The Daily Zeitgeist - Biden Abortion Record Soo Bad, Anti-Choice Dark Money 05.05.22
Episode Date: May 5, 2022In episode 1241, Jack and Miles are joined by superproducer, podcaster, and co-host of Comic Con Meta*Pod, Joelle Monique to discuss… This wasn’t a grassroots effort, so please stop talki...ng like this was…ITS DARK MONEY, The Supreme Court’s AntiDemocratic, Anti-Progress Bent Is Not New, Biden’s Abortion Record is F--king Terrible and more! The Supreme Court’s AntiDemocratic, Anti-Progress Bent Is Not New Justice Denied: Why do we still tolerate the Supreme Court? Biden’s Abortion Record is F--king Terrible Texas abortion: Biden vows 'whole-of-government' response to new law Even Biden’s Allies Have No Clue What He’s Doing on Abortion Joe Biden's long evolution on abortion rights still holds surprises Biden’s Budget Would Scrap Decades-Old Rule And Permit Federal Funding Of Abortions LISTEN: Comic Con Meta*Pod LISTEN: Guessing Games by Dev LemonsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get
your podcasts.
I'm Keri Champion,
and this is season four
of Naked Sports.
Up first,
I explore the making
of a rivalry.
Kaitlyn Clark
versus Angel Reese.
Every great player
needs a foil.
I know I'll go down
in history.
People are talking
about women's basketball
just because of
one single game. Clark and Reese have
changed the way we consume women's
sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry
Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast
or wherever you get your podcast.
Presented by Capital One, founding
partner of iHeart Women's Sports.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti
and I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden.
We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career.
That's where we come in.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,
like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour.
If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation,
then I think it sort of eases us a little bit.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the
making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball
just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.
And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.
Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.
Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 235 episode 4 of your daily zeitgeist
a production of iheart radio this is a podcast where we take a deep dive into america's
shared consciousnesses thursday may 5th 2022 which you know that that's the day cinco de
mayo if uh you know if you're so inclined. There you go.
I think there's a couple other things.
Oh, National World Password Day.
Also.
Hell yeah.
Time to update those passwords. Yeah, and National Cartoonist Day.
Shut up, cartoonists.
Hell yeah, animators in the process of
utilizing their unions
to make a better workspace.
Exactly, exactly.
We support you and your cartoonish creations.
And I just generally, I think we all like any chance we get to update our passwords.
So I think that's a shout out to you.
Definitely a highlight.
Yeah.
Everybody knows that.
My name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Potatoes O'Brien, and I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray!
It's Miles Gray, but you know what? I saw some really great Star Wars references from May the 4th be with you for yesterday, but, you know, I just want to do a couple.
The Phantom Munchies, Attack of the Stone, The Empire Smokes Black, and Miles, and Return of the stone. The empire smokes black and mild and return of the red eyes.
Okay.
Shout out to fight of the night,
man.
On a discord for those.
Is that,
is that fight of the night,
man?
Is that,
is that a reference to something?
Amen.
Okay.
Fighter of the night,
man.
It's from,
it's always sunny.
Yeah,
yeah,
exactly.
I knew that.
I just wanted the listeners to not feel left out by our little in joke and it's funny too i'm not a pop culture i'm not the
biggest it's always sunny fan but i've i've only i've experienced the right ones where people think
i'm literate so yeah i think we've had this exact conversation. I just forgot. Probably. Well, Miles, we are thrilled to be joined by an executive producer behind shows like
Fake Doctors, Real Friends, and Welcome to Our Show.
You've heard her on Pop Culture Happy Hour, read her at Vulture, the AV Club, Teen Vogue
Pace, many more.
She is the host and executive producer of the Comic-Con Metapod.
It is the brilliant and talented joelle monique
what's up it's the marvel defender back in action yeah yeah star wars lady purple lipstick don
i've got more names coming we're cooking them hi guys Hair looking good? Yes.
Miles, you made my whole day when you texted me.
We were in a meeting and you were like,
oh, what's up, Janet Jackson with the poetic justice braids? And I was like, this is the best compliment I've ever received.
I didn't see you because you got your hair done
and then you popped on that call.
And I was like, okay, Janet.
I see you over there.
You think I didn't know?
I'm like, we need to get you that little cabbie hat, though,
that she had already set off that outfit.
Oh, yeah.
I'm here for it.
What a look.
Giving me.
Iconic.
Yeah.
And, Joelle, your new show dropped yesterday.
Yes, it did.
On May the 4th.
It's a 45th anniversary Star Wars Day special.
Oh, wow.
Celebrating all things Star Wars.
Co-host Hector Navarro and I.
If y'all don't know Hector you should get to know him he's
an incredible host he does the Spongebob podcast for iHeart and Nickelodeon but I knew him back in
the day when he was on DC's streaming network and his knowledge is so deep the man has a library of
books and DVDs that he rents out to his friends so oh wow okay yeah i mean like he keeps a catalog
of everything it's really impressive we once watched a bunch of marvel movies in like canonical
order and just him and i talking about him back and forth and so i knew that like when la comic
con came to iheart and like hey let's partner up and do something and they wanted to bring
a convention to ears every week i was like that's got to be hector and me and we bring a convention to ears every week. I was like, that's got to be Hector and me.
And we did a whole bunch of tests and they were like,
we like the chemistry and it worked.
And so I was so excited to do the show,
but then Comic-Con's booking people were like,
we're going to help you get great guests.
And the first person they got for us was Giancarlo Esposito.
And I was like, we're going to talk to the icon of performing.
Like just he's Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian.
But some of you might know him as Buggin' Out from Do the Right Thing.
Maybe Gus from Breaking Bad.
I mean, truly, truly iconic level performer.
And he bears his soul to us.
We cry together over our love of Star Wars and Sondheim.
I mean, actual tears when he starts talking about,
you know, the impact fans have had on him.
And so that was a great conversation.
And then we pivoted and we talked to Kevin Kiner,
who's done the most music other than John Williams
for the Star Wars universe.
And that was an incredible conversation talking about,
you know, he does the theme music
for two of my favorite characters,
Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano.
Okay.
It was great.
It's so lovely.
And then we end it with a trivia battle between two Star Wars fandoms.
So it's the Droid Builders and the Mando Mercs.
So these are fan clubs that get together and design droids and create
Mandalorian armor and then go to conventions and hang out.
Wow.
Really cool.
And you picked them in a battle of wits,
like a trivia contest too?
Yeah,
we did.
Oh,
this is perfect.
A Family Feud style
version of trivia.
It was great.
That feels like
fun in theory and then
whoever lost that
had to
disappear off the grid
for a couple months.
I think the point difference was by 5 or 10
points, so there was no devastating loss.
I'll say that.
And then they both got nice little prize packages at the end.
So no hurt feelings.
Wonderful.
Well, Joelle, we are going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment.
People should go listen to that show right now.
First episode.
Comic-Con Metapod.
Yeah.
But before we get to know you better,
some things we'll be talking about later on.
We're obviously going to be talking about the Supreme Court, the leaked decision, and just like trying to put all this into greater context.
This particular movement, which keeps getting referenced as like a grassroots effort by conservatives.
Incorrect.
We'll explain just how incorrect that is.
We'll take a look at the Supreme Court just in general across the 20th century,
what their whole kind of MO has been, continues to be.
And we'll look at Joe Biden's abortion record.
All of that, plenty more. But first, Joelle, we do like to ask our guest, what is
something from your search history? Oh, yeah. Well, this morning I caught myself on the Disney
Grand California Adventure page doing some research. My birthday is coming up. Last year,
I dropped everything and flew to New York and saw some Broadway musicals, one of my favorite gal
pals, and it was amazing.
But I haven't done Disney Halloween yet.
And all my friends say it's amazing.
And I want to do, I want to be there when, you know,
Mickey's in his like vampire costume and it's so cute.
And then Oogie Boogie's there and I love Oogie Boogie.
And they turned the Haunted Mansion into The Nightmare Before Christmas.
It's so cute.
So I want to go and do that.
And then there's also a spa.
And you can just walk into the park, which I think is the most ideal way to do Disney.
Like, you're in the hotel.
And then you just walk directly into, I think it's, no, you're right outside of the gate. So you can go California Adventure or Disneyland, whichever takes two seconds to walk from your hotel room.
And, you know, if in the middle of
the day you're overheating and you go take a nap you just head right back to your hotel and then
flip and turn around and come back out and that is the quick outfit change you know what i mean
i mean when it's nighttime and i want to go back to star wars land because the lighting has changed
because there's no trees over disney california adventure and so it looks completely different
super cool yeah absolutely 110 i want to do that so i'm really excited i think
i'm gonna do it it's gonna be ungodly expensive for no reason but i kind of don't care it's my
birthday so i'm gonna i'm gonna spend the money i want to do it yeah i mean for what why what's
the point of what's the point of toiling if not to uh indulge our interests uh when our free time
you know yeah yeah so shout out wait wait but when's your when's your actual birthday indulge our interests when our free time. Anything to look forward to.
Wait, but when's your actual birthday?
October 1st.
Oh, okay. I got you. So you're making sure
you're looking out there, you're getting a long view,
making sure it's the right move.
Yeah, booking it, letting the friends know who wants to
pop in, what's going on.
That's the most baller shit
I think I ever heard of. You live
locally and you're like, you know what? I'm going to Disneyland with the hotel room.
I'm going to go to Disneyland for a couple of days.
Yeah.
Cool.
I need some escapism.
Yeah.
They'd be like, sir, your pupils are so dilated.
We can't let you in the park.
I'm like, oh, that's cool.
I'm just cosplaying as Pikachu.
I was not aware of the... So, starting October 1st,
they have sort of a
Halloween theme?
It's actually the end of August through the end of
October. So, it's the longest season
at Disney is Halloween
season. Because if you're a Halloween head
and you like to dress up, there's a good chance you're also
a Disney head and want to go hang up, there's a good chance you're also a Disney head
and want to go hang out.
The overlap is large.
Right.
Yeah.
And since you brought up vampires,
we do have to ask you,
what is your opinion on,
do our vampire fangs hollow?
Like as in you-
Like straws that you suck through?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah or they just big bitey
bitey teeth just for the wound of a vein and then they suck out like you know i would say
old vampires like really old vampires the ancient kind uh that's just bone you know because they're
not really doing the clean bite and walking away from it you're pretty much destroyed but these new age vampires who like don't want to kill with their bite or whatever
you know they're like semi-vegan vampires i think they're hollow i think they've evolved into hollow
things oh so you wow this is the first some people most people we talk to they're either or and you
you put in the darwinian argument for the evolution towards a hollow fang.
Okay.
Because look at our more recent vampires.
Like, they're clean.
They come up from their victim.
No blood on them.
They're like gentlemen and shit.
Right.
I feel like you can't do that if you're just puncturing with bone.
There's new blood everywhere.
Yeah, and I feel like there's some vampire movies or cartoons that I've seen where the
person doesn't know that they've been bit
like it's kind of a wait what just happened like which has more in common with a mosquito which uh
zeitgang on twitter has pointed out that is like we keep saying it's a reverse like snake bite
because snakes like inject venom through the fangs but it's actually just they're just biting mosquitoes yeah that
makes vampires sound a lot less scary but 10 times more annoying right yeah so i'll slot them away
like no yeah instead of a tiny red well you have everlasting life and your life is very strange
and very healthy. Be the ones that were more likely to die off. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Humans are going to apex predator the shit out of that.
They're like, no way.
We are mass killing machines and we will devour you.
Yeah, exactly.
You can't be doing this.
What is something that you think is overrated?
As a person who really loves fashion, I love reading a Vogue magazine, a Harper's Bazaar, if you will.
I love the fashion world and their goofiness and their eccentricness.
The Met Gala is really overrated to me and here's why no one follows theme okay i know we say it every year
the met gala fans go on to the twitters and we're like what they went through the whole effort of
making a theme they brought in specific art pieces a lot of times the meal goes along with the theme
why would you come dressed not as the theme what is the point and this year they did the gilded age one of the fanciest most like extreme time
you could have done giant parasols huge hats i mean hoop skirts for days it's literally the era
of corsets and everyone was like i'm going in black which first of all it's the gilded age is all about color too much black lots of like
lace underwear things some people got it some people were about it gg hadid you know at first
i was like i don't understand the entire like latex red leather corset pant thing but then
with the coat she was like oh no i'm gonna really i'm gonna f with this silhouette and give you
you know give
you perfect time period which works uh sarah jessica parker was working out of three separate
centuries but it came together it was mostly in line with theme and then who's the the director of
something like 40 year it's a netflix show hold on i'm gonna find her because she knocked it out of the park doing the
sort of like ode to black women of the era highlighting the seamstresses who were behind
a lot of the classic designs ronda blank ronda blank is an incredible director she directed this
movie called the 40 year old version about a woman who's
interested in getting into like hip-hop and reconnecting with her writing roots it is
a stunning performance but her outfit for the gala was like giant white head wrap like knife
billowing skirt it was incredible and i really appreciated what she brought to the theme i think my favorite
outfit was pete davison with his uh his tanner his self-tanning spray oh god his new tattoos
did he not look did he not look a little tan to you or yeah i mean listen that's what happens
when you get with a kardashian okay your your beauty glow up routine begins immediately
because you're gonna be on more cameras than you ever thought existed in your whole life so
i get it he's got it's literally keeping up with the kardashians he's gotta put in work
also i love how on point like just how odd the theme of the gilded age
you know it's so on the nose it's frightening you know what i mean yeah
massive inequality in child
labor but hey you know let's fall out and nothing but hillary's dress was dedicated to harriet
tubman so you know problems resolved boom see it giveth and it taketh
i also think the met gal is overrated because I don't know who any of these designers are for the most part.
People are like, oh, and they're wearing Louis.
I mean, I know.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Yeah.
Okay.
Carolina Herrera.
I know that one.
But like there were some probable. I don't one. But, like, there were some.
Prabal Gurang.
I don't know.
Jean-Louis. That's a fancy French one.
Yeah.
You're like, where are my favorite designers?
Gildan.
Haynes.
Reebok.
Hayne.
What is something you think is underrated?
Oh, candles are underrated.
In the interest of disappearing from this plane of existence, I've gotten really into a company called Cantrip Candles.
They do D&D themed candles, which are my favorite thing in the whole world.
They got one that smells like a library, one that smells like an adventure dungeon, one that smells like a den of thieves.
It's like red wine and smoke, which I really, really enjoy.
They're amazing. I have taken them to D, which I really, really enjoy. They're amazing.
I have taken them to D&D games.
It really helps.
We already have like mood lighting.
We got a whole board.
We're doing the storytelling.
You add the candles in and you are practically in that dungeon, baby.
It is amazing.
Yeah.
So if you're into that kind of vibe, go check out Cantrip Candles.
But candles in general.
Also black owned.
Yes.
Yes.
Shout out Kristoff. chris owned woman owned like
it's a beautiful space you gotta go check it out what i really love about it is it's uh
like just candles in general have the ability to just like bring stress relief to you kind
of immediately in a way that a product that costs 5.99 can rarely do
hit them on the cheap they're real. They last for a pretty long time.
It's a good deal is what I'm saying.
And if you're fancy enough to
do the thing where you break down the little bit of wax
that's left and remelt and build new
candles, kudos to you. I haven't
gotten there yet in my recycling, but
as the earth continues to deteriorate, I
aspire to be the kind of person
who can save and reuse wax.
That's a whole other level yeah totally
i'm not doing i'm not into that level of alchemy yet but yeah her majesty actually went to school
with christoph from cantrip really yeah that's like how i first heard about it she was like yeah
my friend from school has this candle store we went i was like what the fuck and not yeah we've
got a few we've got a few cantrips in the house yeah i i grew up
associating scented candles with just yankee candle just that store in the mall and it's
the equivalent of you know like car air fresheners is just bad and overwhelming and they don't smell
like anything as much as just air fresheners and yeah i've recently had my eyes opened to the fact that
you can you can have really like great smells that yeah exactly smell like you're burning a
scented candle yeah i love a smoky like wood fire scented anything that oh man doesn't permit
man i'm telling you,
I get those crackling
wick candles. I talked about this in the winter.
My house smelled like you came over
to Karen's crib.
Yes.
I like to change my candles for the seasons.
Oh, you got to.
You need a fresh linen in the summer.
You want to get your pine and cranberry on
in the winter.
And so it's C-A-N-T-R-I-P?
Yes.
Cantrip Candles.
Nice.
Go check them out.
Give them your business.
That's dope.
So your favorite, you would say, is the Den of Thieves?
From them?
Yeah, totally.
It's, again, like red wine.
It's like the most masculine handle you can
buy it's so good uh but it makes your whole house smell like warm and inviting and then i just bought
the like walk through the forest i think which is cool because you do a lot of trail trekking in dnd
and so i needed a candle for that and i think they have an ocean one which i want to get because we've been spending a lot of time on a boat lately and I didn't have a candle for that.
So I was just burning the parchment one and it just didn't feel right. So, you know, I'll eventually
collect them all as if they were Pokemon and so that we have a candle for every situation.
There you go. Amazing.
Situation for every candle. Yeah.
All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series,
Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films
and LA-based Shekinah Church,
an alleged cult that has impacted members
for over two decades.
Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths
between high control groups and interview dancers,
church members, and others whose lives and careers
have been impacted, just like mine.
Through powerful, in-depth interviews
with former members
and new, chilling firsthand accounts,
the series will illuminate untold
and extremely necessary perspectives.
Forgive Me For I Have Followed
will be more than an exploration.
It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring
these types of abuses never happen again.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher
salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer,
we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the
person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.
Yeah, I think a lot about that quote.
What is it?
Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Yeah, rejection is scary,
but it's better than you rejecting yourself.
Together, we'll share what it really takes
to thrive in the early years of your career
without sacrificing your sanity or sleep.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports,
where we live at the intersection of sports and culture.
Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry,
Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.
I know I'll go down in history.
People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history.
People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.
Every great player needs a foil.
I ain't really near them.
Why is that?
I just come here to play basketball
every single day,
and that's what I focus on.
From college to the pros,
Clark and Reese have changed the way
we consume women's sports.
Angel Reese is a joy to watch.
She is unapologetically Black.
I love her.
What exactly ignited this fire?
Why has it been so good for the game?
And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained?
This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better.
This new season will cover all things sports and culture.
Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.
I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life.
It's too late for that.
I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
One session. 24 hours.
BPM 110, 120.
She's terrified.
Should we wake her up?
Absolutely not.
What was that?
You didn't figure it out?
I think I need to hear you say it.
That was live audio of a woman's nightmare.
This machine is approved and everything?
You're allowed to be doing this?
We passed the review board a year ago.
We're not hurting people.
There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
They're just dreams.
Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller
from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.
Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And we're back.
So, you know, I think we're all still working through processing, enraged at what was revealed in the leaked gorsuch decision
that seems to be foreshadowing that they're going to overturn roe and do it in a very aggressive
fashion that seems to just be like yeah and we can come for a fucking anything go fuck yourselves
all of you each and every one but like just kind of taking a
step back and looking at the the way the news is covering this has covered it you hear the word
grassroots thrown out there a lot that this is a grassroots movement which suggests that it's like
a a popular uprising that like naturally kind of percolated up from this large anti-choice
movement that's just happening on the streets and that that's not the case and miles you put
together some some good thoughts on just like kind of putting putting this in perspective of
what exactly we're seeing when it's whether it's crash i mean clearly there are activists because
they're violent anti-choice activists out there who are, you know, normal people who have a really violent agenda.
But like when you look at sort of when you're sort of tracking how we got here, you know, a lot of people have said, like, see, the Republicans, they got out and vote and they consistently got out and like, that's how we got this. Well, I guess on a certain
level, they do vote, but it wasn't because they're like, here's our thing, folks, we're going to get
out because we're going to make sure we're going to strip people's human rights away. When you
really look at sort of the Republican party, right? 1976 is when the party decided to like fully
embrace being anti-choice and making it part of the official party platform. And it wasn't because they believed innocent souls were being lost to the, you know, blight of abortion. They were, they're,
they're, you know, they're looking at power. Then they said, who else can we bring into the party
to moat? Like that's motivated to keep voting for us. Oh, that's right. Evangelicals. So if we make
this part of who we are, then we're bringing in a whole group of other voters so we can begin to, you know, eke out our wins at a higher rate and have something that is, you know, that appeals to this group emotionally.
And it and it's worked.
You know, it's driven out a lot of people to come vote around this issue, despite right.
Only 30 percent of Americans wanting Roe to be overturned. Because with evangelicals, not only do you bring
in more people into the base, but you also have an issue of making abortion a new way to push back
against the civil rights movement and another way to control people. Because as we all know,
reproductive rights and the lack of safe abortion access is going to affect the poorest people in
the country. And that's typically the most affected people
are going to be people of color.
So this all kind of came together
in a very opportunistic way.
And, you know, they haven't had the majority vote
in seven of the last presidential election.
No, not at all.
And this has been, you know,
throughout the 80s and 90s and the aughts,
like this was this was useful for both parties.
The Republicans could dangle the carrot of overturning Ro to to get the base uh you know motivated and democrats raised
the specter of overturning row also to be like oh you gotta you gotta give us money because they
might do this but in the early aughts is really when things began to change and the influence of
dark money groups really increased as it relates to how supreme court justices are picked and what the sort of bare minimum is for somebody to be a judge that is getting the
blessing from a group like the Federalist Society. So again, dark money groups are basically political
spending groups that are structured as nonprofits that do not have to disclose where their funding
comes from. There's many different kinds of nonprofits. Certain
nonprofits do have to disclose where every single dollar that they receive, where that comes from.
Others do not. And those are the dark money groups because it allows for gigantic donations
of millions of dollars to go in and you don't know where it came from. And they're free to
spend that money however they'd like. Now, specifically, groups like the Judicial Crisis
Network and the Federalist Society have had the biggest influence. And Leonard Leo, who was a
longtime senior executive at the Federalist Society, has had the ears of the last two Republican
presidents, Trump and Bush. He was even Trump's judicial advisor, basically. And at the same time,
he was telling Trump, these are the people who should be judges or justices. He was running this network of dark money groups to exert their influence
in these different confirmation hearings. So it started with Alito and Roberts. And again,
every single time they start injecting money. To give you an idea of the kind of money that
they put in, it's about $10 million per nominee. And they've said,
you know, we've spent a lot of money. We spent around $10 million blocking Merrick Garland's
nomination, and we spent about $10 million each on Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney Barrett.
And when you look at how this money moves, right, right before Coney Barrett's nomination began,
the Judicial Crisis Network got a $14 million donation from one donor.
And they spend about $10 million, whether that's ads, whether that's putting pressure on senators to vote to confirm,
or just to prop them up, putting up flowery ads about a judge, what have you.
That's where that money's being spent. And if you just really
think about it, one person can single-handedly fund the media blitz to confirm or block a nominee,
you know, because that's just sort of the amounts of money that's moving. And this is why I think
we experience this extreme level of minority rule right now, because you have two presidents that
lost the popular vote in Trump and Bush. They appointed five Supreme Court justices and through that have
stripped away the rights of millions. And it's not because the Republicans are getting out and
consistently voting. Yes, that's part of the process. But in a much larger scale, we don't
really report on the fact that so many of our policies that are shaped are coming from the very
wealthy.
And that's who, at the end of the day, is sort of at the wheel at what kinds of policies these politicians are trying to legislate.
And we don't need Democrats to just tell people to vote. They can use the fucking power that they actually have right now to do things in the interim.
You know, many people have pointed to the fact that Biden can make sure the FDA can guarantee access to the abortion pill or blue states can help expand access to abortion
using Medicaid funds to help the people that would inevitably be crossing state lines to get
a safe abortion. So as the money powers that stand, you have on the on the many I mean,
most capitalists, they want they want to vaporize the federal government so they can privatize everything.
And then the process strip away things like our privacy rights, our ability to organize as workers and safety regulations so they can conduct business in a way that is just maximum, that provides maximum benefit for their profit earning business.
And the biggest impediments to those profits is having to treat people like they
are humans and the best way to get rid of those hurdles is by controlling the supreme court
because now we're in a situation where alito has basically said the gist of what his opinion is
saying is if that shit isn't literally in the constitution when they wrote it i don't know if
that's a right yeah that is like a banana statement to stand
on given all the things
that weren't rights when the constitution
was written given the fact that like
it's meant to be a living document
I can't understand
I can't wrap my mind around
how they
think it's going to work
listen I'm torn on is this
the
grasping death rattle of a dying
like breed in that you know folks who are super dedicated to the constitution
not as a starting point but as the finish line or if it's the beginning of the end not to be
too dark but also well what the fuck it opens the door of the end, not to be too dark,
but also what the fuck.
It opens the door,
right?
Because think about all these things that happened since the civil rights
movement,
all that's on the table,
essentially based on the logic that's being presented in this draft that
we've read.
Yeah.
I mean,
black people were not a full person in the initial constitution. I just
don't know. I just don't know what you could possibly be
thinking, how you think that's going to work.
I mean, I think the most, you know, what
a lot of states will probably be emboldened to do is
to try and begin to chip away at
people's access to contraception.
Yeah. Yes. I mean, they're already
emboldened to do that. That feels like the easiest thing,
the next step, that they can continue,
because a lot of people wrongfully say things like IUDs are abortion.
Right.
They're not.
Yeah.
But we can begin to see because the access to contraception, those things are decided in the 50s or 60s, I believe, for married and unmarried people.
That that's another thing.
I'm like, man, maybe that decision was wrong, too.
that's another thing i'm like man maybe that decision was wrong too it's a it's such a transparent thing that's happened where these people are put there by you know people who are
elected due to wealthy donors they then enact legislation on the supreme court that makes it
so that you know like they are obliterating campaign finance restrictions, which makes America into an oligarchy.
The number seven of eight presidential elections, seven of the past eight presidential elections were Democratic majority results.
And the one win was for Republican incumbent after 9-11 like when the nation
had lost its fucking mind like the it's a it's a pretty clear majority at this point
and this is just not a majority rule country it's a capital rule country at this point and it's like not even is it but like the fact that we
that this isn't the number one thing like the number one angle on the front page of the new
york times like is part of the problem this is a country that is also so bad at talking about
like class and you know the just outsized influence of corporations and the wealthy, it's and the idea that it gets that they get to couch it is like a grassroots thing as opposed to a, you know, oligarchy seizing power from the majority of Americans and putting their very extremist ideas into action is pretty crazy.
Yeah.
There's a call from the same group that organized the Women's Rights March,
the Pussyhat Ladies in, what was it, like 2018, 2016?
2017.
2017, right after that orange dude took office.
They had that really large march march which was basically just a very
vocal demonstration of like hey we're here and we see you but didn't yield to my knowledge a lot of
actual results there's a call to for women to just like not spend money for like starting next week
like for an entire week to do their best to not like engage in the economy as a
vocal opportunity to say like hey don't fuck with us based off of you know Iceland's similar
protests and what was that like 78 I think I don't know if it'll work I don't know if there's
it seems like a thing that upper middle class and up folks can do.
I don't know.
You know, back when I was making like $7.50 an hour, if that would have been an option to just not spend money.
I got to get on the bus.
I got to do X, Y, and Z in order to support myself.
But I do like the idea potentially of being like, can we as a vocal majority say, we'll just keep our money then and you can't have it because
that's the only like language that you guys speak and it doesn't seem we can do much beyond you know
threatening to take away our money it's the only thing that really speaks to companies i think
anyway from a large group of people saying like hey we'll take your stock if we have to what do
we need to do right and it's but it
also goes back to this reflexive individualism like we are inside this system where massive
corporations uh outside of our control and above all of us are making these decisions that take
away the rights of individuals and then the answer seems to always reflexively go to like, we need to demonstrate rights. We need to do that, too. And like that may that may be true. But like we also are like at the tail end of a long period of this system just actively like robbing people of their individual rights.
You think of how all these decisions are really made in advance by wealthy people, whether it's like overturning Roe or even go back to like Clinton. Right. And repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which basically casino-fied Wall Street. lean on Bill Clinton and others to be like, Hey man, what we need to do is make it real easy to
allow investment banks, retail banks, and insurers to merge into one thing, which ended up us having
to, you know, we, we, we saw what happened in 2008. And again, you even look at the people
within that industry, like Robert Rubin, who was, uh, at the treasury at the time, he ends up going
to city group right after. And he even like got, he was like the Treasury at the time, he ends up going to Citigroup right after.
And he even like got he was like even leaning on Clinton to be like, you have to pre-approve a merger between Citigroup and travelers as part of like this bill.
And you can see that all of the so many people in the government, these monumental bills, they're always outside aims.
Right. It's not necessarily just for the benefit that they they're like this is actually what we need for the country no it's this guy from goldman sachs other people from
other places end up in the white house and they're like hey man so i'm here to hook up the homies
right so let's let's begin to do that and you know some people can win off that but more importantly
this is going to help our industry and we can case it in whatever argument we need to but we're like it's not we're not we're not
regularly talking about how much money to influence we can point to so many of our ills because
people were enriching themselves with some of these policy decisions and like apparently if you
do then it's like too extreme to be on like cnn or fucking msnbc or they're not interested in it because it inevitably is going
to cause some kind of examination of what what the role of corporations are in our in our media
and our politics and things like that and in a fully corporate like corporatized ad-based
you know media format that can't always happen luckily we we can, we're not, I guess we're not
enough of a threat where people are trying to pull to say, Oh, this is, this is too dangerous
or whatever, even though this is ad supported. But you look at like larger companies, if a network
is wholly owned by a company, that's also making like war machines, they're less likely to talk
about the military industrial complex there. And we we because of all so many things become obscure
we're like coming out of this fog we're like in a car accident where not many people realize that
this thing is fully has been broken for a very long time yeah sorry joel were you about to say
no no i i don't i don't i don't know i don't know it's uh it's very dark and scary times uh particularly when you
follow a lot of abortion rights activists and they're like night of learning the news was just
so traumatic from uh the perspective of like okay well we'll start telling the stories of
our mothers then and and what they had to do it's just like oh we definitely can't go back there and
then you know a lot of them were like,
here are action plans to figure out which doctors know how to perform abortions.
Can you talk to that doctor not on the record
about whether they'd be willing to do that post it being legal?
I mean, the things that people are already having to try to comprehend doing,
you know, just to survive, just to, you know, keep more women alive and more people with uteruses
alive it's it's a lot and yeah this when you look at something like this you just see more and more
like you know what started off as courting evangelicals the republicans also like you
know what i think we can also use patriarchy and misogyny to to get people motivated it might not
even be necessarily real not maybe so some of these people really don't care
if it's about hell and saving a soul.
They actually like the idea that
we can tell somebody with a uterus,
nah, you can't do that.
You can do this, though.
Can't do that.
And it's just, you know, more control.
And I think over time, it morphs into these things.
And we're now at a point where
people are asking, well, what needs to be done?
Well, you know, a lot of people have been saying from the beginning to expand the court,
put term limits on these justices and things like that. But we still seem to be in a phase where
we're, you know, where we've been waiting for a response from the federal government since
that law in Texas passed. and Joe Biden was like,
just you wait. Whole government response. Whole of government response. Yeah, we're about to talk
about that. But yeah, scary times, especially when you take into account that like even before Roe,
women weren't typically the target of prosecution around cases of abortion and since like they've started pushing back laws and in
states that seems to be the strategy is like a woman who comes in with a stillbirth like that
gets investigated for what happened in her own body a woman was arrested in indiana like what a year two years ago yeah or
having a miscarriage like yeah the the things they're going after the things that they're
trying to do you know even even just trying to do it's frightening yeah and i think a lot of people
too like throughout all this we're almost like we're confused because we're like did we ever
actually have progress you know like or are we still the same country but we the people have
moved forward but the policies haven't and we're constantly having like a reconciliation or
reckoning with what the message is what the lived reality is what the sentiment is of people
and how like they're if they feel like they sentiment is of people and how like they're,
they feel like they're all in completely different spaces. Like they're,
they're not in agreement.
Yeah.
And is it like that we're taking away rights or it's like,
you know,
to be honest,
most people never really had a lot of these rights anyway.
You know,
when you consider like the amount of like recognized safe abortion clinics
that were actually in the country,
even after Wade,
even after bro,
like what is the situation? And I don't know, like part of me is like, are we, safe abortion clinics that were actually in the country even after Wade, even after Roe.
Like, what is the situation? And I don't know, like, part of me is like, are we really,
do we think of all the progress? We've definitely made so much progress, but there's been so much shit going back and forth. Like, you take a step forward, you take two back, you take three forward,
one back. And you're like, how much actually have we moved forward on a continuum? And I find myself
constantly trying to think about that.
Like, right, I know these laws passed and that's good.
But I'm still looking at statistics of people like death rates and other things as it relates to a myriad of issues.
And I'm like, where I.
Yeah, just some difficult time.
There's a great quote from Marianne Kaba, who's's an abolitionist who says hope is a discipline
which i think is you know apt for the times and i mean how progress is slow unfortunately
it doesn't happen rapidly i think examining it as what ground are we not willing to cede and how much further can we push for a better world for the majority and focusing really on that kind of hope is good. From, you know, what our neighbors, you know, I mean, you said before, like 70% of people are pro-abortion.
Are, you know, I think, I think we have to remember that there's more of us and we are stronger.
Yeah.
In spirit than, you know, than their greed.
It's going to take time, though, and it might get scary along the way, unfortunately.
Yeah. And, you know, I think it's it's disheartening, too, when we, you know, we're we're sort of indoctrinated with this idea that, you know, like that we vote the people in and then they make the laws to help, you know, keep people safe.
But all like all we read about is the lack of safety we have and confused leadership. And that really, it's such a defeating thing for a lot of people to grasp because we're looking for solutions.
Well, I can't stress it strongly enough. Build into your own communities because you will have a much firmer and clearer idea of what is actually happening around you.
And when you see frightening change or people trying to lead your community in a direction that you know is wrong or unsafe, you can take action at a local level.
And I really think that's going to be our solution going forward.
Small, local steps.
Because if they can't touch us there, then it's going to be much harder for them to operate on a large scale without us. in the United States. The increased power and, you know, budgets and militarization of police
and like those are human, you know, those are directly things that are used to take away
human rights. I mean, obviously in the case of caging,. That is exactly what it is designed to do. And yeah, this feels like it's part of a larger whole
and not necessarily a new thing
that is just the result of some extremists on the Supreme Court,
which I feel like is the way some people are greeting it. it but yeah all right let's let's take a
quick break we'll come back and talk biden i'm jess casavetto executive producer of the hit
netflix documentary series dancing for the devil the 7m tikt cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films
and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades.
Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine.
Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives.
Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente.
And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden.
We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions.
Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?
Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?
Girl, yes.
Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
And if we don't know
the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference
between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.
Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take?
Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself.
Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career.
Without sacrificing your sanity or sleep.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture.
Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.
I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.
Every great player needs a foil.
I ain't really near them boys. I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on.
From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports.
Angel Reese is a joy to watch.
She is unapologetically black.
I love her.
What exactly ignited this fire?
Why has it been so good for the game?
And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained?
This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better.
This new season will cover all things sports and culture.
Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network,
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.
I've been thinking about you.
I want you back in my life.
It's too late for that.
I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project.
All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
One session. 24 hours.
BPM 110. 120. She's terrified.
Should we wake her up?
Absolutely not.
What was that?
You didn't figure it out?
I think I need to hear you say it.
That was live audio of a woman's nightmare.
This machine is approved and everything?
You're allowed to be doing this?
We passed the review board a year ago.
We're not hurting people.
There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
They're just dreams.
Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller
from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.
Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And we're back and uh biden that as we mentioned promised a whole of government response to
texas's anti-choice laws and then i'll just read from some senators about like what what that whole
of government response looked like.
Not a peep, Senator Jon Tester told the Daily Beast
when asked if he'd heard anything
about the whole of government approach.
They haven't shared that with me,
said Senator Tim Kaine, and so forth.
There was nothing.
Now they're saying that they're starting
to have emergency meetings with the White House
about how to protect abortion access.
But that before Monday's bombshell leak, they hadn't talked any specifics with with Biden, with the administration.
Right. And it's like, are we surprised given this history?
Yeah. Historical relationship to the concept of abortion.
this history yeah historical relationship to the concept of abortion yeah so in 1974 he literally said i don't think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body
that joe biden said that 77 bridge we did it joe raced in 77 he voted against using medicaid to
fund abortions and even exceptions for victims of rape and incest in addition to concerns for the
life of the mother. So those were, he voted against taking those exceptions into account.
In 81, he voted to remove them, exceptions in what is considered the most far-reaching ban
on federal funds ever enacted to Congress. Voted several times to keep federal workers
from using health insurance to pay for abortions. As president, he did omit the Hyde Amendment, which denies insurance coverage for
abortion through government-sponsored plans like Medicaid. So he didn't use that in his budgets,
but he supported the Hyde Amendment as recently as while he was campaigning in 2019
yeah that was a big issue yikes yeah i mean it
there's even a tweet from like the potus account too that's like all right we know what we got to
do like elected officials we got to do everything we can to make this happen and the voters got to
make sure they protect the pro-choice politicians and elect them but you also look at the same time
like this guy is campaigning for like henry cuyar who is like a anti-choice democrat and so it's
like jim cliburn and nancy Nancy Pelosi and the party's leadership is getting
behind an anti-choice Democrat. And, you know, so, so it's like hard to, so much is self-inflicted
with this too. Like, we're not like the Democrats aren't even consistent. Like the Republicans are
like, no, no, like we're, we're like, we are anti-choice Democrats. Like, well, you know,
like if this guy, if it works for him over there, that's fine,
because we've got to win these elections.
But that sort of normalization, I think,
really dulled the sense of urgency for Democrats
for what, the last 50 years?
Right.
It's all about practicalities and following the polling
and then not following the polling
when it means actually doing something that helps people yeah it's i don't know it's
cowardly yeah i don't know i don't even know i don't even know i mean it's i mean they're
straight playing in our faces, though.
Like, I mean, in a way that's sort of horrifying.
In the same way that they're doing it with these students.
We don't know if we can do some loans or not.
We can't forgive.
We're just not sure.
What would that look like even?
We have billions of dollars to do, I don't know, military things.
But couldn't possibly figure out how to do this.
We can keep delaying them, though.
We can't justing them, though.
We can't just stand up and say anything about abortion,
because Republicans will go crazy.
We understand that the majority of people are pro-abortion and believe women have rights to their bodies,
but what could we possibly do?
Oh, gosh, they promised us they're not going to change it
and that that's just law.
They said it in their hearings, and so we have to believe them.
I mean, it's a constant naivete from them and i
think it's feigned which is pretty exhausting and i can't understand why other than cowardice like
i have to face these people and i don't want them to be mad or i i'm not sure you know people might
be mad it really seems to boil down to people might be mad at me. And so I can't make these life changing, generationally impactful changes that are necessary immediately, despite having the power to do so.
And I think this is in general, right? news and who are politicians who are so wealthy that they, their, their, their idea of what a
working person is, is maybe when they were 12. Right. You know what I mean? And they, and they're
operating from that concept of what it means to be a wage worker, what it means to be a single parent, and are not fully connected with what that reality. I keep saying this over and over. That's the bit that's that's so clear. That's why they're confused. That's why they are like, Whoa, wait, no. Oh, this. I thought I thought this this this shit used to work 10 years ago. Well, yeah, 10 years ago, there weren't as many people really like grappling with their
own debt their lack of upward mobility and things like that and they're they're now aging into a
point where they're a larger cohort of people who vote and i think that's the other part we're
experiencing too is like the people who represent us live 95 have no idea what life is like in
america right sure and so there's no that's why there's no sense of urgency everything feels like 95% have no idea what life is like in America.
Right.
And so there's no,
that's why there's no sense of urgency.
Everything feels like from,
well, from their perspective.
Okay.
Yeah,
this is bad,
but we can do this.
We can do this.
We can do this.
Um,
yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Like,
I think people have made the argument.
He's not equipped to lead this fight.
Uh,
but I, I think it have made the argument he's not equipped to lead this fight. But I think it's like he actively has been working against women's reproductive rights for most of his career.
So regardless of what he may say now, it's pretty clear that there's a reason behind his inaction.
And I don't know. I don't know if it gets better, if like for political expediency, he changes and, you know, uses this to his advantage.
But it's pretty fucked that we find ourselves in this position.
I mean, yeah. And right now, I think the one thing, the only thing that is of benefit is like, you know, blue states are codifying those rights.
benefit is like you know blue states are codifying those rights and try you know some you know some local officials are trying to say like we need to do whatever we can like if we're like a blue state
surrounded by red states like how we help people like in illinois or like maryland where you're
like in these places where a lot of like you're kind of where people might head to. And we and we do see that discussion beginning.
But that seems to be out of people who understand the urgency of it and are connected to those
resources and trying to move immediately.
And then, you know, at the highest level, there's just like now we're, you know, half
of the discussion is like, who leaked it?
Why did they leak it?
And like, there's even a cynical version of like, did democrats leak it to try and like get people to wake up you know that's so strange to me because my mind
immediately was like okay so some hero was like not on my watch and released the papers and was
like people need to know before it becomes an action but then i saw some talking head and i
don't remember who it was but they were like oh well maybe the republicans did it so no one could
back out maybe the democrats did it as a way of embarrassing the court and i was
like that seems so i mean even if that is the the case it seems so beyond like i don't care
really like who what the alternative method or reasoning was it just matters that like that does
not happen if we can stop it if there is any kind of way to not make you know
people with uterus second class citizens that would be great this is super awesome yeah the
new york times is covering the perception of politicization as like i think that was like
the top story uh on on wednesday morning was like people on both sides are like dismayed at the growing politicization
of the court. And, you know, suddenly with this leak business, we're seeing a Supreme Court that
has succumbed to the evil politics where their sides and these are, you know, supposed to be
the law priests calling balls and strikes. Except, you know, Alex Schmidt on yesterday's episode
was pointed to this thing by Ian Millhiser,
a book, I think they're called,
this thing by Ian Millhiser,
a book by Ian Millhiser called Injustices
that's just like kind of a 20th century history
of the Supreme Court.
And it is, it's very instructive i i guess that's like
they are almost uniformly pushing in the direction of congress will put something into action
they will use that interpretation or that law to like protect businesses or corporations there's like a great
anecdote in the book about or a horrifying anecdote about how like after congress started
like putting rulings for like due process into place uh so that like you know white supremacist
states couldn't just use whatever means they wanted to to to cage freed slaves. The Supreme Court took that and started applying it to things like a case that came before them
where eight-year-olds were working in coal mines, and people were like,
that's not okay to have eight-year-olds working in coal mines and like having you know being killed frequently
constantly because they're eight and they're working in a fucking coal mine they were like
that uh you're messing with the due process of like the coal corporations or you know you're
messing when some somebody uh tried to get like a sub 60 hour work week and less than 10 hours in a single day for
new york bakers they like came through and said that the law violated the liberty of bakery owners
to negotiate contracts with their employees like they they take the progressive ideas
in the government like that are supported by people and they use it to protect
corporations so right by the new york times logic of like politicization being a problem the supreme
court is like allowed to do a very political thing of siding with businesses who make their
one percent lifestyles possible. They're just
not allowed to disagree with each other publicly when they do that is essentially like the message
that that is sending down. But yeah, that has been their thing. They've been pro-business,
they've been very conservative. And then when they occasionally have a liberal or progressive-leaning decision.
It's, without fail, something that is actually emerging within the public.
So they're just there to agree with the public and occasionally crystallize things like gay marriage into law after people have already come to that decision on their own so they're not really
doing anything for us they're just taking away our rights while uh empowering businesses and
that's been the case for the entire 20th century yeah right and it's like there's no branch of
government that is free of that.
Yeah.
It's get,
it's like I said,
man,
these people need to be wearing fucking NASCAR jackets with all their fucking donors on it.
So when they walk into the Capitol,
you're like,
okay,
so you're Pfizer,
you're Dow chemicals,
you're,
you're 3m,
you're this company.
Cause that is so much of what,
how in a, like how someone's votes are determined
based on who they're beholden to and i don't know why there's just that we like there just
needs to be a again more discussion around how all of this is working rather than treating it
like this abstraction that we can't figure out what's going on what's happening how did how did we get here
we fucking know it's because the the power dynamic isn't such where politicians are beholden to the
people that has been completely obliterated and votes are just a means to an end to legitimize
the decisions that these politicians make on behalf of their wealthy donors
and that's the situation
we're in and it's just going to continue to devolve like we're saying like since you know
fucking the supreme court what do you want to do hey what do you know oh what they they're making
you treat these eight-year-olds like human workers no man you're violating that eight-year-old's right
to exploit themselves out of sheer desperation because of a system we helped set up
right or like some dumb ass senator said if you don't want to have a baby don't have sex sir
right i don't know if you know how anything no one forced you to have sex do you have you heard
of the term rape do you know what it means like and then causing women to have to like share their
horrific stories to sort of articulate against your point
it's just right because again we have a bunch of dudes really making a bulk of the decisions a
bulk of white men making the decisions and a ton of white women just supporting that white
supremacist goal yeah and everyone's internalized like everyone is dealing with so much as this is
all happening but again to to it's i think it's just really harmful for articles to be written
that are like confused or like how we got here and we're not constantly like like just ringing
the alarm that like this is this this isn't a representative democracy obviously it never
really was a republic what have have you. But it's
just a it's a full on, you know, that we have too many corporatized politicians now. And Washington,
DC is merely the venue to help set business policy. And we're just in real time having to
react to that, whether it's tax cuts for them, or cutting off people's health care or whatever.
them or cutting off people's health care or whatever.
And that's the confusion, I think, is that we're not the mainstream sort of tone on all of this is we've ceased.
We've for a long time.
We have not been a country, maybe ever.
We've never been a country that is looking at every single person that lives here as
a human being and and that there's a certain level of inalienable rights that applies
to every single living person in the country yeah and this is the one thing that is notable about
this is that other countries as i think one of you said earlier like other countries have not been
moving in this direction on reproductive rights and abortion rights like it really at all
and suddenly the u.s is like moving rolling things back in a way that you know what when
you read about countries that prohibit access to abortion, you, like, immediately see, like, it's a fucking nightmare. It's an absolute nightmare. And the thing that they're trying to institute is an absolute nightmare. And, like, that would be a great front-page story for the New york times to tell like that this is out of step with everything around the
world and like this is where we are now and it makes sense that we're here because of the system
that we have in place and yeah all the while you know the republicans just continue to like in the
just in public be like we don't we hate you we hate you if you have
a uterus we hate you if you're not christian we hate you if you're not cisgendered we hate you
if you're not white yep that's it we're telling you that right that's where we're at and we're
and we're like okay somebody somebody go toe-to-toe with this and the the and we're not we're not
seeing the kinds of responses that we need and
wouldn't to be honest this is something that has been a 50-year issue that could have been addressed
but just it seemed i think it's beneficial for both sides to kind of keep reaching for it i'm
gonna reach look i got that thing on me i could overturn rope and then the other version is like they got that thing on them they could overturn the rope you know and that's and then we just go in circles and and and now
we're here yeah and in the meantime they've redlined us to death so like even if when we
try to vote them out and make our voices heard it's become right statistically challenging to
do so and look how quickly we saw d DHS beating people up who were protesting.
Right.
For people who are pro-abortion out there in LA.
I saw the clips,
fucking DHS goons rolling out and just what the fuck already.
But again,
they're showing you what to say.
They're showing you the stakes already.
Like when,
oh,
okay.
So you're here for that too.
And so that's another
thing body autonomy you know police violence that's don't don't think any of that's going to
change because you're going to now we're just saying we will be met with violence even if
you're there to say i'm i'm not even saying you need less money fool i'm here to say people deserve
body autonomy and now you want to fucking rough people up over that yeah all right well
that's been an episode joelle it's been sorry it is always such a pleasure having you on the show
yeah where can people find you and follow you and hear you uh let's remind yeah for news that is not
this but uh star wars and comic base if you need to enjoy some escapism
come check out comic-con metapod wherever you get your podcasts and you can follow me
all over the internet at well money gets j-o-e-l-l-e-m-o-n-i-q-u-e i have two tweets i
want to share one's a little dark one's a little hopeful so here we go first one comes from angry
black lady that's amanda gandy she's a lawyer she's pretty dope and she tweeted this on the night of may 2nd when we
found out everything it says tonight's abject panic makes it clear that people aren't ready
for what's about to happen get ready get your affairs in order figure out whether or not you're
willing to break the law to help a friend get an abortion and how far you're willing to go
in response to that someone said get, get ready, nothing in writing.
Don't say fuck about shit over the phone.
Don't take secrets to the grave.
To the grave.
We have each other's backs.
We shut our goddamn mouths.
We didn't hear anything.
You don't know anything.
You only love people harder than ever,
which I think is a great message and sort of aspirational to hear
a lot of abortion rights activists
who've been on the ground doing the work for years
have plans and are ready to go. And along those lines, Jennifer Gunter, who goes by Dr. Jen Gunter on
Twitter, who is the vagina doctor, and she is amazing. She has an incredible podcast. She said,
there's something concrete you can do today to support abortion. Look up your doctor, see if
they are a member of the AAP log. That is the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs.
This is a medical hate group that spreads lies about abortions.
If your doctor is listed, try to get a doctor who isn't.
Look it up if they took down their logs.
But feel free to call your doctor and just straight up ask them.
Get the information.
Share it with people you know who might go to that doctor.
If we can stop it at least somewhat at the source, if you can make sure you have a doctor that's an ally, that can go a long way to helping you in the future.
So some advice.
Yeah.
Miles, where can people find you?
What is a tweet you've been enjoying?
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at milesofgray.
Also, you know, if you like 90 Day fiance check out 420 day fiance and if you
like basketball and i know you probably do because the playoffs are just rumbling and bumbling check
out matt boosties uh jack basketball podcast yeah jaw jaw rastafari temetrius came uh i was just
agreeing with what you said in a vaguely german way oh i think that would be
yeah yeah okay uh yeah rastafari so the first some tweets i like david at underscore djs45
we're talking about the four-day work week tweeted my company just announced we're moving to a four
day work week let's go uh dreams congratulations you love to fucking hear that and then another tweet i like is from a
beautiful woman at tamagotchi milk tweeted hung out with my boyfriend's mom for too long was like
damn i love this bitch we're like literally the same person then i was like oh
Oh.
Morning.
Let's see.
Let's just go watch John Morant highlights, I guess,
on Twitter. That's what I've
been doing to keep myself sane.
The best. Put up 47
in the game
two nights ago.
Anyways, you can find me on Twitter
at Jack underscore O'Brien.
You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist.
We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram.
We have a Facebook fan page and a website, DailyZeitgeist.com,
where we post our episodes and our footnotes.
Footnotes.
Footnotes.
Where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode,
as well as a song that we think you might enjoy.
Miles, what song do you think people might enjoy
uh today we're gonna go out on a track called guessing games uh with the artist dev lemons
she's a musician you know uh a host of song psych but also you know good aka aka miss ipad aka d
lemmy aka lord lemquad. And her music is
dope. This track, Guessing Games, feels like
very sort of psych-pop R&B.
The keys are very, like, ethereal.
The vocals are very cool.
And, you know, just something a little bit different.
Familiar, but just slightly tweaked. So this is
Dev Lemons with Guessing Games.
Alright. Well, go check that
out. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of
iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. That is going to do it for us this morning.
We are back this afternoon to tell you what is trending, and we'll talk to you all then. Bye.
Bye.
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Keri Champion
and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports.
Up first, I explore the
making of a rivalry.
Kaitlyn Clark vs. Angel Reese.
Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history.
People are talking about women's basketball
just because of one single game.
Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports.
Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese,
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.
And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden.
We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career.
That's where we come in.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,
like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour.
If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation,
then I think it sort of eases us a little bit.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore
the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's
basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.
And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.
Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.