Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Jasmine Crockett vs. James Talarico, Sherrone Moore Arrested, and Rachel Dating Drug Dealers

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Van and Rachel discuss Representative Jasmine Crockett, who's entered the Senate race in Texas, and the rejection of health-care subsidies by the Senate. Then they react to the drama out of the University of Michigan. Plus, reporter Marc Caputo joins to shed light on Trump’s actions against Venezuela and political change in Miami. Finally, they talk about ‘Sinners’ erasure on end of the year lists. (0:00) Intro (9:30) Jasmine Crockett vs. James Talarico (43:33) Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring (56:08) Sherrone Moore fired (1:14:03) Marc Caputo joins the show (1:47:31) ‘Sinners’ erasure (2:07:21) Rachel dating drug dealers Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Marc Caputo Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? How I Learning is on. It is I Van Lathen, Jr. And it is me, Rachel and Lindsay. Have you recovered? Oh, let me put my glasses on. Oh, your shit is still not?

Well, and I mean, the doctor posted it on this page now. The doctor posted you? I actually do. I told me, I'm going to post it on our page because people are asking me to talk about it more. I actually want them to come on the podcast. Okay. Dr. Trusdale, Dr. Carl Trusdale. Fantastic work.

So for those of you don't know, I've been wearing glasses like the last couple of episodes. I mean, you just got a sneak peek to what it is. I had a lower, well, a skin pinch under my eye for like I had like some saggy skin. And I have like hollowing in my face because I mean, it's obviously genetics and a sign of aging. But when you also lose weight really fast, like I lost a lot of weight when in 2024 with the announcement of the divorce. And then I gained it back. but it didn't go back to my face. So for me, this was a me thing.

I had a lot of hollowing and I wanted to just like make it look like when I wake up, I look, I look like I took a long refreshing nap. Okay. So I had like a little fat transfer, take your own fat, a little fat transfer in my cheeks. In my smile lines, a little bit under my eye, as opposed to like filler.

And I had a little skin pinch for some saggy skin into my eye. So, you know, I'm what, like seven, eight, nine days post recovery? Post-post surgery? Was it intense and painful in any way? You know what was? What? The surgery, no. I mean, like, my sutures are out.

Like, you can see them now. My sutures are out. But pulling the fat. Because it's lipo, technically. I was not prepared for that. Yeah. Because if you have a lot of muscle. You got a lot of muscle.

Then it hurts more. So then, but. We'll bring them on, though. So then black doctor, Beverly Hills. Okay, so he's a black doctor of Beverly Hills and he does the cosmetics. Face. Face. But no BBS.

Double board certified. No, that's not my ministry. No judgment. Are you, would you be against the BBL? For me, I don't want it. Right. One, it's probably one of the most dangerous cosmetic surgeries you can have and I'm scared about that.

Right. And the recovery is brutal. Also, like, that's just, I, everybody has their issues, right? Like, somebody would look at me and be like, Rachel, you didn't need to do a thing, a thing to yourself. Someone could say the same thing about you when you got your hair transplant, but you wanted it for you. I wanted this for me. I don't want to change the way I look. I just wanted a little.

Why you bring up my shit? We're talking about your shit. No, because I'm saying you did that for you. That was something you wanted to do. You know what I did it for. You didn't even ask me. You assumed. No, we talked about this.

But now you're just saying, oh, Van, you did. We didn't. We talked about it. It was this time last year, actually. We weren't even talking about the hair transplant. I'm just saying we do that. I'm going back. I'm going back under the knife.

For what? More hair. Wait, what do you mean? We're going to load up, get a lot more, get a lot more. That's what we come to, man. You know, for you to do all of that, you wear a lot of hats. You really should show it off more. Nah, it's not what I want.

I just want, I, you, it's not about necessarily, I just want to bring the hairline back. I don't want to show my hair off. I just want, you know. You got us hyped up. You said you were getting. the high top. You were getting braids.

I just need more. I'm a loader. Get a lot more. Get a lot more. But you feel good. You feel good. You feel like it was good. Yeah.

Recovery was easy, seamless. Like, incredible team, staff. I really want to have them on. I want to talk about it because I know a lot of people are going to have opinions. But I think, I don't know. I think that there can be a negative connotation with it. Because technically it is, I guess, plastic surgery because I went under. But, yeah, I want to normalize it.

What I don't want to be is the person, people like, well, Rachel, like, you look. like your skin's cleared up or you look refreshed. I want to tell you exactly what I did. I'm not going to hide it. Do you feel like black women are held to a different standard when it comes to a plastic surgery? You feel like, so this is how stupid I am.

I never knew. I don't, so Lotto, right? Yeah. So I assumed that Lotto had had, everybody's getting a little nip-tuck done, right? Right. But I didn't know that I had never seen Lotto before. Oh, you didn't see her when she was on that show?

Well, she's a kid. I didn't know anything about it. You know nothing about it. And so when I saw this video she put out and she talked about why she got plastic surgery, then when I saw the before and after, it's like crazy. It's like a big difference. But her body handles it so well that she looked like somebody that was basically born with the ass. To me.

She got a great, she got a great surgeon. It happens. But I guess my. think is there's all of this talk about the BBL and who has it and who does it and who's going to get in and if you have to get it now. I actually think that things are changing a little bit. I've said this before on the podcast. Every once in a while I'll watch like these old video like MTV classic jams. And then like you'll watch like vibrant thing or heavy deep black coffee no sugar no cream and the diversity of female beauty that is in those videos.

from the time that I came up. You have thinner ladies, fuller-breasted, you have smaller-breasted, hippie, you have long model types, you have shorter firecrackers, you got basketball booties,

you got popcorn booties, you got so many different types of women. And that's kind of like gone insofar as there's one standard. And whereas that standard is like, it's, you know, enticing, but everybody kind of looks to see. same? Now. Now, yeah. But I do feel like maybe that was true of the big-titted white woman as well,

but maybe there was less criticism of it. I don't think that there's criticism. I think there's criticism of people all trying to look the same. And I don't think that that's just BBL. I think that's with nose jobs. I think it's with fillers and Botox. Like there's a certain look and aesthetic that people are trying to look like. I mean, a few years ago, plastic surgeons were telling were saying that girls were coming in saying that they wanted to look like this filter. It's like everybody wanted, had a certain type of what they considered beauty and it all looked the same. But I think there's a conversation about the BBL in a way that there wasn't a conversation

about getting the tits done. And I think I know why. The BBL is a little different to me. Well, if I gave my opinion why, it's because I see a lot of bad BBL jobs. Yeah. And like you just complimented Lotto on hers. A lot of quite often, I don't want to say a lot, but quite often you do see people with bad BBLs. Like the legs don't match the booty, the booty cheeks.

They might be like the hips don't. Like it's just not proportion. And sometimes people get it out of control where a proportionate look is what, because I've seen great, fantastic BBLs. Mostly in Miami. Look, it is. No, a lot. No, there's a lot like.

Oh, Miami is the best. There's a whole underground thing because I know somebody was working on this documentary and it didn't come out about how many people lose their life getting BBLs. Look, man, y'all, y'all beautiful. You know, just hope y'all know that.

But do whatever you want. I got a hair transplant. Do it safely. Yeah, do it like research. Yeah, do whatever you want. But y'all look good and it's okay. It's okay to have some variety, right? You know, it's okay to have some variety and beauties different. You look different. different. Everybody can't look the same. You know, but fuck that, I needed my hair line back.

I made no apologies. And you shouldn't. Okay, I made no apologies. I might go again, nigger. Oh, you know what I've been doing? I've been dealing with my foot fungus issue. I've been beautifying myself. We were doing great, guys. What do you mean foot fungus? So this foot right here is bigger than this foot.

Okay. So it makes the shoe tighter. That's a tighter fit. So I have my nails along here, been fucked up. And I thought it was because the shoe was crunching on the feet. I thought that's what that was. But I asked the pedicule lady, and she said, you fungus. Okay, wait.

Are your nails too long? No. She said that the, she said, she told me you fungus. And she said, you got to, the fungus is what makes the nail fucked up. and so I've been using the fungus stuff and the nails were you not noticing a smell or a discoloration? Well, there's a discoloration, but I thought it was because maybe of bruising of shoe, you know, you do sports.

You box, you play basketball. I mean, I used to play basketball. I would be on the basketball court. And every, you know, four or five weeks, all my toenails on this foot would just fall off. No, that used to happen to me when I played. Yeah, so like, you know, so it would be not a thing, but it's a fungus thing.

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Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety information. Jasmine Crockett made the announcement that she's going to to enter the Texas Senate race. This is after former representative Colin Allred dropped his Senate bid, choosing to run for a house seat instead, which clears the way for a two-person race, Crockett versus friend of the podcast,

James Tallerico. She had a press conference explaining her reason for running and just breaking it down. This is a little bit of what she had to say. You see, a lot of people think that making decisions like this, you take them lightly.

I'm here to tell you that I understand that there's a responsibility. I'm not reading from my script, so they're about to be confused. There's a responsibility that lies with all of us, especially in this moment. There are a lot of people that said, you've got to stay in the house. We need our voice. We need you there. And I understand. But what we need is for me to have a bigger voice. What we need is not only, a voice, but we need to make sure that we are going to stop all the hell that is raining down on all of our people. So there were two different things that, two different pieces of video that people are looking

at from the announcement that Congresswoman Crockett made. One is a full 41-minute speech that I would encourage people to go listen to. And another one is a shorter video, which is just a video of her face. and then all the things that Donald Trump has said about her. Yeah, I feel like I haven't seen people talking about her actual announcement video. People haven't. Okay. People that I follow have.

That are tapped in. I cover, I follow people that are in the news. And if you're going to be someone who's giving out nutritious news and you're going to, giving context, then you would say there wasn't just a social media video that was made. Jasmer Crockett did a full 41-minute speech where she talked about her past, her present, and what she feels like her future is. Right, but I guess what I'm saying is when I say it's not being talked about, I'm not talking about necessarily what's being reported in an article or maybe discussed at a news table. It's what's making the rounds really on social.

What the conversation seems to be between, I don't know, with group chats or social media post or whatever it may be, the focus seems to be centered around that minute ad with her, just her in the solo shot with Donald Trump's voice. You feel like that's unfair? Oh, it's 100% unfair. But then I would say, is it unfair or is it a problem with messaging? Her messaging. Her messaging. Okay. Which is something we have talked about too much when it comes to the Democrats.

And particularly, there was a social media post that was going around that compared her announcement video versus to James Talarico. So also we should say that, now that she's thrown her name in the hat, then she is going to be running in the primary against James Telerico, who we've had on this podcast. Who we like? Who, you're a Texan?

I'm a Texan. Can't vote there anymore, sadly. Can't vote there anymore. But from your knowledge of the inner workings of Texas, Texas Democrats, text, text, text, techs, techs, techsy stuff, where are you right now? Tala Rico is a rising star. He's someone that has had,

he's tried to position himself in a really deliberate way. Now he is going to be in a precarious political situation because Jasmine Crockett is going to also have cultural allegiances that James Salarico will not have. He looked like a really good option in Texas for a lot of people nationally. I don't know what's going on in Texas. But now you have someone who, for a lot of people,

represents the strength of black women, represents resistance to Donald Trump, represents a firebrand that actually is pushing back against the Republican establishment, and all of that cultural might up against someone who people really looked at as an evolution of the Texas Democrat. So all that you're saying is, it's true, it's right. I think that the biggest thing that's going to happen is, obviously, Jasmine Crockett's biggest Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett's biggest asset is her national presence, her ability to communicate an effective way and to really energize people. But I think her biggest challenge is going to come across, is going to be whether or not she comes across as a Texas Democrat rather than a national Democrat. And I think that's the difference.

It reminds me a little bit when Beto challenged Ted Cruz back in 2018, there was big excitement, huge push nationally. national figures got public figures got involved with the race and sometimes that seems is so loud you don't you're not necessarily seeing what's happening in Texas now he was I think

three percent behind Ted Cruz in that race like the closest a Democrat has been in a really really long time he put up the biggest challenge Ted Cruz almost lost that race and so I my fear

is, is that when you do have this national ID and presence, is that, or do people look at that as a negative and don't say, what are you going to do for us here in Texas? Because you are representing this state on a national level, but you are still a representative of Texas. And I think that's going to be the fight between, or one of the biggest fights between Jasmine and James is who is going to represent as a Texas Democrat. And then I look at, that's why I go back to the messaging, because you look at Jasmine with the video that they were putting up against James's video they were putting up. And James's video speaks more to being a Texan and being a Democrat and what I can do for you than Jasmine's does just in that video. But if you listen to her, in my opinion, 40 minutes speech, she tells a story that does not always get told when it comes to her on a national or viral level.

When Jasmine Crockett goes viral, she goes viral for, you know, standing up to Maga, standing up to Republicans, standing up to Trump, for being quick and witty and having these catchy phrases for not being scared, not being scared by the establishment that is the Republican base by any means. She will go toe to toe with you. But the other stuff doesn't go as viral. And when she was telling her speech, she talked about being a lawyer, fighting for justice, why she decided to run. as a local Texas representative because she was frustrated with the policies and the laws that were impacting Texans. She talks about the people who were a part of her grassroots marketing, very similar to James Tilarico, in the sense that she was out moneyed, I'll say, five to one, she says. She said it was the moms. It was the people who wanted to focus on their individual rights, their children, their health care, their economy, the social justice. criminal, all of that, which, you know, the criminal side, she was a public defender for those who don't know in Texas. She talked about that. She spoke to that. That's the stuff that's not getting

attention. She spoke to what Texans want, what they need, and what she's done as an attorney, as a public defender, as a local representative on the national level and what she would do as senator. And she talks about, you know, she's favorable to James Talleyco when she's talked on other platforms, but she says one of the main things that differentiates her is her experience. And when she went to Congress on a national level, she realized that she was in over her head. And her experience will help her represent Texas in the best way in a way that James cannot. That's stuff that is not going viral. Let's hear each candidate on the other person.

Talariko released the video in response to Jasmine Crockett's announcement. Diney, play that. Hey, team Tolariko. I just wanted to hop on here and record a. quick video for y'all, lots of news in the race today. On behalf of all of us, I want to welcome Congresswoman Crockett into the Democratic primary race. I chose to run for the honor of being your next U.S. Senator because working people deserve someone who knows how to fight and knows how to win in Washington.

We always knew this was going to be hard, and I am so proud of what we've built so far. We've shattered grassroots fundraising numbers. We've built an infrastructure of 10,000 volunteers just like all of you who are already putting in the work to win in November. I am so proud of the community and the culture we've built here at Team Tala Rico. We have always maintained that we are pro our campaign, not anti anyone else's. We will make the case for why we are best positioned to win this race in November and take power back for working people. But we will always treat Congresswoman Crockett with the utmost

respect. She is my colleague and she is a leader in our state. She deserves nothing less. So now is the time. Please sign up to phone bank, send texts, learn how to host block walks. Let's go win this thing. Thank you all. Let's hear Jasmine on James. Now what do you say to a Texas voter who says, I've got a tough choice. I got two rising stars in front. And they got Tala Rico and I got Jasmine Crockett. Why am I supposed to support Jasmine Crockett? Yeah, so I think this just comes down to experience. Right now, we know that we're living in an unprecedented time. We're living in a time in which I don't think anyone saw our foundation being broken the way that it's been broken. So number one, I think that my legal training is an advantage in this moment because when we're starting to talk about

almost anything that we can talk about that people are very frustrated about, whether it's the overreach on the tariffs, whether we're talking about the impoundment of congressional funds, to the extent that we know that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives because they decided to illegally impound U.S. AID funds, or whether we're talking about the fact that ICE has decided that there is no due process for anyone, including U.S. citizens, right? They have decided that if we look at you and if you talk a certain way, then that's enough for us to take you into custody. And so we have a record number of not only deaths because they have been violating people's constitutional rights and using unwarranted force on people.

But we also have an unprecedented amount of U.S. citizens that have been arrested. I think at this moment in time, for sure, we not only need someone who knows those very real stories because I get the phone calls. I'm the one that gets the phone calls about people being concerned about their Social Security. I'm the one that gets the phone calls about whether or not their Medicaid or Medicare is going to go through. And so you want someone, at least in this moment, It has that experience. Obviously, I've worked on the state level as well, so I understand the differences between the two.

And I can tell you that it was completely different coming to the federal level. So she was talking to Aaron Parnas there. So you kind of see the way this is going to shake up. It's going to shake up as how shake out she'll say. It's going to shake out as experience and battle tested political might against someone who is bright-eyed running. as an uncharacteristic Texas Democrat, somebody that's been on Joe Rogan, whose brand of Christian and populism, if you will,

seems to be to a lot of people, of really palatable and fertile for a political movement in a place like Texas. So it's almost against, it's almost culture and resistance against fresh, new, unique ideas. I mean... And by the way, when I say that,

I'm talking about cult of personality here because in terms of what James Tolariko is putting out there and who he is, I don't know how much political daylight there is between these two candidates. I'm talking about the way this race will be perceived. Yeah. Right?

The fighter against the dreamer is kind of the way it looks. I mean, James Tolariko, the first house seat, Texas house seat that he ran for, he flipped that. He flipped it to blue. So, you know, he's, that's, I guess, an argument towards if I'm putting them up against each other. Whereas Jasmine, yes, she was the underdog when she ran for a Texas house seat, but it was, you know, in a blue district already. I will say that as I am not a fan of seeing them go up against each other. And I'm not one to tell somebody that they can and cannot run.

That's obviously not my place. These are two bright, young stars in the Democratic Party. And that's why I say I don't like them seeing going like seeing them go against each other. I think that one of the biggest lessons we learned as Democrats in 2024 is that one is messaging and the other is strategy. And I think that it's important to have a united front and a message that resonates with the voters. them going up against each other. I'm just, I, when she announced, obviously, you know, I support. I like Jasmine what she's doing.

But when she announced, I was like, oh, couldn't there have been a way we could have, somebody could have attacked this by running for your seat. I mean, she, I should say also that she spoke with James Tilerico and Colin Allred before she announced. That's been reported from both of their campaigns. Colin dropped out and now he's running for a congressional house seat. Pastor Freddie Haynes, who's an activist who at one time took over the Rainbow Coalition, he is running for Jasmine's old seat and now Jasmine's running for Senate. But I'm like, you know, you got Abbott up for governor in 2026.

You've got this seat. You've got house seats. I just am like, couldn't rather than go against. I just wish there was like a strong. strategy or an angle where we could take each bright young star and have them, you know, like attack it at different ways. But, you know, this is where we are. I will just say, I mean, I think people are kind of like why maybe is, are we talking

about it, about Texas? Oh, I'll tell you why. Tell me why. I love this. Because to me, their personalities and their cult of personalities and how they, the image that they cut on television. I'm bored of it. I don't care. I don't care about what space you hold in national media or whether or not you look like. I don't care about any of that. I care about the protein of the politics at this particular point. There is a vision and a version of left politics that I think works that I think centers people. And there is a vision and a version of left politics that I think is more of. of the same. And we are going to get to litigate not only these two candidates, but how much the Democratic Party has learned, the lessons that they have learned in terms of how you communicate with people. I'll be honest, Jasmine Crockett has not had a sparkling entry into the Senate race. Not to me. In the last few days.

In the last few days, it hasn't been. Then the reason why is number one. That's not shocking, though. Of course. not. The reason why is number one, the 41-minute speech that I watched, I watched a very sincere candidate talk about how she got into politics, why she's here, and where she hopes to go. It's not a perfect speech. We don't have a bunch of perfect orators out there. We expect everybody to be Obama. It's not the thing, right? But it was sincere, and it allowed you to kind to get closer to Congresswoman Crockett. The shorter video that is being passed around, it is being passed around for two reasons to me.

One is being passed around because Jasmine Crockett is a national political figure of note. And her getting into a race is newsworthy and noteworthy. The second reason is because it is one of the more tone-deaf things I've seen a politician doing a very long time. nobody cares and this is not just for Congresswoman Crockett

this is for all of you we don't care about you guys we care about us we care about people we care about what people need we care about how things are going to move in their life so when you are getting into a race

obviously we want to have faith in you and we want to caucus with you and we want to believe in you but what we want to believe in more than anything is that you care about in your job as a public servant delivering for people,

that people are at the center of what it is that you're talking about, that you have a plan for people, that you see what is wrong with society as governed by you. Some of this, and that you want to change it. And to me, like having what Donald Trump says in the background as we are honed in and, you know, close up, extreme close up, of your face, that doesn't work.

That doesn't work for me. I don't want to hear about who the president doesn't like or who wants to fight with the president. I don't want to hear about that. I don't want to hear about that. What I want to hear about are the things that are affecting the structural things are affecting people everywhere

and how we are going to change them. She could have made a whole, by the way, we realized that we forgot to ask Governor Moore about AI data centers. We're going to have them back. I told them that we're going to have a conversation about AI data centers with Governor Moore. but she could have done the whole thing about that.

What's an issue in Texas that Jasmine Crockett is like drilled down on that is plaguing people, not just there but nationwide, that she has a fix for it. Okay, so I want to talk about that because of something that she said about not attracting certain voters. But I agree with you. I wasn't a fan of the message that rolled out. Jasmine Crockett was on Roland Martin show and one of the panelists asked her about her anti-trime, looking like your messaging is about anti-Trump. And it was a really good question.

And Jasmine's answer was really good. I would say that that's the message that needs to go out there because that speaks to individual issues. Texas has a lot of one-issue voters. That's important. Jasmine was talking about farmers, health care. That's the kind of stuff that people need to hear because that's what they're struggling with in their everyday lives.

That's what I mean about your, your, your, your, your, your, is going to be looking like a national Democrat versus a Texas Democrat to win the Texas vote. That is super important because the truth is, is that a Texas Democrat has not won a statewide election since 1994 with Ann Richards. And so this is a moment where similar to 2018, where it was close, even Colin Allred when he challenged Ted Cruz in 2024, he did pretty good, not as good as Beto, but you could argue that because Trump was on the ballot, some of that trickle down as people were going to vote for Trump. This is as you're looking at what happened just in November of this year. If you're looking what happened just in the city of Miami,

in rural Georgia, counties, races, they're flipping, politicians are becoming blue. They're turning counties blue, places that haven't been blue in a very long time, if ever. That is really important to watch. If you look statistically at Texas, it is minority majority. And so the reason that we're doing the whole redrawing of the congressional maps. The whole reason it was sent to the Supreme Court is because they know that they are outnumbered. They know that if people do get out and vote and are energized and engage, then it could turn on them very easily. It's been very close before. And so I think that where we are right now with what's happening with the Trump administration, with turning places that are red-blue, with people being dissatisfied and filling the effects of Trump

just this year alone, I think that it's an important time of looking at not just Jasmine and James in the primary, but also who can go on to win in the general election. That's what has to, that we have to focus on. It's not who can be who just now,

it's who's going to win. Well, I guess my thing is, I think primaries are always good for distilling ideas and sharpening candidates. Something that we obviously have to talk about is Israel. and there's a belief that James Tolariko, because he hasn't taken any money from the Israel lobby, is in some way, James Tala Rico has taken money from Miriam Allison.

And it doesn't matter whether or not, he's a state official, so APEC wouldn't be as much of a player, but it doesn't matter whether or not you've taken money from APEC. If you've taken money from Miriam Allison, who is the staunchest pro-Israel voice, in America right now, I would say, one of them in terms of, like, as far as a donor, she's clearly number one. Then, to me, that is aligning yourself a little bit with the Israel lobby. Jasmine Crockett, I'm just going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with the audience. We have talked about Jasmine Crockett, but we have never talked about this. And the reason why we have never talked about this is because Jasmine Crockett cuts the visual profile of a centrist, Democrat, Zionist.

She does. She does. Now, we should frame this for the audience, and I want to make sure that we do this. Why does that matter? Why does that matter? Why does it matter that someone would be incredibly pro-Israel or have pro-Israel leanings?

I don't want to say she's incredibly pro-Israel. To me, it's not a one-year. I'm not a one-issue voter on Israel. That would be, like, that wouldn't make sense to me. Like, it's not a thing, right? A foreign policy issue could never be the one issue that I voted on. But it is important for a reason. If, in fact, you view yourself as a progressive

and you look at the situation in Gaza right now and actually the history of the state of Israel, And you don't have massive questions and concerns. I don't think you're an actual progressive. I think it's impossible. I think it's impossible to believe in the attitudes, excuse me, in the tenets of progressive politics and choose to turn a blind eye to a situation like that.

You just couldn't do it, right? So either you're not that or you don't really know what's going on there. Right? either you're not that or you don't know. Now, the third one is more interesting, and it's something that I contend with in my conversations with friends all the time, is that you do know, you just don't care.

And you don't care because you live in Houston or Baton Rouge or Tallahassee or Miami or wherever you live and the problems that are in front of your front door matter more than something that's happened halfway around the world. And I have that conversation all the time. That's a conversation of philosophy. But these are politicians. And being that they are politicians,

I think we need to understand whether or not we're dealing with a new version of politics or whether or not we're dealing with the same-old, same-all. Because if you're telling me right now that you are a cookie-corder, a cookie-cutter, corporate centrist Democrat, I'm not that excited about you as a politician. Am I more connected to you

than someone across the political aisle that wants to culturally codify kidnapping people off the street? Yeah, I am. Definitely. Am I more connected and closer to you than somebody that wants to take snap benefits from people?

And right now, as we talk, they're voting on the ACA subsidies and people that want healthcare to skyrocket. Am I closer to you than I am to them? Yeah, but we're not the same. I look at change as needing to happen. right now from a very not even radical but drastic way, a drastic change to how we position the needs and concerns of the working people of America. And if you are just another

Cory Booker, I don't really give a fuck about you. So I don't think that. And to land this plane, if you are another Cory Booker, if you are another, Hakeem Jeffries, if you are another one of those people, yeah, I'd rather have you where you are than somebody who I can't even trust not to yank a mother away from her child and send her to some country that she had been in in 30 years. But the primary will tell me that. The primary is where I get to see, where we get to pose questions, we get to put these candidates up against each other, and we get to through examination of voting record

policy and rhetoric get to examine who is of the new school and who is the same thing dressed up in a different suit. Yeah, other than Israel, I'm curious as to why else you call Jasmine Crockett a centrist?

Because she wouldn't categorize herself that. She rejects the label progressive. I've constantly seen stuff as I'm reading. If she, I've, I have not seen her flat. I'll say I'm, I'm not progressive. I feel like when I see, when I was even just like reading

in preparation for this, it was progressive politics. That's what she constantly says. She might say, I am not a progressive, but she talks about progressive politics. So I'm, I'm just curious, just for our audience purposes, what else other than Israel makes you classify her as a centrist? But I will say that

for this election, Texas voters, Israel won't be on the ballot for them. Okay. So. And I'm not saying that that's okay. I'm just saying for them, it will not be important. It will not be the issue that is a deciding factor for them.

Okay. So that's true. And when I say she rejects the label progressive, I don't think that she rejects a label progressive. I think that she doesn't caucus with the progressive wing of the party that exists in the house. I don't know if that. I don't know. I'm asking you. Well, she's certainly not a squad member.

No, she's not a squad member. But I know she not a squad member, but you're like, she is a corporate, centrist, Zionist. First of all, I never said that. Okay, what did you say? What I said is, we're going to find out. I never said that.

I never said that she was in. Okay, okay. I just want to be clear because I heard you say, as it stands, the way it looks, she is a corporate centrist Zionist. Well, first of all, I, I, let me make it clear. Okay. Let me make it clear.

So we're going to find out. just like where her politics stand. Okay. Her stance on Israel leads me to believe that she is a corporate centrist Zionist. Okay. Okay. And once again, to everybody out there that is listening to me and is saying, Van, why does that matter? It matters because that issue and other issues, right?

Medicare for all single payer health care, things like that, those are litmus tests. to how we continue in electing and empowering candidates. For all of my guys out here, and I talk to you guys all the time, who are pro-Israel and consider yourself to be Zionists, I'll just say this very clearly to you. The state of Israel exists. The state of Israel will continue to exist.

What we have to decide now that we are having this conversation is how we relate ourselves to a state like Israel that we empower that doesn't seem to share our values. Or maybe shares our values in terms of the values the way our position in the world stage

really shakes out. Maybe they don't share the values that we would want to have, that I would want to have. Maybe, to be honest with you, the United States and Israel are so lockstep because they actually do share the same values in a very direct way. Because if you're looking at me, if your people are looking

around and trying to figure out what I am, in Louisiana, growing up, like we are the Palestinians of this nation. We are the people systemically and occupied by the police, a military force. we are the people that are underrepresented, that can't move freely. So maybe the reason that the allyship is so strong is because it's built on similar purpose, which is ethno-national supremacy, right? Rather direct or indirect.

But if we look at that and we say, that's not what we want to be, and if we know that there are voices inside of Israel, people inside of Israel, worldwide Jewelry, Jews everywhere, that also want to reevaluate how they live alongside their regional neighbors. And when I say regional neighbors,

I mean the neighbors all around that have been attacked by Israel. Then we got to be willing to have that conversation. And if you're not, if you're not willing to have that conversation, and if you've been on the APEC sponsor trips and if you've done all of the rhetorical work, I guess my question,

is how similar can we be? It's not going to be one thing that makes me come out and say, hey, and this is for both of them. This is not just for her. This is for him as well, because once again, we talked about the Miriam Addison Money. This is for both of them. It's like, how similar can we be? If we can have the conversation about not only the regime that is in Israel now, but how we have a safe Israel and a safe and established Palestinian state, then it seems to me that it's a wash and repeat of the same type of generational politics and the same type of Democrat that has been under corporate capture for going on two generations. And I'm not fucking going for that. And I don't give a fuck who it is. I do not care. Like you you guys can read this any way you

want. It don't matter. I will support you when it is time for us to be in lockstep. That black woman gets attacked. That man gets attacked. I'm with you. But at the same time when we sit down at a table and we have conversations about what moves for people, then we have to have those conversations and what moves for people out of trust and love. And what I care about is how the tech oligarchs of this country are taking over our economy. What I care about is how people are putting food on their table. What I care about is how we, what difference does it make if you call out extrajudicial killings that are happening off the coast of Venezuela and Israel can do them? Like, so you are big and bold when is somebody in a boat like, like, and we're doing that.

And that's disgusting and terrible. But you don't mind the fact that we send all this money to a place where they can just go and grab people and put them into jail whenever they want, no trials, no nothing. Go in the West Bank and expand the settlements, take people's homes, kick them out of their homes. We have to be better than that. And when I look at people that are looking at people that are looking at. looking to be national political figures. I want people that are willing to question that, people that are willing to have the conference.

We had Westmore up here. Westmore wasn't exactly Hassan Piker on Israel, but West gave me enough. West gave me enough. Actually, don't, no shout not Hassan. We don't know about that. West wasn't,

we had Wes up here. West gave me enough to know that at least there is a, question there. At least there is something that you can talk about. It's not a single issue that's going to change anything. But it is an issue to me that demonstrates whether or not you're part of the old guard or whether or not we can have a conversation about how progressive politics and how left politics need to change and move to work for people. Yeah. And so. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. As they're primary. We'll see. Donnie, they're voting on the

ACA stuff. It looks like it's all fucked up. Yeah, this happened today. The Senate deadlocked on competing Democratic and Republican proposals that were meant to avert rising health care premiums that got blocked in the Senate today, making it pretty certain that expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies are going to expire at the end of the month. Well, I mean, to be expected, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly what we, sadly, what we thought would happen, and it did. I mean, Republicans have shown us time and time again that they don't care.

I mean, we see what has happened with Medicaid. They don't care about affordable health care at all. They've been doing everything they can to get rid of the ACA. And so them, you know, saying we'll have a vote on it meant absolutely nothing. It was never a win. How then do the Democrats avoid losing the shutdown fight? They can't. Well, there's a way that they can, in my opinion.

I've always believed this. If, in fact, these subsidies expire, the only other thing that the Democrats can do is be effective in hanging this on the Republicans. This will cause so much pain, guys. You're talking about 20 million people just losing health care, maybe more, just falling off the subsidy cliff. This will cause.

Cause pain. This will be painful. And the question is, and this is a cynical, disgusting question, is how, in fact, you take this real pain that the American public is going to be feeling in a lot of red states and make this into, not make this into, and make sure Americans know who's to blame for this. I don't think that that's a painful thing to do. That's the reality. I mean, if Americans are suffering and it's directly because you had the opportunity to fix it and you chose not to, well, then you have that on your hands. You have unclean hands in all of this. And the reason I answered your question and said, they can't win is because you say who wins, how do they win the government shutdown? It's done. It's over. This expires, if this expires without any type of relief benefits towards health care, they lost. I know you can use it as a talking point as a reality for the midterms, but they lost it. We're here now. We're here. And who knows what would have happened if they didn't?

Who knows if we'd still be in a shutdown? Who knows if they, Republicans would have folded? We'll never know. But what we know right now is we have 20 days until they expire. It's done. People are already seeing it because they already know what their premiums are going to be. They already can see what it looks like. They're already trying to figure out if they step into the new. year, if I pay this bill or, you know, like take care of this health need, do I, do I, do I eat or do I take care of this? It's going to be devastating, devastating. And I don't think that they can get around it or avoid it. This is where we are right now. It's going to be so loud because it is going, the impact is going to be so great.

In addition to all the other stuff, the layoffs that we're going through, inflation, the economy, like, all that piled up onto, now you also cannot afford health care, even more so than you already couldn't in this country. price is rising everywhere. And now you have to make decisions about whether or not you can buy food or go to the doctor. Yeah. Yeah. And that is a decision that the Trump administration is making.

That you could have fixed. Literally unclean hands. Like that is what needs to keep being put out there. You have the ability to fix this. And you look the other way. Well, I mean, do you, there's going to be a lot of talk. Do you in any way blame me? the Democrats for this. It's not the Democrats that are doing it. They fall for these subsidies,

but they did lose the fight to extend them. They lost the fight to extend them. I mean, it's not like they waited until I believe that they didn't wait until September to do this. They didn't. They didn't. They've been having the fight. They waited until then shut the government down. Right. They could have maybe shut the government down. Yes. It should have happened in March. And then, you know, here we are where we are now. It's. A broader question here. A broader question. Like, I could use this.

I'm going to use a crude and triggering analogy. So everybody, trigger warning right now, sexual violence analogy, right? I'm sorry. I don't make the face. I'm using an analogy, right? So it's supposed to be a dramatic analogy. But trigger warning right here, if you've been affected.

You know, you see on the movie, sometimes where a mom has a boyfriend and the boyfriend is fucking around with the stepdaughter or the daughter and you see the daughter or the son, whomever the kid

is. You see the kid look at the mother or whomever and go you didn't protect me. Like I wasn't protected by you. And when you're watching that show or that thing that's dealing in these weighty terms, you always ask yourself, you go,

obviously the bastard in this situation is the abuser always the abuse doesn't happen without the abuser but there seems to sometimes be a special animus from both the viewer and the victim to the person that was unable to protect them the person's the person whose job it is to protect you to stand in the gap between that person that might be your abuser and stop them. I feel like that is what a lot of people are going through when they're dealing with the Democrats right now and the onslaught of bad policy that comes from the MAGA Republican Party. They're dealing with, yeah, we know who the bad guys are, but we don't have great good guys. and that feels like

that feels paralyzing to people. Now I always go, look, it's Donald Trump who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, Donald Trump and his party who don't want your subsidies to go up. It's Donald Trump and his party who have shredded the Constitution got rid of due process. It's Donald Trump in his country who overseas took away USAID and are basically starving children, right? Basically starving children. They're doing that. But there are people who are confused about how to reconcile the fact that there's this pernicious element in our government

with the fact that they're supposed to be somebody who stops it and can't do it. For me, it seems pretty clear. I put the blame on the people that are to be blamed, but the other people that look at me and they go, Van, you know what, man, you keep telling me to get out here and do this. These people can't do nothing. Your thoughts. I mean, it's, it wasn't as bad of an analogy as I thought. That was going to be worse. Well, I'm just saying, you know, you see that. But no, no, no, no, no, no, you're right.

And that's where, I mean, I guess to, I guess to bring it back to this primary that we're talking about between James and Jasmine, it's like that is their job to. And that's one of the things that Jasmine is standing on is about igniting that person that you're talking about, that discouraged voter, that person who thinks. that, okay, well, the person there ain't going to do anything anyway. What are they voting for? Are they voting for someone who has a record of winning this? Are they voting for someone that has a record of putting their needs and concerns first above their political career and advancement? This is not about Jasmine specifically.

No, no, no, I know what you mean. But, like, I think that's two different things, right? Like, are they voting for their needs and concerns? Well, yeah, that depends what, you know, we'll use James and Jasmine have to say. But the reality is if they're up against what they were before where they don't, or not in control of Congress, Senate, have the Trump administration running the Supreme Court, all of that.

And there's only so much that they can do other than continue to fight. That's true. And so that's at the end of the day, but they can speak to the concerns and the issues. And so that's my response to that would be, I understand why people give up. I understand why people feel hopeless.

I understand why people do not want to vote. But that can't be the answer. because if you think this is bad, it can only get worse. I think we're seeing that. I think we're seeing that it can... The lack of... Yeah, look how many people didn't show up in 2024.

Right. And look what's going on. And once again, so that people know very clearly these subsidies were put in place under the Biden administration. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, obviously they cared about them and they are going away under the Trump administration.

And we should also say that there have been calls, or not been calls, the Trump administration, the Republicans, in terms of health care, they've always promised to repeal and replace Obamacare and give you this great new plan and they can't get that together and figure that out. They've never been able to do that.

They haven't fucking tried. They don't have the will to do it. They don't want you to have the health care that I believe is a human right for you. They don't want you to have that. All they wanted to do is destroy the Affordable Care Act, not even trying to help you out. But the politicians that we empower

have to be effective. And, and, and last thing before we move on to Donnie's head coach out there, wilding. The politicians that we, if you are a politician, it is your job to win elections. That's part of the job. I'm just being for real. If you go out right now and you say, you know what? I can't do what I wanted to do because the voters wouldn't vote for me. Yeah, you can't say that.

I mean, I understand, I get it from an intellectual standpoint, but honestly, it's your job to figure out how to win elections. It's your job to figure out how to win them. I don't know why that sounds funny. No, no, I'll tell you why it sounds funny, though, because I'll tell you why it sounds funny. It sounds funny because there's this idea that, look, both ways. It is true that you get what you vote for. That's true. The question to me always is why did you vote for it?

Why was it so enticing to you to vote for it? And if we're saying right now that 70 some odd million people or wherever they voted because they was racist, you're not going to have a guy like me go, hey, racism isn't in every decision that America makes. You're not going to have me say that. But what I am going to say is that those votes vacillate and they didn't do that in 2020. And there have been other times where they didn't do it. So the question, the self-scott, is like, what are we doing wrong? And what do we need to do?

We saw in New York a guy come out of nowhere and whatever you say about him. And I know people that are like watching every move that's made by a transition team and making sure that they're holding him accountable. And I like that. But you saw somebody put people's needs at the forefront and people responded to it. They responded to it. And you've seen that.

Did Trump not do that? What? Did Trump not do? It's populism. I mean, yes, I'm not saying, you know what I mean. He sold them that. It's about you. It's about your needs.

I've done. That works. It's all a form of it. Right. So I'm saying it, if we're talking about the same messaging and the same kind of shit that's been going on for a long time and you guys are married to that and it's not working, at some point it becomes political malpractice for you not to go out there and talk to people in a way that energizes them to vote for you. And it's just the way that it goes. All right, Donnie. Donnie, go ahead and tell us about your coach, Donnie.

It's not my coach. He is your coach. Play football. I am roman. But he's your, but he's your coach. Are you, are you, are you, are you a Michigan fan? I'm an alum. Yeah.

Oh, so you're a lump, you went there. That's my school. Donnie, if they were up right now, if they were up. That's not my coach. Two years ago, they were, they won the national championship and you were singing a different tune. This is what the problem is with you niggas. Y'all run out the door.

Y'all run out the back door. All right. That's your coach. He's in trouble. He's not your coach anymore. or Donnie, break it down. What's going to be going on? Crazy story in Ann Arbor.

Crazy. All right. Yeah. University of Michigan, leaders and best, champions of the West. They fired head coach thrown more yesterday after finding reportedly evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Moore is married and has three young daughters. The school reportedly received an anonymous tip, which prompted an investigation.

It seemed that they didn't get evidence off of the initial investigation, but apparently within the past 24 hours, new evidence came to light, and he was dismissed from his job. Not long after that dismissal was reported, things get a little crazy. Police were called to the listed addresses of a female football staffer and his address. Moore was detained in Saline, which is not far from Ann Arbor, and is a part of an alleged assault investigation. And court records show that he is currently still in custody as of right now. some of the things that are allegedly, allegedly being said. I want to be, because nothing, that hasn't come out in like a formal statement,

but some of the things being said are that the ways that he was caught by the university for having this inappropriate relationship is because he had a plan B door dashed to the school. To the school. That's what they say. That's what they say, allegedly. And then the door dashed. The door dash driver snitched is what they say. I didn't see that part.

Apparently somebody said that the door dash driver after they delivered the plan B made an anonymous tip. So I also read that she, is she still pregnant? I assume that she's still pregnant. I don't know that it seemed like the way it worked in my mind was they were having the affair. She got pregnant. He started getting aggressive maybe because he. he wanted her to end the pregnancy. She didn't.

She retained counsel. In retaining counsel, counsel went, we're going straight to athletic office. They had a meeting at the athletic office. And then they were like too much you're fired by. The thing about that is it seems like all of that, that entire decision was made kind of quickly. Quickly. But there are tweets coming out from like December 1st. And there's a tweet from a prominent Michigan state.

Twitter channel, whatever. And the tweet says the Michigan coach will be fired very soon. He got one of his staffers pregnant or something like that. So the plan B, but maybe the door dashing had already happened. Maybe it had, but the thing is, there's something that I don't understand.

I guess what I don't understand is this crash out seemed to come did he if that tweet comes from December 1st and the tweet obviously was correct and there are all this other stuff that was happening on message boards all of this other stuff that was happening on the message boards if all of that stuff came from earlier this month did Sharon Moore have no idea that he was being investigated

did everyone else in football ops everyone else in message board land know that there was an investigation into an improper relationship that he was having with the staffer and he didn't know what happened to create the crash out situation on the day that he was fired. Or maybe he was being investigated but didn't think that it would lead to fire. Because this isn't the first time in regards to a situation like this, but he's been suspended.

He's been investigated before, survived it and still been a coach. Yeah, but not for, but I'm just saying an investigation, right? Like a sign stealing and stuff. Wasn't that what it was? Well, there was a whole thing. Okay, okay. But my point is, that he has been investigated. He survived it. He was suspended a couple of games. He survived it

and was able to continue as life goes on. I feel like typically when you see things, sometimes you see things like this where when somebody survives something, it almost empowers them to feel like that they're untouchable and that nothing can bring them down. So I, if, and I'm assuming all of this, I'm speculating. It seems like he probably knew he was being investigated, but figured, I'll get, I'll get past this. And then when he didn't, he crashed out. Because he had what, he was making, what, five mill a year? He's making five.

So he blew a head coaching job as a black head coach for a major university, coached on a championship team, making five million a year. and you blow it all away the power It's being reported that he was interviewed as part of the early part of the investigation he and the staffer and they both denied it and that was where the university said okay there's no evidence from this

So then maybe she changed her tune of course she did and when she changed her tune that's what caused him to crash out she was telling people Doddy you watch Derry right yeah I do remember the teacher Okay, the spoiler alert

Remember what Ms. Kirsch? Remember what Ms. Kirsch did? Did it get old boy? Yeah, she told him about the black spot. Told him about the black spot. Threw her lover under the bus. So can we talk about Donnie, play that clip of Sharon Moore

from like a couple of years ago real quick. Play that clip. So it's hard to track down the actual audio of the clip. But he has the statement. And you need to read it. You need to read it. No, Donnie, no, no.

Michigan, you read it. You read it. All right. This was after Alabama beat or Michigan beat Alabama and he was asked a question about Jalen Milrow. A reporter asked him about his comments on Bill O'Brien suggesting that he changed positions. And Sharon Moore said, I really don't see color. My wife is Caucasian.

My kids are mixed. I deal with black, white. I've lived in Kansas where you can be in the house and the door open, leave the door open at 12 or in New Jersey where you have to be in the house. by six o'clock. I've seen all cars of this spectrum. I'll tell you something about them. I don't see color niggas.

They always see a white woman. He sees color all through this whole statement. I tell you what. He sees color to the whole thing. If all of the guys that, all of the dudes in that position that say they don't see color, they for damn shall see a white lady.

Look, I'm not, look, here's the thing. Let's be all the way real. I'm not tripping on any of that stuff. is what it is, is what it is. But there is just something, I don't know, this is different because she's white, is it not? If this woman were black, will we feel different?

This is different. It's also because she has a white wife. He is a white wife. But I'm just saying, though, him and Mel Tucker, this is two prominent coaches, black Michigan coaches that have been taken down by it. And it's not And it's

Wait, wait, okay, okay, okay As hilarious as I think this is I got it. It's not hilarious, man. No, no, no, no. About when you say taken down that comment. At the end of the day,

that's this man. No, I'm not saying that, hold on. This man has issues. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He's in, what did I say about? He's intoxicated. Understand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that these women

prayed upon these men and these men could got taken. I'm not saying any of that stuff. Like what I'm, saying is that what's the problem? I know. I don't see color, but my wife is white and my children are mixed.

I know. Just FYI. It's like, to me, I just look at this. I'm like, yo, what the fuck is going on? What can we... Have you not heard about that whole theory about to be a successful black coach? You have to be married to or with a white woman.

Is that, what do you mean? Those are some of my coach friends say. That's not true. That nigga, uh, James Franklin, not married to a white woman. Keep going. Okay. Keep going because I knew you were going to use him as an example.

I mean, yeah, he's pretty. Tony Dungee? Come on now. Tony, you went from James Franklin, who is currently coaching to Tony Dudgey with a coach in years. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's do this real quick.

Let's do this real quick. Let's look at, okay. Notre Dame coach. So are you talking about college or pro? College. Okay, so just, so this is just college. Maybe pro, but college. We'll go college.

Okay, so let's go, let's do black, college and this is not HBCU coaches because HBCU will fuck your whole thing up right? Because all of them niggas got Do they? A white woman? No. Oh, I was like what? All right, so let's look. Donnie, who are the black coaches in NCAA football?

Black coaches in NCAA football? But it doesn't have to be head necessarily, but they say this is what some of my coach friends say they're like to advance. You have to have a white woman. That's what they say. I'm just telling you. This is what they say.

All right. So, Donnie, I want you guys to look this up for me. These are the coaches, the ones that populated. Franklin, James Franklin, Marcus Freeman, Mike Loxley. I think that he recently was fired, though. Charles Huff, Tony Elliott, Dionne Sanders, and Fran Brown. What's the percentage? Fran Brown has a black wife.

Fran Brown, black wife. Okay. Dionne Sanders. And these are head coaches, we should say. Dionne Sanders. I was talking about coordinators, everybody. So you're talking about everyone. This is what they say.

We have to do a higher learning deep diving to this. We have to do it. I don't know how true this is. I don't know how true this is. But we have to do a higher learning because a lot of these brothers, these brothers have like sisters with them. Some do. I'm not saying it's all.

I'm just saying statistically. You know, like friends that I have that I went, to college with they went to the other side they've you know you advance my ex so okay so then let me ask you this in the Sharon Moore

situation we're talking about the racial dynamic and all of that stuff but isn't Sharon Moore just kind of a unique crash out oh no this really doesn't matter people are talking about the fact that she's that she's white and that's the conversation but that really ain't got that much to do with this you bring it I know

Let me see the pictures Let me see the pictures Ryan Walters On the other side Dony do the whole thing I'm just gonna do this while We're gonna do this on Monday We're gonna look at the black coaches

And like the question is Do you have to have a white woman? We should have known about Sharon though When he had that When he was crying And he was crying and he was cursing And it was so Unhinged

It was such an unhinged moment That didn't It was a big moment But it didn't warrant that reaction That I was like Something's off. Something's off. That's all I'll say.

He's a special case. Yeah. This is very, oh, Donnie's doing, okay, so Fran Brown, Black. Mike Loxley, Black. Deshawn Foster, Black. Like, I don't know if your, if your situation holds true, man, Charles Huff, Black. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you what some of my coaching friends said.

I don't know what's going to. But I didn't say, these are head coaches. I said, how are you going to be the head coach if you, you have to go through the coaching ranks. Yeah, but, but you're still, I mean, how many black head coaches do you have? You still have a bunch of offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, running back, tight ends, D in, D-in, D-line. Of course.

I'm just saying that this is what my, this is great to see from head coaches. I'm just telling you my friends who coach, tell me this. Okay. Okay. But there's a, there's another more, this is a serious part of this. And the serious part of this is that, fuck is wrong more freaked out. and it looks like we have not heard anything from Sharon Moore, guys, just to let you know,

we get into this spiral of allegations and different accusations. We haven't heard anything for Sharon Moore. We do not know that full story about this. It looks like a crash out happened and occurred, but we don't know what went down. But it looks like he snapped in some way, which makes you wonder about the mental state of Sharon Moore. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. because, I mean, it's being reported that, I mean, there was, they had to call. I don't know whose house he was at. Like, the wife got involved. There was, like, a weapon involved, like, not towards someone else, but it's being reported allegedly, allegedly that he, you know, like was threatening, had a personal breakdown for himself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, some people are saying that there was an assault on her first, which the charges, then an assault on him. Okay. Like he, there was a knife and there was like a, you know. felony assault and then an assault on him. Oh. So he,

he, he, he, he, he, I'm just saying, it's like, these type of situations you look,

now all of these tweets are coming up. There's one tweet where Sharon Moore is overseas with the Michigan program. And he talks about the fact that they, uh, they go into a ditty party later on. No. That's a tweet. That's a real tweet.

That's a real tweet. Um, last thing I'll say, I am not and this is the tough thing the tough thing is that like I'm in no position to morally judge these men right

no position to morally judge these men I hate being the moral arbiter of things so without being the moral arbiter of people without telling people what they should and should not be doing what they dick about how they should act about the temptations they should turn down

about the things that they should ignore how do we talk about in a holistic and honest way black men reaching the heights of whatever their profession is and then losing everything because of sexual misconduct like how do we have a conversation about that without coming off as if we're saying that we're better than somebody else or we're telling people to have this uh decorum and temperament and fucking self-control and restraint that you might not necessarily have. Is there a way, is there a person that would like to come on this

podcast and have a conversation, an honest conversation about the fact that this is happening too often? And I'm not saying it's happening too often in front of white people. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying, oh my God, because it happened to Bobby Petrino. Right.

Urban Meyer has been in trouble for stuff like this before. Not necessarily while he was coaching, but people saw Urban Meyer with some kid, the kid for some younger woman. Major Apple White. It's happened before. To be honest with you, when Lane Kiffin came over to LSU, there was all of this talk about Lane Kiffin. Oh boy before him.

Did, come on now. You're not talking about Coach O now. Coach O, same thing. All of that stuff. So this has happened. And it's happened before. It's happened before. It's not just something that affects and afflicts black coaches.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm losing my vocabulary skills now. But like, it does feel different when it happens to a black man. It feels like something that we need to address. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's more widespread and we just fix it on it when it's a black man. But does it feel different because when it's a black man with a white woman? Because there's more of a nuanced conversation because of the historical

I guess I don't know if ramifications is the word but because of what that there's like it's a storied thing are we oh you're you're right are we overblowing the black man gets to a position and gets taken down because he can't control himself

is that an overblown narrative because not that's a man issue a man issue period not a black man issue period not a black man issue I mean you could say that about the president of the United States Clinton yeah Clinton as well it's a JFK, like there's a, there's a, it's a man.

Those guys fuck through it though. They fucked their way right through it. There's a, I think it's a man issue. I think it has to do with the patriarchy. I think it has to do with power. I think it has to do with like a lot of that. So I don't want to just make it particular to black men. I think it is men.

Men that can't stop fucking. Yeah. They can't stop. How do you deal with that with guys that they continuously, they just can't stop? Oh, me? I mean, I'm having, just having fun. Me, I'm good.

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We got a Mark Caputo who's going to join us right now. Bring Mark in. He's a senior political reporter at Axios. All right, you guys, we are joined by Mark Caputo. He has been covering national politics for 20 years. He is a senior reporter for Axios, formerly of Politico, NBC News, and the Miami Herald, a favorite paper of mine because of my obsession with cooking cowboys. I'm going to dinner tonight with my friend Billy Corbyn.

Oh my God, that's the man. Well, I'll tell him to come on your show. I would love that. That's the man. Okay, news out of both South Florida and the southern part of, I guess, you know, where the U.S. is messing around. The U.S., I saw a tweet, and the tweet said this. I want to get your opinion on this.

It said that World War III has officially began, and it said that because the U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker that was bound for Cuba. Now, this is the latest escalation. And Trump's just zeal and need to topple the Maduro regime in Venezuela. It seems like this is the latest and most severe escalation. What can you tell us about what's going on? I mean, it's pretty big. The Trump operation broadly had some unfinished business with Nicholas Maduro.

And in Trump's first term, he slapped pretty serious sanctions on Maduro, but there were a number of people who sort of held him back and said, hey, don't go too far. And now, fast forward in the in between, there were the four years of Joe Biden. To this term, Trump wanted to get this done. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio is a hardcore anti-communist, anti-socialist, Cuban-American. And among the many reasons that the United States doesn't like, the Maduro regime is that we've been longtime opponents, the United States government has, of Cuba. And there's this sort of axis of leftism in the hemisphere of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. But at the center of this is Cuba, which sort of exports revolution or had in the past and intelligence services.

And surrounding Nicholas Maduro are Cuban intelligence agents and assets. in return for sort of keeping him in power and propping him up, the government of Maduro, the government of Venezuela, provides oil to Cuba. So in addition to beginning this effort of regime change this year, which they denied that the ostensible goal is regime change, they say they just want to stop Maduro because he's a narco-trafficker or now they call him a narco-terrorist. They dispatched an unprecedented armada and flotilla down there of a warship, so to speak, and began blowing up boats, which everyone knows. The notable escalation happened yesterday when this tanker carrying Venezuelan oil,

I call it a Venezuelan oil tanker, but it's technically not owned by Venezuela. There was a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil was seized by the U.S. government, and more of that is probably on its way. Venezuela, a lot of people don't understand, sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves. It's got a lot of oil there. Nevertheless, it is a poor country, in part because it's been terribly a financial. mismanaged. It's also run afoul of the United States and U.S. sanctions. And the breaking news that we had today was that the Trump administration, the day after it sees this tanker and, you know, days after blowing up these various boats and killing lots of people is now ratcheting up sanctions pressure, individual sanctions on Nicholas Maduro's nephews. There's three of them, as well as a businessman in the area and six companies that have cargo vessels that have carried Venezuela and oil. And what that means, is armed with those sanctioned designations now you probably are going to see or you could see

more seizures high seizures by the United States government of these Venezuelan oil tankers. And that could really cripple their economy. Long answer to a question. I hope I didn't go too far. Has a Maduro already essentially agreed that we can have the oil if he stays in power? Well, if he stays in power, he's probably agreed to that. That's some of the reporting I've had indicates that that that match with the New York Times first reported. The thing is, is Rubio, who's from Miami, Miami-born Cuban-American, he doesn't believe Maduro. In those four years that I mentioned in between with Joe Biden, Joe Biden's administration thought, okay, look, what we'll try to do is we'll try to come up with a deal with Maduro. We will e-sanctions. They coincidentally, but they say they're not linked,

decided to free two of Maduro's nephews who had been incarcerated for cocaine. trafficking in the United States after they were convicted in 2016 and also relieve one of the sanctions on another nephew of Maduro's. And in return, they were hoping that Maduro would allow for free, fair, and open elections in the democratic process. Well, Maduro got all the benefits of this, lifted sanctions, both on his government and on his relatives. And then he turned around and just, you know, fucked Biden. Just didn't do it. So, you know, so, you know, so, Once the Trump administration got back in power here, they were saying, well, sure, Maduro is going to promise this, but he's going to renege on it ultimately. Understand that because he's surrounded by Cuban intelligence assets and because there are enough people in Venezuela who pay attention to history, they know that U.S. politics revolves in the presidency on four or eight year cycles.

And this is the last term of President Trump. So if Maduro can find a way to just hang on for three more years, his chances of not being deposed greatly increased. And that's essentially what the Trump administration believes Maduro is doing. It's just playing for time. And it might work. Remember, Fidel Castro took power in, what, 1959. Yeah. He died in office in like, I think, 2015.

I think he survived 10 or 11 U.S. presidents. There's a template for this. Unlike Cuba, Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves. It's got cocaine. The cocaine money comes through there. I don't think they're quite these traffickers that the Trump administration has said, but there is lots of evidence out there to indicate that the Maduro regime is making money off of cocaine trafficking. And something we don't talk about as much, gold.

There's a lot of gold in Venezuela that Maduro is able to use. So those are sort of three independent revenue strains. There's also a lot of precious and rare earth minerals that are pretty lucrative. Cuba didn't have any of that. And again, cashier was able to stay in power. And that's only what 90 miles from U.S. shores, a lot closer than Venezuela is. So again, there's sort of a template for survival. How is the Venezuelan government responding to the seizure of the oil tanker, the sanctions on the nephews?

How are they responding to that? I guess putting that with the tweet that Vans reading about, we're about to see World War III. Well, we haven't heard any response yet to the sanctions, which we at Axios just broke a little while ago on what's his day Thursday. So judging by how Maduro has responded recently to Trump ratching up the pressure, it's been very intelligent. Who's ever giving him advice has given him the right advice for sort of survival. He's not antagonizing Trump. He understands that Trump sort of embodies this what was called the madman. theory by Richard Nixon. Like, sometimes you got to seem so crazy that everyone's like,

whoa, we're not going to do anything about it. That's Trump. And repeatedly, Maduro is saying, look, essentially, we understand this isn't Donald Trump. He's sort of being manipulated by Marco Rubio. He's kind of making Marco Rubio out to be the fall guy and the bad guy. And meanwhile, Maduro is appearing at a lot of public functions. He's sort of dancing around and pretending everything's cool and fine. Now, a few months ago, they did start to mobilize the Venezuelan sort of armed guard, but it was a bunch of people who were basically as old as I am. These are not guys who would be able to resist a U.S. invasion force. That having been said, I want to be very clear. It's highly unlikely the United States is going to invade in what,

1989? No, hold on. What year was it that we invaded Panama? I should know this. The United States did do this once before with Manuel Noriega in Panama. And we did have a huge invasion force. He had been indicted. President Bush sent in the troops. They seized him. They brought him back here to Miami and convicted him. Similarly, Maduro has been indicted in a U.S. court for drug trafficking. And now we do have an unprecedented armada and flotilla offshore there. But the United States government has notably not gone in. I mean, one of the things that has to be said about Noriega is in addition to the terrorist. Well, in addition to the drug trafficking accusations, the main thing is the Panama Canal. And, you know, if you, if you ever pull out a globe or a picture of the map,

you realize, like, whoever controls the Panama Canal is in an incredibly powerful position to control shipping between the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico. And the United States government was facing the prospect of giving up that control. Now, recently, in recent years, China has moved in in an unconstitutional. China has moved in an unlawful. unprecedented in a major way in exerting a lot of influence over the Panama Canal. And one of the things Trump did when he got in office is he appointed as his ambassador to Panama, a guy from Miami, there's a lot of Miami connections here, the former county commissioner named Kevin Cabrera, who set about making sure the Panamanian government started to kick out the Chinese companies

running the various concessions, so to speak, or the operations of the Panama Canal. And this all sort of fits together, both Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, is the Trump administration views this hemisphere as the United States hemisphere. Last week, there was something called a national security strategy document, something that a lot of people don't really pay a lot of attention to because they say the same thing year after year. Well, not this year. The Trump administration made very clear, like, it kind of doesn't care about Europe the way American presidents in the way past American governments did. It's focusing on Asia, on China,

and it's focusing on this hemisphere. And a lot of these moves against Venezuela and the various countries that are allied with it and not allied with the United States is about removing Chinese and to a degree Russian influence from our hemisphere. If Trump seeks to depose Maduro, and it's unlikely that Maduro self-deposes,

but then there's also going to be no, invasion, what's the methodology to depose him? I've been asking that question for months. Are you going to, how's it going to happen? Well, I mean, at the very least, you'd have to send in special operators, right, in some type of covert or clandestine mission to, to, they're there. I know that they're already there. Maduro has said that they're already there.

But it's right. So we, at the very least, if there's no full-scale military invasion, they have to have some type of, they have to go into the country and try to get him and they're already trying to do that. Right. Yeah, I've told people in the administration who support this policy, because I've asked them the question for months, do you think Maduro will no longer be in power at the beginning of next year, the beginning of 2026 or soon thereafter? And they say yes. And I like, how? So you think he's going to be exactly. And no one can answer the question. So it reminds me that joke of a, like two steps to becoming a millionaire.

Step number one, get a million dollars, right? Like two steps to deposing Nicholas Maduro. Step number one, get him to leave. How? Like maybe he leaves in a pine box. There are options. And to sort of rewind in what I was talking about earlier, if you put things in context,

the blowing up of boats, the seizing of vessels, the reimposition of sanctions, individual sanctions on individual people and on companies that are doing oil business in Venezuela, there is clearly a very concerted, strategic, and patient way in which they're sort of ratcheting up pressure. But to your point, and my point, is, again, Castro survived this sort of thing. How does this happen? I mean, in the end, the United States theoretically could drone Maduro. It would be terribly majorly controversial.

But the United States has declared, and rightfully so, that he's an illegitimate dictator because he did steal an election. and they've declared them the head of a narco-terrorist organization. And the United States government, you know, from Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump, has used drones to kill suspected terrorists. So it's not that much of a logical leap on paper to do it, but, you know, doing something on paper and doing it actually in the real world or two separate things. So you could eventually see it get to that level. I'm skeptical it does

Let me ask you a question real quick By the way, yeah He's a dictator we We love those as long as they do what we do Yeah as long as there are Yeah just to be very clear Like the prince of Saudi Arabia Right

Right Right Right To be clear What In your opinion Runs out first Because

When we see these killings The The killings that happen that are happening off the coast of Venezuela. I can't say extrajudicial. It's such a tough word for me, but that's what they are, right? It's a tough word.

The international will or the will of the American people to keep listening to that or the durability of Maduro as the head of state in Venezuela. Will people with the international community and Americans get tired of what we're doing in Venezuela before Maduro gives a,

power there because Trump already spoke to him on the phone and asked him to leave and he basically was like, I'm not doing that. So can he outlast our guts, or our patience for what's going on down there? Because this is becoming more of a political issue, not just in the country, but we're a lot. Yeah, if past us prolog, the answer to that would be yes, but that's if past us prologue. I understand, which I don't really need to reinforce to people. It's like Donald Trump marches to his own drummer. You think? So, so, so. I mean, and he's any, he really, his first term was spent, he really resents what happened to him in the first term. He's under investigation.

He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't have a team that knew really what it was doing. They were fighting each other. There were just all of these problems. And the difference between that Donald Trump and this Donald Trump is this Donald Trump is having a great time. And he's doing the things he wants to do. And so this is a long round about answer to say that. He might not give a fuck.

Like Trump, Trump is built for doing the things he wants to do and he doesn't care about the criticisms if he is determined to do it. What we don't know is how determined he is to do it in the lengths he's willing to go. We do know right now that he's not ready to push the button and start blowing things up in Venezuela.

Why? Because he hasn't done it. I know, but why? If it's such a fucking attitude, what do you think is stopping him? I do think that Donald Trump understands the art of the deal. Now, I'm not one of these cultists who are like, oh, everything Donald Trump does is great and the guy's a fantastic dealmaker. But he's canny. He understands the application of brute force. And he's not ready to get to that stage yet. So now, this is me speculating, which I probably shouldn't do. But, you know, if we carry this out is you're blowing up boats, you're seizing vessels, you're sanctioning people. What are the next? step. Next step is, in addition to doing more of those things, is you can start striking targets inside Venezuela in the jungle, right? There's going to be a drug lab or two. Understand,

Venezuela is not the primary producer of cocaine, right? But there are some areas on the border with Colombia where that does happen. So you can start seeing military strikes inside Venezuela. You could start seeing military strikes in Venezuelan waters. You could also see Donald Trump say, all right, well, we have a $50 million bounty currently on Nicholas Maduro to capture him and bring him back to the United States to face justice in this federal indictment I mentioned. There's nothing stopping Donald Trump for saying, all right, $50 million bounty still, but you know, we'll do a debtor a life. That's going to incentivize a certain number of people. There are also the possibility that if the economy deteriorates badly under Maduro, And if there is enough ability to equip guerrillas and guerrilla forces, that that could be used as a pretext to sort of help arm the opposition there to wage a violent and bloody coup.

Those are all options. And then there's another option, which is, I'll sort of intentionally use the narco-trafficking era phrase. back in the days when Colombia was really under siege in the cocaine wars in the days of Pablo Escobar. They famously, his minions with the cartel would go and meet with judges and present them a manila envelope, a giant manila envelope. This is the story. And in the manila envelope would be a check or a certain amount of money written out on it, like a bride. And also in the envelope were surveillance pictures of all of the. relatives of the judge showing that if you don't take the money, we're going to kill everyone

you know. And the phrase that they used was plato or plomo. Silver. Yeah. What do you want? You want the silver or you want the lead. And so Donald Trump could certainly get to that level soon. Jeez. I, before we let you go, unless you had a couple of more questions about this. I got one more question. I got one more question. I got one more question about genocide. Hold on, hold up for half a second. What time we got here, Mo? Oh, okay. What time do we have? No, no, hold on. Five minutes to three. And what time do we have to be on MS? 3.30?

I'm just, the window opens up at 3 o'clock. Three o'clock. I think I'm on 3.30, though, right? Okay, yeah, good. No, no, I just want to check my time. Okay. One question. Is it true that the U.S. intelligence attempted a redition operation for Maduro by using a pilot,

one of his pilots that was fixing a sanctioned jet? they tried to get them at the pilot turned down to $15 million. I was unable to independently confirm that with my sources, but everyone said that they believe that's true. So, yeah, certainly. I would imagine that that's true. And there's a whole load of other things that have been tried and attempted or thought of that will never know about that have been done.

So, yeah, that story strikes me as being very true. Yeah, that was the one where it's like, oh, yeah, he's going to fly around. Like, yeah, just go north. You guys, look it up and listen to there's a, there was a sanction jet. And they, there was a sanction jet. they got some guys that were working on the jet and they say hey we're gonna you're fucking flying around this jet we're gonna goddamn

put you in jail unless you tell us who you fly around one of the guys was like I fly around Maduro and it was like we'll give you $50 million to fly him to America and then the do it no because he realized that if he did that that his life would be forfeit yeah so he didn't do it yeah but but they

they're trying everything okay Miami Miami we want to ask you about Miami big election there historic election Eileen Higgins wins the mayoral race. City of Miami turns it blue back to blue. But first time it's been run by a woman, right? A woman in a position. Yeah, and the first time in about 30 years,

you know, we don't really call them, you know, Caucasians here. People like me would call it Anglos, right? You got Hispanics and Anglos. First time we've had an Anglo in 30 years. First time it's a Democrat in about 30 years. It was there weren't a lot of people. people that showed up in the election, but Miami punches above its weight as far as sort of national attention. And this certainly got a lot of people's attention. Well, I was going to say,

it's interesting you say not a lot of voter turnout. Maybe you can speak to why that was because I was going to ask you, well, what was it about her messaging that resonated with voters to be able to have this historic win? Well, there's a few things. These are odd year. I think these are odd year. These are odd year elections. So you have an odd year special election. A lot of people just don't vote, right? Like presidential elections, there are millions and millions of dollars put on television. You can't avoid it. Same with a gubernatorial race, a Senate race. Those, again, are in even years. This is an odd year election. That's when a lot of municipal elections are. So they're always lower turnout affairs. I'm not saying that her turnout was lower than other mayoral ones. I think it's

essentially comparable. I haven't really checked the data. So give me a pass on that one. But as to her message, affordability is number one. The city of Miami, Miami-Dade County that the city is in, South Florida and Florida, this is becoming a very, very expensive place to live. And one of the great things about Miami, like what we just talked about, is this is sort of the northern seat of Latin America. One of the bad things about Miami is this is the northern seat of Latin America. And we have Latin American style or increasingly Latin American style income disparity. there are a lot of haves and a lot of have-nots. And you can really, you know, I encourage anyone like,

look at the Rick Ross video hustling, right? He talks about like, you go to Miami Beach, that's not my Miami. And he talks about kind of going a little farther. Overtown, places like that. Right. I mean, an overtown, a historically black community that was destroyed

by the creation of I-95, and now it's just being destroyed by gentrification, which is a fancy way of a bunch of white, people moving in, right? And like the costs are just going up. People can't afford it. Insurance is high. And she spoke to that. So that's number one, affordability. That's both a national issue and it's very much a local issue. Number two, corruption. The city of Miami is a cesspit of corruption. Art Noriega, who is the city manager, is a perfect example of the fact that we either don't have strong enough ethics and conflict of interest laws or we don't have enough enforcement at the

state or federal level. The things he's done, which if you get an opportunity, you look at Billy Corbyn's Instagram feed, we'd mentioned Billy earlier, or his Twitter feed about just all of the shenanigans that have happened at City Hall. You had a city manager, better said, you had a city attorney who allegedly, allegedly I'm going to say, participate in a scheme to swindle old people out of their homes. It's a city attorney. They don't need them. Right. You had a now former, thank God, city commissioner who was so opposed to his political opposition that when his political opposition held an event, a fundraiser, he was a political opponent at a place called the ball and chain, a fantastic arrest.

Love that place. Yep. Right. They sent city code enforcement there to basically shut down the government. Now, the politician who does Joe Corroyo, he got sued and he lost like tens of millions of dollars in a judgment, which the city of Miami was on the hook for defending this indefensible action. But he's able to do that because the city managers rolled over and just allowed city government to become weaponized. And then the city manager himself, he's had just sort of numerous cases

of like his wife had a interior design business. And as Billy had kind of famously pointed out, these folks had bought like an $18,000 table and just thousands of dollars of just needless expenses. At the same time, they were telling people like, sorry, we don't have money for a street sweeper truck to keep things clean because we have no money. Meanwhile, they're pissing away money on furniture to help enrich Art Norega's wife. So the newly elected mayor, Eileen Higgins, has promised a new city manager. Sure hope she does that. So that's number two, corruption. And then number three, Donald Trump. The Donald Trump is not popular. And he has grown, less popular in the city over time. And that is a very strong motivator that Democrats can tap into.

I've often said that Donald Trump is sort of like nuclear power. He produces a tremendous amount of energy, but also radiation. And the successful campaigns for Donald Trump have found a way to harness the energy and put it to their advantage and control the radiation and keep the cooling tower on the reactor to keep it from melting down. And the unsuccessful times are when he's not on the ballot. And that energy is not being harnessed by his campaign or his party, but the radiation is still sort of exuding. And Democrats are pissed off. They're not happy with the way this administration has conducted itself, and they've made it clear. And sort of related, and I apologize, I probably should have rank this higher immigration enforcement. Miami-Dade, the city of Miami, well, Miami-Dade County,

I don't know the statistics for the city of Miami. I think we're at 51% of the residents of this county of 2.3 million people are born in another country. This is a huge community of immigrants. And it spans all political parties, all demographic groups that age brackets up and down. And the way in which the Trump administration has enforced immigration, while it hasn't been as brutal here in Miami as say it has in Chicago, which you've seen, or perhaps even in parts of New York or in L.A., it's nevertheless affected a lot of people. And there's an odd thing a lot of people don't understand about the special immigration status that Cubans get under the Cuban Adjustment Act. essentially if you're Cuban and you arrive in U.S. or on U.S. shores and plead asylum, you are basically essentially given an opportunity to stay and an eventual path to citizenship based on the idea that Cuba is run by dictatorship and you can't return there. And the United States is a beacon of freedom and of democracy.

And they didn't get rounded up and deported. Well, that's happening now. So the once insulated Cuban community is starting to really feel the effects of that. And Miami in the latter years, modern Miami is the city that Cuban Americans built. And there is a lot of displeasure with the way that happens. Now, Haitian Americans are looking over at what Cubans are experiencing. Like, hey, welcome to the club. Like, we got to port it all the time.

Certainly. So there is a lot of unhappiness with the way in which that's happened. Did Miami Dade went for Trump in in in 24 did they not? The county did The county did yeah The county did but the city of Miami didn't Harris won it by less than a percentage point

Right and that was what everybody was talking about Yeah yeah yeah it's like 0.7% And before her so that's 204 and 22 Charlie Christ who was running for governor for his old job to get it back He won the he won the city of Miami by like 0.5 percentage points, but he lost the county by something like, you know, 18 or something. And he lost the state by 20 points. Joe Biden in 2020 won the city of Miami by roughly 18, 19 points, which was what Eileen Higgins just racked up. So it is sort of a purple city because in the odd-numbered election years, you really

saw the Republican machine turn out and sort of control elections and elect Republicans. Republican mayors. Understand Miami's Miami Dade in the city of Miami to a great degree. It's one of the few places, perhaps the only place in the United States, where 72% of the registered Republicans are Hispanic. That is they're almost all Cuban. Right. Cuban Americans are just very different when it comes to their voting preferences when compared to most other Hispanic communities. But this is a year where all of these various forces just became too much for Republicans and for sort of that Cuban American power. structure to resist. Last question for me, and I'm going to ask for more speculation. I love to ask these speculation questions. So the Cuban-American

allegiance to the Republican Party has a lot to do with all these historical factors that have to do with Ronald Reagan and defeating communism and the Maryland. Yeah, Bay of Pigs. Bay of pigs, all that stuff like that. Does the unpopularity of Donald Trump or the MAGA

rights want to crack down on immigration in such an inhumane way threaten, in your opinion, the overall and long-lasting allegiance to South Florida Cubans of South Florida Cubans to the Republican Party. Does this type of cruelty? Does this type of distaste threatened to realign the political reality in South Florida long term? I think for the younger ones it does. We saw this sort of pattern. There are these waves of Cuban immigration that happened over the year. So you had like 1959, Castro takes over. A lot of Cuban Americans come over. Around sort of

1980 or so, corresponding with Reagan, that's when you start to see Cuban Americans really identify with the Republican Party. They loved Reagan for the sort of anti-communist stance. He came to Miami. He talked about Cuba Libre. Right. He really spoke to them. And you really sort of see a change there. And then right up to, you know, right up to that point, you then, after the Reagan years, start to see a little bit of a drift, or after the Bush years, you start to see a little bit of a drift. In the Obama years, it starts to snap back. It becomes a little more, it becomes a little more Republican again. There have been these sort of different waves that have happened. And you start to see it with some younger Cuban Americans. I, and I'm basing this just on the younger Cuban Americans I know,

and albeit I'm now 52, so I'm not so young, is there is just a great amount of displeasure over this. You know, so I, you know, I have a, yeah, I know, I know, I know I know people of trying to, I'm, I'm trying to phrase this properly because I, like, even I, like, I'm Anglo, right. I'm, I don't have any relatives who have immigration problems. But I, I know people who are facing the prospect of having loved ones deported. And shockingly so. Now, they, you know, they had criminal problems way in their past. which were long ago dealt with. But nevertheless, you know, their relatives voted for Donald Trump. They're Cuban Americans. And now they're like, but you're you're about to deport my uncle. You're about to deport my brother. And that's going to happen. And that that is going to leave a bit of an effect. But one of the things you have to also understand about Donald Trump, which is very unique about him, is Donald Trump as a cultural figure before he was a political figure. And politics is downstream of culture. And therefore, he is able to be outside of the system and inside of it at the same time.

And the rules of political gravity that apply to other people, the rules of political physics, don't always apply to him. Once Donald Trump leaves, I believe, a lot of things are going to rejigger, rejumble, re-sort, and we're going to have to see how it shakes out. So I don't want to predict too much about what's going to happen. but Donald Trump is sort of a unique figure. He is still beloved, especially in the older Cuban-American community. But the younger generations have some reason to have some beef with him. What happens going forward? Any guess is a good guess as far as I'm concerned.

Mark Caputo. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. I'm sorry. I flaked out on you this morning. It's all great. You're doing your job. I'm in Miami next month.

I might look you up and take you to a place I like called Playhouse there in Miami Gardens. Don't do it, Mark. I always feel weird about those places. No, no, no, no. Trust me, they would love you. All right. Appreciate you joining us on higher learning, brother. All right.

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Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety information. All right. Thanks to Mark. I was like, I'll talk about the, I get into the Venezuela stuff. Oh, I know. You were in it. It's good, though. It was a really good conversation.

We didn't even talk about the fact that the fentany is not coming from there or all of this stuff, but we got into a lot of stuff that, you know. I thought it was good. I thought it was really good. I thought it was really good. I enjoyed it. Brownie, chill. All right.

You guys. I look okay I'm not I'm I'm humble would you say that I'm humble at times Donnie would you say that I'm humble at times

for the most part you are though truly so I'm humble I'm a very humble person I'm a humble man that's why I don't do I told you so stuff because I don't believe in it because the humble man that I am

that's whack. I'm telling you right now, wherever you're at, if you're doing it, I told you so stuff, you're probably being whack. Earlier this year, though, I have to say that I told people

as we were having conversations about movies that there was an agenda in this town against sinners. I said this. We talked about other films. We talked about brilliant films that people say,

the greatest movie that's ever been made and the movie came out and everyone loved it and it says the best film has been made and God came down and inhabited the body of a special director and made a movie that when you watch the movie, your life has changed and you understand sacred geometry. And after you watch this film that you can fly and you never have to take a Zypick and you won't gain any weight. That's what people were saying about the movie. That's how good the movie was. I said when a different film came out, a film called Sinners, that the result. The response in the town wasn't the same. The response was, yeah, y'all like it, but we hope it makes this budget back. Like, we hope that the movie itself is good enough or is the business is good enough on the movie.

You never know. And the response to the film was kind of weird. And everybody was like, Van, you're doing race. And we don't like that when you do race, Van. Van, all you do is race. You know, Van, you're a one-trick pony. Oh. That's what they say.

You're a one-trick pony. All you got is race. So I don't want a man, you know, get into whatever. But the movie came out, sinners. It's a brilliant. It's a brilliant film. $90 million budget, nearly $400 million at the box office. Everyone's going crazy.

Culturally the movie has already been appreciated and accepted into the filmmaking achievement area. Okay. We've already brought it into the area of filmmaking. achievement. And when I say we, I mean us, the blick pentas of the world. But now we're getting best movies of 2025 lists. These lists are dropping. Variety put a list out. Train Dreams is on there. One battle after another is on there. Sound of Fallen is on there. Twenty-eight years later is on there. Marty Supreme is on there. It was just an accident was on there. Dreams is on there. The

President Kate Steve, all of these movies. Have you seen all these movies? I've seen all of them, Black bag, bring them down. I haven't seen Marty Supreme yet. Black, Black, bring them down. Nirvana, the band, the show. Like, sorry, baby, twin list, terms and conditions, hamnet. All these movies are on there. Sinners is not.

Owen Gleberman. It's another Michigan man. His top 10, one battle after another. Marty Supreme, Senator Malue, Bologna, Wild Diamond. Mission Impossible, the fucking final reckoning. Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking with me right now? Are you fucking kidding me?

Owen Gleberman. Lurker, weapons, black bad, no sinners. Now listen. Now listen. Now I want to say this real quick. Okay. You do not have to put centers.

You do not have to put centers on your year in list. You don't. You don't have to put centers on it. There's all kinds of movies that came out. It was actually a very strong year for movies in terms of artistic achievement. And sinners does not have to be a movie that you think is one of the best movies of the year. It doesn't. But if you don't think it's one of the best movies of the year, I think that it's fair for us to assume that there are reasons why. Now, if you are going to be

uncomfortable, I'm about to delve into race because I think it's appropriate. There's a thought and a feeling, and that thought and feeling is this, that things cannot be too black. It can't be too black. And when I say things, I mean fine art. Why was hip hop outside of the discussion of fine art for so for so long? Because it was too black. It was too black. It was too black. It was black in the ways that white people perceive blackness. It was aggressive. It was unfiltered. It was unrelatable in a way that made white people uncomfortable. Why when you hear fuck the police, Do you not hear Mr. Tambourine man? Why, when you hear public enemies fight the power,

do you not hear Lucy in the sky with diamonds? You hear the pure cultural expression of a people that have a specific experience, but it's an experience that either you cannot connect to or an experience that frightens you. So when you look at a movie like sinners, a movie that is so unapologetic about the cultural experience, experience it is talking about. Leave the vampires out of it.

We're talking about black people, really, not just black people, but people in the Mississippi Delta. The way they celebrate, the way they talk, the way they move, the way they look, the way they're lit,

the way they celebrate, the way they fuck, all of it. Sometimes there is a thought that if those people are not slaves, then that art can't be perceived as elevated. If sinners took place on a plantation, it would all be different. Because that experience would be an experience that was at least in some proximity to whiteness.

If sinners right now was on a plantation and all of the characters and sinners were slaves, And the vampires came. White people will go, we understand slavery. We get it. Some of this stuff they don't understand. They don't understand joint culture.

They don't understand Asian Americans that existed in the Delta. They don't understand Chicago coming back to Mississippi what it meant to migrate as part of the initial wave of migration and they come back home. All of these things that are sort of

culturally cemented with us, all of that stuff, there's no connection there. So when you're looking at a movie like Train Dreams, which is a great movie, right? It really is. Or Marty Supreme or some of these other films, there is a cultural oneness that you fill with them

that allows you, in my opinion, to better understand the film. Even one battle after another, the movie that we talked about when I was on the big picture. You look at the film, it's quirky, it's quick, it has black people in it, but it is very, very, very white. Yeah, it's centered.

Very white, right? Yeah, it's very much to center. So it is easy for you to approach that movie's greatness. You don't have to like sinners. I'm not saying that you do. Okay. But I'm saying that there are reasons outside of the filmmaking, the acting and the story,

the movie is culturally black and it makes absolutely zero apology for it. And I knew that when it was time to look back at the best movies of the year, that this group of people would do exactly what they're doing right now. And I want people to understand this. Forget about the Academy Awards and all of that type of shit like that and what's going to happen and all of that. Fuck all of that. Forget all of that. This stuff feels intentional.

Like, this feels intentional. You can say whatever you want. This feels intentional. It feels like they, there is some type of method to this. I've seen these movies. You cannot tell me that these movies are better than sinners, not better made, not better acted,

not music. Sinners is a, even if you look at sinners and you go, hey, you know, this is derivative of, from dust till dawn, or this is derivative from any movie from,

uh, tells from the crypt demon night. This is derivative from any film where people get stuck and they can't go outside because vampires outside and, whatever, whatever. Even if you say that, even if you get into that, the music, the cinematography, the acting, the stakes, all of it, the purpose of the film deserves to be in these conversations. And I'm telling you guys right now, I knew you would do this and it's the same shit that you always do. If we give y'all the hood, if we give y'all to plantation, if we give y'all to drugs,

You fucking with it. Other than that, you niggas get to the back of the bus. And you keep showing us over and over and over again. I'll say this. The movie that we made, two-distance strangers, the film that we made, what's the movie about? Excessantial struggle against white supremacy. The police. Black trauma.

Kid gets killed a thousand some odd times. At the end, it's left open ended about whether or not we will be able to win that fight. White people look at that and they go, white critical minds look at that and they go, you know what? We get it. We understand it. That movie makes us feel the way we're supposed to feel. But can we fight the vampires? Can we fight the vampires in the juke joint?

Can we look amazing? Can we get with the clan at the end? Can we do all of those things? It is unclear. Can I ask you a question? So this is just the variety list. It's lists. These are

this variety. It's, it's, Olin Gleberman and now it's, no, now it's also Rolling Stone. Okay,

Rolling Stones took them off too. They've announced the nominations for Golden Globes. So we're starting to tap into award season. Announced Golden Globes.

Golden. Question is, Sinners has been nominated for a few things. Mm-hmm. both on music, directing, acting. Golden Globes. Does that change your opinion?

No, it's foreign press. Okay. So all of it. That's the Hollywood foreign press. Not just the Golden Globes. I'm talking about award season in general. As we travel through award season, and if seniors continues to be nominated and potentially win,

does that counter the argument that you've made? Because these are lists, variety, Golden Globes. These are magazines, publications, whatever they may be. I'm not taking anything away from you said. I agree with it. But does it change your opinion? This is the intelligency of the town. So, all right.

Okay, Hollywood Foreign Press is Golden Globes. I'm saying as they travel through awards season, if they continue to be nominated and win, does it change your opinion? I want sinners! Well, I'm giving it to you. I'm giving it to you. I'm a black man from South Louisiana and I saw myself on screen

and I demand to be seen. I demand for us to be able to fight the vampires and kill the clan and you will respect it. That's it. No more. No more trying to act like I'm objective. I demand sinners. I saw this shit.

I saw these movies. These movies are good. First of all, shout out to all the performers involved. I saw these movies. I saw these movies. these good movies these movies didn't have twerking through time

they didn't have two Michael B. Jordan's they didn't have Perlene these movies didn't have this they didn't have preacher boy they didn't have Delta Slim they didn't have that they ain't no none of it I want sinners and I demand respect

what did Fredo say in two are you serious now what if Fredo say I'm smart I'm smart and I deserve respect You're my kid brother Mikey You're my kid brother I'm smart Sin as it's smart

There's something that happens Sinus deserves respect There's something that happens on the podcast After hour two It's that Things just become A little bit unhinged I want to see it too though

I'm for it I'm for it. What was on their list in July? Oh, so Owen Gleberman took it off. The movies took sinners off. Look. And replaced it. I haven't seen, I mean, I haven't seen any of these movies.

Haven't heard of 90% of these movies. Haven't heard of them except for, I've seen one battle after another. You know what? How about this? I changed my mind. I don't want it. I don't care what you guys say. No, oh, please.

Not after that passionate. No, I changed my mind. I changed my mind. I changed my mind. We were all subjected to absolutely not. You better care. You know what? what, I changed my mind.

I don't care about it. You know who sucks? The Beatles, they suck. They never made a good song. Fuck them. How's that sound? How you like it? Fuck the Beatles. They don't care. Because they're still on their list. Hey, that's not, you know what? How about this? They're still on their list. Nope. You think they don't care. Greatest band of all time.

If you think they don't care. I'm a, oh, they took this off the list. Sly lives, aka the bird and the black genius off the list. You know what? You know who sucks? The Beatles, the stones. They're all I don't like any of the stuff. I don't like it. No. Spielberg can't. He is not good.

Jaws. It's off the list. You know what I put? You know what I put over Jaws? What? You know what movie means more to me than Jaws? Can we be honest about this? Meteor Man.

Oh, don't even get me started. You guys are all over Jaws. You know what I like? I like Meteor Man. Such an underrated classic. I know. Can't find it anywhere.

Yeah, yeah. You guys like Shauna the Dead. You know what? I like blank man. That's what I like. Okay? I like blank man. He didn't have any money and he was a fucking hero.

Those are the things that I like. I could continue. You ever seen Fat Beach? Ever seen Ride? You ever seen New Jersey Drive? That's what I like. Fuck it. Fuck it.

Fuck no. No. No. No. Telling you guys, you guys don't understand. The reason why you guys don't understand that's because you never saw Carlito's Way Part 2 rise to power. They got that much got puff in it, but it's not like a black movie, but it's nigger coded. You know, it's interesting.

I'll just say, you know, guys, you know, we make movies and we like them as well, and they're really well made, and it's Ryan Cooble. Yeah, if you guys were trying to, rage bait me and trigger me with all of this stuff, you did. You did. I looked at these lists and I get, I get pissed off. I get pissed off. Because what, like, what are we doing? Like, what, like, what, what's going on? It's unfair. You're not wrong. But you care. Well, you know, you should. You know, it's, you know what my, you know what my dad used to say? What? My dad used to say,

shout out to dad. My dad was like, you know, something would happen. I would be mad because of L-A-Race. I might say, I would be like, you know, they don't like you. They don't like you. You know, like, what do you mean? He'd be like, they don't think you're handsome. He's like, they don't think you're attractive. They don't think none of that stuff. So who does think you're attractive? Concentrate on them.

The AFCA's, the NAACP Awards. What about, I'm going to make my own list. How about this? I'm going to make a Van Latham. We're going to make a higher learning list of the top movies of the year. I don't think I haven't qualified to participate. This is the problem.

Well, this is the wrong show. This is the issue. You're on big picture rewatchables. You want me to be angry. You want me to be angry about sinners and the race issue? I'm here for it. I'm down with you. No, they're not on the other side.

The sinners is on the big picture list. I should say that. Well, they would, come on. They had to. What do mean they had to? Oh, you think that they wouldn't put sinners on there? You think that Sean and Amanda are in the back for the blicks? I'm saying that whether they wanted to.

to or not they were going to put it on. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. Really, because the biggest sinners fan... There's no way that they could continue to podcast with you. I believe that they really believe that. I'm just saying, can you imagine if the Rinker list didn't have sinners? That would be so crazy. I believe they really wanted, though.

It's genuine. Bill was one of the biggest centers fans. Like, Bill walked out of the theater. I was with him. He walked out of theater. He was putting the Coofee on. Well, thank God that he did. the, yeah.

Thank God he did not. Yeah, God, yeah. You see, we saw sinners. It reminded me of like something that happened back in South Boston, 1982. Boston. Yeah, so I saw sinners and it was kind of like seeing with my friend Craig Morrison. We saw sinners in 19. It's crazy.

The movie reminded me like the birds first season with the Celts, you know? The Lakers were kind of like the vampires, you know what I mean? Anyway, we got to go. You piss me off. You piss me off with the entire sentence thing. I make no fucking bones about it. Do you care about 50 cent and Marlon Wayans and Diddy? No, we're, no.

What's your opinion on Diddy? Yeah, overall. Come on. What's your thoughts? He's a monster. He should be locked up like he is. It should have happened long ago and it should have been longer. When Did he gets out, would you go on a date with him?

Come on, Van. This is what I mean, hour two. What an insane, insanely disrespectful question to ask? You don't believe in redemption? That's not, he can go get redeemed somewhere. Put ditty to the side. The redemption, it's not for over here.

Put ditty to the side. Put ditty to the side. What question for race before we go? Is there, because you believe in redemption after jail, right? Of course. Would you date a guy that has been to jail? Yeah.

Okay. What crimes? are out. Violent. So anything that's violent. Sexual. Sexual. Obviously sexual will be out.

What if he's violent to another man, though? I don't want violence, period. No violence. I don't want violence. So if a guy, let's say he beat up a guy's aggravated. I don't want violence. What if he robbed a store, gun? Arm robbery?

Yeah. Violence. Violence. That's violence. So blue, a white collar, you're cool. Defraud people, 10 million people from people scammers. No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that.

Like the deception that's involved with theft, fraud. Uh-uh. Okay, what these niggas going to jail for? Drugs. Drugs. So he can sell drugs. See, how should you like that? A businessman.

So what you're saying is the guy that sells drugs to the people that he goes to church with and the people in this community, pregnant women, babies, like, all of that stuff like that, like, you know. They made the decision to purchase the drug. Oh, my God. Oh, dad, dad, daddy, father. Okay. I could do a drug dealer.

So you could do a drug dealer. Half. Wow. We've talked about this. You could do a drug dealer, but the drug dealer doesn't, he doesn't do violence. That's not violent to you. That's not the type of, you ask me what I could handle. Right.

I can't handle violence. Okay. Last question about this drug dealer. The deception that comes with theft. What if the drug dealer has violence done on his behalf. Oh. So like, you know, so this is your guy.

Your guy's name is Big Mike. And, you know, Big Mike coming to pick you. No, I don't like that. All right, man. Travis? Jerome. Jerome. Jerome. Roamy.

Big Roamy. This is Roamy, man. Look, y'all got chill. Okay. Like, why, Rome? Why we got chill? I got something coming over here later. Hang it out, but it's not like the regular girls from around here.

So y'all got to chill Hey hey nigger put the weed away Rachel coming over her daddy a judge right She go to Texas We got some different shit coming over here right now All right y'all niggas I want y'all to go Everybody read a section of encyclopedia

And then say it to her when she gets here Because she owns some different type of shit Right You go over there You're chilling with Romi What movie are y'all watching? Sinners You and Romi watching sinners right

Romy got it on Romi got his shit decked out like DMX from Belmont Okay, okay. So he got the big projector. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You essentially Terrell Hicks. Okay.

From belly, this is you. He got the big projector and the whole nine going on. Y'all watching it y'all in all black. It's like all fluorescent hype William's shit. One of his homies come over and they whisper something in Romy's ear. And he goes. Yeah. You sit next to him.

You're like, hmm. Romney. Yeah. Do you ask him what this meant? because he's not violent. He is a businessman. It's not of my business. It's none of your business.

Because this could have been, hey, go out that way. It could have been like two, not three. I don't know. Okay. I'm not asking too many questions. So you like... But also, I would like to think that...

You said somebody who's been to jail. I would like to think that they... No, we're off that now. Oh, no, no. We're in the middle of the shit. I didn't say I'm dating an active drug dealer. You talked about redemption. You talked about rehabilitation.

What could they be redeemed for? I'm not trying to be caught up. in the middle of a deal. Okay, let me ask you this. I'm not losing my well-being. So let me ask you this. You and Romney have a good time, you stay over. I'm not talking about what you doing with your business

and you're in Romney or whatever. Y'all wake up, Romney got a whole breakfast spread, fucking croissants. I got orange juice. You feeling like, you're on the phone, like, girl, this nigga here got a maid and a cook. There's two different people. It's not like he got the maid and a maid cook.

Fuck that, that's what broke niggas. He got a maid and then he got separate women that cook. She's from Honduras or something. Romi's homie comes back. He looks at Romney, he goes, Romney goes, the job's done. I'm not dating a man still in the game. The job's done.

Romney's killed. I'm not made a dating a man still in the game. Do you stay? No, I'm not dating you if you're still in the game. And that would be something that would be established up front. I'm not going to judge you for that path. but I'm here with you as you enter a life of rehabilitation. Last question then.

Last question. Romy's out the game. You like him. You love Romy. Romy's out the game. Romy's done. He's seen the top of it. They know his car everywhere he go.

Oh, that's Romy. Got it. That's Romy. He comes to you. He goes, listen, there's one thing that I have to do to get out the game. I got about $10 million. Yeah, 10 million cash. That's enough for me.

You know who makes it enough? You make it enough. Because 10 million is, I thought I would be in the game for more than that. But when I met you, it was worth 50 million. I put that 10 with that 50, I got 60. 10 million is enough for us, especially in Dallas. We go far with that. But I need something.

We need to wash this money. I'm willing to go down to maybe like 8.5. I'm willing to spend 1.5 washing it. I know you know people. You got different niggas in the TV game and different types of shit like that. You know people way high up in the government and shit, Bill Clinton and shit. That's part of your family legacy. I know you know all kinds.

You know, Yodi from Hot Bench, you got all kinds of friends. You know what I'm saying? School of Braun, that's in your network. You fuck with that, nigga. Like, all of this stuff with you, can you help me wash this so that I can be clean forever? So he's got the 10 mil. He's got the 10 mil. He just needs to simply invest it.

Yeah, you can call in the shell. You can call all of these. You know people that know people, that know people, that know people. You know Nick Viya. I know that nigga know how to wash money. First off, you know way more people than me. Stop doing this. Stop doing this.

But see, the difference between me and you is, if I see you fuck with any drugs, it's over. I'm out. Like, I don't do that. Also, you wouldn't date somebody who was a drug dealer. Well, you're sorry? No. Hell no. I don't want to be involved in that.

I don't believe in. drug dealing. Okay, but if you're out and you're done and you're rehabilitated, I'm not going to judge you for that. Are you helping Romney wash the money? No, I don't want, I'd be, I would, you know what I would have said? I would have been like, why did you bring me into this? Romney said, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't mean to. Why didn't you just do what you need to do? Leave me out of it. Now I know I don't want to be involved. I didn't bring you into this. Because I'm not going, I'm not going down for your transgressions. You know who brought you into this? Who? God. Come on. Let's go. They've heard it enough. They've heard it enough.

I've heard enough. They've heard enough. They upset. I took the Romy thing too far. I don't want any. I don't want any. Don't come in my T. Talk about.

I hear you try to support somebody. The last thing I'll say is this, though. Shout out to everybody to listen to the podcast today that indulge me on the whole Romi situation. And I want to hear your Romi's stories. For all of my brothers out there that was in the game at one point, that got out the game that people like Rachel don't feel like deserve love. I want to hear y'all Romi's stories.

I want to hear the stories Just leave it behind I'll give you a chance Just leave it behind Actually you know what How about this? They're not coming on the podcast In the new year

We're gonna do the Rachel Popper Balloon X-Con challenge If you've been inside And you're doing better for yourself If you've been inside Are you doing better for yourself Not Rachel It's not for Rachel

Rachel is just We're gonna put brothers back out here Because we need you know what we need We need love We need to make sure that Love doesn't suffer from recidivism Come on, come on Take your thinking caps off.

We know they've been off. You do it. You do it because I don't even want to. I can't believe you. Take your thinking caps off, but don't stop listening. I'm Rachel Lynn Lindsay. Shout out to all the brothers. He's Van Lathen Jr. We don't let him go talk to somebody else because you're trying to get,

you just. Nah, they need love to. We love to talk to somebody else. Bye guys. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities.

So do like I did. and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only,

then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com.