's obvious when you're ordering two things. But what happens when you order four things? What happens when you order four items? Is it a $1, B$1, right. Or ab $1 $1. See what I'm saying?

[Ron Funches]

I wish Tom was still here. I have a good. I have. I'm a little bit over a year. I've never. I haven't had McDonald's in like in over a year. Yeah, I'm trying to keep it up. I'm trying to keep it up.

[John Lovett]

Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry if this is. I don't want to tempt you too much.

[Ron Funches]

No, it's okay.

[John Lovett]

Okay. I don't think I make it seem appealing. The way I talk about makes it seem sad and gross. The way I talk about it. Yeah.

[Ron Funches]

I've been doing a lot of math.

[John Lovett]

I really enjoy. So it's like a game. I really enjoy the game of the McDonald's menu and look is probably in some ways my hyper fixation on these kinds of small and tiny objective, solvable tasks. Perhaps in some way psychologically tied to the conversation we had mere moments before. I don't think so. And that's our show. Thank you so much to Mayor Karen Bass, Tom Papa and Ron Funches. We'll see you next week at Dynasty typewriter. There are 444 days until the midterms. Have a great night and have a great weekend. If you're already scrolling endlessly, which we know you are, don't forget to follow us at Crooked media on Instagram, TikTok and all the other ones for original content, community events and more. You can also find Love it or leave it on YouTube for videos of your favorite segments and other YouTube exclusive content. And if you want to type our praises or rip us a new one, consider dropping us a review. Finally, you can join Crooked's Friends of the POD subscription community for ad free. Love it or leave it and POD Save America episodes, subscriber exclusive pods and more. Sign [e-mail] friends love it or Leave it is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett and Lee Eisenberg. Kendra James is our executive producer, Bill McGrath is our producer and Kennedy Hill is our Associate producer. Hallie Kiefer is our head writer, Sarah Lazarus, Jocelyn Kaufman, Peter Miller, Alan Pierre and Subha Agarwal are our writers. Jordan Kanter is our editor. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis provide audio support. Stephen Colon is our audio engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Cher. Sure. Thanks to our designer Sammy Cadorna Rees for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast. And thanks to our digital producers David Toles, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, Delon Villanueva and Rachel Gajewski for filming and editing video each week. Our Head of Production is Matt De Groat and our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.

[Lee Eisenberg]

Hey, I'm Frank and I have Hidradenitis suppurativa. HS before starting Cosentyx I was so uncomfortable with my symptoms like not being able to sleep on white sheets or wear white clothes.

[Ron Funches]

Now I can appreciate the little things.

[John Lovett]

Cosentic Secukinumab is prescribed for adults with with moderate to severe Hidradenitis suppurativa. Don't use if allergic to Cosentyx. Get checked for TB before starting. Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal or viral infections. Some were fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough, had a vaccine or planned to or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen serious allergic reactions and severe eczema like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-cosentyx or cosentyx.com you're stronger than HS.

[Ron Funches]

Ask your dermatologist about Cosentyx.

[John Lovett]

Back roads, good company and my Mochi ice cream in hand. That's summer done right. My Mochi is scoops of ice cream in flavors like strawberry, mango and cookies and cream wrapped in sweet dough like an ice cream dumpling that's chewy, creamy and a whole lotta delicious. Mymochi is a gluten free, guilt free treat that's only 70 calories each for a joyfully chill sensation that fits right in with fireflies, porch swings and summer nights. Grab a purple box of my Mochi ice cream today.