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The Find Out Podcast
Dems Keep Winning While Trump Melts Down
00:43:30
Democrats keep their win streak alive in special elections, while Trump completely melts down over, well, everything.
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Find out podcast. Rich is laughing because I had added emphasis on that today we're down two more guys who got sick because it's winter and I guess that's what happens. And you'll notice that I probably sound look a little bit different but I am actually out in Los Angeles for what is called the ASDC meetings, which is the annual meeting of all Democratic state committees. So introducing everybody to us, having some really good conversations. People have been really, really fun run fun and interested to hear from us. And there was lots to celebrate last night because again Democrats have overperformed in two special elections. Last night the Democratic Democratically aligned candidate because in Miami these are actually independent races. But the Miami mayor mayoral race went to the Democrats by I think it was about 18 points last night and the Democrats had not held which is fun. If you're not from Florida, it seems kind of, you would expect it to be different but in a city. But the, the Republicans or independents have had that mayor's race, mayor's seat for 30 years and the Democrats won it by 18. And then one that's sort of flying under the radar but people should really be paying attention to is that there was a special election in the Georgia House last night in a district that Donald Trump won by 12 points. And the Democrat who ran in November of 2024 and received less than 40% of the vote one. So we have seen again and again and again over performances by Democrats and at this point you kind of have to look at this and say this is not just a one off or something like that, that this is a trend. And it turns out people don't like Donald Trump and people don't like Donald Trump's policies because they are doing what we have to be careful not to be too much I told you so but I told you so that this was going to happen. So guys, good night. Trump crashed out as well with some insanity Rich that I know you were reading earlier.
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A
Yeah, I want to know about the, I'm going into this totally cold. I don't know anything. So please tell me, Rich, what, what did Donald Trump do?
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C
You'll, you'll love it. I, I usually like doing a character count so I can get a full, you know, appreciation of how fucking unhinged these, these crash outs are. But I'm guessing it's in the like, I don't know like 500 word or like you know like 2000 character sort of page.
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B
Like if you're, it's a term paper in college basically.
- [02:56]
C
And it's, there's a couple of periods, but I mean this is, it's struggling to be not a run on sentence. So I mean I haven't even like I started reading it about half an hour ago and then we had to start. So I haven't even finished this post yet. But. But he leads it out with just a banger, you know, classic. There has never been a president that has work as hard as me. My hours are the longest. He starts at like noon every day. But I guess if you count those like manic spirals at three social, that's work to him, right? It's like watching Newsmax or whatever. My hours are the longest. My results are among the best. I've stopped eight wars like four, like eight months. Ten months. Saving many millions of lives in the process. Millions of lives. Prevented the Holocaust 2.0. Created the greatest.
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B
Wait, did he say sorry?
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C
No.
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B
Did he say he prevented.
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C
Oh, you just said that. I'm sorry. I said he prevented the Holocaust. Which would be what would happen if many millions of wives were lost in 2025 alone just since inauguration. Saving many millions of lives in the process. That created the greatest economy in the history of our country. Brought business back to the United States at levels never seen before. Never seen before. You guys rebuilt our military, created the largest tax cuts, regulation cuts, closed the dangerous border.
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Created an aura around the United States that has led every country in the world to respect us more than ever before. Every country in the world. No exceptions. In addition to all of that boring medical examinations. Walter Reed.
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B
Oh, he's doing the whole list.
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C
He got perfect marks. They've. Some have even said they have never seen such strong results. I do these tests because I owe it to the country. This is for us, you guys. This is not for him. This is not for him.
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A
I mean, is he talking about his dementia test or his MRI of his head? Because I want to know what he thinks he got really the best results ever.
- [04:55]
C
Those are related. Definitely related. The MRI and the, and the, and the dementia. I'm like, I'm a halfway through it right now. Cognitive examination. So yes, very few people would be able to do very well, including those working at the New York Times. And I aced all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts. It's like my 8 year old would not go this deep into delusion if he were just making up on the spot. Been told many, most people could not ace the. This examination. He capitalizes examination. In fact, most do very poorly. Which is why many other presidents have decided to not take it at all. That's why not, because they didn't need it. Despite all of this, the time and work involved. The New York Times and some others like to pretend that I am slowing up and maybe not as sharp as I once once was, or I am in poor physical health, knowing that is not. That it is not true, and knowing I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am slowing up, but it is not now. All of the work I have done with medical exams, cognitive exams and everything else, I actually believe it's seditious, perhaps even treasonous for the New York Times and others to consistently do fake reports in order to. In order to libel and demean all caps the President of the United States. But also in quotes. Why is it in quotes? They are true enemies of the people and we should do something about it. Just something.
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I'll have some coffee about it. They are inaccurate. They have inaccurately reported all of my election results. Here we go. And in fact, we're forced to apologize for much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen this country is if the New York Times ceased publication because they are a horrible, biased, untruthful source of information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Maga.
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A
To this matter. He still doesn't understand the difference between plural and singular.
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C
These matters just which matter specifically.
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B
It's so low on this, on the scale. But like the fact that the President United States can't write a sentence.
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C
I mean, God write or punctuate or like, I mean, he leaves the pronouns out. You know, that's what makes it the hardest. Because he's allergic to pronouns. I don't think he could circle the pronouns. If you give him a.
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B
He would have no idea if you asked him what that was. No, no, absolutely not.
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C
I gotta say, I think the aura around the United, like he. We put aura in quotes. Does he play video games? Like, where. Who taught him the word aura? Baron. I know is that Baron doesn't play video games.
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B
Is that his term for vibes? Is that. Isn't that what we're doing here?
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A
I really want to take these. These people. You know, Donald Trump is exempt because he's lost. Just. Yeah, he's him. But there are so many people in this country who, who truly believe this nonsense, that everyone around the world respects the United States. These are people who never left the United States. I, I remember what it felt like in 2008 when I left the country. And I felt like I was like doing an apology tour everywhere I went because of, of George Bush and the Iraq war.
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C
And those were the good old days.
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A
And I'm looking back at those days and I'm like, if, if these people had known what my country would do, I, you know, they might have prevented me from going back because. Holy shit.
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B
Yeah, I mean, it's, there are some countries though, that they have, you know, they've, they've had their own problems. Like in the uk, where they had Boris Johnson, who is basically their version of Donald Trump, but somehow even more bumbling than him. But. No, I agree. And, and I'm also trying to imagine this, this cognitive test that he says he had in front of many doctors. Did he just like watch Rocky 4 the other night and see that the Victor Drago parts where he's like running on the treadmill, they're like shooting him with roids and like all these people. And then you got, you got Rocky over here like in the woods with like a, like a, and this like whole thing. Is that, is that, like, did he just watch that at one point? And then he saw Sylvester Stallone the other day actually for the Kennedy center stuff. So, like, I'm wondering if that all came up and he just decided that, like, I want that visual. I want that visual that's strong and it's a Russian. So like it, it works out right?
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C
Visual YMCA playing in the background.
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A
Man sitting down at a desk with a doctor sliding a piece of paper in front of him and asking him to identify things like dog, sheep. And then when, if he, if he gets that correct, identify the head and identify the leg. Right? That's, that is the test that he's taking. He is, he is identifying farm animals, which is something that, like, I have a six month old baby now that like is, I don't know, a couple months away from being able to do that.
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C
He's about to surpass Donald Trump in the cognitive.
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B
Yeah, well, she's already pasted. Yeah, she will.
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A
I'm first birthday. I'll put out a challenge if, if she agrees.
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C
Yeah, I want to see that.
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B
Can we do it side by side?
- [10:01]
C
Can this adorable one year old beat Donald Trump in a presidential cognitive test? That would be uber viral.
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A
Yeah, you gotta get, instead of are you smarter than a fifth grader? It's Are you smarter than a 13 month old? Or like, let's, let's.
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At what month, like real talk, at what month can a toddler complete these tests that, that, that Trump is taking?
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C
I mean, I have these, I have these conversations regarding a border collie because she's very smart. Like at some point a border collie is no longer smarter than your toddler. Right. And, and we're in that same position where at some point every toddler becomes smarter than Donald Trump. But I don't think we expected it to be 12 to 18 months, you know, like they should be out of diapers and then get smarter than the president. That feels like.
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B
So my mom was, was a first grade teacher for 35, 40 years or whatever, and she had like 6, 6 year olds that could write a sentence better than some of those run on sentences that he, I mean, that was. And he was also just like playing the hits, right? He's like, well, I'm mad that they think I'm old and feeble. Which he is. Like, and if Donald Trump doesn't want people to think he's old and feeble, then maybe he should stop falling as sleep at the desk in the Oval.
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C
Like, they have to say his name. Like, you can tell Pam Bondi was saying some the other day and she looked directly at him and said like, she pushed his name and title into a sentence that I'll have to find it that, like, it didn't need to be there. It was something like, you know, the border, blah, blah, blah. And you know, terrorists or whatever. And then like President Donald Trump. And she looked directly at him. I'm like, she just woke him up. Like, she could tell he was dazing.
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B
Didn't Marco Rubio do that? Didn't Marco do that too? Because at the cabinet meeting and he.
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A
Was tapping him, Donald.
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B
Because he sits right next to the secretary, first one there. And like, yeah, he's enunciating super.
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C
It's the thing when your teacher is like, and today we will rich, rich. Today we will be discussing. And you're like, sorry, I had Taco Bell for lunch. That was high school.
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B
Could you imagine Donald Trump in school? Like, what, what? That was like. I mean, I assume he did next to nothing. His dad got him into Penn. In the naval academ, not naval cat, but like a, some sort of junior whatever.
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A
Like, I cannot imagine that it was a military academy. It was for bad kids.
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It wasn't like, you're so special. Go to this school. It was, you're a bad kid. You need to learn discipline. It did not work. That's why he went to military school.
- [12:41]
B
Well, I mean, I mean, if your dad's going to give you $400 million on when, when he passes away. Like, you know you're going to get rewarded whether you're good or bad, right? I guess you just choose bad. Right. And that's the thing that still kills me to this day. Of these, the maga fol say, well, Donald Trump is like a great businessman. Like if you took that $400 million that his dad gave him when he died in the 90s, maybe 80, I don't know when he died and put it in the S&P 500, he would have been worth more than he was when he ran for president the first time. Now he's done all the grifting and whatever and now he's made a bunch of money, so it's no longer true.
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C
But like pile.
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B
Yeah, he was, he was an atrocious businessman. And the only reason anyone thinks that he is a good businessman is because he played an imaginary businessman on a reality show and fired people from completing tasks. Which by the way, I've seen some of the episodes of that show. It is not indicative of whether you are a good businessman or not.
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A
No. Like it's like here's a bucket of water, go sell hot dogs out of it. Like it was the dumbest show in, in the world. I used to like walk by my parents room and see it on and just be like angry.
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B
Oh, it's so darn. I never knew back the bravado he comes in with like the suit and then he's like, yeah, you're fired. And it's like that's all he did to be to become president and convince.
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C
People he's just a walking tag.
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B
But that goes to the whole thing, right? Like where we talk a lot about how we can move men more to the left and it's not necessarily the overtly political stuff.
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C
Right.
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B
It is culturally interesting stuff.
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A
Cultural.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Which is, which is, which is. And by the way, we're for our folks listening, like we've got some stuff in the works on that. But that Donald Trump is the perfect encapsulation of that, that he played a, a president, a businessman, a successful one and people bought it. And so you have to, you know, and like it's just, it's just wild to me because he bankrupted a goddamn casino. Like he, he, he drove everything. He's never remember Trump steaks, Trump vodka.
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C
Those are the easiest things to sell. Like flying gambling, steak and vodka. How the do you that up? Like you can just be at all of those things and most people be like, yeah, I'll have a vodka and a steak, please.
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B
Because it's probably in the world.
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A
Because he's.
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B
He. Because he buys cheap. Right. So the steaks were probably. I mean, also, if you've heard how he likes steaks.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Do you know how he. He likes his steaks? Like, well done with ketchup.
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C
He's got to have them with ketchup. Guaranteed ketchup.
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A
Like, of course.
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B
Oh, and that vodka was probably, like, probably. They went to the liquor store and got. What is that? Like the pop off, like the big plastic jugs and just ripped the label off.
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C
Steven. Stephen Miller's in the background of Trump.
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B
Yeah. I mean, the only thing that he ever made money on, I think, was, like, the Trump University, which is a scam, and then he had to pay, like, $25 million to settle that. Nobody actually learned anything at Trump University because Donald Trump doesn't actually know anything. But it is interesting that, like, people still are buying it and it's like.
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C
No, you know, I want to go back. Like, could you imagine teaching us a student like, Donald Trump? Like, really get your head into this. Like, Donald Trump in the. Was he born in 45? So what, like 65 to 80, you know, ish. Was what? Like, that was. That would be like his college window, right?
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A
He.
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C
He is the, like, the douchebag. Nepo baby, frat boy, bro, whatever. In every movie from, like, the 60s. Like, the. He's the piece of shit who. Who is absolutely abusing, like, taking advantage of every woman that he ever meets, beating up every guy that he ever meet, or having his buddies beat up every guy that he doesn't like, just cheating his way through life, crashing through everything because nothing. There was no accountability for anyone back then. Like, people don't realize, like, how recent, like, forensic evidence is in criminal research. Like, it was all just he said, she said, and then boys will be boys. And then the judge was the. The drinking slash golf buddy with your dad and the sheriff. And so, like, I don't think people realize how recently that was the case where rich kids got away with everything. I mean, they still get away with almost everything back then. They got away with everything, everything. Because there was just no way to even prove that anyone did anything. If nobody fudgeing talked, that was guaranteed Donald Trump.
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B
I mean, it's a lot of people I don't know. I went to a small liberal arts school and I've sort of always. Oh, thank you.
- [17:21]
C
Thank you.
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B
But no, but, like, for folks who don't know the story like this, you know, the, the. The show Beverly Hills 902 and oh, and they come from Minnesota to L. A and it's this like over Beverly Hills, it's this overwhelm. I had the same thing. Like I was this kid from small town Maine and all of a sudden I was with, with a bunch of people who had very, very wealthy families. And like I've actually said that one of the things that I learned that has, has helped me the most in, in my life is learning how to talk to rich people. It's a different world. And they. I've heard stories actually I've heard stories very similar. I'm not going to get too specific because I don't want to out anybody but like specific about people, kids running into problems with the law and then like they knew the judge and the judge is just like slap on the wrist, you know, go away, like do two hours of community service or something like that. And Donald Trump, that was Donald Trump's whole world was this rarefied space where rich, wealthy white people too, to be clear, this is mostly about rich, wealthy white people can pretty much do whatever the hell they want. And that's. That shaped his whole. I mean he got handed half a billion dollars even though like he completely up when he was running businesses for his dad, he got sued by the, the Justice Department, the Nixon Justice Department because when they got for the buildings where they were renting, when, you know people of color would come, they would put that application in a manila folder and put the letter C on it and shove it into a drawer and I bet you can guess what the letter C stood for. And they never rented two people of color and got sued and had to settle because they knew they were going to, they were going lose. And so this guy's failed his entire life. He even went in front of congress in the 80s and said horrible things about native Americans because it was about casinos and all these things. And there's, there's these hearings that you can look at YouTube and he was awful there too. And still, even though all of that stuff was probably detrimental to their business, Daddy gave him $400 million. So this is how you get a Donald Trump is he's ever had consequences. And people have always explained it away.
- [19:28]
C
Almost like you're purposely curating a monster. Like what, like what would we have to do over 80 years to, to purposefully design a monster where you're just like poking it in a cage and it up and like dumping beer over its head?
- [19:41]
B
You do, you do the life of Donald Trump.
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A
If you read anything about today's Kids like, and it's not even just like MAGA parents like schools right now have a major problem of boys and, and young men growing up seeing the President of the United States and then a former president and then re elected a man who has been rewarded for greed, for cruelty, for cheating. And, and it is, it is creating a great divide between young girls and, and young boys right now because these boys are growing up without any. And I was, wasn't the best kid in the world when it comes to like, I don't know, having a fucking conscience that was fully developed, but it's really fucking bad right now. And any article that's, that's written about like the, the lives of, of girls in school right now, like elementary, middle and high school, can you imagine? They're dealing with shit that they certainly weren't dealing with when I was, you know, in school in the, in high school in the late 90s, early 2000s. Like it, it sounds like America's in for a rough spot because there's a generation growing up thinking what Donald Trump does is okay, now they can go, sorry.
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B
And then they, and then they see these, these right wing influencers who are peddling even worse. I mean, there was this interview with the Nazi Nick Fuentes that Piers Morgan did the other day.
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C
I can.
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B
When he was like, women shouldn't be allowed. Hitler was cool. Is that what he said? I want to, and stop, and I want to stop pretending like he wasn't. Yeah. And this guy. And then Tucker. So Piers Morgan and Tucker Carlson have both platformed this guy.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Which you know, you would think would mean important views would be shoved to the side. But it gives it, it gives it oxygen and well, it shoves to the.
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C
Side, but it drags the Overton window with it.
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B
Right, right, exactly, exactly. And now there's like a real fight in the Republican Party about are they going to go the Nick Fuentes route or are they going to go more the Ben Shapiro route? And right now it looks like they're going to go more the Nick Fuentes route. And what does, and, and what does that say to 16, 17, 18 year old boys? That that is quote, unquote, in some circles, acceptable behavior.
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C
I, I think the one thing that can work in our favor, like the consequences for that kind of behavior have to exist at some level eventually. And fortunately, like locally, if you just go do Nick Fuentes, you'll still end up or kicked out of school. Like the consequences are going to hit you real hard, especially depending on where you live. But like to be totally candid.
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Young women have always had more of the cards in the dating game, which is why these bros resort to violence when they don't get what they want because they have, there's nothing going for them. And you know, girl women are usually the, the choosers. Let's be honest, when you're sort of desperate in your teenage, teenage boy, these boys are going to want the attention of women at some point. And there are only so many of those little like the, the trad wife wannabe doting. Right. You know, maybe 10% of young women are coached by their moms and dads and their weird stay at home whatever. To be that the rest of women are going to be looking at these little Nick Fuentes Joe Rogan clones, not to even put them in the same category, but like the, the bros with abhorrent beliefs and they just run the other direction. And so if those guys ever want, they have no power, they have no leverage in the dating scene. If they ever want to get the attention of women and go on dates, they have to find their way back to not any of what they believe right now.
- [23:43]
A
I mean that's, that's like a, that's logical, but it's not the world we live in. Like we, we live in a, in a world where boys and men still hold a lot of power and influence and you know, is.
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Dating is, is not, is not everything. Of course, right there, there are, this is why like sexual assault and sexual.
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Harassment in the workplace matters. And you know, people, young men in positions of power trying to leverage things like jobs and security to, to try to leverage those things out of, out of women. Like, you know, it'd be nice if, if women could just simply deny, but they're often punished for, for protecting themselves.
- [24:38]
C
And to be very clear, ugly reality, you're 100,000% correct. And to be very clear, I'm talking about like 16 to 21 when you are like your, your brain is saturated with hormones that, I mean, but, but this is where that comes from, right? Is like men want control. They, when you get older, society men take control and, and retain control. And now they're trying to institutionalize the protections that allow them to retain control. Because for like what, six years there it felt like we started to kind of go in the dei, like we started to try to fix anything and they just lost their collective minds and put Trump in the White House. I mean that's, that's what we're up against.
- [25:21]
B
The concerning thing is that, you know, and I think the left is waking up to this, but we haven't matched the rights attempts to engage with young men to show them a better path. Because right now, you know, we've talked about it a lot, but, like, people listen. Kids listen to, you know, the Andrew Tates of the world, who have a horrific worldview and are horrific people and done horrific things, but when there's no counter, then something fills the void.
- [25:48]
C
Right?
- [25:48]
B
And that's, I think, what we've seen, and I think we all have to do a better job of. Of doing that. And I think, you know, he's not on today, so I can talk about him, but I think Luke is a perfect example of the opposite. Right. Like, he is. He managed to get through that world and he. But he has admitted that in high school, there was a few moments where he could have slipped the other way. And, like, we need to train a whole generation of kids to be like, like him. And, you know, I think we're starting to do those things, but there needs to be much more because otherwise they're just going to continue to do what they do. And that's then when we see, you know, people raising boatloads of money on that horrible site, Go send me for saying terrible things. Which, you know, there was that woman that used the N word last week, and of course, all the conservatives defended her and now are like, well, she was provoked into it. And I'm like, you know, you can. You can defend yourself without using horrific, you know, tropes and stupid, horrifically racist terms, but we need a counter to it. Otherwise, like, leaving kids to fend for themselves is not a very good path to success.
- [26:57]
C
Yeah, I, I think we. We all went through some sort of inflection moment, right, when we were like, teenage boys. You've got the. The. Or maybe, maybe before that, depending on how clear your parents are. But we go through this moment where, like, there's always a group of guys, especially if you're in a big, like a big junior high or high school with, you know, hundreds of kids or maybe even over a thousand.
- [27:23]
There's a group of guys who are trash. There's a group of jocks. There might be one or two good jocks, and then, like, a lot of really, really bad jocks. There's like, the skaters and the stoners. There's the preppy kids, and there's the religious kids. And for the average person, even the kids who are in those groups, sometimes they're just joining the groups because, like, well, I like football, and so I'm a wide receiver. And then you get sucked into this football group and then they just drag you into that world because of what happens in locker rooms and how they joke about things and the parties they throw. But all of us have that window where we're asking ourselves, even if it's just in your own head when you're laying in bed at night, is this, like, this doesn't feel good? Is this what I want? Is it normal? Is it not normal? And Chris, you did a video the other day that I thought was so good because, like, we're so in this that we forget. But you talked about how people who were born, you know, like, say you were born after 9, 11, half to 2 thirds of your life has been like the Tea Party and birtherism and MAGA. And so if you're, when you're born in the 80s, the 70s, 80s, 90s, like, I think most of the people on our podcast, we remember most of society being better than what is, what it is now. And every year that passes. Right, right, right.
- [28:45]
A
Like, economically, hopefully we, we have seen.
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C
It with our eyes. When things are better and feel normal and you feel the American dream is like, the thing that I'm going to go do and I'm going to get a great job with benefits and like a pension, like, those were all things that were normal when we were younger. But with every year that passes with Trump and influences and Carlson and Fox News and all this shit, we get further from that feeling normal. And so these kids who are 12 and 13 now, I mean, my daughter's 12, and Trump has been president most of her life, which is like, I can't even think about it because she could have had Obama and then Clinton.
- [29:26]
And it would have been great. And then instead, Trump is elected when she's like four the first time. So that's been most of her life and trying to retain some sort of sense of normalcy in our house so that she knows that this isn't just how America is always the goal. And it's, it's difficult.
- [29:44]
B
People forget. And so I graduated college in 2001. So I had in. And I was a political science major in my. We had like the senior seminars, like a senior class for to. In order to get your. Your degree. And I remember we were reading a lot of books and discussions about whether war was over because the world had become so economically intertwined. There used to be this whole thing that was like, a country with a McDonald's has never bombed a country with a McDonald's. And I think that ended with the, maybe the Yugoslavian war, I'm not sure, Kosovo or something. But yeah, and this was, that class ended in May of 2021, three months before, you know, 9 11. And we were having these conversations. I mean we knew about bin Laden and we knew that there were strikes in Sudan to try to get him and all these things and Sudan and.
- [30:37]
Afghanistan. But, but yeah, we were having like, war is over. Like we're all, we're moving on beyond that and we could not have. Well, I don't blame us. The people who wrote those books could, could not be. I could have not been more wrong. I mean I was, I was in D.C. on 911 and I had been in the job for like my first job ever for like three weeks. So like my, my college education kind of got completely wiped out not even a quarter after I had been, been out. Because the whole world changed.
- [31:09]
A
Yeah. Yeah. I mean I, I grew up thinking, you know, I would get maybe a union job or something like, you know, serve in the military for, for 20 years, that that's a career, get out, you know, join a union, have a pension and, and like, and that would be it, you know, a simple life. Like, man, how silly that was.
- [31:36]
B
I mean, if you had to go back in time and tell, tell high school Chris where, where you are right now, would you even have entertained the option that that was possible?
- [31:45]
A
No, my, my life is objectively fucking insane. Like, like I, I could come. It could be physically me looking like this with, with the tattoo that I got when I was 18 and be like, listen, this is what's gonna happen and wouldn't believe it because it's so weird. So. No.
- [32:05]
C
It'S funny you mentioned like the economic inter intertwinedness of it all because have, I mean we all think about that, right? I had a, I had a co worker like 30 years ago and he said we could fix the whole middle. He was really right wing and so I was like, come on dude. But he said we could fix the whole Middle east if we just airdropped PlayStations across the entire region. And I was like trying to find like a problem with the argument, right? Like if everyone just had video games. I mean they talk about that with like, there's a lot less violence actually, like criminal violence has gone down because people are just not bored as often. Like we're looking at our phones instead of sitting around thinking like, let's go get drunk and start a fire.
- [32:48]
And, and so that's a thing. But now we're seeing Trump, lo and behold, disentangle the, the economies of the world. And when you don't need another country for economic growth, if you don't need them for a military alliance, you know, resources are part of the economy. Like, why do you care about this country then? If they're a different religion and the people look different, then suddenly it's like, well, they're, they're getting genocided. And you're like, well, I don't really see myself in them, and we don't need them strategically. So I'm, I'm like, I have no empathy for them. Or you get angry about that, about something with that country, and then suddenly there's just no reason to not attack them.
- [33:28]
A
Yeah. So what Tim said before about the books that were like, we're so interconnected and economically interconnected, and because we're so connected, there won't be war. I, I am right now writing the opening script for a future episode of my other podcasts on offense. And in that episode, I, I interview.
- [33:51]
The general who was in charge with the Katrina response. I was in Iraq in 2005 when General Honore was, was leading on the ground and bringing tensions down. He came into the public consciousness because he came off of a helicopter with a cigar in his mouth and started yelling at National Guard and police to put their guns down because the Louisiana, Louisiana National Guard, excuse me, the Louisiana governor who is the commander of International Guard, had said, you should shoot to kill if people are looting. And General Honore, who is a native Louisianan who grew up in the Jim Crow south before joining the military, came out and said, they're not looting. They're hungry.
- [34:37]
B
Yeah.
- [34:37]
A
They're not stealing televisions. They're stealing, stealing. And I'm using air quotes here, baby formula like, that's not theft. That is. That is desperation.
- [34:47]
B
Survival.
- [34:48]
A
So I'm, I'm trying, as I'm writing my script, I'm trying to put myself back into 2005 and how, yes, I was on the other side of the planet, but it felt like I was on the other side of the planet. Like the, the horrors of Katrina that, that you guys witnessed in real time, I, I simply didn't witness. I got clips of it on the Armed Forces Network when I went and, you know, got lunch and dinner. I got it, you know, in the newspapers that would show up three weeks after they would were printed. But the, this, like, I feel it's so silly that people in the 90s thought we were so connected.
- [35:28]
C
Yeah.
- [35:29]
A
Compared to what we are today. And like that interconnectedness has not.
- [35:35]
Created the empathy or the, the perceived mutual benefits of, of these types of relationships on a, on a, you know, international scale that I think we quite ignorantly hoped it would.
- [35:52]
B
Yeah. I mean that, that Katrina itself was such a, a, a case of government failing at all levels too. Right. Because the governor of Louisiana Times Democrat, the mayor of New Orleans was Democrat. Actually. I think he ended up going to jail. Nagan. But you know, and then Bush famously basically sat on his hands or like flew over the, the, you know, the wreckage and you know, had put in a guy who ran a horse association as the FEMA director because that's when everyone always says, I wish we'd go back to the good old days of George W. Bush. I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about. Like that, like he did stupid like Donald Trump does, but did it with a twang and wasn't, you know, outwardly.
- [36:35]
A
A terrible person as loud about it.
- [36:37]
B
Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah. So you know, it. Yeah. I mean it was just a horrible thing. And you're right, it didn't actually serve us in that particular case. And the part about the interconnectivity, is it also. That gives extremists more ability to reach out.
- [36:51]
A
So.
- [36:51]
C
Right.
- [36:52]
B
It has actually caused a spread of that rather than a spread of good behavior. And you know, so that has obviously those. I, I hadn't really thought about the books I read in the late 90s, early 2000s and I'm kind of like Chuck, it would be funny if it wasn't so sad because you know, Trump, they said, I say I saved all these lives. Like cutting US aid has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly in Africa and in some parts of Asia. And it has irrepressible like just like hundreds of thousands. And yeah, it's just a sad, sad situation.
- [37:31]
A
And, and you know, the putting RFK Jr in front of HS in charge of HHS and like telling the CDC to just ignore science. All of these things are, are going to kill countless people.
- [37:46]
B
Yeah. But RFK can do push up or do pull ups, Chris. That's all that matters.
- [37:51]
A
Right? Is that they're making the pull ups airlines great again. Doing pull ups. Before you get into it, Duffy, were.
- [37:59]
B
Doing pull ups at, at Reagan national the other day and I'm still trying to understand why.
- [38:08]
A
I don't they want to make flying healthy again. It's a Maha thing.
- [38:12]
B
So are we putting, are we putting pull up bars in all of the airports now so that people can get their, get their swole on while they're waiting. Is that the. I guess the idea?
- [38:22]
A
Yeah. I really like look forward to getting onto a plane full of people who are sweaty from working out. That, that just seems like a great idea.
- [38:31]
B
Also doing pull ups incorrectly, by the way. At least Pete Hegseth does pull ups incorrectly, which I don't know how he didn't rip his back in that one video where he's like perkin and jerking trying to pull himself up. It's like Jesus Christ.
- [38:45]
C
Yeah, you know, I, it's fun because I love when I find out things in real time while we're talking.
- [38:52]
B
Did you around first?
- [38:53]
C
I was, I mean, I guess if, if searching Google was around, but I was like thinking about this interconnected.
- [39:01]
Concept and got. It's like Voice of America, you know, I mean that's one of the, that's one of the reasons that's another element, right, is, is information. And so I was looking for just like what's the quick fact about Voice of America? And it turns out there's been a whole flurry of activity around Voice of America specifically because of Venezuela and Washington Post is. 5 days ago or yeah, 5 days ago posted an editorial. Trump's closure of Voice of America is coming back to bite him. That's the first thing that he's ever done that came back to bite him, by the way.
- [39:38]
In Venezuela, Russia and China have filled in the gaps in information where we once occupied the space and 1300 staff members and contractors still fired or placed on leave. Websites frozen. Everything's gone dark for the first time since World War II. But specifically, VOA's weekly Spanish language audience in Latin America was a hundred million people, just based on numbers from January. Especially important in Venezuela, where the regime of Maduro has closed most independent media outlets and continues to harass journalists, many of whom have either been put in prison or have fled the country. And now the gap where VOA once helped cover because of that attack on journalism, now it's just, it's just vacant. And so Russia and China is influencing Venezuela and now we want to attack Venezuela. Isn't it crazy how it's almost like he's doing things to set the stage for conflict so that he can then go and instigate the conflict?
- [40:48]
It is, it is the 3D chess.
- [40:50]
A
After all the destruction of, of our, of things like Voice of America, of usaid, of soft power, of the State Department and, and the embassies and the way that we used to genuinely do good for a lot of the world.
- [41:07]
This is like everything that Republican presidents do, not just trump. It's like binge drinking where they're just having a party and then the Democrat who comes into office after that has to play cleanup like Obama did with the, the Great Recession. And, and unfortunately, you know, swing voters, a lot of swing voters are going to be just as mad at whatever Democrat is in, is in office next because of all of the problems that, that a Republican president set into motion that take years and years and years for the.
- [41:48]
For the back blast to, to hit us. Yep. The blowback. Excuse me. The blowback.
- [41:54]
B
Amazing. Well, guys, I think that that is probably where we're gonna wrap it today. Hopefully we'll be back at full strength next week. A couple of sickos today, so we'd like to get the whole gang back together. Also don't forget folks, that we have our weekly lives on Wednesday nights at. Oh, I guess this is after. This will already happen because.
- [42:18]
Next Wednesday at 8:45, you should join us on YouTube. You should follow us on YouTube. Also, you can see that I'm wearing our lovely merch, which you should purchase. And I'm going to be walking around LA trying to get people to listen one by one. Except I'm not because some of the people I've seen outside.
- [42:34]
Don'T look like they want to be be spoken to. So we're going to probably leave that alone.
- [42:38]
C
But yeah, I thought you'd say everybody had their own podcast already and they're.
- [42:43]
B
All trying to tell you there's a guy down downstairs who had a sign that I can't read out loud. It's. It's too. I just can't say the words. But he was out there and anyway, so. But no, I'm. I'm gonna speak in front of a bunch of state party chairmen today. So that's an exciting moment and yeah, super fancy. Don't know what I'm going to say yet, but we'll see. But anyways, outside of that, folks, please buy our merch atfind out podcast.com and also a membership if you can't afford it would help us keep the lights on, which you can get@findoutpodcast.substack.com until then, guys, have a wonderful weekend. Like I said, hopefully we will be back at full strength next time. We'll talk soon. Bye, guys.