Some More News - Trump's Messy Floor, New Brandon vs. Classic Brandon, and EVEN MORE Tim's Tunes

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

Hi. This week, Josie Duffy Rice (@jduffyrice) joins Katy and Cody to talk about Trump being more concerned about people thinking he has a messy floor than all the crimes he commit...ted. They also discuss student debt forgiveness, wonder if we're seeing an all-new Brandon, and react to the latest hit single from everyone's favorite rock group, Timcast. Get your BETTER THINGS ARE NECESSARY AND POSSIBLE merch here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/20713359-better-things-are-necessary-and-possible Check out our new compilation series, CODY COMPS here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqFkH8uXvlJbGeJKUChW4VGxCMhKQ9cJ8 Please fill out our SURVEY: https://kastmedia.com/survey/ Check out our new series SOME THIS! - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJemc4T5NYbcqTbNmyH3uqutwcj8fHf3 Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949 SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh  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?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news We Should Start Incentivizing Better Things Get an immune-supporting FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase if you visit athleticgreens.com/morenews and try AG1 today. High-performance beauty and skin-care products made with clean, skin-loving ingredients. Right now, you can get 15% off your first order when you visit thrivecausemetics.com/MORENEWS. Wildgrain is the first bake-from-frozen box for artisanal bread. Plus they have amazing rolls, pastries, and even handmade pastas. Sign up at Wildgrain.com/morenews and, for a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box PLUS free croissants in every box. Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to Prose.com/morenews for your FREE in-depth hair consultation and 15% off.Support the show!: http://patreon.com.com/somemorenewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, you slippery weirdo! You mailing your weird, slippery stuff all over town? Why not try out Stamps.com? If you got a lot of slippery stuff to mail out, you could save money and time. All you need is a computer and printer and you're good to slide out that oily mail. You get discounts on both UPS and USPS, and even a package pickup service you can schedule through your stamps.com dashboard. Doesn't matter if you have a slippery online store
Starting point is 00:00:28 or a greasy Etsy or even a major buttery oleaginous large business. Stamps.com will help you no matter the size of your operation. So get started with stamps.com today. Sign up with promo code more news for a special offer that includes a four week trial plus free postage and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts.
Starting point is 00:00:51 Just go to stamps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code MORENEWS. Get it today, you slidey, slippery lion, you. Roar, but slippery. Hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. Hi, Katie Stoll. I won't argue with your claim about the show and its place in news. I'm Cody. Hi, Cody. You know who might argue with our claim and its place in the news is our guest today, because she is the interim co-host of Crooked Media's What A Day podcast. She is also the writer of the new newsletter, The Unnamed and former president of The Appeal. Please welcome Josie Duffy Rice.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Hi, thank you for having me. And I will not argue with your claim. There's enough room for all of us. There's a big difference between us, the first and only news podcast, and What A Day, which is, you know, and only news podcast and and and what a day which is you know a daily news podcast it's different a day it is different it is different i didn't realize how much news there was until i started working on a daily news podcast all the time doesn't stop there's a lot and there's always something happening you know so yeah i'm curious about the
Starting point is 00:02:26 experience of doing a daily news podcast you guys switch hosts so i'm sure that's helpful but what is that workflow like you know it's a very well-run process and so it's a lot less stressful than it could be yeah i think daily news is just such a slog like for the producers and i mean they i think they love it but it's just so intense to kind of always be like in the general news world across all spectrums like i obviously come from a space where i focus on one thing and i always thought that one thing was stressful but now i'm like it's actually like like it's not it's not like the most uplifting thing but at least it's one thing you know it's one thing i can do really well i like the daily news stuff but i it's
Starting point is 00:03:15 just you can i i didn't appreciate how um how much it can take out of people yeah and yeah the the wide range of topics it's like okay now i need to know about this aspect of physics to explain this like terrible disaster that's going on or something i do think it has been really helpful in learning and keeping up with news events that otherwise would kind of run into each other like i have a much better sense for example of what's happening in russia and ukraine than i would if i you know, just was kind of getting whatever here and there. So there is some there are a lot of benefits to kind of being able to structure my own politics in terms of how I'm seeing what's happening in the world. But again, too much is happening in the world. We need to cut it down. It's hard. I don't know. You're very smart. So maybe you didn't have this experience,
Starting point is 00:04:11 but I'm sure I did. Imposter syndrome feeling. So when we're talking about a wide range of topics, as I, as we got into this, it was very stressful for me because I would want to be as prepared about everything as possible. And I'd beat myself up if I didn't know an answer to something. And as we've grown, we've, we've brought in more people and we have more resources. Jonathan is a huge help, help with research and everything. But there's also been an adjustment of my understanding. There's so much happening all at once and nobody's expected to know everything, but we're doing our best and we're trying to have these conversations and we fact check and we do our due diligence and you know we share things that are are important that we need to talk about that it's so easy to overlook yeah I think that's I think that is for me has been the hardest part and we also have a lot of great help and great staff who do a lot of the legwork so it's not like I'm out there trying to figure this stuff out alone, but it's absolutely, I mean, beyond just imposter syndrome, just responsibility. Like how do you, if you, if you're, if you're telling an audience four sentences about something
Starting point is 00:05:15 that's happening in Nicaragua and that might be all they hear about it, how do you know that you are telling the right story, the nuanced story, the complicated story? Like what, how are you framing it it how are you talking about it and so so much of my work has been about how we talk about criminal justice how we frame it how we narrativize it what stories do we tell what stories don't we tell etc that like it is so stressful for me anytime we're doing a story where i'm like i it again it's a couple sentences like nobody's coming to a 20 minute daily news podcast to learn everything they can about what. But it's just the risk.
Starting point is 00:05:52 It just feels like a lot of responsibility that often journalists don't wield very well. And so but the nature of the setup is that you can't learn everything about everything every day. You just can't learn everything about everything every day. You just can't. Right. Yeah. So, you know, I think a lot of it is just knowing who to ask. I'm like always texting my friends like, you know.
Starting point is 00:06:13 Yeah. Exactly. Make sure like researchers and your sources are as best as you can. Right. And an acknowledgement that things news changes and things develop. And, you know, there's always that I'm doing my very best each day. And and that's all I can do. Yes. That is all. It's certainly all I can do.
Starting point is 00:06:36 We're going to ask you get to know you a little bit more. But first, I have got to we've got to celebrate some holidays. First, I have got to... We've got to celebrate some holidays, guys. Today, September 1st, the day we are recording, is National No Rhyme Nor Reason Day. Ooh. Celebrate words in the English language that do not rhyme with any other words.
Starting point is 00:06:58 I love this. What do we got? Orange. Orange. Some of these are surprising. Month. Month. Month. Yep. Orange. Mm hmm. Some of these are surprising. Month. Month. Month.
Starting point is 00:07:06 Yep. Silver. Silver. You can do like approximate rhyme with a lot of these. Spirit. Slant rhyme. What's going on with colors? Colors.
Starting point is 00:07:15 Yeah. Purple probably. Purple. Yeah. A lot of colors. I don't know. Urkel rhymes with purple. Hmm.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Not a word and no it doesn't. Well, we're so, colors is such a part of our uh many people's me less because i'm slightly colorblind but uh you know uh picking words that like are so unique that you can't confuse them i don't know there are a lot of colors there are a lot of colors and that feels like for some it's not like i know. But I'm just thinking of like just as chartreuse. Like, where are we picking all these things? I can't rhyme with anything else. Yeah. Colors should be rhymeable.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Colors should be rhymeable. We use colors to evoke. Well, to paint a picture, to evoke emotion. We need them to be rhymeable. They're a key part of kids, like, vocabulary development. Yeah. And how are they
Starting point is 00:08:07 going to make you... Some of the first things. There's a lot of issues going on in the world, but I think that this might be my new, my new hill that I'll die on and champion.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Yeah. It's not going to piss anybody off, right? It will. Yeah, this is not. Everybody has a role to play in this world
Starting point is 00:08:22 and ours can be renaming colors. Finally, finally found it. One more holiday to announce is September 2nd. I went rogue, Jonathan. I chose a different one. It's September 2nd is bring your manners to work day. I disagree with this one.
Starting point is 00:08:38 Don't do that. Just be you. Unless it's going to get you fired. I briefly thought that September 2nd was a Saturday and I was like, perfect. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. No problem. On a Saturday sometime.
Starting point is 00:08:50 Not a problem at all. Yeah. All right, Josie, just a little bit more to get to know you. First off, we want to know about The Unnamed, your new newsletter. Can you tell us what it's about? What kind of stories we can expect to see? I can tell you what it's about. Yeah, that's fine. of stories we can expect to see? I can tell you what it's about. Yeah, that's good enough.
Starting point is 00:09:07 What stories you can expect to see. TBD. Well, I have been trying to write a book for a long time. I want to, the book I'm trying to write is a very big idea that I'm trying to narrow down into a book that people actually want to read. It turns out writing a book is hard. down into this book that people actually want to read. It turns out writing a book is hard. And I have discovered that it's a kind of destructive cycle because I want to spend most of my time writing, but writing doesn't pay yet.
Starting point is 00:09:39 And so then I have to do things to make money because it turns out the two children that live in my house are extremely expensive. And so I was always putting off writing and I felt like I wanted to explore some ideas in like short form. And this seemed like the best way to do it. So the things I am interested in are usually about criminal justice, but also about what that system says about us. And they're not as much about like what policy was passed or what ruling or what statute, all of that is like extremely uninteresting to me. Maybe the policy stuff is interesting, but like the technical legal stuff is so the opposite of what I want to focus on. the technical legal stuff is so the opposite of what I want to focus on.
Starting point is 00:10:29 It's more questions about like, why do we as a society, but also like why do our public officials make the choices they make? And kind of how did we get here? I mean, that's sort of the thesis of my book. Not like, not like mandatory minimums got us here or, you know, or like private privatized prisons, but like, what are our what is kind of inherent in our culture? Yes. That would allow us to lock up millions of people without flinching for decades.
Starting point is 00:10:59 Yeah. It just feels so antithetical to all of the things that we say that has been is a bigger project of my book, but a smaller project for the newsletter. having right now in order to actually make changes happen like how have we allowed this how do we culturally turn a blind eye to it i mean and how do you have the conversation because some people don't want to have it but how do you have it anyway and change perceptions and you know move the needle in the right direction yeah being able to sort of wake people up a little bit to those sort of ideas and like what are our purported values what do you say your values are when you talk to people how how are these in direct conflict with that um it's true with a lot of aspects of our society a
Starting point is 00:11:57 lot of our institutions it's probably most prominent in like criminal justice uh yeah system i think that's right i think that it is i think that your point about other institutions is really important because i think we often think about the criminal justice system as something we can just sort of fix like a just you know like a gangrene limb that will cut that off and we'll keep moving but it is deeply interwoven with other choices we make daily about what we value. And, you know, I think even more than values, I'm interested in instincts. Like when, what are we, you know, how do we grapple with the feeling we have of like, sometimes revenge feels good.
Starting point is 00:12:39 Sometimes like seeing someone that you don't like suffer feels good. I mean, you know. Yeah, there's a whole word for it. There's no rhyme for that word. There's no rhyme for that word. Bring it back. Bring it back. I like it.
Starting point is 00:12:50 Yeah. I mean, we talk about defunding the police or prison abolition. And yet at the same time, you know, justice, we also promote and want to try people and like, you know, Donald trump or like the insurrection and i think that that's a really it's not that you're wrong people are wrong for wanting to see consequences but how do you how well let's have that conversation about what that means yeah i mean i think that donald trump example is the one that like has made me feel ideologically homeless in a lot of ways, like outside of sort of my general, my like immediate criminal justice community.
Starting point is 00:13:31 But this idea that like, well, A, that he'll go to prison is so funny. Like that's even going to happen. It's just truly hilarious to me. Like, you know, you're when you're on Twitter and people are like, we can't wait to see this guy locked up. We got him. That's so sweet. You guys are so adorable.
Starting point is 00:13:47 Right. It's really, truly so adorable. I like wish there's a part of me that really wishes I could be with you there. But also just this feeling of that that would be something to something that would feel that would that would repair something. And I just can't see that. You know, one of the things that like, I think is interesting about abolition as a concept is that when you talk about it,
Starting point is 00:14:15 people always say like, what about the harm they cause? What about like, there's this idea that if someone else, if someone suffers, someone causes harm and then they suffer, that repairs the harm somehow. Right. It's like the harm is done. Right. We can't take back 2016 to 2020.
Starting point is 00:14:33 The victims of crime is not really a focus. Yeah. It's about that sort of retribution and revenge, really. But I wouldn't deny. I mean, we won't spend the whole time talking about this, I promise. But I also wouldn't deny that there is some, probably some societal value in retribution to the extent that you think of that as consequences. And there's a big spectrum of human behavior. And I don't expect that like changing societal values means nobody ever makes, does shitty stuff again. And so all of these are big questions.
Starting point is 00:15:04 And I have no answers for them, but I like to ask them. That's the goal. Well, you have to ask them. Otherwise, we're just ignoring the problem completely. And that's a frustrating element of being in this space about talking about all of these issues about the news and politics in general is that there aren't easy answers. and there's just the mistakes that we see being made and how do we fix this and how do we have these conversations and a lot of people don't yeah yeah and it's also it's look it's hard to you know i went to law school and in law school you like you stop thinking about like what's good for the country and you start thinking about like
Starting point is 00:15:42 well does this actually fit within the frame of the statute? Or like, what was the congressional leader's intent when they had this hearing? Or you just, it's very hard when you are in the weeds all the time, which all of us are. Regardless, I mean, writing is one of the few jobs where you get to think big picture. Most of the time, you just don't get to do that. And even then, it's, you don't really get to do that. And even then it's, you don't really get to do that. And so, you know, I think a lot about like, if you have the privilege and the, you know, the luck of being in a space where you can think about the bigger questions and you're not having to write the legislation, you just get to talk about it. You're not having to pass it or campaign on it. You just get to analyze it. I think it's also part of our just, it's our responsibility.
Starting point is 00:16:30 Hello, Mr. President. Hey, sir, listen up. Look, I know you're tired. I'm tired too, but I'm going to need you to focus for a minute. I want to tell you about AG1 by Athletic Greens. I think it could really help you with your diet. AG1 is the category leading superfood product that takes all of your daily nutritional needs and sticks them all into a single drink. That way, if you're busy doing whatever it is you do, you don't have to also worry about eating right. And let's be honest, it really doesn't seem
Starting point is 00:17:00 like you're eating right, Mr. President. Are you still listening? Hey, sir, ears over here. We're all busy and tired, which is why just one tasty scoop of AG1 contains 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food sourced ingredients. All your nutritional needs in one place.
Starting point is 00:17:17 AG1 contains a multivitamin, multi-mineral blend of high quality ingredients designed to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet. It's good for every lifestyle, like your vegans and your Ketos and your Paleos, and it supports energy and gut health. You need that gut health, sir. Trust me. So to make it easy on you, Athletic Greens is going to give you an immune-supporting free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase if you visit athleticgreens.com slash more news today.
Starting point is 00:17:49 Again, simply visit athleticgreens.com slash more news to take control of your health and give AG1 a try. Okay, thanks for listening. I know that was hard for you. Sir. Katie, here was some science for you. Did you know that without your skin, all of your organs would violently unfurl like a pop tent? That's why humans explode whenever they get a paper cut.
Starting point is 00:18:14 Our skin is important. It's the canvas in which order is painted, the thin line between order and chaos. And so you should treat your skin right with Thrive Cosmetics. They offer high-performance beauty and skincare products made with 100% vegan and cruelty-free ingredients because we want our skin to be healthy
Starting point is 00:18:34 and look good. And that's why they offer products like their Liquid Lash Extensions Mascara that gives the look of lash extensions without glue or expensive salon trips. It's true, folks. It's true. You can't see my face right now, but my eyelashes look like spider legs.
Starting point is 00:18:50 Also, there's a liquid balm lip treatment that gives you a glossy look while also replenishing moisture, unlike most lip glosses, which just seem like you've stuck your face in a pot of jelly. Did you know that moisture helps the skin not explode? As opposed to jelly. I haven't even told you about the best part. You see, kiddo, for every product purchase, Thrive donates to over 300 partners across the country that support causes like educational advancement or the LGBTQ community or racial and social justice. You see, it's a cause. As in C-A-U-S-E medics.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Get it? I mean, you should get it. I literally spelled it out. And right now you can get 15% off your first order when you visit thrivecosmetics.com slash more news. That's Thrive Cosmetics C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S dot com slash more news for 15% off your first order. Treat your organ blown the right way. Tell me about this Donald Trump guy. I've heard very little about him. You referenced some stuff about him, primarily that he's going to jail, which we know for a fact is going to happen. Right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Absolutely. to jail, which we know for a fact is going to happen. Right, absolutely. No, we were off last week, and it's been a few weeks, and the severity of Trump's, all the crimes he's doing involving classified material is worse than we thought, or maybe about as bad as we thought, because I think we thought it was pretty bad. It's about as bad as I thought. We thought it was pretty bad. So there's now evidence that Trump's team did not turn over sensitive documents, even after receiving a subpoena and saying that they had conducted a diligent search. See, that's the evidence to me. They said they didn't do it. Yeah. The Justice Department released a photo of some of the documents they found. They spread the
Starting point is 00:20:40 documents out on the ground so you can get a sense of the breadth of their, you know, there's a bunch of documents labeled top secret, some labeled secret because top secret is more secret than secret can i just interject real quick yeah when i saw this i like we're gonna get to this conversation about staging but as a note to our government officials like the way that this is is is so clearly flagged as top secret all of these documents feels like a cartoon and makes me want to open them more like that top secret thing does not make me does not tell me to stay away it's like oh yeah if you saw that on a desk you'd be like i'd be like let me open this up it can't possibly actually be top secret sorry jonathan please continue the the real funny thing about the last 24 hours is that Trump's defense has relied on, I guess, this idea that that's how the FBI found the documents, which was which no one said, which we know is not the case. And so he I don't know if you want me to read this truth social thing or play his clip on.
Starting point is 00:21:42 I would love to hear the clip. I would like to hear the clip because I haven't heard it yet. I didn't know he called in anywhere. A lot of people have seen the truth. Now let's hear the clip. They've seen the truth. I was like, wait, what are you talking? You're talking about the website.
Starting point is 00:21:55 You're going to have to adjust to that. Because they call tweets truth. All right. All of his statements are now truth. Just by branding. A lot of people think that when you walk into my office, I have confidential documents or whatever it may be, all declassified. But I had confidential documents spread out all over my far floor. And like a slob, like I'm sitting there reading these documents all day long or somebody else would be.
Starting point is 00:22:21 It's so it's so dishonest when you look at it. And so people were concerned because they said, gee, you know, that's a strange scene. You look at the floor and you see documents, right? They have cover sheets of documents. No, they put them there, Jen. And they put them there in a messy fashion. And then they took a picture and they released it to the public. And this is what we're dealing with with these people.
Starting point is 00:22:45 I honestly, I... First of all, he said G, which I just love. I love the use of G. I just love this. I really do. Because, so I thought that it didn't even occur to me that they found them that way, because that wouldn't make any sense, obviously. No, of course not.
Starting point is 00:23:04 It is funny because i have heard from friends very intelligent friends of mine who assumed that they found them that way really so i really don't think it's totally like i i'm sure he saw that one place at one time and has now said people are calling him wondering if he's a slob which is not happening but it is funny like to me it was so clearly they're trying to get a picture in mar-a-lago in the actual space so that it's not like you demonstrate you spread them out you take pictures of the file like yeah and they can't like take it back and take a picture there because then all of his supporters would say they those those documents were never at mar-a-lago you have to do it right there right exactly yes
Starting point is 00:23:45 exactly i feel like this is pretty standard for you know searching you're documenting what you're finding and whatnot like it's such a funny thing to like obsess over like no offense to your friends who thought no they found him like that but like he's such a weird little alien freak like the way his brain works is like he's a like no no you're doing crimes right now and they're taking pictures couldn't be less relevant or important bottom of your list is that people think you might be a slob also he probably is a slob oh yeah if you so he had a he had a vlog back in the day before he ran for president the most recent time. The first time.
Starting point is 00:24:26 The first time. It was after when he was like a reform party or something like that. And he had a vlog and he would do it every other day. And he would do like reviews for the Dark Knight Rises. He would talk about how Obama's not born in the United States. A wide range of topics. And he's a mess. His office is... He is a slob.
Starting point is 00:24:46 Okay. So as a, someone who's also a mess, this is why I would never run for president. There are lots of reasons I would never run for president. One of them is that a hundred million percent, I would accidentally bring home top secret documents because I know myself. That is the kind of person I am. And I, and, and so like, one thing i find very funny about this is that it's like know your limits you know know your limits if you're gonna accidentally bring home the documents like you know you know
Starting point is 00:25:15 your patterns you know your mistakes don't run for president don't run for president i could i could see myself not you know a note that should be archived i ends up in the bottom of my purse covered in chocolate like that's the kind of president i might be but i don't know that i would i don't think i could ever accidentally bring home a box of top secret documents josie i have to point out that if you take home these documents you're doing it because you're gonna read them and like do some work at home right which i'm i'm gonna pause it that's not why he did it i'm gonna pause it that i have so many things to pause it i have a lot of just in fairness to you okay i have so many questions about top secret documents one of them is yeah it's a really dumb question
Starting point is 00:25:56 are you guys ready i'm so ready why not just copy those documents and take home the copies i do not understand why we are operating in this pre technology assessment i might have an answer for you okay because i again he's like a weird alien man right and i think the way his brain works is it's not it doesn't count if they're photocopies right like he's not he's not taking these home because he's like oh i'm gonna read these he's not gonna read them they're a demonstration of his position and his power and like what he what he did so you're saying that owning them is the end game for him not he wants to be able to be like and selling them to whoever i don't i mean maybe like he is a silly man but like it feels like he's like i want to have parties at mar-a-lago and my friend Jerry, who owns a bunch of car washes.
Starting point is 00:26:48 Like, I want to be able to show him the top secret documents. Right. And a photocopy isn't going to do it. Yeah. When Phil Mickelson comes by, I want him to see, oh, look at these CIA informants we have overseas. Pretty cool, huh? Exactly. So we should get to that, talking about that. What was in these documents, Jonathan? These messy documents. about that, what was in these documents, Jonathan.
Starting point is 00:27:05 These messy documents. Well, not what was in these documents, but a lot of this. Yeah, so there's codes on these. There's designations on them. And so people who know stuff about that have been saying what could be in there. So there's a designation, HCSP. And that basically is dealing with human intelligence sources overseas. And it's information that in the wrong hands, this is from Gizmodo, quote, could put the life or lives of confidential sources at risk. And that really makes you think
Starting point is 00:27:38 more about that. Not that I know it's connected, but there were these New York Times articles in October 2021 about the CIA saying, hey, we've lost dozens of informants recently, strangely. And not to Havana syndrome. No, not to Havana syndrome. First of all, I missed that whole news break. We didn't think it could be connected to the guy who tried to overthrow the government 10 months ago we just thought it was also there's just so much all the time happening yeah they're it's they're doing dangerous things or something like that like okay yeah so it's like the timeline on this is really weird i mean i don't know does anyone really believe that he like was planning this and
Starting point is 00:28:21 selling information to the saudis or the r or anything. It's pretty far fetched. Yes and no. Right. Maybe not yet. Like the problem with someone like him having classified documents is like he just has to get mad at the right person at the right moment. And, you know, leave them unintended next to his fake time man of the year magazine cover.
Starting point is 00:28:41 He would never do that. They were safely neatly put away in boxes. Right. In a closet like the drink closet. Right. I don't know that he actively. It's hard. year magazine cover he would never do that they were safely neatly put away in boxes right in a closet like the drink closet right i don't know that he actively it's hard the problem with donald trump is that literally anything could be true it could be a trophy it could be insurance it could be an active deal he could use it to wipe his butt i don't know but like it he doesn't probably know he's just like this i'm gonna grab him it's just yeah it is hard it's just hard to say for sure either way because it is one of those
Starting point is 00:29:13 like far-fetched kind of like all right you're like taking a lot of things and like putting together because you want him to be a criminal so you go to jail right or prison but like he also is this weird alien man who does things for random weird personal ego reasons that have nothing to do with anything insidious beyond again his like personal ego so it's just like maybe he's driven entirely by emotion and by you know this feeling of being the ultimate underdog when he, you know, and this. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. He's like constantly victimizing himself. It's really hard. I mean, it's hard to.
Starting point is 00:29:55 Yeah. It's been kind of interesting. God, I remember in 2000, all the years run together now, some year before when the Mueller investigation started and I was like, my husband was like, all these years you've been saying you wanted people to talk about prosecutors more and now they are. And I was like, no, was like, all these years you've been saying you wanted people to talk about prosecutors more. Now they are. And I was like, no, this isn't what I meant. I did it. Not this. Can I make a wish again? Because that was not what I wanted.
Starting point is 00:30:12 You didn't want the, in Mueller we trust bumper sticker. Yeah, I didn't. Don't put this on me. Yeah. I wasn't talking about how it's Mueller time. I'm talking about other things. It wasn't about how it's Mueller time. I'm like, okay, if we're not marching for Jeff Sessions in Times Square.
Starting point is 00:30:23 It just felt very like, if I turn on cable television and see one more prosecutor. I might actually jump out the window sort of situation. I'm kind of feeling that same way about this FBI stuff because I'm like, oh, but the FBI is like, you know, there's a lot of the special master conversation, for example, about Trump. I'm like, yeah, actually, like they should get a special master conversation for example about trump i'm like yeah actually like they should get a special master like you actually should have the third party deciding whether or not the government can see something before the government sees it and you know you're like it just is so all of my principles are being you have to argue you're like theoretically you want that but also it's him but yeah if we're going to be
Starting point is 00:31:05 talking about fairness then yes let's do the but it's oh this guy yeah this guy is like ruined people like just the past like five six years or whatever it's like the slow turn to like the cia is awesome the fbi is awesome every single government agency is awesome and incredible because maybe they'll take down this one guy we hate. Right. And also this sort of like whatever means they take to get there, the ends are worth it. You know, there are situations in which maybe that's true in that isolated situation, right? It's more like to me, I mean, it's very interesting now. Donald Trump is a private citizen now. And like there is a, he's not a private citizen per se.
Starting point is 00:31:43 I think of him as part of the state. But like technically he's a private citizen. What that challenges in my own politics, which is sort of like you fight law enforcement no matter how bad the guy is, gets very complicated when the guy is being fought because he used to be part of the state. Like, you know, by definition, he's not he's not but yeah but but he kind of is but he kind of is but you got to take your documents to prove it so yeah yeah exactly i'm like once again i don't have any of those i think right i don't know any president so like i hope not if they asked for it back you would have given the documents back and not lied about holding on to the presumed.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Or at least don't copy them and kept them. Get the originals. Get the originals. Yeah. Some other. It is, of course, very rich to even be having this conversation knowing that the backdrop of Donald Trump getting elected in the first place was lock her up in hillary clinton's emails and the investigation into her computer and all that bullshit and yet and yet here we are
Starting point is 00:32:55 having yeah an objectively an objectively far worse offense right it's very funny but it's different because hillary clinton is eternally i mean it's like it was about that right but it also wasn't because what it really was about was people thinking the roles don't apply to them and you know and like we've never played by the rules asking why they have to play by the rules if she doesn't play by the rules right and the truth is that like yeah you know yeah donald trump controlled all three bodies of government, essentially, and people still talked about the deep state. There is a real sense from his people that there is no way in which he can be powerful enough to be accountable. And there is no way that the other side can be not powerful enough to not be accountable
Starting point is 00:33:46 and there's two like if that's your operating principle that you know what can you do with that like it's just self it's just self-fulfilling it's like no matter what he does he's fighting the deep state yeah no matter what the deep state does perfectly poised to make anything he wants true true that's why like i mean even like we're not gonna get too much into this probably but like the biden's like it's like uh what quasi fascism i figure we call the semi-fascist we are gonna get into that i think oh good uh but like it's that right it's like i'm constantly the victim and the only solution is to give me all the power and i'm gonna purge everybody and then finally the all the bad people
Starting point is 00:34:26 will be gone but even then it's like you're you're it's a constant purging uh it doesn't stop because if it does stop then that narrative falls apart and you can no longer continue in that way and because we're at risk there we we can break the rules and because because, you know, there's, it's just, it's really the psychology. I mean, we talk about racism and sexism and classism, and that's all true. But there's a deeper, like, psychology that drives, I think, this political moment kind of more broadly. Kind of on both sides sometimes sometimes but especially on the right where it's like i can't penetrate this because the only principle you're living by is i'm right or that i'm meeting them right like if that's sort of like the only like if that's the only
Starting point is 00:35:17 conclusion that can be drawn like how can we talk to you yeah well that's the problem isn't it and like in you so because it's they're operate it's operating from like i'm right and that's the reality like they're just it's you can't have two completely different realities like talk to each other that's it it doesn't it just doesn't work and it will continue to not work i guess yeah we have to take a real quick break. Can't wait. Don't have to. You don't have to.
Starting point is 00:35:47 Because we have to now, yeah. It's going to be now. But then we'll be back for even more news. Ooh, that's the name of the show. What's up, my fresh stallions? Did somebody say bread? No, I said fresh, not bread. And speaking of bread, do you like it? Bread, I mean. Did someone say bread? No, I said fresh, not bread. And speaking of bread, do you like it? Bread I mean. Did
Starting point is 00:36:08 someone say bread? Why, it just so happens that Wildgrain will deliver bread right to your door. Did someone say Wildgrain? Why, it just so happens that Wildgrain is the first bake from frozen box for artisanal bread. You love bread and rolls and pastries, right? Hey, did someone say rolls? Why, it just so happens that Wildgrain also delivers rolls and pastries and even handmade pastas. Every item bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less. We're talking bread, baby! Some really good bread made using a slow fermentation process that makes it healthier and taste better.
Starting point is 00:36:45 Did someone say made? Why it just so happens that Wildgrain's bread is made from clean ingredients like unbleached and non-GMO flour. And for every new member, Wildgrain donate six meals to the greater Boston food bank. Oh my God, did someone say member? You could be a member. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box
Starting point is 00:37:07 plus free croissant in every box when you go to wildgrain.com slash more news to start your subscription. Yes, you heard me. Free croissant in every box! And $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com slash more news. That's wildgrain.com slash more news.
Starting point is 00:37:27 Or you can use promo code more news at checkout. Bread. It's what somebody said. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of training birds and squirrels to gather forest nutrients and smear them into my head every time I want healthy hair. Most of the time they just poop on me. But now there's Proz. Proz makes custom hair care products based on a personal consultation. Everything gets customized from shampoo to supplements so you can keep your specific hair healthy. All you have to do is take their online quiz to determine what your hair needs the most. For example, if you spend a lot of time around diseased animals,
Starting point is 00:38:05 you might want some red algae extract in your conditioner. That'll detoxify and protect your hair from any pollutants. Or maybe your hair keeps getting pulled out by rodents. Well, you might want some horsetail extract to enhance your hair growth and thickness. Also, speaking of nature stuff, all of Proz's ingredients are sustainably sourced and cruelty-free.
Starting point is 00:38:28 You know, if you're into that. They're also a carbon-neutral certified company. Neat. So maybe you should try it out. That's an option for you. No reason not to, because if you're not 100% satisfied, then Proz will refund your products, no questions asked. So try it.
Starting point is 00:38:44 Take your free in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today. Go to pros.com slash more news. That's P-R-O-S-E dot com slash more news for your free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off. Woo-wee! And we are back as promised For even more news
Starting point is 00:39:06 How about that How about that Jonathan Should we talk about Biden a little bit Yeah we talked enough about Trump Let's talk about the other guy Yeah we got a new guy Well we didn't record last week And so we didn't get to talk about
Starting point is 00:39:21 The Biden student loan forgiveness Plan There were like days of discourse About this and back and forth And so we didn't get to talk about the Biden student loan forgiveness plan there. There was like days of discourse about this and back and forth with conservatives. Maybe I'm just talking about the Twitter discourse about like people on the right criticizing it and then people saying you took a PPP loan and then them being like what everyone eventually settled on was like no these loans that we took and got forgiven are good and the ones that students took are not good and you know we got we got ted cruz colin you know those predatory students trying to take advantage of our right flawless banking system also like i because well i think part of the argument is that like well the pvp loans were like it was part of the agreement was they'll be forgiven if we use it for X and Y and so on and so forth.
Starting point is 00:40:10 Was that part of the agreement? Because I feel like that was not really clear for a really long time. They were like, that's great. But I I don't feel like I didn't realize that that was like part of it. Yeah. Up top originally. But maybe it was. It was like part of it or uh yeah up top originally but maybe it was it was like 75 had to go to employees 25 could go to like you the business owner as an employee or
Starting point is 00:40:32 like administrative costs or whatever math is so fucked and it might be my bad memory yeah but also it's just like one of the things about it was so it's so, I don't know, frustrating, funny, whatever. But like a lot of these people are like the Ben Shapiro's and the Steven Crowder type folks who took the loans and are like, yeah, you got your underwater lesbian basket weaving degree or whatever it is. And like, first of all, you very vocally rejected the idea of like participating in like mask wearing lockdowns any sort of precautions also your job is online content you can do that from your bed you didn't need that right like it's like aside from all the stuff they're arguing like what's this about
Starting point is 00:41:19 valid loan they didn't need it at all and i just think it's silly that they're even like part of this conversation because like you can like you wear your pajamas and do your job uh we do sometimes you do sometimes i find the discourse around it to be so disingenuous and i'm like yeah i like hate ben shapiro with the like fire of a thousand suns, but also, of course, if the government's offering you money to keep the economy afloat because there's an unprecedented pandemic, you should take it because that's good for the economy. And this idea that those loans, free money can be good for the economy when it's that, but it can't possibly be good for the economy when it's this other thing is just, I'm like, how are you squaring that?
Starting point is 00:42:09 Like, you know, it's so often that I feel like Republicans have like rhetorical upper hand because their arguments are so simple and people like simple things. But this one, I'm like, this is really the fight you guys want to fight. Like it just doesn't,
Starting point is 00:42:23 it's, it doesn't seem to catch on either i think to what you're talking about like nobody's like yeah you're right right here's what's happening the reality of what's happening is that people across the board are feeling the effects of fucking everything you know republicans democrats alike and you know conservatives kids are have also been strapped with debt they can't pay off and it's a a problem it's it's a problem that has not been fixed so this argument of like well but they agreed to pay it back they're 17 years old they're 17 years old and we are signing them up we are the we are the guilty conscience those are still babies i'm sorry in our world and
Starting point is 00:43:04 everything you're still learning and we don't teach credit. We don't teach money management. We do our best to obfuscate it so that people just go along with the flow. And so actually, we're the creeps for allowing our kids to enter into this arrangement that is so unjust and unfair and and devastating because they're entering a job market where they don't have job opportunities and I mean obviously I could go on and on about this topic but it's just like they're they're talking they just want a headline they want a viral tweet they want something they want to they want to be able to use the word entitled like they want but you know it is so interesting because me, they're so I took out loans for grad school. I took out. I don't remember how much, but I owe literally about three hundred thousand dollars right now. And that's much more money than I took out. And that has had the like opposite effect of making me doesn't make me like, I mean, at some point, it kind of almost stopped being an albatross around my neck because it's so much money.
Starting point is 00:44:11 Like, it's like it's almost like if someone tells me I owe them three million dollars right now, like, OK, like I'm never going to have three million dollars. Like, what do you want from me? Right. Like, I'm not going to take the twenty dollars I save over here and put it towards my student loans because that is the epitome of a drop in the bucket, drop in the pool, drop in the lake or the ocean. That $20 is more served for you going to the grocery store than paying off a fraction of your interest. Or trying to pay for my kids to go to college. college like yeah when you think about how this money what this money is doing to not just me put me aside like the economy generally like what it stops me from doing what it like you know what like how it limits just our ability to you know you talk about a party that cares about financial growth the infinite financial growth like this this is to me, just so
Starting point is 00:45:07 illogical and that we know exactly who's benefiting from this. And it's, you know, whoever's charging me $9 gazillion of interest every 20 seconds, right? It's not like it's, this isn't taxes. This isn't, this is just money going. No, it doesn't go. Harvard already got that money and they didn't need it anyway right like all of the interested parties are are have been satisfied why why do we you know it's almost like why are we saying this really shitty relationship it's like telling your friend to get out of like yeah like i'm like that's the conversation we need to have you know well because also like a lot of the stuff you're saying i feel like a lot of the people who are like oh
Starting point is 00:45:43 you're entitled like loan forgiveness all this kind of stuff would still say those things about like universities and predatory loans and like oh yeah college is a scam like all this kind of stuff yet they're still really mad right that there's any sort of yeah yeah no i was just gonna say i think it's it's true college is too expensive it's true that like we don't train people we don't give people the tools they need to know what kind of financial situation they're getting themselves into and they take out two hundred thousand dollars of loans at 17 like you said that's crazy right it's true that like we rely on college way too much to create opportunity when we should like
Starting point is 00:46:21 have a more robust and varied like economic base all this stuff is true it's just irrelevant to the loans question like i'm like right yeah but that's why i guess what during this conversation what to me had felt frustrating it's like obviously this is a huge deal for everybody it affects and it's important and good and also what about everybody else that's going to college and fine i know that they're capping interest rates and stuff but like it's still too expensive and it is a problem and our you know and nobody's having that conversation so there's all this back and forth about whether or not the ten to twenty thousand dollars dollars of forgiven debt is equitable to everybody and yet we still are signing kids up for for like this situation what next what yeah yeah I mean and
Starting point is 00:47:16 it's again I I think some of this goes back to our values right like what do we see college as a mechanism for like why how do we why is it okay that these universities sit on billions and billions of dollars? Take away the research function, take away like the actual money going to something valuable. Like, why, why have we built, why have we built this? Why did we build it like this? You know, it always is like, just really hard to fix it this way. Right. Because oftentimes also like things like that, where it's like, well, how do, why did we build it like this really hard to fix it this way. Right.
Starting point is 00:47:45 Because oftentimes also like things like that where it's like, well, how do why do we build it like this? Why is it like this now? It's oftentimes not intended to. It's intended to like solve another problem. Oh, we don't want this to happen. So we'll do this and this and this and this. And then that creates this other sort of beast. Also, I feel like I just feel like none of these people who are complaining
Starting point is 00:48:05 about it actually i mean i know this they don't care and they're just sort of grasping for an argument because the main thing they seem to be saying is that like well you decided to take out this loan to do this thing and so you have to pay it back and like i would be curious to see what they would scramble for if say like medical debt was forgiven because people don't choose to get sick. And that like that just removes their entire premise for this this argument. So, like, are you against that? Right. Because people don't make that choice.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Right. And that's like burying people as well. Yeah. I mean, I we got a bill yesterday. My daughter had surgery in december so what is that what month is it like what 10 months ago or something yeah yeah and she we've been getting the bills ever since and you pay 100 here and you pay 200 or 800 and you're like what is this bill for but you know like and then we got one yesterday for $11,000. And when my husband called Cigna to have a conversation with them about it, they're like, oh, it had already gone to collections.
Starting point is 00:49:13 So we never got a notification of this bill. I would be likely to have lost that notification, but my husband would not have. So I know we didn't get it because he would have definitely kept it. You would have left it with the secret documents that you would not my my those bills are the secret documents he knows where our bills are um but you know he just just the whole fact that these systems are constructed in the most illogical difficult like painful way for everybody across the political spectrum except the collections agency and the insurance company. Literally, it's like they're like, well, you didn't bring our insurance card to the hospital. It's like, of course we did. And you know that. And if it would benefit you,
Starting point is 00:49:57 you would know that. Exactly. We have allowed these systems to be built in that like if we were if we were to raise it to the ground and start over none of us would be like no this way makes sense nobody ben shapiro wouldn't say that we wouldn't say that biden wouldn't say nobody would say that because it doesn't feel like everything in this country every like subsect every the housing insurance schooling all of it is like i mean this is just what everybody else has already said but it's like you've got you're putting a bandage or trying to like heal your broken leg without setting the bone and then like expect it to still function and right now you're walking around like
Starting point is 00:50:37 on a hobble you're like what do you need what do you need a cast for yeah like my knees backwards now right okay i'll keep going yeah i mean like yeah like school funded by property taxes and things like that it's like well then right so then if you're poor your school sucks what do you like what are we doing nobody would decide you're like what you're saying like nobody would decide to do that now if we were like we need a school system you know what we should do make these areas now we would never even allow can you imagine embedding public school right now it just never happens like a library or something exactly totally i mean i was thinking the same thing earlier this week speaking of news um that gavin newsom like uh vetoed the bill that
Starting point is 00:51:17 would have created overdose prevention sites um in in oakland and san francisco LA. And it's like, you know, in a state where 7,000 people last year died of opioid overdoses, 100,000 people across the country, across, again, across the political spectrum, across age, across class. Like, here is something that actually works and we know it works.
Starting point is 00:51:42 And like, how can it possibly be morally or politically acceptable to say no to that it just doesn't like it's like you know the and there's it was like all the news articles like well it was gonna hurt his re-election it's like do you hear yourself like that's what we got a hundred thousand people are dying and like that just feels so bananas to me. Also, I bet it would help his reelection if he did something good that helped people. Right. But it'll be twisted. But, you know, I have seen people say like, this hasn't been studied. We need to do this.
Starting point is 00:52:14 But you knew it. Right. And like it has been studied. That's the point is that we have data to show that this works. That this is an effective, that this is not about promoting drug use. It's about helping people. And it works and nobody has ever died at one of these sites ever in the history of time and their work across the country and, you know, across the world.
Starting point is 00:52:35 And the data says, I mean, it's just so, I mean, but the true thing is like, we just don't like it. It feels icky. It feels uncomfortable. And it's like, that's just not i get it like debt i get why like i get boomers being like i had to pay my debts like why don't they it's like yeah i get that you feel that way is that like an actual like way to think about policy ever like that should not even be on the table also it doesn't matter right that you paid your debt but what about now your debt is different than our
Starting point is 00:53:05 like that's just not that can't be right like an acceptable like reason to not do something that's good like we should like as a as a world like the fact that that is considered a valid political argument oh yeah no it's just because i made a mistake doesn't mean the rest everybody else needs to make the same mistake just the way i made a mistake but just like just because things were away like it's like this is very broad i'll keep it like it's like the founding fathers getting together and like we gotta like we gotta do a new country and then like jefferson's like well actually um i like we used to have like kings and stuff so like it would be unfair to anybody else if we stopped doing that it's like
Starting point is 00:53:50 well how do you like move forward we terrible analogy so crazy i mean no it's true it's like being like yeah we should keep jim crow because all the other people had to do jim crow exactly yes because this is the entire point of a society is that you're supposed to fix what got fucked up evolve right for people in the future or your children or you when you're older like it's all this inability to the idea that like i just don't like it is or it's not good for my numbers is a considered a legitimate political excuse is so crazy like i blame cable news but who knows it could be anything but i'm just like this feels a lot of things and this is one of them yeah it's a big one for sure
Starting point is 00:54:36 so yeah i wanted to ask everyone here what they think about like the modern state of Joe Biden, because he's had what, you know, comparatively has been a really good month for him. I think we would think so because they passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which was way more than we thought we would get. We got student debt forgiveness. He attempted to strengthen DACA, although a lot of that's still up in the air, and then referred to the MAGA movement as semi-fascism and made fun of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Starting point is 00:55:08 So I kind of wanted to ask everyone if this is like part of a new Brandon or if it's like, no, we're same old Brandon. Well, it feels very strategic for midterms. He definitely got a new social media person, and that's helping him a lot, getting stuff. Is this new brandon i think it's probably the same old brandon i don't know yeah he's the same old brandon he's always been i think i mean because it's always gonna be like this right he's he's sort of uh he's calibrating he knows the midterms are coming up and they've got to do stuff it's like uh uh
Starting point is 00:55:44 even that one uh joe mansion quote talking about i think uh the inflation reduction act was like oh like uh i could come in and like want like a grand slam right at the at the in the last inning or something like that like he knows like yeah like midterms is coming up you do all these things but also he's like a sleepy man and he's you know he's doing his thing and he, his little, like his Marjorie Taylor green comment and some of the, like, I guess the quote unquote meaner things he said. We saw that in the primaries.
Starting point is 00:56:11 It was just directed at voters who were like criticizing him and he's challenging, challenging the pushup contests. But like we got that, like after the, after dark Brandon week or whatever, he gave a speech about how we have to fund the police um and very aggressively funding the police and using the argument
Starting point is 00:56:31 on why we should defund them to make the argument that we should fund them uh which was classic brandon so i think it's always going to be sort of like this mix of like oh yeah that's pretty good oh yeah he's still the same guy who like you know wrote the crime but like all the all the things that we know about him um he's just also knows that mag is a bit fascist and uh we gotta we gotta win the term wasn't he talking about semi-assault saying i've done this before people and you're like yeah the crime bill um right do we remember yeah it's funny i've been looking at death stuff about the death penalty in the late 80s and it's interesting to see joe biden on the defensive for being too liberal right like i feel
Starting point is 00:57:19 like sometimes the political context of the crime bill was not just that people were super predatoring but it was that like the whole Democratic Party had been accused of being too soft on crime. Yeah, they were soft on crime. They had to beef it up. Yeah. You know, I think it I think that like, God forbid we ever learn anything from Donald Trump. But there is something to be said for like going for it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:41 And there is something to be said for the fact that we spent our, you know, the left spent four years feeling like absolute shit but the right felt great for four years and that was his base and those were his people and the feeling of like someone is you know gonna go full steam ahead no matter what is such a like is a galvanizing feeling at a time when i think people feel just like the general sense that we all feel of like yeah and unpredictability and like nothing is going to happen and like everyone's asleep at the wheel yeah like it's so good to not to to like i'm like i hope biden feels right now like wow people are proud like me think this is good. And yeah, it was like, yeah, it's it's I agree with everything you're saying. And like for the first two years of Biden's Brandon presidency, like, well, at least Donald Trump says what he wants.
Starting point is 00:58:54 And if, you know, I've said that on this show before, if it had been reversed and Joe Manchin was holding up Donald Trump's agenda, his Twitter would be about that, you know, and coming for better or for worse. But yes, he goes for it. And it's been very frustrating to have two whole years of banging our head against a wall. And I am thrilled that there has been some movement. I have to qualify that by saying like, none of it is as much as I would want, or I think that we need. And I do feel nervous because whenever there's a big push like this, then maybe, maybe that's as far as you get, you know, because they say we just did this thing or right. They're not going to revisit it. So it feels when i say it feels strategic and purposeful because it does that we've waited this long and now we're leading up to midterms and we're having all this stuff not to say that i don't want it and i don't want it to keep continuing but there's over the past few years of feeling let down over and over and over again i feel jaded yeah and i'm ready for him to keep keep it going. And I'm really bolstered by the fact that the midterms are maybe not as devastating as we feared.
Starting point is 00:59:49 And that's perhaps the opposite, a knock on wood and everything. And and it is a little funny to look at the fact that the Republicans stepping on rakes left and right on issues that are wildly popular across the board are helping us. on issues that are wildly popular across the board are helping us and that's great but it's not like to me dark brandon is our hero it's like dark brandon is coming out finally to do the thing i think it also did the bare minimum i mean because he i mean it had been it had been like months like every month since he like became the president there was like an article like brandon uh sorry the b Biden administration is considering how to forgive $10,000 of debt. Every month there was a new story about that for like two years. And it's like, well, how much do you need to consider this?
Starting point is 01:00:33 You promised you'd do it. Like it is very strategic. It also feels scary, I think, because I had resigned myself to losing in the midterms, like hardcore. Like I was like this, like I need to not even get emotionally invested in the midterms like hardcore like I was like this like I need to not even get emotionally invested in the midterms because A these really aren't my people anyway and then B
Starting point is 01:00:51 like but if they lose it's going to be devastating and now I'm because I have a little bit of hope it feels so much scarier in a weird way where I'm like if we fuck this up right after Ro after debt after like we just see this like if if it feels I'm not I hope we win I think it's really possible we win I also
Starting point is 01:01:15 feel like it's such a hard time to read the mood the political mood of people for example I see a lot of moms, primarily like white, middle to upper class moms with graduate degrees turning way right because of masks and vaccines for kids. And it's a and I'm like, what are you guys going to I don't know where this like, I just don't. there are all these sort of factions of our political structure that are feel unpredictable right now in a way that like is even more reason to just like it's like go for it like who knows if this is going to help you or not just say yeah exactly because you don't know what issue is going to like happen i mean even if because also he's the president right and so many people do like in like these like establishment like the party like support him um if he came out tomorrow and was like actually medicare for all is a good idea and here's why it would help this it would help you and do this it would do this and he's like and he actually like even if he was pretending
Starting point is 01:02:16 passionately made the argument the entire party would get behind it except for like joe mansion and a couple other others but like it's that and i'm not saying like make that swing although yes i am but like just do do whatever um because also it's september well it's now or never anything can happen in a month two months um there's just no way to know like it's just kind of wow that health care reform like fundamental health care reform isn't a message that these people are screaming all the time even if they don't mean it like i'm like again it's it's everybody across the spectrum has medical debt or know someone who does or has had to talk to insurance this week or has had to worry about it right and so like why are you just not doing
Starting point is 01:03:01 the big things like the big things matter? It's one of the main like issues that voters care about. Every cycle, every for everybody, every cycle. It's it's a slam dunk. And again, conservatives have. Unbelievable amount of medical debt as well. They are also struggling to pay for their health insurance They all know everybody knows that this
Starting point is 01:03:28 Is a problem Everybody knows that I think that this is the time I don't think I know that this is the Time but we don't See any movement the 90s was also the time I don't even think that like That it would be socialism
Starting point is 01:03:44 Stuff scares people anymore the way it was like 15 years ago or something it's not it's like a it's it's not a top of mind thing it's not like a concrete thing but it is concrete of like the benefits that would be seen across the board and look that like there is this populist streak on the right that's like kind of bullshit but definitely trying to mobilize working class people against the quote unquote elite. And like, it's like they this might I mean, no one would actually support it out loud. But it's one of those things where I'm like, begrudgingly, you guys might be like, this is good. Right. There's only so many times Marco Rubio can tell you.
Starting point is 01:04:21 Even if it doesn't exclude certain people. There's only so many times that these people can tell you, actually, we shouldn't take the federal government's money to help you pay your medical bills before you're like, wait a second. Right. Start over? Yeah. But what if I did do that?
Starting point is 01:04:38 You're offering what now? Okay, Jonathan. We're reaching that time. Let's wrap up with something a little fun. A little silly. It's certainly silly. Yeah, I guess I'll just make everyone listen to a few seconds of this. A few seconds.
Starting point is 01:04:57 Timcast song. We don't need much. did you know you left me there staring at the heartache in my soul as i fell to pieces and to the one you're leaving for there's only one thing i want you to know What? I mean, I think I have to. Did he rhyme pieces with peace here? What? Yeah, I can't believe it. Doesn't he know what day it is?
Starting point is 01:05:35 Can't do that. We don't need to go back and hear it again. Oh, that's bad. It's a long song, too. It's too long. Okay. Okay. it's a long song too so it's too long okay there okay because there's a part in the song that like all right now the song starts the band like does a big hit and it's like and all the
Starting point is 01:05:52 instruments come in and it like it like the intensity rises like all right now it's like an emo song it takes like two and a half minutes it is but like it takes like two and a half minutes to get to like this song and i just like wanted to be able to be in the room like tim cut a minute like it's so boring i know that it's coming i know you're building up to this thing it's you do like two and a half verses very self-indulgent it's very very self-important and well the band is called tim cast so tim cast the name of his podcast right well if you only if you have one good idea i guess you just you know ride that yeah yeah one really really great idea really great idea really excellent there isn't this does present a question yeah which is why is the right so bad at art
Starting point is 01:06:40 yeah it's a good question we've talked about this a lot uh we don't know the answer what's going on art comedy muse all of it it just feels like there is the best artist on the right is that guy who does the portraits of like donald trump crying on the bench like you know like does van morrison count now because he became an anti-vaxxer That one's tough but maybe No Is Eric Clapton count? I think no I don't know what kind of music Van Morrison is writing now
Starting point is 01:07:15 But the good stuff predates this stuff By several decades You know it's hard to pinpoint But I think that good art requires Empathy Sense of humor All sorts of things. Yeah, openness and things like that. Yeah, it's interesting because there's also this thing of like, so I'm thinking about like musicians in particular and the like stereotype of famous musicians as being kind of self-important and like whatever this idea that like i just am
Starting point is 01:07:47 i would love to sort of study the brain of like why can't you guys make a good song like like there's good like christian music out there i mean that there's not a ton i like but like i went to christian camp there was like a few hits i feel like there's three and then there's like thousand versions of those three songs yeah yeah totally but like you know it's like why can't you guys like do a good why don't what's why aren't you funny why aren't you artistic what's where's your personality yeah um because a lot of it's like cultivated too like he's i mean at least this timcast thing especially is like you just want to be this guy like it's it's so performative to the point that it's completely empty right there's one line and it's like staring at the heart staring at the heartache in your soul
Starting point is 01:08:34 as your heart fell to pieces like that is like that's so i think the megan marco interview and your diagnosis of emo i mean it is it's from every we were also looking at what i presume is the music video yeah and it's it is very emo very very emo and it's the uh it's the soundtrack to like the vampire diaries it's the most um sensitive people in politics are the people on the right it seems a lot of the times they're upset they're getting angry about everything and this is just case like yeah obsessing he's already like it was he's done a few tweets about how like if you search for uh this song on uh it's like a song called like will of the people it's like you search for this song on uh on youtube music
Starting point is 01:09:22 a muse song comes up first instead it's like yeah it's fucking muse what are you talking about right like also like the famous band is uh above your timcast band of course crying bitches who care about fucking meritocracy the minute that like a more famous musician comes up first it's a conspiracy it's not a conspiracy no you actually just it's just it's not very good it's absurd um and like i feel also like listeners will know i am in a band and uh the uh theme song to this show is now one of our songs cool um uh and we'll have an album out at some point okay i'm very excited about this. Thank you. I like it. I'm proud of us. I have a question. Yeah. So you write music? Yeah. I write a lot of songs. Yeah. This is what I don't understand. Okay. I said this on Twitter the other day and someone responded
Starting point is 01:10:16 to something that blew my mind. But how are there still songs? There are only so many notes. How do we still have good music? It really confuses me. Well, we recycle a lot of it. That's true. I mean, not directly, but you might hear a thing. There's just, I mean, your point, I'm not a musician, so I shouldn't. Well, actually, Josie. No, but it's true. A lot of it's like, a lot of it, you know, a lot of it's recycled.
Starting point is 01:10:42 And when I said this to my mom, my mom's a mathematician. She was like, this is a dumb question my mom's very nice but she was like this is just do this equation and you can see there are like billions of whatever there are like yeah there are totally it's a lot of it's so much of it is like patterns and like and you know like if the patterns the tempo the notes the combination of notes the placement of even like a chord is a basic chord is three notes you can change the order and like the pitch of those and make everything sounds different the lower one high or whatever and it's going to sound different but there are certain patterns or whatever that you find a lot or different like progressions and yeah and like
Starting point is 01:11:20 you know i've i mean i've written songs since like college, probably. And, you know, sometimes I'll write something like, oh, that's really good. And then it'll someone will be like, oh, it reminds me of this. And I'll be like, well, I've never I've never heard that song before. Right. But I'll still like adjust it because I don't want to want it to seem like I'm doing that. But like there is sort of a natural like, oh, yeah, there's like this interval is common. The Will of the People song by Tim Kast. It's got a couple of lines that is just a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Talks about California a lot.
Starting point is 01:11:50 It's not new for Tim plagiarizing, but we don't have time to get into that. That's true. Wait, but I have to tell you guys my fact really fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you ready? Please. There are more possible combinations of a deck of 52 cards then there are atoms on earth so really factorials oh i did not know that isn't it crazy numbers are wild numbers are insane yeah numbers are you guys
Starting point is 01:12:20 i learned that like maybe a month ago and i have thought of it 20 times a day since. I just, nothing, if that's true, nothing makes sense on earth. There are different amounts of infinity. Shut up. There are degrees of infinite. I hate it. That's too much. I can't wrap my mind around that. I can't even, I can't even wrap my mind around infinite in and of itself.
Starting point is 01:12:43 That's like, what do you mean? Oh yeah. Like to get, just to get to the infinite part.'s like god that's so oh my god it's so overwhelming but then very knowing that yeah there's like there's an infinite design to think in that kind of agreed okay this has been so much fun. Josie, please tell our listeners where they can check out your work, plug everything, all that fun stuff. If you are dumb and on Twitter, because you have to be dumb to be on Twitter, you can find me at jduffierice. Or you can find me at theunnamed.substack.com. Or you can find me in Atlanta.
Starting point is 01:13:24 Just walk the streets. Call my name. But like, don't try too hard. That might be weird. Don't try too hard. It'll be weird. Like maybe on the main street, but don't find her house.
Starting point is 01:13:32 Just like go to a park and like maybe you'll see me there. If she's with her kids, maybe don't. But like don't go to a park every day looking for her. Don't go to a park every day looking for me.
Starting point is 01:13:40 Don't be weird about it. It's just on them actually because I don't leave the house. But yeah, get a hobby before you do that this has been so great having you thank you so much for taking the time to chat thank you for having me thank you so much for having me guys guys we will be back next week and in the meantime please don't forget that we love you very much

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.