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A
I witnessed dad get a giant tube jammed up his dickhole all the way through his prostate.
B
Welcome to the Necessary Conversation midweek edition. I'm Chad Colchin. With me is my sister. This is a lib sibs. You're very clearly in Oklahoma based on what you've just said and based on your apparel.
A
Yeah, I'm here helping mom take dad to, like, some medical appointments. It is dad's birthday, so I decided to wear his favorite hat on the podcast today. Yeah, it was not pleasant at all. I was only bearing witness. I can't even imagine what it actually felt like to go through.
B
Was he screaming?
A
No, but like, you know, recoiling in. In pain and discomfort.
B
Oh, my God. I don't want to get old. And yet I am.
A
And you're the. The urologist said that all men's prostates swell as they get older, so.
B
Well, okay. Our mom is not here. She has had an anxiety filled day with all these doctor's appointments and stuff for our dad. So it's just me and you, Haley. The lib sibs, holding it down. Talking about some things that have happened potentially this week. What are your feelings on this reflecting pool and how he's now arresting people who are just taking pictures of it.
A
I. I mean, same feelings I had last time we talked about it. It's absurd. I'm angry about it. It should have never happened in the first place. I. I don't know. Like, I don't know. What are they gonna do? Are they gonna fix it again? Again? Another, like $14 million or what?
B
Yeah. Paid right. To one of his buddies. Of course.
A
That's.
B
That's the whole thing, I think.
A
Yeah, it's all. It's always for nothing, you know, it's always at our expense.
B
Yeah. We also saw some people got sentenced who have been arrested in Texas, your home state. Multiple people got sentenced to 50 years. One guy got sentenced to a hundred years for engaging in a protest outside of a detention center that did turn violent. Shots were fired by the guy who got 100 year sentence. I believe he discharged a gun and it did injure somebody, from what I was reading. But the judge in this case is openly stating, like, we need to send a clear message this is anti democracy terrorism and blah, blah, blah. And so they're really trying to, at this point, say, if you're antifa, you're going to jail for 50 years. How do you feel about this in your home state?
A
Well, I guess I am gonna have to buckle up because I am antifa. I don't imagine that I would ever, like, fire off rounds at a protest. I don't think I'd be taking a gun to a protest, but I have certainly been to protests as antifa. So it's terrifying. But here in Texas, it is literally the Wild West. Women are, you know, being arrested for having miscarriages. Women are dying on the table because doctors refuse to perform whatever necessary abortions are needed to, like, save people's lives. So, I mean, we've been experiencing like, crazy in Texas for the last year, if not longer. So I'm not shocked. I'm not at all surprised that this is happening in Texas.
B
What, what do you think is up with Talarico? Do you think he has a shot?
A
If we get fair elections? He'll win. He'll win because he's got, you know, he's got that thing, he has the cult of personality. He's also like a white man Christian, you know, he's got all of these things that a lot of Republicans admire, respect, you know. So I think that he actually has a shot. I think he'll win if we get fair elections.
B
So are you basically saying that if he doesn't win, you don't think the election results are valid?
A
Yes.
B
Yeah, I am saying reverse trumping.
A
I am reverse trumping. Yeah. I used to never be this way, but now I'm like, yeah, there's just way too much shit here. Like, even, you know, on, like, a local election level, the town that I live in is, like, notoriously red, but we've been electing officials that are liberal. Denton just elected, like, an openly queer person for their city council. Like, all of these kind of things are happening at a smaller level. And so I think there is a shift happening here. People are tired of this. And. And so, yeah, I do think that if he doesn't win, I mean, like, we're talking about Ken Paxton.
B
Yeah.
A
If. If Telo doesn't win, I literally, I think it had to have been a sham to begin with.
B
Well, I. I just saw something this week, too. Trump is trying to do this thing where he's going to basically impose certain restrictive voting kind of regulations on all states to try and help Republicans, obviously. And if. If the state doesn't agree to do it, they won't get federal disaster funding.
A
Right.
B
So a lot of states are. Are at least it's looking like they're saying this, we will sue, and they will probably win that lawsuit. But there are a bunch of states that want to do this already, so they're just going to use this. Exactly. Including Texas. So I predict they're just going to kind of use this as an excuse to be like, oh, we're just doing what the President says, and now no black people can vote in our state. You know, that kind of thing is happening. So, like, there are a bunch of different levels of, in quotes, fair and free elections. There are these kind of, like, at the very top of it, there's stuff like this open voter suppression that they're trying to pass as law in these various states. Then it's all the way down the line to, like, the most nefarious is like, Elon Musk is somehow hacking the voting machines and, like, the numbers just aren't the real numbers. And everything in between, from sending out ICE troops to polling places, which they have not said explicitly they won't do. In fact, they have said, well, we might have to. There's obviously all the propaganda campaigns and stuff like that. So, like, when you say fair and free elections, what are you exactly talking about?
A
Well, I mean, like, all of the, you know, like, suppressing the black vote, if that is still in effect, like, that's not a fair and free election. Like, if there's any kind of voter suppression, like, it's not a fair election. Also, are you, you know, they're going into these states and like, we want to look at your ballots. We want to take them, we want to. That's not a fair and free election. Like, they're already setting the stage for nefarious. So in my mind, it's like they are actively trying to rig this already.
B
Yeah, 100%. That's what I'm saying. I don't think we've had a fair and free election in a long time because all these other things are already in place in the, you know, it's kind of like, I'm saying, like, what tier of fair and free are we talking about here? Is it 100% fair and free? I don't know that's ever existed in the United States. But then all the way to, like, are we living in a, of Russian government state where it's like they can just tell you, oh, Trump won every polling place by 99%. You know, I don't think we're there
A
yet, but I, I feel like that's where it's headed. And I, I'm scared that, you know, come November 3rd, when we all go and we vote for that, I, I, I really believe that Talarico is going to win, and I really believe that if he doesn't that it was rigged. I truly believe that. I think there's so many people here that are just sick of the shit that Greg Abbott is doing. And, like, if Gina Hinojosa doesn't win, like, nobody wants Greg Abbott here anymore. Nobody. He's ruining the state of Texas.
B
No, nobody in what, though? Like, what is your sample size? Where are you getting this information from?
A
So, I mean, obviously I get, like, liberal news media, and, you know, I follow Gina Hina Hosa and she posts polls and she posts numbers and figures. And based on that, it seems like nobody wants Greg Abbott in office also. I mean, like, you just read the news here in Texas, like, he voted for, basically for privatization of schools here to get paid for by our taxpayer dollars. Nobody wants that. There's a very small percentage of the population here in Texas who sends their kid to private schools. The majority of us have public schools.
B
What is this, like, the voucher stuff you're talking about?
A
Yes. Yeah.
B
Okay.
A
That was a huge deal breaker for a lot of people here. Also, all the gun violence that happens in Texas, uvaldi was like a tipping point where you just saw all over the news, parents were pissed. And so you've got these huge demographics of women who are dying because they can't get abortions, people of color who are having their voters, their voting suppressed. You've got immigrants coming into the country and being, like, arrested. I mean, like, there's so many demographics here that are just actively being persecuted and fought against in the state of Texas. So in my mind, it is not logical that he gets elected again, of
B
course, but you're looking at, like, Texas to. From my understanding, Austin is really the only blue city. Right?
A
I mean, I. I don't think so. I mean, I think you would have to. I would have to. Look, this is just me, like, talking.
B
Let me go you.
A
Maybe it's out my ass, but I feel like Dallas is quite blue. There are several counties here that are massively blue. Houston, I don't know. I don't know jack about Houston. Austin is very blue. Dallas, I think, is turning quite blue. I mean, we almost elected Beto. It was very close.
B
2024. This is the voting districts by registration, basically, or how they voted in that election. The Kamala Harris Trump election. Right. It's all red. There's like, Houston has two blue counties. Dallas has one. Austin, San Antonio, Brooks County. I'm not sure what that is. Jim Hog County. Deep South Texas, Dimmitt County, Zavola County. But you're Reading county and El Paso.
A
You're reading what. But this is like what transpired already. This is like what got Donald Trump elected. I am simply saying, yeah, I believe the tides have turned. I think half of just in the last two years done with his.
B
Let's see. Yeah, I can't. Redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections. Well, that too, the redistricting. Right. Isn't Texas doing that? They were the first one to kick this off. That started the, the, the mad dash for all states to try and do something similar. So if they've already done that, it's like whatever blue districts there were don't even exist anymore.
A
Right? Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if, I don't know if elections will ever be fair again.
B
Yeah, I don't know. Have you been following at all what's going on with Netanyahu? Basically saying, you I'm bombing Lebanon forever.
A
Jesus. No. Why, why is he not like locked up? I mean like the UN has already declared, right. That he's committed like, crimes and have they. He's just out here, Tay. Hey. And in a win.
B
U n what should I Google? UN says, Let's see. The United nations does not directly issue verdicts, but independent UN appointed commissions of inquiry has, have concluded that Israel officials, including Netanyahu, bear responsibility for war crimes. Yeah, it's wild to me that it's like, yes, obviously he's doing war crimes and genocides and no one seems to give a, or I won't say no one gives a, but nobody's doing anything about it.
A
Right.
B
But even beyond that, it's like now Trump, who supposedly is like Big Daddy Trump in that relationship, it's like Netanyahu is supposed to be subservient to the United States in the grand scheme of things. Right? But Trump is trying to put this deal together to end the war in Iran. One of the major points in that deal is that Iran is like, you have to get Netanyahu to stop bombing Lebanon. Netanyahu has come out and said, no, we're bombing forever.
A
Right. They walk.
B
So Trump has no control over him.
A
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. They, they all fucking belong in prison. Netanyahu belongs in fucking jail. It's exhausting. Every day is exhausting. You just see like story after story or like, you know, even down to fudgeing Jimmy FALLON, Having Conor McGregor on his show. I know you, you.
B
I agree.
A
It's tired of like this celebrity culture where like you just get away with anything. It's Disgusting.
B
Yeah, I agree. But the flip side of it is, what? Like, Jimmy Fallon is not booking Conor McGregor. That's his network, NBC, who is owned by, I think NBC's Paramount. Right. Which is. Is that the Ellison family?
A
Right. But he's the face and the host of that show, so just grow a pair. Say, I'm not doing it if you don't like it. I want.
B
Yeah. Who owns Comcast? The Roberts family. I don't know who the this is.
A
Right. But the reality is they don't own Jimmy Fallon, so he has free will. No, I won't spotlight a rapist. If you want to do it, I'm walking. Get a new host.
B
I'm sorry. You think Jimmy Fallon gives a fuck about any of that?
A
Yeah.
B
All he cares about is being on TV and making money. That's all.
A
That's my point. It's fucking repulsive.
B
He was. Don't you remember? He was the guy who had Trump on when he was running in 2016 and, like, messed up his hair and, like, big joke.
A
Yeah, yeah, it's repulsive.
B
The. Have you heard about all the Bill Pulte stuff? The new intel chief, he's coming in, and Trump is basically just like, fire anybody in the intelligence community and everybody, unless they're Trump loyalists. So he's doing that now, like, today, basically. It's starting essentially hollowing out the entire intelligence community in the United States, which is going to make us much less safe, which is going to make all of our, you know, things we're doing overseas, we're going to be way worse at them. And it's all just so that he can get rid of people who might investigate him. People. People who might not be loyalists in all of these institutions. What do you think? I guess the. The lasting effect of this will be. Let me see if I can actually find if. If he's fired yet. Hello. What do you think?
A
What do you think, all of your intelligence officials. That's scary. I mean, like, you know, Mom's always. The border, the border, the border. They're going to be like, real criminals are going to be able to, like, actually come over here and us up. That's really scary because we're also like, the security at airports and has lessened TSA and all that. People don't want. Like, it's actually getting really scary. So, you know, this idea that, you know, he's making America great again and he closed the borders and it's safe. This is actively making us less safe.
B
Yeah, I agree. I. I'm Looking at this thing, this is from 18 hours ago on CNN. Bill Pulte has fired six political appointees put in place by Tulsi Gabbard and removed dozens of career intelligence officials across multiple agencies. And he's just doing it like he doesn't give a. It's just to like suck Trump's dick.
A
What's that? No one's ever holding him accountable for anything, for anything.
B
I agree. And this is why I feel like the two party system is obviously broken. It doesn't work because we're sitting in this position now where Trump, no one likes what Trump is doing. Even most of the Republicans, like he, they just signed the War Powers act against him. There were four Republicans that broke ranks and said, yes, we have to do this to try and end this war in Iran. That's going to go to his desk and he's going to veto it and that'll be that. And no one cares. Nobody's doing anything about the insider trading. Nobody's doing anything about this ongoing war that's costing billions of dollars every day. Billions. Nobody's doing. Not even the Democrats. They're like voting against it, but they're not loud enough online on social media saying we need to take this guy down. The people who are actually doing that are like the left wing youtubers and those are the people who are really like driving the conversation and keeping awareness high of all the various crimes and, and things that he's committing. And I'm like, I just look at American politics right now on the Democratic side and I'm just like, it's. These people suck. They're terrible. They can't win. They don't seem to have any fire under their ass about what is obviously a major crisis in the United States. If he guts all this, which he's doing. This is all Project 2025 stuff.
A
Yeah.
B
And he's implementing it now like at every level. Once that is complete, there's no like, well, we elected a Democrat now next time. So everything's back to normal. The government's, it's forever because you're going to have to people who are corrupt at every level of every one of these agencies. And in order to fire them and hire somebody else, that's going to take decades.
A
Like I've said before, I'm ready for somebody to just like tear it all down. Let's start from the ground. I don't know.
B
Okay. But I'll see. You're saying that. Take me through the steps of that. How does that work? I don't say, tomorrow somebody gets elected as president that says, I'm tearing it all down. We're starting a new system. How does that start? How does that look like to you?
A
You're gonna have to fire everybody. Like you said, you're gonna have to fire everybody. And I also want everybody, like, going to trial. Anyone who had anything to do with the last two years of this administration, you all go to trial and you all go to prison.
B
But who's gonna. So, so hang on, though. So you all go to trial, you all go to prison, right?
A
Yeah.
B
Who's going to pass that judgment?
A
What do you mean? Because there is no government anymore.
B
What court are you going to go to that doesn't have a Trump appointed judge or what? Eventually, this thing might get appealed to the Supreme Court, in which case, we've seen what they do.
A
It's everything that Trump wanted on the Supreme Court.
B
Okay, yeah, you could potentially do that. Yeah, but that would require. You could do that. But I believe that requires Congress to be on your side with that decision.
A
Does anything require Congress anymore? Like, we're not abiding by rules. Okay. This is the Wild West. But I'm saying, like, get in there and up.
B
I'm saying you can't just come into this and be like, all right, this system's over. There is no more Supreme Court. There is no more this. You know what I mean?
A
Trump did it.
B
No, he didn't do it. He's corrupting the system to his benefit. He's not destroying the system. He. He's just gaming it to a degree that allows him to control the whole thing. Like, Putin did that, too. Putin didn't come in and say, we're not having elections anymore. Fuck it, I'm going to rule till I die. He said, no, no, no, no. You elected me and we're going to have elections every time. But now the elections are like, he wins every one of them by 100%. That's how Trump is trying to twist the system into a vision of it that he wants, but he's not destroying the system.
A
Sure. I believe that that has to be all reversible. I choose to believe that, that you can reverse everything that's been done. It's probably going to take a while, but I just think you can.
B
I don't think you can. Because, dare I say this, the problem is not Donald Trump. The problem is money. It is that the Supreme Court made that Citizens United decision that basically said any corporation can donate and any person can. Can donate any amount of money to A political candidate. So it allows somebody like Elon Musk to just buy an election. There has to be, in my opinion, a someone, and I don't know who would pass this because politicians all benefit from having it the way it is. Now. You have to pass some kind of law that says you can't do this. Maybe even private donations to campaigns should be illegal, period. No one can donate. And it should be like a taxpayer thing where it's like, okay, if you meet a certain threshold by a certain time in whatever election cycle we're in, let's say it's the presidential election, let's say five months, six months out, you have to have a certain percentage polling, and then you get money released to you. That is like tax money. Every political candidate gets like $10 million. Run your campaign on that. That's it. That's all you get. It's all equal, it's all even, and it all comes from taxpayers. So. So there is no Elon Musk donating $500 million or whatever, just buying a election.
A
Well, what makes you think that somebody couldn't come in and just write a law? And. And that's the law of the land. Donald Trump is doing that every day.
B
Because that law has to be passed by someone
A
who.
B
Yeah, no, but I'm saying, first of all, what politician is going to ever write that law? They benefit from having it the way it is now so they can make millions of dollars on their campaigns.
A
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know the answer, dog. I'm not in. That's why I'm not a politician. But I want. I just want it to go back to the way it was, you know, like, Obama era was good enough for me. It wasn't, but it was like, can we just get back to that, you know, where we weren't starving in the streets and getting ready to, like, stop civil war out here? I'm just. It's like exhausting. I wake up tired every day just from the news stories that exist. People being arrested for, like, nothing touching water at the White House, that. Concentration camps, like, it's. This is insane.
B
I agree. The. The reflecting pool, to me is kind of like it's at the apex of insanity there. I don't know if you saw that video clip. There's a reporter is asking him. It's like a press conference in the White House. He's sitting at the. The desk. Oval Office and their reporters asking him about the reflecting pool and this one, and he's like, well, you know, somebody Came in, they cut a 300 foot gash. Meanwhile, there's video of him from right before they started this project saying that the sealant they're using is so tough, a knife can't even cut it. He literally says that. Now he's saying somebody cut it with a box cutter 300ft. There's no security camera footage of it. So this reporter off camera is like, do you have proof of that? And he's like, well, there's a 300 foot gash in the middle of the pool. I think that's proof enough. And they're like, yeah, but is there a video or anything? There are surveillance cameras on the, the pool 24 hours a day. Yeah, even like the, the claim that Democrats are like crazy and dumping tons of fertilizer into itself. All of this would be on video. But he just keeps maintaining. He's like, no, he's a radical left lunatic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so he's, he's openly lying. He's openly saying this. Insane. And you have every politician who is on his side doing nothing about that. He's like openly lying, committing crimes, doing all this heinous. No one is stopping him. So I don't know, like, you know, you're saying you would tear the system apart or whatever, or start from zero, but it's like the reason he's able to do this is all money. That's it.
A
Sure. But all of those people, all the politicians, like, benefiting from all of this, I want them all on trial. They are all criminals.
B
I get it. But let's, like, how does that happen? You come in, let's say you're elected president tomorrow. You come in, you now have to govern over not just America, but, but Congress, the Senate, those people. You can't just like, say, I'm firing all the senators. Those people are elected by their constituents. You can't get rid of them. So they're there. How do you deal with that? You're like, I want them all in jail. Well, their constituents don't. They voted them into office.
A
You can certainly start an investigation. Just because they were elected by their people doesn't mean you can't investigate them. And so we begin that process and I wrote them all in jail.
B
But we've seen that process. How many investigations have been launched by Congress in the past, you know, five, six years or whatever, into Trump, into Biden, into Hillary Clinton, into any number of politicians who are perceived enemies by the, the political party in power. And those all go nowhere.
A
Okay, fine. Then I guess we'll resort. Like it's going to resort to violence. I don't know. Just lock them up. Take them out of their house and put them in the fucking prison. Lock them up. Yeah, I don't care anymore. I believe that we get justice in the United States of America. I don't believe in that anymore.
B
I totally agree.
A
Justice system, correct.
B
I. It is all 100. Corrupted by money. I think the only way out of this is to get money out of politics completely and absolutely there should be no lobbyists that. That should not be able to exist.
A
Right.
B
It's insane that it does, but I don't remember when this reporting came out. This is years ago at this point, but it came out that most legislation, most is written by lobbyists and just given to senators who they are also giving money to. And it's like, here's the law. Sign it, please. Here's $10 million. And that's how our government works. It's these giant corporations, largely drug corporations, but also for profit prisons. And any big industry has people that they send to Washington with briefcases of money. That's not accurate. They don't deliver them actual cash that I'm aware of, but they show up and, and they come in and they have these meetings and they say, well, you know, I work for Pfizer. And we think those, the regulations that you have on us are a little too strict. You know, we got to test these drugs for a couple of years before we bring them to market. It'd be better for us if we could just bring them to market without testing. How does that sound? Here's $10 million. Yep. Write it up. I'll sign it. Thank you. And that's like how our, our laws get made. And so I think until that changes, until the laws are getting made by like, like this is. This is what I would do and what I've thought about doing. I would start some kind of online platform, some kind of app or something that's like a social media app, basically, but it's just for political ideas. And the good ones get voted to the top and they stay there until they get answered by politicians, whatever that idea may be. You know, something along those lines. I just feel like we're living in a world technologically where the, the vast majority of public opinion can be very easily polled and distributed to everybody online. We should all be able to see that, to be like, okay. I mean, we see the polls now that comes out in news where it's like 85% of all Americans want stricter gun laws and nothing fucking happens. But there's nothing that like puts the pressure on to hold them to account. And I don't know what that is other than like we all refuse to pay our taxes or something, but then we're going to wind up getting a 100 year sentence from fucking Trump. I don't know.
A
I mean, historically, America just has never had the oomph. There are other countries that like do gnarly to get what they want.
B
Yeah, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say historically that's true. I mean we did do a civil war.
A
Yeah, we did do a civil war
B
that had a little oomph to it. I think though you're right. We have America maybe more than any other country is like a kind of gluttonous consumer culture that is like as long as I have my, yeah, Domino's pepperoni crust pizza and my baby Yoda, I don't really care about anything.
A
Yeah. Like where's the, the shit that Ivanka is building? Where is that? Albania. Right. So the people are still protesting and like pushing over the construction vehicles and shit.
B
Like I saw that.
A
We would never, you know.
B
Well, because you get killed.
A
Reflecting tool.
B
Because you get killed.
A
Yeah.
B
If you are even in a car now around an ICE officer or a cop, you might get killed. They might shoot your one year old baby with no repercussion. None of the, I, I don't know about the one year old baby one yet. That one's still being investigated. Who knows where that's going to wind up? But the cops, the ICE agents that killed Alex Preddy and Renee Good, nothing happened to them.
A
Right.
B
To my knowledge that, that I'm aware of anyway.
A
Right.
B
And so that sends the message that's like, you know, these, these thugs, Trump's SS basically can do whatever the they
A
want, but you know, like in these other countries, I don't know about all their gun laws, but we all have guns, lots of them.
B
Yep.
A
So I mean that's a huge difference. I don't know. I don't know.
B
We have guns, but who's going to use them against the government? And that's what all these second amendment people say. Like, well, we got, they ain't going to take my guns. It's like, now's the time. This is what you have them for. The government is actively taking over in a hostile way the populace. They are arresting people for no reason. They are making up terms antifa. Now we arrest you for being antifa. We arrest you for Looking at the swimming pool. This is the whole reason, at least my understanding of it was that you have the Second Amendment. It's so that an authoritarian government can. You can't take control of your life.
A
Right.
B
Ain't. Ain't nobody using them. Where are those militias that we hear so much about who want to fight against a tyrannical government?
A
Yeah, I don't know. I guess they see it differently because they're on my shah. They're on their side.
B
Exactly. Exactly. So I don't know. I don't know if the United States populace has it in us to like, take over the government or anything. Nor do I think we have it in us to, to change drastically. I think even if there is a. Let's say we have a Democrat president and House and Senate in the next cycle, we've had that before. We're here now. Like, it didn't work. You know, I have no faith that it will in the next iteration because, yeah, by and large, that system is, it's just so and so corrupt at this point by money. I don't think it ever goes back. I think we're living in some, some version of this. Yes, it can get a little bit better. And you certainly like the, the big swings that happen when Democrats get in office is the kind of social agendas start skewing, way more progressive and that's obviously fantastic and good, but the kind of like the core rot, I think, at the base of the American political system cannot be solved because it's, it's too entrenched now. Corruption is like a part of what being a politician is.
A
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I, I've never wanted to not live here more in my life, but I also don't want to just like, cut and run.
B
Yeah.
A
This is where I live.
B
Right.
A
You know, I want to try to make a difference. But what does that look like? Does that look like me and my six shooters out in the street or what? Like, I don't know. What does that look like?
B
I don't, I don't think it's going to come to that. Like, I can't imagine what would push us to that brink. We have, we already have literal secret or not Secret Service, secret police, like ICE type people murdering US Citizens.
A
Yeah.
B
That got a few protests out of it. And nothing changed. Literally nothing changed. We have things like Uvalde or Sandy Hook. Nothing changes. I just don't think. I don't know what would have to happen. Like, I feel like even if Trump sent like a A squad of national guard to some city and just opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing like, 30 people. I don't think we'd give a. Not in any real way. There'd be another protest, and then it would last for a few more months until some other big news story came out, and then we'd be on to the next thing. That's what it feels like to me.
A
I mean, yeah, to your point, like, we've been having school shootings now for however many years, and, like, everybody just chalks it up, is like, yep, another one happened. Nothing's being done. No legislation is being passed.
B
Yes. Nor will it be, because it's not. It's just, I don't think, really on the minds of politicians right now. All these politicians, all they care about is their next election. And so it's like, what do I need to say? Whose money do I need to take? Who do what wheels do I have to grease in order to win that next election? That's all they give a about. And the actual issues, the things that got them into politics in the first place, I think once you get into the machine, that flies out the window because you realize, like, even if you are kind of altruistic or like, as they would say, and the bachelor in it for the right reasons, that very quickly gets shifted because you realize in order to play this game, you need to stay in the game, and in order to stay in the game, you have to play it like these other pieces of do, because that's what the game is now. Hello? Are you with me?
A
Yeah. Hello?
B
Oh, we're having some technical difficulties. I think mom's Internet, once again, is up.
A
Mom's having, like.
B
Can you hear me?
A
Internet issues.
B
Are you with me? Hello? Hello?
A
Yeah, mom was having Internet issues. I'm back, though. Yes.
B
Okay.
A
Can you see me? Wow.
B
Yes, I can see.
A
Can you see me?
B
What a great end to this episode. Well, I don't know if you can hear me. Yes. Can you hear me?
A
Yes. Yes, I can hear you.
B
I'm gonna end it here. Okay, well, let's conclude this lib sibs episode. I don't know if you can hear me in real time or not. Thank you for joining me.
A
Yes, I am.
B
Haley. I love you. Thank you for being there. Okay. Thanks for being there with mom and dad and helping them through all the. The medical trials and tribulations. And today's our dad's birthday, so happy birthday, dad. If you're watching this, I know you're not, but nonetheless, I will commit it to recording. Anyway, happy birthday. I love you, and I hope we can get you back on the show soon.
A
Can you hear me?
B
Oh, my God. Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me?
A
Yeah. Anyway, yeah. Love you, Chad. Love you, Mom. Love you, dad. Wherever you are. Happy birthday.
B
Wherever you are. He's in the next room, isn't he?
A
Right behind me. Wherever you are. Yeah.
B
I'm like, you should know where the he is.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
God, it was so bad. It was so bad.
B
Yeah, it sounds terrible.
A
It was. It was actually terrible.
B
Well, I'm sorry you had to witness it. Thank you for doing it. I'm sure it's a big help to mom to have you guys there.
A
Yeah.
B
All right, we will see you on Sunday to talk about all these issues with our mom, which should be interesting. I'm. I'm so curious to see how she keeps spinning this reflecting pool thing, but please join us, then. Until then, have a good rest of your week.
This midweek "Lib Sibs" edition is a candid family discussion between host Chad Colchin and his sister Haley. They explore the personal and political turmoil affecting their family (with their father’s health a backdrop), and, more broadly, Texas and America. The episode centers on frustrations with political corruption, authoritarian escalation, and the apparent erosion of justice and democracy in the U.S., with a focus on Texas politics, national elections, and the cycle of systemic rot.
The episode is raw, colloquial, and at times darkly humorous—an honest blend of political outrage, despair, and sibling solidarity. Haley and Chad express frustration, anger, and fatigue, but care for family and the urge to make a difference sustains them despite political darkness.
For listeners wanting a pulse on progressive disillusionment with both Texas and national politics circa 2026, this episode is both a cathartic venting session and a granular look at the real, personal toll of America’s evolving political crises.