Some More News - Even More News: Biden and Netanyahu, Best Frenemies

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Hi. Our guest on today's episode is Francesca Fiorentini, host of The Bitchuation Room. She joins Katy and Cody to talk about Benjamin Netanyahu whining about only getting most of the bombs, and right...-wing media needing selectively edited videos to attack Joe Biden when there's so much other low-hanging fruit they could use. Plus, the group gives the Biden campaign some tips on how it can better promote the president's non-genocidal achievements. 0:00 - Intro 1:59 - Holidays 4:14 - Chatting with Francesca 12:59 - Biden and Netanyahu 24:22 - Biden freezing on video? 33:37 - Good Biden things? 40:05 - Our pitch to the Biden 2024 campaign 48:03 - Greedflation Get a 4-week trial, free postage, and a digital scale at https://www.stamps.com/somemorenews. Thanks to Stamps.com for sponsoring the show! Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XFHWZnRhDI0 Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome back to even more news. The first and only news podcast. My name is Katie stole and you are I'm Cody. Thank you so much for allowing me to say my name. Hi. This week we are very excited. First time even more news guest, comedian, correspondent and host of the podcast, The Bitchuation Room.
Starting point is 00:00:36 It's Francesca Fiorentini. Hi. Hello. Hi. Thanks for allowing me to not say my name. Oh yeah. I took that over for you. And you crushed it.
Starting point is 00:00:46 Francesca, do you ever feel stressed out introducing people on your show? No, you don't. Oh, all the time. You do, okay. All of the time. And my show is live and so it's very embarrassing because I will live try to pronounce it
Starting point is 00:01:00 and then pronounce it wrong and then you go back and then it's just a thing. It's like, it feels terrible. It really does. And I'll practice it before we start. You're a good person. I'll be saying it in my head, like don't say it the wrong way,
Starting point is 00:01:14 don't say it the wrong way, don't say it the wrong way. And then it's that wrong way sticks, yes. And I am a trained actress, or you know, I've done that before. I know how to memorize shit and not when it comes to names that I'm anyway, I got yours right and that feels good. Thank you. We're gonna chitchat.
Starting point is 00:01:31 With us as always is Jonathan. Oh, Jonathan's here too. Jonathan's here too. Jonathan's also here. Jonathan's here too. Jonathan's also here too. The trend of introducing me on each episode and then not knowing how to do it I think should continue
Starting point is 00:01:50 Jonathan Harris Even on the fifth take you couldn't get it right Right damn it six days. There's always next week. Ah Holidays we got him. We got them? Ooh. We do. Friday, June 21st, National Daylight Appreciation Day. Friday, June 21st, is the longest day of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Does that mean it's solstice? Is that the? Is that the summer solstice? Isn't the summer solstice? So it could be National Happy Summer Solstice Day. I was gonna say, yeah, there's an element of this that's always, they always try to shoehorn in, like, appreciate it.
Starting point is 00:02:34 But like, just like, I don't know, there's like, acknowledge it, it's the longest day of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, now you know that. Do we need to appreciate the concept of daylight? Yeah, daylight appreciation day. Celebrate it by going out and now you know that, do we need to appreciate the concept of daylight? In order to recognize that. We should celebrate it by going out and getting a nice fat sunburn. There's a little bit of like anti-night bigotry
Starting point is 00:02:51 happening as well. Yeah, for sure. Well, there might be a national nighttime appreciation night. It feels like night gets less, it gets a bad rap generally, you know? The bad things happen at night, it's supposed to be spooky. You know, where people are experiencing it, so maybe they, it's misunderstood,
Starting point is 00:03:09 they don't get it because they're asleep during the night, right? Super misunderstood. Where I live, predators come out at night, so there's that. Like the predators. I feel like you need to say more with are you okay? Well like mountain lions and bears, I'm fine, but my trash isn't when I put it out and the bears get in there. Although I did learn a tip to pour ammonia in your trash can
Starting point is 00:03:30 and the smell sends them away. These are mountain problems, ladies and gentlemen. What does that mean? You have to, you pee on your, isn't there ammonia in piss? You don't have to, you can get ammonia. Nah, you gotta piss. You gotta pee. You gotta pee on it. No, you gotta piss. Yeah
Starting point is 00:03:51 The last time the bear got into my trash a friend was like you got a poor ammonia in it and I didn't have ammonia And I did cross my mind was like so can I just pee in it? I went and bought ammonia it cost three dollars and it's a big jug. Peeing's free By dynamics for you by dynamics. All right, we've spent so much time on this one, I don't think we need to do the second holiday. I don't disagree. It's National Being You Day, just be you y'all. We're gonna be us and we're gonna say, fuck this holiday, move it on.
Starting point is 00:04:13 I don't know who else to be. Well, perfect, because now's, I just scrolled in my doc and it says, chit chat with Francesca, so you get to be you right now. First thing I'm gonna shout out to all of us, this is a video podcast right now, baby. That's true. We are posting this on YouTube.
Starting point is 00:04:33 Probably, I mean, yes. Probably, we haven't done it before. We've been experimenting the last couple weeks with doing this and putting it on Patreon and whatnot, but I'm acknowledging that both because it feels like I should acknowledge it, but also you have been doing this for a while now, the video podcast, not just video, it's a live stream.
Starting point is 00:04:53 It is. And that's a lot of work. No, I mean, it's actually kind of chill because if you fuck up, you fucked up and that's what it is. You can't go back. So there's something beautiful about the live format, but now that I know it could be video,
Starting point is 00:05:06 I will make eye contact with my beautiful lens over there. There it is. I know, it's a hard thing. Cause I'm trying to make eye contact with you, but in order to really make eye contact with you, I gotta look at the camera. Yeah, I can't see any of you right now. It's very frustrating.
Starting point is 00:05:20 But we are looking. And then people are gonna see me look down here, which is my monitor. I'm not being weird and avoidant but yeah it's interesting i'm excited for this i hope people enjoy this i had to put on makeup i love a good excuse though i love any excuse the pandemic was like someone give me an excuse to wear lipstick i think that's why i started doing the live stream in the pandemic because i was like lipstick just give me an excuse to put on some lipstick and feel happy.
Starting point is 00:05:45 It's not a bad excuse. I'll start wearing suits. Should I wear suits next week? I mean, it's the middle of summer. It's the longest day of the year. Wild time of year to make that move. But if you want to, I do support you. I'm a supportive friend.
Starting point is 00:06:01 Thank you. I'm just trying to be visually engaging instead of. I think you should wear lipstick, Cody. I can do that. OK. Yeah. Do you still have the Jordan Peterson tux? It's almost like here, do you want my chapstick?
Starting point is 00:06:13 What do I have? Jordan Peterson? Do you still have the Jordan Peterson tux? Oh, yes. Oh, well. So that every week? That's a suit. Well, there you go.
Starting point is 00:06:22 We've probably. That is technically a suit. All right. I'm a tux guy now. Francesca, you are on Piers Morgan's show. Well, there you go. We've technically a suit. Yeah. All right. I'm a tux guy now. Francesca, you were on Piers Morgan show. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Starting point is 00:06:30 A few months back. And I don't know. What was that like? This is a fun moment to be to be to be talking to you guys about that because I have been going on there probably every other week for I've been on like five times now. And there's part of me that's like why and when I see who I am paired with I'm like oh we're all dumb like they they don't want context they don't want anyone talking about real things policy if you bring up any kind of like historical information everyone
Starting point is 00:07:02 bristles and gets mad at you because you're not screaming and calling someone, you know, like an anti-Semite. So it's a weird vibe because I don't actually make a habit of going on right-wing media, but I don't really put peers in that right-wing media sphere. But after going on this many times, I think I need to and I actually don't know why I'm doing it. Because for everyone who's listening, there is no money. You do not get paid. It is just time that you get to sweat about it and then go on and spend an hour of your time
Starting point is 00:07:42 talking to people who ate way too many paint chips as a child. And it's fun when you can make it fun. Like that's for me is like, I want to be able to get a joke in, I want to make it fun. If it's me versus like four literal ghouls who, you know, will not see me as anything other than like a crazed Marxist leftist who believes trans people are people then like I don't know about this. You know I'm saying yeah I don't I absolutely this has been Code we've talked about this before a lot like why not? Go debate this person do this It's but it's all bad faith What actually is being accomplished when the whole point
Starting point is 00:08:26 is dunking and talking louder, talking over, not actually engaging with a fact, just trying to bulldoze through an idea that's going to land with an audience, there's that. I think you gotta have an approach. I really admire Bassem Youssef, the comedians, just like pure ironic take. Everything is ironic and everything is sarcastic
Starting point is 00:08:50 that comes out of his mouth. So he's not even really trying to score points. He's just living in this sarcasm, just drenched with like disgust for everybody. Yeah, it's a demonstration of like who he's talking to. Right. That's what trips people up so much where it's like you're saying this thing, and I know you're being sarcastic. And it sounds bad when you say it. But I've
Starting point is 00:09:19 been saying something similar. And like it's it's Yeah, it's hard for people to contend with. And like you're saying like, it seems like like, you can't bring up policy you can't bring up history you can't bring up these things because it's a purely emotional like feature of the program yes it's we're gonna get people they're gonna yell at each other they're gonna get mad and that's that's the content to the degree of like are you gonna be a left-wing punching bag and i don't want to be a let like i'm a fucking comic. You know what I'm saying? Like I like to do like deep dives.
Starting point is 00:09:48 I like to be on my show, on this show. I like to be honest and talk serious policy. But I'm also like, I'm not a fucking expert. When I go on there and it's like four right-wing ghouls and me, I'm like, oh shit, now I have to be everyone's like mother, father, professor, child. Like now I've got to represent the entire Anyone left of you know, like Piers Morgan who's literally so far, right?
Starting point is 00:10:11 Like I just it's it's a lot and so the question is like do you keep doing it? Do you fight in this arena? Do you not fight in this arena? And oh my god I can't believe some of these people are making hand over fist money by just straight-up lying to folks I believe some of these people are making handover-first money by just straight up lying to folks. I so relate to what you're saying. I felt a lot of that. I think we all kind of did, especially, you know, things are taking off with COVID. So not in that environment. We weren't on Piers Morgan's show, but in general, it's like, it's a lot. And we think about representing a very wide community against these people who are so bad faith.
Starting point is 00:10:46 It's incredibly stressful. And their whole point is to make you look bad. Yeah. And again, it's not fun. I'm like, I'm not, this isn't fun anymore. Like, like I've gone on to multiple times to talk about Trump and he's actually so far up Trump's nut. Like he's up his butt, like he's just like examining his prostate on the regs.
Starting point is 00:11:06 And it's so funny because Piers is a little bit like more sensible on other issues, but you know, a little bit. It's like crumbs almost like, I'll be like reasonable here. Yeah. And it's so interesting to find someone who truly still is on Trump's dick, like someone who rides it like that much. Because for me, I'm like, oh, talk about Trump. This is hilarious. This is fun. Like, let's go.
Starting point is 00:11:27 It's not fun anymore if you like really ride his dick. And like, I can't even get a joke in without you like hitting back at me some weird misogynistic shit. Like, so that kind of thing is like, man, like I want it to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. If you're not having fun, if you're not even able to make those points, not getting paid, it's, yeah. Probably a secret plus is a lot of hateful people
Starting point is 00:11:51 reaching out on the internet. Oh, so many, so many. So not a payment, but open threats to your life. A bonus, the comments. My favorite was just like, you call me Chinese scum. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, Kevin, five, five, five, seven, two, three, eight, nine, six, seven.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Like, anyway, here's my number. He left his phone number. Yeah. He wants to be able to put you in your place and then are you for real? Are you? Yes. He left his phone number in this email. And I'm like, my guy, do you just want a hug?
Starting point is 00:12:31 You want someone to reach out to you? I'm pretty sure. Call me if you want to talk about how you're a feminazi lib. Bye. What a weird move. Weird move. Well, very, very boomer. Very boomer.
Starting point is 00:12:43 No, but I did share his number with my patrons patrons and the fran Tifa as I call them So maybe someone called him Good for you. Yeah. All right. We should talk about news We've got some of it. We do and even more Jonathan who is also here is gonna Set us up. So a couple days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu put out a video criticizing the Biden administration for quote, withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel. And this reportedly confused the White House
Starting point is 00:13:17 because they've sent all the weapons they've wanted except of course for the one shipment of 2000 pound bombs that was withheld a few months ago because they were like you're going to use those in RAFA and he's like well yeah but please give me the bombs. But we want to. But we want our bombs. Well right this is he released a video saying this is what I said to Secretary of State
Starting point is 00:13:40 Antony Blinken in response to this the White House canceled-Israel meeting on Iran that was originally scheduled for Thursday. This meeting was already canceled once by Netanyahu months before. So they're just like, they keep rescheduling this meeting so that one side can angrily cancel it. It's such a, it's so, everything is so performative all the time. It's so frustrating to watch. Like, I mean, obviously for the past seven months now,
Starting point is 00:14:05 right? Six or seven months. Unbelievable. But like just all these reports like Biden's so upset. You guys, he's eight, nine. He's so upset. He's, he's, he can't even sleep and he's the sleepiest guy we know. He's so mad at Netanyahu. And then like nothing happens obviously. And now like, it just, I'm not saying that, like, it's coordinated. It's just so obviously, like, we say the things and we, like, do the little performance and things continue on forever.
Starting point is 00:14:32 Well, it feels like a PR kind of thing in a way too. Francois, what is it? Well, it's like, they can use the opportunity for that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, and Amy, what's so interesting about this whole song and dance is that we're still, and by we, I mean the United States and Biden is still pretending that Israel is acting in good faith.
Starting point is 00:14:51 That we still have to pretend that they want to do anything other than ethnically cleanse Gaza, which is what they've been successfully doing for nearly nine months now. That is what's so embarrassing about it. And it truly makes Biden look incredibly weak. And, you know, as a perfect example with this latest ceasefire deal that was originally an Israeli suggestion, it was an Israeli proposition for the ceasefire. It's like it has three stages. You know, there's a revisiting, there's hostages released, all hostages released initially in exchange for Palestinian women and children held by Israel. And it seems like the United States like went around Israel and like announced because they
Starting point is 00:15:35 were excited about it. They were like, look, look, Israel's into this deal. And then Hamas immediately agrees to it. It was like, oh, and Hamas agreed to it, right? But Israel's like, well, now that you said it, I don't really want it anymore. You know, it's like the mean girl in high school who's like, now that like the poor girl
Starting point is 00:15:56 is playing with that toy, or like is listening to this music, it's like super not cool anymore. And so then- She feels like cooties on it so they can't- Exactly, and they're sort of switching it around. And so it's like super not cool anymore. And so then- They feel as cooties on it so they can't- Exactly. And they're sort of switching it around. And so it's like, and the US is super willing to play along with Israel's bad faith game.
Starting point is 00:16:13 They just want an actual ceasefire because it's politically beneficial to them, as we all know. And they're like, well, whatever you need us to do to make you look like the good guys, we're going to do. And they're like, no, no, no. And the answer is they don't want a ceasefire. They don't want one. whatever you need us to do to make you look like the good guys we're going to do. And they're like, no, no, no. And the answer is they don't want to ceasefire. They don't want one. They still want more weapons. And they want to continue to ethnically cleanse the people of Gaza or genocide
Starting point is 00:16:34 them. And that's it. So it's just like, what are we doing still? Helping them genocide them. Yes. Well, that's exactly what we're doing. I mean, yeah. And it's just so obvious that the like we're it's not even like Lucy football stuff. Like we're not it's not like, oh no, she tricked us again. It's like we're gonna pretend to do the football thing. Oh, no, they tricked us again. Like we're we don't care. I mean we care but like they like there's no there doesn't seem to be any sense from like the administration that like this is a problem actually. It's always used to extend that performance of the Lucy football instead of actually trying to kick. And in the meantime, they look incredibly weak. I mean, what's crazy is like and I know, you know, the idea of looking strong as someone who is critical of
Starting point is 00:17:22 like US militarism and hegemony always seemed ridiculous to me, like, I don't need to look strong. And I feel like now I'm like, hey, can we look strong at all in this issue? Because we truly don't and say what you will about Trump, he would be worse. You know, it's hard to be worse on this issue, but he would be. But at least he would like stand by his conviction to support genocide. Like at least he would stand by, but he would be, but at least he would like stand by his conviction to support genocide. Like at least he would stand by. He wouldn't make, he wouldn't allow Netanyahu to make him look so goddamn weak.
Starting point is 00:17:52 Well, yeah. And at least it would be very clear. I mean, we've mentioned this on the show and other things before, but Donald Trump says it and everybody gets mad and how dare you sir say that and behave this way. But right now it's all muddy. Like we're like, well, we should support Biden and this isn't what he actually means and blah, blah, blah. No, he's doing effectively the things
Starting point is 00:18:14 that Donald Trump would be doing. Maybe he would be doing something worse more. Maybe he wouldn't have paused that specific shipment of bombs, but materially. He would crack down on the protestors more. He would be more vocally against this. He would be calling for, he would be probably calling for like,
Starting point is 00:18:31 you gotta wipe them out. You gotta get, you know, like you would be worse. It would be ugly. But what I'm saying is, but then people would be unified in seeing the ugliness. 100%, exactly. And- Yes, in the most brilliant twist of having spineless liberals on our team.
Starting point is 00:18:48 Yeah. And then the oh gosh, I hope that makes it onto the video. What is up? First of all, Cody, if you ever wanted to kick the air quotes habit, you can kick it. If you're listening, Cody's Mac, I guess, just created some sort of graphic behind him. I still can I set it to do that. And now it does it every time. I can do this and get balloons. The other day, I was just on a call. It was like a family call and I was going like this. And that, yep.
Starting point is 00:19:14 There it goes. There's the thumb, there it is. Anyway, for our listeners, go check out the YouTube video. Go check out the YouTube video. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out.
Starting point is 00:19:23 I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I'm gonna go check it out. I that yep. There it goes. There's the thumb, there it is. Anyway, for our listeners, go check out the YouTube video. Go check out the video. But there's all sorts of weird things popping up on Cody's screen and mine as we gesture. I think that Cody brings up a really good point that I actually haven't talked about enough
Starting point is 00:19:38 and thought about enough, which is I think that, internationally, Trump probably wouldn't have built the pier that then floated away and is being dismantled for humanitarian aid. But yes, the crackdown on protesters in this country, although has been horrible. We saw what the NYPD did to Columbia students. We've seen all the number of bills passed to make it illegal to protest and whatnot, but it would be worse. There were extra judicial killings during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 when Trump was president.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Like that, I think, is is a marked difference. And and yeah, I don't want to I don't want to find out what that looks like. Yeah, that's yeah. It's so hard to talk about this kind of thing because it's it's everything's everyone's scared. I understand that. It's very it to talk about this kind of thing because it's it's everything's everyone's scared. I understand that. It's very it just sucks because like somebody could have died during these protests already. A gun a gun went off during it from a cop's gun.
Starting point is 00:20:35 If Trump was the president driven into them. Yes. If if Trump was the president, I feel like people would have definitely died. Probably by the hands of police. Probably possibly by counter protesters or whatever. But it seems like the violence would be way worse, which isn't to say that we should not be pushing to like stop what's going on. It's just. But to your point, Francesca,
Starting point is 00:21:02 when Donald Trump was president, our big concern was, one of many is like, oh, we are a laughing stock internationally. And I'm like, we still are. We still have tarnished our international reputation. It's not even necessarily like weakness, like that's being portrayed. It's just like unwillingness to contend with reality
Starting point is 00:21:24 that everybody sees. Which is perceived as weak, but like there's this, in response to this video, White House press secretary responded, what's the phrase? We genuinely do not know what he's talking about. And like, what? Are you in the business of politics?
Starting point is 00:21:44 Are you, like, do you communicate with the White House on these issues? Like constantly pretending like we don't see what's going on is very embarrassing and shameful. And I think that's like the real thing that's like baffling to people. Yeah, I mean, you're not even contending with reality. You're pretending like you don't understand what's going on.
Starting point is 00:22:06 And I spread that as more like pissy, just like just like we don't know what he's talking about, because let's be real, Netanyahu's video was so pissy. He was such a pissy little bitch like we've given it. It's messy, messy, bitch. We've given you everything, dog. And he's just still like, it is wild to me. And he's like crazy. Like, I don't know. He's got a really weird demon voice with like a Philly accent, you know that you
Starting point is 00:22:31 Whatever restrict weapons blah blah blah and just like honestly, you watch that and as an like again again shit that I don't expect to feel which is like an American who's like protective of like you know you taking all of our you know taxpayer dollars that I paid way too much in this year and I'm just like fuck you you know what I mean fuck you you're treating not like fuck you you don't don't treat my president like that our terrible fucking leave leave Joe alone like anything that makes me tired exactly let the man sleep. Exactly. I know.
Starting point is 00:23:06 It's just wild to me. They need to really get their shit straight. The end of the day, what's crazy is that Netanyahu wants Trump to be president again. And that's wild. And the other thing. That's the weakness, right? Where it's like you're letting him
Starting point is 00:23:21 like these weird like pissy lies and very clearly wants your opponent to win. And you're like, well, stay in the course. Everyone makes a comparison, wrong comparisons, that Biden makes the wrong comparison to Ukraine and Russia. But if this were Putin doing this to Biden about allowing him to continue to kill the Ukrainian people, we would have no problem seeing that this is clearly a bad faith guy who's psychopathic, wants to kill as many
Starting point is 00:23:51 Ukrainians as possible, and ultimately wants to work with Donald Trump. That is very clear. That would be very clear. And here you have Biden bending over backwards for Putin, doing everything for Putin. But again, because it's Israel and it obviously there's extra layers of bad faith, anti-Semitism, levied at anyone who criticizes genocide. We are where we are. But speaking of Biden, he's got some other problems.
Starting point is 00:24:19 Sleepy and tired. So sleepy and his bad poll numbers, Jonathan, tell us about what's going on. Is the conservative media being good faith in representing Joe Biden? It's funny, you don't even really need to stretch that far to show. Joe Biden's a little old and feeble, isn't he?
Starting point is 00:24:39 But they are, they're stretching some videos to their limits. It's like the reality is bad enough. Yeah, it's like whenever anybody's like, oh, Trump said that, like, I can't even think of an example because he said so many wild things that are just bad. But like you see lies about Trump or like these misrepresentations,
Starting point is 00:24:57 and it's like, you don't need to do that. He's a monster. He's a monstrous old man. Fair and balanced point of you, Jody. Thank you, thank you. I almost called you Jody, but I didn't mean to do that. That's not monstrous old man. Fair and balanced point of view. Thank you. Thank you. I was called Jody, but I didn't mean to do that. That's not my name, but it's okay. It's a combination of my first and last name.
Starting point is 00:25:12 It was because I was saying Cody and also trying to pivot to Joe. It was not that thoughtful. There's one video being shared. It's at the G7 summit. And there's like parachutists dropping down around and in one angle of the video it appears that Biden wanders off and then Georgia Maloney has to like bring him
Starting point is 00:25:34 back over and everyone's saying like look at this old man wandering off and from a different angle you see that's not accurate. There were people parachuting down right out of frame and he was going over to give them a thumbs up and then Georgia Maloney grabbed him. What's so funny about this is I have not seen the other angle. I just saw it and I was like I don't care. I don't care if he's wandering off. I don't even give a sh- there's clearly something over there but I was so tickled by the fact that there were just men parachuting right next to him. I was like, what could it be?
Starting point is 00:26:10 I thought it was always waving at a friend. There's a person. There's a birdie. I don't know. No, no, no. It's people who are just like zoom. They nearly land on him. And of course he's going to turn around and be like, wow, cool.
Starting point is 00:26:24 Good job. And he should be allowed to walk off on a side quest once in a while if he wants to. Let him do a side quest. He's the president, he's a busy man. He's a multi-man. Do what I do when I play video games. You just try to find the edge of it and go like, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- It's ridiculous. I mean, he does look like an old man tottering around. But he always does because he's an old man. And so is Donald Trump. They're both old men. And Donald Trump doesn't have knees.
Starting point is 00:26:53 But also, like, you know, there's an element of this like Cody. He doesn't have knees, actually. Oh, thank you so much. Was that a callback? It's a callback from like eight years ago. Oh, I don't. It's literally from like his first year of the presidency. It just seems like he doesn't have any knees. And I think that that's still true.
Starting point is 00:27:10 They're always locked. They're always locked. They look locked because they're not there. Because he doesn't have them. He doesn't have them. They've been removed and it's just top and bottom. He'd waddle way more if he didn't have knees. Look, are you trying to like destroy my theory?
Starting point is 00:27:30 Yeah. Well, you did because you're right. He would be waddling more and he wouldn't have bent his knees in many, many videos. The point is Joe Biden is very old and this clip, even without the cropping, you could look at it and go, oh, he's kind of old and like kind of wanders off and he's not necessarily focused on like what they're there for. It's fine, he's waving to the people.
Starting point is 00:27:53 It's not like, without the cropping, it doesn't like fill me with confidence, but it doesn't like completely destroy my confidence. It's just like, why, you don't need to do this. You don't need to do this. There's so many videos of him. He's going to be on stage with Donald Trump talking to him next week. Yeah. We'll all see it. I'm sure he'll be fine. They gotta have something to keep the rage up, to keep the jokes and the dunks coming. There's also this video, oh I guess, Libs of TikTok,
Starting point is 00:28:21 cool, and other people suggesting that Biden. Where is this event? It's of Biden freezing up at a fundraiser. Is that way that they're portraying it and that Obama has to help him off stage? No, he just did a 40 minute. Conversation on stage with Jimmy Kimmel. Sympathetic to this, these problems, because like I, I'm in the camp that does think
Starting point is 00:28:45 that Joe Biden's really old and maybe too old to be the president. It would've been nice last month, the month before that, month before that, three months ago, four months ago, five months ago, a year ago, if they had that conversation internally and maybe decided to maybe somebody else. I still hold that hope.
Starting point is 00:28:59 We still got him. You think he can get younger? I think he can get younger still. Yes, I think we can find the Fountain of Youth. That's why he's doing a side quest. He's looking for the Fountain of Youth. Oh. Maybe those parachutists had it.
Starting point is 00:29:13 It's in those whale-like creatures in the Avatar planet on Pandora. I just watched Way of the Water finally after like 10 sittings. I'm a mom mom and I don't get a lot of time. And so it's in their little gullet situations. It's just, I hate the what about is I'm here because my mind immediately plays the game. And I'm like, did we all not see Mitch McConnell completely like beach ball of death it for a 45 seconds. Yeah, like, and he's still in the Senate like it's just wild to me, you know, and
Starting point is 00:29:54 so yeah, they're both old and senile. It's just which old senility do you want? Do you want the guy who wants to be Mussolini? Or do you want the guy who's just like a pancake breakfast grandpa who wants to give people thumbs up even though they're not even looking at him and it's embarrassing? And he wants his ice cream. He wants his ice cream. Yeah, it's just like, it is a little frustrating because he is like, again, running for president. He should have found somebody else. He's running for president. That's the situation. There are clips of him talking at length where he doesn't wander off, where he's like completely
Starting point is 00:30:31 lucid and he's present and he's there. And you can make a compilation of all his like senior moments. And that's not good that there are all of these moments where it's like there's so many of them. But there he's also like doing this thing. I don't know. It's just a frustrating situation that he seems to have forced upon all of us after implying.
Starting point is 00:30:51 Remember how he was gonna be a transitional candidate? Implying that he was gonna be a transitional candidate. I do remember that. And you know what, Francesca, when I brought that up online once, everyone got mad at me, and that was one of my last stands on Twitter. Like, fuck all of you guys.
Starting point is 00:31:06 Oh yeah, Blue Mega. I didn't phrase it great. I didn't phrase it great. He also didn't officially say that. It was like a floated idea that his campaign was kind of playing out there. Yeah, but it was really floated. And I'm not dealing with it, remember.
Starting point is 00:31:15 He wanted to have it both ways because his, there was a political article that was like, Biden signals to aides that he might be a one-term president. But he never said it out loud to anyone himself. Sure, sure. Many people have this false memory that he definitely said I would be a one-term president. I believe he also said, like, transition
Starting point is 00:31:35 to the next generation, but he didn't really specify how many decades that transition might take. I know that that, at point, that was a lot for me at the time, like, well, if it's just once. Oh, I agree that that would have been great if he was. But but it was never like officially said. And I think that's the frustration we're now. I have something you should have done that to officially say.
Starting point is 00:31:59 We love it. We got to take an ad break, which supports this show. So thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. So we're gonna do that. And then we're gonna be right back for even more news. Hey there, it's Cody. If you're anything like me, Cody,
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Starting point is 00:33:39 It's like no time has passed. We're still talking Biden. Damn it. Is he young yet? No, but should we talk about a couple good things, Biden? still talking Biden. Damn it. Is he young yet? No, but should we talk about a couple good things, Biden? Let's do it. I think it's always nice to just sprinkle these in because if it weren't for his increasing age
Starting point is 00:33:58 and his increasing disinterest in stopping ethnic cleansing and in fact, participating in it and one could stay encouraging it. Aside from those things that have gotten worse and worse and worse every month, he has done good things as a president and he could have been considered a pretty decent president were it not for a few other Glaring problems, but right this week the Biden administration granted new protections to undocumented spouses of US citizens It means about half a million Undocumented spouses will be shielded from deportation and given a pathway to citizenship. I'll be honest. I want to I mean, this is really good. I Don't understand why this wasn't already true. Yeah, I am like that's wild
Starting point is 00:34:48 Yeah, United States of America United States of America Katie sort of has my thought on this and like I thought I was I mean, I married someone who was not a citizen then they got a green card and Could become a citizen. But I'm like, shouldn't there be on, I mean, aren't there are already on ramps to becoming a citizen if you are married to one, but that just shows how fucking expensive and bureaucratic it is to actually achieve that and get your green card. And so I think this expedites it. But again, I mean, it's
Starting point is 00:35:27 he giveth and taketh when it comes to immigration policy. It's one of his most Trumpian policies. Oh, yeah. It doesn't undo everything he's done on the border doesn't undo denying asylum to those who are fleeing violence. And, but he's and it's also super arbitrary. If you apply if you've been in this country by Monday, by 10 for 10 years by Monday, but not Tuesday. Fuck you if you've been in this country, nine years and 364 days. So it's sort of a weirdly arbitrary mark,
Starting point is 00:35:57 if I'm not mistaken, Jonathan. I don't know. Thank you. I always hesitate to say that on the show. I mean, you've got extra perspective too, because your husband, so did he get his green card? He did, but he's my ex now, and it wasn't a green card marriage, so I just want to clarify that. No, but thank you for that clarification, but I'm like, that's been a thing, right? I just made the wrong decision.
Starting point is 00:36:24 Well, congratulations on your work. I legitimately made the wrong choice. I congratulate you on exiting that marriage. Thank you. Congratulations. Wonderful news. Thank you. Can I get some balloons though?
Starting point is 00:36:35 You can get some balloons? Yeah, where's the balloons? You can also get some confetti. Thank you. There we go. It doesn't work so much for me. It works much more consistently for Cody. Audio only listeners, we're still making the hand gestures
Starting point is 00:36:49 at the screen to try to get, mine's not working. It's called celebration. So yeah, I guess that wasn't as good of a thing. Here's the thing. We try and our best. With the Biden stuff. No, it is good. It is good, of course it's good.
Starting point is 00:37:02 But the thing that we were gonna mention is, forgiving some student loan stuff. And like, look, I'm thrilled. If you were one of those people, I'm so happy for you. I wish there was confetti. I get stuck on, how is that fixing the problem? We've got more kids entering every year signing up, amassing huge amounts. Like to me, it's like one of those things where like,
Starting point is 00:37:29 yay, look at our guy, he did it. And it's like, he didn't do it though. He did that for these people and congrats, but let's keep this conversation going because the real issue has not been addressed in any way. We've just forgiven some debt. Yeah, it's like with happened or is going to happen, but medical debt can't be used against your credit score,
Starting point is 00:37:49 is one move, which is huge, but also like maybe solve the medical debt problem. Like, it's this thing of like signaling, signaling that like there's a problem here and it's compounded by this other problem that exists and yes, all these sort of systems like we're feeding into each other and acknowledging like oh, medical that's a huge problem and it's affecting people's credit scores, we should not let that happen.
Starting point is 00:38:15 But that's it. No, I think that's a really important point. And I think it speaks to how much he's missing the mark. And I think with especially with young people, where everything is so acute, you know, they're sort of becoming politicized. They're learning about, you know, the ways that capitalism fucks us all that it's leading to our, you know, you know, the warmest whatever 1516 17th month we've been in, in our in in ever recorded history. Like, and it's like, yeah, all this is good, but it's way too little and it's way too late.
Starting point is 00:38:51 And not only that, but it's not actually allowing us to get out of the jaws of neo-fascism, which are very much clamping down on this country, whether it's Trump or not. on this country, whether it's Trump or not. So it's like, it's not enough to actually turn the tide against like authoritarianism. It's not enough to protect democracy. It's just chipping away at it at this really late stage. Again, it's just like a, I don't know, whatever Titanic metaphor you wanna use where we're just taking a little teaspoon and we're like,
Starting point is 00:39:25 I'm just going to be in this corner and I'm going to, you know, slowly, right. And there's all these people using, using the flooding to do all these terrible things or scare people in this and this, and you need to get rid of that water in order to make people. Well, because this is the bare minimum to try to appease the people that actually got him elected. You know, it's like the bare minimum without actually pissing off the other people that got him elected, the private interests, the different, like they don't want, the medical industry doesn't want this fixed. And they're suing him. I mean, to his credit, this administration has a lot of lawsuits coming at him
Starting point is 00:40:01 when they're trying to regulate the price of insulin. Tons of lawsuits, right? But talk about that. Be like, Big Pharma fucking hates me. Oh, you hate Big Pharma? Big Pharma hates me even more because I'm trying to fight for you all. You know what I'm saying? Do some shit. Like be loud. And if you can't even be loud, go, you got a sweet little grandpa voice, then get Kamala, get someone to talk about it. But even the shit that's cool, they can't stand by. Pete Buttigieg is saying that, if your flight gets canceled, if it's domestic, you are entitled to your full refund or whatever, whatever.
Starting point is 00:40:31 Talk about it. All the time, talk about that all the time. All the time talk about it. And they just don't. We've always had a messaging problem too. They don't, there's just no fire in the positivity. And that's what you need to be excited about things that you've done and want to continue doing.
Starting point is 00:40:51 You can't have wonks just get excited. Wonks are not good messengers for this progress. It's like, first of all, it's difficult to follow the wonks. And then when you do, it's like, oh, wait, what? You know, like, how, how is, can we message this in a mass way? I mean, I do think, though, that the student loan debt is funny because it reminds me of, like, the problem of, like, you know, you've got a chicken and a wolf and, like, some, like, feed on one side of a river. And you're like, you can't bring them all across at the same time.
Starting point is 00:41:21 So how do you, like, what do you bring across for us? That's like how Biden's doing student loan. It's like, you'll get sued, Republicans will hate you. The courts will fight you. Yeah, the Supreme Court won't let you bring a wolf and a chicken and just keep him at opposite ends or put him in a cage or something. They'll be like, nope, you got to follow the Blake rule.
Starting point is 00:41:38 So in some ways it's like by our very, we are so skewed to the right in this country that even trying to pull it back a little bit, you're already gonna be thwarted by a system that is again So skewed to the right and to the rich when I say right just here rich like and so It's just like well because we need actual structural change Yeah Yeah, you know if if Adobe gets successfully sued for their shit if live Live Nation and Ticketmaster gets split up, that's good.
Starting point is 00:42:07 That's good. Junk fees going away, that's good. The antitrust is some of the best stuff, let's be real. Oh, totally. But talk about it. And right, because so much of some of this stuff is because of people he hired and people he appointed. And they're great and they're doing their job, but their job isn't to tell us all about it. Their job is to do these things.
Starting point is 00:42:29 Right. His job part of it is to be a communicator to the people. Like it's a big part of the presidency's communication. And I think that comes from like the political, like where he comes from politically is like, like, well, both you can get along with the right, which is obviously misguided now, they're gonna have an with the right, which is obviously misguided. Now they're going to have an epiphany, which they never did. They call them like a crime boss. And then also like kind of, well, if you can't sell it, then stealthily do it. But like, but that actually doesn't work because the people who would
Starting point is 00:42:57 voted for you in 2020 are not getting excited about it. Cause you're not actually getting them excited about it. And even the COVID stuff, like even, I mean, I guess he sort of touted the American rescue plan, but even like the vaccine, everyone in the world, the world over politicians who like successfully, you know, weathered, I mean, Trump arguably didn't, obviously didn't weather the weather COVID. But like, even Biden is like, he can't even tell that because COVID is not a popular issue anymore or the vaccines are not a popular issue. Because like they don't really work the way they were supposed to.
Starting point is 00:43:31 No, they don't do they? They don't work. There's a deer. Yeah, because you have to keep going and getting another one. They really shouldn't have promised that like COVID would be over after the vaccines came along, which was partially a Trump thing because he was was like, this is gonna make me a hero. Yes, it was. But like, we still all got kind of excited
Starting point is 00:43:50 that we would never get it again, even though the vaccines are great and work very well to prevent death, et cetera, but like. Oh yeah. They kind of told us it would be over. And some transmission, but yeah, I mean, the whole, the bad, again, so much of this comes down to, well, part of it is like new thing.
Starting point is 00:44:06 We don't know anything about this. We're like actively like trying to like gather information about this virus as the months go by. But part of it is just this lack of like actual communication and ability to communicate. And we know when things are updated or things are changed, like explaining why not being like, ah, we were wrong or like, we changed our minds or it's arbitrary. It's like, no, we discovered this thing and this, this, there's like a, uh, a path of communication that, um, and it's not all there. Like part of it is impossible because of the state of things and the state of
Starting point is 00:44:40 media and the state of the nation, uh, where communication is harder and harder every moment. Well, because truly everything is gonna be fodder for the political theater dumpster fire. So it's, you know, you could say every issue that comes up, there's gonna be the position that you take and then the other side's gonna take the opposite position. Even if on the surface, it should,
Starting point is 00:45:10 we should all be able to easily agree on the time sequence of events here. I have to always mention, I used to live in Argentina, but when I lived there, and whether or not you like this or don't, but you know the like the test of the government, the emergency broadcasting system from the government, you know, the loud tones we all remember from childhood and whatnot. There's a purpose for that, you know, you the government can use that to, you know, warn people about whatever,
Starting point is 00:45:38 some kind of emergency or obviously, I just said that be like a hurricane, whatever, earthquake and stuff like that. But in the ways that when I was living there, they would use public access and those announcements would often be around like publicity for their own campaign for their own not campaign for their own administration. So hey, what are we doing up in the Chaco region of Argentina? Well, we're building sewage system for poor communities that don't actually have sewage. Look at these. And then it'd be like, and you look at things like the American Rescue Plan or the Inflation Reduction Act, and you're like, let me see that promo. Like, let me
Starting point is 00:46:20 see your promo because I, I was up in Pacific Northwest in Washington and I saw like there's like a waterfront revitalization project. Seems like a good one, not a pure gentrification one. And there was a little bit of a little plaque that was like, this is being revitalized thanks to funds from the American Rescue Plan. I was like, well, funny, interesting. Like, let me see that. And Obama had the same, you know, there's a lot of critiques about the Obama administration same with the stimulus, you know, in of critiques about the Obama administration, same with the stimulus in 2009 that was very quiet, that there wasn't a lot of like, hey, this is what the stimulus money did. This is how it helped your community. And I feel like that's the ad campaign we need. Maybe they're rolling it out right now. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:47:00 What hopes that they have some sort of plan to talk about the good things that they are proud of not sure though because We haven't seen much of it all this time. All right, so much of it is just I go see that plaque up in Exactly, just just a video of the plaque Yeah and read the plaque or like you know like we talked about like like fireside chats these sort of just like addresses to the Nation of like things you're proud of I don't even think his website for his campaign is like updated with policy or any sort of like here's what we're going to do when we definitely win a second term. It's right.
Starting point is 00:47:35 It's just that. Yeah, that's what we're not going to do. Proudly, you know, like Trump making a huge deal of like making sure his names on the checks, right? I come on. We all got a check. Good names right there. I know who did that, you know? And just being almost like- And yet that crime does get blamed
Starting point is 00:47:52 for the inflation caused from stimulus checks though. That's interesting how that happens. But it only caused like, what, two, 3% of it, they said? Right. All of the inflation. Go after the motherfuckers who are causing the inflation which are corporations It's all greed flation look at like do a fun tick tock He doesn't he should be nowhere near the camera, but other people like explain Exactly why you're live why you're your ticket to go see Taylor Swift is so expensive and what they're doing about it
Starting point is 00:48:23 Oh my god, tiktok will fucking love you even though you signed a bill to ban it. Like it's just it's that kind of shit where you're like, no, point the finger at who's actually responsible. But that's his that's the corporate tism of Joe Biden is that he cannot do that. He has to make it palatable. He has to seem like he's not doing class war stuff even though there is a class war and poor people are losing it. So yeah. Well we were going to talk about greedflation today but I don't think we have time to properly do that. But thank you for-
Starting point is 00:48:56 But it's true. And it's one of those things where like for so long so many people are like, I mean, a lot of this is just because they know they can do it and make more money. And they did. Very successful. And they did. It's not like they're gonna stop.
Starting point is 00:49:13 It's like we did it and now we're gonna not do it as much until we can again. Until we can again. Until we can again. Yeah. But it would blow my mind at some point where you're out there and you're like, I mean, people were still paying it. Some people are showing up and dealing with it,
Starting point is 00:49:30 but over time. Yeah, no, it's just like the reality of business and of capitalism that this is just going to happen and they're gonna do this and to be like, oh, it's all, it's their fault because they know that they can get away with it. There's a new system, I forget what company it is, grocery stores starting to, instead of having like price
Starting point is 00:49:52 tags on items, they're going to start to slowly roll out price tags digitally on like the displays. So they can change them in real time. For example, as one of the guys was explaining, well, so if it's really hot out, we can jack up the prices of popsicles and cold water. Hate this. Stuff like that, or like if something's about to expire,
Starting point is 00:50:17 we like drop the price quickly and things like that. It's like they're always gonna try to squeeze you. And I'm not saying that like the government doesn't like exacerbate it or allow it or like have something to do with it. But like believe that these companies don't give a shit about you and they're just trying to squeeze as much money out of you and they will jack up prices as much as they can when the opportunity arrives. And that might be something legislatively we can do.
Starting point is 00:50:46 Because typically, it's just up to all of us, the consumers, to pull back. And then they're like, OK, we got it. We'll lower the price of a happy hour or whatever. But you could potentially, before the Supreme Court strikes it down in a few months, you could pass legislation that says, OK, dynamic pricing, you can't change the price more than 10% in the same day or something. I'm sure they could narrowly write a bill that says like, OK, dynamic pricing, you can't change the price more than 10% in the same day or something.
Starting point is 00:51:05 Yeah. I'm sure they could narrowly write a bill that says, yeah, you can't jack up the price of popsicles on a very hot day. And that seems like something within Biden's scope of, don't rock the boat too much. Exactly. No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:51:20 Well, probably, Katie, but I'm trying to give him some credit. Jonathan, that was a great idea. I think you should run for office. You should. No. Yeah. You should. Actually, don't.
Starting point is 00:51:29 We need you here. God. Yeah, maybe. Have you considered being God? We tried to be a God. I think we did it. I think we're done. I think we made it to the end of our episode.
Starting point is 00:51:43 We got here. With enough time to upload it. Yeah, exactly. Perfect. Hell, yeah. We had a good time. We covered some topics and Francesca. Oh, I like said your name word. No, it's okay. You're a delight. And it was nice to have you here. And thank you. Come back anytime.
Starting point is 00:52:02 Come back anytime. I'm happy to. Not anytime. We're only here like for one hour a week. Fuck. So. But I mean we can work around her schedule, Cody. Yeah. Oh, any, okay. God damn it.
Starting point is 00:52:11 We're flexible is what I'm saying. Oh no, such a pleasure, love it. And if people are watching your color story matching your artwork in the back, it's just everything is working. It's on purpose. And Cody, what's up with your angles? They're great, my angles are great is what's going on with them.
Starting point is 00:52:28 Is that why you're asking? Yeah. Cause you're like, how do you get your angles so good? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm working on it folks. We're working on the background. Some things will be on the wall. He did have some blue lights on earlier. I did early. They're still there, but I try to get another light. It's fine. Don't worry about it. That was his attempt. It's okay. We're working on the angles. This is a new thing. We're figuring out angles. I've got a really good setup for when I stream
Starting point is 00:52:52 music that I'm never going to do. That you still haven't done. It's a whole completely different angle and it looks great. And this weekend I'm going to do it. Is that your alt's personality? Yes. His name is also Cody, and he acts exactly like me, but he plays music instead of this. One of these weekends, folks, it's happening. I got a new device. I got a device to make it work, but I don't think it worked. So where's the work on it?
Starting point is 00:53:16 Well, that seems like the first thing you figured out. That's a meat thermometer, Cody. That's not going to do it. No, it's not. Oh, it is. Oh my god. That's why. Thank god for the visual element of this podcast.
Starting point is 00:53:24 Otherwise, I never would have. It's not going to gonna help your livestream but go cook a chicken or whatever. Francesca, can you please tell our listeners where they can find you and support you and all that? Thank you. Listen to the Bituation Room podcast wherever you're podcast and also follow it on YouTube. YouTube.com slash Franny Fio, F-R-A-N-I-F-I-O. Streaming Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 1 p.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. Eastern. So much streaming. Yeah, too much.
Starting point is 00:53:51 Or just the right amount for our listeners to go check it out. And heck, you know what? You know what? I always get so shy. It's like so vulnerable when it gets to the end of the episode and I have to share my true feelings, but I've got to. What are they? Yeah. I can't keep this in yeah it's okay open
Starting point is 00:54:09 up it's okay we love you very much much

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