Suspension of the rules. - Isaac, Ari and Kmele talk Texas Senate primary, the missing congressman, and more.

Summary

Tangle Podcast Summary

Episode: "Suspension of the rules. - Isaac, Ari and Kmele talk Texas Senate primary, the missing congressman, and more."
Host: Isaac Saul
Guests: Ari Weitzman (Managing Editor), Camille Foster (Editor-at-Large)
Release Date: May 28, 2026

---

Overview

In this episode, the Tangle team dissects a busy week in American politics, focusing on the aftermath of the Texas Senate primary, the mysterious absence of a New Jersey congressman, and the societal questions raised by the newly launched Enhanced Games (where performance-enhancing drugs are encouraged). The hosts also tackle the blurred lines between personal health and public office, voter behavior and political decency, and close with some lighter, often hilarious, personal grievances.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Enhanced Games: Cheating as a Sport?

[02:27–13:56]

• The hosts debate the debut of the "Enhanced Games," an Olympic-style event where athletes are encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

• Isaac initially mocks the event, describing it as "a bunch of people who can't compete in the Olympics without doping and are salty about that" [03:24].

• Ari clarifies that the premise is to test "the actual highest limit of human achievement" if all PEDs and advanced tech are allowed [05:57].

• Camille notes that most doping, though allowed, was still done under medical supervision, and the league struggled to attract elite talent and media partners [07:48].

• The main conclusion: The games didn’t deliver shocking results—most participants didn’t break records, and the moral line of what’s acceptable in sports is clearly blurred.

  Notable Quote:

  "Really what this proved is that doping has less of an effect on good training regimens and top level talent. Huge surprise. ...We learned nothing from this and it was extremely uninteresting."
  —Ari [07:16]

2. Texas Senate Primary: Ken Paxton vs. James Talarico

[13:56–36:55]

• Isaac discusses his controversial "lose-lose" assessment of the race between Republican Ken Paxton (described as comically corrupt) and Democrat James Talarico (whom he fears is too progressive for Texas voters) [16:15–19:11].

• Ari offers editorial transparency: the problematic "flattening" in the episode summary may have led readers to think Isaac equated both candidates’ negatives [19:16].

• The hosts agree that Paxton's nomination is a reflection of current Republican primary voter sentiment, not just Trump’s influence.

• Camille points out Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Paxton, despite the candidate’s baggage, may hurt Republicans long-term [29:42–32:49].

  Notable Quote:

  "He was impeached by a Republican Congress in Texas... His own wife is not endorsing him. All of this, it doesn't look particularly good. And Donald Trump says, you know what? That's my guy."
  —Camille [32:31]

• Isaac and Ari both predict Paxton will win—skeptical that Texas will flip until it finally does.

• Ari reflects on the voter dilemma: decency vs. policy alignment [26:44], noting it's a real quandary for responsible voters.

  Notable Quote:

  "Are you going to say, I'm going to punch the ticket for the guy who disagrees with me on everything... because I really don't trust the other guy?"
  —Ari [27:31]

3. Trump’s Role in GOP Dynamics

[32:49–36:55]

• The team debates whether Trump should be blamed for the direction of the GOP and the Texas results.
• Isaac notes, after engaging with conservative critics, that "the voters have agency here. Ultimately they are the ones pushing the button" [36:22].
• Camille counters that Trump is actively "choosing this particular battle" and contributing to Republican dysfunction [35:42].

4. The Curious Case of the Missing Congressman

[41:59–55:42]

• Isaac raises the issue of Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. (R-NJ), who has not participated in congressional voting or been seen in public for months, though he’s still trading stocks [41:59].

• The hosts agree that while health issues demand sensitivity, constituents deserve transparency; compare to John Fetterman’s transparency during his health crisis.

• Camille: "You knew what you were getting into when you ran for office... The public, your constituents, are your employers." [51:48]

  Notable Quote:

  "I think it’s inexcusable. I don’t think there’s any question that’s inappropriate to ask in this regard since we do know that it is about him and it’s about his recovery and he needs to be transparent and he needs to do it now."
  —Camille [52:48]

5. Al Green’s Defeat and Generational Change

[40:12–41:59]

• The defeat of 11-term Congressman Al Green by 38-year-old Christian Menefee is framed as a sign of Congress getting younger, though Green’s legislative accomplishments were limited.
• Ari: "If you’re a person who has been professing concerns about the aging Congress, then... Congress is going to get younger."

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I wanted to talk about the Enhanced Games. I thought Ken Paxton winning the primary was a sign of societal rot. And then I saw where performance enhancing drugs are not only allowed but encouraged and everybody is still terrible at what they do."
  —Isaac [02:27]
• "What's worse here? ...Sending a corrupt senator to Congress is as bad as having a bunch of partisan divisions inflamed?"
  —Isaac [18:58]
• "If as a voter... you want to vote for the person that's on your side politically and also is decent. But you get into quandaries..."
  —Ari [27:13]
• "You knew what you were getting into when you ran for office. This is public office. ...You have an obligation to [the public] when you're not showing up for work."
  —Camille [51:48]
• "I just can't imagine a world where I find out what [the missing congressman story] is. And I think I was wrong to ask any questions."
  —Isaac [54:16]

---

Major Timestamps

• 02:27–13:56: Enhanced Games and morality in sports
• 13:56–29:42: Texas Senate primary, Ken Paxton vs. James Talarico, editorial “lose-lose”
• 29:42–36:55: Trump’s GOP influence and nomination drama
• 41:59–55:42: Congressman Thomas Kean Jr. missing, transparency in public office
• 40:12–41:59: Al Green loses his seat, generational change in Congress

---

Airing of Grievances (Humorous Segment)

[59:58–end]

• Camille: NBA “flopping” and undervaluing of SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander); jabs Knicks fans.
• Isaac: Suburban homeowner grievance—no local service for lawn clipping pickup.
• Ari: Ongoing struggle with a loud, intrusive bird (the red-eyed vireo), and his very unique eyelid-sweat dermatitis complaint.

---

Overall Tone

The episode balances sharp political analysis with humor, candor, and a healthy dose of self-awareness. The hosts directly discuss the challenges of nonpartisan journalism in a polarized environment, thoughtfully dissect hard questions about voter versus party leader agency, and aren’t afraid to poke fun at each other and themselves. They openly acknowledge their editorial missteps and encourage robust listener feedback.

---

Summary for Non-Listeners

If you missed this episode, you’d learn:

• Why the Texas Senate race looks grim for anyone worried about corruption or polarization.
• How Trump’s personal politics are re-shaping (and destabilizing) Republican primaries.
• Why transparency from public officials—especially during absences—is non-negotiable.
• That even political journalists have strong feelings about sports, lawns, and local birdlife.
• The Tangle crew is committed to independent, thoughtful debate—sometimes even at the expense of their own editorial comfort.

Recommended if you want level-headed, cross-partisan news, a window into political editorial decisions, and a little levity.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Seeking, pushing, optimizing, creating, learning, discovering.

[Isaac Saul]

At Aramco, we believe in harnessing the

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

power of data to push the limits of what's possible. That's how we deliver reliable energy to

[Isaac Saul]

millions across the world.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Aramco, an integrated energy and chemicals company. Learn more about [e-mail].

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

48 million people in the United States are adolescents between the ages of 14 and 24. They're working, parenting, leading, sometimes all at once.

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm balancing work and being a mom at the same time, and I'm still on track to graduate with my bachelor's next year.

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

So what do today's young people need to truly thrive? Tune in to good things from Lemonada Media to hear the six part Thrive series.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Isaac Saul]

Coming up, we talk about why my writing sucks. And the Texas Senate primary. The missing congressman. Nobody's talking about this. A member of Congress is just missing. And then some really disgusting grievances. Courtesy of Ari. It's a really good show. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. And welcome to the Suspension of the Rules podcast. I am your host, Isaac Soul, sick and disheveled and unshaven. I feel terrible. Gentlemen, I'm joined here today by our editor at large, Camille Foster and managing editor, Ari Weitzman. I don't think I've introduced either of you for like eight episodes. I don't know when I stopped doing. Yeah, I don't know. I think I just stopped saying that part. I don't know why.

[Ari Weitzman]

Would ask us a huge question and derail us from the start. Yeah, that was really nice. Nice way of changing subjects. So we won't comment on how you feel about your looks. You're doing good.

[Isaac Saul]

Great, buddy, thanks. I feel like I could use some PEDs. Gentlemen, I see what you did there. You like that. I wanted to talk about the Enhanced Games. You know, I thought Ken Paxton winning a Republican primary in Texas was a sign of societal rot. And then I turned on my TV this week again and I saw the Enhanced Games where performance enhancing drugs are not only allowed, but encouraged and everybody is still terrible at what they do. It was. Do you guys. You both know about this?

[Camille Foster]

Really?

[Ari Weitzman]

Because begrudgingly, I think.

[Camille Foster]

Yeah. Well, I know. I know some of the people Involved in getting it off the ground and funding it, actually, so.

[Isaac Saul]

Oh, really?

[Camille Foster]

Familiarity with it.

[Isaac Saul]

Wow. Some scumbag people.

[Camille Foster]

I didn't say I helped or anything.

[Isaac Saul]

I just said I. I hate this so much. But I guess I'll give my, you know, layman simp understanding of what this is, which is a bunch of people who can't compete in the Olympics without doping and are salty about that. Created their own kind of division of sport where they just say everybody's gonna cheat or enough people are going to cheat. We should just accept that. We should all cheat together and we'll create an Olympic style event where it's just okay to do PEDs. And then they hosted their inaugural event and no world records were broken. What world record was broken?

[Ari Weitzman]

A 50 meter backstroke, I believe.

[Camille Foster]

Yeah. Something swimming. Yeah.

[Isaac Saul]

Sucks.

[Ari Weitzman]

I missed that by a person.

[Isaac Saul]

That ruins my whole thing, man.

[Ari Weitzman]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I will confirm this, but by a person who I do not believe was doping. Oh. My own personal best by only a couple hundredths of a second and was wearing an illegal suit based on swimming regulations internationally.

[Isaac Saul]

Oh, so he was cheating in his

[Ari Weitzman]

life due to the suit that he was wearing? Yeah.

[Isaac Saul]

Got it. Yeah. I don't. I just. I couldn't believe when I. I was. I had this Memorial Day trip with friends this weekend. I ended up in the Catskills and lots of very good, wholesome fun hanging around the fire and kids and all that good stuff. And at some point, post kids going to sleep, dinner. We're like having margaritas. We're talking. Somebody turns on the TV just to get basketball on or something. NBA playoffs have been incredible.

[Camille Foster]

So good.

[Isaac Saul]

And all of a sudden there's just this swimmer who looks like Hulk Hogan. And I'm like, what is this? And they're like, it's the enhanced games. You haven't heard about this? Isaac, you're politics reporter. I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And then I was informed that there is this pro cheating, pro drugs, Olympic style event that got off the ground this weekend. How are you guys feeling about. Doesn't seem to bother you. Camille's a funder of the event. Ari. No, you're smiling.

[Ari Weitzman]

A ton of like, very cold water takes on this. Just like a deluge of cold takes. I think, like, first of all, just as a correction, the swimmer who broke his own record. Christian, I'm sorry, I don't.

[Camille Foster]

That'll. That'll be fine.

[Ari Weitzman]

But I did my best.

[Isaac Saul]

That's fine.

[Ari Weitzman]

He. He. He's the per he broke the 50 meter freestyle. Anyway, I think I take a little bit of issue to saying a bunch of people who couldn't make the Olympics decided to make their own sport. I think it's more both charitable and correct to say the people who put it together said we want to see what the actual highest limit of human achievement could be if we allow like any kind of performance enhancing drugs to be used and any sort of, I guess, sleek swimwear to be worn. And anybody who can compete under these rules are welcome. And it's not breaking the rules if you don't have. So it's not cheating if everyone's doing it is the conceit. The thing that I think the very, very obvious thing for why there are no world records broken here is the incentives don't line up like if you imagine if you're an Olympic level athlete for you to say hey you know what, I'm training for the Olympics and well now it's like two years time I'm going to do Ray all my training and I'm just going to dope up and do this and not and put my entire career at risk just so I could get this world record. And yeah, the prize purses were attractive, but of course it's going to whittle down your talent pool. And then second, I think these athletes had like two to four months to prepare for this. And for somebody who's trying to achieve like world record status for something, that's really not enough time to get yourself around the bend to achieve a world record. And then many of them were only doping for a couple months. So really what this proved is that doping has less of an effect on good training regimens and top level talent. Huge surprise. Yeah, I know. But if you take an Olympic level athlete and make them dope, they will probably succeed to a higher degree. We learned nothing from this and it was extremely uninteresting.

[Camille Foster]

Yeah, I mean I'm at least curious about this sort of thing. There are certainly some performance enhancing drugs that are not just about making you stronger, faster, but perhaps helping you heal faster. And that kind of stuff can get you disqualified in many pro sports and another Olympic competition to the extent stuff like that is being leveraged like that does seem interesting to me. And can that extend someone's career? And yes, as Ari pointed out, expand the peak performance or extend the peak performance of someone who is already super duper top elite athlete in their class who would probably not do something like this for fear of ruining their career or Otherwise endangering themselves. I think the other thing to keep in mind is most of the dope, the doping that was happening, this was all ostensibly under the supervision of medical professionals. So they were still trying to do this within some parameters so as not to have people just completely overdosing. So there are a bunch of different caveats to keep in mind. The future of this league is in jeopardy at this stage, however, because one, it didn't really deliver the goods, but two, they were already having a difficult time finding partners to help put this stuff on air, so they mostly had to give access away for free as opposed to do something on pay per View.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I guess I'm a little bit more interested in just briefly and then we'll move on to some actually more important things. The moral question at the heart of this, I suppose there's the free market capitalist mindset that I embody a lot, which is like, I don't care, let them try and make this thing work.

[Camille Foster]

But.

[Isaac Saul]

But like, doesn't it feel a little disgusting or so. I don't know. Or am I just. Because, like. And I don't mean to be a purist. Like, you know, I watch the NBA a lot. I'm a huge basketball fan. Like, everybody in the NBA is taking steroids. I think it's pretty obvious LeBron James is not doing what he's doing without some help. I'm sorry. And like, I'm not delusional about that. Do I have evidence for that? Not directly. I'd say I heard some rumors from people who spent a lot of time around NBA teams. And it seems like it is a kind of known fact that everybody just sort of operates by dusting under the rug a little bit. They have not had the Major League Baseball reckoning with that problem yet. So I don't mean to be a total purist, but I'm also just like, I don't want to endorse this with a view. Or I. Like, I wouldn't buy tickets to the event other than maybe to just see the prospect of this freakish looking swimmer who weighs like 40 pounds more than he should getting in the water. I don't know. Is there any. Do you guys feel any kind of ickiness about it or are you just.

[Ari Weitzman]

I mean, it does seem. I know what you mean. I'll say that I'm also having a hard time articulating it just because when you try to draw the line, it's immediately really fuzzy.

[Camille Foster]

I think that's right.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

I think all of us in Some way have had steroids before or taken them. Like corticosteroids are some of the most popular things to diagnose hgh. I mean if you, if you have like an asthma attack. I've had an asthma attack where steroids are prescribed for men. I've had like to help me recover from post op surgeries like, like a prostectomy in my knee. I've had steroids like injected to help with like stimulate adrenaline to help with the healing process. Like that's kind of normal, I think. And it becomes a problem when, I don't know, like when you're taking hgh, when you're doing this regularly, how much is regularly, like are you allowed to do this to help an injury but within a certain number of times before you compete? Like there's so many regulations that sports have gone into at different, in different governing bodies to answer those questions and they do that for a reason. You don't want to give unfair advantages to athletes and you also want to try to protect the long term health of athletes. If you're taking HGH all the time, you're. That's going to be really bad for your long term health, especially to your skeleton and like that There's a reason why those regulations are in place. And just to see people be cavalier and flaunt them does feel a little bad. I do also feel a little bit of curiosity and see like you know, if somebody wants to be so out of line with their priorities that they're willing to throw away their careers and risk their health to see if they can break a world record that will have an asterisk next to it. Sure. Like, I guess I'm curious, but I agree, like it's only a curiosity and I'd rather see people kind of compete within the regulations that were developed for good reason over time.

[Camille Foster]

Yeah, I mean, I think I can't find anything to disagree with in there. It is hard to know where to draw the lines. And the reality is that things that perhaps were considered performance enhancing for maybe aren't considered performance enhancing very soon and perhaps other things will move into that territory very soon as well. Ultimately, what you want when you watch sports of any kind is to see people who have dedicated their lives to some craft and they are performing at the absolute pinnacle of what is achievable and doing that with some enhancements or perhaps doing other things that I might personally not be willing to do to try and test the limits of my ability. I'm there for it, provided what's happening on screen is not people unduly risking their lives. It's actually one of the problems I have with stuff like ufc, for example. I don't know how many times you can get punched in your face before something traumatic happens to you. And I'm not really here for snuff, but someone who is doing everything possible to swim as fast as they possibly can, you know, cutting off all manner of things in their personal lives and devoting themselves to this in a way that is almost unhealthy. I suppose I'm there for that, but I'm aware of the fact. I'm aware of the fact that I'm kind of approaching a line and maybe the way that they marketed this is part of what's making us so queasy.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I do think that is definitely part of it, is the kind of public proud framing of the lack of rules and regulations, basically. All right, well, you know, I wasn't expecting to spend 10 or 15 minutes on the Enhanced Games, but I'm glad we did. There was a big election yesterday. As we record this, a couple big elections. We don't have to ever talk about that sex therapist crazy anti Semite again, which I'm super happy about. I hope I never hear her name. I won't even utter it on the show. We spent some time talking about her last week, and I'm glad she lost. Democrats did the mature thing and voted for anybody but her. I can't say the same about what happened in the Republican primary, where now Ken Paxton is the prevailing Republican candidate and is headed for a matchup with James Tallarico in the general election. I had the unfortunate experience this morning of writing something that I immediately regretted the moment after it published, which was calling the situation in Texas a lose, lose situation, which our readers and listeners took in many different ways. And I generally have a rule. My dad always used to tell me the old Russian proverb about one person telling you you're drunk, you can tell them to screw off. Two people tell you you're drunk, maybe you go lay down for a minute. And when I see a piece of my writing get misinterpreted at scale, it becomes really difficult to blame the audience and not say, maybe my writing wasn't as clear as it should have been. So I definitely own the responsibility of perhaps not formulating my take or my opinion as thoughtfully or clearly as I could have. That being said, I do think it's fairly easy to explain why I viewed the election as a lose lose. We are in a situation now, where if Ken Baxson wins in the general election, we have a candidate headed to the Senate who I believe to be comically corrupt and unethical just seems like a bad person who does bad things and has done bad things for the entirety of his existence in public service. There are stories going back to him from his earliest days as a Texas state House member, and none of them reflect well on him. And he has not carried himself during the campaign in a. Well, in a way that reflects well on him. And, yeah, I don't want that person being one of the hundred most powerful people in American government. So I don't want him to win his Senate race. James Talarico is a lose in a different way, which is that if he wins, I believe he is still to the left of most Texas voters, and he will invite this incredible enormous wave of conservative backlash and fear and upset about the fact that he's becoming the Texas senator. Fundamentally, I think his odds are long to win the race because of that fact that most Texas voters just don't share his politics, which also was something I said that got criticized a bunch, and I was kind of surprised by, because I don't think that's a controversial thing to say at all. James Talarico self identifies as a progressive Democrat. He supports Medicare for All, legalizing marijuana, free college tuition, and he's very supportive of the LGBTQ community. All of those things are policy positions that in a state that has voted for Republican presidents going back to 1980, where Democrats never win statewide elections, where the average voter is conservative, are. You know, there's an incongruence there, obviously, but the. There's a degree of what's worse here. And I definitely did not mean to imply that sending a corrupt senator is as bad to Congress is as bad as having a bunch of partisan divisions inflamed by someone like Talarico winning. I think both things are bad, and I think we're in a lose, lose. And I think that whatever happens in November, it's going to be very ugly politically in Texas. I don't endorse politics. Excuse me. I don't endorse politicians in tangle. Never have. I never will. So you're not going to hear me explicitly saying who I hope wins the election in November. But I thought that in a take where 90% of it was basically talking about how Ken Paxton represented the degradation of our politics and was immoral and corrupt, that people could read between the lines about my. My preference in what happened. But that wasn't really the case. And a lot of people took the lose, lose line as equating things, which, again, I own as being bad writing. You know, it wasn't the clearest way to communicate what I wrote. I guess it's my editor's fault.

[Ari Weitzman]

I was waiting for it. That's my cue.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

I think an important, like, detail about this is the lose, lose line in particular was something that you wrote in to edit, a bullet point at the top of the take, which is usually where we try to summarize what the author's position is in a way that both gets at the meat of the position as well as creates a little bit of forward momentum so that people want to read more about what that is. So the line initially was like, I'm worried about. I don't remember what it was, but it was something like, I'm worried about the state of politics in Texas. And Isaac wanted to specify that he's worried about either way in terms of that being the first line that you read as a bullet point. It flattened the comparison right off the top, which made it so any reading from there became viewed through a lens of equivocation or, sorry, equalization between these two things, which wasn't what was intended. I think from an editing standpoint, we put a lot of attention into what goes into the writing of the take. And the bullets are something that sometimes we'll go over and go, okay, that's the way the author wants to phrase it. That's fine. It's the bullet. It's not the take itself. And we'll probably be changing our attitude towards the way we do that. But that's a little bit of inside baseball. I think the more important thing is we probably should have been a little bit more defensive. And we were somewhat defensive about an earlier version of this draft where the line where you expounded on what you're worried about for Texas Politics of Talarico Wins was a little less defined, and we got it more defined. And we're like, okay, I think that's probably enough, and we want to move on. The fact that it still remained fuzzy and the bullet kind of cued people in a negative direction, made it so together, it created, like, a bad, bad outcome that was ripe for misinterpretation. And that's something we'll probably want to be more defensive about in the future. So that's the editor's corner, I guess, and I'll back away slowly and let you guys continue.

[Isaac Saul]

We'll be right back after this quick break. Lately I've been more intentional about what I wear day to day, leaning into pieces that feel easy, comfortable and still put together. It just makes getting dressed simpler. Quince has been my go to. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are clean and everything just works without needing to overthink it. Quince has all the wardrobe staples for spring. Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from $34 lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still put together and clean. 100% Pima cotton tees with a softness that just has to be felt. Last year I bought a few of Quince's linen shirts and I've been wearing them every week since. They're just so comfortable and they look so good. They fit in pretty much any setting and I often get compliments on them, to which I reply, I actually picked this out myself. I didn't even get help from my wife. So if you want to be like me, you can refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use head to quince.comtangle for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.comq U-I-N-C-E.comtangle for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comtangle

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

when people turn to healthcare for weight loss, they're looking for real support. That's why more people are choosing orderlymeds.com orderlymeds connects you with real doctors and access to proven GLP1 medications like semaglutide and Tirzepatide. No guessing, just a more supportive experience. And all ship directly to your door in discreet packages. Do your research, ask questions, then visit orderlymeds.com podcast for an exclusive offer. That's orderlymeds.com podcast. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice, eligibility required. See Cite for details.

[Isaac Saul]

I mean the I guess like to pick some of that conversation up and some of the stuff we talked about. I do think it's interesting now looking forward the option that sits before Texas voters and what they might do about it. My personal position that I've adopted is I will never predict or buy into a Democrat winning in Texas until it happens in a statewide election. It's just we just do this every year. Beto. You know, Ted Cruz is so insufferable. Somebody's going to beat him. Da da da da. Over and over and over again. And I could talk myself into this. I really could. James Talarico I think, you know, there's the other thing. Well this is the other thing that frustrated me about some of the commentary is like, I literally wrote a whole piece about our return to decency and stood up James Talarico as like, a positive example of that, because I do think he's running a fundamentally decent campaign. So I like, I support his approach to politics. I hope we get more of that and he can be a role model for that, regardless of his actual political positions, just the way he carries himself. So I think that is a formula that could work. He's offering a big tent. I've talked to conservatives like David French we had on the show, who straight up said basically that he would consider voting for Talarico if he was a Texas voter, despite the fact he disagrees with him on basically every political issue. Because part of his calculus as a voter is like, he wants people in office who are decent, who he can trust, and he knows that Ken Paxton is corrupt and immoral, and so he won't vote for him. Trump's support among Latinos has completely collapsed. Axios had a new thing poll out today, or maybe they're summarizing somebody's poll, but I was reading something on Axios about one in. I believe it's one in three. Latino voters now say that they regret their vote for Trump in areas in like, South Texas and the Southwest generally. But South Texas specifically. Hispanic support for Trump is collapsing. The border wall stuff is invigorating people down there who are having their homes stolen via Imminent Domain and all the kind of land grabs and destruction of nature that's happening down there. I've written about it. My own personal experience and having family and friends down there in West Texas, that stuff is going to drive people out to the polls. The economy, the economic sentiment is very poor. However you feel about how the economy is actually doing, Americans feel badly about it. The war in Iran, I mean, there's. You go down the list. I could talk myself into it. James Talarico could do this. And then I'm just like, he's a progressive running in Texas and he's going to lose to the guy with an R next to his name? I don't know. Do you guys have a sense of, I guess, how much time you want to spend entertaining this idea, or do you just feel like this is almost a pax and shoo in and it's not worth really debating?

[Ari Weitzman]

I think there's a question here, I think, and I'll borrow some of the structure you're using here and some of the terminology you used in a recent Friday edition, which is that there's A lot of different spectrums through which you can view political candidates and politicians, one of which is like left right, but then of course that has fragmentations depending on the issue that you look at it on, like cultural issues, economic normally, power of the state, separation of powers, things that like there's a spectrum for left right, generally. Like we kind of see when we have two candidates, Talarico and Paxton, then we can see what the spectrum is politically. And you could just have that as like your X axis and then on your Y axis you can think about personal differences. So we can use decency and decency palatable or not moral or immoral, however you want to phrase it. Talarico's just plays better on the personal level for reasons that you laid out. So you can think about it as like, okay, there's a decent indecent political. And in that on those axes there's like four quadrants. Ideally, if as a voter, if you're right leaning or left leaning, you want to vote for the person that's on your side politically and also is decent. But you get into quandaries when you have to say, is it better for me to vote for the person who shares my politics or to vote for the person that I think is probably the more. Has more moral character? And that actually, actually is a very difficult decision. And just imagine, put yourself in a Texas voter's position if you are voting, showing up to the polls to elect one of 100 seats in the Senate in this very partisanly divided culture that we're in right now, are you going to say, I'm going to punch the ticket for the guy who disagrees with me on everything that I think is super important because I really don't trust him. I think he's a cheat. That's actually a really tough question to answer for yourself because maybe you do think it's there's more benefit to cost there writ large, and maybe you don't. Maybe you think this person, I can't trust them, therefore why would I expect them to vote in any way with their conscience? And then you punch the bar the other way. It is a tough decision, honestly. And if you can imagine what that candidate looks like for your own proclivity, as somebody who shares most of your politics but is brought in scandal, it's tough to say what you do. And I think it is actually good question to pose right now, given the state of corruption that we've written about in Tango before in the Trump administration that we've seen how you want to play it as a voter in that, in that situation, because I could see it going either way more than ever. But I'm of your mind that I'd probably say it's going to be a red Texas until it isn't. And it's worth debating. But I think ultimately it's still going to go red.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Camille Foster]

I mean, I'm happy to accept the consensus perspective on this with respect to what's likely to happen in Texas, given that it's Texas. I don't love horse race politics all that much. I do find very interesting, however, this dynamic which we talked about last week as well, President Trump weighing in on these races, essentially pushing what he wants and prioritizing that above what is obviously better for the party from the standpoint of actually being able to govern. Like, he has made a situation that should have been an even more obvious situation where it's just beneficial for Republicans, one that is a heck of a lot more suspect. And at a minimum, he has created yet another enemy in the Senate. And it's not just Cornyn. It's the many, many Republicans in leadership who have been pressing the president for months now to weigh in on this race to make things simpler for them, given that they had a very slim majority in Congress. And it is interesting, a president who has at some points been applauded for being kind of politically adept and really knowledgeable and understanding what people are interested in. And after once again making a decision to punish a perceived enemy or someone who is at least not perceived to be sufficiently loyal and to essentially reward someone for their loyalty to him. And in this particular case, rewarding someone who has exceptionally high negatives. I am trying to imagine, and I don't know if you guys can, a more strange situation where the president of the United States waits until the last minute and then finally endorses a guy who has this specter of corruption. Not even a specter. He was impeached by a Republican Congress in Texas. He's had his own employees who worked alongside him, leadership within his own office who've blown the whistle on him for corruption. And he's got a really messy divorce playing out. And there's almost certainly going to be details about that divorce that will be in the press because it was kind of sealed up. Not so much anymore. His own wife is not endorsing him. All of this, it doesn't look particularly good. And Donald Trump says, you know what? That's my guy. It just does not seem like great judgment from the president. And if you're a Democrat Even if you lose this particular race, you probably have to be saying to yourself, gosh, I mean, great, they want more madness on their side, they want more infighting. And it just. It seems like a very strange choice given that I just do not expect things to get easier for Republicans going into the summer and the fall. Prices are going to continue to go up in many instances. We're already seeing rumbles of economic tumult in the stock market, which the President cares a great deal about and will definitely drive the news cycle. And the foreign policy situation hasn't gotten any less messy in recent days. So this is a very strange decision in certain respects, but perhaps not so strange for Donald Trump, given what he's done over the course of the past couple of weeks.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I mean, I think, Isaac, you

[Ari Weitzman]

were challenged on that recently whether or not Trump was the person to blame for this.

[Camille Foster]

Yeah,

[Isaac Saul]

a writer from the American spectator named Scott McKay wrote a pretty critical piece about some stuff that I put out, basically blaming Trump for blowing up the Senate majority. And actually, I emailed him, invited him to come on the show. So I'm hoping to have him stop by at some point, because I love when people are willing to disagree publicly in a respectful way, which he did. It was a thoughtful piece, and he raised some good points. I think primarily that it's not Trump doing this, it's the voters. And it's silly to blame Trump. And the reality is Republican primary voters. Well, here's the case he made that I thought was compelling. John Cornyn. The biggest tension he had with Trump is that he refused to blow up the filibuster. And in March, late March, Cornyn finally basically folded and said that he, you know, he published this thing in New York Post saying that he would blow up the filibuster in order to pass the Save America act, this, this Voting Election act that would force voter ID and proof of citizenship in order to vote. And Scott's argument was basically, Ken Paxton is saying that the Senate should do this, that he'll drop out of the race if the Senate actually gets this legislation across the finish line and proves that this, you know, that they would do this and could actually do this. And Cornyn and Senate leadership had an opportunity to respond to Trump's pushes to blow up the filibuster and get this legislation passed before the primary runoff. And they didn't do it. And so Trump endorsed Paxton. And basically, you know, the voters following through on Trump's call here is a sign that they're more aligned with Trump. Which I totally buy that Republican primary voters in Texas care less about the institutional norm of the filibuster than they do about passing a voter ID bill. I think that's 100% true. And so, yeah, of course, Trump is driving turnout, and he's thumbing the scales in Paxton's favorite. But the degree to which voters are expressing themselves in this primary election and making it clear that they prefer Paxton's approach to Cornyn, it's not like some astroturf manufactured thing. It's there, it exists, and Trump's only putting some accelerant on it. And I think that's a fair reframing of the argument that I was putting forward, where Trump is kind of blowing up the sentiment majority for the next five or six months. On some level, it could be true.

[Camille Foster]

On some level. I mean, ultimately, though, the president is deciding that is a loss that he's unwilling to sustain, and he's unwilling to try other mechanisms to try and secure the other things that are important to him. And he didn't have to weigh in in this race at all. He could have stayed on the sidelines. He put his thumb on the scale he wanted to create. He knew that it would help create a great deal of dissatisfaction and acrimony within his own caucus. And to the extent that's what he's willing to do in his party, that's his choice. And I think that choice does sit with him. Even if the voters are generally aligned with the specific goals that he's going for and are happy to support this president, he is choosing this particular battle. He is choosing to essentially create enemies within his own party, as opposed to doing the difficult work of trying to work within the party to try and achieve certain outcomes without alienating people. But, again, this is a kind of challenge to him as a sort of politician and as a deal maker in some respects, which is interesting, given that's the thing he's supposed to be particularly good at.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I mean, I do think there's a contradiction in a lot of this, which is the brand Trump has sold is he's the ultimate deal maker. He's the ultimate negotiator. And we're witnessing what's happening in Iran. And now we're on the second presidential term where Trump has basically failed to get any meaningful legislation across the finish line, aside from huge tax cuts, which he had the 2017 tax cuts, and then the one big beautiful Bill act, which was basically a massive tax package. You know, things like immigration reform, things like election reform. These, like much Larger, more difficult. The infrastructure bill, which Biden ultimately did after Trump couldn't. I mean, that there are a lot of pretty objective measures for, you know, how a all time negotiator might bring together different parties and get them to settle on an agreement and push forward something that is broadly representative of his agenda. And I don't really think Trump has done that as president. And I do agree that it's a shame this is the lever they're deciding to pull. You know, rather than finding a way to make a bill tolerable to seven Democratic senators, they're going to blow the whole thing up. Because at some, some point somebody's going to blow up the filibuster. I mean, it's happening incrementally now, but it seems unfortunately like we're destined for that and there aren't enough people holding line. Now we have Ken Paxton potentially coming in for John Cornyn. So we're one fewer in that sense. It's. Yeah, I think like what I found fair about the criticism is just the voters have the agency here. Ultimately they are the ones pushing the button. And we shouldn't overlook the fact that Trump can nudge them and try and move them and orchestrate these sorts of challenges. But if we believe in our democratic system, then we believe that these voters are expressing their will, you know, and they are. And I think that is true. I think it seems plausible and obvious to me that Republican primary voters prefer Ken Paxton's approach to John Green. Cornyn, right now in Texas, I think that's a bad sign for our politics. But it's hard to deny after watching those results come in last night. I did want to just briefly touch on one other election that happened in Texas, which is that Representative Al Green lost his primary race, which is a massive defeat for anybody who has to watch the State of the Union address every year. He is core to core to the experience, the cane, the signs, the disruptions. He's made it his mission since Trump has been in office, both at the end of his first term and the beginning of his second, to disrupt things a little bit so we can pour one out for Al Green. He's leaving Congress.

[Camille Foster]

Are we not expecting a runoff there or was this the. This was the runoff. This was the runoff, yeah.

[Isaac Saul]

This was the runoff. Yeah. He was an 11 term Congressman defeated in the runoff by 30, 38 year old Christian Menefee, who I don't know.

[Camille Foster]

Defeated by Republican redistricting, actually.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, that too. It is a loss at the entertainment level. I'm unsure how much he contributed on the legislative level. I feel like he sort of embodied a spirit of Texas voters, Texas Democrats, that was widely liked. I mean, you don't get elected 11 times without being liked by your constituents. But I don't know off the top of my head, many legislative achievements that he's sort of been at the center of or co sponsored, etc. But I don't know Any other parting thoughts about Al Green before we move off the Texas primary?

[Ari Weitzman]

It's cool to see younger representatives in Congress. This is like you. I don't know a lot about Christian Menifee other than he's under 40. We he was a lawyer and he is an incumbent in his own district or was before the election. And if you're a person who has been professing concerns about the aging Congress, then that is one of the many spectrums of analysis you can choose. And if you look at this result from that lens, then no matter what, whether Christian Menifee ends up winning his general election or not, Congress is going to get younger. So if that's a thing that you're in support of, guess what? It's happening.

[Isaac Saul]

I was going a little bit out on a limb about Al Green's legislative track record just based on my instincts about him and my sort of base knowledge of following politics. Govtrack says that only four bills he sponsored were enacted into law over his entire career in 11 terms.

[Ari Weitzman]

So 11's a lot of terms.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I think I guess I got that part right. All right, well, pour one out for Al Green while we're on members of Congress and maybe stories that I find particularly insane. There is a story that we have not talked about, not a little bit, that I am becoming increasingly obsessed with, and it's the story of a missing representative in Congress. Now, I don't want to exaggerate. I'll try and keep my wits about me because I love this story so much. I don't want to get carried away. But Thomas Keane, who is a New Jersey Republican who actually serves in the district, I don't like giving away where I am or where I live, but I'll just say I live in very close proximity to the district that Thomas Keane serves in Congress. He has just been missing for a few months now. We sort of know where he is. He's allegedly having some sort of health issue that's kept him out of the public spotlight. But, you know, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he's spoken to him intermittently recently, said he hadn't spoken to him for a few weeks, hadn't heard, heard from him. Political reporters have been staking at his house. They don't see him. Neighbors in the neighborhood he lives said they haven't seen him for months. His wife got approached by a reporter from the news outlet notice, who basically said, where's your husband? What's going on? And she offered no comment. And a friend kind of ushered her away from the scene. So this guy is legit MIA at a time when Republicans in Congress have an extremely narrow majority. So he hasn't voted on anything for I think what's now two or three months. And I want to be sensitive to it because he's saying that he's having health issues and we don't actually know what the issue is. And maybe these are really serious, sensitive health issues of some kind that he doesn't feel are necessary to disclose publicly. I will say, despite the fact he hasn't voted for anything in months, he has given no public comments or public appearances. He has not popped his head up for a press conference to say, I'm here, I'm okay, everything's good. He has still been trading stocks, which if I was just his PR comms guy would maybe be like, just pump the brakes on that for a little bit. This headline from Forbes, Representative Thomas Keane still trading stocks amid months long absence from Congress. It's not a great headline to have to navigate if you're on his comms team. Has not been photographed in public in weeks. No public sightings have been reported. Canceled several planned appearances, including a special event at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast, but signed off on five stock trades between April 14 and May 17, according to a document of the obtained by notice. That's the second time in two months he's filed a congressional stock disclosure form while missing more than 100 votes since he last voted in Congress on March 5th. So, gentlemen, thoughts and or theories about where Representative Thomas Kean is, what's going on, and how many questions can we ask while being respectful and appropriate? Because I don't know, if this were my representative, I would probably want more details than we have.

[Ari Weitzman]

Yeah, like, it's tough to come up with theories. I don't know if I want to do that. But like, the way that I would think about it is if I were a person who, if I were undergoing some medical issue, if I were sick and I knew that was happening, it is still incumbent upon me to at some point notify my workplace. And that can mean like my significant other or emergency contact will, like tell Isaac in this case, Ari's out of commission. He's going to be out of it, and then there'll be a conversation and then Isaac will calm that and say he's out. I vouch for it. Like, don't worry if something happens where Ari is missing for three weeks, like, there's a reason. But if you don't do that, if I just don't show up at work at Tangle for like four days and people are like, what the hell? What happened? And I come back later and like, no, I was sick. I'm still going to be gone. And then I'm gone. But I'm healthy enough to sign off on stock trades, then that's just, that's bad. I don't know how else to say it. Like, you still have to make sure you give that communication to somebody or somebody on your behalf needs to do that because, like, that's just not the way that you deal with those hiccups. Or hiccup might be too soft a term. We don't know what's happening. But any disruption professionally, people rely on you and you have a responsibility to at least communicate that. So at that very basic level, it's not good. And as employers, for anybody who is in his district, like, you're his employer in a sense, like, he reports to you, I think it's fair to ask for answers.

[Isaac Saul]

We'll be right back after this quick break.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

The to do list doesn't stop and neither does the pressure to keep up with it. If you've been running on fumes. Growtherapy makes it easier to find care that's covered by insurance. Insurance and actually built around you. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th. Grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can Cancel up to 24 hours in advance at no cost. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing. Grow Therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans. Sessions average about $21 with insurance, and some pay as little as 0. Dollars depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com acast today to get started. That's growththerapy.com acast growtherapy.com acast availability and coverage vary by state and insurance.

[Isaac Saul]

I guess my question or point maybe again, want to be sensitive, don't want to get out too far over my skis where we find out what's going on in a few weeks and act like an asshole. But what kind of health issue is the sort of thing you're not willing to disclose with constituents when you haven't been to Congress in almost three months? I mean, you know, I can think of all the common stuff that surgery, recovery and cancer and, you know, all manner of diagnoses we hear about members of Congress where they come out and tell us that all are in this sort of quote unquote, health issues bucket. He made some comment like his doctors expect him to make a full recovery. And I'm just like, from what? Like what to tell us what's going on. I won't name them, but a member on our team had his theory was that perhaps the member was in rehab of some kind and maybe, you know, dealing with some sorts of like substance abuse issues. Again, that's total conjecture. There's no but like, that's a theory that would make sense where if it came out in a few months, that he comes out and says, you know, I was in inpatient rehab dealing with like addiction of some kind or whatever, and we didn't want to disclosing publicly. I get that. I think that's something you should have to disclose publicly to your constituents or that you should. But yeah, it's just weird. It's very off. By the way, I did learn while reading about this story that Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from Florida who's 83 years old, had also been missing from Congress since April 17th. She hadn't showed up to Washington for a vote in weeks. She released a statement after Forbes and a bunch of other news outlets were like, hey, we're doing this story about members of Congress that don't show up for work. Where have you been? That she had surgery on her left eye and couldn't fly because of it. She's 83. She was elected in 2010 and ran uncontested in her most recent primary. But, you know, I think there's some like, there's some stuff to talk about the gerontocracy in there, but at least it's just a straightforward, hey, I had this surgery on my eye and I can't fly Right now, that makes sense to me. I have different concerns, but sure. This is just very, very odd. And I don't know. I mean, Camille, maybe I'll put it really direct to you. Do you think it's okay for a member of Congress to say, this is a private matter and. And I'm not disclosing what's going on, or should we be able to demand that regardless of what the issue is, a person in this position has to disclose it to the public?

[Camille Foster]

If it is a medical issue involving you personally, I don't think there can be any sort of actual privacy in that regard. I think you can resign from office if you want to maintain your privacy, but to the extent you're still on the job, and, hell, you could trade your stocks, but you're still cashing checks, this isn't okay. It's not okay not to show up for work. It's not okay to be completely secretive about what's going on here. I think you're correct. If it was, say, substance abuse or something along those lines, absolutely. He'd have a responsibility, an obligation, I think, morally, to disclose that. And certainly the party ought to support that position as well. But unless it's, say, a member of your family who you're supporting through illness or something like that, I think their privacy is relevant. But you knew what you were getting into when you ran for office. This is public office. The public, your constituents are your employers. You have an obligation to them when you're not showing up for work, when you're not taking votes, when you're not accountable to the press to answer questions, tough questions, about what's going on with you. Again, this is an abdication of your responsibilities, and it's the foremost duty, I think, that you have, to your constituents to just show up for work. So, yeah, I think it's inexcusable. And I don't think there is any question that's inappropriate to ask in this regard since we do know that it is about him and it's about his recovery and he needs to be transparent and he needs to do it now.

[Ari Weitzman]

I agree with Camille.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I think my instinct is to agree, and I guess I'm just trying to stress test that instinct a little bit. Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

Like, what could it be like?

[Isaac Saul]

Well, this is the.

[Ari Weitzman]

This sense.

[Isaac Saul]

This is the hard thing is I'm trying to use my imagination and imagine what I'm trying to use my imagination to imagine. I'm a professional speaker.

[Camille Foster]

This is your. This is your flu game. Isaac, we.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. Thanks. In two Months, we find out what this is and what the story is. What's a scenario where I'm listening back to this podcast and kind of cringing a little bit about my approach or our conversation, and I really can't think of one. Anything. I mean, even the stuff that's the worst case scenario. And again, I don't think I've said this yet, so I should say I hope he's okay. I hope, you know, health wise, whatever, I hope he makes full recovery. But, like, if there's a John Fetterman type situation here, maybe he had a stroke or something and he doesn't want to be seen publicly because he doesn't look right or he can't. You know, he's having trouble articulating words. And I mean, that would be a big thing to know. You know, like John Fetterman having that health crisis before an election was a national front page story, obviously, different senator and place, Pennsylvania, whatever. But still, we had endless debate about that and whether he was fit or qualified for office. And by the way, I think John Fetterman's term in office has invited more and more questions about who he is, what team he's really on, whether he's fit for the job, how his recovery is going. I mean, there have been all manner of stories about him being a recluse in the Senate and disappearing for days on end and et cetera, et cetera. So I don't know, there's like a. There's just a lot of baggage here for me as somebody who watches these kinds of stories unfold. And, yeah, I just can't imagine a world where I find out what this is. And I think I was wrong to ask any questions. So I don't know. I'm confounded, but I don't know of a situation like this before. I haven't really ever heard of a story quite like this.

[Camille Foster]

Well, you've certainly seen congresspersons who kind of disappear, stop showing up for work medical issues and try to be extremely private about them. But I do think. I keep thinking about Ben Sasse while we're having this conversation, and it's very different. He's a former congressperson, but this is a former congressperson who has been very public while going through one of the most difficult medical situations imaginable for his own reasons. He has his personal motives for doing that, and I think they're generally laudable. And I've. I've appreciated pretty much everything I've seen Ben Sasse do in recent months. And, you know, when you see someone kind of handling their difficult situation with kind of that sort of grace and seriousness. I think the public has the capacity to be awful and terrible, but also to be really understanding. And I have a difficult time imagining that anyone would hear that and not anyone. There will certainly be people who try to gain some partisan advantage here, but the fever swamps are being stimulated anyways by the conspicuous silence. It seems that you would be well served by taking this on head on, talking openly about what the issue is. And to the extent it's something that is perhaps suffered by any number of other people, you could perhaps even raise awareness about this issue on their behalf. There are so many reasons why candor is just a better way to handle this if it is a legitimate kind of personal medical emergency. And there are so many reasons why people are appropriately raising eyebrows at the weird silence surrounding this.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, impromptu Good Guy of the Week nomination for Ben Sasse. I mean, and what an unbelievable force of nature for all things good that guy has been, watching him sort of stare down death with total calmness and confidence and also unbelievable amounts of humility and good nature. I've been devouring pretty much anything that he's put out there and I just saw his daughter wrote a beautiful piece in the Free Press about what it was like being raised by him and growing up in their house, which was really interesting. I highly recommend it. Just as a quick point of order, I did just do a brief historical search and pulled up a couple articles about the Thomas Kean situation and it does not appear anything like this has ever happened before. There have been members of Congress who have disappeared for weeks or months at a time that is not showed up for, for work. But they've always been transparent about what was going on and what the timeline was for them coming back. The dynamic here where he's not disclosing what's happening is without precedent based on some of the articles that I'm looking at right now.

[Camille Foster]

So just the duration that makes it so unusual here too.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, it's not like a week where they were gone and come back and their nose looks a little different, but we don't know why they weren't. It's not that kind of thing.

[Camille Foster]

It's a little more.

[Isaac Saul]

A little more far reaching and important. Fetterman honestly is maybe the closest comp. He was hospitalized for depression for several weeks and wasn't immediately transparent about what happened. But I think while he didn't like stand up and say I'm leaving to go get my depression treated, I don't think. I think it was after he was in the hospital that they started to come out with some statements. And again, he used that as a moment to just sort of give himself over to the grace of the public and say, I'm battling my demons. And it actually went over fairly well, if I remember correctly. So. All right, well, listen, we're coming up on an hour here, and I want to make sure that we save some time for my personal favorite part of the show. Last week, our grievances section set off a hole. I mean, lots of talk about nature, animals, birds, dogs. I felt like all week in our tangle Team Slack, we've been talking about stuff. Ari just bought a gun. He said he's going to shoot off birds in his backyard.

[Ari Weitzman]

I did not say that. It's just very difficult to find the bird. So the gun wouldn't be effective.

[Camille Foster]

It's the chemical weapons he's going to use.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, yeah. Will K back suggested just a flamethrower would solve it. If you don't know exactly, precisely where they are. All right, John, play the music and we'll get into our grievances a bit here.

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

The airing of grievances.

[Isaac Saul]

Between you and me, I think your

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

country is placing a lot of importance on shoe removal.

[Camille Foster]

I've actually got one this week, so.

[Isaac Saul]

All right, Camille, you've got one this week. Why don't you lead us off, my friend?

[Camille Foster]

Well, we started talking sports. You've mentioned the NBA playoffs and how exceptional they've been this year, and they really, really have been, with the exception of some really awful play from some of the teams in the east, particularly the 76ers, just super disappointing all around. Cavs also not great. But OKC and Spurs. Watching that series has been great. Watching last night was really good. One thing I am very frustrated by, however, is all of the shade being thrown in sga. Yes, he has flopped. There's lots of flopping that happens in the NBA. But I think people are severely discounting just how good he is. I mean, he's an exceptionally talented player. A lot of the reason why he gets those calls is because he is charging to the basket, reliably getting punished while doing it. Having a very difficult time doing it in this series. And I just. I hate to see underdog sports has this meme game that they've made, which is a version of operation, that game where you use the little tweezers and you go in and try to pick out the bone and don't want to set off the alarm bell and you do this, it's called unethical sports. And I just think he is. He and the entire team, honestly, are being castigated for being these, like, serial cheaters when they are so obviously among one of the most talented teams, like, ever assembled. The job like Sam Presti is doing with that squad is pretty unbelievable. And full disclosure, I know Sam a little bit and like him, but it's really cool to watch. And I think the NBA is making a great product, and it's really unfortunate that SGA is being so awfully treated. He's a multimillionaire. I get it. Most people aren't weeping for him, but we respect people who really, really, really put in the work and try to get their craft right. So I'm annoyed by that. But I am heartened by just how great the basketball is and really looking forward to watching the Knicks lose to okc. And this is a newly adopted perspective because Knicks fans are insufferable. Isaac Saul. Insufferable.

[Isaac Saul]

God. All right, well, congratulations, Camille. You've just cemented one of the worst takes of all time ever articulated on.

[Camille Foster]

I had to make that turn. I had to make the turn.

[Isaac Saul]

Effortless. No. From top to bottom. I mean, you couldn't be more wrong. SGA's a cheater. He's horrible to watch. OKC is one of the most. I look at Chet Holmgren and I am disgusted. I feel just looking at him, it makes my stomach turn. Over their entire team, they're like the stormtroopers of the modern NBA. Everything about them is loathsome.

[Camille Foster]

Evil empire.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. And SGA falls on 10% of the shots that he takes over the course of the season, according to a very rigorous analysis done, which is ridiculous. Unbelievable. Grade A level flopping. So, yeah. Plus, he's from Canada. We can't have him dominate NBA basketball. I mean, everything about this is wrong. But you know what? This is a space where you're allowed to share your views, and I appreciate that you brought that, and I can't wait to watch the Knicks obliterate. Joyous.

[Ari Weitzman]

I can say as a control group, it was fun for me to watch the NBA playoffs last year. Basketball isn't, like, professional sport in Pittsburgh, so I didn't grow up with it, and I don't have a good internal feeling of, like, what's over the line and what a foul is and what isn't. Never played as a kid, really. So watching last year was, like, kind of fun to follow the Pacers because you could know, just as somebody who watches sports but not follows basketball closely. That they were a bonkers team that was like goofy and funny and they're winning through the power of friendship. And I can't even watch this year. Like, it's just, there's stoppages. I don't really see what the end game is other than like pump fakes to draw fouls. And I'm like, I just don't care enough. Sorry.

[Isaac Saul]

Pump fakes to draw fouls. Yeah. That reminds me of sga. Yeah. No, but Ari, I will say probably one of the most quintessentially Pittsburgh things that you've ever said on this show is I didn't really have an NBA team. So I globbed onto the Indiana pieces that is just like could not be more on brand.

[Ari Weitzman]

Hey, they're yellow.

[Isaac Saul]

Some yinzer from Pittsburgh.

[Ari Weitzman]

The McConnell he was.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

His dad is the quintessential Yinzer. Oh my God, that was great watching those interviews.

[Isaac Saul]

Really good. All right, well, I'll. I'll jump in with my grievance for the week, which I feel like I'm. There's like a. There's starting to be like a bucket. There's like sometimes some family, some father stuff. There's, you know, house things. There's like local politics and then. And animal stuff. And I think this one probably is like in the house local politics realm. I learned this week that there is no service in the township that I live in to come pick up the mowed grass that you have. So like common and other places where I live where like you mow your lawn, you take it, you dump it into like a disposable biodegradable bag or cardboard bag or something, you leave it out on the side of the road. At some point, maybe once a month or a couple times a week or whatever, there's a company that comes by and picks it up and gets rid of it. In my township, they want you as an ethical environmental practice, which I support, ethical environmental practices. They want you to mow your lawn and leave the clippings on the ground and not collect the grass. And I have to say, as a brand new homeowner, that is not how I envision the lawn mowing experience is just leaving clumps of gross wet grass on the ground that I then have to walk through that stains my shoes, that prevents me from lying down comfortably in the grass with no blanket without ruining my clothes that my kid is going to then track into the house as a rambunctious 16 month old. All of a sudden I'm like, oh my God, I am like the classic suburban Karen whatever. Just like I have this thing that feels so small and minor in the grand scheme of things, but I'm like, there's no way I'm doing the grass clipping style mowing. I didn't look up whether it actually helps the environment or what the biodegradable whatever is, because I don't care. I don't want to know. I don't want to feel guilty about the fact that I want to mow the lawn and I want it to be cleanly mowed and ripe for barefoot, you know, gallivanting when I'm done. That's what I want. That's the point. And I. And like the clean nice. I worked my whole life for this middle class dream to own a house and mow the lawn and have it look nice and clean when I'm done. And now I find out that it's not possible without stacking all these bags in my backyard. So anyway, I looked it up and I found out I can haul the grass to another township and they have a yard where you can dump it legally, which I will now. I will now incur that inconvenience to have my cleanly mowed lawn for the foreseeable future. So that's my new plan and my.

[Ari Weitzman]

For the week, it's pretty good to just let the things fall for sure. Like if you don't want to, if you want to pick them up in a bag, you can use that as mulching in the garden. Like, that's essentially what it is. You're using the biomaterial to feed the organisms where they are.

[Isaac Saul]

Maybe I'll just. I'm just gonna start a grass pile. That's what I'll do. Is that a good compromise? Just one. I'll take one corner of the yard and I'll start a grass pile and let it just sit there and decompose.

[Camille Foster]

Just a mountain of molting grass in your yard.

[Ari Weitzman]

Well, you can mulch. You can mulch. You can take wood chips and mix it in with grass in your garden so you can use that to mulch over your garden beds.

[Camille Foster]

Okay.

[Isaac Saul]

Okay. All right, I'll explore that.

[Camille Foster]

Does that still count as a grievance if now you have this exciting new project?

[Isaac Saul]

No, I think our grievances are sometimes solution oriented. We've decided we like it when people offer solutions to our grievances. I will take. Hey, if you have ideas about what to do with pounds, hundreds of pounds of grass, of mowed grass, email Will W I l [e-mail] and tell them what you you think we should do

[Ari Weitzman]

in the subject line. What to do with grass.

[Isaac Saul]

Yes, willdtangle.com, he will read that. All right. All right. Take us home, man.

[Ari Weitzman]

Yeah, I think in the spirit of following up from last week, I want to identify that there is a serial tweeter in our backyard. I can move on from this grievance, but I know who it is. It's a single organism. It's a red eyed Varreo. It is a bird that traveled here without papers from South America. I'm going to leave it at that. It makes a ruckus all day. The now I've learned that it's bird call is said at least allowed to in a human translation. Where am I? Where am I? Here I am. I'm here. Where am I? I'm here. Here I am. Where am I? I'm here. And it's 5am till 5pm he's singing a song. Or she. I'm not certain. And yeah, move away, red eyed varreo. But that's just to complete the circle.

[Isaac Saul]

Wait, didn't you say also that this was a detail that I found hilarious that this bird specifically has been voted like most annoying bird in the North

[Ari Weitzman]

America or something in New England? Yeah, it's been called like the preacher of the treetops. And I saw one ornithologist say whoever said that must not have a very high opinion of preachers, which is weird.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

I do have a specific grievance for this week though. Mostly just wanted to close the loop on that, which is I. Another summer related grievance. And it's a. At the intersection of like summer and nature and like personal body issues is I have this patch of dry skin on my right eyelid, which doesn't bother me most of the time except for when I'm working out and I sweat, which happens more often in the summer because then the sweat runs and it gets like, it kind of goes past your eyes like normal. But any dried sweat that gets in here in the eyelid immediately just like chafes. And then I get little cuts on my eyelid and then my eyelid cuts sting anytime I sweat from there on for like a week until the cut can heal. So like I've been fighting.

[Isaac Saul]

It's possible. This shouldn't. This shouldn't. I don't know why it seems. I don't know why it's.

[Camille Foster]

But I also want to talk about

[Ari Weitzman]

my close to your face is really tough to ignore. I've been really proactive this summer. I had a plan. I got this tube, this little tube of. I feel ridiculous, but it is. I specifically eyelid moisturizer, specifically for eyelids. And I've been applying it, I'd say like five to six times a day, just trying to keep the eyelid from getting dry so the sweat doesn't fall and then chafe. And then I get these little cuts. And it's been working, but it feels really tenuous. And I'm not certain how to deal long term with this issue or if it will ever get better. And I kind of feel like I'm not a unique person. I think somebody out there has had the same situation before.

[Isaac Saul]

I don't think so.

[Ari Weitzman]

My heart goes out to you and I'm curious what solutions you found.

[Camille Foster]

I mean, there's eyelid moisturizer as a product. So someone else is dealing with this. I am shocked.

[Isaac Saul]

No, that's not.

[Camille Foster]

It sounds like a fake problem.

[Isaac Saul]

Uniquely disgusting and a you problem. I think you're completely on an island there.

[Ari Weitzman]

You're not. Cannot wait to read all of the emails from people with similar issues in the inbox. W I l [e-mail] that's the best

[Isaac Saul]

place to reach us.

[Ari Weitzman]

It'll. It'll be interesting to see what solutions other people have come up with.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah.

[Ari Weitzman]

If you have that or your boreo

[Isaac Saul]

problems, specifically, any really gross skin conditions, if you want to take pictures of them and send them to willdtangle.com you can do that and we'll be sure to talk about it.

[Ari Weitzman]

Our top man will be on it.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. All right, gentlemen, a pleasure as always, and I'll see you guys next week.

[Camille Foster]

See you later.

[Ari Weitzman]

We'll see you.

[Isaac Saul]

Bye. Our executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul. And our executive producer is John Lol. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by Managing editor Ari Weitzman, with Senior editor Will K. Back and Associate editors Audrey Moorhead, Lindsay Knuth, and Bailey Saul. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our [e-mail].

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's Name your Price Tool for years. Now, with the Name youe Price Tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family. They make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and Coverage Match Ltd. By state

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

law, 48 million people in the United States are adolescents between the ages of 14 and 24. They're working, parenting, leading, sometimes all at once.

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm balancing work and being a mom at the same time, and I'm still on track to graduate with my bachelor's next year.

[Lemonada Media Narrator]

So what do today's young people need to truly thrive? Tune in to good things from Lemonada Media to hear the six part Thrive series.

[Isaac Saul]

Today we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible, overcoming high interest credit card debt. It requires merely one a SOFI personal loan. With it, you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one low

[Ari Weitzman]

fixed rate monthly payment.

[Isaac Saul]

Defy high interest debt with a sofa My personal loan. Visit sofi.com stuck to learn more. Loans originated by Sofi Bank NA member FDIC terms and conditions apply.

[Ari Weitzman]

NMLS 696891.