Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 836: Maine and Harvard Stand Up to Trump

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

   

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 Glorial Studios in Chicago and beyond, this is Cognitive Distanance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big or makes us mad. It's skeptical.

It's political. And there is no welcome. Matt today is Thursday, April the 17th. Cecil were two days past tax day. Oh yeah. Tax day. That great American holiday tax day. Yeah. Did they fire a bunch of people on tax day? Well, we fire a bunch of people every day. Cecil. I guess that's true. Now I think about it. Now I think about it. Oh my god. Yeah, it's been something.

We're also a couple days past a court order from Trump to do some things and he sort of refuses. We'll get to that later on. Yeah, that's fun. What a fun world. So we're in some weird uncharted territory for the United States, which is crazy space right, bud? So we're in some weird uncharted territory for the United States, which is crazy space. Did you see? Did you see what the fuck's that lady's name?

Murkowski? Is that her name? Lisa Murkowski? Is she from Alaska? I think she's the one from Alaska. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw her today. There was a video of her and they said, you know, what do we, what do you say to people

who are like anxious right now and afraid? And she's like There's a lot of people afraid I'm afraid Well, fuck What the fuck you helped make this happen, but one you help make this happen to You shouldn't be afraid. You're a fucking senator. You should be like, yeah I'm no I got I fucking got this cuz if you're afraid then that's not who the unit That's not who the nation needs you need people who are like now. I got this now. I got yeah What like that's what you want right you want you you you ever see pulp fiction when they call the wolf

Yeah, right wolf you want the wolf you want the fucking wolf you want Harvey Keitel to roll up to fucking Congress be like yeah I drink I drink coffee. I smoke cigarettes. I talk fast. I drive fast. I'm going to get you out of this problem. That's what we need. We need a wolf. That's it. We need a wolf. Not an assassinate. That's not what I meant. No. Even though he was there for something similar. He was cleaning up the mess. What I mean is we need someone to clean up an actual mess

because he's made a lot of messes. And we need somebody who's like, you know, somebody who's just confident. And what we have is, you know, especially in his party, if you have people in your own party who are like, yeah, I'm afraid's like, you know, somebody who's just confident. And what we have is, you know, especially in his party, if you have people in your own party who are like, yeah, I'm afraid like that's something that we gotta, we gotta, we gotta pause on that for a second. Like not only does that, is that like, Hey, you fucking help make this happen. Like this would not have occurred if you and people like you did not create enable and further the conditions for this thing that you're afraid

of that literally is what everybody said. Yeah, like it's not like, oh my God, nobody knew this was coming. This is the only thing that anybody said was going to fucking happen. But like, like you said, like you don't get to be afraid and be a leader. That's not how this works. Can you imagine if fucking Vladimir Zelensky was like, yeah, it's fucking just, I'm just afraid all the time. I'm super afraid.

What is he doing instead? He puts on his green fucking t-shirt. Sucks it up. He puts it on and he's like, alright, let's fucking fight. You want to fight? Let's get in this fucking thing and fight. Where's the fight in this lady? Well here's the thing, it's just like when you're the pharmacy guy and you're like, I

don't want to fill your prescription. Be like, get a different fucking job. Yeah. Get a different job. Same thing. If I bring my fucking car to Jiffy Lube and the guy's like, I'm sorry, I won't want to fill your prescription. Be like, well, get a different fucking job. Yeah. Get a different job. Same thing. If I bring my fucking car to Jiffy Lube and the guy's like, I'm sorry, I won't change your O. Be like, well, you need to get somebody else in here who's going to do that work.

You're not going to do the work, then get somebody who's going to do the work. People forget, and I don't know what the fuck is happening in your mind when you're pulling that fucking ticket. People forget that this is a job. This is a resume. You're out there. It's a, every single time you're doing a town hall, every single time you're doing a debate, every single time you're doing a Q and a session with a reporter, every single time you're answering fucking questions from the public, that's your fucking interview process. And if you don't think that all the shit you're

doing is building a resume and creating a person who's gonna be in that role, then you're doing this the wrong, you're doing it for all the wrong reasons. You're doing it because you think you're the fucking prom king. You're not the fucking prom king. You're my fucking, you work for me, asshole.

Go do the work. Now I'm gonna play it for you. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna change what she says. They put some shitty music, like some dramatic fucking music underneath this. It doesn't, it should be a fucking music. I'm gonna play it for you, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna change what she says they put some shitty music It's like some dramatic fucking music underneath this it doesn't it should be a fucking sad piano underneath It is what should be underneath, so let me play it for you We are all afraid. We are all afraid. Same. It's what I've seen.

But... We are, um... Yeah, how you get out of this? We're in a time and a place where... I don't know. I certainly have not been here before. And I'll tell you, I'm often times very anxious myself about using my voice. What? What? Because retaliation is real.

And that's not right. What? That's what you asked me to do. And so I'm going to use my voice

to best my ability. Sometimes it will be viewed in a way that, well that's pretty confrontational. And other times it's going to be using my mother's charm that I learned as a young girl and in direct communication with those that I've made relationships with and am able to effect

some change that way. But I've got to figure out how I can do my best to help the many who are so anxious and are so afraid. Here's what you do. I'm afraid. Here's what you do. Cease. Here's what you do. Here's what you do. I'm going to tell you what you do. Okay, look.

You can hire me as a campaign manager, but I'll do this for free right now. Quit. Fucking quit. Either quit or become a Democrat. Yeah. Those are your two fucking options. Quit or become a Democrat.

If you're too afraid, you're too fucking afraid to push back against the Trump administration because you're going to get retaliated against go fuck yourself Go hunt a moose or whatever the fuck you're doing up in Alaska. Go do that Okay, go look at fucking Putin's house from fucking like Sarah Palin's house Go sit on her porch and count how many ducks are in his pond or whatever or become a Democrat switch fucking parties right now Be like, you know what? This party doesn't represent who I am anymore and I'm done. I'm quitting. I'm done. I'm not gonna do this anymore I'm gonna stand up to that person. What she should have said was I got this. Yeah, man. I got this

I'm gonna take care of this. I'm gonna work on this this week. We're gonna go talk to a bunch of people Don't worry. No one's gonna get away with anything. I got this. That's what she should have said Dude, you're a thousand percent right fucking become a Democrat? Yeah, become a Democrat if the Republican Party is a party that is led by this guy that we're afraid of Because he's a fascist dictator ruining the fucking country. Hey, I get it become a Democrat You can switch back after this guy's gone. That would be fine, too I get it fucking do something she said it makes me fucking so mad. Like I said, she said this is what you asked me to do.

Motherfucker, we didn't ask you. You came to us and begged. You came to us and you knocked on every door and you said, I promise I'm the best. I'm better than every other person in this whole fucking state to do this job. I promise. Please elect me. Please let me do this work. state to do this job. I promise please elect me Please let me do this work. Please. Let me do it. I'll fight for you. I'll say the same thing I'll say that every else is that I'll fight for you hire me for it. Please. Let me do it I didn't ask you you fucking asked me. I'll fight you don't get to come up and see oh I'll do the thing you asked me fuck you. Yeah fucking do it then I'm afraid of Ritual you're afraid here You're gonna lose your job a lot of people are afraid they're gonna

lose their jobs I will fight for you until I'm afraid to yeah man fucking I will fight for you when I pull it out of the hat and stuff yeah I'll fight for you when I'm driving away from the event get the oh man I would have kicked that guy's ass if you'd have said yeah that guy would have said something to me right now he was talking I saw him talking but he didn't say anything yeah, that guy would have said something to me. Yeah, he was talking I saw him talking George on you didn't say anything to me personally. I would have kicked his ass. I'm a woulda coulda shoulda Fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of you know what grow a fucking set Murkowski any Single person any person on the Democrat side that says some shit like that kid Oh, how many years left does Murkowski have an hour? No, I don't know either but however much time she has left on her term. I just want something else

But yeah, she should switch it like here's the thing if they're really afraid if they really have any fucking balls switch part Yeah If you're really afraid fucking part if you're really afraid, switch parties. If you're really afraid, switch parties, because then suddenly he doesn't have as much power. What they're trying to do is split the baby right now. That's all this is. Let's call it out for what it is. What they are seeing is a pushback from their base

against this kind of authoritarian fascism. Trump's favorability numbers are fantastically low. Trump's numbers on the economy are very, very low. Trump's, you know, Republicans numbers on the economy are collapsing. They're seeing a huge amount of blowback and pushback. So what she's trying to do is split the baby. She's trying to say, I don't approve of that guy, but I'm still over here as a Republican. So I can get the Republicans who are now disaffected by the MAGA craziness that she's trying to have her cake and eat it too. You can't do that.

You can't do that with a fucking dictator. That's one, it's unethical cowardly bullshit that makes you a goddamn feckless, worthless piece of shit. But also it's political suicide. You can't split the baby. And think of the contrast here between her sitting in this town hall saying how afraid she is and how she can't speak out because of retaliation.

And now I'm gonna show you an image of Bernie Sanders and AOC in front of a gigantic crowd in some red state, holding their hands up and being like, yeah, we're Yeah, we're here. We're fighting oligarchy We're doing it. We're going everywhere. We're traveling around this country. We're gonna we're gonna stand up We're gonna like like three weeks ago AOC is giving people advice on how to deal with ice. Yeah, you know, she's given and they're like we're gonna put you a she's like Fuck you. Yeah, I'm allowed have to tell people whatever I want. Fucking put me away.

There's nobody did anything. Nobody did anything. So Murkowski's up there. She has pissed so much. Her boots are full. Yeah. Right. And there's other people out there that are like, yeah, man, whatever. I'm just going to I'm going to roll with this.

I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to do the things that I can to try to empower others. And like you this is a perfect example of somebody who wanted a job that was hard and somebody who wanted a job that was easy. Yeah, man. That's exactly it. And it's a great example of somebody who wants a job for the right reasons versus somebody wants a job for their own reasons. If I'm afraid of retaliation, what I'm saying is I'm afraid that I personally will suffer

more than you. Yeah. Or that actually it's not a great point too. I'm saying like, it's more important that I not suffer than you not suffer. Let me be your leader. That's not how leadership works. Like leadership doesn't work that way.

You don't get to stand in front of people and say, hey, let me take care of you, but I will only take care of you as long as it doesn't hurt me to do it. The fuck out of here with that. You have three nights This counts as the force

You must bounce on the head Crazy style Maybe even Crazy style, maybe even fun-tarded a little bit. That would make me goon. Alright, so this is from Common Dreams. AOC and Sanders draw crowds. 72% of Democrats want the party to abandon centrist approach to Trump. So this is an interesting article because when I first heard that headline, I sort of skim read it and I thought, oh, like abandoned centrism to more damage 72% or whatever.

Wanted no, they want to abandon an approach to Trump that is centrist, meaning compromise. There is pretty much no political will on the democratic side to say, hey, we should have our people reach across the aisle and compromise. You can't compromise with a madman, and we shouldn't be, and we gotta stop doing it. We gotta stop cowtowing and capitulating. Yeah, I think this is a,

and also it's empowering to see them travel all over the place. Is it, and I know that there's gonna be people out there, they're like, what's it doing? And you'll be like, well, it's empowering. It's energizing people in those areas. Trump, when he got elected the first time, he never stopped doing this. He never stopped traveling around

and showing and doing these big crowd things. The Democrats are starting to do it now. They're like, you know what? If that's what if it's going to be big, weird, everybody's out there screaming, we're going to do a political rally thing. And he was and he's doing political rallies for three years before we even start ours. Yeah, he's got like a bigger base. He's got a group of people.

He's got people who want to see him that early, go to his fucking thing that early. He hasn't done one since he got elected. I don't think he has, has he? I don't know if he's done any rallies since he's gotten elected. I haven't heard of one. I haven't seen any. When election season starts and he tries to go for his third term, maybe he'll start doing it. Oh, fucking shit, man. But in any case, we have this, we have a group of people out there now that are starting to do this I hope that you know I don't know if it's gonna be the thing that is next I'm pretty sure she's of the age now or

Will be when the next election comes around where she can run AOC can throw her hat in the ring for the for the nomination Right cool. Yeah, great, but and if she can get more people at all these places all across the country Let's fire this fucking man happen. I mean I don't I mean I genuinely think the United States is a pretty misogynist place I'd be a little leery about a female candidate again, but I'll tell you what whoever they pick. That's who I'm for man Yeah, 100% and we pick who you I'm gonna I would probably I would almost certainly vote Yeah. 100%. Pick who you want. I would probably, I would almost certainly vote, uh, for someone like AOC in the primary. In a second. In a second. And if it's, if it's the candidate, a hundred percent, I'm just worried about the rest of the nation following suit from the last two female president, uh, candidates that we had.

I think you've got it. I think you've got to recognize that America is a deeply misogynist nation and that that misogyny is not only getting, if not worse, it is becoming more vocal and it's becoming more socially acceptable in a lot of corners to be openly misogynist. I do want to address the point that people will say, what good does this do, what good does this do? Like, oh, what good is Cory Booker speaking for 25 hours

and 18 minutes do? Like, what good is traveling around do? What energizes, like speaking for, you know, 25 hours and 18 minutes to like, what good is traveling around to what energy like you, your point, it energizes our only shot politically at regaining any sense of normalcy comes in the midterms. And if we go into the midterms with fucking milk toast, no energy, fucking woe is me rocking the shower, grabbing our knees bullshit, we lose. That's our chance at constraining power. We have one shot at it. If Trump gets four years of unconstrained power, he'll get a third term because he will have dismantled this nation.

Yeah. And he might not even leave when it comes time, even if he loses. You know what I mean? Like at this point, like if he's ignoring orders, we'll get to it. Then yeah, I mean, who knows what happens next. So we have a shot in, in, in the midterms and I think a pretty strong shot, but the best way to make sure that that happens and that it overwhelmingly happens is to keep the energy up. Keep it fucking going all the time.

Let's get people mad, keep them mad. And the only way, the best way to do it is point at shit. Yeah. I mean, like, just point at shit. Like point, like keeping them mad is And the only way, the best way to do it is point it shit. Yeah. I mean like, like point, like keeping them mad is not hard. You're living in Trump's America. Yeah. Things are getting worse. It's easy.

It's easy to be mad. Yeah. Hey, I don't tell you how to tell me what to do. So don't tell me how to do what you tell me to do. So here's something to be mad about. This is from Esquire. Harvard stacked every penny of its $54 billion endowment and told the Trump administration to bring it on.

So the Trump administration basically told the entire nation's college system to tow the line. Tow the line when it comes to DEI, tow the line when it comes to a whole host of horrible social issues. And we'll tell you what you can and can't do and how you can and can't educate. So this is part of a pushback, really like very little pushback is happening

among the college system. This is a pushback against the Trump administration's like essentially demands to control higher education at almost every level. You know, like this is in Harvard's like, we got a $54 billion endowment. We'll do what we fucking want. I know you guys control like $4 billion of our funding. And I know that like these endowment funds can't just be spend willy nilly.

A lot of funds for endowments come with specific strings attached and like directions for how those funds be used. Use it in certain places, use it for certain initiatives, things like that, yeah. But they're fighting back against it. Good. And fucking good. It's like the one place that so far, and you know, like look, Monday morning could roll around

and they could have changed their mind. We have no idea, right? So Monday morning could roll around and it could be that Harvard has backed down their mind. We have no idea, right? So Monday morning could roll around and it could be that Harvard has backed down. We have no idea. But as of Thursday, good. Because what I want to see is more of these universities saying, you know, we're just not going to do that.

Because what they're asking for is like I suggested. They're asking for lesson plans. They're asking for, you tell us what you're going to teach there and we'll tell you what you can teach. Where are all my free speech libertarians at? Yeah, man. Where the fuck are those libertarians at that are like, hey man, free speech, free speech, free speech?

It's like, that was all a lie. That was all a lie. They've been lying to you forever, man. They've been saying we're for free speech. They're not for free speech. They are for speech that matches what they want to happen. Anything that they want to happen, they are for the free speech of. Anything that they want to happen there for the free speech of. Anything that they don't want to have happen, they want to eradicate.

So you see all these sort of intellectual dark web guys now are lining up against this university and saying they should follow what the Trump administration wants. If they want to get rid of these racist DEI policies, they have to. And they don't even understand what's happening there. Inclusion is not racism. That's stupid. You're a stupid person. It is very stupid.

You're a very stupid person. Stop thinking. Just go, just what you should do is just walk. Just keep walking until you hit a body of water and then continue to walk. Rocks in your pockets. Just walk as far as you can until, don't worry. We're we're behind you Just keep walking. That's what I want you to do. If you're that stupid, dude, I got sent a video This last week from so I don't have very many people in my life that are like Republicans at all

I got it. There's a guy I know from work. I've mentioned him on the show before He sent me a video of Bill Maher and Bill Maher had a thing where he went to the White House. Did you happen to see this clip? I will let, if I cannot watch Bill Maher, you have to put me in one of those Cockwork Orange things to get me to watch it. That's how I feel about fucking Bill Maher, right? So, but he sent it to me and I watched it.

And I'll give it to you in a nutshell. He basically said, hey, I've been very critical of Trump on a number of things. There's some things I agree with said, hey, I've been very critical of Trump on a number of things. There's some things I agree with him on, but I've been very critical about him. He's called me a bunch of names. Here are the names he called me. I went to the Mar-a-Lago.

I met with him. He's not the madman that everybody says he is. In fact, he's like gracious with a good sense of humor. And so maybe we ought to stop painting this guy as a madman. And I sent back a message and I'm like That doesn't fucking matter man That doesn't matter like and Bill Maher and the reason I bring it up in this context is Bill Maher even said I Think DEI has gone too far and I hear stuff like that and I'm like fucking tell me one example of how and that's what I put In my text message back

I was like I keep seeing and hearing people like you and people like Bill Maher, white guys with money and privilege say that like DEI has gone too far. Literally give me an example. Give me one example. Like tell me one example of when DEI has resulted in some kind of major institutional harm, some kind of like, like don't, don't give me an example of like one person without any power once misbehaved though So if you can't give me that if that's all you can give me you've got nothing you've got nothing So give me a fucking example, and it's always crickets. Yeah, every fucking time. It's always I didn't feel good

It doesn't make me feel good. I'm hurts my feelings. I'm really sensitive. I'm a sensitive I'm very very sensitive about it, and it makes me feel like I'm not as as Worthwhile as I was before you mentioned or they retreat into stuff. That's just blatantly untrue they retreat into you know Buzzword bullshit that never meant anything like quotas those to talk about well. That's nothing It's not true, and you're just like all right You don't understand what you're talking about what you're doing is being you were fed some bullshit And you've reviewed you've made that bullshit part of your fucking soul.

And you fed and watered it because it felt the way you wanted it to feel. Come on, hit me and I'll sue your ass and take your fanny pack away. This story is from Politico. California's first state to sue Trump on tariffs. Governor Gavin Newsom's most direct move against Trump since the president retook office. So basically the lawsuit is, Hey man, you're, you're, you're using these tariffs on a legal theory that says that you're declared an emergency. You don't have a right to declare that emergency because there's no fucking emergency. So the bedrock, like the bedrock principle that you're using to gain access to the tariff authority, which

you should not have outside of an emergency, is illegitimate. And the thing is, of course that's true. And I don't think legally it'll matter. I don't think it's going to matter either. I think at a certain point it's not going to matter. What I hope happens is that there's enough people, because if there is one thing that many people in Congress have in common in the Senate and in the House is that they have very, very fat portfolios of stocks.

Very true. And I think even Trump at a certain point is going to cause them some serious distress And I think even Trump at a certain point is going to cause them some serious distress if they wind up harming their net worth in a way that is severely detrimental to them. And right now the stock market is sort of, it came down and then it's sort of hovering, it's bouncing back and forth like that.

We're seeing tariffs enacted against China, like I don't know, they're like up to 700% or something. Hey, I don't even know what they had, it's some crazy number. But it's like a number that doesn't matter. 86 curchillion dollars. It doesn't even matter at a certain point. It's like Dr. Evil making up numbers now.

It's like when Trump, every time Trump does it, he has to touch the corner of his mouth with his pinky. But really, it doesn't matter. It doesn't. What really matters is if that number finally drops and starts getting below and drops and drops and drops and starts getting into like the, you know, the thirties and the twenties, and then, you know,

once you start seeing it come down really deep, that's when I think you're gonna see people start to abandon ship on Trump's policies. I saw a guy the other day talking about tariffs on one of these shows and it's the bald guy from Shark Tank. I have no idea who this guy is. And he comes on and he's talking about how important some of these tariffs are because we've been getting screwed

for so long and all these deals and we get screwed and we gotta do these tariffs with these people and we gotta make sure that we're on equal footing and it brings people to the door, it brings people in so that we can actually make these deals. It causes them to seek Trump out and do this. And the big one is China and he's going on and on and on. And, and let's just, I'm just going to, I'm not going to argue with his economics, right? Cause this is a guy who's like a business owner. He's like one of these guys who gives people

like seed money to start businesses. So he knows a lot about small businesses, et cetera, et cetera, right? This guy has way more credit than I do when it comes to that sort of thing. So I'm not gonna argue with him. I don't know the ins and outs. What I see is that the market doesn't like it, right?

Or as I already know the market doesn't like it. But regardless, what they miss when they say we need to fix our trade deals with these people is all the goodwill that you threw away to fix those deals. So what they see is, well, we need to fix our deals with Europe, we need to fix our deals with Canada, or we need to fix our deals with Mexico.

It's like, well, you won't have any deals with them anymore because they're gonna find other suppliers and they're just never gonna work with you because they don't wanna have to deal with somebody whose tariffs are on, tariffs are off. We have no idea, markets frenetic. We're not gonna do that. And so when you ruin the goodwill with all these nations,

then it doesn't matter whether the tariffs actually won you a got a win. And that's what's going to get reported. Right. So what will get reported is if Trump gets a win on some of these tariffs, which he might, there's a possibility, right? Like somebody may come in like Germany or something, be like, look, we really need to trade with you. Yeah, we'll suck it up. I guess we'll take our tariffs off. You take your tariffs off, whatever, however it works. And then Trump will have this win. But like he ruined like all of Kentucky's trade of bourbon to Canada in the process of doing that. He ruined all these other things that the United States

was doing for all these other places all over the country, all over the world, he ruined those relations. So like, you're not taking in the whole picture when you're just saying, well, I wanna trick fix these trade deals. You're like, yeah it, you're not taking in the whole picture when you're just saying, well, I want to trick fix these trade deals. You're like, yeah, well, we want to also be friends with all these places and have them as allies. And he's ruining all that too. And none of that's going to be fixed when he's done with these tariffs. Yeah. And like, let's be very clear about what was fixed. So Trump's been in charge

since the mid to end of January. So right before that, let's call it, I don't know, January 15th, you know, unemployment was low, historically low, about 4.3%, give or take. I'm not gonna be exactly right on some of these numbers, but I'm not gonna be very far off. Unemployment in January was around 4.2, 4.3%. GDP growth was strong. Inflation

had cooled off to under 3%. In January, it was probably somewhere around 2.8, 2.9%. It was somewhere around there. So what problem are we fixing? We had a strong economy. We had a strong, like Wall Street was looking good. The Dow Jones was looking good. S&P was looking good. Again, inflation was a looking like, like the Dow Jones was looking good. S and P was looking good. Again, inflation was a little higher than we wanted. Interest rates were still a little bit higher than we wanted. But otherwise the economy was looking pretty fucking good. So what are these big problems we're fixing?

We're fixing problems, I guess, maybe. I don't know that they were problems because it looks like everything was going pretty fucking well. Yeah. We could have set that shit on cruise control. Now here's a place that we're at. Think about this for a second, Cecil. We are in an economic war of attrition now with China, a collectivist nation that has for its entire history conceived of itself in generational terms. And we're gonna get in a war of attrition

with a generational mindset that is a collectivist mindset. Well, I don't see how we are gonna win a war of attrition with that nation. It doesn't make sense to me. This is a nation that has historically thought of itself, not in terms of what happens and what's best for the next quarter,

but what's best for the next quarter century. 25 years, yeah. So this seems like we're trying to play a long game with a nation that's like, the long game? Motherfucker, we invented the long game. We're China. Yeah. It's a bad call.

I think it's a bad call too. It's a bad call. And they know it's all they just got to wait out Trump. And well, and the thing is is like let's even presume that Trump's right. Let's say that these tariffs do have an effect. Let's say that you're wrong. Let's say that Trump comes back and these tariffs he gets a better deal with China. Well, does that fix our deal with our Northern neighbor or a southern neighbor? Right. Or how we treat people in Europe? Does that fix any of that? It doesn't. No, it's you'd have to fix all of the things. He's fucked since he started.

Well, and didn't we cement our position as enemy with China rather than like, so there's nothing inherently definitional about our relationship with China that says that our relationship with China will always be aggressively adversarial. Yeah. Right? You know, there was a time where we had an aggressively adversarial relationship with Japan and Germany. You know, it was less than a hundred years ago.

Sure, yeah. Now you can head over and have a very nice vacation in either of those destinations. We've got great relationships. There is nothing necessarily set in stone about any of those relationships. So I will say though that fucking with people doesn't help. It ain't great.

Like is there a possibility that we could have more normalized relationships with China? Sure. We've been working at it for years. Were there problems? Yeah, there were some really big problems, especially with the economic trade situation and the intellectual sort of theft situation with China. Like I don't want to pretend that that stuff isn't real. It's very, very real. But is this going to help or hinder? It's going to hinder. Yeah, it's fucking it's and again, if you're China and you're used

to thinking in generational terms, you look at Trump and you're like, I got to wait four years, not 40. Yeah. And you're out. You're gone. So if I'm China, I'm like, China, remember when COVID happened and China was like, cool, we're gonna literally seal people in their homes with welding torches. You think they're not gonna be like, yeah, we'll take some four-year pain. The fuck out of here.

A war of attrition is not how you beat China. Hi, I'm Mike Pasca, host of The Gist, and I'm the kind of person maybe you are too Who likes to step outside the easy? Reinforcement of my own ideas Maybe you actually like to have your beliefs tested and your perspectives expanded. I find that exciting Not unsettling There are a lot of shows ideologically driven shows and networks whose audiences say, thank you for telling me I'm not crazy.

But I don't really doubt my own sanity. I don't need affirmation and reassurance that my side or one side of the political or social debate is right. I'm more worried about being misinformed by lazily going along with the untested assumption or narrative. The gist is for people who know that being interesting starts with being interested. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. to keep you here for another 50 cycles with endless options for renewing with endless options for renewing with endless options for renewing. This story comes from the AP who is now allowed to actually attend White House press briefings. Judge finds sitting back behind the MyPillowGuys guy.

Jesus fucking Christ, man. God, it's a stupidest world. Judge Fiennes caused the whole Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating deportation order. So again, this refers to, we've been talking about this, this is a story that is a just phenomenally important story because federal judges have told the Trump administration that like they have absolutely

violated their orders when they said, Hey, turn those planes around. You have planes on their way to El Salvador. You are not to do that. Turn those planes around. The Trump administration was like, yeah, nah, nah, we're not doing that. And then the planes land in the El Salvador and presidents like oopsie doodles. Looks like the planes arrived. T, tweet, tweet, tweet. And then they committed terrible human rights abuses and they've essentially

like jailed innocent people in these terrible conditions. And so federal judges are like, they are rightfully asserting their authority and saying, we, we hold, we've got probable cause here for criminal contempt. That does not happen very often. This could potentially be the big deal we've been probable cause here for criminal contempt. That does not happen very often. This could potentially be the big deal we've been waiting for. Yeah, and you know, one of the things is, is like Trump is himself, is immune to a lot of things.

Right, he's immune to a lot of that. The Supreme Court gave him a bunch of get out of jail free cards when they gave him the immunity stuff that happened right before he got elected, right? So right before he got elected and the summer before he got elected, they ruled on this. This was their ruling that said the president, as long as he's doing official business,

is pretty much immune to any kind of criminal charges, right? Well, he may be immune, but his administration and people who work in his administration, that's one thing I think that might be a saving grace is if you can go after the people who are doing it and say, no, man, you can't do that. You're holding criminal contempt. You can maybe start making life really difficult for the people who work for him so that people stop doing the things he's saying to do. That's true, yeah.

Because if you can make their life difficult and make it so that they're having to, you know, fuck, I mean, who knows, they could even go to jail, that could be a big deal for Trump and what would happen, you know, because it's a federal judge who's saying, no, you're in criminal contempt. Well, it like, doesn't this like remind you of the, what I think of is like the Rudy Giuliani effect, like the closer you hang out with this guy, the more the shit like

rolls down your face during a press conference at four seasons total landscaping. And then you get bankrupted and then you are essentially fucking ruined. Yeah. Yeah. Like people who spend too much time in this man's orbit doing his bidding, running his interference, playing his fucking games, their lives get ruined.

His life doesn't get ruined because you never mattered to him. He'll burn your whole fucking house down around you and fucking roast marshmallows over the top of your corpse. That guy doesn't give a shit. He didn't give a shit about Rudy Giuliani He didn't step in once to help Rudy Giuliani. Not a second. He didn't not a second. Where's where's his squawking about it? He did not do fucking anything because he doesn't care cuz he doesn't that guy's a useful idiot

Yeah, so at some point I do think you're right. Well, he might run out of useful idiots Yeah At some point people are gonna be like I don't want to be an idiot here. If they can make sure that they do bad things to these idiots, then that'd be amazing. Fingers crossed. I'd love to see that happen. I'm curious how this thing is gonna shake out. We'll know more next week. So at this point it's kinda,

but man, this fucking prison is just a horror. And this whole back and forth with the person who was sent down there, how they said, you need to bring this person back. Like, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, is like, he will never be in the United States again. Like, he'll never come back to the United States. And you're just like, these people are fucking monsters.

These people are genuine monsters. Monsters. And they're like character assassinating him. I don't know if you saw this though. No. The fucking press secretary is like, we're not talking about a father of the year candidate here.

And then they brought up like a previous like restraining order that he had. They're like character assassinating the guy. Yeah, the guy. That's really great. Like you made, you fucked up this big fucking thing, but instead you can just be like, well, one time in the past, it's like what they do when, it's like when a black person gets shot by like the police. Yeah, yeah.

And then they'll be like, yeah, well one time he like jaywalked. And you're like, yeah, but even if it didn't, even if it happened this time, that doesn't mean you shoot him. Yeah, we don't execute people for that. And it did even happen this time, he wasn't doing anything and he got shot. But they're like, yeah, but he's not,

he's not the best person. That's what they're doing with this guy. They're doing what they do with everybody. They're like, they're the worst people. These are the worst human beings. And I wanna be super clear because I think it's important. It doesn't matter if this guy is actually a terrible person. That's actually unimportant. And it's really important that we know that. It's super unimportant that if this guy is a good person or a bad person or a nice

father or a mean father or loves his wife or hates his wife, none of that stuff makes any fucking difference. What matters, what makes this case so incredibly, literally, democratically existential, is that we are in a moment where there is a full-on defiance of the court system by the executive powers. This man, they did not have the right to deport him. They did not have that right. They did it anyway, with full knowledge

that they were doing it. They did it anyway. Then they called it a fucking administrative error. They're refusing have that right. They did it anyway with full knowledge that they were doing it. They did it anyway Then they called it a fucking administrative error. They're refusing to fix it They've been ordered by the courts to fix it and they are thumbing their noses at the court I don't care if this guy's a bad guy. It doesn't make any difference What matters is that we have a rule of law and without the rule of law we have anarchy Yeah, we have it. We have without the rule of law, you have a rule by the powerful. We are all lessened if that happens.

We are all less safe if that happens. I don't give a shit. I genuinely don't care if he murdered 50 fucking people. If the courts say bring him back, then the Trump administration or any administration has no option but to bring him back. If they take another road with it and say, well, we don't have to because we don't like

what the courts say. If that's the new rule, then there are no rules. Because who's making them? Yep. Why are you doing this? This is unbelievable. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Don't ignore me, I'm talking to you here. I don't even know you. Stop eating. I'm the babysitter's fine. Who ate my steak? A1 steak sauce. Yeah, it's that important. All right. Tech crunch.

The U.S. Secretary of Education referred to AI as A1. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States.

A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. A1 is a name that refers to a person who is a member of the United States. Yeah, it's that important. All right. Tech crunch. U.S. Secretary of Education referred to AI as A1. A1, like the steak sauce I watched this video. She does it like a bunch of times, Cecil.

That's just once. It's not just once. Like, and look, most of the time for other things, I would probably let a slip past where I'd be like, oh, whatever. If somebody mistakenly says, say, Mueller instead of Mueller. Yeah, I do it all the time. It's a mess up, it's whatever.

It's like, if someone's reading something versus someone hearing the name or whatever, it's like, sometimes that happens. But if the secretary of education doesn't know that AI is called AI, because they have no interaction with it before they read a small paper on it, they are so underqualified as to be the worst candidate you could possibly,

I mean I would, I'll be honest, you could pick a name out of a hat of 330 million Americans and not sort by age. So it could be a name of any one of those. It could be a three year old. Yeah. They would be better at that job than she would be. Yeah. They would be better at that job. They would take that job more seriously because they wouldn't.

They would know the difference between AI and an A1 sausage. In education right now, one of the biggest problems facing educators is how to manage the challenges and opportunities that AI presents to teachers and students. It is game changing. It is game changing and it is urgent. And educators and students alike are at each at different

inflection points in their experience with the way this technology is interfacing with their own educations and the fucking secretary of education is so woefully unfamiliar with what AI is that they can't tell it from a steak sauce. Yeah They don't have like you said, this isn't somebody who's like, yeah, you know, I've been briefed. I'm familiar. I've been reading about this I'm I'm conversant in the challenges and difficulties. I understand how to manage, you know The the or begin even opening the right conversations with the right people on these topics you fucking you clearly don't know anything about it because it's not a lifelong passion interest And you're not educated you have no expertise You are not designed to do this work by by the function of your livelihood, right? Like we have to

There's a reason experts matter in a field You know, yeah one of the most important things in any field that you learn is to be conversant in the specific dialect and language of that field. It's why I say like it's really important for lay people to recognize that you can't read a scientific paper. You are not trained. The words that you're reading, if you are not trained to read those words, the words you're reading, you're reading them colloquially. They do not translate all the time in every case the way that you think that they translate. There is literally entire classes. When you, if you go to med school, like a pre-med, a med school, you take entire classes on naming conventions, an entire class, just on vocabulary. One of the most important things that you learn

in almost any 100 level class in any of the sciences, but even many of the liberal arts is pretty much just the vocabulary you'll be working with. You have to learn the language of the thing before you can even begin contending with the ideas of the thing. So here's somebody that doesn't even fucking know the fucking difference between

What is admittedly a pretty good steak sauce? I like a one. Yeah, you know, it's peppery and tangy Yeah, I like it. I You learn about a lot of things in those, you know the difference between Heinz 57 And a one and Worcestershire sauce. Yes You know Heinz 57 guy or an a one. I like A1. I grew up thinking A1 was fancy. I Would here's the thing this good steak on its own should just live. Oh a thousand percent steak on its own should live Now if you're getting like a bad state trashy minute steak that somebody made you yeah Maybe you can throw some A1 on there

I as its own food that I like I like a bad cheap cut of meat and A1 sauce. I grew up eating cheap cuts of meat and A1 sauce and I thought A1 was fancy as fuck. And if you just like give me like a little dipping dish of A1 sauce and seriously like a fucking eye of round, I'm a happy guy. Tom's eating a raw chuck roast. Can I dip it in A1 sauce? I'll put that shit on my cereal. I will say, I will say, take a chuck roast though. Yeah. And do that 24 hours at 135 or whatever it is.

Fucking amazing. And then you take it out and you just sear the shit out of it after it's been like sat for a little bit. And you cut into that and it's like, it's literally like prime rib. It's like, it's so good. It's so good. It's so good.

Now you want to clean some of that fat off of it first. So if there was some extra muscle fat on the outside, you want to get rid of that. But any inner muscle fat should melt down when you do the sear. So you should be okay. But besides a few couple pieces of maybe some gristle in there, outstanding.

Genuinely outstanding. I've done that once before and it was perfect. Genuinely really, really good. And round, like a big round roast. You could turn that into something gorgeous too. We do that. I'll buy an eye of round, which is, there's almost no fat on that cut of meat at all. I'll put it in the sous vide and I'll cook that thing for like 24 hours and I'll do it at like 129 130

And then you just take it out. I flash it real quick and then I cut it really thin and you make a little beef gravy I bet it's and it's nice. I bet it's wonderful. It's nice and it's a cheap cut of meat too. Yeah, it's great Yeah, and with some a1 sauce or a little AI sauce ask AI how to use a1 I pour a little fucking chat GPT. Someone do that. Someone ask AI how to use a1 Fucking stupid You should get fired. It's like the same thing with the signal thing, right? Like the moment they find out they they're just like, no, you're fired. You're fired.

Take everybody you've ever hired with you. Just take them all in a bucket and just leave. They should do the same thing with her. They'll be like, oh no, you're fired. I'm sorry, you're fired. Yeah. But like, could you imagine the outrage that that was the Biden administration and somebody did that?

They would immediately be calling that for that person's head. This person is like giving a talk. They're sitting on a stage talking about education. that they would immediately be calling that for that person said this person is like giving a talk. They're sitting on a stage talking about education. It's like, what should happen is, is someone should run out of the audience to be like, pull and like punch them and then like drag them away. It'd be like no more. They're, they're out, they're done.

They can't be in there. This is like Linda McMahon, the former wrestling, right? So somebody should like take a chair off the top rope or something. It comes in with a fucking chair, folding chair, boom, fucking stone cold. Steve Austin kicks her in the stomach and does the stunner. I'd be amazing. Fucking undertaker comes out choke slam. They just pick her up and the Herman Cain are just throwing her back and forth by her neck. Your voice!

My voice? You're shouting. How dare you! I have a voice-related medical condition. Oh, I'm very sorry. I suffer from voice immodulation, Tina. I'm unable to control the pitch or volume of my voice. Also known as Van Orton syndrome,

VI is a recognized psycho medical condition that you may have read about in Newsweek or Cracked Magazine. All right, New York Times, main governor staring down Trump says she is unfazed by loud men. This is a great line. This is a great fucking good line. And it's a great, it's actually a really good article talking about her back and forth with

Trump about he is trying to sue them over trans rights issues. She's not backing down. She said, I'll see you in court. He's been manipulating the people who work for him have been manipulating their offices to hurt Maine. Yeah. And they've been doing it in multiple ways. We talked about it a couple of weeks ago.

We had a story directly from Maine where we talked about it, where they were using the social security office and that you would have to bring your child in instead of the child just automatically registering when it was born for a social security card. You will have to bring it into like one of five locations across the state in order to get

and register for that card afterwards. Cause they turned off that computer automated service basically as retaliation. It's just putative. It's just retaliation. And they did this, they're doing the same thing with other things. She's going to fight them.

And so, you know, I, I, this is what you need. You need people out there that are there. And like we said, when we read that article, like, yeah, it's two people. It's two people that are involved in sports that are trans. There's two people in that state. So you're gonna dictate all these demands to everybody in that state and make that state kowtow to you

because you're upset by about two separate different people. But you know, what I love about this is two things. One, this lady is the anti-Murkowski. We opened this show talking about the fear and the cowardice and the craven bullshit of fucking Murkowski. I'm afraid of retaliation. And here is the fucking governor of Maine standing up

and being like, you know what? This only is gonna affect two people, but the fucking principle of the thing, I will not back down on the principle of the thing. They're my residents, right? Like, this only gonna affect two people, but they're my residents and they stand behind me. You gotta come through me.

That's what I want. That's what I want too. That's what I want. I want somebody to be like, come through me, motherfucker. That's what I want. And let's stand up to tyranny. That should be- As a principle of who we are,

as like defenders of something we really call liberty, then let's stand up to tyranny. That should be. As a principle of who we are, as like defenders of something we really call liberty, then let's stand up to tyranny. Every single person, from now on, you're rallying cry, if you're in office, you should be, come through me. Yeah, man. You come through me. Yep, bring it.

There's only two ways you go here. You go out the door, you come through me. Those are your two options. And like, get more people like this. Don't stand on stage trembling with fear saying how much you're gonna be fucking afraid because somebody's gonna retaliate against you. You're worthless.

How different is that message? The chickens are coming home to roost, Bobby Boucher. You reap the fruit of your selfish ways. You gonna lose all your fancy foosball games and you're gonna fail your big exam because school is the devil So normally I wouldn't play anything like this, but this is too funny not to play god I fucking hate JD Vance JD Vance so god what a Useful kid of a man events look at him right here. He looks like somebody shot a growth rate on an oompa

loompa. That's what he looks like. And we're going to play him. Bobble a college football trophy. So great. The national champion, Ohio state university football team met with president Trump and vice president JD Vance at the white house. I love it. They like try to put it back together again. Oh my God. We gotta watch it again. Guys, if you, okay. Now look, look, I know not everybody watches the video, right? Go to the website, click on this article

and watch JD Vance fucking bobble this fucking thing. This is the best shit I've ever seen. He picks it up and the asshole picks it up and he doesn't support the actual political party. this article and watch JD Vance fucking bobble this fucking thing. This is the best shit I've ever seen. He picks it up and the asshole picks it up and he doesn't support the actual trophy. He just grabs it by the base and fucking falls out on him. Here he goes. He lifts it and as soon as he lifts it, wow, that goes. He dropped the base on the ground.

Way to go you butterfinger. Fuck, he fumbled it. God I fucking love it so much. Oh I fucking love it so much. All I want for JD Vance, for this, this is what I want for JD Vance for the next four years. I genuinely, I want a series of just minor humiliations. I want not one thing other than I want him to go to cut ribbons and I want him to fucking

snip off his own fucking Shorts, I want to the fucking giant scissors or whatever like he cuts it and it like somehow hits his eye Yeah, like he's like my fucking eye. I'm just like I want that so much I want him to step on rakes in the yard and have him come up and hit him in the face I want a series of minor humiliations everywhere. He goes I want him to like fucking drop a baby at some point. You know what I mean? And the baby should be okay.

But like, unless it's a Republican baby. No, I'm kidding. No baby's a Republican, that's ridiculous. God, I fucking hate him so much. I want him to be so humiliating though that I want his wife to leave him. You know? Like I want him to like, I want his wife

to be like, this is too much's if she's still in it now She's staying. I I hope I'm wrong. I hope he gets a public messy divorce I hope she fucking gets caught cheating with like somebody way more attractive, and she's just totally unrepentant I want his heart to break on national television I want him to find out his children don't love him from a fucking TV ad. Like I want him to hurt forever. I want him to like have to go to a place

after he sat in like ketchup. And it's like all over the back of his shirt and it's all over the back of his pants, like right in his crotch area. So he looks like he shit his pants and then he has to walk up with his ass to the audience and like walk up and stand there and like and then I want like that one sort of tail of his shirt to be out in the front. That's what I want. I want him to miss button his coat. Yeah. You know, so his coat is button sideways when he meets with a dignitary. Like I want his pants to split. Yeah. I want him to step in dog shit before he walks through the Oval Office. Like I just want a series of never ending humiliations.

Every few seconds there should be a new one. I want him to cough and fart at the same time on tape. There should be like a JD Vance Gremlin that just follows him around and does all this stuff. It would be amazing. I mean more a gremlin than JD Vance. I don't know what that would even look like. A smaller JD Vance?

That's a smaller JD Vance. What is a JD Vance. I don't know what it would even look like a smaller JD Vance. What is a JD Vance gremlin? We've had to shut down all groups seven personnel just briefly security. Someone with that access has been tampering. I hope you don't think it's me. I don't even balance my checkbook on downtime. I have an abacus at home for that. Oh yes I'm sure you understand it should only be a couple of days. So I mentioned the start of the show that it is just a couple of days after tax day. So here's a tax related story from the AP. Trump administration plans to end the IRS direct file program for free tax filing,

AP sources say. Isn't that great? And they're doing this just cause. They're doing it cause Biden started it. Yeah, that's really it. Like understand that any of the things that are positive that happened over the last four years that anybody received that was positive,

they're gonna take those away. Not because they don't care about you, they don't, that's also true, but that's not the reason, right? Like that's not the reason behind it. It's because they wanna make sure that they erase any trace of anything good that Biden did. And he did the same thing with Obama. He tried to erase any trace of anything good that Biden did. And he did the same thing with Obama. He tried to erase any trace of the previous president

who was getting any kind of praise whatsoever for the things that they created. He is such a patchulent child that whatever he can do, if he can erase any of that stuff, he will. And so that's what he's gonna do. And so anything that was positive that came out of Biden's presidency, expect it to go away. Yeah, and let me read a little chunk from this because there's also he's going to do. And so that's, so anything that was positive that came out of Biden's presidency expected to go away. Yeah. And let me, let me read a little chunk from this

because there's also a financial component to that. I think it's worth noting. The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS's direct file program and electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free. The program developed during Joe Biden's presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical.

And this is where it's important. But Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies complain that it was a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use. So the hard to use free stuff, what does that do? It pushes people to go to one of these commercial tax preparation companies who I'm sure are a huge fucking lobby. And they get paid on average a hundred to a hundred and forty dollars per return. Which if you just got a fucking 1040 easy, a couple of student loans and your mortgage interest for your house, it's the better part of 45 minutes to fill this thing out

on the direct file program. Unless your taxes are complicated, you don't need anything more than the direct file program. You know? Like, and that's the majority of people, you know? They've got a house, they've got some mortgage interest on it, they've maybe got some suit loans. Five deductions, a couple of exemptions, and that's it.

Yeah, that's's it. Yeah. That's almost everybody. That's almost everybody. Pushing this software, pushing this thing that works out is not only retaliation against the Biden administration, but it's just a clear giveaway to these fucking tax prep companies. And it's retaliation against the middle class again. Right? This is another thing too, is that anything they can do to make your life more complicated? Think about this. Think about this. That $140, if you're going to

pay it for somebody else to do it, that's now how many hours that you had to do to do that. They're wasting your time to go pay somebody else to do the thing that the government should be doing for us for free, right? They're taking the money out and then they're saying, well, are you sure that's how much you owe us? Because if it's not, we're gonna take you to jail. You better be real right. You better be real sure about that number. Well, if you know the fucking number,

then why do I have to fucking jump through all these hoops? Like, shouldn't you just tell me what the number is? And then that's the end of our fucking, the end of the back and forth between us? That's not how it works. It's all this back and forth like, oh, you better know the number of our fucking, the end of the back and forth between us, that's not how it works. It's all this back and forth like, oh, you better know the number, you better know the exact number,

and we're gonna check on you, and we're gonna send somebody up to look at it, and it better be right. And it's like, well, motherfucker, I gotta do all the work on my end. And now you're gonna send them to a free tool that's gonna take even more time. So are you gonna pay the $140 and work for that

and pay somebody off? Or are you gonna take your weekend day and try to figure this fucking Byzantine fucking tax tool out to try so what they're gonna do they're gonna waste your time. They don't care about you They don't they don't fucking cared about you didn't give a shit about your time They don't fucking care if you sat there from now until the end of the time They wouldn't give a fuck no not at all because they also know that for a lot of these people They're getting not a they're getting a tax refund, right?

So a lot of people get a tax refund because they overpay their taxes and then they get a tax refund at the end of the year. Well, if the government doesn't have to give you that refund, they don't wanna give you that refund. So the people who are using the direct file system are not people typically with very complicated taxes. These are often gonna be W-2 earners,

like I mentioned before, with relatively straightforward taxes, many of whom overpay and get a refund. Take away the direct file system. You either force people into this commercial tax prep system where these lobbyists have certainly said, hey, let's get rid of this,

or those people simply don't file or don't file properly and the government gets to keep more of that money. Either way, it fucks the middle class. Either way, they don't fucking or don't file properly and the government gets to keep more of that money. Either way, it fucks the middle class. Either way, they don't fucking care about you. For what reason? What is the charge? Eating a meal?

A succulent Chinese meal? Oh, that's some nice headlocks up. Ah, yes. I see that you know your judo well. Good one. And you, sir, are you waiting to receive my limp penis? Now get your hands off me. This story is from CBC. Nearly 900,000 fewer people went to the US in March as cross border travel plummets.

So this is referring specifically to border travel from Canada into the United States. And a lot of money, a lot of money comes over as part of that legal, they're talking about legal flow of people coming over, people from Canada coming here to spend money and to transact business. Billions of dollars is being lost. Trillions.

It could be trillions of dollars at the end of the year with the amount of tourism that the United States has. We have trillions of dollars with the tourism that we do. It's an intense amount of money. It's an intense amount of money that we spend, that people spend here. And there are places that people really love. They love to go to Nashville.

They love to go to, you know, they love to go to California. They love to see some of these big national parks that we have. There's a lot of beautiful places in the United States, New York City, Chicago, you know, the Vegas is a big destination. Big destination. They've got the Southern California's Disneyland, Disney, yeah. Florida's got lots of places, but and lots of people that are close by. I mean, that's got lots of places. And lots of people that are close by, I mean, that's a big tourist destination

for a lot of people in Canada. It's not a long flight. They get to come down, they get to experience a different culture for a little while, something that's very different from their culture, because we are very different from Canadians, even though it really feels like they only just say A and he makes a little swerve more.

They're very different. It's a different culture. So they get to come down and experience some of this cool, this stuff that we have here that is, you know, interesting or beautiful or, you know, niche or whatever. And now it's just like, people are like, no, I just won't go back. That there's all these people,

like there's so many message boards that I've seen where people are just like, I'll never go back there. I'll never go back to the United States now. They fucked it. I'll never go back. And you're just like, dude, there is back there. I'll never go back to the United States. No, they fucked it. I'll never go back. And you're just like, dude, there is a lot of people in the United States that are in the tourism industry. A lot.

And if you keep fucking this up, you're gonna see that number of those people, those jobs are gonna disappear, we're not gonna have the same. It's just, you're just fucking it up for everybody. And it's crazy to me that there is a group of people in this country that they look out over the world and they're like, good, I'm glad, fuck them.

There's a whole group of people in this country that are like that. Yeah, there's a group of people who've taken the idea of isolationism to a degree of extremists that is not sustainable. It's literally not sustainable. It will be to our economic ruin. Again, I talk about things that are not sustainable. It's literally not sustainable. It will be to our economic ruin. Again, I talk about things that are not written in stone.

There is nothing written in stone that the United States will always be the economic engine of the world. It is now, but it could very well not be. These things are not destined. They are not written in stone. They are not carved by fate. They are just the happenstance of now.

That's what they are. We can ruin this thing. And then if we ruin it, it may not return. Like there's a long world history of empires that for generation after generation seemed indomitable. That did turn out to be very dominable. Sure. There's nothing about the

United States that is unique or infallible or perfect or carved in stone but we behave like it is and the isolationists behave like it is. They behave like nothing that we do or anyone else does can possibly stop these fucking unrivaled power of the United States and that's because they have

bought into the religious mythology that that is surrounded the United States and that's because they have bought into the religious mythology that is surrounded the United States, the Shining Beacon on a Hill, the American exceptionalism, all of these ideas are all sort of like mixed together in this melting pot of stupidity that we have bought into under this like white Christian nationalist patriotism whatever it we've talked about on the show before it is the new religion of America. Yeah. And it very well might be the economic death of America.

Yeah. And you're getting a chance to see these this this entire group of people all around the world say we're not going gonna play with America anymore. And now, you know, like Trump, Trump wasn't satisfied with how bad he fucked things up in his first term. He wasn't satisfied with it. He was like, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna go back for a second time

and I'm gonna fuck things up even worse. And he could fuck it up generationally, where it's like, I mean, he's already done that for the courts, right? He's already fucked up generationally for the court. So did Mitch McConnell, Mitch McConnell. Oh, yeah. You know, but you're looking at what could be economic damage for the rest of our lifetimes easily.

Very easily. Easily. Yeah, that's great. I'm glad we did that. Yeah. I'll tell you this. We were having conversations at my workplace not that long ago. And we were, there's an idea, I'm in housing, and there was an idea like, well, you know, at some point the market has to come roaring back. And I did speak up and I was like, that's not a given. Yeah. Like we should set aside that idea that that's a given, just because thing like, because we're at a historical low point in terms of transaction volume. It's like, it's, it's the worst that it's been in like something like 35 years.

And I was like, there's no, there's nothing set in stone here that says this comes roaring back. I just, everybody should kind of just kind of press pause on that idea. And the looks you get when you say stuff like that, there's not a counter argument to it. Smart people tend to say like, yeah, you know, I hadn't thought of it because things have always come back to us. Assumption they always will. But I'm like, we should kind of bury that idea.

Just bury that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, uh, this upcoming Friday, I'm going to be doing a live stream with Aaron Rabinowitz and a whole bunch of other podcasts, a whole bunch of puzzle, puzzle guys will be there. Opening arguments guys will be there. There's just a vice rhino is going to be there. I don't have the names in front of me. There's a whole bunch of other podcasts.

There's going to be, I want to say 10 different podcasts that are going to be on this creator accountability live stream. We're going to be trying to collect funds for creator accountability network. It's going to be fandom versus fandom. So we've done this a couple of different times where there's a, you know, if you want to donate during the puzzles time, you get on at the last bit

and you donate and they get the money. If you want to donate during someone else's time opening arguments, you can come in a little early, et cetera, et cetera. And there's a ton of people who are going to be hanging out and it's going to be about 45 minute blocks. So Aaron Binowitz and I will be there the whole time. So please come hang out this upcoming Friday. It's going to be starting at 6 PM Eastern time and it's going to go till 10 PM Eastern time. Might go a little later. We'll see what happens, but basically five to nine central,

six to 10 Eastern, come hang out with us. It's going to be a great time. So please live stream stuff. And it's all our cognitive dissonance, dissonance pod stuff. You can find all the links on our web page. And then we'll be sending things out for, during social media throughout the day to let people know what time it starts and what the links are and all that stuff.

So definitely show up, definitely hang out, definitely bring a little bit of the pocket change so you can donate so the Creator Accountability Network can exist. All right, that's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to catch you next week. We're going to have a patron show this week, a funny show for patrons, but we'll be back with a full show on Monday. And we're gonna leave you like we always do with the skeptic screen. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter mommy issue hypno Babylon bullshit.

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