← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Ep 1160 | What Dismantling the Department of Education REALLY Means
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Ali Stuckey
The Department of Education might be going away forever, and you're probably hearing a lot of scary things about that. But we are separating fact from fiction on that subject today, as well as telling Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend to run for her life. And we will explain why. Also, if you are a Severance fan, wait till the end. Brie and I've got some different the theories about the series and how it ended. And if you are not a Severance fan, I'm just going to tell you, you, you probably don't want to stick around for that segment because it won't make any sense to you anyway. This episode of Relatable is brought to you by our friends at Good ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com use code ALI at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code ALLY hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. You guys are loving yesterday's conversation with Nicole Shanahan. If you have not watched that yet on YouTube or Spotify or listened wherever you listen to your podcast, I really encourage you to do so. She's such a vulnerable, sweet, honest person. I personally was very edified by her story and her admission that her mind has changed on really big things like abortion and like faith. The most important thing, the gospel of Jesus and testimonies always buoy my own faith. And I know that her story will do the same for you. And you know, as I was listening to her revelations about different things, for example, when she tells that very meaningful, compelling story of going to a pregnancy center and realizing while she had been helping fund Planned Parenthood, helping women have access to abortions, she had never actually looked at the other side of that choice, which is keeping the baby. And she hadn't actually supported women in making that life affirming choice and how God, through His grace, has just revealed this reality to her that was always right before her, but that she just didn't have eyes to see. And God does that for all of us in different ways in our road of sanctification. And it's so important for us to remember that not only in the lives of other people, when we're listening to their testimonies, especially those of us who grew up in the church. You're a lifelong Christian, seeing other people who are either new to the faith or who aren't Christians yet and thinking like, how can you not see that? How do you not know that? How do you not feel convicted by that? And while I think it's okay to think, yeah, there's right and wrong and everyone should be able to see that. We have to understand also that, that the Holy Spirit is going to do his job. He is going to bring the good work of faith to completion and that he is faithful to sanctify and to make holy God's people. And I thought about this analogy the other day I went into this shop. I'm trying not to reveal like too much information about like, what it is and where it is. But I went into this shop and I said, okay, this is, this must be new. Like when was this built? And they said 2008. I was like, okay, so this is not new at all. This is the first time that I'm seeing this and I literally drive by this place every day. But this is the first time that I've needed to go into a place like this. And so I simply did not have eyes to see it until I was in this stage of life, in this stage of motherhood with my kids in the stage that they're in. This was the first time that this has been on my radar. But it's always been there. And it just reminded me that we don't have eyes to see things until we are in a place where we actually need to see them. And there are so many lessons, I think, that are applicable to that. Whether we are talking about like, our compassion and understanding for other people and not being able to see their perspective because we haven't been where they are. But also just like in our own spiritual journeys, I think sometimes we want to be able to see everything right now and understand where God is taking us, what things mean for all of our whys to be answered right there. But it's simply not time or we haven't been given eyes to see yet. So we have to have faith in the Holy Spirit, in our own lives and also in the lives of others, and just pray earnestly for God to give us the wisdom to see the things he wants us to see, but also to have patience and peace with where we are in a lot of different ways. And so anyway, I was just thinking about all kinds of things as I was going back and watching yesterday's episode. Just so much packed into that conversation that was very revelatory. So again, check it out if you haven't already. Okay, today we're going to try to get to a few stories and then Bri and I at the end really want to talk about some tv, some light hearted stuff. But first I want to answer some questions that you guys have been sending me about the executive order to end the Department of Education, because I know you guys have been seeing a lot of stuff out there, not even from like hard left sources saying that dismantling the Department of Education is going to be disastrous, especially for poor kids, especially for kids with special needs. And I am here to tell you that that is simply not the case. That the Department of Education has become a very bloated entity that is largely corrupt and has a relationship with teachers unions that has led to, yes, more money out there that is supposed to be going to schools, but that money has not actually translated into any sort of students success since the establishment of the Department of education in 1979. So first, let's go through what this executive order actually is, because unsurprisingly, there's a lot of misinformation out there about what it even says. So last Thursday, President Trump signed this executive order. He was surrounded by school children at their little desk pretending to sign their own executive order. It's really cute. It directs the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department and return education authority to the states. So Here he is sought 1. It was very lucky. I sent another document that turned out to be very good for the country. And I said, let's use that same pen. I don't know. Is anybody superstitious? Ron, are you superstitious? Let's use that same pen. Okay. Very sweet. Here's the language from the executive order. The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of Department of Education and return authority over education to the states and local communities, while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely. Consistent with the Department of Education's authorities, the Secretary of Education shall ensure that the allocation of any federal Department of Education funds is subject to rigorous compliance with federal law and administration policy, including the requirement that any program or activity receiving federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label, quote, diversity, equity and inclusion or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology. Okay, so your tax dollars, which are going to the federal government and then are being channeled to the Department of Education, currently, because of the progressive policy that has been put in place by this bureaucracy over the past several decades, is funding programs at public schools that tell students that white people are on the side of the oppressor. We'll get into those specific programs that black and brown kids are always on the side of the oppressed. That they need to be social, racial justice activists and are also promoting the idea that a boy or girl can be born in the wrong body. You might say that's not happening at your public school. You might be right, although you might not be right. Chances are you don't really know what's being taught to every student in every class at your public school. But even if it's not happening at your particular school yet, it is happening at schools across the country. If you've been listening, listening to this podcast or really any conservative podcast for the past several years, you know this to be provably true. And again, we'll get into a couple examples of that in just a few minutes. Ultimately, the executive order reads, the Department of Education's main main functions can and should return to the states. It also cites the increased spending, the unaccountable bureaucracy and the failing education scores as the reason for this policy action. And we will get into the specifics of that as well. So really, two main direct actives in this executive order, neither of them say the Department of education is over 1. The Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, will work toward closing the department. She is the she's a former wrestling executive, wife to WWE founder Vince McMahon. I watched the documentary on him. It was actually pretty sad and kind of interesting. But they've been friends with Trump's for a while. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, was co chair of his 2024 transition team. Any remaining Department of Education funds will not advance DEI or gender ideology. White House press Secretary Caroline Leave it told reporters that the order wouldn't shutter the agent agency, but would greatly minimize it. Also, Secretary McMahon would ensure that, you know, the benefits continue, but the student loans will no longer be managed by the Department of Education. Now they're not going to be canceled. Some people are saying student loans are going to be canceled altogether. That's not true. They will be improved. The handling of them, Trump says, will be improved by transferring this program to the Small Business Administration, which is headed up by Kelly Loeffler from Georgia. So a day after he signed this executive order, President Trump announced that he would be moving that system to sba. They will manage the student loan portfolio, so managing the loans, auditing for fraud, working with private lenders, he says. Trump's reasoning says basically that the SBA is just going to be able to handle this process much better. He described it now as a mess. He suggested that their portfolio with its lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans, is pretty complicated. So this is just like anything that is currently handled by federal bureaucracy. It is inefficient, it is ineffective, it is wrought with at least vulnerabilities for fraud. And so everything that is that Trump is taking over right now and that Doge has its hands on, they're trying to make it more efficient and more streamlined. So, so that's what's happening there. The goal is absolutely to dismantle the Department of Education. And Trump has been very clear about that since 2015. He tweeted about it, he said, you know, Common Core is terrible. This is because of a federal takeover of education. And he has wanted to take this down for a long time. He's already done multiple executive orders ending radical indoctrination and K through 12 schooling, expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families. That directs federal agencies to prioritize federal funds to support school choice initiatives. And so this is part of why people voted for him, to make sure that our education system is actually teaching kids how to think and is not indoctrinating them with social justice ideology that is making them very stupid. And I guarantee that is happening to some extent at every public school across the country. All right, so how could this actually happen? Will it actually happen, as I said, has to go through Congress. What would that process look like? What is the likelihood of that happening? We'll get into that in a second. Let me pause and tell you better for sponsor for the day. And that is Seven Weeks Coffee. Seven Weeks Coffee is America's Pro life coffee company. They are on a mission to support, to fund the Pro Life movement, particularly through their support of pregnancy centers. So 10% of every sale of seven weeks coffee goes to a Pro Life pregnancy center. They have raised almost a million dollars since the business launched just a couple years ago for these Pro Life organizations. And this has translated into saving thousands of baby lives because the money that is donated to these pregnancy centers translates into free resources, volunteers, support for these pregnancy centers. They're just able to see more clients, they're able to have more people to support them, give them more, give them more resources, host classes. And all of this allows these women to feel supported and feel confident in their life affirming choice of keeping their baby. And so really, Seven Weeks Coffee, they don't just make amazing tasting, high quality, pesticide mold, free, organic, incredible coffee. They are also putting their money where their heart is and that is in the Pro Life movement. Right now you can get a limited edition lent tote, a free one when you subscribe to Seven Weeks Coffee. Join Their heartbeat club. You'll get a box of coffee to your front door every month. That also saves you 15 plus. With my code Ali at checkout, you save an extra 10%. Seven weeks. Coffee.comCode Alley okay, so according to Article 2 of the U.S. constitution, the executive branch needs Congress to sign off on eradicating an agency. The measure would require 60 votes to pass. In the Senate, there are only 53 Republicans, which means this is going to be very tough to do because I guarantee you there will be zero Democrats, zero Democrats who want to get this done. Even if they did agree with it, which I guarantee you they don't, because the Department of Education, along with the teachers unions, they are progressive. They are supporting Democrat politicians largely using your tax dollars. We'll get into this. Public unions should be illegal for that reason. But they don't, they don't want this. They don't want this to close down. They don't want to even shave off a little bit of bureaucracy because it helps them win election. So it's going to be very hard for this to be completely eradicated through Congress. Now, Trump can continue to do what he's doing. He can use Doge, he can use the leadership of Linda McMah to try to delegate all of its current responsibilities to other agencies so that it dwindles so small and basically has no power whatsoever while still technically being there, like technically having a building. That's probably what he'll do because it's probably not going to pass Congress. Thomas Massie, Republican from Kentucky, he said that the Senate should use the budget reconciliation process to pass the measure, and that would only require 51 votes. So if they have the gumption to do something like that, it could possibly get passed. I'm not sure if Republicans in Congress have the motivation and the courage to do that because I guarantee you there are Republicans. There are, there are Republicans and professing, you know, so called conservatives who think this is the wrong move, whatever interest they have. There are some Republicans, unfortunately, who take money from the teachers unions and they will be against this. But we'll see, we'll see what Republicans in Congress can get done. And if they take Representative Massie up on his suggestion. So just separating some fact from fiction here. We'll go through some myths that we've been seen from the media and we'll clarify them. We'll fact check them using a resource from our friends at the Heritage Foundation. So one myth that we see is that programs helping students with disabilities will end. And a lot of you have Reached out to me about this. Understandably upset because you have a child with special needs or maybe you're a special needs teacher. And unfortunately, private schools tend to not have the resources for special needs kids. Like, I went to a, a Christian school growing up and there was some support for kids who maybe had ADD or adhd, but there wasn't a special education department. That's just very rare. I can think of one Christian school I know that really had like, pretty robust support for kids with autism and different kinds of learning differences. Most kids, most parents of kids with down syndrome and other more serious learning differences have to go to public school. And so you're hearing from outlets that all of those programs are going to end. And that's understandably scary. But the truth is, is that the Individuals with Disab Education act, which gives these kids a right to an education, will remain in place, but the management of these programs will shift to the Department of Health and Human Services. Again, this is an effort to get rid of the dim of the Democratic bloat is what I accidentally said. But just bureaucratic bloat is what I meant. But it's kind of the same thing and to make this more efficient and to give more responsibility, more oversight to the state and local communities, because that's, you know, really a conservative tenet that the closer you are to the people that you're serving, the better you will do at actually serving them because you know their needs better. That's why we have the system that we do with representatives and senators and, and Electoral college. Why we don't just have a pure democracy and one big federal government like people like AOC would want. Another myth is that access to Pell Grants will end. So Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards given to undergraduate students to help pay for higher education. They don't need to be repaid and eligibility hinders or hinges rather on a variety of factors. Some people are saying this is going to be over now. Well, that's not true. The Pell Grant program was created before the Department of Education. It's going to remain in place, but just like the whole student loan, it's going to be shifted to the Small Business Administration. Another myth that you're seeing, that school meal programs will end. While this has nothing to do with the Department of Education, actually this is already under the Department of Agriculture. And I will take every opportunity to remind people that the administration that threatened to take away school lunches from poor students at schools that received federal funding was the Biden administration who said if you do not comply with our rewrite of title nine, which says that you cannot discriminate in spaces according to so called gender identity, meaning you have to allow boys into girls locker rooms and girls bathrooms if they quote unquote, identify as a boy. If you do not comply with that school, we will take away your SNAP program and we will not give you free lunches and breakfast for your poor students. That's what the Biden administration did. That's, that's what the Department of Agriculture under the directive of the Biden administration did. If you don't allow boys into girls spaces, we will take away food from poor children. Okay, that's verifiable. You can look it up yourself. We've talked about it many, many times. So I don't want to hear anything from Democrats. Oh, taking away school lunches. One, it's not true under this executive order, and two, I didn't see a single one of you complaining about that when the Biden administration did it. Evil all around. Another myth. American education will suffer. Look, American education is suffering. It's suffering. Has American education gotten better or worse since 1979 when the Establish, when the department was established? It's gotten worse. By every metric, the Department of Education has not closed achieve achievement gaps or made education spending more efficient. According to Heritage, and I would agree, students, teachers and taxpayers are better served by ending this failed experiment. So why was the Department of Education even instituted? Congress created it in 1979 at the urging of President Jimmy Carter, who received a first ever presidential endorsement from the country's largest teachers union shortly after pledging to the union his support for a separate Department of Education. The Department now oversees education policy and administers funding for school programs and for individual like, you know, the loans. The Department of Education spent $268 billion in fiscal year 2024. And some fun facts, taxpayers, that's you and me. We spent 200 billion extra dollars at the federal level on schools through the Department of education during the COVID 19 pandemic. So this is combined allocations from the CARES act and from the CRRSA act and the American Rescue plan. All of these pieces of legislation gave more funding to the Education Department, which is actually insane because as we'll talk about, was the Education Department along with the teachers unions that were pushing for school shutdowns. And yet they were saying we need more money. We need more money, which is a pattern from the DOE and these teachers unions. So. So that is on top of the more than $60 billion that the institution Spends annually, that we spend annually on a federal school funding. So has this translated into student betterment, higher student aptitude? Just if we look at over the past few years, okay, we've spent $260 billion over the past few years through the Department, Department of Education on public schools. Well, today American reading and math scores are near historical lows this year. This is mentioned in Trump's executive order. This year's National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that national scores are below pre pandemic levels in all tested grades and subjects. Okay, so that is reading, that is math, that is science. When you look at every grade in public schools, they are doing worse than they were in 2019. Okay, let's look at the bigger picture. Let's go back even further. Stats show increase in spending while student aptitude has decreased. So federal spending growth. In 1979, when the DOE was established, its budget was approximately $14 billion. This equates to about $57 billion in today's dollars. By fiscal year 2024, the DOE is now that spinning reached 267.9 billion, adjusted for inflation from 1980. This reflects a real increase of three hundred and seventy one percent since its inception. And maybe you're thinking, okay, well we've got more people here. We've got a lot more people. We've got more public schools than we did. So we needed that increase in spending. Okay, well how has it worked out? Per pupil federal spending has risen. So this is something that you hear a lot from the public school advocates, from the teachers unions, that we need more money. We need more money. We're not spending enough money. But per pupil federal spending has risen since 1980. 1980, federal contributions to K through 12 education were about $300 per pupil. Okay, only $300 from our federal tax dollars. By 2021-2022, federal funding per pupil hit approximately $3171 per student. Okay, so we're not just talking about an increase in population. And so we're spending about the same amount, even adjusted for inflation, per student with more students. No, we are spending a lot more per student on a lot more students. So how has it worked out for us as we have increased our tax spending? The National Assessment of Educational Progress provides this kind of long term data for student performance. So we'll get into those stats to look at just exactly how we are doing. Thanks to the Department of Education and our tax dollars in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. That is good ranchers. You Guys know how much I love good ranchers. But there's some Sad News. Since 2017, over 140,000 family farms in the US have shut down completely. The reason is a lot of the meat and grocery stores is not coming from American farms. We are importing them from overseas. They are lower quality. We don't have the same standards for that imported meat as we do for the meat that is actually grown locally and raised locally. And so you get the meat a little bit cheaper. You opt for the imported meat that might even say made in the usa, but really that just means packaged in the usa. And the family farms, the American farms are the ones who get the short end of the stick there. But the good news is, is that we actually have the ability to have affordable meat that is also raised in the US by American farms and ranchers. And that is through good ranchers. You don't have to wait until the next election to vote for Putting America First. You can actually do that every time you spend money. One great way to do that is to make sure that all of your meat is coming from these American farms and ranches. And it can just show up at your front door every month on dry ice. You don't even have to think about it. You can get my custom alley box. It's got chicken, it's got beef, it's got bacon. Just all like really good staples that we use every night. Last night we had ground beef like some hamburgers. The night before that we had the non marinated grilled chicken breast. It just makes our lives a lot easier and healthier. Right now. You can go to goodranchers.com use code ALI for $40 off your order. That's goodranchers.com code ALI Alright. For 17 year olds, reading scores averaged about 285 in 1971. Remained at 285 in 2019 showing no improvement despite reading spending increases. Math scores for the same group actually fell from 304 in 1973 to 300 in 2019. And also like I would say that it's probably worse than that that the standards and the testing and the questions have actually changed since 1979. The standards just aren't as rigorous as they used to be. The 2022 NAEP results showed sharper declines. So it kind of looked like it was a little bit, bit steady in 2019, but man, we've taken a huge dip after Covid. The 2022 results show that 4th grade reading scores fell from 219 to 2 17. Only 31% of 4th graders were reading proficiently. Only 40% of 4th graders were proficient in math in the 2022 assessment. In lower performing 4th and 8th graders posted the worst reading scores in over 30 years for 13 year olds. 2023 NAEP scores dropped to two hundred and fifty six in reading, down four points since 1971, and two hundred and sixty nine in math, down five points since 1973. Reverting to levels last seen in the 1970s or earlier per NCES 2023 reports, ACT scores hit a 30 year low in 2023, averaging a 19.5 out of 36. I'm, I'm not trying to be offensive, but 19.5 on the ACT is a very low score. It's a very low score. For that to be the average score of the ACT right now means that we got problems. We got problems. And it's not. I'm not trying to say that a student is inherently dumb or does not have the capacity to be better. And I don't think that standardized tests are the end all be all for measuring someone's IQ or aptitude, but it is an indicator and 19.5 is low for ACTs. It means something is wrong. And the fact that we have not seen increases in all of these metrics, but we've actually seen dips in these metrics despite the fact that we are spending so much more per pupil than we were in 1979, means that there's a big problem. I really encourage everyone to go read or, sorry, listen to. I think you actually can read the transcripts, but listen to sold a story. It's a podcast that I listened to a couple years ago. The facts are actually a lot worse than the ones that I just read. 80% I believe. And you can go listen to it and fact check me, but it's about, about 80% of black fourth graders specifically right now, cannot read. Can't. Did you know that there are 8th graders, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th graders in this country who read at a kindergarten level? It was. What was that stat? The Baltimore school from a couple years ago. I remember Fox News reported on this that it was something like 85% of the graduating class could not read or do math at a middle school level. Okay, so our requirements have changed, our rigor has changed, aptitude has lowered, and yet we are spending more and more money. So what in the world is happening? Well, we are replacing time spent in math and reading, teaching the building blocks of education and critical thinking with progressivism. Christopher Rufo reported. He reports on a lot of this The Department of Education was caught funding teacher training, a teacher training program implying that babies are racist. And so this is a program, it looks like it was published in 2019 again through the Department of Education. Did you know racial awareness in the early years talks about a three months, at nine months, at two years, at three years, at five years. And talking about how basically at young ages kids show racial preferences that they can actually be racist and that that is something that needs to be trained out at school. So this is a government funded Department of Education funded program for teachers that they are learning how to basically weed out or try to get out the so called supposed racial biases in the five year olds that they might be teaching in pre K. The Department of Education granted a $25 million grant to the National Comprehensive Center. This is a program under the DOE designed to enhance instruction quality and close achievement gaps. The Comprehensive center argues that teacher evaluations and standards are weaponized against teachers of color because the standards use terms like professionalism and communicates in appropriate ways, urging that appropriate only means white ways of expression. In one training, the Comprehensive center instructed teachers to flick that white man off your shoulder to resist settler patriarchy and the white gaze. Here's top four teacher evaluation tools are being weaponized and they're in particular being weaponized against teachers of color. And the way that they're being weaponized is through the language of professionalism. For example, I'll give you a concrete example. The use of terminology such as communicates in appropriate ways, who gets to decide what is appropriate. And that's typical, typically white ways of expression. Okay, so this is a center, again, a program funded by the Department of Education that is supposed to be training teachers. Of course, the Department of Education over the years has shown itself to be very progressive. We've got this one post on formerly known as Twitter from the Department of Education. A Happy pride month. It's got the transgender flag on there. Everyone, no matter who they are, whom they love, has an equal place in our democracy. Lgbtqi. Plus, you deserve an education free from discrimination and harassment. That means that you need to allow boys into girls bathrooms. I mean, there's no reason for a Department of Education to be promoting this kind of thing. What, like why would it have any say whatsoever on a child's preference for a certain gender or like their so called sexual orientation or their sexual desires or what they think about the validity of their genitalia? I mean they don't, they shouldn't have anything to do with this kind of backwards ideology. Especially when you're talking about minors. It's freaking weird and creepy. Also, they posted in 2023. We celebrate and honor the qualities that make us unique, stronger and richer education experience for all. Pride is about inclusivity and diversity, they said. And then of course, in Covid, you'll remember that we spent $200 billion extra on Covid during, during that time period through various pieces of legislation. And it was the DOE that said in 2021 that we could only see one student per row, that we need to maintain the correct use of masks that also inhibited learning during COVID They pushed the COVID vaccine on kids in 2022. They pushed the booster for kids in 2022. And remember all of those extra billions of dollars sent to the Department of Education and they were pushing Covid propaganda. Now, just a little bit about the teachers unions. I've talked about the teachers unions a lot. They are corrupt entities and they contribute to the bureaucratic bloat that is in not just the Department of Education, but also the public schools in general, individual public schools. Your school probably gets, except if you're in some rural areas, probably get gets a lot of money that is not actually translating into student success, is also not translating into raising your salary as a teacher. But you've probably noticed that there are a lot more administrators than there used to be. This is called a bureaucracy and it gives the teachers unions more power, it gives the administrative bloat more power, but it doesn't actually help a school run more efficiently or spend your tax dollars more effectively. The National Education association, the largest labor union, the American Federation of Teachers, have lobbied the Department of Education to continuously increase federal spending on education. The centralized nature of the DOE allows unions a central place where they can advocate for programs that benefit themselves, hire more staff, increase their own membership. For example, increasing federal to SPE allows the unions to to advocate for hiring more staff. Giving them more members. That gives them more money. They get paid the union, the union leaders get paid more. Because of that. The DOE distributed $190 billion in Covid relief funds. With unions like the NEA reportedly influencing guidelines to favor hiring unionized staff over non union contractors. Emails uncovered in 2022 showed that American the American Federation of Teachers leaders directly shaped CDC guidance through DOE contacts, pushing to delay reopenings and therefore keeping teachers on paid leave longer rather than prioritizing students. So the two big teachers unions are notorious for funding Democrats and liberal causes is. In the 2024 presidential election cycle, NEA gave $3.2 million to Democrats, $29.2 million to liberal groups. The AFT gave $2.8 million to Democrats and $4.4 million to liberal groups. So they are donating to Democrats using your tax dollars through programs, through support that they are getting through the Department of Education. So your tax dollars are funding progressive groups and liberal campaigns through the teachers unions and through the Department of Education. And that is true of all different kinds of parts of the federal bureaucracy, which is exactly why Democrats do not like Elon Musk. That is why they are saying nothing about the terrorism against Tesla owners and Tesla dealerships. They don't like Elon Musk Musk because they don't want the bloat and the corrupt racket that they've got going on to end. It is how their campaigns are funded. It's how they stay in power. USAID and the Department of Education are two of the biggest perpetrators of this very corrupt relationship that is going on that you are funding with your tax dollars. So I think that this is all excellent. I'm glad this is happening. I want education to improve in the United States. I think a great first step is for education to go to the states, to go to communities. And honestly, I have not heard a good argument against that. All right. So I hope that at least answered some of your questions about that. There's a lot more we could discuss, but we got to get into a couple other things. Next sponsor for the day is Carly Jean Los Angeles. I love cjla. I've been wearing CJLA for many years. My clothes have seen me through so many different stages of life, all three of my pregnancies and postpartums. And I still have clothes from CJLA that I was wearing five years ago. That's one of my favorite things about them. In addition to them being super comfortable and classic, they just like don't go out of style. They stay on trend because they are just, they're not really dependent upon the different trends. They are just classy and simple. You can mix and match. They're really high quality. I'm wearing my CJLA jacket, a CJLA tank top. I love jeans from cjla. I'm so just spoiled by them that I cannot get jeans from any other brand pretty much because they're so comfortable right now. If you use my code ali b@cearlyjean los angeles.com you get 20 off their entire site if it's your first order. CarlyJean losangeles.com Code Ali B. Okay, let's talk about this video that I saw going around on X. And it's Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer player, if you don't know, and his girlfriend. So they have a Netflix documentary right now on Cristiano Ronaldo. And there's a video that has gone viral of him being interviewed with his longtime girlfriend. And the interviewer asks, like, when are you gonna get married? They've got kids together. They've been together forever. And here is his response. 7. Okay, if you're listening to that, I have no idea what she said. I'm not given anything about what she said. I don't know what she said. But he said, I always tell her when we get that click. That is the answer that he has, that he has for the reporter who asked ask, so, like, when are you gonna get married? Y'all have been committed to each other for so long. He says, when we get that click, like everything in our life. And she knows what I'm talking about. It could be in a year, it could be in six months, or it could be in a month. I'm a thousand percent sure that it will happen. Let me break it to you. Spoiler alert. It's not gonna happen, girl. Why? He is getting the milk for free. He's getting the cheese, he's getting the cream, he's getting the ice cream. He's getting everything that you can get for milk, milk from milk, for absolutely free. There is no reason for him to buy the cow. And also. So this took us into kind of like a rabbit hole of Ronaldo and who he is. And he's actually kind of just like a strange guy. He has multiple kids from different women, but we don't know who the women are because he used surrogates to get these women or to get these women to get these children. And the. His current girlfriend is not the mother of all of his children, even though they've together for a long time, even through the births of some of these children. Okay, so they've been together since 2017, I think I said they've been together for 10 years, but I guess it's only been eight years. They met at a Gucci store where she worked. Ronaldo had twins, Eva, Mario and Mateo, who were born on June 8, 2017. Okay. Via surrogacy in California. Again, we do not know know who the mother is. It's not her. This is through a surrogate. So he maybe he actually was with the woman that he created these children with, and they are her eggs. But it could also be just an egg seller. So he bought these eggs. He rented this womb because he wanted children even though he wasn't with anyone. Rodriguez, his current girlfriend, says that she has taken on the mom role for all of the kids. Because, Bri, you said that he had other kids before 2017 too. I don't see that on here.
- [45:32]
Bri
Yeah, it's. It's under the family structure section. He only has one.
- [45:37]
Ali Stuckey
He has one other. Yep. Kid.
- [45:39]
Bri
Yep.
- [45:40]
Ali Stuckey
From 2010. Yeah, from 2010. He doesn't have any kids with his current girlfriend.
- [45:45]
Bri
He does have one now, or actually they have two. They had a child in 2017, right after they got together, and then they had twins and one of them passed away.
- [45:56]
Ali Stuckey
Okay, so he has twins and one other child with his current girlfriend. Naturally, like she gave birth to them, but through different surrogates, supposedly. Different surrogates, Definitely. At least one surrogate. He had twins in 2017 as well. And he has a 15 year old son that he had via surrogate in 2010. Can.
- [46:17]
Bri
Yeah. If I'm understanding things correctly. Yes.
- [46:20]
Ali Stuckey
And she says his current girlfriend says, yeah, I basically have become their mom. But he says that's not true.
- [46:27]
Bri
Well, he hasn't said that's not true. But every time he talks about it, he calls himself a single parent. So in effect. Yeah, he's saying he's the parent. She's not. So. Yeah.
- [46:38]
Ali Stuckey
Okay. And he has said that he's not going to share the identity of his first son. Son's mother. He might. When the time feels right. I guess it's got to click again. It's just gotta click. And that him being a single parent is not a problem. He said in the world, many kids don't have a mom. Don't have dads or dads die or moms die. Cristiano, that's his son's name, has a dad. An unbelievable. Wait, is he saying that he's talking about himself? Yeah, he's an unbelievable dad. Yes. Okay. I'm gonna write myself a Mother's Day card this year to my kids. You have an unbelievable mom from me. You're welcome. An unbelievable dad. A grandfather, a grandmother. I have the support of my family. So when he calls himself a single dad, Bri, like, do you think that he was the one, like, changing the diapers, taking him to play dates and things like that? When he says single dad, what do you think he means?
- [47:40]
Bri
Yeah, it's hard to imagine that he, a professional soccer player, has time to be doing things like this. That. For multiple kids.
- [47:48]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
- [47:49]
Bri
So I think he loves taking the credit but it is kind of weird that he has like taken the initiative to have more kids, seemingly without a partner, just himself. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm, I'm sure he has tons of help and they're raising kids, but.
- [48:06]
Ali Stuckey
Right. It's. And it's very strange to basically say also, he doesn't need a moment. He doesn't, he doesn't need a mom. Well, that's, that's just really sad. I guarantee you there are some serious issues there. Everyone has a mom. It's just a matter of if you know your mom or not. And motherlessness or fatherlessness is supposed to be a tragedy. It's not something that we should purposely contrive as you guys have heard me talk about many times when it comes to surrogacy. And just again, for the record, I'm not just against surrogacy when it comes to same sex sex couples. I am against sperm and egg selling and surrogacy for all different people because it creates a broken situation. Adoption redeems a situation that already exists. It solves the problem. But surrogacy, sperm excelling, all of this, it creates the broken situation. It creates the problem. So he, obviously, he's got a, he's, he's got a history there. He's got, got some problematic sexual ethics, reproductive ethics, but also when it comes to his relationships. And you know, this is kind of like a trend that's been talked about, the forever girlfriends or the stay at home girlfriends. We talked about it at the time when we saw this going on on Tick Tock. But here is a, here's a video that went viral on TikTok that shows that this is something, I guess this is a subset of social media where girls are bragging about being stay at home girlfriends. It's sodding date.
- [49:34]
Nate
This is my day in the life as a stay at home girlfriend. The first thing I do is take my aloe shot. I love having this on an empty stomach and I take my greens. Then I get straight to making Luke's coffee because he's definitely a caffeine first thing in the morning kind of guy. I am adding some honey and cream and I made these cookies yesterday, so I'm going to give him a couple of those to eat with his coffee. Then I love to open all the blinds in the house and get all the sunlight I can and make the bed, of course, to keep the house tidy and looking its best.
- [50:14]
Ali Stuckey
Okay, so he's got a maid, he's got a cook, he's got someone that will sleep with him and he does not have to commit. Marriage is more than just a piece of paper. It is, is not just a commitment. It's not just a contract. It is supposed to be a covenant. It's supposed to be really difficult to get out of for a reason. You're supposed to be bonded not only for your sake, but also for the sake of the children that marriage is supposed to in principle create. This is disordered and it leaves this woman in particular, especially if she does not have a job, extremely vulnerable. Girl, what you are doing is preparing him for his wife. And, and look, guys love to work hard for things. You give them a goal, they want to go after it. They want to be able to sacrifice, they want to be able to prove that they have endurance, they have perseverance, that they are strong, brave, courageous, all of that. If you give them everything they want easily and they have nothing to pursue, they eventually lose interest. I'm talking, of course, like pre marriage. After that, he's still motivated by the drive and the journey and the challenge of providing and protecting his family. But before that, the pursuit is extremely important for a man. It's how God wired them. And if you are giving them everything, then you are undermining his instinctive and inherent need to chase after something in a healthy and respectful way, of course. Here's what I would tell someone if they were in the in this position. I would tell them that you are worth committing to. And if he wanted to commit to you, he would and he would have already done it. Now, maybe there are some extenuating situations and exceptions out there where you're not getting married or not getting engaged right away. But there's never an excuse to live with a man like this. There is never an excuse to play house and to play marriage and to be his stay at home girlfriend and take everything special away from marriage before you even get there. And to dismiss the need for commitment and for sacrifice by simply so easily and cheaply giving over your body and your time and your energy and your talent to a man who does not love you enough to really commit. This is what I would say to Cristiano's girlfriend too. And I think a lot of guys or a lot of girls rather think, well, if I leave him, I will never find someone else. I can't do better than this. And what if I never do? What if I stay single forever? And I would say, first of all, there probably is someone out there better. There just probably is. There probably is a man out there, there who would pursue you and who would commit to you and would make sacrifices for you and who would honor you. But even if there's not, it is better, it would be better to be single than this. At least you would be single and be able to preserve some self respect instead of constantly worrying and thinking is he ever going to see me as good enough? Enough? And just the anxiety that comes with wondering if you are ever going to be what clicks for him and what is it, what is it about me? What is it that I'm not doing that is making him scared or not want to be exclusively committed to me for life. And you don't deserve that kind of anxiety and that kind of worry and fear forever. There's so much solace that comes with covenantal marriage and that is why God, that's part of why God created it. And just from a Christian perspective, it is only man, woman and marriage that can reflect the spiritual eternal reality of Christ in the church. Girlfriend, boyfriend, they don't do that. God cares about your heart, he cares about your body, he cares about your soul, he cares about your mind. He created marriage as a safe space for all of those things. That's how it's supposed to be. And going outside of those parameters are is always going to have consequences. Namely it's going to break your heart and hurt your body. So just keep that in mind. You need better than that girl. Need better than that. All right, let me tell you about our next sponsor and then Bri and I will do some quick severance talk. All right? Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. They offer a way to vote with your wallet. Remember when I said that you don't have to wait to vote America first every four years? You can do that every time you spend money. You do that every time you switch to a company that actually shares your values. Patriot Mobile is a company that shares your values. They are supporting the first and Second Amendment, the sanctity of life. Our veterans and first responders, their customer service team is all 100% America based. So they make switching super easy, very simple. You don't have to compromise at all when it comes to the quality of your service. They still use the majority, the major carriers and so no worries on that, you can keep your phone, you can upgrade your phone right now when you use my link patriot mobile.com ally you can get a free month of service with my code ally patriot mobile.com ally code Ali okay, so our fellow severance watcher Nate is not Here we have a substitute for Nate. And is it because. Is it specifically because he didn't want to hear spoilers? It might, because I respect that.
- [56:13]
Bri
I told him. I told him, please finish by Tuesday.
- [56:17]
Ali Stuckey
That was his homework assignment.
- [56:18]
Bri
And he said, I'll try my best. And he may not have.
- [56:21]
Ali Stuckey
He may not have. So he's our wonderful camera operator, and he. And he and his wife, I think, are behind us. And I was sincerely worried when I knew we were going to talk about this, that we would spoil it for him. We would have made him go out of the room or something. Because I don't like spoilers. Okay. So I'm warning all of you out there, if you have not watched Severance, we. There will be spoilers here if, you know, not everyone in here can go out of the room, because then we wouldn't be able to do it. But some of you might if you want to avoid the spoilers. Let's do a disclaimer. Let's do a disclaimer just like you give your disclaimer when you listen to Taylor Swift.
- [56:58]
Bri
Yeah.
- [56:59]
Ali Stuckey
We do not endorse all of the themes or all of the content of Severance. Of course. I. I'll just give a warning. There are like. There's one, like, gay relationship that you don't really even, like, see very much of, but it's just there, it's part of the plot, which they could have definitely done without. Could have been a woman.
- [57:20]
Bri
Yes.
- [57:21]
Ali Stuckey
There is a couple sex scenes, but again, like, for TV these days, very mild. Yep. And like, I always fast forward through those. I just, even if I didn't. Wasn't morally against it, I found it really uncomfortable. Um, and there's cussing. There's.
- [57:40]
Bri
Yeah.
- [57:40]
Ali Stuckey
And there's, I would say, some demonic themes. Would you say?
- [57:43]
Bri
Yes, there are. Yeah.
- [57:45]
Ali Stuckey
Did you notice? I mean, this is kind of just like all over the place. We're just shooting from the hip here. But there's like, definitely baphomet.
- [57:53]
Bri
Yes.
- [57:54]
Ali Stuckey
Symbolism.
- [57:55]
Bri
Yeah, Well, I mean, you know, there was so much speculation, and again, we're jumping around, but you know, the ghost goat scene in the last episode, there was so much speculation about what the goats were for, and people were coming up with all these theories. And I saw a tweet after the finale that was like, oh, so it literally was just goat sacrifice.
- [58:13]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
- [58:13]
Bri
I think they were probably trying to implant one of those chips that had, like a human mind in it or something into a goat. There's probably some weird experiment, but it did look like they were just sacrificing the goat for religious reasons.
- [58:27]
Ali Stuckey
Well, yeah, because that's basically what Mr. Drummond said.
- [58:31]
Bri
Yeah.
- [58:31]
Ali Stuckey
When she said, you know, how many of these am I going to have to sacrifice? And he said, as many as. I don't know if he said the board or the leadership, as many as they want. I thought she was going to shoot him right then.
- [58:43]
Bri
Yeah.
- [58:44]
Ali Stuckey
By the way.
- [58:45]
Bri
Yeah.
- [58:45]
Ali Stuckey
And that's not actually what happened. Okay, can we. Let's talk about the goat people for a second. I didn't know what direction we were going to go, and we could talk about this for probably hours and hours.
- [58:55]
Bri
Yeah.
- [58:56]
Ali Stuckey
So the whole time we're trying to figure out what the goats are, and I thought actually that this was just going to be a random thing that they never followed up on. Just to, like, kind of make us wonder. Yeah. The goat people. Who do you think the goat people are? Because they are strange and very different than macro data refinement.
- [59:19]
Bri
Well, my thinking was always just that, like, these innies are essentially, like, born. They have some knowledge of how to be an adult, I guess, but they're essentially born when they are, like, created. And I feel like the goat people are weird because all they know is taking care of goats, and probably some of them only, like, are hanging out with goats. So I never thought that much about that.
- [59:44]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
- [59:44]
Bri
Like, why they're so weird, other than maybe that's just how their innies were, like, taught to be.
- [59:50]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. And they're all just kind of a product of their environment and training and all of that. Okay, this is probably thinking too far. I don't. Have you listened to any of the Severance podcast?
- [60:00]
Bri
A little bit?
- [60:01]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah, I've listened to some of the episodes, and it doesn't really, like, give anything away. So after I listened to it, I was like, oh, maybe we're thinking too hard about this. But I do have a question about if any of these people were dead and were revived. And because I would say some of the goat people looked like they had been buried for a long time and had been brought back to life and almost looked like they were from a different era. Now, I think your theory is. Could totally be it, too. Kind of like Dwight and his brother. Like, they kind of look like that because they lived on a beet farm in the office. So, like, they. It could just be that. But I did think, are these people basically, like, dug up from cemetery and revived to do this job? I don't know what you think about that, but that also leads to my question about Gemma and who she really is and what happened to her to get her inside.
- [61:00]
Bri
Yeah, because there were theories. There were lots of theories that Gemma did die and they just took her body and created Ms. Casey out of her. And now we have more answers.
- [61:11]
Ali Stuckey
What's the answer? What's more answer? Answer.
- [61:13]
Bri
Well, we have more answers in that we know that the personhood of Gemma still exists because she recognizes Mark in the finale.
- [61:20]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
- [61:21]
Bri
But, yeah, we don't know if that's, you know, the exact same person or if something weird and nefarious was going on with her body. We still don't know that for certain. I guess I think it's safe to assume they faked her death and just kidnapped her and had her down there. But, yeah, I guess we don't really know.
- [61:40]
Ali Stuckey
No, we don't know. But there's one comment now, we don't know how much she knows. So the lady. I forget her name, that was helping reintegrate Mark.
- [61:50]
Bri
Oh, yeah, I forget her name too.
- [61:52]
Ali Stuckey
But yeah, she made a comment when they were like, they were in the basement, and he, like, looked at her remains, Gemma's remains, or what he thought were Gemma's remains. And he. She said, is that her? And he was like, yeah, I think so. Or I thought so. And then he was trying to ask, like, how would they have gotten Gemma? And she said, they know people at the morgue. Now, I don't know if she knows that for sure or if she's just saying that because that's the interesting storyline to me. Are they reviving people? Are they reviving people? Giving them new consciousness? Is that Cold Harbor? Like, is that the project of. Because I still haven't totally figured out, like, what they were trying to accomplish and what they felt like was so new for humanity, for Gemma.
- [62:41]
Bri
And what's weird also is when Jame Egan, the father, when he comes down and he sees Heli sitting there and he weirdest interaction, and he goes, I don't love my daughter Helena, but I don't see Kieran her, but I see Kieran you. And it makes me wonder if their whole goal is to create Kier the person, create his consciousness again and, like, implant him into an actual person so he can live forever, essentially, if he's their religious figure. I don't know if they'll go down that route, but it's. I feel like it's clear that they're going to use Heli as like, now the test subject for things. Because they see Kieran her. Yeah, she seems like the new. The New person. I'm curious what you think about the ending and what you think about Mark S making the decision that he made because it's very contentious online.
- [63:37]
Ali Stuckey
Okay. Can I tell you what I hated and I thought was so. I loved this show and that the acting was so good. I just felt like. Just from amateur perspective, like, the directing was so good. Everything was amazing. And I thought it was so sloppy and so rushed when they did the camcorder thing, I thought the camcorder thing was so cheesy and lame. Like, I don't know how else they could have done that. And we did find out some important information. Any Audi mark or, you know, communicating there. It went on too long. I thought it was so lame. And of course, I'm mad at any Mark at the end of it because Audi mark made his, like, home run argument when he was like, whatever you feel for heli, multiply that by thousands. And that's what I feel for Gemma. So you can see why I have to get her out. And, like, any mark is like, no, I don't get that.
- [64:30]
Bri
That. I totally disagree.
- [64:33]
Ali Stuckey
What you love.
- [64:35]
Bri
Yes. I disagree about that. And I disagree. I'm not mad at what he did at the end. I know, I know. Okay, so the camcorder zine, I thought was really interesting, just artistically, if I may, because blue. The blue coloring on. On Audi mark, and the red coloring on any mark I just thought was really interesting. The fact that it's on a camcorder. Because everything in Kir Town, or whatever it's called is like. Like, old. Old everything. Yeah. Even the outside world, which we don't have answers for yet as to why that's a very.
- [65:10]
Ali Stuckey
That's like. I feel like you see that a lot. You even see that a little bit in, like, Stranger Things. And, like, there are different shows that do that. I feel like it's just creepy.
- [65:19]
Bri
Yeah, but those shows. Most of those shows are, like, are.
- [65:22]
Ali Stuckey
Actually shot in the 80s, but I feel like. And maybe someone out there can remember. I feel like there are shows that have done this kind of thing before where it's hard to tell tell what era they're in.
- [65:32]
Bri
Oh, yeah. True, true. I think this is one, though, where they very intentionally are dating it. They're not trying to leave it ambiguous. They're like, this is not in 2024, where we're setting it. Yeah. All the cars are old. All the technology within Lumen is like.
- [65:47]
Ali Stuckey
But they don't match decades. Like, they've. Some people have smartphones, some people have flip phones. The cars are from the 1950s, the 1970s, the 1980s. Beast.
- [65:59]
Bri
Yeah.
- [66:00]
Ali Stuckey
The styles, huh?
- [66:02]
Bri
Have we seen a smartphone?
- [66:05]
Ali Stuckey
Mark and his sister are going back and forth on a smartphone, but they also have flip phones that are work phones. And all of the style is. You could see it as 70s, but you could also see it as current. Like Hel's clothes are current.
- [66:19]
Bri
Sure.
- [66:20]
Ali Stuckey
And their suits are current. Mark's hair might be 70s. I think it is purposely very ambiguous.
- [66:26]
Bri
Ambiguous. See, I felt. Felt like that on the, on the inside that they purposely made it ambiguous. Maybe it's on both, though. But I forgot what I was saying now. Sorry why we brought that up to begin with.
- [66:38]
Ali Stuckey
But. Well, the end. Like you like.
- [66:42]
Bri
Yeah, okay. I like the camcorder scene just because I thought it gave a good. It was such good tension with the. Him, himself and him realizing, oh, maybe I can't trust this person who has enslaved me, even though he is. Is apologizing. I thought it was great. But the ending, I get it, I get it. I thought it was like a really romantic ending because a lot of people are saying, well, he should have just sacrificed himself for his Audi. Why would he do that? He has this idea of his own personhood that is separate from this person he knows nothing about other than that they share a body on the outside. And he's. He went to all the trouble of saving his wife. Wife. And then he chooses to spend as much time as he can with the person that he loves because he doesn't see himself as Audi Mark. He sees himself as any Mark. So I don't think he's doing something. I mean, he's doing something selfish in that he's doing something for himself. But he doesn't have any obligation in my mind to sacrifice himself for his Audi.
- [67:45]
Ali Stuckey
Okay. It's not. I, I just, I. I don't think that artistically it was the wrong choice. It makes it interesting because. Because now I think Gemma is going to want to rescue Mark. Real Mark, because real Mark, it's not just any Audi Mark. It's real Mark versus not real Mark. Because any Mark, it's. It doesn't have a real life. He doesn't have a real life. It is not real. Like his, like his memory span back to being on the conference room table. Like he. Anything that is real about Mark is borrowed from his Audi and the Audi is real and is in, like, covenant of marriage with, like a real person who was actually born. And I understand that Mark doesn't know any Mark, doesn't know that and can't comprehend that. But there was a moment that Heli said, because I understood this and I sympathize with this, when he was like, I don't even want to finish Cold harbor because I know what we have to do.
- [68:42]
Bri
Yeah.
- [68:43]
Ali Stuckey
And he's like, I don't want to go out there. I want to stay here with you. Which I thought was sweet. And I understood. And Helly said, but I'm her. She understood that. She said, but I'm her. I'm Helena Egan. Okay.
- [68:57]
Bri
Yeah.
- [68:57]
Ali Stuckey
And he got it. He was like, okay, this is hard for me to understand, but I get it, because that is true. That's the whole thing. She understood in that moment. I'm her. I'm an Egan. I'm not just anyone. Like, I am an Egan, and you can't love me, and we can't love each other, and we can't be together, and we have no meaning. He understood it then. Now, what I didn't understand is after the marching band came, why they stood around, like, for five minutes, y'all just had a whole plan of how you had to sprint to go get Gemma, and you finally did. Him and Gemma, they get together. It's beautiful. She, as her innie, is trusting enough to be like, okay, I don't fully get this because I have this conscious. Conscious over here, but I'm gonna, like. Like, go to Mark. They're so excited. They're so together. He gets there. Even knowing that Heli is Helena. He still is. Like, he knows it. He does know it. He might not be able to feel it, but he knows it. He's still like. And he knows Annie because he's integrated, so he knows that that is his wife. He at least has a. Some understanding that, like, wow, they had a real marriage and a real relationship and all of these things. Things. And he still says no. He still says no to that, knowing what he knows. And he goes to Heli. Where the heck are they running? No one knows. Where are you running? Are you running back to Mr. Milchick? Are you running back to Dylan? Where. Where are you going? But are you even running to.
- [70:29]
Bri
I don't think that's the point, though, because I. I think what you said artistically, I think it's really beautiful, because this. What he's communicating is. I don't care if it's 10 minutes and then they shove me in an elevator and I become out of Mark again.
- [70:45]
Ali Stuckey
Why don't they just stand there?
- [70:47]
Bri
Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't know why they went and run. Ran down the hallway. I don't know how they're going. But I think he probably understands. I'm not gonna stay down here forever, because obviously, somehow my. Someone's gonna put me in an elevator, and I'm gonna become Outy. Mark. Mark. And my. And he will choose to never come back here. So I think.
- [71:05]
Ali Stuckey
You don't think he knows they were never gonna let him out again. They're never gonna let him out.
- [71:09]
Bri
You don't think they're ever gonna let him out again?
- [71:11]
Ali Stuckey
No.
- [71:13]
Bri
I mean, Drummond was about to kill him.
- [71:15]
Ali Stuckey
Exactly. And I think it's just, like, they're gonna let her out.
- [71:20]
Bri
Yeah.
- [71:21]
Ali Stuckey
Because she's an Egan. They're not gonna let him out. And because he's gonna become like Ms. Casey now. Now.
- [71:28]
Bri
Oh, I'm detested. Yeah. Because they never finished Cold harbor, maybe.
- [71:33]
Ali Stuckey
That's what I think. And she looked back at Ms. Casey, and I thought it was a glare.
- [71:42]
Bri
I did, too, at first.
- [71:44]
Ali Stuckey
The actress who plays her was like, oh, no. She had empathy for her for the first time. And I'm like, you didn't convey that at all.
- [71:52]
Bri
I thought that too. And when I saw her make that face, I was like, oh, is she Helena right now? Me too.
- [71:56]
Ali Stuckey
Too. Maybe you're supposed to. And Ben Stiller immediately was like, oh, there could be different interpretations for that on the podcast, because I don't even know. It's funny how, like, the actors don't even necessarily know for sure.
- [72:09]
Bri
Yeah.
- [72:11]
Ali Stuckey
What is being conveyed.
- [72:12]
Bri
Yeah.
- [72:13]
Ali Stuckey
Okay. One more thing. This could go on and on. This kept me up. Irving, what do you think happened to Irving? I have my own theory. Theory. And what do you think was going on with him?
- [72:28]
Bri
Like, why he actually knew some of the stuff that was going on in Lumen?
- [72:32]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
- [72:33]
Bri
I have a. No idea. I have no idea. I guess we'll figure that out in the next seasons. Because he's not gone forever. I do not think he's gone forever. People love him too much.
- [72:43]
Ali Stuckey
Really?
- [72:44]
Bri
Yeah. I don't think that they would do that. I don't know. I mean, I don't. I don't know what your theory is. I took it pretty much as, like. Like, he. He got away for a while, but he's probably gonna come back. And I think Bert was probably being generous in allowing him to escape, because that's.
- [73:02]
Ali Stuckey
That's your theory?
- [73:03]
Bri
Yeah.
- [73:03]
Ali Stuckey
Okay. I love that. We, like, land in totally different places. My theory is that he was a goon.
- [73:12]
Bri
Yeah.
- [73:12]
Ali Stuckey
And because that's what Audi. Irving thought.
- [73:15]
Bri
Yeah.
- [73:16]
Ali Stuckey
And knew somehow. We don't totally know. Know how? I think that. That Lumen knew that Irving knew things, and that Bert, the interaction between O and D, their romance all along, was planted. And that they knew from the very beginning that this is how they were going to coax him into this. Basically being taken out to pasture. Because you'll remember Irving, he kept on falling asleep, and when he would fall asleep, he would see really scary stuff, like black lava. And obviously his Audi was painting this thing, so they knew that he knew things, so they had to take him out somehow. And I think that he was 100% right when he knew that Bert was a goon, a henchman for Lumen, and would. Because he's like. What he had written down that Bert read was like, he drives them places, but, like, we don't know. And then he literally says, okay, will you take a ride with me? And Irving is like, oh, sure. I know that none of that stuff is true about you anymore. I'll take a ride with you. Completely unrelated, right?
- [74:32]
Bri
Yeah.
- [74:32]
Ali Stuckey
So they take a ride. He doesn't know where they're going. They go to this mysterious train station. He gets in a train all by himself, goes away, and is like, la dee da. He is convinced by Bert until the very end. It's kind of like when you're putting your dog to sleep and you're like, oh, you're just taking a nap. It's really sad. And Bert is like, wow, you're being so generous and kind. You're sending me off somewhere because we can't ever be in love. And Bert is like, no, this is my job. I'm paid by Lumen to make their problems go away. And he was a problem that went away.
- [75:02]
Bri
Okay, but hear me out. If they had already known, because we see that scene when he's at Bert's house for dinner. Dinner. Yeah. I think it's Drummond goes into Irving's apartment and he.
- [75:12]
Ali Stuckey
Well, I don't think it's Drummond.
- [75:13]
Bri
Oh. So then some Lumen guy. Yeah, I was assuming it was someone.
- [75:16]
Ali Stuckey
From the guy who is behind the com. Mark's computer.
- [75:20]
Bri
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He goes in and he sees all the stuff. I don't know if they knew before that, but if they did know before that, it'd be pretty easy to take someone out like that. You would fire him and then just kill him. So I don't know that they would have to go through all of that. That's, like, so much to go through to Set all of that up to, like, catch him. And I feel like Burt saying, let's go for a drive was a misdirect. I feel like they wanted the audience to be like, oh, that he's about to take him out and then he decides not to. That's what. That's what I think. Because I don't think they can get rid of him. I also don't think they would write the only gay characters to be evil. I just don't think that they would do that from a TV writing strategy.
- [76:05]
Ali Stuckey
I think they would. I think that. I mean, they made Mr. Milchick likable, but evil.
- [76:11]
Bri
Yes.
- [76:11]
Ali Stuckey
They made women likable, but evil. I think they. I don't think they really care about that. I don't think Irving is evil. No, Irving is the likable one. I think that they can make Bert evil. I mean, Bert literally says in the ride to the train station, we're very boring people by now. Like in the ride to the train station, yeah, I would drive people places, but I never hurt them. I didn't know what happened when I drove them places. And then he does that for Irving. I don't. That doesn't mean necessarily, Irving is gone forever. But Irving didn't become a really big problem until he tried to drown Helena.
- [76:49]
Bri
Right.
- [76:49]
Ali Stuckey
And that could have been when they were like, okay, we thought we could tolerate it, but now gotta get him out.
- [76:54]
Bri
That's true. Because that is when they fired him and when Bert showed up. Right.
- [77:00]
Ali Stuckey
Well, so in Audi. Audi world. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [77:03]
Bri
So I don't know. Maybe that's true. I just. People love them and people, like, really loved their relationship. And so I.
- [77:12]
Ali Stuckey
And Irving.
- [77:13]
Bri
Yeah, I know. People really liked it, though, and they were shipping them. And so I have a feeling that the intention was to make that like a. Oh, I don't really know what happened, but this is going to be romantic anyway kind of situation. And I. I'm not saying that I love that for the narrative. Narrative. I think your theory is probably better for the narrative and more interesting, but I feel like maybe that's what they were going for. I don't know.
- [77:37]
Ali Stuckey
I don't know. And some people also think that heli at the end was Helena. And I don't. I think she was helly.
- [77:43]
Bri
Yep. She was heli, I think. And. Yeah, I don't know. There's still so many questions, so much that was not answered. So we'll see, I guess, in a year.
- [77:54]
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. Thankfully not. Hopefully not like three years. If there's not another writer strike.
- [77:59]
Bri
Yeah.
- [77:59]
Ali Stuckey
All right. We gotta close out. We gotta close out. I know that y'all want to hear us go all the way back to the very beginning. One day, maybe we'll put it behind the paywall just for our own fun. Okay, Last thing I want to tell you about is Blazes Frontier magazine. It is a beautiful, very compelling, profound magazine. It is just. It's like art and both in word and in picture. And you got to subscribe. If you go to blaze unlimited.com alli use promo code blaze500, you'll get $40 off your subscription. This is journalism like you are not seeing anywhere else. And I will be writing at some point for this. I just don't know when. Go to blazeunlimited.com Alli use code BLAZE500. Also, I will be announcing the speaker. Some of the speakers will share the arrows very soon. Go to sharethe arrows.com for more info. All right, we will be back here tomorrow.