Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 844: Musk's Exit, Big Beautiful Bill

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

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Recording live from glory hole studios in Chicago doesn't sound the same time They gave you a throat of death to me and beyond this is cognitive dissonance every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way we bring critical thinking skepticism and irreverence to any topic that makes the news is grabbing makes it big or makes us mad I don't know. It sucks my voice I hear it. I've never Mike. I don't monitor my voice all day No, I'm not in my voice and it's funny cuz he's kind of sound like you kind of sound like Sam Elliot got punched in The throat I feel like Sam Elliot got punched in the throat

You even got the mustache. I got the mustache. You got the mustache. Oh, dude. I'll tell you a quick story. I got my surgery feel just a thousand times better. That's great news, man. It's night and day.

But like, so I got my surgery, but I had to shave my beard. I know we mentioned it before. I had to shave my beard. I was left mentioned it before. I had to shave my beard. I was left with mutton chops and a mustache. I looked like fucking crazy Civil War general. He looked like a relief picture. I was calling him the gooch all day. I was like.

And so like, I'm like, well, I just had to do this for the surgery stage, like a sterile space, you know, that they could cut into or whatever on my neck. So I immediately, like as soon as I shave it, I'm like letting it grow in, but I'm old. So now I'm growing in this gray stubble. I don't wanna burst your bubble, but your beard was gray before.

But it looked distinguished in my mind. No. Gray stubble, gray stubble. Gray stubble 100% looks like a dad on a bender. That's what it looks like. So I'm going to tell you a quick story. So my dad, my whole life, my dad is a fastidious guy. So, and I am to a certain degree too.

So like my dad liked me, wake up, you take a shower. My dad would wake up, shower, brush his teeth, shave. You never saw my dad with a hint of stubble. Like weekend, Saturday, Sunday, did not matter. He always had the same routine, right? So like he just always was clean shaven. My whole life, he never had a hint of stubble ever. Then when he was 53, he had this massive heart attack

and I went to go visit him in the hospital. He's laying in the hospital, he's not doing great, but the thing that made me realize that my dad was sick is he had like two days worth of stubble and he was gray. Which like, of course it was. He's 53. His hair was salt and pepper at that point. But I remember looking down and being like,

oh, you seem fucking old. He never seemed old before. And then like, I'm like, I'm looking at myself in the mirror and I'm like, that's my dad's face I'm old as shit like I got gray ass stubble like it was one thing when I had a beard that turned gray Yeah, it feels different. Yeah, I got this gray ass stumble. It's aging man. No great Doesn't like aging can Can we not do it? Dude, zero out of like so far age has just kicked me in the nuts a thousand times. I mean, I like the process. Like I enjoy most of the time. I haven't enjoyed like the last eight years.

But the most of the time I enjoy the process of growing old. It's the growing old that sucks. Yeah, well like, I like the part where I'm not broke all the time Yeah, I do like you know solid the thing is like when you're young your body's like yeah, he's broke We have to just do what he says like he doesn't have any options like he's Will just do what he says he's broke We got it We got to cover this now that like I'm old and like I've been able to like build a career My body's like, finally we can break. Let's just break all the time for no reason.

Like, what if his eyes go bad? That'd be funny. Everybody break at the same time. And I know my voice sounds crazy, guys. Like it literally sounds a little bit different every day. It's kind of crazy. Tom's going through a change of life. I'm going through the change of life?

Well they had to like get into my neck meat and retract. Yeah if you're looking at this you can see Tom's Tom looks like he got into a fight with Darth Vader There's like a big fucking patch on his neck somebody fucking choked. He got fucking prison shanked or whatever Well, I don't know if you were in there. But with that facial hair, I do not, I wouldn't throw that out that the prison shank happened. I'd be like, you know, 100 percent, you know what? You could just be walking down the street and be like, I know that guy, and then he'd stabs his throat. I totally know how crazy I look.

And I was out in my neighborhood. I'm not allowed to do anything for exercise except for walk. And I was in the hospital. And like, I don't like, Cecil, I was out in my neighborhood. I can't, I'm not allowed to do anything for exercise except for walk. And I was in the hospital and like, I don't like, see, so I was on so much drugs. I don't remember what you were there for and what you weren't there for. So like, if you were there for this, I'm sorry to tell you it again, but like, like at one point the occupational therapist comes in and she like makes me do the stairs and walk down the hallway and make sure that like I'm not wobbly and everything. And then she says, okay, you have these restrictions,

but you don't need a walker. You can go up and down the stairs, all this kind of stuff. And she's like, and you have no restriction on how much you walk. And I said, now, we don't know each other. I said, but, if you tell me I can do, I'm not allowed to do anything fun.

And I exercise a lot. So if I'm allowed to walk, and you say there's no restriction, I'm like, I'm gonna go to do anything fun. And I exercise a lot. So if I'm allowed to walk, and you say there's no restriction, I'm like, I'm gonna go for two or three hours worth of walks. I'm just gonna go out and walk, and when a Lord of the Rings movie is over, I'll turn around and come home. You know?

Are you really saying that I can walk as much as I want? She's like, yeah, you can walk as much as your body will let you walk. So I was like, okay, cool. So today's day eight, and I was like, I'm gonna go for a walk. So I went out and walked for about an hour, 15 minutes this morning.

As I'm walking, and I'm like, fully aware as I'm walking through my neighborhood that like one, it's eight o'clock in the morning, the only people out walking are like young moms with kids, and I'm out there with my grizzle face and my giant neck bandage, and I look like I just fucking came out of the fucking Escape from Dan Mora movie or whatever. Like I fucking, like just fucking came out of the fucking escape from Dan more a movie or whatever like I fucking like the fucking

State troopers are gonna be like hounding me at any turn And I was like I'm safe to be around I puff fuck all right. Yeah, I'll turn around Jesus Christ I do not pay attention to the open wound I'm glad you're up and around and I'm glad you're feeling good. I feel better. Yeah, that's literally good to have done it without you. See, I literally couldn't have done it without you. I'm glad you're I'm glad you're up and around.

I'm glad you're back. And and we missed you last week. But but we're going to hopefully have a good show this week. Let's get into it. Let's do it, buddy. All right. So this story, this story comes from the Hill. It looks like Musk is done spreading his Musk all around Capitol Hill.

Musk thanks Trump as special government employee status comes to an end. His special government employee status was always on a timer. It was on 130 day timer because he wasn't officially hired and he wasn't officially vetted. So there's like a, some carve out where you can like put somebody on like double secret probation for like 130 days or something and then they're gone. Do you think when you when you heard that, the first thing that popped in my head is like why did they follow that particular rule?

Because they're breaking rules like crazy. It's not like they're following many rules, but in this case, they followed it. And he left before it was up. And I was like, well, that's really unusual. Yeah. I think because, so here's my take on this. I think Musk was a useful idiot for the Trump administration. He was a really great lightning rod that really deflected a lot of the blame and attention away from Trump specifically and toward Elon Musk as they broke all the things they wanted to break.

People got mad at Musk as a person and that diverts attention away from Trump as a president. So I think he was just a fucking useful idiot and now his utility is pretty much expired. They're happy to get rid of him. And you know, like, they don't really care about the Doge mission. What they wanted to do was to break the pieces of government that they felt were ideologically not in step with their fascist boot bullshit. You know, like the Department of Education saved us no money, fucking trashed it.

USAID saved us no money, fucking trashed it. You know, all of the Doge examples saved us no money. Check your wallets, everybody. Nobody's any fucking richer. This was always an ideological thrashing. And I think he was just the fucking political lightning rod. And I think he even acknowledges it. Like, I think Musk even says, like political lightning rod. And I think he even acknowledges it.

I think Musk even says, that fucking great big bill you guys passed isn't in keeping with the Doge mission. I'm fucking, you know, what? And it's like, yeah, fucking, nobody cared about your mission. Yeah. Nobody cared. You cared, weirdly, you weird fucking South African immigrant asshole piece of shit.

You cared. Nobody else in the administration cared about the same ideological principles. Musk did. He was just there to be the useful idiot. I wonder too, you know, now that you say this, it strikes me that AOC and Bernie went out and did an anti-oligarch tour when he was in there, right? So like there's a tour that's sort of of against him and against what he's doing. And much of the town halls that we saw were focused on his actions, what he was doing,

the cuts he was making, the cuts the government was making. Now don't get me wrong, there was a lot of Medicaid pushover. So there was a ton of Medicaid that came out in those, but there was also very much like USAID stuff that was brought up whenever they brought up Elon Musk in those, in those town halls, at least the ones that I saw, there was a lot of booing. People didn't like him. They didn't like that he was in government. There was a ton of people, a ton of pundits that were talking about this unelected billionaire

who's just rifling through our, what we're doing as a country and making unilateral decisions, which is really dangerous for all the rest of us, all the rest of us who don't have billions of dollars to insulate us, you know? So I think that, I think you're absolutely right. I think that there is, you know, it's funny because I would never attribute that sort of cleverness to Trump, but it's got to be, you know, You're right. It feels it feels kind of clever The other thing too that that really strikes me is they've made a lot of claims Throughout this entire process about fraud and we haven't seen a single fraud case brought on not one

So that's a giant fucking lie, right? So everybody who has said because fraud is a crime and it's extra special a crime if you're doing it to the government Right. It's really like think of think of how often they go after you for like we've seen them go after people for tax stuff Like that's not a lot of money, but they'll go after you for tax shit If you fuck your taxes up if they oh notice, they'll come after you, man. They'll be like, no, you gotta pay this or you're going to fucking jail. That you'll get caponed. Yeah, I mean, fucking A, dude, like you'll get, you'll get there. There is absolutely

something to this. If you do a fraud, that's an actual crime. And they were making these claims that essentially crimes were happening. You can't have a fucking like these people were making it sound like when the USAID stuff was happening, there's these senators that are passing this stuff and then just walking over and like putting it in their back pocket or giving it to their friends or whatever. You're like, that's fraud. That's easy to prove. Prove it in court and not a single bit has been proved because there never was it. No, zero fucking fraud.

The other part of this too, I was just thinking is like, it's not like getting rid of Musk gets rid of Doge. So he got the ball rolling, took all the heat, takes all the heat from the initial sort of blast furnace of it, and then like a lot of things government, all the real work just continues humming along in the background. So now they get to keep breaking shit, but everybody can fucking hate on this guy. Like,

I mean, almost immediately when he announced this to shares of Tesla went up like Tesla stock. I saw that because people were like, okay, cool. He'll pay attention to our company again, you know, and he won't be off, you know, gallivanting about breaking the fucking government and being hated. And like, because America is a country like all with short memory, all I do think that like a lot of the hate and a lot of the pushback and a lot of the market loss that Tesla has will be temporary.

Do you think that he's a true believer? Do you think he really believes in the mission that he was doing? Musk? Yeah. I do. I think Musk is too wrapped up in his own... My impression, which is fucking bullshit and I'm making it up, right? I don't know anything about anything, but I get a strong sense that Musk is such a self-involved, narcissistic asshole that I think he's almost incapable of not seeing himself in these sort of grand terms. I think he believes his own bullshit.

I think he thinks that he is the guy who's here to save us all. I think he sees himself as a Tony Stark-esque character where he knows better and he just needs to lead by example and show us dumb fucking peasants the way through to the promised land. I don't think that like he doesn't buy the mythology of himself. That's my read. I could be wrong. I mean, the thing that the thing that struck me in this article was his apparent, I guess I would say like him getting what seemed to be upset about that bill and saying, this doesn't seem like what I, like, why was I even doing it then kind of?

Like, why was I even doing it if they're passing this big, beautiful bill, essentially what Trump is calling it, which is like a major, it's essentially just adding to our debt. Like it's just like, you're giving tax cuts to rich people so that we can have more debt, which is what Trump did in his first term. Like we knew it was gonna happen.

But I think that he's thinking, well, I was played in some way. That's what it sounds like to me, that the statement he makes almost sounds like he's a little hurt by it. Oh, I think he is. I think he's, he's a little hurt by it. Oh, I think he is. I think he realizes that he's been pushed aside. I think like, I think if you're Trump,

you had him in here and like, you took all this, for 120 days, this guy stood there and thought he was big shit and cock of the walk. Now he's shunted off to the side. He took all the heat for you and now you don't matter anymore and we never cared about the things you cared about, stupid asshole. Like yeah, I think he's a fucking simpy little piece of shit.

I really do. I think he's just like, all right, you got used like the fucking burnt out fucking rubber you are, man. We just called you a bitch, man. You are so dead. I shut the fuck up. This is fucking great. This was when I read this news, Cecil, I fucking found it two different places because I didn't believe it.

I found it in the Wall Street Journal. Then I read it again in the Times because I was like, really? This is from the AP. Federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers law. So the thing is with the tariffs, just to kind of summarize this very briefly, the thing is with the tariffs is that the president did not really have unilateral power to impose these broad sweeping tariffs across the board. He claimed that power by claiming an emergency, like claiming that there was an emergency. If there's a certain kind of emergency that then expands his executive

authority, but the federal international trade court was basically like, no, man, you can't just be like, emergency. Yeah. There's no emergency bro. And you can't be like, but trade imbalance, like there's always been trading, but that's nothing that They basically called him out on it. We're like, you can't just call emergency. You can't run around playing tag and then decide what fucking ghoul is in the middle of running. Like that's not how that works. You establish what fucking

ghoul is to start with. And that's how you play tag. You can't just like run around. And when you're about to be caught, be like, this is ghoul. That's not how it works. So they called him out on it and said, there is no emergency. So there's no emergency powers. So you never could do these tariffs. The tariffs are bullshit. Yeah. And, and what happened was if you look at the judges, one of them's an Obama judge or an Obama appointee, but one's from George W. Bush and one's from Trump. And they say, nah, man, sorry, you can't do this shit. So he's gonna have to go back to the drawing board. And so there's been, you know,

I think he's been getting a lot of legal, he's had a lot of legal problems. We're seeing in the legal world, there's some real upheavals when it comes to like the US marshals and all this other stuff that I'm seeing with all this other, you know, like who controls who kind of, who can enforce on the Justice Department, et cetera. I just, you know, if it's not broke,

and I have no idea, I'm not gonna say it's not broke now, because it could just be broke, right? It could be broken, there's no going back. But if it's not broke, and we do wind up with some semblance of normalcy in the future, at some point in the future. I just want whoever gets that fucking power to scroll back and roll back

this fucking executive power somehow. And I think it'll be easy if you get a sweeping win. It's easy to get Republicans on board to get you to roll back that power because they'll say, yeah, we want to try to take away whatever you can do. So just, you know, reset the clock and then pull that power away.

Because I think like, if you don't do that, we're just going to have these, you know, and who knows, because the more executive power get, the more it's going to make it imbalanced for even to get a chance to get back in, right? There's going to just, that pendulum is going to get back in. Right. There's going to just, that pendulum is going to swing too far and eventually you're just going to have, which is what we might have right now is someone who's never going to leave office. Like there's

a possibility we have someone in there right now who will never leave office. That's an absolute possibility. So, you know, you just got to hopefully if some, you know, I want to be optimistic and hope that there's enough systems and enough problems that he can't actually do all the things he wants. And there's enough people in this country that will stop him from trying to become a king. But my hope is, is that whoever gets in there next just rolls this shit back because his, you know, and this is shit you can't fix. Like you can't, you're never going to fix the shit with, with, with Canada in a year or two. You're going to have to really have a lot of goodwill with them for a long time. They're talking about billions of dollars lost in,

in travel, you know, tons of travel. Yeah. Tens of, you're talking about tons of travel money, travel money that we normally rake in, especially during the summer months, that stuff's going to be gone. You're going to see, you know, a ton of these people who come in during the winter for like the places in the South where that get visited constantly, you're going to see a ton of that money disappear. There's just not going to be the same level of people that are coming here for that. You're going to ruin your back and forth with many different countries that you've had for years.

You never get that back. So even if you get these tiny trade winds, you're not going to win anything. You've already lost. There's no way to dig yourself out of that hole. So I'm glad somebody's standing up to them. I hope this stands and I hope that this is it. This is the end of this, this bullshit because it's such a fucking rubber band ride that we're on.

Yeah, man. And like, I don't know, like to, to roll back executive power would require us all to get together and like roll back, like George W. Bush era shit. Like the unitary executive theory is where this all began. And that was George W. Bush administration shit. That was the attorney general whose name I, Ken Paxton, I think might've been, but I could be wrong. There's an attorney general. No, it wasn't him. I forgot the fucker's name, but like he's the guy in the Bush administration, the W administration who basically floated this unitary executive theory concept and everybody fucking signed off on it. And it has been a been an absolute collapse to the top ever since in terms of power.

And like, we got to roll that shit back. And we know that the Supreme Court is not going to do it. Right? So we can't count on the courts to curtail power. This will certainly be appealed and it will go to the Supreme Court. And there's no guarantee that the Supreme Court won't back us. There is no guarantee. There is no guarantee.

There is no guarantee. You're right. And there's almost certainly. There's almost certainly three votes right away on his side. Every single thing comes in and he's already, like he has like a golfing handicap for every single one of them.

He's got three votes no matter what. He could fucking sign an executive order that says like everybody has to lick his asshole and it would be like, yeah fucking Clarence Thomas would be like, sure let me get my fucking tongue in there first sir. Like are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? He's gonna replace Clarence Thomas before it's over. Probably replace Alito too.

Yeah probably. There's literally- What would that be? How many would that be for him? Five? Five. Yeah, he's gonna do it. I'm sure he's gonna do it.

Yeah, I mean, it would be almost impossible to find a sycophant as sycophantic as Thomas and the same as Trivolo. Like if he waits to do it and they went somehow when the Senate back and he waits to do it, I would do what, what's his face. What McConnell did. You have to do what McConnell did. I would be like, I wouldn't care if it was the first day of your thing.

I'd be like, no, absolutely not. No, it does not matter. Not doing it. We're not bringing it. No, I'm sorry. We're going to never going to show up. You will never show up here. Sorry.

That's how this works. Now. That's how you show up. You will never show up here. Sorry. That's how this works now That's how you broke it. You fucking bought it. Yeah, I would a hundred percent to a McConnell did if he does that Yeah, we here at City College welcome international students with arms open wide Do you carry a Danish passport? We are nowhere near our Icelandic quota as you can see tuition is considerably higher for international students But most find that an American education is well worth the expense. Well, fucking Harvard, this story's from Newsweek.

Chinese college gives Harvard international students unconditional offers. So if you've been following this, the Trump administration has a bug up their ass and a hate on for Harvard because they decided that even though most of the cabinet went to Harvard, that somehow the education there yields only left-wing ultra woke liberals, despite nearly everybody in the cabinet having attended Harvard. All this anecdotal evidence. Right?

So, but Harvard basically was like, yeah, we're just, we're not going to do what you say. Like we are, we are going to maintain our independence as an independent private fucking institution. And of course, Trump then went to war with Harvard and continues to go to war with Harvard. It seems to be accelerating day by day. Harvard students now, international students are in jeopardy of basically being fucking removed, having their faces removed.

Yeah, I saw that, I saw there was some judge put an end to that. Really? I saw it was late today, it was late today, but a judge was like, you can't do that. Right now, what you're seeing with Harvard is, you know, Harvard gets a lot of funding from the government and I don't think that's a bad thing. And the reason why I don't think it's a bad thing is because it's one of the best, like higher education institutions in the world. So what you want is for your country to have that.

And so if it is one of those best, one of the best institutions in the world, it should be funded as much as possible to make sure it continues to grow and do the best institutions in the world, it should be funded as much as possible to make sure it continues to grow and do the best work it can do. And so if it gets money from the government, then it gets money from the government. That's great. What we don't want is what's happening now

where other countries are luring people away. You're seeing they cut a bunch of this research funding. So all across the world, all these other countries are like, come here, come here. They're gonna do the same thing with these other international and regular students there. Even people that go there now,

other big universities around the world will say, hey, you were in Harvard, but you can come here and we'll pay for you to go here. And it makes sense because then you're basically draining our brain and filling yours up. It makes sense for them. And Harvard too, there's a lot of downstream effects when you think about this.

Harvard is a big college institution, right? But just like the United States, what's that saying with the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold? I think the same thing happens downstream in other higher education institutions. I think the same thing happens downstream in other higher education institutions. Good point, man. If Harvard has problems, all the rest of them do. You talked about this three weeks ago

when you were like, all these people want to do that. Harvard is the shiny thing. They're trying to wave it in front of you, be like, Harvard, Harvard, Harvard. But you said it was like three weeks ago. You're like, yeah, because they want to fuck up. They want to take a pipe to the fucking to the curriculum at your local school and your community college at your state level college At your local private institution, they're gonna do all this stuff They're gonna they're trying to fuck up higher and higher education as an Institution and in order to do it they're doing what you do in prison, right? They're taking out the big guy first Yeah, they're good. They're walking in first day and they're like, oh well, I guess it's I guess it's big boy

I'm gonna take him out. They're gonna go after him so that's what they're doing and and I'm glad that we're seeing institutions sort of stand up to them and Harvard is standing up to them because if they don't man it could be We could really genuinely fuck ourselves in a huge way. We've already done it with education across the board since, since W maybe even before then we fucked ourselves with education. Our education system in this country is abhorrent and we have fucked ourselves. Every, every chance we've gotten.

I think this is just another, it'll be another compounding of that. A thousand percent. I think this is just another, it'll be another compounding of that. Dude, a thousand percent. The chilling effect, like even if Harvard wins, everybody else loses, because Harvard has more endowment money. Yes.

They're the most, so even if Harvard fights, fights, fights, fights, fights, fights, fights, and shows the world that Harvard can stand up to the Trump administration, what does that mean for your local? You know, like when I think of like my alma mater, like I went to like a like a North Central college in Naperville, Illinois, man. They've got like 63 cents in the piggy bank.

Right? Yeah. Like they're not tuition based institution. Right. Yeah. They make most college. They're fucking cash and carry over there. I guarantee you.

Yeah. So like week to week, if I'm them, I'm going to say, well there. Like I guarantee it. Exactly. Yeah. Week to week. If I'm them, I'm going to say, well, fuck man, I'm not Harvard. Yeah, they survived by the skin of their teeth. Look at what it cost Harvard. When they're making their decisions, they are chilled. They will all be chilled. Your state universities are like, fuck man, all our money is government money.

And whether it might be state, it might be federal. But like, all your smaller schools, like fuck, I don't have the Harvard money. And whether it might be state, it might be federal. But like it, you're, you're all your smaller schools. Like, fuck, I don't have the Harvard money, bro. Did you see what happened to Harvard? It's that's exactly the thing, man. That chilling effect, the brain drain. And then the whole time, let's not also forget that the work that these institutions do saves lives.

Yeah. The work that the, these institutions do that do that like this is fundamental research. Like when pharmaceutical companies lie to you, which they're doing all the time constantly every single day, when they lie to you and say, oh, we have to spend all this money in research and development. No, they didn't. They get an enormous amount. Most of the fundamental research that goes into building new drugs,

new therapies, new modalities, new medical devices. That stuff comes from grants and from universities, from the NIH. They do the bulk of the research. These farm companies then get handed this research. They walk it past the goal line and then they package it up. That's their job. They package it up and they, and they, they walk it past the goal line and then they package it up. That's their job. They package it up and they and they walk it past the goal. But somebody else caught the ball and fucking ran it all the way to the nine man. It's like, and then they're like, wow. So like, if we don't do that part, we get less cancer drugs, right? If we don't do that part, we get less treatment for depression. If we don't do that part, we get less like whatever is inside inside my neck making my neck work now, you know? Cause like, just as a funny aside, like inside my neck,

when they did the same fucking procedure, when my dad had this done 40 years, my dad had this done almost 40 years ago, and they had to go into his hip and take a piece of bone out of his hip and impregnate his like neck with his own bone. That's called an allograft. They don't have to do that anymore.

That hurts worse because now you have a fucking bone scooped out of your hip, right? Yeah. I have to have that. Now you came and do your hour and a half walk afterwards. Yeah, for real. Because my dad and I were comparing recovery. And I'm like, yeah, it's fucking eight days later and I mostly feel great, right? And like he's like, yeah, my first one hurt

like a motherfucker for like two months and he was in his collar and all this crazy shit and because they had a scoop, then they went to cadavers. They would go and get harvest bone from cadavers and they would put that. Now in my neck, they've got this shit called eye factor. This is like a new-er, not real new, but a new-er technology.

We get all this stuff because this shit is developed, the fundamental research is developed by grant money in places like the NIH, in places like your local university, in places like Harvard, in places like Stanford. We need them, we want them doing this work, right? Like I want them doing that work. Like it's the reason I'm fucking on the show today is because somebody did that

and now my recovery was easier and sweeter and I'll be healthier faster, right? And the same is true for you and your grandma and everyone you know, and people that like feel depressed and now don't. And like all of it, like we get this stuff from somewhere. We're hurting ourselves. We're hurting like, this isn't just about like woke ideology.

That's nothing. That's lies. That's just making shit up. The downstream effect is to control. The downstream effect is to clamp down and control and to decide at the very highest level how all elements of society are allowed to function. A Russian agent inside the American government is always a value, is it not? So Pete, Hegseth, just a great choice. He's just fucking killing it again. I am so happy. I am so happy that he went to bat for this fucking absolute chump. Could it? He's the worst. Could anybody do a worse job?

Like even if you were like, I would like to fucking just do the... Like it's almost like he's trying to get fired. You know what I mean? Like if you ever, if you ever had a job where you're like, God, if I quit, I don't get unemployment, but I gotta get my ass fired. It's like Pete Hegseth wants the unemployment man. Man, I'll tell you, I, it's, it's almost like, it's almost like Brewster's millions, but with like dignity. You know what I mean? It's like you're spending your dignity.

He was given like a whole briefcase full of dignity before he got it. And then he has to spend it by fucking Thursday or whatever. He has to spend as much dignity as he can. He's going to buy a dignity stamp and mail it to himself at the end and you're going to be like, that's so clever.

Pete Isak is hit with stunning illegal wiretap allegations. White House was left scrambling after reports that Hegseth had fired three top aides following an illegal wiretap. So I just got to read part of this to you guys, get the gist of it here. Yeah, it's a little complicated. It is. Pete Akses' lawyer suggested that the Pentagon may have fired three of the defense secretary's

top aides last month as a result of an illegal wiretap. White House advisors were reportedly shocked when Tim Parlatorre, Hegseth's personal lawyer who was tasked with overseeing an investigation into a series of leaks, told them that a warrantless wiretap was used to find classified documents on the phone of the secretary's then senior advisor Dan Caldwell. Now, you can't have a warrantless wiretap. You need a wiretap with a warrant. It's kind of important. It's really an important part of government. You can't. Like that's just fucking spying on people.

That's not a thing you can do. And like the Trump administration, according to this article, the Trump administration is basically spending all of their time running around sticking their fingers in fucking dikes, constantly trying to plug leaks. Just like, because the place is fucking leaky gutting and all of their time and energy is spent trying to figure out who's telling the truth and why won't they stop? so this Dan Caldwell guy evidently like has a bunch of classified shit on his phone and They find it because they fucking wiretap this guy's phone without a fucking warrant and then the fucking attorney is like yes So we did that and everyone's like dude. You can't say that out loud. Also. You're an attorney You should know you can't say that out loud. Also, you're an attorney. You should know you can't say that out loud.

And Pete Hegseth is like, oh man, we should have put that on Signal. Check my hair. It's amazing. What is happening, dude? They're so bad at all this stuff. And the fact that some of these people in his inner circle are sharing these documents

and they have them on their phone. I, I would not put it past one of these people to be a straight up Russian agent. I would not put it past that at all because it makes, it would make a hundred percent sense for somebody to just be like, yeah, just approach that guy. They're all approachable. I mean, like, tell me you can't tell me Tom, you can't, you can't get Pete Hegseth in your pocket if you approach him on the 17th hole with a six pack. With a short skirt, a little bit of lipstick and a fucking sixer, that guy is fucking absolutely going to Moscow for you. 100%! He's getting peed on before the end of the night I guarantee it I like I I do at this point

Like I think that there I think that it's like though that who are those fucking band of dipshit Podcasters or whatever that were like unknowing Russian agents who are those? Yeah, it was it was Tim pool and Dave Rubin were the two main ones guys Yeah, I like no part of me would be surprised at all. I would be surprised, but only, but not in a good, I would be surprised if they were Russian agents that knew they were Russian agents. What I actually think, Cecil, is they're so fucking stupid that they're all accidental Russian agents like Dave fucking Rubin.

You don't have to pay them even, they'll do it for free. You know what I mean? Like they do it for free. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you're Russia right now, you like we don't we don't even have to turn them. They don't even have to we don't have to make double agent. They are so stupid they are single agent. Let's go out with money instead. All right, I will take myself out for hookers. It is fine. I pee on myself.

It's fucking amazing, dude. So fucking embarrassing. Guys, it's such a fucking clown car. And it's so funny because you look at these people and all this shit that happens, it takes less than four months for everything to just seize up and break and so many fucking like people running by in the White House on Fire just like yeah, man of course that was gonna happen Of course or you had regular people in regular jobs who knew what they were doing and now you're just like yeah

No, get that guy from box and friends over here. It's like we got a TV personality Who's like yeah turns out I'm gonna hire other TV personalities. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, no man, like you, but you can't convince this guy that he's not competent for the job. Right, right, you're not wrong. You're not wrong.

Yeah, I mean, obviously being a dipshit on TV is a good qualification. You're like, that's nothing. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a dipshit on TV. Right. It's like, dude, if you hired me for this job, I wouldn't be like, well, who are the podcasters I know? They should definitely do this work.

They're all so bad at it too. And there's a bunch, there's actually several podcasters that are part of this group that Dan Bojino guy or whatever. He's now part of it. There's that Cash Patel who was also part of that stuff. You got a guy who was on Fox and Friends. These are all media persons. That of it. There's there's that Cash Patel who was also part of that stuff. You got a guy who was on Fox and Friends. These are all media person. That's it. Because because like Trump has said as much that he thinks that like the most important thing is looking the part. Yeah, no. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, because he can't identify the difference between sincerity and acting. And that's why he's so fucking easy to fool, because he's a fucking fool. This is a brand new Zito! Hey mister, are you gonna die? Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Happy sailing, hulk! Whoa, whoa, no!

How am I driving? One, eight hundred, I'm gonna fucking die! The story's from Huffington Post. Happy sailing, hogs! Oh, oh no! How am I driving? 1-800, I'm gonna fucking die! The story's from Huffington Post. Mike Johnson claims big, beautiful bill will only cut Medicaid for undeserving people. Let me actually read exactly what he said because

it's not really different. Yeah, it's worth reading. Every district in... This is on State of the Union, Sunday's episode of State of the Union. Every district in America has is on State of the Union, Sunday's episode of State of the Union. Every district in America has people who are on the program who shouldn't be. We are the party that supports human dignity. And we... I can't even read. That was fucking amazing.

Okay, hold on. I can where I got to be a professional. All right. We are the party that supports human dignity and we find purpose in dignity and our work. We support dignity and we find purpose and dignity. That's fucking tautological. It's good for the individuals involved. It's good for their community. It's good for society at large. So like what he has said here is the numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. So if you are cut, it's because you are committing fraud, waste or abuse that

you are somebody who is to his point, not worthy of human dignity or not expressing human dignity. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. You are not good for the community. You are not good for the society at large. You are not somebody who finds purpose in your life and you are not somebody who works. Now, we're not. Let me correct you. Let me correct you. We're not someone who we find purpose in your life.

Yes, right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's so that that is that is exactly what he is not just implying, but literally saying to eight million human beings who are going to get kicked off of Medicaid. They are losing access to Medicaid.

If you are not from America, Medicaid is not fucking great to start with. No. Right? Like this is a social safety net program that is sure fucking a lot better than nothing. And I'm glad it exists. And for the people that are on it, lives are saved. But like, it's not like you get on Medicaid and you are like, whoa, all right, cool. I guess I can go to every doctor in America at no cost to me.

That's not how fucking Medicaid works. It's just not. Medicaid is a program that allows you to go to certain doctors that fucking accept Medicaid. A lot of them don't.. A lot of them don't. Like a lot of them don't. A lot more don't than do. And you can get like cheaper access to care for sure. It again saves lives.

It's a great program. In America, it's like one of the better programs we have. But if you were in England or Canada or Australia, you'd be like, that's fucking horrible. It's shit. That's garbage. This, by comparison to a real system where we care and care for is trash. So like we're kicking people off something that isn't that good to start with, but it's still the best America is going to give these people. Right? And like, it's something that all of us, I think about this all the time, I don't need social safety nets today. I might tomorrow. I don't know what the rest of my life is going to look like.

Right. Like any number of things can happen in our lives, no matter where we are and how we've positioned ourselves, what choices we've made. We are not the sum of our choices. We are mostly the sum of a series of accidents and a sum of a series of luck. That's why things have gone. If things have gone well in your life, it's probably because of luck. Luck has played a huge part in your ability to be successful. It's played a part in your ability to be healthy. It's played, you know, like if you're healthy, that's good luck. Yeah. Because the guy next to you is unhealthy, probably just bad luck.

When my neck fucking went all shitty, I just woke up that way. Bad luck, right? If you don't have diabetes and somebody else does, they have bad luck and you don't. That's it. That's all that it is. and somebody else does, they have bad luck and you don't. That's it. That's all that it is. So much of our success in the world is not because the choices we make and who we are and our virtue and all of that stuff.

It's just luck. It's the luck of our birth. It's the luck of our parents' birth. It's the luck of our skin color. It's the luck of our gender. It's the luck of the safety nets we had growing up that allowed us to make certain choices. And it is all accumulative.

It's aggregate. And like, we know this because when you look top down sociologically, you can see that the greatest predictors for health and success and all of these other things are like, how healthy were your parents? Yeah. Right. How financially successful were your parents? Well, like if that's a predictor for your health and success,

that means like, that's just good luck. It's fucking good luck. So I think about that all the time when I think about these social safety net programs, these social welfare programs. I have been fortunate enough in my adult life not to need these things, but I needed them when I was a kid.

Sure. You know, I had fucking, I had free lunch because I didn't have any fucking money and that's how I eat food. You know? And like that could happen again to me tomorrow. And there's a lot of people who are fucking ride in on their fucking high horse because they don't need it today. Yeah.

Yeah, well, and the other thing too that they say is like, well, I need it, but you don't, right? Like my situation is valid, yours isn't. And you know, what we're seeing right now is him talking about who's not gonna get it, these people shouldn't get it, these people are people who are cheating the system. And I like going the opposite way, right? If one or two people or a small number of people

game a system to get something that you even said isn't all that great, I'm okay with that. Sure. You know, like there was these school lunch things that this reminds me of the school lunch stuff that was happening where everybody's like, we don't, there's kids right now who don't need these school lunches who are getting them and we don't think that's right. So we don't want any school lunches for anybody. And you're like, that's fucking stupid, right? If some kid who happens to be well off

gets a free sandwich, but then also some kid who really needs to eat, cause he hasn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, needs a sandwich, I would much rather give two sandwiches away, one to a person who didn't kinda need one, and one who very much did, then to cut the entire program out and nobody gets a sandwich. Because like we've been talking about since they've been talking about these cuts, it's

not like that goes back into your pocket. It's not like these Medicare cuts are going to suddenly turn it. So you look at your tax bill next year and you say, wow, man, I really got a hell of a return because we cut all those people off Medicaid. That's not going to happen, man. It's not going to come back to you. It's not going to come back to any of your businesses. It's going to go to like, it's going to like the richest people in the country.

Those are the people where they're just going to basically pile it on to other tax breaks that these people get. So it's all a joke. It's all just not for you. And so they're gonna take away from the most vulnerable population in the United States. And then they're just gonna stack what they took away. It's a reverse Robin Hood.

They're gonna stack it on top of the richest shit. The people with the most money, they're gonna get the benefit. They're gonna see this. They're gonna be able to keep the same Tag cuts that they've had for a long time They won't have to increase those things and that will be good for them because they will be able to keep those friends Giving them money and helping them win elections and the poorest people among us. They're gonna be the ones who get fucked Yeah, man, I would 100% much rather see

The people in this country that are in the hardest hit people in this country have an easier time than the richest people in this country have an easier time. Yeah, man. Like it like if I wake up and it's like, oh my God, somebody got medicine. They do. Okay. You have them all medicine. Here's the thing. Like I already want to give us all medicine. So you can't persuade me that we like gave the wrong guy medicine. Yeah. That's not, there's no argument. You're absolutely right.

That's a, it's a human right for Christ sakes. I like, I can't even understand a world where you're like, I am, I am incensed. I am just incensed that that guy gameamed the system and went to the doctor. I'm like, they should all go to the doctor, man. Yeah, man. Just all of them. Like 100% of them should all get the medicine they need. They should all go to the doctor that they wanna go to.

Like everything that isn't that is already a fucking war crime. Like it's already a disgusting shame. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. It's even worse with this. It's even worse with this because it should be a human right. And they're saying, we don't even want to give them

what we would consider the most basic of care. We won't do that for them. And like you suggest, it's not even good care. It's not even good. It's not like the NHS. It's not like the Canadian fucking healthcare system, it's not like the Canadian fucking healthcare system It's not like whatever the fuck they got in Australia like Medicaid is not comparable to that It's not it's not the same thing that you get when you're 65 or Medicare. Yeah, it's not the same thing

It's not yeah to dwell a little longer on the subject of shoes. Well, Trump's on a bit of a clemency and pardoning spree, Cecil. Rich people. Yeah, and it's rich people and tax cheats and people that attended his fucking crypto dinner. And there's nothing to see here, guys. Nothing to see. And and somebody here, guys, nothing to see. Somebody who, like, tried to get tried to sell a stolen diary to Project Veritas. So it's those people.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's those people. It's it's people who were who who were essentially on his side. And now he's just it's just quid pro quo. I just I just let people out of jail. Doesn't matter. And so, yeah, that's what we're going to see with this from then, from now on. I don't know that there's a lot to talk about here, but genuinely two people that are relatively horrible get released and these are, there's a real estate fraud, just massive real estate

fraud from these people. Like $30 million or $36 million. And they're just like, yeah, whatever, just let them out. No problem. Like it's fine. He's like, oh yeah, I think they, I think it was treated very harshly. Well, here's why you think that because they were convicted of basically doing the same shit he was convicted of doing.

Right? Yes. He's got third. Remember this motherfucker is a 32 times felon and he's a felon because he lied. Right? He committed a series of financial frauds in order to get loans based on like Scorping his asset values right and cheating banks out of out of these loans and these claims It was all fine because he paid it back

Well, like if I rob your fucking house and then I pay it back I still robbed your fucking house if I commit fraud to get a loan and then I pay the loan back I still committed the fraud the fact that you paid it back is fucking nothing. It's literally nothing. It's not even a relevant piece of the question. But like he sees this and it's like, he's like, well, yeah, I did that. That's like what rich people do. We game the fucking system.

We lie to the banks. We cheat the system. Yeah. Like why would we want to get in trouble for that? I don't want to build a system. We shall game our money between different accounts. We shall game our money around and then you don't know where it is. And then that's the end of it.

And that's how it works. That's that's it. And like, this is the most openly corrupt administration that you can even imagine. It's just just wide open. Yeah. There's not even an attempt to obfuscate anything. There's not even an attempt to be like, well, you know, like there were extenuating circumstances or there's not none of that. Like this fucking tax cheat. The tax cheats mother attended his million

dollar crypto dinner. Yeah. In a million dollar crypto dinner. This guy is making a fucking fortune selling the presidency. His his personal wealth has fucking doubled, has doubled since he became, since he got embroiled in politics. And these organizations that are around him, because he's not getting paid a million dollars for this. It's going to an organization that is around him that, that uses it for political gain, but they can, they essentially can have an unlimited amount of money and they can receive unlimited amounts of donations. So they hold million dollar dinners and people show up and then that all goes into the coffers

to go, go then elect other people who will then do the things he wants. And you're not wrong that he hasn't personally enriched himself in multiple ways so far too. So it's not only has he enriched these, these like essentially super packs that are around him, he's also enriched himself in many ways. And there's very little regulation on how that money is spent. So like, if that money goes into these fucking super packed kiddies, like you can use that money to buy the things that you want to buy. Yep. Like, and you can offset costs that you otherwise would normally bear. So like, it's like a lot of the money that isn't like technically his becomes sort of de facto his. It's like,

like if you've got a job that pays for all of your dinners, right, it saves your grocery bill. Now I don't have a girl, like I'm being a little ridiculous, but like just to give like a real world example, if my job buys me a company car, I don't have to have a car. If my job gives me a company phone, I don't have to pay for a phone. If my job pays for all my meals and writes them off because I, you know, talked about something at work,

then I don't have a grocery bill. If my job keeps doing those things, then all of a sudden while they're not writing me a check for anything, but all the other money I have coming in off to the side, sure goes a fucking lot further. That's how these, that's how, it's part of how all this money laundering bullshit works. Like being in the corporate world personally,

like I experience a tiny degree of this where I see all these little ways where it is, and I'm not wealthy, but it is cheaper to be wealthy, right? So like I do have a company phone. I haven't had a phone bill. I have not personally had a cell phone bill in 20 years. I don't know the last time I've gotten a cell phone bill. My work is always paid for my cell phone bill in 20 years. I don't know the last time I've gotten a cell phone bill. My work is always paid for my cell phone itself and my phone bill as long as I can

remember honestly. It's been two decades. That's money that never comes out of my pocket. I never have to earn it, pay taxes on it, and then give it to somebody else. So that money is worth, that's a benefit that I get, right? It's a big benefit that I get. If I am out and about working, like when, especially when I was in the office, I had a lot of free meals, man. I had a lot of free meals. I got to go to some really nice places entirely for free

because like I'm doing a work thing. Oh, I'm doing another work thing. Oh, I'm doing another work thing. I'm going out to really nice dinners, you know, do a work thing again. That stuff even, like at my level it's tiny. But you start looking at this with super pack money, man, like your travel is free, your clothes are free,

your fucking meals are free, you're like all the things you guys think of that you spent, like all that shit's taken care of man. All that shit's wiped. Take away my thoughts, my memories, everything that makes me me so they can put me to work for the rest of my life. Mopping floors, cleaning. All right. We got to talk about the mega bill, Cecil. This story is from NPR. So people should know what's in this bill. Some stuff in this bill. I don't

hate every single thing in this bill, Cecil. I thought I would. I don't think I hate every single thing in this bill. Let's talk about what's in here. They're extending the $3.8 trillion tax cuts. That's really the big thing, right? That's a huge, it's one of the big things. The 2017 tax cuts were some of the largest tax cuts in American history. They pushed an enormous amount of money up to the top earners and corporations in this country. Most people make a lot of money because of this. They get to keep a lot of money. He cut that tax rate from something like 37 to 22 or something. Just huge.

Huge. And there's lots of parts of that tax bill allow people to create different corporate types and corporate structures, which are billed or taxed at different and lower rates. There's a lot of ways that that moves money up to the top and saves corporations a ton of money, $3.8 trillion in tax cuts. No taxes on tips are overtime. This is a little bit of a misnomer.

I want to talk about the no taxes on tips piece first. It's not true. It's no taxes on cash tips only. Nobody was already paying taxes on cash tips. Almost everybody gets cash and puts it in their pocket. I'm not saying Cecil does this. Cecil's the only person in America who would get a $1.75 cash tip and write it down and declare it on his taxes. Shut up, Tom.

Every other person in America. You know I'm right. Shut your face, Tom. You fucking know I'm right, you honest motherfucker. Every other person you would ever know. I would do that. I would 100% do that. I would 100% do that.

I would not want to be the guy who's like, no, I have to pay taxes on that, of course. Cecil, you're the best person I know. It's annoying. No I love you. They're the best person I know. But like if I got a cash. You know I do it. I know you would. But you know I'm right. Nobody pays tax. There's a reason why those people make so much money. That's why those servers in Chicago that work for these high end restaurants, if they did like cash money for that, if you, if they were, especially back in the day, right now, everybody's paying with a car. And that's so I don't know how that works.

But I do know that back in the day when it was all cash and there was constantly cash coming in, those people were making money hand over fist because they never reported any of that stuff. So they're reporting their, their four seventy five an hour or whatever they were making as a server. So there's no tax cut here is what I'm trying to get at. Right. Because the tax, the no tax on tips only applies to cash tips.

It does not apply to tips that you receive via card. Well that's 99% of all the tips that everybody is getting. So you're paying taxes on those tips. This is a way to make a campaign promise and not actually do anything. It makes me want to pay with cash though. If it goes through, it's going to make me want to pay with cash more because if I pay with cash, then I know that the person who is serving me at least gets the tip and they don't have to pay for those taxes. I want to give out just the tip.

Yeah. And I want to get cash for it. And I want to get cash. Now, no taxes on overtime. I like that. I'm going to tell you, I like that. I think, you know, we, many of us, and I think about a lot of the people that I manage in my day job that work routinely are working 60, 70, 75 hours a week.

I mean, during the summertime. Jesus fuck, dude. It is routine to work 60. It's not unusual to work 70. There's people that are working 80. What does a 60 hour work week look like? Five days, 12 hours? Five 12s, yeah.

Fuck you, dude. Yeah, I mean, Five 12s, yeah. So fuck you dude. Yeah, I mean I did a lot of that back in the day. I did a lot of that on salary back in the day. Fuck that shit. I did a lot of 80 hour work weeks back in the day. I mean I say that and I work 60 hours a week easy myself. All the time, I know you do. But I'm doing it in a different way.

Like it's just like, it feels different when I do it than when somebody else does it. But still, I would never have done that for any of the jobs that I had before. I did that, well, you know, there are also some, when somebody else does it. But still, I would never have done that for any of the jobs that I had before. I did that. Well, you know, there are also some laws that are, I think, now going to be rolled back because they were Biden administration laws, which are good laws, which were going to limit the number of people that could be declared as exempt from overtime. So remember,

not everybody who works over 40 hours gets overtime. Yeah, no, no. The number of people, the exceptions for people continue to grow year after year. And I'll offer a personal example. When I got my first job in the time I worked for real estate title insurance, they made me a manager in the first six months that I got that job. And they did that because that way they could pay me my salary and work me like a fucking rented mule and not pay me a dollar of overtime. There was a law that was supposed to come through

this year, which said basically anybody earning under a certain dollar amount. That's a great fucking law. Right. If you don't make a certain dollar amount, you get overtime. Right. That's fucking great. That should be fucking, that should absolutely be a fucking law. Tons of people are exempt from overtime, which means they can be worked 70, 80, 90, 100. You can work as much as you want. And like, they don't get overtime. I like not taxing overtime. I'm a fan of that piece.

So I don't want to like shit on everything that I like. I'm a fan with it as long as it's coupled with the thing that you suggest. Because if not, then what you're going to have is just a bunch of people being like, yeah, well, now I'm never going to pay anybody overtime. I'm just going to make everybody salary. Yeah. There's a lot of people that are already reclassed in ways that are tricky in order to not pay them overtime. I don't think this would encourage an employer because employers don't care

if you pay taxes on something or don't pay taxes on something. They're already going to game it. There is an increase in the child tax credit. I think that's generally good for people. I think we should increase child tax credits in general. It's only for people with social security numbers though. So they caveat of that shit. So people who do not have a social security number will not get a child tax credit. So like, if you have a resident alien card and you don't have a social security number, for example, you may not get the child tax credit. So way to be fucking big about it. This is stupid.

Yeah. There is a higher standard deduction. Again, like I can't bitch about that. I think it should grow with inflation. Makes sense to me that you would increase that. There's a no tax for social security benefits. I agree with that in principle, but I'm beginning, if you're wondering like I am, how are we going to pay for all of this? I'm beginning to become concerned on how we're gonna pay for all of this. The bill allows also a $4,000 deduction

for people over the age of 65 phases out for people of higher incomes. Again, I don't really mind about that stuff. That stuff seems fine to me, is our big numbers, but they're usable numbers for a lot of people that will be materially affected. But I do look at that and I'm like, God, how are we paying for that? Because we aren't bringing in more revenue. So it's a lot of gift.

You're cutting, you're cutting, you already are carrying over those tax cuts and now you're making more, more cuts. Then there's the state and local tax deduction known as salt. This deduction basically it allows, it moves the cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for married couples with incomes up to a half a million dollars. It basically means that like you don't pay taxes twice. So you're not paying taxes on money that you're already paying out for state and local taxes. I think that's fine. I think that's totally fine.

Expensive, don't know how we're going to pay for it, but expensive. Again, you don't know how you're going to pay for it. So work requirements for Medicaid, bullshit. Yeah, that's trash. Total bullshit. That's trash. Fucking, this is a terrible... That's punishing poor people for being poor.

That's what it is. I don't like the way this part of the NPR article is written. It says changes to SNAP. It's not just changes to SNAP. It is reductions in SNAP. 40 million low-income Americans receive SNAP. SNAP is Supplemental Nutritional Assistance. And this bill increases the amount that states

have to contribute to that program. So it shifts the burden from federal to states, and it mandates work requirements for SNAP enrollees who don't have dependents. So again, this is part of that, like you got to work to earn stuff. There's a little bit of like smoke and mirrors here too because most people who will get snap already work. Yeah, they already work. The vast majority. So this is a lot of this is a play to a base

that hates the poor. Yep, that's exactly it. We're lifting the debt ceiling. We have to lift the debt ceiling. How are we gonna fucking pay for this shit? Yeah. Ending credits for clean energy. This is a huge bummer.

This sucks so bad. That's stupid. Fucking stupid. It ends, it ends a whole, I can't even go into all of it and this article doesn't do it. I looked up all the stuff that's ending. So much stuff is ending. It's just fucking unbelievably depressing.

We are going to spend $46.5 billion at the border for a stupid fucking border wall. Five billion dollars for custom and border protection facilities. Six billion dollars for more border control agents and upgraded technology. It's fucking so much fucking money. It's so much money. Remember that when somebody doesn't get to eat a food. Right? Remember that we built a stupid fucking wall so that we can keep people out that we don't even really want to keep out. Like, someone's got... Fuck, it's so stupid. Then they're going to charge immigration fees to people seeking asylum, which basically makes the asylum process unnavigable for so many people.

That's fucking so stupid,able for so many people. So many people. They're overhauling student loans and making the student loan system essentially more expensive. Yeah, you're going to get fucked if you have a student loan essentially. And that's what's in the bill. This is the big beautiful bill. Well, and then there's also, there is also a something in there that had something to say about like, and this isn't in the NPR story,

they don't mention the NPR story. And I couldn't find it in a good story to like, but I saw many people mention that there is some rollback of the court's power in these bills. That they're trying to like- Oh, shit, I did see something about that, yeah. So I- But I couldn't find it in a regular story though.

Like I couldn't find it in like something from New York Times or something like that. I couldn't find it in those places. though. Like I couldn't find it in like something from New York Times or something like that. I couldn't find it in those places. And I didn't know how to word it in a way to find it. So I wanted, like one of the things I wanted to talk about was maybe somehow they're rolling back the court's power and then also like letting us know that there's a few things that are like,

yeah, man, I don't want somebody to get taxed on tips or whatever, that's cool. Like I'm cool with that. But then they're fucking us by giving more executive power. So here's an article from the Hill. Congress and the Supreme Court are trying to undermine lower court judges. So this is the one big, beautiful bill. It's got a bunch of the stuff that we already talked about. We already looked at it. It has this quote, no court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued.

So I don't really understand what all that means very well, but there's a law professor from this article who does understand what that means. And that it effectively requires payment of a bond before a federal judge can issue an injunction against the government or a private party. So it is a hamstringing of the lower courts. Yeah, the lower courts. That's not good, man. That's really fucked.

That shouldn't be in a fucking funding bill. That's where it shouldn't be, right that's that's where they have to put it because if they if they tried to do this Outside of a funding bill it would get filibuster Yeah but they can work their way through this way and get it passed and slip it past the goalie and they could curtail a Lot of the power that the courts have so I man I hope this fucker fails at least fails with some of those provisions that we've been talking about that suck. I hope some of those get pulled out of there. Um, we'll see what happens. It barely made it through the

house. Barely made it to the house. Barely made it. Um, so yeah, so we'll see. I mean, the Democrats are not in a good way right now, but hopefully there's enough Republicans that are pissed off about this than do enough about it to make it so it doesn't go through, or at least go through in the ways that we know it will hurt America. Yeah, just terrible. It's a fucking scary, terrible bill. It's just bad news for almost everybody. Almost, like, unless you're like one of the fucking oligarchs.

All right. So that's going to be it for this week. oligarchs. Alright, so that's going to be it for this week. We're going to be back on Monday. We're going to leave you like we always do with the Skeptic Scream. Hypno Babylon Bullshit Couched in Scientician Double bubble Toil and trouble Pseudo-quasi-alternative Acupunctuating Pressurized Stereogram Pyramidal Free energy healing Water downward spiral Brain dead pan Sales pitch Late night info Docutainment

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