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A
Hello and welcome to the Mountain State Liberty cast. I am your host, Ty Ward. Today I am joined by Taylor Virginia Redistricting Richmond. Hello, Taylor.
B
Greetings from the best Virginia.
A
Yeah, did you see that meme where it was all of the D.C. area would be Virginia and then the rest of it, West Virginia would take over all the way to Virginia Beach.
B
Yeah, I, I sent it over to a friend of mine who's the party chair in Virginia and she even got a laugh, but she said I'd still be stuck in Virginia.
A
Well, that's on her.
B
That's. That is. I. Then I sent a gif of creeds with arms wide open.
A
So, yeah, I've. I've spent quite a bit of time in the. What's that area? The Tyson circle or whatever. My wife's cousin lives there and dude, I. That area, I don't know why anybody lives there. It is miserable.
B
I don't even know what that is. What is Tyson.
A
Tyson's Corner. It's like.
B
Is that where they make all the chicken?
A
I don't know. It's. It's south of D.C. in that area. But it's like, it's a big metro area and it's nothing but like strip malls and car dealerships. And then like some of the outskirts is like, oh, worse, way worser. I don't know. I'm trying to think of something that's like. But it's like. I don't know, man. It's. It's just urban sprawl and it's. I don't know. The funny, the funny thing is I've spent a little bit of time in like Arlington and Alexandria for work and those areas are beautiful. I guess if you have money and you live in the D.C. area, you can get in a pretty decent place. But evidently their politics are all God awful. So I guess since we're talking about that, we can, we can just start with that. But. So if you haven't heard, if you've been living in a hole, that Virginia had a ballot measure which was a. I guess it was a constitutional amendment for them. Or was it. Or was it just a.
B
Yes, it was a. It would have been a constitutional amendment to basically open up the. Open up opportunity for redistricting outside of the census, which is kind of like the ongoing like legal constitutional battle that's happening around the country. Right. I mean, was it Texas that did it first and then California did it? So now it's like all the cool kids are doing this thing to pick up three to four, you Know, more congressional seats in between the con. The census, which happens at the. Every 10 years. And that's the only way you can, who, the party in power in your state at that time gets to redistrict based off of updated population numbers. And it's a way for you to lock in, as best you can, congressional seats for the next 10 years. And what was very unique about Virginia was that they are like a 5, 4 state or something like that in terms of seats. And, and this was going to like, flip it to like nine, two or something. Like it was a drastic change in the makeup of their congressional delegation.
A
Yeah. By, by 5, 4. You mean Republican to Democrat or Democratic?
B
I believe. I think right now Republicans have the lead. And the congressional delegation, they have obviously now a Democratic legislature and a Democratic governor, but I think at the moment they still have, because Governor Youngkin and all those came in, you know, back in 2020 or during the 2000s and won. So they had the ability during the last census to do what I just said and kind of give them the slight advantage. But this proposed redistricting now, of course, it has to actually go through now that the referendum was passed, has to actually get voted on and moved through the legislature. But that was top of the course. We'll get there in a second. But, yeah, it was a wildly different, I mean, the looking at the map, I mean, it was like someone spilled blue paint over the state of Virginia.
A
Yeah.
B
And drastically flipped it for the Democrats.
A
Yeah. And that's the, the thing is Virginia, a lot of the western area is super rural area. Rural area. And it's, there's a lot of conservatives in Virginia and man, I don't know. I mean, obviously this is like a tit for tat political game they're playing nationally, but I don't know, even Democrats, I mean, if you're, if we've gotten so far that you could see what they're doing and anybody just Google the redistricting maps before and after. And if anybody, no matter what party you're in, if you can see what they're doing and think that that's, you know, any kind of democracy, you know, that we're defending democracy all the time and, you know, Trump's the death of democracy, and then you do something like that, your party has a, doesn't have much of a leg to stand on if you're doing that kind of thing, if you're out there saying, we need to save democracy, I mean, it just, it's not a representation of the, the State's true, you know, cultural and political leanings. If you're doing stuff like that and it's really, even if you aren't partisan to one of the two parties like you and I are, Taylor, you and I can look at it and, you know, call balls and strikes and say that this is the Democrats. I don't, I guess maybe it will help them with, with representation. But if I was a Virginian and I was a Democrat, I, I don't know why you would vote for that and support something like that.
B
Well, I mean, they're a big thing. I mean, putting my, you know, liberal shoes on for a moment, which I think are Birkenstocks, but I'm not sure. But you're looking at it from, from there again, 3d40 chess, whatever they're trying to play. The whole goal right now is for November to come around and if not both, at least the House of Representatives in Congress to get flipped. And that way they can gridlock Congress and predominantly what will likely end up happening, it's already been kind of threatened and talked about is that Democrats take over and Trump's even said like we kept, we can't lose the House or we'll just constantly be embroiled with impeachment battles and complaints. And that's probably what will happen. At the very least, though, when you have a split Congress, when you have one House is the House is one party and the Senate is the other, you rarely get anything through of any substance. Not that anything of any substance getting through anyways. But that's the whole thing thread of it. Right. Is, oh, well, if our party holds one of the two houses, we can prevent the other party from doing anything. So that's the game, right? So all they are trying to do is just flip the House back blue. And if they can do it by this, you know, kind of novel process of redistricting during a non census year, which, you know, has been attempted if not done in other states. And they're, they're kind of, and I get it, their stance is, well, the Republicans did this first and that's not wrong. But to your point, it's like it's. The toothpaste is out of the tube here, folks. I mean, let's just be real. There was some civility. There was, oh, here are the rules and we're all going to kind of play by them, right? We'll wait our turn and we, we lost the census or we lost the legislature ahead of the census so we don't get a redraw thing. So shucks, we'll wait 10 years. That used to be the accepted process, but now people are pulling out all the stops and all these novel theories and practices are coming into place. It kind of just takes it down to, well, every two years we're just going to do everything Wild west style.
A
Yeah. And from, you know, to our theme that we've said before, you know, Democrats get stuff done. From what I understand, the Republican redistricting wasn't nearly this aggressive. And there did, you know, the Virginia redistricting basically took all the power from the Republican Party as much as they possibly could. And the, the Texas redistricting was a lot more liberal and not in a political sense, just more, you know, for lack of a better word, fair. I mean, it was a little bit, it did change, give the Republicans a little bit more power, but not as much. And you know, I don't know, Ty, though.
B
I don't know, Ty. I don't know how much. I mean, I'd have to go back and look at, you know, previous two maps of Texas. I don't know that there was much more that they could have. Like there wasn't much more flesh to take out of the Democrats in Texas. Right. I mean, you have the cities in, you know, Dallas and Texas and sorry, Dallas and Houston and Austin, but most of the rest of that state is pretty damn red. The thing with, and what Virginia has done, right. And the way this works is every House member is appropriated so many citizens and what Virginia has done is they anchor a part of a city that has significant, you know, deep blue voting record. And then they went out and, you know, drew these wild shapes and gathered far pieces of the countryside that they could swing and they kept doing that all, all over the state. I don't know on the flip side of that or the reverse side of that coin in Texas, I don't know that there was much more flesh for the Republicans. Take out a Democrats and do that with. Now maybe they could have. And they could have gone, you know, scorched earth, which is what Virginia looks like. I just, I don't know that it, it's apples and oranges in that regard. Virginia definitely went scorched earth and as much as they could, I think took every pound of flesh possible.
A
Yeah, that's, that's all I'm kind of trying to say. But it's. We, we keep hearing and saying, you know, that Texas did it first. But to be fair there, I mean, from what I've, what I understand and have kind of Looked at, there are quite a few states that lean Republican or lean Democrat, not lean, but are controlled by the Democrat Party that if they hadn't redistrict, you know, years ago, decades ago, they would be a lot red. Redder than they are. Massachusetts is the one that comes to mind from what I've heard reported about, I think like 43% of Massachusetts voters are Republican and they don't have a single federal representative that is a Republican. And that's because of redistricting. And Illinois. Illinois, Illinois. It's a, it's very, it's very similar from what I've, what I understand. And again, you know, you can. I. I've just heard that reported in multiple places from different types of media, so I assume it's true. I haven't, I don't live in Massachusetts or Illinois, so I don't know.
B
But yeah, I think to your point and to the larger, this is kind of just how it's always been, but it's been done on, on the E. Or, you know, on the heels of the census is. Yeah. When the Census came out 30, you know, however many years ago, the Chicago Democrat machine, you know, saw where things were in the state of Illinois and Illinois and, and did what Virginia did. But they did it after the census. They did it at the right time period. And so that's why it, there's always the, the callback to, you know, when Texas did their thing to kind of the point I think you're, you're getting as like, oh, well, yeah, we did this novel thing and did it off cycle, but look how bad Illinois is. Yeah. Illinois is looks like what Virginia looks or trying to look like. It is drastically blue, even though there is at least 45% of the state that leans red. And they do this similar thing right, where Springfield and Chicago are like the core of these spokes of these wheels and they just stretch out from there and grab the rest of the countryside in the state. And they're represented by a Democrat who lives in the suburbs of Chicago. And their district reaches miles, you know, hours to the, to the border. And that's the game that's played with this gerrymandering stuff. And you know, everyone's again complaining about, well, Texas did it first off cycle, and then Texas say, well, yeah, but look how bad. So it's all part of the same terrible game. It's just now Texas and Republicans tried to change the rules a little bit to say, well, why, why wait 10 years? Let's just go ahead and do it. Now we've got the power in the legislature to do this. So let's pull this lever now instead of waiting another six years and two congressional. Two or four congressional races.
A
Yeah. And to, you know, on the other side, I mean, Indiana had the opportunity to do that and they chose not to. Which, you know, kudos to them, even though it did, you know, take that advantage away from their Republican Party. But the Republicans in the state of Indiana decided to not play that game and to do the right thing and, and to follow the, follow the, like you said, the understood rules of the, of how it works. But let's get to what you were mentioning before. So the court, the Supreme Court in Virginia, it was the. Whatever their district is circuit or whatever, they struck it down and said that the ballot measure was unconstitutional to the state's constitution. And I don't really know the explanation as to why it was unconstitution constitutional, but I guess I would venture to say has something to do with when they did it. But I did hear that the legislature in Virginia passed this, passed the bill to put this measure on the ballot in a special session that was supposed to be about budget issues and they shoehorn this in. So like, like West Virginia, they have, their constitution says the special session session has to be restricted to whatever the governor calls a special session for. And they didn't do that. So that, that might be what it was struck down for. But I don't know if you saw the, the wording of the ballot measure, but it was very, very political.
B
Really. No, I did not see the.
A
Yeah.
C
Wording.
A
It kind of explained the, the what the, the nuts and bolts of it. But then it also was like in the wording of what they were voting on, it said in order to restore fairness to our voting. So it's like what are we doing here? Like that kind of stuff. I don't, I mean, I understand why they did it, but that, that shouldn't be allowed in my opinion. I mean there should be some kind of rules about their, them adding, you know, bias language to those things that people are voting on. I mean, if you're reading that and you, you don't know what's going on and you're voting and you hear and you read, you know, in order to store fairness to voting. I mean, a lot of people go, oh yeah, I'm for fairness, sure, yeah, let's vote for this. So, yeah. So as of right now, the, the measure is that has a stay put on it from the Supreme Court. So we will see you know, I, I suppose that won't be.
B
No, I, I, I read that the, their state attorney general is already looking to appeal the ruling. So yeah, it's going to go up
A
the chain which will take a while, so who knows when that'll happen. And they're, they're, this is the attorney general that in the contentious race for Attorney general and it came out that he was saying that he was hoping one of the legislators kids got to see him be shot to death so he would understand what it was like to, so he would see what it was like to have gun violence in his life. So this guy is, I mean they're, it's amazing. I've never, I don't remember in, in maybe I don't pay enough attention to other states politics, but I would doubt there's been such a huge swing in the tone of state government as what's going on in Virginia right now.
B
Yeah. And the, the interesting takeaway from it was and to your comments about the, you know, commonly utilized tactic of misguided verbiage on the, the measure that it only won by like three points. Right. And so the big one of the big takeaways people are talking about is in this midterm election cycle which generally speaking the income or the incumbent president party. So those Republicans generally see some type of loss, whether they lose the House, they lose the Senate, one of those two generally flip. Sometimes they lose significant governorships or what have you. But you know, this, they're saying that this vote was kind of a bellwether for how the congressional races were going to go come November because Virginia has been always a swing state and a rather purple one when it comes to national trends and voting. So yeah, it would be, you know, it would be interesting to see had the verbiage of the bill or the referendum been more honest. Would it have still passed it have been closer, etc. But seeing that it was only one by three points, despite how it was marketed and everything else was kind of interesting. The Republicans definitely did beat the drums to get folks out. I mean they obviously it failed but. Well, they failed it to get it to fail, but it was still interesting to see that it was so close.
A
Yeah. And into the, the idea of, excuse me, Democrats getting stuff done and Republicans just sitting on their hands. There's a very interesting third rail to this that the Republican National Committee they collected and, and p have spent I think close to $10 million on Thomas Massie's primary race in Kentucky to unseat him. And Thomas Massie tweeted. I think yesterday, the day before that, you know, I wonder what might have happened if the Republicans had spent that $10 million promoting voting no on this ballot measure in Virginia and not trying to unseat a Republican. And that's, that's the national trend right now is, is they're spending more time trying to get one Republican to beat another Republican that it's like, I don't know, it's kind of similar to West Virginia. I was talking to somebody today, I was kind of, you know, beating the pavement for my House race. But the guy I was talking to, he said, you know, it seems like the Republicans in West Virginia are just really comfortable as we talked about on the, on one of the previous episodes. They're, they're, they're really comfortable and there's a lot of infighting going on. And that's what kind of happens when you don't fear, you know, losing races to the other party. But you know, when you're doing that at a national level, I mean, the, the Congress doesn't have anywhere near the majority that West Virginia has. So it's pretty, it seems pretty stupid to focus on races like trying to unseat Thomas Massie and a few other ones that have, you know, made some mildly, you know, boat rocking, you know, statements and votes in the, the House and the Senate when they don't typically, I mean, it is what it is. I mean, I know one vote and when, when Thomas Massie's doing the things he's doing, it can cause some issues for the administration and the establishment Republicans. But. So now you've decided to spend all that money on Thomas Massey's campaign when it looks like he's, for a while now has been pretty clear, gonna have a decent win in his primary. You know, anything could happen. But that's $10 million you could have spent, you know, putting out information and commercials in Virginia to try to keep that ballot measure from passing. And they didn't do that. So that's just an interesting different way of looking at this, this what's going on in the country. While Democrats are working to win the midterms, Republicans are trying to beat themselves
B
so well, and to that, you know, oftentimes what happens is when you become focused on things like that and going back to West Virginia, you know, obviously you have a lot of infighting during the primaries and things, but you come focus on short term goals. I guess maybe it's the best way to phrase this. You sometimes miss a forest for the trees and you end up Losing some important races and lose, for example, in the congressional level, you lose the House. I don't think anything like that is going to happen in West Virginia. You may see a couple House seat pickups, but other than that, you know, it's not going. But if you continue to keep the infighting going, then who to say what the long term ramifications of this are going to be? I mean, you see or saw where this was reported yesterday or maybe this morning, I forget. But the pacts associated with Governor Morris here, you know, dumping millions of dollars in this Supreme Court race and it's just things like that's very interesting. Instead of shoring up or, you know, trying to protect and get a full majority in the Senate or locking up House seats or whatever. So just interesting things to just kind of keep an eye on. To your point.
A
Yeah, Money and politics, it's always fun.
B
So just real quick though, I just want to share this. I thought it was interesting. I wanted to see what your take is. A buddy of mine texted me and he was like, he's from New Jersey, came down to West Virginia, now they live in Florida. But he's, you know, has his ear to the ground on political stuff and obviously saw the Virginia news breaking and everything. And he just sent me a text message that said, what do you think about gerrymandering? And you know, kind of without thinking about it, I, I just responded back that they should let the third party do it. And after like, you know, there was just kind of tongue in cheek, just shot back a quick text message without, you know, but then I thought about it and said, well, wouldn't it be interesting if whatever, the third largest party in the state instead of the one of the two major ones that are always fighting and going back and forth like that. If, you know, the Libertarian parties in West Virginia, probably in most states were in charge of redistricting. What. How much different things would look.
A
Yeah, yeah. And didn't West West Virginia did redistricting, I don't know, what, four or five years ago?
B
Well, we had, well we had to after the 2020 census. Right. Because we lost a congressional seat. So instead of the three bands that kind of ran east to west across the state, now we have the two, which is a pretty tough split for the Northern for Riley, more to cover just because of geography. But then we also, the interesting change that happened, I think that same time was at the state level, we went from multi member districts in and around the cities to single member House districts. So for example, your race and Others now like Morgantown was predominantly Democrat because all the Democrats living in Morgantown property voted for other Morgantown proper Democrats. Well now though, that major district of, you know, five or six was split into individual races. And now you have a couple of those that are more contentious than our Republican held now because they represent more of the, you know, suburbs and not the, the city itself.
A
Yeah. And that, that was a kind of a contentious thing from the Democrats. And I think it was mostly just because it, it didn't work out for them. But that single member district thing, I know when I was living in Charleston my delegate was a Democrat. And then when they redistrict it went to a Republican because there was two representatives and the majority of the district was Republican. So the area, you know, where the Democrat was living and, and, and running it was outweighed by the Republican. But it, it's, it was, I mean I didn't really have a problem with it myself because it was like it happened all across the state. So it wasn't like they were focusing on, they lost I think one or two Democrats that way. But you know, it is what it is that the areas that are, you could look at it the other way as well that you know, in that area, you know, where I was living was high, heavily Democrat, but it was a very small area. So why should they get a House rep for this little sliver of the district just because there's two reps and the rest of it's Republican. And then. So I don't know, I didn't really have a huge problem with it, but we had a little.
B
I think it is here, but I think it is more represented and again don't. And it goes into the same discussion. Right. Because that you have the opportunity to, if the Democrats are getting power again, you have the opportunity to, to gerrymander what these districts look like. But to the point of the, the greater Morgantown area, I mean one of the districts is outside in, in the Cheat Lake neighborhood where it's predominantly a little more conservative and they've got a pretty conservative member of the House there now. And I'm blanking on his name. He's the furniture, office furniture McCormick. So like, you know, he probably would have never won while we had a multi member district chair in the city because city comes out pretty strong and regularly Democratic. So I think it makes it more representative of the areas than the, because you get more of these gerrymanders. Think of what you see in Illinois and what Virginia is trying to do
A
in my opinion Yeah, I mean it would be pretty hard for anybody to mess with the federal races here because it's like, oh, are you going to move the line 3 inches and still be the same? I don't know.
B
It's, it's, yeah, with two, it's, it's, you know, it's kind of six of one, half dozen of the other. It's. Do you go, do you split the state north and south or you do you split it east and west? Either way it's going to be hard for someone to, you know, traverse and you know, make visits all across that part of the state. But.
A
Yeah. So moving on to another topic in national news and there's plenty of stuff we can talk about. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But what's going on right now, which I've found kind of interesting is the, it's in the news. The Southern Poverty Law center has been indicted by the Department of Justice and the FBI is investigating them because they clearly it. Well, from the indictment and the evidence proposed, they have been using, you know, they're a 501c3 nonprofit and they've been using donations to fund some, you know, questionable things. Like the most notable one was they, it's, it seems, it seems that they were funding the, I don't know, white supremacist groups that were in Charlottesville, you know, at the beginning of Trump, the
B
Unite the Right rally. Rally.
A
Yeah. So they were heavily involved in giving money to those organizations. And, and from what it seems, the narrative is that they were kind of funding, funding their own, I don't know what you'd call it, but they're funding the things that they were supposedly fighting,
C
fighting against and what it.
B
They're creating self fulfilling prophecies.
A
There you go. They're creating their own business. Basically. It's like a, I don't know, somebody who does flood recovery, busting a hole in the dam and letting the place flood so they can do their work. And that's, you know, all speculation, allegedly, whatever. But you know, in case anybody isn't aware, the Southern Poverty Law Center, I mean it's a 50 year old organization and they did a lot in the beginning of their tenure to kind of fight legally. Again, it's in the name Southern Poverty Law Center. They were a bunch of lawyers who were helping people that were being disenfranchised after Jim Crow and, and trying to find some, you know, remnants of the Jim Crow area and fight that stuff legally. So, you know, all best of intentions, an organization that was started with the. With good motives and we're doing good work. They. It's when. When you have racism and true, you know, identified hate groups in the country, it's hard to maintain an organization like that without any thing to fight. So instead of saying, you know, job well done, let's pack it up. Evidently, it seems they were, you know, getting high on their own supply and. And trying to create that issue. So we'll see with that indictment what actually happens and what is presented. But the thing I wanted to focus on, Tay, after giving you that intro, it's very ironic to me that. And I've not heard anybody else really talking about this, but the FBI is investigating an organization that was clearly funding and creating issues in order for them to continue fundraising and getting, you know, influence and clout and. And money to maintain their existence. And they're being investigated by the FBI, who on a annual basis for decades now, and have continued to do the exact same thing on the regular. On a regular basis. You know, you hear about these terrorists that are caught, and the most notable one that people know about is the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. Michigan. The FBI regularly, and I don't even know what they call these things, but basically it's entrapment. The FBI will spend time and money with agents on the Internet. Now, I mean, I'm sure it was in other ways before, but on the Internet, they basically find, you know, crazy
C
people on the Internet and disenfranchised youth.
A
Yeah. And. And, you know, a lot of the times it's, you know, foreign nationals or, you know, immigrants of, you know, Middle Eastern descent for a lot of them. But they find these people online who have. Usually the MO Is that they're on some kind of forum or, you know, social media saying, you know, wild things. And while that person is probably just an angry young person that is mildly autistic, they. They find those people and they pay FBI agents to communicate with them and, you know, further radicalize them and give them ideas and talk them into things and in a lot of cases, even, you know, guide them into where you could get things or what things you might need to do this, that and the other thing. Bomb something. You shoot up a school, something like that. And then they. As soon as they've talked that person into actually trying to buy something, and a lot of the times they're actually trying to buy it from the person they're talking to now they have a. A, you know, whatever, reasonable. What do they call it? A reason to, you know, arrest them and charge them with some sort of terrorist activity. And that's exactly what the Southern Poverty Law center did. And the FBI does it on a regular basis. And now they're indicting the Southern property Law, Southern Poverty Law center for doing exactly what the FBI does on a regular basis. So I just found that very ironic and interesting.
B
Oh, it's, it's poetic for sure. Right. But you know, that's unfortunately the state of affairs that we have left ourselves because the citizenry, society at large doesn't pay attention. That's not a sexy thing, you know, for whatever reason. And I don't know why I can't point to other things happening maybe that clouded or the media does a great job of letting those stories die out. Or maybe it's a, you know, psyop that we aren't, you know, allowed to really know or talk about that much. But unfortunately that's not something that people, except for like the Thomas Massey's run for Congress and they don't talk about and it's never going to get fixed. So it's just the state of affairs. Now we have to rely on a corrupt organization to be our effective police for these type of problems and, you know, just hope they're doing a good enough job to keep us safe every day. And the things that they're doing are going to drastically boil over into some giant Pandora's box. But yeah, it's, it is wild that, you know, the Southern Poverty Law center is, has always been, or at least since we've been around the gold standard. If they came out and said anything, been pointed a finger at anybody and said that they were at especially the folks on the left came out and were ready to crucify that individual or that organization or that group. And to that, you know, I don't know how much of what's being alleged is true, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit. And I just like we say with a lot of things on here, folks, just do your homework on something before you take the credence of one organization and run, you know, ramshod over people with it. Because a lot of these organizations are corrupted in some capacity and there's no perfect organization out there keeping watch for us. And you, you need to double check sources and use multiple before you say, oh well, the Southern Poverty Law cent said this group or this person is terrible. And therefore I immediately agree.
A
Yeah. And the interesting thing is is the, on the continuing basis, you know, the disappointment of the FBI and the Cash Patel regime is that, you know, this investigation was started previous to the Trump administration and they were actually the bank that the SPLC was using. They had already been caught for doing some shady banking practices and, and paying money to things that were questionable. And they ended up switching, you know, their financing sources from what I heard reported. So it's not like this is a new thing. And the thing is, is, you know, to get into that comparison with the FBI is the reason the FBI does a lot of this stuff is because when they, when they report and they say, you know, we've caught this many people and you've heard all these reports about, you know, crime going down, they can report back to the Congress, you know, oh, look at this stuff we're doing. We're catching terrorists and then they end up getting more money, which is exactly what the ASPLC did. But the, the FBI doesn't have to mess with, you know, trying to do banking things and be shady. So it's, it's, it's, it's another example of, you know, rules for the not for we or wherever that term goes.
B
Right.
A
That the FBI can do this exact same thing. And it's, they're praised for it. And you see the FBI, you know, 10 most wanted statistics where somebody was put on the list like two days before they arrested them, like they're putting that FBI Most Wanted list is a joke. Like it's all a PR thing. And some administrations use it more than others, but the Biden administration didn't really have to use it because they got all their credit after Alpha arresting January six defendants. So they, you know, ready made. But.
C
Well, it is funny that you mentioned
B
that and I didn't know the fact about them already looking into this previous to, during the Biden administration. But you know, that if, if they were, they were going to keep it, you know, under wraps for at least some time because that was Biden's big mantra against Trump and in the maga, right.
C
Was that he was fighting for the soul of America.
B
And it was the, the Unite the Right rally that, that's what, you know, really woke him back up and why he came back out and ran. So you couldn't, you know, you couldn't spoil that myth if that was your whole reasoning for writing to say, oh, by the way, it was actually this generally liberal leaning organization that helped, you know, spool it up and get it off the ground. And it was mostly show anyway. So that's kind of funny.
A
Yeah. And their defense is that, you know, they were funding, you know, infiltrators that they were paying people to infiltrate the organization.
C
But if they're informants, informants.
B
I think what they're saying, but it
A
seems the reporting is, is that's kind of a far fetched excuse with the kind of stuff that they were paying for. I don't know, I guess we'll have to see what actually comes out. But it, it's just another thing like, you know, finally the FBI under Cash B. Patel is doing something halfway, you know, reasonable where they're rooting out this stuff. But from what I've seen from them, you know, if this was some kind of right leaning organization, they would be the same as what you're talking about with the Biden administration that they're not going to go after anybody on their side. Which is sad because that was what, that was. Cash Patel and Dan Bongino's big selling point is, you know, we're going to end the weaponization of the FBI. And it seems they've done anything but that. Not that I'm not saying that this specific case is that, but they're, they've done plenty of that going.
C
Very, very likely.
B
Yeah, very likely. Could be right.
C
And maybe that's just our, especially as
B
non Republicans or Democrats, that's our only respite is that well, well the, the Republicans will root out all the bad Democrat stuff and then you know, maybe four years from now Democrats will root out bad Republican stuff and we just have to wait. It's. The pendulum swings.
A
But yeah, yeah, it's, it's all just kind of disconcerting. I mean you, I don't. You can. If you're a. You, you know, I don't know how to say it but if you're not even just maga, but just somebody who just really is desperate to hear something good going on and you hear that, you know, they're, they're doing this kind of indictment and it seems cut and dried and they're actually getting some nefarious actors, some justice. You, you know, you're praising this but you know, people like you and I where it's, we're almost to the point where you, you just don't trust anything you hear anymore and you need some really super hard evidence and, and that's one thing we never get. I mean even with the Epstein files, I mean I don't even know what to believe anymore because I, you know I've, I think I've said on here before that, you know, I, I would fully accept that there was nothing like it really There's a lot of people that did things that were. We find distasteful, but, you know, there wasn't any real blackmail. There wasn't any, you know, real child abuse, you know, those kind of things. Like, I could accept that that was reality, but the way that they've handled it, I'm. I'm never going to believe any of it either way. I don't know. You can't believe any of it now because they've poisoned the well, and you just can't trust anything they say anymore. And that was the. The thing that. And it makes me so. I'm so particularly mad about the Cash Patel stuff because that's one. That's one of the things that I. I bought it. I mean, I bought Cash Patel and Dan Bongino's rhetoric for hook, line and sinker. And even though I. I've spoken in here about, you know, Cash Patel saying some things that should have given me more pause before he got the position, but, you know, he was saying all the right things. We're going to end the weaponization. We understand what's going on. And he was saying all the right things, you know. You know, Director Ray. Was it Chris Ray?
C
I don't know.
A
Well, anyway, he was using the private jet or the. The FBI jet for private reasons, and he shouldn't have been. And. And basically every single thing that, you know, he was speaking against Chris Ray. Is that it? It's not Chris Ray, is it?
C
No.
A
That's gonna bother me now. Anyway, Director Ray, the. Everything that he was doing that he was speaking against Cash is basically doing all the same thing and literally saying all the same things. You can see montages of it was Christopher Ray. Yeah, okay. Chris Ray, dude, you're making me doubt myself, bro. Don't. Don't doubt me self.
B
So it didn't sound right.
A
But yeah, you know, Chris Ray talking to Congress saying, well, you know, it's congressionally mandated that if I travel, I'm supposed to use the FBI jet, and I only pay what the market rate is, so I'm paying 200 for. To fly somewhere when it costs $15,000 to spool up the jet. And then, you know, him saying all this stuff, and then, you know, as soon as Cash Patel gets in, you have the. Literally him saying the exact same things and doing the exact same stuff. Flying down to see his girlfriend in Tennessee and then those a bit worse.
B
I mean, he's applying the UFC fights. He's flying to be with the USA Hockey team and whatever that was. I mean, there's all kinds of crazy stuff.
A
Well, and you know, I mentioned on here quite often, but Kyle Seraphin on his podcast, you know, the insider FBI, he's basically his, his theory is, you know, cash surrounding himself, his security is FBI and all these people that are, you know, there's still a lot of old guard FBI there. And, and I think he's kind of set himself up to be basically catfished by this FBI agency that they're leading him down this primrose path. And then when they get enough evidence, they're going. And you're seeing it now in the media about, you know, that Atlantic report about him being an alcoholic and everybody is, you know, saying he's compromising FBI investigations and you seeing videos of swilling beer with the hockey team and he's having to, you know, oh, man, have you seen that he's suing the Atlantic over that article they wrote about him?
C
Yeah, yeah.
A
Just for lack of a better word, just the most made move you can have in exist, like him coming out when he first got in there. You know, if you want to come after me, don't come after my team, come after me. I can take it. You bring it on. And then the first time he gets pressure, I'm suing you for saying mean things about me. It's like, oh, cool. Like, you know the meme, I thought this is a free country. I thought this was America. Like they write a report and they've got sources and they're saying, you know, allegedly, this is what we're hearing from people, sources inside of the agency. And so he sues them. Like, I don't know what he thinks he's gonna get out of this, but it's just really, really disappointing. And, and, and I can't. I don't. I've never seen such a political 180 as Cash Patel. And you know, as Kyle calls him the makeup make a wish director. He basically had no business being FBI director. And it is what it is. I mean, Trump is notorious for, you know, putting people in positions because they, you know, fluff his pillow and get him, you know, all riled up. And he either pro. He either has pretty ladies or people that are seeing his praises in his administration.
B
And it take a fans. Yeah.
A
Yes. Sick of fancy. He doesn't seem to be working out well. I mean, man did that. And one of the. Dude, did you see Pete Hegseth at the. Evidently they have a Pentagon Monthly like prayer dinner.
B
And he prayed. He did the prayer from Fiction oh, fiction?
C
Yeah.
A
Gosh, dude. Like, yeah, Even, like, I've. Even before I started reading the Bible, when I heard that. That Pulp Fiction, Ezekiel, whatever. Like, it doesn't even make any sense. And, like. And here's the thing. When he said it, you can go and listen to his. Him saying it. He's saying the dudes that fly the airplanes, they. They have this prayer, like, up on their wall or whatever. If you know anything about the military, people have, like, sayings, like, somebody will suggest something and, oh, wouldn't it be cool if we had the Pulp Fiction prayer on our wall and add our, you know, unit name into it? So basically what it was is this organization, the people who did it, they knew it was a Pulp Fiction thing. And Pete Hexeth is walking through a barracks or something and sees this and goes, oh, I'm gonna pull that. That's a good scripture. And so basically, it's just him being, like, double dumb, like, not understanding. Like, he was supposedly Special Forces or whatever. And, like, he should know better than to be quoting from random barracks nonsense. It's just. Oh, man. Like, you can't. Every time they turn around, it's just one of his people and the person I feel bad for. Well, not really, but, you know, J.D. vance, he's out there just doing his best. Like, just trying hard to, like, toe the line between just trying not to say anything that contradicts Trump, but also, like, understanding clearly when he talks, like, he understands, like, how dumb what's going on is, and he has to, like, toe this line about. It's just so. So interesting.
B
And the best recently, what I saw example of that was him, like, trying to walk the line in between the feud between the Pope and the.
C
And President Trump, because I guess he's
B
Catholic, and he was just like, well, you know, sometimes people disagree, I guess. And, yeah, it was funny.
A
I think J.D. vance is gonna. Is. Is realizing that him being accepting the Vice President nomination was maybe the worst thing he has ever done politically. I know. It's. It's. It's. We've got plenty of time between now and the. The presidential race. But I think he's. I don't know. Maybe not. But it seems like anybody who has anything to do with his administration, unless something dramatically changes, has kind of ruined their political career.
B
Well, I mean. I mean, what's gonna be interesting, though, Ty, and we see this every cycle is the races start earlier and earlier. And, yeah, so we. We will probably see at some point that they have Rubio and Vance will be having to announce their candidacies before too much longer and where the divergence from the, the administration comes compared to what's happening.
A
Yeah, and that's, that's, that's always the interesting thing. I mean, you always see the front runners early and then, you know, it seems like it is a fool's errand to trust any of that this early, but that those guys have been the ones everybody's talking about. And, you know, people can come out of nowhere maybe Vec Ramaswamy or something like that, but, man, I don't. It's going to be really hard to walk that line running for president under, be having been under this administration again, unless something dramatically changes and they can kind of try to sweep all of this that's gone on so far under the rug. You know, the 40 chess thing is, you know, Iran, it was never about Iran. It was never about Israel. It was about, you know, they, they knew that they were going to close the strait and Trump is, you know, fighting China and it's all connected to the Venezuela thing where we could bolster our, our reserves of oil through Venezuela. And now, you know, we've closed off all of the OPEC oil going out and China's going to have to be dependent on somebody else and everybody around the world is going to be more dependent on American oil. And Trump's going to go down as the best president in American history because all these nations that are going to bricks and stuff are going to have to come back to the petrodollar and it's all going to work out great. And, and gas is going to be 50 cents a gallon again. And it's just, oh, man, the, the cope coming from MAGA is just, it's pathetic at this point. I don't know, anything's possible and, and you don't know what's really going on because presidents aren't going to tell everybody immediately what they're really doing. But if it, if it turns out that all of this was about oil, I mean, what does that do? What has been the narrative for decades about all these wars? Taylor? It's all about oil.
C
Yeah. Anywhere that has oil, we're going to invade. That was always the joke of, oh, there's, there's oil under the Federal Reserve, maybe we can. Or there's.
A
Now the Federal Reserve is six weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon.
B
Yeah, that's the, that's the newest one. But that was always the. During, like the Iraq war and the back in the 2000s, you, whoever you wanted to to get carpet bomb and shock and all. Do you just say, jokingly say, oh well, they've got oil underneath them, let's invade them next.
A
So yeah, and things aren't looking good at home. I mean, I, I think there's the, the split between, you know, what you, I think you said last podcast, the America first and, and MAGA divide is just getting worse. And I think, you know, I think the damage is done. I don't know about you. I mean, I think it's going to be a hard look for a lot of these people that I think people really discount how, you know, genuine people are. When they said no new wars and Trump, you know, promised that he was going to be the peace president, I think people expect on that, you know, MAGA coalition, they expect that people are just going to, you know, fly on whims of fancy and then forget about this. But I think a lot of his constituents that voted for him because of the foreign policy stuff are, they're not going to forget this anytime soon. And, and, and, and again, I mean, if he does, if Taylor, and you know how this is and you and I aren't going to, you know, will enjoy it, but it's not like it's going to change our political philosophy. But if gas gets down to $2 a gallon, I mean, it's going to be hard for people not to appreciate that on a general basis. And you can't blame them. I mean, when gas is, you know, and, you know, being a business owner, that my entire job is gas. I mean, I run lawnmowers and weed eaters and truck and drive miles and miles and mil. Spending close to probably $150 a week on just gas for my equipment. So I mean, it's, it's, it takes a serious cut and I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth if he gets gas down to that low. I know it's going to be. That's the problem. Taylor, in reality, I think, you know, we were in a, in our group chat there, I was kind of joking, you know, nuke them, leave them alone. Open the straight, don't open the straight. Whatever you gotta do, just get gas back down. Because I'm, I'm hurting, man. Like at this point for us, it's almost like I don't, like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. So what do I care at this point? Like, just get the gas down, man. It's all, it's a sinking ship. But Right now I've got to keep my family fed. So I think a lot of America is in that same boat that if they see an administration and a political party that is bring gas and cost of things back down, I think it's going to be hard for them not to think that they want more of that. So that's always to be kept in the back of everybody's mind.
C
I would just counter to say that I think though that it has to be done relatively soon.
B
And I don't even care necessarily about
C
the midterm elections or I'm not like even saying for that. I, I honestly believe the House is probably already lost for the Republicans. If I had to put money down, I would probably do that right. Even right now, even if you told me that the war was going to end tomorrow, I would probably still say
B
they were going to lose the House.
C
But if, you know, that's what everyone, if you watch any news, which I have it on the background most of the day, but tap in every 30 minutes to an hour, just listen to the pundits talking. You've got someone even on like Fox News, they're saying like this needs to end in the next like two months. Like they're, they're already putting a timeline on. If this doesn't in the next few months, it is going to be devastating for the president and, and you know, whoever his appointee to replace him is in 2028. The only thing I will say is maybe somewhat of an offer route for
B
JD Is
C
Rubio is going to run. I think, I think it's kind of obvious. I think the attack on him is, oh well, he was the one, he's Secretary of state. He was one pushing for all this stuff. This was all his 40 chess that everyone was playing. And JD can kind of take an off road that says, hey, yeah, I was the guy that they were sending over to try to make peace. I'm the, I'm the, you know, I'm not that guy and tries to pick up that, that wing. I think otherwise, you're right. I don't think anyone, you know, coming out of the administration, except maybe JD Trying to play that card is going to get any of the, the America first, no new wars type of voters. So maybe it would have to be someone from the outside. But no, I think, yeah, gas comes down to two pit back to 250 in the next month or so. I think they may have a chance in 28. But what's going to be more important is can they find some type of solution long term, relatively long term which caveat here in a second that people can buy into and actually believe. Now for me I'm not going to believe that anything is ever, unless we have a permanent base or some type of occupation of Iran. I don't believe that will ever not, not be at the precipice of war with them because the, this whole thing has always come back to this whole nuclear weapons issue.
B
The whole thing is oh yeah, we're
C
paying $40 a gas but we can't
B
allow them to have a nuclear weapon.
C
We can't have them you know, blowing up Cairo or, or one of our
A
allies or short term pain for long
C
term gain right now. But here's the thing Ty, going back to your joke about they're always you know, three months away. Well they were at 60% uranium before we bombed them back in 25 and according to the President we obliterated their capabilities in a short amount of time. They secretly you know underground were reconciling
B
some of the you know, destroyed centrifuges
C
or whatever they were doing and getting back on the wagon if you will and we had to go to war with them again because of nuclear, their nuclear capabilities which it was far less and we've now destroyed their military and all this other stuff I just don't ever see in the JCPOA even aside I don't ever see us. I don't ever see the war hawks, the neocon group ever being a finger, a hair trigger away from going back to war with Iran after this. This nuclear war scare tactic is so easy for them to pull at any moment with no evidence and the timetables vary from months away to immediate to we got it. I mean it's just your head spins if you try to follow their logic and timetables of why we had to do it when we did and what we did from obliterating it back less than a year around and then now we're going to a full on multi month war with them because of their nuclear capabilities. It's like well why would we ever not just have to be there permanently to make sure they don't gather enough nuclear dust to put it into a suitcase and bring it over here because that was a big threat after during Iraq and their yellow cake uranium.
B
I mean it's just I don't see
C
how we ever get out of there now.
A
Yeah, I always love, maybe I'm black
C
pilled on it now.
A
I always love how there's some new thing that we never heard of before. Ever that we get to speak about for the rest of our life. And the zeitgeist, like, like you said, yellow cake rain, uranium, you know, aluminum tubes, WMDs. Like, all things that nobody had ever even uttered before in their entire life. And now it's nuclear dust. Like, what? Yeah, like nuclear dust. Like, what are you talking about? Like, I don't know, I just pictured
C
them in like hazmat suits, like from the Simpsons or whatever, from the kids from his Homer's facility. Like, just sweeping stuff into little dust pans and like, yeah, put it in, put it in.
A
Like a suitcase or. Mark Levin is. That was out there. It was. It's so absurd. Like, Mark Levin, who has never, you know, done anything, you know, remotely violent in his entire life is. You know, they're not sending in just the regular troops. They're sending in the 82nd Airborne and they, they'll be on the ground collecting this nuclear dust. I'm like, dude, do you know what the 82nd Airborne is like? You think that they're like nuclear technicians? These are like rough neck, like, fighting dudes. Like, they're not. Like, they're not. You're gonna send that. Like, of all the things he could have said, like, you're just disproving your own point that you know nothing about what you're talking about. The 82nd Airborne is just an infantry unit. Like, they're not. This isn't like some kind of specialized team. Like, what are you talking about? Like, just like, who are you sending in? You know, the conspiracy that. That. Was it an F15 that got shot down? Yeah, that. That was some kind of black ops thing that they were trying to do something with the, you know, again, nuclear.
C
That was like a cover team or an extraction group for the COVID mission to. Yeah, yeah.
A
And that's. Well, it's just. Just one thing after another. It's another excuse. And then it's another, you know, insiders say. And you're like, well, I've got no way to like, disprove. Like, you're just like Trump. And Trump Admin says random thing and I'm like, well, I have no way of disproving that. So I don't know. But it seems to be everything they say it changes on a weekly basis or a daily basis. So I don't know.
B
Well, and, you know, going back looking to, you know, previous to the Trump first administration and the jcpoa, I mean, the whole idea was for all always for Iran to get their fuel rods from Russia. But then, you know, some Other, other source. And I say, well, who are they going to get it from if, if
C
all these other countries we can't trust anymore. I don't know, man.
B
Every time someone says something about it, I'm like, well, that was absurd five years ago. Why are we, why is it a thing now? Like, yeah, and I don't know, the Republicans are gonna have a really hard time, I think, in the Democrat. If they're wise, the Democrats will really pressure them on handling this and I would say for the most part, mishandling it because I don't see anything that
C
Trump walks away, any kind of deal with, walks away from here where again,
B
the Mark Levins, the Ben Shapiro's and the other neocons in around D.C. can't
C
turn around in a couple months and
B
say, oh, we got to go back there, there's nuclear fragments or there's nuke,
C
you know, again, make up the new term of the day. And we found them in there three
B
more months away and we got to obliterate their other thing.
A
So, yeah, and that's the problem with the, you know, the prospect of you. And to be fair, here's the thing. Every time that there's an election after a presidential run, they usually, you lose some seats in the House or Senate to the opposing party. So it's not like it would be crazy if this happened whether Trump had done the dumbest thing on earth ever or anyway. But it's like everybody's talking about this Iran war, but it's not like things were going so hot before that he decided to do this. So it's like, oh, we've got a small campfire and then, you know, he throws the not releasing or the, the Epstein list as a Democrat, Democrat hoax bottle of gasoline on the fire. And it gets a little bit out of control. And then we decide to drop the war with Iran, tanker of oil of gasoline onto the fire and now it's completely out of control. So it's like, well, you, you went from a, a roaring blaze to, you know, an uncontrollable roaring blaze. So it's not, it's not like things were going great before this Iran thing. So I don't, I mean, I don't know, I guess maybe it would be like Super 12D mega chess if, you know, well, things were going bad because I'm an idiot. So I do an even dumber thing so that people are so distracted from the first dumb thing I did that when I end this thing. And it's a little bit better than it was before this horrible thing I did. They'll forget about even before that, and it'll be good again.
C
So it's like, well, and to tie
B
it back to West Virginia, tie and make the comparison.
C
I don't know.
B
Again, unless he's got some miraculous deal that he can, you know, pitch on this. But, like, in West Virginia, he's claimed to have won all these social issues. I mean, his fight with it, with the trans athletes and all these other things. He comes out, he says, oh, we won the. We won that. And immigration's, you know, relatively won. I mean, that's even, you know, the Dave Smiths and folks will come out and say, yeah, that was great. He definitely did that. But, you know, you're four years removed from those. I don't know that those are the wins anymore. Or what are you running on? Like, what. What are you going to run on to improve if you're messing up everything else? Like, that was their saving grace, is
C
like, well, you got to vote for
B
us because the crazy Democrats are going to, you know, trans the kids and have open borders. Is that still going to be the play in 2028? I don't know.
A
Yeah, it's. It's hard to tell, man. And here's the thing. I don't like to predict politics like that because you never know what's gonna happen before then. And the American voter is absolutely irrational. So I don't know. But we're about an hour, so we'll stop rambling about this and. And wrap it up. I mean, it's. I mean, if you're. If we seem like we're discombobulated and confused, I think we represent the entire country right now. We have no idea what's going on, and it's hard to make heads or tails of any of it. So, yeah, hopefully it's just. It'll be. We won't get nukes dropped on us. That would be the. The best thing to happen. But, Taylor, tell people where they can find you and. And support your campaign for the 13th district of the West Virginia Senate.
B
Yeah. Thanks, Ty.
C
So.
A
You're welcome.
B
Richmond First. Richmond First Senate is the website. Richmond4senate.com you can find me on Facebook at. My personal profile is on there. Me enjoying a cigar before the happiest day of my life.
C
Or during the happiest day of my life, I guess was my wedding day.
B
Then the other profile with me in
C
front of the Metro News logo is the campaign profile. So please, like and friend, follow that one.
B
Feel free and send a Friend request to the other one if you haven't already.
C
But the campaign one should have a little blue check marky thing next to it.
B
Would appreciate the support there. I'm on the tiktoks, Ty.
C
I got my first tick tock out.
B
It's also Richmond. It's also Richmond first Senate.
C
So yeah, gonna be working on some, you know, new age media for the campaign.
A
Fully talked. Fully talked.
B
Yeah, fully talked and loaded. So yeah, follow me there as well. What about your Ty, where. Where can folks follow you in the. Whatever is Roane County.
A
Yeah, I have a Facebook profile that I haven't really done much on yet. For the campaign, it's Ty Ward for WV House. We'll be doing a little bit more here soon. It's mowing season. I don't really have time to do much of anything, but we'll get it going. But yeah. Fifteenth District of the House of Delegates, West Virginia. Tell your friends, tell your mom. If you want to follow the podcast, go hit us up on any of your podcasters. Subscribe please on Spotify. That helps with the algorithm, get us moved up into to the system so everybody can see us. We are on all the podcasters, itunes and any of those Apple podcasts or whatever it is. If you wanted to contact us about any issues, it's mountainstatelibertycast gmail.com lpwb.org hit that donate button. Give us a little, little bit of cheddar if you. So whatever. Follow us on Facebook.
B
Couldn't rhyme with cheddar, could you?
A
Yeah, even better.
B
There you go.
A
Why am I gay? X Instagram Facebook hit us up. Yeah. Thanks a lot, guys. Until next time, don't hurt people and don't take their stuff.
Date: May 1, 2026 | Host: Ty Ward | Guests: Taylor “Virginia Redistricting” Richmond
In this episode, Ty Ward and guest Taylor "Virginia Redistricting" Richmond dive into current political events, focusing on recent redistricting battles in Virginia and their broader implications, as well as the bombshell indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). They share a libertarian perspective, critique abuses of power by both major parties, and discuss the cyclical and self-serving nature of American political warfare—especially through the lens of hypocrisy and gerrymandering. Later, the hosts unpack the irony of the SPLC’s alleged misconduct in comparison to the FBI’s own controversial tactics, before ending with current foreign policy woes and reflections on the disarray of the 2026 political landscape.
Bombshell Indictment:
Irony: FBI vs. SPLC Tactics
SPLC’s Credibility
Weaponization of Agencies
Bipartisan Corruption & Distrust
FBI Management & Cash Patel
Laughable Political Moments
Foreign Policy, Iran, and Election Fallout
War Rationale Skepticism
Exhaustion and Disarray
| Timestamp | Segment/Key Topic | |------------|-------------------| | 00:01–05:46 | Virginia’s ballot measure, urban/rural divides, redistricting context | | 05:46–12:54 | Redistricting compared (TX, MA, IL); motive, legality, and fairness | | 12:54–16:10 | Legal battle, political language, and voter manipulation in ballot wording | | 16:10–21:25 | Republican strategic failures and infighting | | 21:30–25:43 | Libertarian solutions to gerrymandering; WV redistricting | | 26:13–37:28 | SPLC indictment, FBI hypocrisy, and organizational trust issues | | 37:28–58:14 | Administration failures, foreign policy mess, and “headline” politics | | 58:14–61:08 | Election forecasting, disillusionment, and wrap-up commentary |
The hosts wrap the episode reinforcing their skepticism and libertarian perspective—indicating that both major parties, NGOs, and federal agencies are largely self-interested, faith in institutions is plummeting, and the world of American politics is as far from genuine representation as ever. Their takeaway: In times this confusing, skepticism and intellectual independence matter more than ever.
Final sign-off:
“If we seem like we’re discombobulated and confused, I think we represent the entire country right now.” (A, 61:08)
“Until next time, don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.” (A, 63:45)
Find & Support the Hosts: