A (2:11)

So there. Unfortunately, our topics this week are not super uplifting, but they are important to talk about. And also don't forget at the end we will have our. Our new segment get presented by Luke.

B (2:24)

The end. Everyone gets to get by Luke.

A (2:27)

Oh, geez. Here we go.

D (2:28)

Damn it.

A (2:29)

Also, when I announce it, there's going to be a bit of a twist that nobody knows about, so just be ready for that. I've told them before, they have no idea. And I'm also making it way bigger than it. But anyways, so you got to stick around till the end. But so starting off here, there was a New York Times article that came out, I believe it was yesterday, that talks about how the Democratic Party is hemorrhaging voters and that many, many people are leaving the party and becoming independents. And this is in particular unnerving because we are the minority party. And usually as the pendulum swings, these things tend to swing the other way. It's worth checking it out. Right now it looks like we have lost about 4.5 million voter registration advantage that we used to have, and it is concerning. And so what we need to talk about in this group is what are we doing wrong and how do we reverse that? So. So, guys, we're going to solve the Democratic Party's problems in the next 30 minutes.

B (3:26)

Let's do it.

A (3:26)

I'm sure everybody will listen to us and do everything we say. So who. Who wants to kick us off with their brilliant take on why Democrats are hemorrhaging voters when we have literally the worst president in our lifetime in office right now?

C (3:40)

I mean, well, first. Go ahead, Rich, go ahead.

B (3:42)

Sorry. No, I mean, this is really important. We need more purity tests.

C (3:46)

That's where I was going.

B (3:47)

We need a list of probably 750 things that have to be TR. And most of them are going to contradict each other, but they have to be true about any person who's our leader. And then if we get that, all of our nightmares will go away.

C (4:03)

Absolutely. I mean, dude, my. I've been sick this past week, so I've been on TikTok too much. And the amount of videos I saw going, I will never support Gavin Newsom. He's a horrendous person. And anybody like, please shut the fuck up. Please shut the fuck up. I cannot take another second of this shit. He's doing a good job. Like, you may not agree with everything. I don't give a shit. I've never agreed with every single candidate I voted for. Everything. You gotta just give him some leeway here. He's doing a good job fighting back against this orange piece of shit, right? He's like. And, and he, like, I know people attack him for homelessness and trans issues. And I looked into that stuff while I was just laying there in bed and like, yes, he's done things that are questionable. He's also done a lot of shit that's really good for those communities, too. It's not just like a complete, like, black mark on his, you know, on his conscience. He's done a lot of stuff that's actually tried to benefit these communities, too.

E (4:50)

Stuff that's worth, like, questioning, like, why the did you do that? But also, you have to give him credit as, like, oh, you know, he's done something Right.

C (4:57)

Exactly.

E (4:57)

So this, like, that leads me to my second part with the Democratic Party, which is that somehow, with as amoral and vacuous as Gavin Newsome is, he looks superb next to everybody who's standing with their fucking mouth shut. And you know what they're really not doing? Endorsing people who have their mouths open, like, Mom, Donnie. A bunch of people are dead silent on somebody who is popular as.

D (5:22)

That is your problem, Hakeem Jeffries. You know, we've, like New York. We've. We've got leadership in the Democratic Party in the House and Senate, right? Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer. They're. They're like, oh, can't. Can't, you know, endorse the guy who's running away, you know, wildly popular in. In what I would argue is the most important city in the world. I'm a native New Yorker, for those who don't hear the accent anymore, by the way.

A (5:51)

Well, and I live. And I live here now, as. And, you know, I think you're right. I think. And then the Zoran thing is really interesting because yesterday he did this thing that I've never seen a politician do before. He actually. Because he's basically raised so much money that there's. There's limits on how much you can spend in the mayoral races and such. So, like.

E (6:07)

Oh, because popular, though, right?

A (6:10)

Right, Exactly. Like, he. He also maxed out before anybody else in the primary. They had a scavenger hunt in New York. Like his supporter. Yes, yes, they had a scavenger hunt. And. And they had to go find things in all of these different parts of the city, and hundreds of people showed up, and it was like this big love fest for New York City. And meanwhile, like, Andrew Cuomo is going like, I'm my daughter. I'm. I don't think my daughter should ride on the subway, which is bullshit, because she should be able to. And like anybody living in any city, you have to keep your eyes open and you have to pay attention. And there are certain times when you should not do things, but, like, no candidate solving that problem. And I think Memdani both. He has excitement because he's willing to try some new things, but also, like, he just loves the city and is a guy that people could just imagine. Like, you could sit down a horror, not hating seeing on TV and not hate seeing him on your TV for the next four years. These things all matter. And I think you guys are right. Like, what Hakeem Jeffries is doing. I don't know. I don't know. I don't get it. He is playing a playbook from 10 years ago, and, like, is missing all of the signals that. Of what Democrats want out of him right now. Like, they want him to stop or just do something, even if it's performative. And instead, like, he just puts up these, like, very generic tweets and stuff.

E (7:31)

And it's just performative shit. Him standing there before the BBB with the fucking bat.

C (7:37)

That's painful.

A (7:38)

Well, okay, let me. Let me rephrase. Let me. Let me. Let me rephrase. Like, I at least want to see him angry. Yeah. And I don't see him angry. I see him very measured and very. And, like, this is not a time for moderation, and it's. It's a problem. And Democrats really only have themselves to blame for this. You know, I think this exodus from the party, I think it's weakness, and I think it's not standing up for what's right. And I think people are tired of that.

E (8:07)

To Mike Johnson's head. I don't want to fucking see it.

A (8:10)

Yeah. I mean, the bat's stupid. Like, dumbest shit ever.

E (8:12)

I'm still mad about that.

B (8:14)

I mean, it's. Most of our Democratic leaders are still operating as if it's, like, 2012. Like, we're running against, you know, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, and everybody's, like, kind and decent to each other. And then you get Gavin Newsom, who. I mean, he was, like, fourth or fifth on my. On my list or like, maybe six months ago, fourth or fifth, maybe on my list for 2028. And now he and Buddha Judge are, like, one and two and at risk of flipping because Buddha Judge is sort of, like, waffled on a bunch of things, and Gavin's just out there fighting. And if you look at Gavin's approval rating now, it's through the roof. I think it's jumped by 20 or 20 to 30 points since. Since he started all this in California, not. Not nationwide. And his proposition for redistricting, I saw it was, I think 57 to 35 was the winning margin if it were to be voted on today. And people. So people are excited to be a newsome Democrat in California today, and they're not excited to be a Democrat anywhere else, because there's nobody doing that anywhere else. Like, if you ask, if you ask the average person, who are the people who get excited, who get you excited about the idea of Democrats being the leaders of this country? It's going to be Newsom and Mamdani. Those are the probably the only two people who show up. Maybe some Buttigieg, some Pritzker, some Bashir people out there, like regional, maybe a Bernie, but. But nationwide it's going to be. Well, and Bernie's independent. Right. Like, so even there there's some tension. There always has been. We just need people to just step up and fucking do anything. And I'm zero percent concerned about party registration. I don't give a shit about what party I'm registered for, as long as I can vote for the person I want to be the leader.

C (9:58)

No, for sure. And when you look at the leadership situation, it's sort of like you rewind a year and we had a guy who should have retired a long time ago, who is our current leader, and then we have his predecessor just fall completely on her face. And now you have nobody in charge. And that's like, imagine a company trying to operate with nobody in charge. It's just a bunch of people running around with two different ideas of how shit should run. And someone's just gotta go, you know what? I'm just gonna do whatever the fuck is right. And that's Ben Newsom. But nobody is anointing him as the leader. The party has to figure out a system to actually be like, this is the person we're following right now. Yes, he's not elected in any official capacity to lead, but this is the person. I really do believe we need to have something set up where it's like, get behind this person or shut the fuck up. And we don't have that.

A (10:43)

And there is some of this to where the party out of power. You know, when they first get out of power, there is a bit of wilderness period that happens. Right. And Right. Yeah. Because I mean, regardless of what anybody thinks, like, we got smacked down in November and luckily MAGA people sometimes just vote for Trump. And so we saved a few senators down the line because they didn't fill out their full ballots. But, you know, it's a message. And. But I think that what Gavin is. Right, but what Gavin's. Gavin's doing, you know, is showing leadership. And you can say it's performative or whatever, but, like he is taking action and he is not just sitting back. And everybody can do that in their own way. And people clearly like it. Like, no one thought three Months ago, Gavin Newsom would be the number one guy on the Democratic side, and look what he's doing. Just like, literally run his playbook. And this is partially why Bernie was effective, too, right? Because he stands for things and makes it very clear. I never voted for him, but I understand the support he had.

C (11:44)

Oh, for sure.

A (11:44)

And I think it's a mixture of the two things. And I do not understand why more Democrats are not doing this. I do not get it.

B (11:50)

What I want to see is fewer people trying to vote for politicians, as if they're going to be a member of their family or a best friend or a spiritual leader. It's not. It's a fucking job, you guys. It's a little tough love here, but it's a job representing people. And this is a big, dumb, diverse, weird, inexplicable country of what, 340, 350 million people? California is the largest most diverse state in terms of demographics. It's also the largest, most diverse state economically. Gavin Newsom is going to be performative to somebody all of the time because there are so many different people looking at him from so many different perspectives. If he's going up there and he's being angry about something that his voters tell him you need to be angry about, and he's not personally invested in that, but he's doing it anyway. He is literally performing because he is doing the fucking job that he was elected to do, which is to perform for the people he represents. If we look at that approach to Everybody running in 2026, 2028, I don't actually care as long as, like, they're not monsters, they're not fascists. They're not pushing, like, literally pushing for genocide or white nationalism, you know, all of the things that the right is actively doing right now, I don't care if they're saying the things because they were told to, because that's what voters want, or if it's because it's a cause that's truly, deeply important to them. I just want them to go up there and do the fucking job so that the job gets done and I can live my regular life 100%.

D (13:21)

The key word that you just mentioned, Rich, was, was pushing for genocide. And that is, I think, why the Democrats have. Have not seen the typical surge in registrations, because the Democratic Party has enabled, under the Biden presidency and today in Congress, a genocidal front against the Palestinian people. So I think that a lot of folks are looking at the Democratic Party and they are saying this party is complicit in genocide. There are exceptions, though, like Mamdani would not take the bait and get pulled into this.

A (14:00)

Right.

D (14:01)

And that is why he, I think, is so spectacularly popular, not just in New York City, but around the country. I think he's inspiring people because he's, he's willing to stand up for what's right. And, you know, Israel policy doesn't affect, you know, arming Israel doesn't actually affect the vast, vast, vast majority of most Americans.

B (14:22)

Right.

D (14:22)

But we all still have a conscience.

A (14:24)

Right?

D (14:24)

And I think that's where the disconnect is, especially when it comes to my fellow New Yorkers, Schumer and Jefferson.

E (14:31)

That clip from that debate where they're like, where's your first out of country trip gonna be if you're mayor? And they went, israel, Israel, Israel. And Andani went, yeah, I don't need. I don't see a need to leave. That was like, holy.

A (14:43)

Oh, Luke. It wasn't which country. It was specifically, when are you going to Israel? Yeah.

C (14:48)

Oh, that was the question.

E (14:50)

Yeah, I thought it was where.

B (14:52)

The loaded question.

A (14:54)

Well, and he answered it really well. He's like, well, how is that going to help my constituents here? I'm going to stay here. And I think that's part of the reason that he did so well. He speaks very clearly. He says exactly what he's for. He doesn't play games. You know, like, his answer on affordability is miles ahead of what any of the other candidates answers are on affordability. And I mean, one of the candidates last week, one of their aides stuck a bunch of cash in a chip in a potato chip bag and handed it to a reporter who went immediately to the police. And they were like, well, this wasn't a bribe. I'm like, what the.

C (15:26)

Like, what the fuck is it?

A (15:27)

I mean, this is. This is Eric Adams, by the way. Oh, God. Are they doing, Are they taking like RFK Jr gym videos style? Putting jeans on?

E (15:39)

I think it was Adams.

A (15:41)

Ok, guys, message to all political candidates. I don't give a fuck how much you can bench. I don't care how strong you are physically. Like, stop it with this pseudo macho bullshit. That means absolutely nothing except you just want to thump your chest like, enough.

B (15:58)

It is really funny. I've seen a bunch of those Marjorie Taylor Greene workout videos, though, and those always make me laugh in some sort of weird way. I don't know why. It's like, it's like, what do you. It's like somebody who's never been Told how to use gym equipment is. Is using gym equipment and you get to just enjoy it. And you also want them to fail because they suck.

E (16:17)

Here's what it was. Mom Donnie was at a Men's Day event in Brooklyn on Saturday where he did some bench pressing. As part of the event. They. Somebody took a video of that and posted it and Adams took that video and duetted it with a video of himself bench pressing 64 versus 33. A lifetime of hard work versus a silver spoon. The results speak for themselves. The weight of the job is too heavy for Mom. Scrawny.

C (16:43)

My God.

B (16:44)

You should just take their. They should just all take their penises out and we could just get to.

A (16:48)

The bottom just like do this.

B (16:51)

Like these proxy wars are boring. Like everybody get naked and we'll all judge their physical bodies. And the manliest man gets to be women. Can't apply manly men.

C (17:01)

It's. It's really painful. I mean Mamdani is actually the most courageous of any politician I've seen in a while. And like I've said this before, I do not agree with Mamdani on most things. But like he was asked directly recently about like capitalism and if he likes it, he's like, no. And no other politician would be like comfortable saying that. He's like, no, I don't like capitalism. It's shit. And like I like capitalism personally, but I respected the answer of like, he's not going to dance around down and pretend to be something he's not. He's like, I have the courage to say no. I want to break up with our relationship with capitalism. And there's going to be a ton of people who hate me for that. And I don't give a shit. That is strength in politics. Like you don't need to lift a bar above your head to prove what you can do. You got to be willing to say what you believe. He's willing to say what the fuck he believes. There's no question about that.

B (17:42)

And I think back to like the Israel Palestine challenge. It has been a transparently political non choice for Democrats in trying to like all the way back to Biden, in trying to just very obviously retain as many Jewish voters who have been court of the Democratic coalition for, for decades, retain as many as possible while also like sort of pacifying the people who are looking at actual famine which is setting in in Gaza now. Millions of people could just like are just right on knife's edge is just food and water. Like all that food that they just let rot in that Warehouse. You know these, this is a very fixable problem considering the leverage we have over over Israel in, in aid and in military support. So this is something everybody knows. If we wanted to throw a weight around, we could go and, and head it off or, or just outright fix it. And yet Democrats are having a, having a hard time say, well, we wouldn't want to accidentally expect too much of Jewish voters and hope that they can understand that Netanyahu is not the Israeli government, is not the Israeli people, is not the Jewish religion.

C (18:56)

Stupid as shit. Look at Mamdani's numbers. He won Jewish votes by a lot.

B (19:01)

By a lot.

A (19:02)

He's leading with them now by like a shit ton.

C (19:05)

By like 30% or 40% or something.

E (19:07)

Somebody who sticks to their guns and doesn't have outlandish beliefs is fucking worthwhile. And people really like that.

B (19:12)

And could it. Sorry, real quick. A population that has experienced mass violence and genocide themselves is maybe sensitive to other people also not experiencing the same thing.

D (19:22)

Like, see the greatest irony that, that we have with this situation is Democrats are afraid to walk away from Israel primarily because they're afraid of being labeled as anti Semitic. But the most anti Semitic belief is that every Jewish person around the world is loyal to Israel before they are. Their own families, their own country, their own morals. Right, right.

B (19:47)

Their values.

A (19:48)

Right.

D (19:48)

Democrats are showing anti Semitism by refusing to condemn a genocide.

C (19:55)

Yeah, I could see that. I mean, I. Look come the Jew on the panel here. I don't know a single Jew in my life that would be scared off by any of, by supporting helping people in Gaza. Not one. Like it's become such a strange thing where like they think the second that you go, ooh, maybe we should take care of Palestinian people, they go, oh, why do you hate Jews? Like no Jew. I mean, unless they're like nuts. No average Jews Jew thinks that. And that's why Mamdani wins by the margin he does. As a Muslim person himself. You know, it makes absolutely no sense. It is the most fear based thinking I could possibly imagine. That's what the Democratic Party's devolved into. They just go, well, should we make a move? I don't know if we should make a move on what if this, what if it's like shut the fuck up and do the right thing and you'll do fine. Right. That. Just please, right? It's not complicated. Like if you're looking at people getting slaughtered in a genocide, probably be against it. You know, maybe it's a good idea.

E (20:51)

And don't call them A best friend that you need to, like, hug and help him get better.

A (20:55)

Right.

E (20:56)

Personally, if I had a best friend that was committing genocide, they wouldn't be my friend anymore.

C (21:00)

Right, exactly. And it's like the false of, like, well, do you support Hamas? Like, that's not. It's two totally different things. Like, it's just the whole narrative is so broken, and if Democrats just come out and fix that broken narrative, they'd be so far ahead.

A (21:13)

Yep.

B (21:15)

Other than that. Other than that, I think we're in pretty good position coming into the next couple of elections.

E (21:22)

Other than all those things we just listed.

A (21:27)

It just points to. People want a strong leader more than any individual issue, I think. I mean, well, they want honesty because. Because if you want. If. If the. We keep electing Donald Trump. We've done it twice now. And there is a message to the Democrats in that. Right. Like, he doesn't waffle. At least never. He waffles in his administration. But like. But like, in his words, like, eats a lot of waffles. Oh, yeah. The health is. The health is not good there. He's still stumbling around when he walks.

E (21:59)

Both hands have bruises now.

B (22:00)

Oh, but now.

A (22:01)

Yeah.

B (22:02)

Okay. Have you guys seen all these videos? There's like a thousand videos on my feed every day now about how he's, like, about to die. People say, like, I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor, and he is going to die inside the next six months. This is. He's showing all the signs of somebody who is about to die, and that's why he's lashing out. And I'm like, nah, I'm gonna watch every video to the end because it's just kind of like cathartic. I don't know.

A (22:24)

It feels.

B (22:24)

It feels nice, but it also feels.

E (22:26)

Like every time I read an article that starts with Donald Trump 79, they shouldn't be allowed to start it that way.

A (22:34)

I think if a doctor is diagnosing on tv, you should not listen to them.

C (22:38)

Right.

A (22:38)

Number one, no question.

E (22:40)

Tick tock.

A (22:41)

Well, we had this. We had this issue, Luke. You probably won't remember this one, but there was this issue with this woman. Terry Schiavo does. Do you know who Terri Schiavo is, Luke? There you go. Okay.

D (22:52)

Neither do I. And I'm the Florida vegetable.

A (22:55)

Yeah. So, okay. Okay. Yes. Oh, boy. So for those who don't know, there was a woman who had a severe eating disorder to the point where she went into cardiac arrest and they revived her physically, but she never regained consciousness. And they. They Said that she was brain dead. Her husband wanted to pull the plug and her family did not. They were religious and they were like, no, we need to keep it on. He claimed that she never wanted that and it was his whole fight. And then Jeb Bush stepped in because of his religion and was like saying, yeah. And was sided with the family over the. Over the husband. But Bill Frist, who was the Senate majority leader for a while, the midnight. And minority leader, who's a medical doctor, was diagnosing her from the floor of the Senate saying that he saw brain activity. Now, of course, when she eventually passed away and they did an autopsy, there was no activity. But anyways, it just comes to like, that was the moment where I was like, doctors really shouldn't be diagnosing from seeing like a video and then just deciding from there. So we shouldn't be doing it.

E (23:57)

A replacement for actual. Right.

C (23:59)

Yeah. It's very nuanced. Like, I see it all the time too. My feed is just full of. He's got chronic venous insufficiencies. Therefore all this like, dude, heart failure.

E (24:09)

He's going to die on Sunday.

C (24:10)

Yeah.

E (24:11)

Liar.

C (24:11)

It's just not how it works. Like, we need to see the labs. We need to see all the, like, all the scans and the ultrasounds that went in his legs. Then you could make a diagnosis without it. You're just fucking guessing.

A (24:21)

You want to.

E (24:22)

He looks like he exhibits congestive heart failure. Fine. But don't tell me and get my hopes up that he's going to die in the next two weeks. Don't tell me that shit.

A (24:29)

I think it just makes us look crazy. I get that people want to talk about it, but, like, we need to focus on winning midterms next year, not just crossing our fingers and hoping it's something else. Because also I will tell you that that does. Is not a solution to our problems because then you end up with President Vance, who probably is. Is a much smarter person or hand.

E (24:52)

Up his ass because he does.

D (24:53)

Yep.

A (24:54)

So like, it's actually not. The chaos actually works in our favor a lot of times because it means they can't get as much done because.

E (25:00)

The only thing taken over is that he doesn't have nearly the control over the cult.

C (25:05)

Right.

E (25:06)

Never will.

C (25:07)

Never will. No, he doesn't have like Trump's like. I mean, I hate to say this is it fact. Just doesn't.

E (25:13)

Trump says, shut up. I don't want to hear about that anymore.

C (25:15)

Right.

E (25:15)

And provided it's not this Epstein thing. Pretty much his Face shuts the fuck up and never talks about it again.

C (25:21)

Yeah, there's no question. I mean, for me, it wouldn't even be close. I would prefer J.D. vance over Donald Trump, especially because J.D. vance is very predictable, too. Like, Trump is so aggressively unpredictable. And that alone is like, should be disqualifying in and of itself, but it's not.

B (25:34)

Apparently we forget that Trump hosted a reality TV show for like 10 years. Like, he. He's very well rehearsed in. In putting on a show. And he, like, I never watched that show because he sucks and it sucked. And yet it commanded millions and millions of viewers because other people don't think like me. And so that's something I have had to come to grips with is okay, he obviously has the it factor. He has some ability to influence millions of people. That doesn't work on me, but it works on everyone else. And I can squarely say that JD Vance cannot host a reality TV show for 10 years and command millions of viewers. It would be horrific.

A (26:16)

He does know how to put his own makeup on, though.

C (26:18)

He does.

B (26:19)

It's true.

D (26:20)

The eyeliner on the topic of Trump having this reality show presidency. Reuters published an article today about how he is going to be signing, I think today. So yesterday, if you're listening to this episode, fresh, instructing Pam Bondi to go after people who burn or otherwise disrespect the American flag. So what he is doing is he is tempting a bunch of leftists to go out and say, here's me burning the flag, making videos of themselves, come get me. Which of course is. Is right and is. Is legal. Like they can do that. That is. That is case law establishes that. That. But. But the net effect is going to be that Fox News for the next few weeks is going to be featuring people burning American flags instead of talking about Trump being in the Epstein files.

C (27:14)

Yep.

A (27:16)

Yeah. Yeah. And that is a. That is a First Amendment right, as you said. Like, there is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Republicans bring this out every once in a while when they need, like you said, a distraction from the reality. Which, again, like last week, the Justice Department made a big deal about releasing some. Some Epstein files that when the press got their hands on them, went, we already have this. We've already had it. So they're very clearly staying away from it because he's on the list.

D (27:48)

But, but Jim Jordan says that he's. He's not.

E (27:51)

Delaine Maxwell said he was never anything but kind to her.

A (27:55)

Yes, I believe that a convicted Felon and a guy who turned a blind eye to essay on. In on the what Ohio State camp believe. Yeah. These are our trustworthy sources to. To discount the fact that everyone else says that Donald Trump.

B (28:10)

When you say convicted felon, are you talking about Donald Trump or Ghisain Max Maxwell? Yes, because they're both.

C (28:18)

Exactly.

A (28:18)

But she did say it in the interviews, I think with the Justice Department. And by the Justice Department, I mean Trump's personal lawyer that he brought into the government. That she did claim that she never saw any. I don't know how she framed it.

B (28:32)

Perfect gentleman, I think was something like that. He was perfectly one of them. He was a perfect like, which is a canned phrase that you would give to somebody if you wanted them to say something that was instantly, you know, salient for millions.

E (28:46)

Are you suggesting that we cannot trust her testimony?

B (28:49)

You know. No. Yeah. I mean, yes. No, we can't trust it. Yes, I am. I'm overtly demanding that nobody trust. You know, it's almost like if it's not just Maxwell, we should get everybody who's intimately aware of this, put them all into a room and have them all share their version of events. And then we could have like an independent group of people decide if Maxwell is lying or not. And we could call it, you know, a courtroom.

C (29:17)

It's a cool idea.

E (29:18)

We don't do that these times the court state those don't exist anymore.

B (29:22)

I would rather trust Todd Blanche interviewing somebody who sex traffics little girls than trust, you know, the judgment of the jury that already convicted Maxwell and being a serial trafficking rapist, liar, piece of felon who should probably get the Guantanamo. No seacot. Let's put her in seacot, see what happens.

A (29:43)

Well, it can't be Alligator Alcatraz anymore. Right? Because didn't. Aren't they. Didn't the judge shut that down last week?

E (29:49)

I think they did shut it down, but I think that Desantis is ignoring it.

C (29:52)

Yeah, they're not going to give a shit.

A (29:54)

Oh, yeah, we don't anymore.

C (29:56)

Yeah.

A (29:57)

What's the.

B (29:58)

What's the next. It was one of those, like, you have to tear it down immediately. And also we'll pause this so that you can appeal. And then they appeal and then everybody like. But it might actually get shut down because they tried to. I didn't even know this but until I read about it, but they tried to build like a jet strip in that exact same spot many years ago. And that all got shut down by the exact same. It's a group of. It's an, I think a Native American group. Right. It's a native group and that. That views that as I'm gonna be. I'm way out of my. Out of my comfort zone talking about this, so I'm just not going to say any other words, but I don't know if it's like sacred grounds or. But. But yes, it is. It's a. It's a Native. Native group. And they sued effectively and won already to shut something down and they just ignored that ruling this time in putting Alligator Alcatraz there. So there's a. There's a non zero chance that the whole thing gets ripped up and torn down, you know, just like Doge. And it just goes the way of Elon Musk.

A (30:53)

Well, it's also in the middle of the. The. The Everglades.

B (30:57)

Everglades.

A (30:57)

Which is prone to flooding. Yeah, right. It's just like. I mean, it's already flooded in like the first week that they had it open. So that was the point anyway. Well, yeah, yeah.

E (31:07)

So they're using one of the bigger bases that. Whereas Japanese internment camps.

C (31:12)

Yeah, internment camps, yeah.

E (31:14)

Attainment now.

A (31:15)

Oh, that's right. Yeah. So, yeah, they're. They have built a nice facility on top of a. Of a Japanese internment camp, which is wonderful symbolism for everybody to see. Blah, blah, blah.

E (31:26)

History rhymes. We.

A (31:27)

It.

B (31:28)

You know, I think the important part is that all of these things are going to collectively bring down the costs of energy and beast. And increase.

E (31:36)

I think eggs are getting cheaper.

A (31:37)

Right. Yeah. And increase wages.

B (31:39)

Right, exactly. I mean, this is exactly what all of those, you know, those sort of confused swing voters said that they were voting for was, you know, concentration camps and genocide. And how many millions of dollars have we spent deporting and redeporting Kilmar Abreu Garcia at this point, let alone. We're talking about private jets to and from Central America. Private jets, maybe to Africa now so that we can fucking ruin a family also. So what exactly? Why are we doing this again? I forget.

A (32:13)

Well, does anyone remember? So, everybody. Oh, oh. Because America. We're making America great again.

C (32:19)

Duh.

A (32:20)

Obviously. And the best way to do that is to. Is to throw out immigrants, whether they deserve to be thrown out or not.

B (32:27)

Yeah, fine. Immigrant. Is it just a brown person or is there like something else when they're at the airport?

E (32:33)

They hold up.

A (32:33)

Well, it's not. It's not. It's not. It's not based on any paperwork because they've arrested American citizens as well. So. Yes, I think it is because you are brown or black, that they grab you and then they figure it out later, which is a great strategy for a democracy.

E (32:46)

That almost said that. He said that they were gonna start doing it that way.

D (32:50)

So we're eight months into the year, and this year there has been less activity from the neo Nazi extremists, like white supremacist groups that I track.

E (33:02)

They've got their ICE badges.

D (33:03)

It is the first time that we have seen activity levels decrease. And because journalists are interviewing these people, they're saying, why, why go out and protest if everything the government is doing is what we were calling for all this time?

B (33:19)

I mean, congratulations. So they're thanos job too? Yeah, they're thanos at the end, after, after he snaps his fingers and then he just goes and like sits in a chair and he's like, my work here is done. They're just all thanos. Just like over, over the course of.

D (33:33)

Eight years, we went from the vast majority of Republicans in office condemning Charlottesville to the vast majority of Republicans, an entire party supporting all of the things that the Charlottesville Nazis were calling for. That's, that's the reality we're living in.

A (33:52)

We have great work, guys.

D (33:55)

Like, wow, that's, that's it. We're, we are living in a country where Nazis are like, I'm not going to bother protesting anymore because we're here.

E (34:03)

They're doing what I want.

B (34:06)

It's like the south park problem where they can't, they're like, they're incapable of re upping themselves. Like every episode that they, they, they're trying to be more ridiculous than reality. Reality keeps catching them. These Nazis, they're like, guys, our wildest fantasies came true 100 years early. What else are we going to do? Like, who are they going to turn on next?

A (34:28)

Well, let's, let's, let's actually talk about one of the things I think that they are probably happy about, which most Americans will not be happy about, which is the fact. And Chris is going to talk about this one, but the fact that the va, the Trump administration through the va, is looking to make sure that veterans cannot not have abortions, even if they are in blue states. Chris, do you want to give us a little on this super uplifting topic?

D (34:54)

Yeah. So I, guys, no one comes to me for good news. So I'm sorry for just being who I am, but this is important. And, and the thing that you need to know is that it's not too late for everyone listening to do something about it. So most people know who pay attention to politics and media, that August tends to be the slow month. This is a little bit different this year because Donald Trump is deploying American troops on American streets. So there has been quite a bit of news. What has gotten buried is that early in August, Donald Trump basically took Project 2025's idea of eliminating abortion access for veterans at VA hospitals and proposed a rule, a regulation. Now, the comment period is about a month long. I think a little less than a month in this case during the quietest month when there's a lot of people just not paying attention to what's going on. And it ends right after Labor Day on September 3rd. So I discovered over the weekend, because I do research and that's kind of my thing, I've discovered these kind of spam campaigns in the past that Christian national groups, Christian nationalist groups are organizing to spam comments. I have watched over just the past two days alone, thousands of comments coming in which are supporting Trump's proposal to ban abortion for women veterans, which is fucking offensive. And it, and it is a disgrace that women who serve their countries, serve their country, have a 1 in 3 chance of coming forward with having experienced sexual trauma as it relates to their service. One in three women who serve in the military will experience sexual trauma. And with that being a well known fact, Trump's administration is taking away the right for reproductive health care up into the point that someone is dying. That's the only exception is when a veteran is very clearly going to die if they don't get this abortion. That is the proposed rule. And Christo fascists are organizing. So what I'm asking our listeners to do, and we will send out this in our show, Notes on Substack, is how to leave a public comment. It's important that you don't just like copy and paste what somebody else wrote. It's important that you write something that says this is why you support a woman's access to choose at these VA hospitals cases.

A (37:27)

Yeah. And I think we know from the overturning of Roe v. Wade that the, the health exception, in reality what happens there is that they wait until the absolute last minute to take preventative measures because the doctors and the nurses don't want to go to jail. And sometimes it's just too late. And these guys who write these policies know that, know that the health exception, like, is a very difficult, it's very difficult to be like, I, this person is dying right now, or they might live right. That, that this is why when, you know, this happened when my dad was sick. I asked the doctor, like, how much time I had left. They don't, they hate that answer or that question because they don't know. So when you are telling somebody that they could go to jail unless they can justify that this person, it was absolutely going to die, they don't do it. And so this, like, in many instances, this is just like you would be stuck with caring to term fetus that was the, was the result of a, of a sexual assault.

D (38:39)

Yeah. Now here's why I'm bringing this up. And, and it's important that people like act now. So go to find out podcast.substack.com and with this video, with podcast, we're going to include instructions in the show notes on, on how you can fight this. The reason why this is so important is we've only got a week. We've got a week from the time that this podcast comes out to, to organize people. Now, the way that this rulemaking process and public commenting process is supposed to work is the government reads through these comments and basically looks at it like, okay, does the public support this rule or do they not? The way that they're supposed to do this is like they'll look at batch comments, the copy and pastes, and they'll be like the, we'll weigh these lightly. These are people who care, but they don't care that much. And they weigh that against people who write sincere, authentic and original comments. And they weigh those more heavily. The Trump administration, we can expect them to just simply go, so there were 8,000 comments that were for our policy, and there were like 300 comments that were against our policy. So the, the emphasis here is Donald Trump is doing a lot of things to destroy rules and norms, and a lot of people are feeling hopeless. You should not feel hopeless and simply give up on the tools of democracy. Right now is the time where we can show and inspire other Americans. Like, if, if doing this podcast and, and writing this piece on substack impacts, you know, hundreds or thousands of people and thousands of people come onto the, the government regulation website and say that they support women's rights to choose, that will signal to other Americans that we haven't lost our democracy yet. The alternative is we go, well, they're going to do it anyway, so why even fight back? And that becomes a habit. If, if we just give up and let them steamroll women, veterans, access to health care, they're going to continue doing exactly that. They're going to know that there's no opposition and it's going to embolden them folder further. So I know I'm the bad news guy, but I'm here to tell you that you can act now to stop the bad news from getting worse and you can make it better.

A (41:01)

Better. Well, we also want to make sure we take a talking point away from them, which is, oh, well, nobody wrote in any, any negative to this, which they will do. So you need to take that power away from them. And these comment periods are very, very important. So I hope you all do go to, to the substack to, to send in your note and say why you're against this.

C (41:23)

Think it's more important. I, I, it makes me think of something I was thinking of this weekend where it's like, you look at what Newsom is doing in California with this gerrymandering, having a vote. And there's certain things the Trump administration, like, for example, saying they want to go to Chicago and take over and federalize the police force there. You would think if this was a popular idea, it would be, they want to get the perspective of the city that they're going to go in and federalize the police up. The Democrats should be pushing and going, look, if you think this is something people want in these cities, have the city vote for it. And if they vote for it, go on in, have fun with it. We got to start pressing people in this shit in ways that we functionally can be like, hey, if you think this is popular, hold a special election to see if we want to federalize the police force in Chicago. Hold a special election to see if we want to take these rights away. Like, they won't. They will lose every single time. And if you make them make the narrative go, they don't want to actually have people's voices involved in this. They just want to steamroll you. That makes them look worse.

A (42:19)

Yeah. And it's funny to see on the D.C. stuff, you know, they keep pushing these drops in crime and they're like, too short. Come in.

E (42:28)

It's too short a time.

B (42:28)

You can't measure it.

A (42:30)

First of all, too short. Second of all, the DC takeover is costing at least a million dollars a day. So if you wanted this for a year, it would cost $365 million at minimum. Also, you live in a police state and you know, do you know where places, do you know some other places that had low crime or had low crime? North Korea has low crime. The Soviet Union had had low crime. China has low crime. Are you willing to trade your rights for low crime? And this Is part of the thing with democracy is when you give people freedoms, not everybody uses them the right way, which is why we have police forces and prosecutors and all of these things. I guess if you want to live in a, in a police state, I don't have much I can argue with you on, but if you do well, then you should be all about doing, let's see, Memphis, red state, worst crime in the country. Kansas City, number two, red state state. So, you know, is this about scaring a bunch of, of minorities in a blue city or is this about solving crime? And I think we know the answer to that.

E (43:35)

So I was reading that the. There are a bunch of restaurants in D.C. that are talking about how no one is coming out to eat anymore because nobody. Like, what do you want? I'll take the seat. With the view of the fascist as they patrol this.

A (43:48)

Yeah, with that. With the, with the machine gun strapped to him.

E (43:51)

I'll take that view.

A (43:52)

You. It's a lovely dining experience down in Logan Circle.

D (43:56)

Posted a propaganda video today talking about like actually showing the. Oh, we're, you know, this is a beautification process. And as a veteran, as someone who served in the army, I have to say that it is the most accurate recruiting commercial I have ever seen. To see a bunch of junior soldiers forced to walk across a field and pick up cigarette butts. That is the most accurate recruiting commercial I have ever seen. Because anyone who's been in the military can tell you that you spend an unbelievable amount of time walking across fields and parking lots, picking up trash, doing things like painting curbs and painting rocks. It is like the vast majority of, of the first year of your experience in the active duty military. So I, in a way, I have to appreciate the National Guard for being so honest with what they're actually making these troops do now.

E (44:55)

You know, that is. That does bring me to a, a slight point of happiness. Did you see that they. That the White House started a tick Tock page this last week?

A (45:04)

Oh, yeah.

E (45:04)

And they're just getting ratioed repeatedly in the comments. No, I've had it a couple times. And I was like, I was like, I was like, I do not interact with like that. You get this off my feed. I'm sure I'm on a list for leaving comments. Like, I have been, I've been, I've been joining all the other liberal people commenting. Where are the Epstein files? I mean, there's one guy that got like 80,000 likes on his where's the Epstein files? Comment on that.

A (45:40)

Holy video.

E (45:40)

And the, the video itself only had like 20000 likes.

A (45:44)

Well, my favorite video point to an.

E (45:46)

Interesting thing that like it's showing up on people's feeds who it shouldn't be showing up on.

A (45:51)

Right. Well and I think we've a lot of left leaning creators have strongly suggested that they have been suppressed recently. So it's quite telling that a brand new account on the completely other side of the spectrum is all of a sudden, you know, killing it. But I'm sure that they are talking to the Tik Tok folks.

E (46:09)

Actually they're doing terribly. They're doing quite terribly.

A (46:11)

Oh, I, I believe it. Well, there you go. I will say I saw a video this week that I lived in D.C. for 10 years. So this is a bit of an inside the beltway joke. But some civilian was inter. Was talking to one of the guys in the National Guard and he was like basically like are you even from here? The guy's like yeah, I'm from D.C. the, the guy in the Guard. And then of course the next question then becomes oh, well, well where? And it goes, oh well, I'm actually from Virginia. And it's like, well wait, where in Virginia? It turns out it's like way out. And if, you know, D.C. like people are very like, you know, if you're in DC, if you say you're from DC, you live in the District of Columbia, you do not live in Maryland and you do not live in Virginia. And it's just really funny to see these old school DC folks like just walking these guys into a trap to show that they are not from there. Which is not a very difficult thing to. Yeah, it's, it's, it's not a good, it's not a good sign that this is going on. And I think Chicago and New York and other places will be next again, all places that are lower on the crime rate scale than red cities.

C (47:22)

I also don't like, are they like in the trenches of these cities or they just like in the main touristy parts like look at us with our guns. We're like, it's a photo op just.

D (47:30)

In the touristy parts. And the reason is because it's propaganda effort, like a photo of, of a sold, you know, standing up somewhere up on U Street, like doesn't communicate anything to Americans. A soldier in front of the National Mall, you know, in front of the Washington Monument. That is both. And I've talked about this in on TikTok. It's, it's both a threat to your enemies and it's emboldening to your allies. So the point of getting the National Guard to get all of this press, the saturation of the National Guard hard on social media is to make it so that people like us are supposed to feel intimidated. And ICE agents who are just a few blocks away, like, beating the out of just random people who live in D.C. so that they feel emboldened. Right. The messages for two primary audiences for.

E (48:23)

This, this particular period are going to have some crazy pictures.

C (48:27)

They aren't going to be boring, that's for sure. I mean, I would love them to be boring.

E (48:32)

I would like boring. I'm tired of unprecedented times.

C (48:35)

I would like me to too. But you know what? I, I, the reason I brought that up is I was thinking about it. I was like, imagine if they did send them into, like, the south side of Chicago. I'd be like, good luck, dude. You're right. Like, it would just be the worst thing you've ever seen happen to them. Be like, well, there were 17 fatalities for the National Guard today.

E (48:52)

There was a guy in Texas who walked up to somebody's house with a ski mask on and a thing that said police and got blasted.

A (49:00)

Yeah.

E (49:03)

I'll be interested to see how that particular court case turns out.

D (49:05)

Hey, guys, I have to jump, but keep going with the episode. Sorry to our listeners. I can't bring the mood down anymore. But I got other responsibilities. So you guys. Okay, I'll see you later.

C (49:17)

See you later, man.

A (49:18)

Well, with that, I think it might be time to move to our. Our next segment, which is.

C (49:29)

I was gonna make a joke, but I'm. I'm not gonna do it.

A (49:33)

What's that?

C (49:34)

I was gonna say get by Luke, but I think.

A (49:36)

Did you hear the sound?

E (49:36)

Some kind of a new intro.

A (49:38)

Wait, was there no sound there?

E (49:39)

I didn't hear anything. I think Tim, he's too old.

A (49:42)

All right, ladies and gentlemen, get ready for.

D (49:49)

Oh little drum roll.

A (49:53)

Get presented by Luke.

E (49:56)

All right, I want to ask you guys a question. If a black lesbian woman was in charge of a school and was caught watching videos of an explicit nature after proclaiming about how books with heterosexual or heterosexual relationships were porn and they shouldn't be allowed in school and was talking about how if you don't have a list of that says I support Democrats and I will never be a teacher that present presents anything else, what do you think would happen to them?

C (50:25)

Would not go well.

E (50:28)

Why in the miserable is Ryan Walters still in charge of Oklahoma? Got a state that is at the bottom of the list in education and somehow people tout him as some kind of a genius. This miserable prick deserves nothing but the worst. And it is as that that I would like to tell him to get fucked. I fucking hate him.

A (50:48)

Him.

E (50:49)

And it seems like every time there's some news about him that comes out, you think, oh, oh, I inter. I interrupted my own applause.

C (50:55)

Jeez.

E (50:57)

He's got some serious sound effects, but.

C (50:58)

Like, oh, it keeps going. Jesus Christ. Sorry, Darden.

A (51:06)

You would think this.

E (51:07)

Yeah, I got a real audience. You would think this would. Every time there's news about him, it's something just awful. And you think, oh, okay, he'll be done.

A (51:15)

And then.

E (51:15)

It never is. It never never is.

C (51:18)

No, it never. It never ceases to amaze me, the.

E (51:20)

Difference going on to the fact he was watching porn at the office.

C (51:23)

No, the hypocrisy is out of control for how the right handles this. That just, like, they refuse to look inward. And the second you do anything wrong on the other side, like, look, look, it's the worst person you've ever seen.

A (51:33)

Like, okay, piece of talks about how.

E (51:36)

Any book that shows any relationship that's not heterosexual is porn and it shouldn't be around kids, but he is literally watching porn in the office where his secretaries can see it when they walk in.

C (51:46)

Who watches porn at work?

A (51:51)

You can't wait till you get home. Like, it's just. It's just an emergency. You gotta watch out at work.

C (51:57)

It's a titty emergency. Holy.

E (51:59)

Oh, my God.

C (52:00)

God.

E (52:01)

Worst.

A (52:02)

Well, first, he also wants the Bible. In schools, he wants, like, loyalty tests.

C (52:07)

Loyalty tests.

E (52:09)

Bet your dollar's not buying Gavin Newsom's baby bible.

A (52:14)

Did you see he selling them?

C (52:15)

Yeah.

A (52:16)

Oh, is he? He's selling him. And all the maga chuds on the.

E (52:20)

Internet are losing their mind. How dare you deface the Bible?

C (52:25)

Defacing anything didn't change what's inside.

A (52:28)

Yeah. Also, how much money has Donald Trump made selling Bibles?

C (52:32)

I don't know.

E (52:33)

Caught his ass. Speaking of Griffs, did you see that? They caught Trump's ass with the fact that his Trump phone.

A (52:37)

Phone.

E (52:38)

They changed it because initially they were like, oh, this is the phone.

A (52:41)

It is.

E (52:41)

And it was some Chinese manufactured thing that they had rebranded. And now the Photoshop renders on the website are like the Samsung S21 Ultra, but with the skin on it. That's a phone case. You can see the Samsung logo through the case.

C (52:55)

Oh, my God.

A (52:56)

So they literally. Are they just selling basically a phone in a case?

C (52:59)

I think so, of course. What do you think they're going to manufacture a whole new phone? It's insane. The amount of money.

E (53:04)

It was going to be touched by American hands, Zach.

C (53:06)

Right, you idiot. I'm sorry. It's so stupid, dude. I can't stand it. Like, how do they keep falling for it? Just. Come on. It's so simple.

E (53:17)

It must make a lot of sense if your mom is also your cousin, but, like, holy.

A (53:22)

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

C (53:26)

Hey, there we go.

E (53:29)

Comparison.

A (53:29)

I'm gonna make.

C (53:30)

No, don't.

A (53:33)

Yeah, there we go. There we go. I found these buttons, guys, and now it's over. It's painful. Yep, yep, yep. Well, I think that. That probably. Well, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Hold on.

C (53:44)

Do we have another sound for this? Okay, what was that?

A (53:47)

Well, I think that's all the time we have today, folks.

C (53:50)

It's a transition sound.

A (53:52)

Yes, it is. Transition two. I don't know where transition one is. There's a two and a five. I don't know.

E (53:57)

I would say while we're using off the rails, Rich and Rich and Chris leave and the three of us.

A (54:03)

Well, I've also figured out that I can upload sounds, too, so next week I might. I'll forget, though, by the time we do this again next week. But I. I think that's enough for today. It's the last. It's the last week of the summer. You know, like. Like everyone's going back to school next week if they haven't already. It's not. I don't. In New York, it's like, got to be like 38% humidity, so I need to go outside.

E (54:25)

69 degrees out right now.

B (54:26)

Wow, that sounds terrible.

C (54:28)

Too cold.

A (54:29)

Is that. Yeah, that is my kind of cold.

E (54:33)

20 degrees colder, and then it'll be really my kind of weather.

A (54:36)

I'm ready.

C (54:36)

Southern heat.

A (54:38)

See, I'm ready for sweatshirt season. And you sweatshirt. And if you. And by the way, if you. If you need a sweatshirt.

E (54:44)

Oh, there is a health transition.

A (54:46)

There is. There is one available in the find out store, which I. I wear all the time. And it is lovely. It's very comfortable.

C (54:54)

It is.

A (54:55)

Along with our four new. Four. Did we do four new ones? Yeah, we did four new ones. Four new shirts, all very different. You can get them in white, black, and all the different sizes. They're made in America. They're great. You just get them@findout podcast.com and if you want to support us on Substack, because we also have to make some money at this, you can go subscribe for $6 a month at findoutpodcast.substack.com I think that's all we've got today. On behalf of Luke and Zach and Rich and Chris, thank you for listening and we will be back on Thursday. Have a great day, everybody.