Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 680: Got Him!

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

Show Notes  

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19-plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. This episode of Cognitive Dissonance is brought to you by our patrons. You fucking rock. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. recording live from gloryhole studios in chicago and beyond this is cognitive dissonance every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way we bring critical thinking skept, and irreverence. Do any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical.

It's political. And there is no welcome mat. This is episode 680 of Cognitive Dissonance. Big news, Tom. Big news. Cecil, I have a question for you before we start. Okay, sure. Yeah, go ahead.

How was your day? Better than Trump's. Hey, bud, did you happen to get indicted today? Better than Trump's. Because I didn't get fucking indicted all day. I mean, I'm just saying. Better than Trump's. Better than Trump's.

I have not. I'll tell you. It is, what time are we recording? It's about 8 o'clock on Thursday, the 30th. And I just want listeners to know, I haven't been indicted on 30 fraud counts all day long.

The whole day. I know I still got four hours to go. Were you indicted on like two though? I wasn't indicted on any fraud charges. Zero fraud charges.

Zero fraud charges. We need those those like noisemakers like it's fucking New Year's. There's those guys like once in a while you'll see a guy in like a pornoakers like it's fucking New Year's. There's those guys like once in a while you'll see a guy in like a porno

who like ejaculates and he shoots it across the room. That's what this feels like. Oh yeah. It feels like you have blue balls for I mean it's like

a half a decade. Yeah man. It's like a half a decade. Yeah. Because a lot of this stuff like people knew Trump was a dirtbag for years.

Oh yeah. It's not like there's some, you know, oh my god, it's a, you know, Trump, a pillar of the community. It's not like somebody had to hold a fucking car neck envelope up to their fucking head to figure out whether or not he's a cheat. Like, people knew he was a dirtbag a long time ago when he was

fucking, like, discriminating against African Americans in his apartment complex. We found out later on that there was tons of weird money movement between his father and him and his siblings and all kinds of stuff

in the New York Times. We found out that he, you know, it wasn't his, it wasn't for him trying, but he failed to work well with the Russians even though he tried to do it

he routinely didn't pay contractors like New Yorkers hate him there's so much everybody fucking hates there's so much quick story we're walking in New York first time we ever met Eli in person we're walking down the street you and him and as a joke we're bad go joking back and forth

about Trump. This was before he even ran. This was before the clown car even. He had said he was going to be in running for office. And I said something like, oh, if he gets in, I'll definitely vote for him. And this girl, she's not a part of our conversation. Five feet in front of her, she turns up, she's like,

fuck you if you vote for Trump. She walked away. And then Eli starts to apologize. He's like, no, no, no. They're just going to be like, who is this lady? I remember this. What is happening right now? Eli was like, no, no, no. He's not like that. And you were like, why are you in my conversation,

weird random person? It was wonderful. That was great. I remember that. That was so funny. But you could tell New Yorkers, they don't have a lot of love for Trump. Not a lot of love. Because he's like, he's a hometown guy and they're like,

they're done with his shit. They've been putting up with his shit and eating his shit for years. A long time. With all his fucking shitty developments and his shortchanging of contractors and his fucking grandstanding fucking narcissistic preening bullshit.

Yeah, man. This is a guy who couldn't make money running a casino. You know what I mean? guy who couldn't make money running a casino. You know what I mean? How do you not make money running a casino? This is a complete piece of shit. And then he announces he's going to run for president. Comes down his fucking gilded fucking escalator or whatever.

He announces he's going to run. But first, he's got to do something. He's got to pay off Stormy Daniels. Stormy Daniels is an adult film performer that he evidently had sex with. And she was like, gonna chit chat about that because that's a thing that happened. And he's like,

how about I give you $130,000 through my fucking proxy, Michael Cohen, and you don't say anything. Of campaign money. And beyond that, like, any money that's used to influence the campaign becomes campaign money. So even if that money wasn any money that's used to influence the campaign becomes campaign money so even if that money wasn't like earmarked specifically yeah i guess maybe you're right it might not have might have been his money that he but yeah but it does become

campaign money at that point it's used to influence the campaign yeah well that's fucking illegal you can't do that you can't fucking silence somebody in order to like obfuscate truths so that the American public gets a less clear picture of fucking who you are. I know, man. And then there's FEC. There's 30 counts, dude. 30 fucking fraud counts.

Let's just call this up. So for the people watching, they can see this story right now, but it's Donald Trump is indicted in New York. It's a live story. Literally happened while you were on your way over. I know. You texted it to me. I indicted in New York. It's a live story literally happened while you were on your way over. I know, you texted it to me. I mean, like I texted the story to you,

but really genuinely, this is all just developing right now. Yeah, so we're just going to read to you guys because there was no way for us to get up to date on this ahead of record, but how do we not talk about this? Yeah, I mean, we watched a few minutes of TV while we ate,

but, but really it's, it's time to just sort of read this story and figure out what's going on. Yeah. All right. So again, New York times, Donald Trump's indicted in New York. Trump will be the first former president to face criminal charges. The precise charges are not known yet. There's not unsealed yet. Yeah. But the case is focused on the hush money from 2016. Donald J. Trump was indicted in Manhattan on Thursday for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to five people with knowledge of the matter, a historic development that will shake up the 24 presidential campaign and forever mark him as the nation's first former president to face criminal charges. And it is nice to have first the first. Yeah, no, sure. First to be impeached twice. Yeah,

absolutely. He's a president of firsts. The first to have an insurrection. Yes. The first to be impeached twice. Yeah, absolutely. He's a president of firsts. The first to have an insurrection. Yes, the first to oversee and foment insurrection. The first attack against the Capitol by domestic forces since the Civil War. I mean, such...

A lot of firsts. What a legacy. What a legacy. I want to just interject really quickly. You know, what I would have thought would have happened if something like this were to happen, say, a couple years ago,

is I recognize that the Republican Party could sort of turn into the blood in the water party. Right? Blood in the water. He's weak now. Time to take him down. But I don't think that's going to happen. No, I don't either. And it's because of what happened during

the insurrection is what makes me realize because they did. There was six, seven that started to turn very quickly and say, oh, look at what he did. Here's a big speech about how bad that is. And not just one, multiple people.

And then it just got tuned back because they recognized that that shit didn't play at all with his followers. And so he now, they now pulled back. They rolled it back. And so now we're in this weird position

where what I thought was, I mean, the Democrats 100% blood in the water, get rid of it. I mean, I've seen that happen time and time and time again. You look at Al Franken, perfect example. Blood in the water, get rid of it. I mean, I've seen that happen time and time and time again.

You look at Al Franken. Perfect example. Blood in the water, you're gone. Doesn't matter. They will eat you alive. But Trump has this weird pull over a ton of people in this country. And it's not going to, I don't feel like they're going to reject him outright. No, I don't either.

And I think part of it too is that there's a, I think there's like a contingent now, a significant contingent in Congress of the, like, we've talked about it before, the troll party. Yeah. You know, and they have banked on a kind of, a new kind of politics, a Trumpist kind of politics.

Trump is not just a Republican. Trump has ushered in a new era of politicking that is just entirely different than anything we've seen before. It's really, functionally, the Republican Party centered around Trump is a different party. It is an entirely different party

than the Republicans of even seven, eight, 10 years ago. It's an entirely new party with different tactics. It's very different. I mean, in 2020, they didn't even put out a, the Republicans didn't even put out like a message statement or what is it called? A platform. They had no platform. Their platform was elect Trump. That was their whole platform. There was no Republican party platform. So they've got this, they've got this weird space that they're in where they've tuned up this base of freaks,

just complete fucking freaks. And this base of freaks is going to vote for Trump no matter what. They are, because this is not about policy or issues. This is about the cult of personality that he's created around himself. Absolutely. It's about a person. It's all about a person. And it's weird, man. Yeah. It's really weird. It's horrible. This is drinking Kool-Aid stuff.

And I'm not saying that with hyperbole. I know. Genuinely, this could be, here's a bucket of Kool-Aid, drink some of this, and I don't doubt that many people would. Yeah. I took a drive today. I took a drive today.

I took a drive today. And like, I've been, I'm like a guy who's always spent a lot of time on the road. You know, and I'm a guy who like, I read every bumper sticker. I get like everybody else, you know? And I remember, you know, when other Republicans were in charge, when W was in charge, for example, you'd see W stickers and they would just say George W. Bush, you know, or like some little slogan, you know, but you'd see something on it. When you see Trump stuff now, it's like emblazoned all over. Like people are covering, they're defining who they are.

Yeah. In a way that your politics, maybe your politics defined who you were in the sense that you were hard and fast on certain issues, and particularly wedge issues, and particularly even social cultural wedge issues. But never before in my lifetime have I seen the attachment of your own personal identity as a subset of some other person's identity. You didn't see that shit with W.

You didn't see that shit with any other, you didn't see that with any, the Democrats certainly didn't. People would have like Obama stickers on their car, but they wouldn't have fucking flags and like six different slogans

and MAGA and you know, like now we're driving around and I'm seeing shit. That's like all the like coverings, like your goddamn car is a goddamn like advertisement of craziness. And it's, it's, I mean, I just today it's like info wars and like fucking assault rifle, like decals and shit and Trump stuff. And like, and it's all this like, I don't know, man. It's like this like constellation of like self-defining craziness. Yeah.

Just absolutely like scary. You're right. Extremist, crazy bullshit. It's weird, dude. Do you think there'll be something that pops up because of this? Do you think there'll be some violence?

I do. Yeah. I do. I don't know. Like I don't put anything past anyone now. And like, yeah, I do. I think. I don't know. Like, I don't put anything past anyone now. And like, yeah, I do. I think there's going to be. No, I don't think you're wrong.

I don't think you're wrong. I almost can't imagine how there wouldn't. Yeah. I mean, while he was in office, someone tried to pipe bomb reporters. Yeah. Why would I think that that wouldn't happen when he was arrested? Yeah. I feel like this is going to this is going to be weird, man.

Yeah. Like, I don't think there's going to be a civil war. No, I don't think so either. I don't think so either, but I don't, I don't discount that there will be people who act very rashly.

Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. I think to a large degree, I think that organized right-wing extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have taken a lot of damage as a result of January 6th. And a lot of those guys getting arrested and sent away. And, you know, those guys, a lot of those guys actually got real prison time.

Yeah. They got real prison time. Yeah, for real. That was not a joke. Yeah. They didn't get the, like, slap on the wrist. No, they got a big. They got some of, I mean, they got.

Sizable prison terms for some of them. And I think that to some degree has hurt those organizations. But I think there's going to be a bunch of fucking lunatics that have been tuned up now, like you say, like have been tuned up now

for six, seven years. And they're all fucking foaming at the mouth. And they're unhinged from reality. They really are completely... And again, and I know you feel this, like drive around and look at the bumper stickers

that adorn people's cars, like the really crazy ones. And you're like, that is somebody who's not in touch with reality. That's somebody who's not, like they're completely disconnected. And also,

I don't think that they can like, in the same way that you used to be able to before, where you could say, oh, I endorse this political candidate. I really like them. They fucked up. I can take my bumper sticker off, but I'm still Tom.

Some of these people, if they're not Trumpists, who the fuck will they be? You're right. And also they probably would have never had a dog in this hunt if it wasn't for Trump. They probably would be non-voters or maybe a red voter every eight years instead of every four or every now, every one.

Yeah. And now they're like, they're fucking riled up. Yeah. They're riled up. They're in this, they think they're a part of this culture war.

He created a culture war. He very much did. Yeah. On Thursday evening, after news of the charges had been widely reported, the district attorney's office confirmed that Mr. Trump had been indicted and that prosecutors had contacted Mr. Trump's

attorney to coordinate his surrender. Three people acknowledged the matter, said Mr. Trump was expected to turn himself in and face arraignment early next week, at which point the specific charges will be unsealed. Mr. Trump had for decades avoided criminal charges despite persistent scrutiny and repeated investigations, creating an aura of legal invincibility that the indictment threatens to puncture. His actions surrounding his 2020 electoral defeat are now the focus of a separate federal investigation. And a Georgia prosecutor is in the final stages of an investigation into Mr. Trump's attempts to reverse the election results in that state.

Yeah. These are not small crimes either. The other two that they're talking about, one of them is fomenting an insurrection. And then the other one is the Georgia phone call that he had with the Secretary of State and that other person when they was talking about the 1,780 votes or whatever. Yeah, I think there's every reason to believe from what I've read there that there's a real serious possibility that he'll be indicted in Georgia. I don't actually think that the federal...

I don't think he'll be indicted on federal crimes. I don't think so either. I think the politics around that insulate him. But I think that it is very real possibility that he'll be indicted in Georgia. It'd be crazy to be... What a crazy thing to be in Georgia

and get indicted like that. Yeah, man. What a crazy thing in a state that really was... It was just by a needle that they barely lost that state. He barely lost and Biden barely won.

Yep. And a ton of supporters in that state and even people that were behind all of the election, the collection of all the ballots and the running of the election were all Republicans. They were all in his camp. And then to run into legal trouble that way, that's a big deal. To run into legal trouble in Georgia under those circumstances, talking to Republicans. I know. You know, it's not like he had a phone call

with Democrats that went bad. He had a phone call with Republicans. He had a phone call with Republicans that was recorded and released. And it was released so fast after it happened. Yeah, and they were incredulous because there are still some people out there

who as full of bad ideas as they are, that's why they're Republican, right? Because you're full of fucking bad ideas. But as full of fucking bad ideas as they are, they're still like,

hold on a minute, there's a fucking rule of law. Like, I might not respect, you know, other people's right to exist. I might be the fucking worst because I'm a Republican. But a lot of them

have grown up with a respect for the rule of law worst because I'm a Republican, but a lot of them have grown up with a respect for the rule of law. So I, and I, I do think this will create a schism in the Republican party. I don't think that we'll see a wholesale blood in the water leaving, but I do think we'll see a schism here. I hope so, man. I hope that, you know, I have been banking on the integrity of Republicans for too long, though. That is a sentence that now I feel stupid for saying the other sentence I said. Yeah, as soon as you said, like,

the integrity of Republicans, like, I almost threw up in my- But I mean, really, genuinely, the integrity of Republicans is what you're hoping for. Right. You're hoping someone has enough integrity. And it's not that it doesn't exist because we did see it.

Like I said earlier, January 6th, McCarthy had a speech that was pretty fiery. Romney. McConnell. Yeah. Got these people. There's several people that came out and said some pretty fiery stuff. So you know that they at least have some, I hesitate to call them principles,

but you know what I mean, right? They have something that is a limit. There's a limiter there, right? They have a limit to the amount of bullshit that they're willing to take while they still try to cover it up and clean it up and suck these votes up. And I feel like Trump, he has this power over all of them.

And I think that the people who saw it fail before might be in this position now where they say, well, I'm not going to fail again. And they might now push back and they might attack. And even of all the people now we might get to it here of all the people who should be going after blood in the water style is DeSantis. And it doesn't sound like he's doing that. Yeah. I think DeSantis is in a really unenviable position. I was thinking about this and like, if, if DeSantis, thinking about this like if if desantis let's say trump surrenders himself desantis has to decide whether he's going to align himself because remember desantis a lot of desantis's support

is support that comes from the same fucking cadre of crazies that support trump so he can't really turn on trump completely because the same people that were filling the fucking stadiums for Trump are the same people that voted DeSantis in, like to a large degree. He's kind of taken on a lot of the same tactics as Trump. So I think if he denounces Trump, it's going to turn off a lot of those people who are going to be like, oh, now you're, you know, but he's also like, that's his opponent in the 24 election. And the same is true if Trump doesn't surrender himself. I think he will. He'll absolutely surrender himself. But let's say he doesn't surrender himself. Then the mechanism is that he has to get extradited then from Florida

to New York if he doesn't surrender himself. And the governor procedurally has to approve that extradition. It's like a rubber stamp thing. But he could just not hit the rubber stamp. But then he's sort of, I mean, not sort of, then he's completely breaking the rule of law. He's in an impossible spot. He's in a bad spot. This fucks DeSantis.

He's in a bad spot. This absolutely fucks DeSantis. He's in a bad spot. This absolutely fucks DeSantis. I think DeSantis, though, we're talking about him not extraditing Trump because that was the story. That's the next story on here. But really, genuinely, I wonder if he saw that Trump was going to surrender anyway, and now this is just puffing after the fact. I actually, I agree with that.

I think that the only win for DeSantis is for him to not denounce Trump, not talk directly about Trump, talk about, you know, how, you know, the unfairness of it, liberal prosecutors and all this. These are our enemies. Right. Yeah. Turn the focus, turn the focus if you're DeSantis, keep the focus on like the politicization of the arrest itself tell everybody you're not going to cooperate with something no one's going to ask you to do

sure it's that same shit where people are like woulda shoulda butta coulda yeah I'd have beat that guy's ass I'd have beat his ass

if his wife wasn't there yup oh man now that I'm in the car driving away boy I would have kicked his ass all you had to do

was say it Tom but you didn't say anything and so I didn't ask that's why I didn't do it but Tom I would have kicked his ass it's like had to do was say it, Tom, but you didn't say anything. And so I didn't ask why I didn't do it. Tom, I would have kicked his ass. It's like those, you know, I always laugh when you hear people say stupid shit. Like I'd take a bullet.

I'd die for that guy. It's like, no one's ever going to ask you to do that. Also, no, you wouldn't. Would you help them move? Also, no, you wouldn't. Like the thing is like, no, you wouldn't. But like, no one's going to ask you for that. I would take a bullet for him,

but I'd take a bullet for him, but I certainly would help him. But you're not going to carry the couch, motherfucker. Like, I've heard, you know what I mean? You hear that shit all the time. It's like, I'll totally dedicate myself to something no one will ever ask me to do. I've helped people I don't even like move. I know, man. I've been on the other end of that move.

I know. Oh, man. But you know what I mean? It's like holding up your fucking chin and fucking puffing out your chest and being like, I'll do the thing no one's ever going to ask me to do. You're like, cool, man. Cool. What about the things people ask you to do?

And in this case, like DeSantis, like what really DeSantis should be doing is saying the rule of law means something and no one is above the law. And if I want to be your executive in charge of this country, if I want to run the executive branch, then the job of the executive branch is literally to enforce the laws of the legislature. That is the job of the executive branch. This is an opportunity for him to, to your point, act with some fucking integrity. But he doesn't want

integrity. What he wants is to win. What he wants is Trump's votes. Yep. He wants those votes. But unlike the investigations that arose from his time in the White House, this case is built around a tawdry episode that predates Mr. Trump's presidency. This next sentence that I'm going to read should be impossible to write in a serious timeline. Trump's presidency. This next sentence that I'm going to read should be impossible to write

in a serious timeline. It really should. The reality star turned presidential candidate who shocked the political establishment by winning the White House now faces a reckoning for a hush money payment that buried a sex scandal in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

Did they say when he had sex with her? No, I don't know when he had sex with her. I thought I heard that it was like when, when Barron Trump was, when she was pregnant with Barron or whatever. I don't know. I thought that's what I, I don't know if that's true, right?

That's one of those, I heard a thing. Right. But that would have been, because he was 10, something like 10 years old when he got in office. Okay. So it'd been long before 2016. It was a long time ago.

At least that's, again, take that with whatever. I have no idea, right? Like, I don't know. Guys, I don't care. Like, when he had sex with her. I don't care either

except for that I do. And here's why I do. Because this is a guy that is being endorsed by right-wing moral extremists. No, you're right.

By evangelicals and absolutely. And so I care that way, right? I care because it highlights the insane hypocritical nature of the moral right-wing majority. Yeah, for sure, yeah. This is a guy who has, at the very least,

because I don't think Trump has denied that he had sex with Stormy Daniels. In fact, the last thing I saw on a tweet was something like, that was a long time ago. I don't think Trump has denied that he had sex with Stormy Daniels. In fact, the last thing I saw on the tweet was something like, that was a long time ago. I don't know why anyone cares. He said something like, that was a long time ago. This is water under the bridge or whatever he said. Not like I didn't do that. He's being cagey about not saying things like, I never had sex with that woman.

He's not saying that shit not saying things like, I never had sex with that woman, right? He's not saying that shit. And that seems important. That seems important. But like, I care because like I said, the hypocritical right-wing moral extremists, this is a guy who's cheated on his wife. This guy who's been divorced twice.

I agree. This is like gross. But what I also don't care about is the details, right? I guess that's what I mean to say is that I don't care about the details of what happened. No, I don't either. The ins and outs of what happened are of little consequence. Beyond that? The only reason I would care about when it happened is because, again, the people that are moralistically superior, and I'm using air quotes for people who aren't watching, those people are the ones that are backing him. And the timing would matter.

The timing can make it more gross than just cheating on his wife. Right. Like, oh, cheating while your wife was pregnant with your kid? Yeah. Like, holy shit, dude. It could be worse. Holy dude. It could be worse. Holy shit. It could be worse.

And that's what I'm saying. That's the only reason I would care. This is political persecution and electoral and election interference at the highest level in history, Mr. Trump said in a statement calling Mr. Bragg a disgrace. What are you talking about? Election interference? He cast himself as a completely innocent person. Trump has consistently denied all wrongdoing and says he did not have an affair with the

porn star. So I was wrong. Okay. I was wrong. All right. I want to say though, real quick election interference, you know,

like no, nothing is stopping him at all from running with a felony on his record. Right. You can be a felon and run. Can you be a felon and be, I think so. I don't think there's any rules whatsoever about a person being under indictment,

previously charged with a crime. I don't think any of that. A convicted felon. I think so. I don't think there's anything. You know what would be fucking amazing? He's a Florida resident. So here's something that I think is really fucking hilarious

now that I think about this. That motherfucker's a Florida resident. If he were tried and convicted of a felony in Florida, he would not be able to vote for himself. That's right. Yeah. That would be funny. He'd have to find another place where he could.

Yeah. He would have to move, change residency. They don't do that. They just, he just buy a place, rent a place. He wouldn't even buy it.

Cause Mark Meadows like have like a camper in the woods or some shit. Mark Meadows had a trailer that nobody lived in. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. Okay, you're right. On Thursday, the three lead prosecutors in the case walked into the building where the grand jury arriving minutes before the panel was scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. One carried a copy of the penal law with post-it notes visible,

which was, penal law is hilarious, by the way. Oh yeah, especially for this. Penal law especially. That is great. That's Callie. If you're fucking a porn star, that definitely comes under penal law. hilarious by the way especially for this penal law especially that is great that's Caliente if you're fucking a porn star that definitely comes under penal law absolutely very very small

which was likely used to read the criminal statutes to the grand jurors before they voted about three hours later the prosecutors walked into the court clerk's office through a back door

Caliente also Caliente to begin the process of filing the indictment. For weeks, the atmosphere outside the district attorney's office had resembled a circus.

It didn't really, though. Yeah, probably. Do you think it had clowns? They don't do elephants. There's definitely one clown involved. All right. All right.

Yeah, you could. But the fervor had cooled in recent days. He's the saddest clown. He's got that one little tear going down. He's like, you know what?

He is a clown and I am right to be afraid of clown down. He's like, you know what? He is a clown, and I am right to be afraid of clowns. That makes sense. It makes sense. But the fervor had cooled in recent days, and the outskirts of the office were emptier on Thursday than they had been in weeks. And more than you need to know.

But let's talk a little bit about DeSantis. DeSantis says Florida wouldn't aid Trump's extradition to New York. Again, this feels to me like just bravado. Doesn't feel like any real substance

behind this. He's only doing this because he feels like he can get away with it and not be called on it. Easy. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who's widely expected to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 24, called the indictment of Mr. Trump un-American. And that's what that goes to back to your point, right?

He's got to still court these people. Yeah, right. Can't just reject him. He can't just say, see that fucker Trump deserve this. He's a bad person. You shouldn't vote for him because he knows the kind of hold that Trump has on those people. That's what's going to be interesting if they really do go head-to-head in a primary.

Primaries are bloodbaths. They really are, man. A primary is a fucking bloodbath. They really are. And I've been wondering, like, if DeSantis goes head-to-head with Trump in the bloodbath of a primary, he's going to have to attack Trump.

He's going to be in an impossible spot. He's going to have to attack Trump. He's going to be in an impossible spot. He's going to have to attack Trump while also trying not to alienate those same Trump adjacent voters, right? Because like what nobody is doing is offering a full alternative to Trumpism. And what they want to do is they want to take the Trump voters because they saw that turnout.

They saw that fucking crazy, lunatic, nut job turnout. See how many people came out to not only vote for, but vote against. Yeah, man. A lot of people came out to vote against. That's the other thing that I think would be as fascinating is that I think truly that if Trump doesn't win the primary, voter turnout will be low as fuck. You're probably right. Because everyone's just going to be like, oh, God, I don't give a fuck. You know? There won't be this like...

He'll win the primary, though, I think. You think he'll... I don't know that he'll win the primary. I don't know. You're right. I haven't seen anything. I can't make a decision yet. I am not convinced.

Because I'm not sure. I don't know what would happen in a primary situation between them. And really, you don't even know, especially with this weird backing and this, this is something that DeSantis has to do. Yeah. This isn't something that DeSantis can choose to do

and be strategic about. Right. He's basically got to follow the path of least resistance here. Yep. And he's got to do that a bunch if he's going to try to follow Trump. And this is a really weird position for him to be in. It's a super weird position.

And he said that his state will not assist in an extradition request should one come from New York authorities. Earlier this month, DeSantis took two days after Trump inaccurately predicted an imminent arrest to comment. And at the time, he demurred on the potential role that he or his state, home to Mr. Trump, who plays,

who lives at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, would play in potentially extraditing Mr. Trump, who lives at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, would play in potentially extraditing Mr. Trump to New York. A spokesperson for Elvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said on Thursday evening that the office had contacted Mr. Trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender and that the guidance will be provided when the arrangement date is selected. He'll voluntarily surrender. Yeah, I think you're right.

For sure. And I think from what I've read in other places, he wants voluntarily surrender. Yeah, I think you're right. For sure. And I think from what I've read in other places, he wants the attention. He wants that perp walk. He wants people to see him in handcuffs. He wants it to look bad for those people who are conspiratorially minded. Yeah, no, I don't disagree.

I think that that's probably exactly what he wants. And what better way to turn those conspiracies up to 11 than by being shown in handcuffs? Dude, do you think he'll fight club himself? Beat himself up? This is a job I can do from home. Do you think he'll beat himself up to look like the police roughed him up?

Can you imagine the optics on that? What kind of world do we live in where that is an option? Because, tell me, that wouldn't play. I'm not, I'm not fucking pushing back.

I'm just saying, how dare we live in that world? I know. How dare we live in that world? I, like, if I were a cynical, horrible,

more so than I am now, cynical, horrible person who wanted nothing more than the gamesmanship to win. I can totally see him beating himself up so he's like

got a fucking busted nose or like a big black eye. I don't disagree. Bruises and shit. I don't disagree. And then never comment on it. Just never. Just let the internet do the work.

Let the internet do that work. Holy shit, I would do it. I think you might be a little more devious than him, but we'll see. We'll see. Man, if he does have like a black eye or something,

he gets like knocked around. I kind of think he might fight club. Like, I don't know, man. I think it would work. I think it would work too. I think it would work.

I think you're right. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. Don't listen. I don't disagree. I think it would work. Yeah. That's such a sad thing. I don't disagree. Don't listen. I don't disagree. I think it would work. Yeah. That's such a sad thing.

That is the craziest shit. It's a sad thing. We're living in a world where it's like, hey, Cecil, what if the former president of the United States and a current candidate

for president beat the shit out of himself in order to... Think about this. Think about what we're positing and being like, yeah, that would work. I think the worst part is,

is nobody did it with malice. There's so many reasons to punch that guy in his punchable face and nobody did it but him. Right. Right. What a terrible world we live in.

I hate this universe. I really just hate it. We took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and I just want to go back. I just want to jump the track. I just want to jump the track and go back to whatever that other universe was. A fly got in the teleporter, man.

A goddamn fly got in the teleporter. I feel like I'm going to have a proboscis in like three minutes. Are you a trans or a res? Excuse me? This story comes from Mediaite. Tucker Carlson deems trans people the natural enemy of Christianity. You want to play it?

I, we need to. All right, here we go. But I do want a trigger warning. Trigger warning. You're going to hear Tucker Carlson, right? Trigger warning too, though. Like, like Tucker Carlson is a shitty person who hates shitty person who hates what should be a protected group of people. Yeah, he's like, seriously, just take a minute

and fucking gird your loins for the horror of this. If you've recently eaten, maybe now would be the time to like drink three bottles of Maalox so you don't fucking puke in your mouth when you hear his shitty, shitty fucking voice. Let's hear this fucker. And movement is the mirror image of Christianity and therefore it's natural

enemy in Christianity. The price of admission is we talk about that fucking grotesque New York post cover right now. So for you, if you're not watching this, they have a picture of the school shooter, uh, from,

uh, Tennessee, the Nashville, was it Nashville, Nashville shooter. this, they have a picture of the school shooter from Tennessee. The Nashville, was it Nashville? Nashville shooter. They have a picture of that person and the headline says transgender killer targets Christian school. That's the headline in the New York Post.

And I just want to point out that they never say cis white guy the 3,000 times it happened in the last five years. Never. They never say cis white guy terrorizes regular public school. Right. They don't say that. Yeah.

And it doesn't say cis white guy shoots mixed race classroom. Right. It never says shit like that. classroom. It never says shit like that. The fact that this person, I won't talk about it, but this headline, transgender killer targets Christian school, this person went to that

school. That's how school shootings work in almost every circumstance. In almost every circumstance. They target the school they attended. This person attended that school. That's why they shot up that school. That's it. We don't actually have an established motive. I checked

this morning. There's no established motive. Still nothing. He's admitting that you're not God. Christians openly concede that they have no real power over anything, and for that matter, very little personal virtue. I would agree with that. It will tell you to your face that they are sinful and helpless and basically absurd. Yeah. They're not embarrassed about anything. I have never had,

hold on, I have never had a Christian tell me, yeah, look, I'm helpless and absurd. That is bullshit. And that flies in the face of all the fucking

empowerment narrative that is so much at play in prosperity gospel and in so many of the other like big evangelical gospels. Absolutely. He's he's always read on Christianity is wrong. But Tucker's doing this for a reason. Yeah.

And the reason why he's doing this is because what he wants to do, what he sees is the opening. And the opening is I can look like Christians are persecuted in this country and I can play that up right now and I can make it feel like we are under attack. And we are the ones who need to protect ourselves against this very tiny, small group of people who are not targeting us at all. At all. At all. Yeah. And like transgender people have no systemic power. Yeah. None. None. Christians have all massive systemic power.

Yeah. So like, let's think about that too, you motherfucker. Yeah. This, they brag about it. That saved a wretch like me goes the most famous Christian hymn ever written in English. The trans movement takes the opposite view. Trans ideology claims dominion over nature itself. So does fucking eyeglass technology. Thank you. Like everything that humans do. A hip replacement. Fucking airplane, a car, a fucking indoor plumbing. Like it all fucking basically says, we don't go with what nature wants.

We're making our own decisions and using tools to be different than what nature, because if it's just nature, we're naked, afraid, shit in the woods. And there's no anything. There's nothing, just us digging for berries, eating a carcass if we come across it and living our life fucking very cold, dying, very young.

Yeah, man. That's what, though. But instead, now we have like modern medicine. That flies in the face of nature, too. Every, yeah. A vaccine. Flies in the face of nature. Is spitting in the face of God, right?

Like, get the fuck out of here with that. If you use this same logic, everything you did all day today fucking spits in the face of God. It's spitting in the face of God, right? Like, get the fuck out of here with that. If you use this same logic, everything you did all day today fucking spits in the face of God. Fuck out of here. Like, when I, I fucking, I got, to get to the studio today,

I picked up my fucking cell phone and shat in the face of God and called an Uber and shat in the face of God. Right. Everything is shitting in the face of God. And that's, here's the thing,

fine, there's no, the opposite of Christianity, that's the other thing, is like, the opposite of Christianity is, no, that's the thing. Fine. There's no God. It doesn't matter. That's the other thing. The opposite of Christianity is, no, that's not real. Not some ideological flip-sies.

You're absolutely right. There's no ideological flip-side. The ideological flip-side is, yeah, you made that up. That's not how reality works. You just say, none of that. None of that ever happened. Sin is a silly concept and you're dumb for believing in it. The end. that is. And so the idea that he's going to throw away this group of people who are changing who they are to be more

like themselves is a real shitty way to attack like I say, a protected small group of people. Yeah, and if we're going if we're looking at things at that sort of fucking reductio ad absurdum kind

of level that he's bringing this to. Like, if I work out, oh, I'm changing my body. I'm changing who I am. Get the fuck out of here. I'm changing who I am. This is not a good argument. It's a terrible argument. This is a bad argument.

Terrible argument. It's meant in bad faith. It is. It's 100% in bad faith. You can change the identity we were born with, they will tell you with wild-eyed certainty. identity we were born with, they will tell you with wild-eyed certainty. Christians can never agree with this statement because these are powers they believe God alone possesses. That unwillingness to agree, that failure to acknowledge a trans person's dominion over nature incites and enrages some in the trans community. People who believe their God can't stand to be reminded that they're not.

So Christianity and transgender orthodoxy are wholly... What is that even... I don't even know what that means. It's like he's just making shit. It feels like that guy

in that fucking wheelchair in Dodgeball that just says... He says like, in order to fight the enemy, you must become the enemy or whatever. It just says dumb platitudes.

Like it doesn't mean anything. Yeah, that's exactly. Like there is, this is that deepity bullshit. Yeah. That's all this is. This is that sort of like semantics and rhetoric that plays with words

and you're like, yeah, those are certainly phrases. Those are all turns of phrases. None of that is anything. None of that, literally none of what you said means anything. I also want to point out too.

But you'll see fucking nodding their heads. Statistically, somebody went through and said, of the, and they counted up on, I think it was the last five years, there was like 2,700 or 2,300 shootings. And I saw the math on this. And there was four people that I identified differently.

They were trans people, right? One of them specifically did it to get out of They were trans people, right? One of them specifically did it to get out of trouble at one point, right? Like they specifically did it to get out of trouble for something else. But, you know, three of them probably did it. But if you do the math, it's a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage,

even smaller than the trans population. Yeah. And so it shows that trans people are less likely than anyone else to commit this type of crime. They're less likely than anyone else to commit this kind of crime. And, you know, like, but as soon as it happened, I knew what was going to happen. They were going to use this as a weapon to say that trans people are bad. They're bad people. And they're out to hurt us. And look at who Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately tweeted about it. This guy, the night it happens, it's on his show. And they're going after it as

quickly as they can because what they want to change it away from the narrative, whenever it's a white cis dude and he shoots up a school, they immediately say, come on now, let's think of the victims. Come on now. Let's not, this is not the right time.

But the moment it's not somebody who, you know, had a fucking Republican manifesto, which is very often somebody like that. Oh yeah. They want to turn it as quickly as possible to politics. And I'm like, I'm like, cool. Let's talk about guns. That's what I want to talk about. Like I'm fine with, I'm fine with talking about it. If we're going to talk about the thing that we can do to stop it and there's

something we can do to stop it. A hundred percent chance of stopping it. We can stop a lot of these if we just start getting rid of guns, But they don't want to talk about that. They want to now use it as a way to say we're under attack. Yeah. And if you want to fucking do a little demographics dig down on who commits these crimes, we've talked about this on the show before. It's men. It's dudes.

It's not like, it's almost all. We've looked at this before. It is absolutely overwhelming. It's not like, it's almost all. Like, it's like, we've looked at this before. It is absolutely overwhelming how many, it's all dudes. We're not focusing on the problem of guns. We're not focusing on the problem of male violence. We are not looking at that. We just pretend that none of that matters, right? Like, we just sweep that under the rug.

And then when there's some outlier, when it's like somebody of color or a trans person, or it almost never happens, a woman that doesn't, all of a sudden their otherness to the sort of narrative whole is what is highlighted. That's what's highlighted, yeah. And that's fucking absurd. If we want to stop, if we care about this problem, we should care about the problem of male violence. Like if you want to solve this and look at it demographically, the common denominator overwhelming statistic is it's dudes. And there's a reason for that because shooting a gun is just as easy for a woman as it is for a man. So what the fuck are we doing socially to our male population, what structures are we creating

that are driving people over and over and over again toward violence? We're not going to look at that. And we're not going to think about it. And we're making guns easy to get. Yeah. They're easy to get,

they're easy to use, and they're easy to kill multiple people with. I watched this video. I don't know if you saw this video of this person in this school. Did you watch this video? I didn't know if you saw this video of this person in this school. Did you watch this video? I didn't watch the video.

So I'm not going to talk about what happens, but I will talk about how they got in the school. Okay. Doors are locked, but they have big windows. This person just shot the windows out. And they shot the windows and walked right in because they had a big old long gun

that they shot the windows out. Let me tell you something. You take away your opportunity to use guns in this country to go into a school and they have to like use a machete or a knife or something. How are you going to get in there? How do you get in? How do you even get in? You got to go in when there's like a weird time or something. Something has got to happen for you to actually infiltrate it. You can't just march your way in paramilitary style. We allow this to happen because we're okay

sacrificing a certain number of people every year to guns, period. We allow it to happen. Every time it happens, that's another body on the pile that we're willing to give because we won't change anything. We refuse to change anything.

To your point, you hear this like this counter narrative where people will say things like, well, you know, if it's not guns, it'll be a car. If it's not guns, it'll be a knife. Like they say things like evil will find a way, you know? And it's like, okay, I'll tell you what, I'll grant you that. I will. But I'm not, I don't want to make it easier for evil. Right?

Like you're saying. That's the thing is. Yeah. Like I guarantee, yes. Can we stop all burglaries? No, we cannot stop all burglaries. But that doesn't mean that we don't lock our doors. Right? Like is it possible that somebody can break into your house even if your doors are locked? Yes, it is possible.

Sometimes people kick doors down or pick locks or do other shit. Break a window and walk right in. It is our responsibility to make it as difficult as possible for people to commit heinous violent acts. And we know, we talked about this too, we know means reduction absolutely makes a difference in reducing acts of violence. We know it. Like, there's a story that we're going to, we can kind of combine them.

There's like a story that I put in the notes and I put in the notes only for like one fucking line. There's a, they interview a fucking congressman and he's like, look,

we're not going to do anything about this. And somebody's like, well, why are you the only country that has this problem? You're the only country. And he's like, well,

we're the only country that has this kind of freedom. Freedom to kill kids. That's literally the freedom you have. That's the freedom. Because the ant that that's a lie because in other countries you can go hunting. In other countries you can keep the wombats or whatever the fucking varmints off your land. Right.

Right. In other countries you can go sport shooting. Yeah. Right. In other countries, you can go sport shooting. In other countries, you can do all the things that you can do in the United States with a gun, except walk around with a loaded one and murder people indiscriminately. That's what we allow. That's what we allow to happen. But it wouldn't even be a thing if we if we, you know, look at all the other countries, look at them all. Look at, you know, you go, look at all the other countries. Look at them all. Look at, you know, you go to,

you see the Port Arthur thing. There's a mass shooting in the middle of Australia. They're like, fuck this. This is never happening again. And then they, it just never happens again.

Yep. Because there's no way for it to happen. And that's not because guns don't exist in civilian hands. Right. Guns absolutely exist

in civilian hands. It's just different kinds of guns. That's it. It like, we are, you know, the freedom that they're talking about. They're talking,

when like, when the fucking these, and I got to tell you, I never want to hear the word freedom again. I've come to hate that fucking word. It's a shitty word. I've like, that is,

because it's a shield. They hide. It's a shield. It's a garbage word. And also it's a lie. It's not one. There are so many countries now that have enormous amounts of freedom freedom the way that we're thinking about it they're looking back and this they their freedom shit is a callback to an 18th century idea and they're

saying like well you know what oh we've got freedom like no one else yeah you know what i'll grant you that in the fucking 18th century. I will grant that, that in the 18th century, you overthrew the fucking king. Well, motherfucker, that's not the world we've been living in for a real long time. Freedom isn't something like, we're the only guys that are free. Get the fuck out of here with that stupid, ahistorical bullshit. You're lying. There are countries that are freer than we are, much, much, much, much, much freer than we are. It's like not one or two. We're just like, what about our freedom? All they can think

of, well, if we don't have our guns, then the king of England's going to come over tomorrow and he's going to take all of our land again. You're like, motherfucker. It is the goddamn 21st century. You are still stroking off an 18th century worldview.

It's a narrative that doesn't even exist anymore. It's nonsense. It doesn't even exist. It's a useless narrative that doesn't exist anymore. And it's the only thing. It's just like all their other platitudes that don't make sense. It doesn't matter to them. It's essentially a mantra or a prayer.

Yeah, man. Yeah, 100%. At this point, it doesn't mean anything. It's a fucking prayer a mantra or a prayer yeah man yeah 100 at this point it doesn't exactly right it's a fucking prayer it's a prayer i think i called him a hitler partisan who distorted evidence in order to reach historically untenable conclusions so you found this story the story comes from wbez that's our local npr affiliate in chicago outside conservative groups back candidates as school board races become ideological battlegrounds. So the gist here is, and we talked about this in the show last week or two weeks ago,

that these local races, particularly school board races, which used to be little nothing burger, you know, you don't know who's on your fucking school board. Nobody goes to the meetings. They're just these administrative kind of boards and bodies that are local community buildings sort of things. Well, now they've become this like hotbed for deep political action. And they are being funded. Republican PACs, political action committees, are funding with thousands and thousands of dollars candidates to run for these school boards. And, you know, you and I were talking a few minutes ago.

These are supposed to be nonpartisan elections. Yeah, nonpartisan elections, yeah. And especially when I looked, so when I was looking these up, the county will list your affiliation. But on school board, they don't. They don't list the affiliation. So when you go to look these people up on the county sheet, the county, like like list of candidates,

what happens is for everything that needs it, they will list their party, whatever party is sponsoring them. But for school board and other things, libraries and other places, they don't list. They say it's a non-partisan election, but that's not true.

There's a big pool of money out there that is very partisan. That is pouring in to get these people elected to buy billboards, to buy them airtime. You, they might buy on judge Judy when you're watching judge Judy in the afternoon, or you're watching the local channel nine news, it's channel nine by us, whatever it is by you. But when you, watching Judge Judy in the afternoon or you're watching the local Channel 9 news. It's Channel 9 by us, whatever it is by you.

But when you are looking at this news program and then they cut away and the local commercial plays, it could be for some person who happens to be an absolute nutcase who in this article, they're even saying they don't want to raise illiterate, like soulless monsters or something. I mean, like these are people who are, they are trying to get Christian values put back into schools. They're going to be banning books.

They're going to be doing the thing like down in, uh, in, in where they take out, uh, any kind of struggle of black people out of any kind of struggle of black people out of any kind of curriculum, they're going to be doing that here. They'll do that here. They'll do that everywhere. They'll do that in New York. They'll do it everywhere.

Because here's the thing. You could have large overarching government that is democratic or blue. But what you wind up with in these small little places is this very tightly knit red group of people who are going to be raising the next group of human beings.

And you will have no say in it. Yep. Yeah. And, and you're also, you know, you get, you get the super PAC money,

you pour it into the local elections, local elections, change important day-to-day parts of your life. Very day-to-day parts. You life. Very day-to-day parts. You're absolutely right. The parts of your life that you wake up and interact with on a Monday through Friday level, a lot of that is your local politics. And when the right-wing PAC money blows in, one of the things they're also going to do,

and there's not in the article, but I know they're going to do it because I would fucking do it. What they're going to do too, is they're going to look and see who the ascendant leaders are. And they're going to, they're going to spend money. They're going to say, Oh, you know, who's really good at this, Tom. And now we're going to pour more money into that guy. And that guy is going to move up the food chain. So that guy soon, that's, that's part of how they search. It's part of like they go recruiting. I don't know what it's called when you're looking for baseball players or something. What's that called? You're scouting. Scouting.

Scouting. So one of the things if you're big Republican money that you're doing is you're out scouting. And you're building expertise. And you're building community organization. Then you get rookie of the year. And he turns out to be the mayor. And then the mayor turns into a state representative and the state representative eventually,

you know, he was a 25 year old when he did this and a 30 year old when he did this and now he's 40 and he's been a state rep and all this stuff and he's a rising star. That's how you find your stars. Yeah, absolutely. So they're out scouting right now. They're out building and mentoring and scouting.

They're changing people's day-to-day lives Monday through Friday and then They're out building and mentoring and scouting. They're changing people's day-to-day lives Monday through Friday. And then they're also building the next generation of right-wing fucking nut jobs. When I think about, I know that you had to run into some really difficult decisions with your daughter, right? Because your daughter was going to go to, you needed her to go to schools. You knew she would not thrive if she wasn't in school, a school situation during COVID. And you made a decision to put her in a religious school for a little while. Yep. Two years. For two years. But you took her out of that situation because at a certain point, the regular school is doing all the same stuff, but you don't want that religious education. You're like, okay, no, this is enough, right?

We did it enough for this, but now it's over. Think about if you don't have that choice. Suddenly, every school is a religious school. Because if you go to a lot of these schools where they're taking, like I say, the struggle of certain peoples across the globe and even locally out of the curriculum, when they're talking about adding things, pulling books that might allow people to see themselves differently, right? Allow different gender identities to have protagonists, different minority groups to have protagonists, that sort of thing. When they pull those books out of the curriculum or don't allow them in the library, when they start making sure that the curriculum includes things like

intelligent design, these are all decisions that they get to make. These are decisions that they get to make. And suddenly you can go stand and scream your head off as a parent and they won't give a fuck what happens. They don't care. They're not accountable to you because the money is going to get them elected time and time and time again because they're going to just get some random person who's like, well, I like American values. Yep, that's it. And lest you think that we're talking out of our ass, from the article, one of the people in there says we want to depoliticize our schools and bring it back to Christian values. That's what they say. This is a stated goal. This is not what they say. This is a stated goal.

This is not an implied goal. This is a stated goal. And her story is not my story to tell. But I'll also just say that as my daughter got a little older, in the two years that she was at a religious school, some truths about her identity came to light that were incompatible with a religious school. And it was apparent that she couldn't continue to attend a religious school

because she would have struggled to fit in and would have been judged by not her peers. Actually, your peers were wonderful and accepting, but by the teachers and the ideology that the school supports and trains and teaches. And that's fine in the sense that we were able to pull her out of that school and move her to the public school. But if the public schools are infested with that shit, where do these people go? Where do you go?

Now, now, instead of trying to find your kid, some sort of Christian school, which of, of which there's abundance, you're going to have to go find your kid a secular school because that's going to be the anomaly.

That's it. You're going to have to have secular schools popping up across the country that could teach your child a secular education. Do you think that like, if this continues to trend this way,

that in 10 years, the homeschooling trend will be for secular parents? Might be. It might be. Fucking hell, man. They'd be better educated. Flip that on its head, right?

Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine the materials? Like, they would actually be good. Not like Noah and his ark. Volume 11 through 36. The following animals got on the boat.

Where can you get a reasonably priced abortion these days? This story comes from Huffington Post. Idaho is about to be the first state to restrict interstate travel for abortion post-rho. Now to, to give you a clear picture, the travel that they are specifically making illegal would make it illegal for anyone to assist a minor traveling out of the state of Idaho to get an abortion without our parents, without their parents' consent, right? So at first blush, that may sound somewhat reasonablish. It's not at all, right? But you

only have to interrogate that idea for a half of an eighth of a second to realize that there are many people who find themselves pregnant, who are unable to confide in their parents for a number of reasons. Perhaps their parent is one of the people that is somebody that impregnated them. That happens. Perhaps their parents are religious fucking nut jobs because I don't know if they live in Idaho. Perhaps their parents are, you know, like incapacitated in some way or unable to give consent for some reason. And it's your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your friend that drives you out of the state of Idaho, because Idaho, you can't get a fucking abortion, to go get an abortion. Well, you're facing two to five years.

You're facing two to five years for giving somebody a ride. Just for helping someone get out. For giving somebody a ride. Yeah. I also feel though that this is one of those moments where you need to be very leery of the creep of the law and how the law can now be expanded once it's there. I really do feel like you need to be very careful here. While you may elucidate a very simple solution to say they just need to get a permission note and everything's fine, what happens if they suddenly say in two years they come back and say,

you know what, what we really want to do is we want to stop all underage people, period, whether they have permission or not, from getting abortions. What we want to do is we want to stop all people. I mean, how far do you have to push it? Because they clearly don't want abortions, right? They don't want abortions, period. So they want to stop it however they can. And what they're going to try to do is stop you from leaving the state. They've already proven that they will not give you that care there.

And they want to make it so you don't get that care at all because they feel like it's a moral wrong. So if they feel like it's a moral wrong, why shouldn't I think that the next law they pass, if this one gets through, is going to be no interstate travel at all, whether you're a minor or not? Yeah, I absolutely think this is testing the water for the legality of exactly that. And like, I know that that is slippery slope-ism, but it's also not when you see a proven history

that demonstrates that that's their ultimate goal because they fucking said it out loud. It's also really telling that what they do is they target people who are tangential or related to the abortion

rather than the person performing or receiving the abortion. They are creating a culture of fear so that people are afraid to help their friends, their loved ones, their neighbors. This is turning in your Jewish neighbor, man. Dude, it is exactly that kind of thing. I don't like to bring that stuff up because it feels like, oh, you shouldn't mention the Holocaust ever. But it's not dissimilar, dude. It really is very similar where you think, gosh, you got to turn in your neighbor for thought crimes or whatever.

I'm not 100% sure how to articulate this next point. keeps like percolating in the back of my mind is that I lived my entire life up until recently, completely oblivious to perhaps, or, or, or like, I never thought much about a state border. A state border was a sort of like, it was like an intellectual thing. Oh, we crossed the state. We crossed, we crossed from you're driving somewhere, right? Like you take a long road trip, you're driving and you're, and it's like, it's like, Oh, you know, it's like a marker. Oh, we crossed the state. We crossed from, you're driving somewhere, right? Like you take a long road trip. You're driving and it's like, oh, you know, it's like a marker. Oh, I made it from one place. But it always felt like you were still in America. It never felt like, you know, maybe there'd be like some minor differences, but you still, fundamentally, like there's no difference for me in all the travel that I've done in the States. There's not really a difference because I crossed the border or not.

But we're now in a place where these state borders feel like going to a different country. It feels like going to a like culturally a different place, a different era. That's fucked. We talk about how this country has never been so divided, but that's never been this literally drawing lines. It's never had a border before.

It always kind of had this ideological border where you could say, oh, well, that's the people down South or that's this or that. But now there's an actual border and it's because they turned states' rights up to 11. Yeah, man. That's what happened. They turned states' rights up to 11. They got a Supreme Court in there that said states' rights are, they trump United States' rights. They trump everybody in the country doesn't get these rights. Instead, it's up to the states to make these decisions.

And once they started giving the power back to the states through these legal decisions, suddenly these states became entities that really felt more real than they were in the past. Right, yeah, exactly. Like the difference between one state government and another was never really anything that you had to, as an American, give a lot of thought to.

Now that they have choices that can really change how people live, they really do feel like very different places. Yeah. Very different than before. Very different. There are some crazy differences.

Like here in Illinois, versus let's pick Florida. Pick Indiana. You know, yeah, pick Indiana. But like, like I was thinking of Florida because I happen to know like Florida has that

castle doctrine. You know, here in Illinois, if somebody breaks in your house, you can't just fucking shoot them. Like your life has to be in danger. You can't like get your gun and they're in the, you're upstairs in the master bedroom and they're downstairs in the kitchen. You can't get your gun and run down to the kitchen and shoot them. You can do that in Florida.

Castle doctrine allows you to seek out an intruder in your home and shoot them. You can do that in Florida. Castle doctrine allows you to seek out an intruder in your home and shoot them. In Illinois, your life has to be in danger in order for you to use deadly force. In Illinois, women still have rights because they're still fucking people. In Florida, that's not the case. In Illinois, a teacher in Illinois can teach. We had a story in our notes. I don't know if we're going to get to it, but like in Illinois, a teacher can show a documentary about real things that happened during the civil rights movement in Florida. If you're a teacher, you can't show a fucking like PBS documentary about actual historical events that took place. We're living in different countries within this country. Yeah, very much so.

Like really different countries. Because of the rights issue. It's because they've gotten these, they've suddenly gotten these powers. And it changes, it changes these borders into almost where you feel like you should be showing different papers. Yeah, man. There should be a stop.

I'm starting to wonder, and I'm not trying to exaggerate, but I am starting to wonder and i'm not trying to exaggerate but i am starting to wonder if if states like idaho enact legislation and it goes through and it holds it holds water through the legal system and they say okay now nobody can travel out of state without threat of persecution are we gonna have checkpoints yeah like are we gonna have to have paperwork yeah to leave your state i that's insane to think about, man, but I don't think that's crazy. The thing is that they definitely don't want abortions and they will

do anything they can to stop it. And I do not put it past them to put some law out there to stop it altogether in their state, whatever they can have the power to do. their state, whatever they can have the power to do. And I don't think it's impossible to imagine a future, not even five years down the line where people are going to get pulled over with pregnant women in the trunk of their car, trafficking them from one state to another for medical care. And I don't think that's out of realm of possibility. That's outrageous. I can't, I can imagine that that's going to happen.

And I can't, it should be impossible that's going to happen and I can't, it should be impossible to imagine. It should be. It should be. That should be something where when I say it, you look at me and you're like, dude, come on. Get the fucking tinfoil hat off.

Yeah, no, but you're right though. And I do feel the same way because it, like, there's been so many shotgun decisions that have made

in such a short amount of time that have really changed the face of everything. And I can't speak to the legality of what is happening here, right? Whether or not something like this would even hold up in a major court, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

But I know how scary it feels to watch this law get rolled into place, enacted, and then maybe rolled back. I know how scary that feels. Yeah, man. Thousand percent. This is bonkers. This is fucking bonkers.

I thought we were like a country. And I am beginning to doubt the veracity of that claim. I am beginning to doubt the cohesiveness of what it means to be American. The meaningfulness of that statement. When we have states able to make changes that fundamentally deny the rights of people to access certain types of medical care, like we're talking about the wholesale disenfranchisement

of millions of people, half of the population. It's unbelievable that we're having these conversations. Yeah. All right. So that's going to wrap it up for this week. Check us out this Thursday.

We're going to release a funny show because this show was not funny at all. So, but on Thursday, we're going to have like a goofy show.

So check it out. It'll be funny. We're going to have to talk about all kinds of dumb shit. It'll not hilarious. At all. But on Thursday, we're going to have a goofy show. So check it out. It'll be funny. We're going to talk about all kinds of dumb shit. It'll be hilarious. It'll be great. And then we'll be back next Monday. That is going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to leave it like we always do, though, with Skeptic's Creed.

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