Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 11/25/25: GOP Majority At Risk Before Midterms, Dem Sen Threatened With Court Martial, Thanksgiving Advice

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Krystal and Saagar discuss Republican majority at risk before midterms, Dem Senator threatened with court martial, Thanksgiving advice.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc. And send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you.

Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. check out the second season of my podcast shell game on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts on this week's episode of next chapter i t dj sit down with denzel washington a two-time academy

award winning actor and cultural icon i don't take any credit for it i just didn't put me first i just put god first and he's carrying me listen to the next chapter podcast on the i heart radio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, new episodes drop weekly. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life,

how he redefined American television, and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows,

unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breaking points.com. All right, let's get to Congress. Turning now to Congress, interesting story. So in the wake of Marjorie Taylor Green's resignation, there's been a discussion about Congress in particular, and Republicans who are in Congress. What do they do all day? Do they even really want to stay there? There's been a spate, actually, of a number of people in Congress who are resigning. What was his name? Jared Gold. is that his name, in Maine, who said he would resign.

You have Marjorie Taylor Green, who said, or he said he wouldn't run for re-election. Marjorie Taylor Green said she's going to resign. But people broadly are just fed up with the institution, and they feel like they waste their time, and they don't do anything. Let's put this up here on the screen from Jake Sherman. He's one of these Inside the Beltway reporters who really, you know, he speaks to everybody and reports some of the inside gossip. So here's what he says.

A few other GOP members have messaged us over the weekend, saying they too are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here is one exercise senior House Republican. This entire White House team has treated all members like garbage, all, and Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all. Appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off-putting to members who run roughshod and threatened. They don't even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies, not even the high profile,

the regular rank-and-file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms. More explosive early resignations are coming. It's a Tinderbox. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel

and they will lose the majority before this term is out. That is shocking. Now, remember, I flagged this, that MTG resigning was a big, Big problem for Mike Johnson because that was, I mean, what is it, two votes there in the House of Representatives, you lose two more, take a look at an actuarial table, if you might, for the average age for a number of people in Congress, you're hanging on there by a real thread.

And I mean, I think what's interesting about the whole White House treating them like garbage thing is you could blame the White House, but you could also blame Congress. And then that's the part where I get a little bit annoyed, where I'm like, well, nothing's stopping you from being like MTG and trying to stand up, it's you're who afraid of standing up, quote, unquote, to Congress, or standing up to the White House, or, you know, getting on their bad side. You're the ones who live in fear of a Trump truth social or who go around the Capitol and say, well, I haven't seen the tweet,

or I'm not aware of what it is, or I'm not aware yet of what the president has said, but always praising him on the other side, even though behind the scenes you totally disagree. So it's kind of, it's a revealing story in the way that they act, but it also, it's on them. And I think that's really what I wanted to make this about is, look, I think it's sad that MTV is leaving. I really do wish that she would stay. At the very least, just to use her voice and salience to make other people uncomfortable stand

up to the White House. But, you know, nothing has stopped them from standing up on even issues like Venezuela, for example. I mean, they refuse to take control over their ability to declare war and to exercise some oversight over the United States military, which is their constitutional, you know, one of their obligations, right, is to review especially appropriations and the literal right to declare war. They refuse to exercise any power over that. They refused to exercise any power, let's say, over weapons shipments, and the Leahy law, like they pass laws into office, or they pass laws on the books, and then they refuse to actually ensure or try to ensure. that those laws are being followed. And this isn't just a Trump story. It's really a story of post-Iraq, is that ever since Iraq, when congressmen and senators, or when senators voted to support the war in Iraq, and then Hillary basically lost in 2008 because of the Iraq war vote, they just don't want to take any difficult vote, and they're happy to just pass the buck to the executives so that they own all the political consequences. And that's really the case

on everything. I mean, even if you remember Crystal Obamacare, not when it was passed, but when the Republicans tried to repeal it, many Republicans who lost in 2018 blamed their vote on Obamacare on trying to repeal Obamacare for the reason they lost. I remember Martha McSally specifically talking about that in the state of Arizona

and multiple others who actually ended up losing in that election. They don't want to take difficult votes. That's why they put things in big bills and they just kind of like shunt it once a year so that they can recover later on if they need to from the political consequences. So I blame the institution much more than I blame just the White House in this way. They're acting like most White House do when it comes to Congress. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, they're working together to give the executive as much power as possible.

Like, that's effectively what's happened here. I mean, they've co-signed Trump's executive power grab from the beginning, even if you think about Doge, right, out of the gates. Doge is now, by the way, finished after having, you know, decimated parts of the federal government, but achieved negative cost savings and, you know, wrought a lot of havoc in people's lives and degraded government services, et cetera. So congratulations to all involved. And now the Doge boys who were part of it are apparently afraid that they're going to be prosecuted for, you know, not following the law while they were there. But in any case, you know, out of the gates, all these Republicans were so excited about Doge and all this cost

cutting and, you know, completely on board with the executive branch. just unilaterally deciding what funds were going to be spent, what programs were going to be cut. They didn't assert their authority as a legislative body, you know, because I mean, this is the way this is supposed to work, as everyone knows, is Congress appropriates funds. And then the executive has discretion over exactly how Congress's wishes are fulfilled. But the constitutional understanding is that Congress has the power of the purse. And the executive branch doesn't just get to say, hey, we're just not doing the Department of Education anymore. No, that was congressionally mandated. So if you're a Republican and you have control of the House in the Senate

and you want to decimate USAID or you want to decimate the Department of Education, okay, those are congressionally mandated authorized agencies. You go through a process or if they're individual programs that you're like, you know what, I'm not on board with this subsidy to green energy or whatever it is. Again, you can pass legislation to roll back what was done in the past. Instead, they were happy to hand it off to Elon and his chainsaw and President Trump. So you can't now turn around and be like, hey, they treat us like a potted plant. They treat us like garbage. Or another quote was they act like we're the Duma, which is, you know, the Russian parliament that's just like a rubber stamp for Putin.

Like they treat us like that. It's like, yeah, you ask for that treatment. You handed all of this power. You went along with this whole executive power grab. You celebrated. You were in support of it. And now you're like, where's my consultation on this and that? like get out of here but you know i think the i think the sense of frustration and disgust

has set in after the 2025 election results where it is now incredibly clear that they are going to lose the majority so the only thing worse than being treated like garbage in a potted plant in the majority is being treated like garbage in a potted plant and being in the minority and having to deal with the democrats and whatever subpoenas and investigations they're going to do as well. So, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if this comes to pass that enough, say, forget it, I'm out of here before the midterms that Johnson loses his gavel. You know, they, a lot of these, like, they'll go to special elections. The timing of those varies by state. You know, I'm not sure exactly what will happen in Florida. It's a very red district.

You're likely to get another Republican. But in the meantime, there'll be a vacancy for a while that will make their, you know, holding on to the majority more difficult and keeping everyone together. require Mike Johnson to keep literally everyone together on every single priority. And then you look at something like, you know, in Tennessee, there's this special election going on right now in a district Trump won by 22 points. I think the Republicans are probably going to win it. But they're a little bit nervous. They're having to spend money. That shows you how dangerous this situation is, especially in special elections, where, you know, Democrats' high turnout base now shows up for these things. and Republicans, you know, base which is shifted and become more working class and is less

likely to turn up for these elections may not be paying attention. Yep. I think you are definitely correct. And for Mike Johnson, but let's put MTG's response, D2, up there on the screen. She says, fact check, it's true, but it's worse than people inside the bubble know when you talk to real Americans about the wicked snow globe of Washington, D.C. Love that. Myself and many of my colleagues have come courageously roaring into 2025 with legislation.

match the election mandate only to be totally side-bined by Johnson under full obedience of the White House. Executive orders are temporary. Cue memes have not obliterated the deep state. My colleagues constantly trying to pass loyalty test instead of demanding what is right, won't help Americans pay their rent, stop corporations for buying home, buy groceries, provide good-paying jobs, and more. Passing effective legislation that gets signed into law is permanent and actually solves problems. Now the House members are switching gears in a campaign mode and will be fighting for their lives. Our legislative majority has been wasted. Our best shot was the first shot was the first six to nine months. When Republicans lose the midterms, it becomes total and complete political

war. Gridlock once again. The Unip Party always wins. What is a convincing message for 2026 and likely 2028? It will be the American people asking candidates, what tangible thing have you done for me? How did it, how did it or will it make my life any better? I think she's right. It also demonstrates, you know, some of the issues that we have right now with Congress broadly. And there's also a joke, apparently. Let's put this next one up here on the screen. inside the White House top advisors joke that they are ruling Congress with an iron fist according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ballot, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian

assembly that is largely ceremonial, which is... Yeah, I forgot it was Bannon, who was the one who said that. Who said it was the Duma. Which Duma? That's the question. Real Russian Writers. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan?

Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finish drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet.

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one? in person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan.

Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers, wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream and one of

the most iconic set comes of all time. You get Desi Arnaz, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe, most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plening canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama,

I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, The moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television, and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man's spotlight lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. all right let's go to the let's go to the next part on sedition shall we yeah so you guys have been probably following the story we covered it on the show alice slotkin mark kelly and some other democratic members of congress like national security dems who either come out of the CIA former CIA or former military put out this video saying hey if there are unlawful orders

you should not follow them um not specifying which unlawful order etc. And I think it was meant to provoke. And it certainly got that response. Trump started calling them the seditious seven. He retweeted a comment that, you know, George Washington would have had them hanged. He said they were traitors, etc. Well, we have a new escalation in this battle. We can put E1 up on the screen. This is the Department of Defense statement here. They say the official statement, the Department of Wars, received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly retired in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice and other applicable regulations.

A thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court martial proceedings or administrative measures. This matter will be handled in compliance with military law, ensuring due process and a partiality. Oh, yeah. Okay. Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings. Department of War reminds all individuals that military retirees remain subject to the the UCMJ for applicable offenses and federal laws, such as this particular code, prohibit actions intended to interfere with the loyalty, morale, or good order, and discipline of the armed forces.

Any violations will be addressed through appropriate legal channels. All service members are reminded they have a legal obligation under the UCMJ to obey lawful orders and orders are presumed to be lawful as service members' personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order. We can put Mark Kelly's response here up. on the screen as well to get what he was saying. So he says, when I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy

and sworn oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school for space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired, which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.

In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on end. enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much. Secretary Hegg Seth's tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the president's post saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death. If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won't work.

I've given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more. about their own power than protecting the Constitution. Saga, I'm curious for your view on this. I mean, in some ways, I mean, what they said is basically on its face uncontroversial that, like, hey, if there are illegal orders, you don't have to follow them and you actually shouldn't follow them, which is just Ryan was saying it's basically like, hey, don't commit crimes, you know, it's very on its face, very uncontroversial. But because of the context around it, it was obviously meant to provoke.

And they did that very effectively. I mean, it reminded me of a sort of a Trumpian tactic. I was like, oh, these centrists are actually learning a little bit of something. And now they've created this whole conversation around, okay, well, which orders would be unlawful? And what are you talking about? And a whole fur around this with the Trump freak out and overreaction here. So I wonder what you make of it. Yeah, they're doing this guy the biggest favor they ever could.

Do you know how much skill it takes to make Mark Kelly compelling as figure? Right. It's one of the most boring guys I've ever seen in my... Look, no offense to a service record, not saying anything bad. Just saying, you know, it's like, I've seen the guy in person. This is not a lot going on there. But, you know, this is the best thing they could have done for him. In fact, the Democrats have already sent multiple fundraising emails with that exact same thing.

When the headers are all like, he wants to throw me in prison. They're going to turn this guy into a resistance hero. Recall him for court martial. By the way, given the conduct now currently, of the way, like, the judicial system that they have their track record, let's say, for example, in the Comey case, Letitia James, sandwich guy, multiple of these other cases they've brought, I wouldn't be so confident, you know, that they can come.

Oh, I mean, it's obviously ridiculous. Right, but you're allowed to, like, to state the obligations that they have under the Constitution. There's nothing illegal about that. What are they going to turn this into a few good men? You know, they're going to turn it into a few good men, literally. They're going to say it would be the most televised. court martial in U.S. history of cameras outside of the courtroom and other. They turn him into a goddamn hero, literally. Yeah. You just save his election down there in Arizona and, oh my God,

the amount of fundraising and profile. I mean, there's nothing else that these guys could want. And again, that's the irony, is that this is Mark Kelly we're talking about here. It sort of rescues them with the Democratic base too. Yes, I know. It's so annoying. These, like, centrist types. And it's like, I mean, they were, yeah, they were clever. And then it's annoying to me too. Like Slotkin got asked about, okay, well, are there unlawful orders? And then she's like, oh, I'm not saying that. It's like, you know what? If you're going to do this and flirt with this, like, just freaking come out and say it. You can at least raise questions about the Venezuela shit. We just did in this show, you know,

certainly you can speak to that as well. But they can, they're getting away with raising questions and like provoking Trump without actually having to be against any of the specific actions, some of which, you know, the Venezuela stuff, a bunch of Democrats, they may not like how Trump's going about it, but they're not out and out opposed, which is why a lot of Democrats have been very quiet about the possibility of regime change in Venezuela. But yeah, I mean, it's completely rescuing them and they're standing with the Democratic base, making it appear like they're fighting. And I think it was sort of a clever and Trumpian tactic, frankly. Here's the Pete Hegseth response that Mark Kelly had alluded to. He quote tweeted that original

Department of War statement. He says, the video made by the seditious six was despicable, reckless, encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their commanders, undermines every aspect of good order and discipline. Their foolish screed so's doubt and confusion, which only puts our warriors in danger. Five of the six individuals in that video do not fall under Department of War jurisdiction. One is CIA for our former military, but not retired, so they're no longer subject to UCMJ. However, Mark Kelly, retired Navy commander, is still subject to UCMJ, and he knows that, as was announced, the department is reviewing his statements and actions, which were addressed directly to all troops while explicitly using his rank and service affiliation, lending the appearance

authority to his words, Kelly's conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately. So, yeah, I mean, this is just, I don't know. It's just ridiculous. I mean, and also for these guys to wax about the order, especially Pete Heggseth. I mean, the one thing we know about his leadership at the Pentagon has been nothing but like chaos and absurdity the whole time, which is why he's relegated to these Twitter fights rather than doing the big boy negotiations that are going on right now, I guess. To this point about, let's go to the next one here, just about the, it just pains me. The incompetence, it just pains me. The judge has now dismissed the case against James Comey and Letitia James after finding the prosecutor was unlawfully

appointed. The judge ruled that Lindsay Halligan was appointed after Trump urged Japan Bondi to prosecute and the New York Attorney General. Bondi said Monday, the DOJ, will appeal the judge's ruling. So these charges against Comey and against Letitia James were dismissed, quote, without prejudice. So that means that it could be recharged and potentially overturned all of that on appeal. Obviously, you know, even with appeal

and all of that is there. But it's not looking so good. Considering the way that Halligan handled the case, considering the grand jury stuff that we'd revealed there previously. And, I mean, it's just going the same way of so many of these others, where they stand up, they make a big show of it,

and then it hits the judicial system, and they're like, yeah, I don't think so. So there you go. It's a big story, though, just to show how incompetently they handle the case because this was one of their flagship ones against Comey. And I'm sorry, you know, it tries me nuts. I don't want to sit here and defend James Comey.

I can't stand the guy. You know, I want him to prosecute it, to be honest. But, you know, the way that they've done it is just the most incompetent, foolish, ridiculous way. And, you know, then when they lose, too, it, of course, I mean, it just devalues any potential future argument. They have. And of course, Comey, he has rights and he's multi-millionaire who were able to contest to his defense. And his lawyers already pretty effectively took this one down. They were the ones who pointed out all of the ineptitude originally in the case. Yeah. And just as a reminder to people, the way this went down, you know, the original prosecutor in that district that, you know, basically was.

like we there's nothing here to indict on and he's pushed down then they put in lindsay halligan and that's what this ruling centers around as they say she was inappropriately appointed she's never been involved in a criminal prosecution before ever and now you're in charge of this incredibly high stakes high profile prosecution of jim komi she screws everything up about it you know doesn't present the grand jury with the final indictment so was likely to get thrown out for that as well. Then you also have Trump, you know, just out and out talking about how he wants this retribution about against Comey, which also could have gotten the case thrown out as well. The Letitia James one was just utterly absurd. This claim of mortgage fraud really no, they're

there. She had apparently, you know, checked the, her real estate broker had checked the wrong box. Tish James had emailed the broker and said, like, no, this is not my personal home. This is meant to be for someone else, et cetera. Bill Pulte, who's this apparacic within the housing administration in the Trump administration is the one who's been pulling these mortgage fraud cases to try to make something out of nothing. But in any case, both of them get tossed because of Lindsay Halligan's inappropriate appointment. And, you know, I mean, it matters a lot because the point of these prosecutions was not even necessarily that they would be successful. They were meant to frighten up the opposition and to send a message, right? I mean, this was,

If we think about the Trump administration coming out of the gates, coercing media, coercing law firms, coercing universities, this was part of that strategy to strike fear in the hearts of anyone who would dare oppose them. And so when the prosecutions end up this pathetic and shambolic, I'm not going to say that this has been a fun experience for Jim Comey, but it feels a lot less terrifying to be in the sights of this administration. when you see the way these things get laughed out of court and on multiple fronts are just like pathetic and ridiculous and shambolic and don't even, you know, don't even stand up to the slightest bit of scrutiny. So it doesn't exactly send a fearsome message to your opponents that you better not step out of line when they fall about when the, the prosecutions fall apart in such a dramatic and pathetic way. Yes, I totally agree. It's quite a joke. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks.

Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people.

Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app Or wherever you get your podcasts A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught The answers were there hidden in plain sight

So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island serial killer The investigation into the most notorious killer in New York Since the Son of Sam, available now. for free on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here. I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA Health, and I want to tell you about my new podcast called The Mailroom. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer.

And like a lot of guys, I haven't been to the doctor in many years. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Because guys usually don't go to the doctor unless a piece of their face is hanging off or they've broken a bone. Depends which bone. Well, that's true. Every week, we're breaking down the unique world of men's health, from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility and things that happen in the bedroom. You mean sleep? Yeah, something like that, Jordan. We'll talk science without the jargon and get you real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. It's going to be fun, whether you're 27, 97, or somewhere in between.

Men's health is about more than six packs and supplements. It's about energy, confidence, and connection. We don't just want you to live longer. We want you to live better. So check out the mailroom on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. All right. Let's go to our last segment. Thanksgiving. All right.

Here we go. So let's start with this sentiment from Scott Besson, who has some holiday advice for everyone about how to deal with inflation. Let's take a listen to that. Chris and I can tell you that council and economics. advisors has a study. You know the best way to bring your inflation rate down? Move from a blue state to a red state. Blue state inflation is half a percent higher. And that is because they don't deregulate. They keep prices up. Energy is higher. So, Sagar, if you're struggling with health care costs, if you're struggling with rent, if you're struggling with electric bills because

of the data center build on, just move. Just move. Now, if you are already living in one of those red states and are struggling and having your electric cut off. No advice or plans really coming from administration on that, but I don't know, I'm getting some Ben Shapiro vibes off of this clip. Very Ben Shapiro vibe that we get there from this secretary. Not usually a winning message. Look, I'm all for people moving if they want to. But, you know, one of the things I hate most about those types of messages is what if you don't want to? A lot of people don't want to move. And I like that. You know, a lot of people want to stay exactly where they grew up or near their parents. And I think that's great. And I think they should have the right to do so. And more importantly, I think policy should be designed

to help those types of people in particular. And so that's one of the things that really disgust me about this type of ideology of like, yeah, who cares about where you live in your community and where your parents are? If you want to, you know, if you just move because you're a widget and that's really what a place of living is. I think anybody who understands the concept of home, that's why they find it really offensive when Ben Shapiro or a Scott Besson says something like that. So that is the winning message ahead of Thanksgiving. I wonder, you know, I mean, we talked about politics at the table. If you think about, you know, everyone always talks about kitchen table issues, which is such a trite phrase, but there's obviously something

to it. What are people going to be complaining about whenever it comes to Thanksgiving? I think they will be complaining about housing. I think they will be complaining about, like you talked about data centers, but cost of living, about inflation. In one of the pieces we're about to get, actually, let's just get to enough. F3. Let's put the store prices in terms of what Thanksgiving dinner is actually going to cost. There has been some modest decrease in some elements of the Thanksgiving dinner. However, consumers are paying more for some. Now we have jellied cranberry sauce. We have homestyle gravy stuffing mix, buttermilk biscuits, party pie shells, rusted potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, and whipped toppings. Those have all increased in price by a couple

percentage points, or in the case of cranberry sauce, not sure we're going on with cranberry market, it's up by 40%. You will, however, be playing some 2.3% less whenever it comes to turkey and some 5% less for pumpkin pie mix. So if you put it all in the aggregate, it does look like it's going to cost a little bit more than it did last year or the very basket of it ingredients for Thanksgiving some 4.1% more than last year, but not a horrible increase whenever it comes to the main staples. It did say, though, that your pretty lucky that the mainstay meal of Thanksgiving is not beef because that's up some 15% year over year, in particular if you go and you look at the steak section. So it's one of those

where this, what gets me is, you know, the, it's not just about mess. Because right now there's all this talk in the White House. It's about messaging. It's about, no, it's not messaging. I used to say this about Biden. It's a reality problem. You can't message or chart post your way out of increase in price and malaise and the feeling that not much is happening. That's it. That's politics, period. You can never convince somebody that what they feel is not correct. You just can't. You really can't, especially whenever it comes to cost of living, which is where the vast majority of people feel a lot of precarity and they feel as if the basics are not attainable. Or if they are attainable, you have to work much harder and get by in a way that

you did not necessarily have to when your parents were growing up. And that's the essence of the overall American dream. So if anything, I feel like that might be a topic of conversation at Thanksgiving. And I think it should be. I think it should be. Because that's really what, I mean, when I bond with a lot of people, that's usually what it comes down to like, man, can you believe the cost of this? Can you believe that? I don't think that's how most people should want to spend their leisure time, but that's what it ends up being, I think, for most people. I want to be at the Thanksgiving dinner tables where they're talking about Epstein personally. Oh, well, you know what's funny? You know what's funny? When this guy goes, because I,

I don't generally try to talk about politics or anything, because I get it. It's like, this is my job and all of that. And so most people don't necessarily want to get into it. But Epstein, people are always asked, no matter where I go. In relatives, that's the Epstein question is the one. And I'm always like, sit down, grab a drink or something. Let's talk. This is where we're going to go back.

I'll be like, let me tell you about the Dalton School in 1978. And they're like, oh, man, I'm like, yeah, we're going to go. We're going together. Buckle up for the ride. So that's what Thanksgiving with me is like. I saw someone on Twitter saying that Zoron with Trump pulled the classic leftist Thanksgiving move of talking about how much you hate liberals and then just leaving everything else vague. That's true. Yeah, I like that. I think there's a lot to do that, especially if he probably like, you know, railed against the media.

There were some allusions to that in the media of, in the meeting of like, oh, that one, the media did actually get right about me saying that. So I think he had previously talked about how, oh, the media says that says these things about me. They're not really true, you know, just the way the media mischaracterizes you is the same way they mischaracterized me. So, you know, if you're on the left and you're looking to bond with the conservative, that's always a way to go. But I actually feel soccer, you know, I understand the country is very divided. But I do actually feel like there are a lot of issues now that would be places where, whether you're left, liberal, you know, right, MAGA, whatever, where you could. you could find some common ground. I think you could talk about health care. I think you could talk about cost of living. I think you could talk about wars. I think you could talk about

data centers. I think there are, I think you could talk about Epstein. I think there are a lot of areas where you probably, unless you have someone who is just an absolute, you know, psycho-ideologue, which is never worth talking to those people anyway, where you could actually have a reasonable conversation and exchange of ideas. And I do support that. I think that's healthy for people to be able to do. I totally agree. All right, last page, I had to get this in here. The Secretary of Transportation So Thanksgiving travel right now is a shit show, right? Airline travel has been horrible ever since the shutdown. The sector of transportation after my heart and only my heart because nobody else wants to hear this message. Here's what he had to say. We have to think about how do we

do a better job? How do we maintain maybe some of that frustration we have as we travel this Thanksgiving season? Maybe we should say please and thank you to our pilots and to our flight attendance, I think, again, I call this just maybe dressing with some respect, you know, whether it's a pair of jeans and a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us, encourages us to maybe behave a little better. Let's try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport. He's right. No pajamas at the airport. He is absolutely right. Now, that said, because people are going to get mad, I, here's my, here's my nuanced take on this, is the airlines have now treated us like shit for 20 years. And by

emiserating people, by nickel and dimming, by making cattle boarding and treating everybody like shit, and then also by, you know, oh, the beverage costs, creating the smallest seats and all of that ever, their decline in standards is then reflected in the way people think about travel. So if travel is going to be an emiserating, you know, horrible experience, then yes, nobody is going to dress up to go to the airport. And so my grand bargain is the airlines have to treat us better. And in exchange, we will show up better to the airport. That is my grand bargain. I'll take that. Yeah. I'll take that. I mean, I will also say, like, listen, Thanksgiving travel, you're talking about usually traveling with your kids.

You know, at some ungodly hour, everyone is miserable. Like, the least you can do is try to be a little bit comfy. So no judgment there. I feel like the only people who really dress up for air travel at this point are like gay men and Instagram models. No, that's absolutely incorrect. That's a direct shot at me. No, I'll tell you. Do you really dress up for the Air Force saga? I mean, I don't, I don't wear a full suit. But I'm trying to think, I think I maybe flew in sweats once. And that was, that was India to U.S., you know, in my defense. It was a 16 and a half hour flight. Deli to J.F. You haven't flown a lot with Priya yet.

No, only once. Yeah, only once. Yeah. I will say with children, it would be difficult because, you know, do I really want spit up all over this thing? Yeah, baby's puking on you, that's ruling on you. And, you know, you're changing diapers and whatever. You're going to be dressed up for that.

I've changed. I've changed diapers in a suit. And it's been an unfortunate situation, which I had to explain to my doctor. But I'm just saying, you know, when you're dealing with a baby or a toddler or a young child like that just totally changes the calculation where you're just in survival mode you know and if if your if your comfort is going to make things like one percent easier than i say absolutely go for it i defend the rights of new parents to to dress i'm definitely a comfort and ease airport dresser right i'm going to have shoes that are slip-ons so it's easy to get

through security because i don't have ts security does complicate this not fancy like that yeah security You know, I'm going to, there are going to be layers involved because, you know, the airplane is either going to be, like, 20 degrees or 100 degrees. So you either need to be able to, like, take off the jacket or put the jacket on or the blanket or whatever you've got. So hair is going to be in a ponytail. Let's, that's the way it's going to be. So, all, I mean, listen, if you're right, if they up the standards, maybe that would change the situation. We all need mutually better standing. That's the reality.

My thing is, I remember in Japan, everyone is dressed incredibly. And I was thinking about it. And I go, you know, I really think it's not just that. It's that everything there is nice. When the subway system is nice and it's clean and everything is, you know, is either upgraded or very well-kempt, then you yourself want to feel well-kempt when you're taking or using that. There are all these viral videos I encourage people to go watch of people walking around Tokyo with white socks and then they look at the bottom of their feet.

And it's still, it's like pristine. They'll walk through the busiest streets of Tokyo wearing white. Clean white socks. There's barely any black on there. Another person, you know the escalator black thing, like when you're going up the escalator, the handrail. They compare the New York City subway one, which is pitch black by the time they get up to the top to the Tokyo subway, barely any residue. When things are like that, then you don't feel bad about, you know, dressing nicely. And you don't feel filthy like subway clothes for New York. So anyway, that's my overall take. You can talk about that at Thanksgiving. There if you go. Well, Sagar, Emily has, we've learned during the course of the show, we got some more information about this Baja Blast pie that you're going to be trying. Apparently, Taco Bell already discontinued it. I guess it was not much of a hit. So she handmade it.

She sent us pictures of her boiling the Baja blast on her stuff. That pot will never be the same. It will never be the same that pot. I said, what would RFK Jr. say, you know, it's just going to be shaking his head. I'm a little sad that I won't be there to try. You'll have to tell me how it is. I am a little bit concerned Emily is trying to take you out and take your slot. But, you know, I think you probably have it.

She can have it as long as I get my Baja Blast pie, all right? I'll be honest. I'm not a big pie guy. I hate to say it. I know I'm from Texas pecan pie. Oh, pecan pie. You know, pecan pie, it's too sugary. It's kind of gross.

I hate to say it. I'm a fan. I can have a bite. Do you have a whole slice? Okay, but if you're going to eat a pie, what's your favorite pie? Like pumpkin pie, because it's got that cinnamon in it. It's not too sweet, you know. I'm an apple pie.

I'm an apple pie fan. That's probably my number one. I mean, I do enjoy all of them. I like a cherry pie. I like a pecan pie. I like a pumpkin pie. I'll take it all. But probably my number one is classic apple pie, alamode, with some whipped cream as well.

You can't go wrong with it. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. That sounds good. I wouldn't put the vanilla ice cream, though. You've got to put the whipped cream. That's in my opinion. I don't have a big sweet tooth. I don't have a big sweet tooth. I'm not a big sweet guy.

But we'll see. We'll see. I do like Baja Blast. Diet Maa Blast. It's good. All right. Let's get to the AMA live. Producer Mac and I will be eating the Baja Blast pie live on camera. So that's why you should sign up. Breaking Points. Not yet. And happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And Sager and I will see you guys next week.

Safe travels, everyone. We'll see you all on Monday. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan, just one page as a Google Doc, and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a

real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the IHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. of next chapter, I, T.D. Jake, sit down with Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award-winning actor and cultural icon for a conversation about change, identity, and the moment everything shifted. I mean, I don't take any credit for it. It's nothing I did as special, you know, did knock down a few pegs and recognize it, but I just didn't put me first. I just put God first and he's carried me. Whether you're rebuilding, reimagining, or just trying to hold it together, this one will

speak to you. Listen to the next chapter podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, new episodes drop weekly. Don't miss one of them. Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here. I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA, and I want to tell you about my new podcast called The Mail Room. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer. And like most guys, I haven't been to the doctor in way too long. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't.

Every week, we're breaking down the world of men's health from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility. We'll talk science without the jargon and get your real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. So check out the Mailroom on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.