It Could Happen Here - A Firsthand Account of the Inauguration & Trump's First Days

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Robert and Gare sit down with D.C. resident, Bridget Todd to discuss her experiences at the inauguration, the return of the Proud Boys, and what it all means for everyone in and out of the District.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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On the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, and to welcome the new year, my podcast, The Happiness Lab, is releasing a series of happiness how-to guides to help you in 2025. I'll distill the wisdom of

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We're having a good time. I'm Robert Garrison Davis, my co-host, colleague, and today we're talking about Trump's inauguration with a good friend of ours who was present at the thing itself, Bridget Todd. Bridget, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. It's actually my first time on It Can Happen Here. I'm a little nervous. I hope it goes well. Yeah. You're an OG guest over on Bastard, so it's about time we had you on here.

How are you feeling, Bridget? Just in general, before we get into the specifics, how are you doing in the first full day of this new era? Oh, not great, Bob. Not great, not great, not great. It's so bad. Look, we were talking off mic, like I need to figure out a self-care plan. And part of this is on me that I feel like

I am one of those people that has kind of checked out a little bit and I'm like, oh, who, like I gotta take a step back from this. And now that I'm taking a step back in, I'm like, I need a plan for how I'm going to pace myself and not lose my fucking shit Every fucking day. Yeah, it's probably not for the best that like right at the same time as this has all happened The the people who make gas station drugs have figured out how to take the chemicals and create them

Which you know in leaf form is a generally safe drug and hyper concentrate them into basically fucking heroin So I'm just working on staying away from that shit It too much of the news, you know, that's the way you got to do it I'm also doing dry January and trying to eat healthy. That's tough. I'm not doing that. So I have no outlets I can't drink. I'm not I don't do drugs. I'm fucking eating lentil soup every night. I got nothing There's nothing I can do to cope. I'm keeping myself okay by just eating venison every single day. But yeah. I'm carrying on our Vegas tradition and I've moved into gambling.

Nice. Oh, you're gambling now, huh? Not actually, but instead of doing something stupid for inauguration day, me and my friends got together and all played anarchist poker. So that was fun. I lost about $10 to my friends. So that's fair. How often did you say, I hardly know her? Like about four times. Yeah, that's the right amount of times.

But we also got quite drunk. By the time we started our second game, I was also dressed like Data from The Next Generation, complete with silver face paint the entire time, and a poker visor. So that was how I spent yesterday. I'm glad you got to experience the health that that actor experienced. Bridget, let's talk about the inauguration. Let's do it. All right.

So, I kind of come in first hand. When did you sort of lock down your plans to actually be there? So initially, my plan was to get out of town. Totally. I'm going to go out. I don't want to be here. Yeah. I'm going to hide on the mountains with a rifle. Like that. You're joking. But like, no, no, no, I'm not joking.

And I was in. I live in D.C. I lived in D.C. most of my life. I was in D.C. in my apartment when January 6th happened. And I remember being so scared. There was a curfew in DC. Like it just shit got really real really quickly. I remember I was on a wall staff, like beginning of the year planning work call. And somebody just on the Zoom was like, hey, something's happening and everybody who lives in DC

should maybe check the TV. And then the line went dead. That's what I remember the most. So I was planning on getting out of town and then I thought, fuck it, why should these people drive me out of my own city? I wanna be out on the streets. I wanna be out in my community.

I wanna be connected. And so yeah, I went out to the People's March protest. I went out as far as I could to inauguration downtown just to get a sense of what the vibes were. Yeah. All right. Well, let's let's get into the vibes. How were they? Weird as hell. This is something that I think people might not really think about a lot. So like being from DC, living here most of my life, people really obviously think of it as like a seat of national power. And they sometimes forget that there are over 600,000 DC residents who just like live here,

work here, have their lives here. And so this stuff all plays out like practically in our backyards, while arguably we have less electoral political power and less agency in some ways because DC is not a state. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, she can like vote in committees and introduce legislation and stuff like that, but she can't vote.

And so all of this matters for- This is so fucked up. It's, dude, don't even get me started. Like I could talk about statehood all day long That's like such a funny shitty compromise like you can you could be there and like talk, but you can't do anything like you I'm sorry. That's just so fucked up. It is and it's like I mean like there are so many reasons Why it sucks that DC's not a state, but ultimately it's like, we deserve to have political power.

We deserve to have a state. It's like- We made Wyoming a state. Yes. Have you ever fucking been to Wyoming? Good God. Like. And I mean, I could talk all day.

When Republican lawmakers get on TV, and I remember they would shit on DC by saying things like, there's not even loggers who live there. It's not even a real place. Like, as if the only way to actually meaningfully exist in the United States is like, you have to have loggers who live there. Like, it's so infuriating.

And none of those motherfuckers know a loggers. I know. So all of this background really matters to Trump's kind of tense relationship with DC, like the district. Trump, as y'all might remember, spent quite a lot of time just talking straight shit about the district and announcing these like big plans to take over DC. The background is a little bit complicated, but the quick and dirty version is that DC

has what's called home rule. So that's like the ability for DC to govern, like for our local government and leaders to like make decisions about what happens to the district. And on the campaign trail, Trump was saying he wants to change this, that DC's home rule would be revoked and that the federal government, basically him, would dictate how DC is run as a city. Because DC is not a state, technically any president could have that authority to interfere with how DC is run. So, yeah, any president could like take over the police department

and take over the powers our mayor, Muriel Bowser, currently has over the city. Yeah, so I guess first off, like of your friends, how many folks kind of made the same call? Like what was the general decision? Cause I'm looking at like, of your friends, how many folks kind of made the same call? Like, what was the general decision? Because I'm looking at, like, footage of Proud Boys marching through fucking DC again for the first time in almost half a decade. And like, yeah, where are the people you know on this kind of stuff?

I mean, this in the most literal sense, nobody. Zero. I was out there flying solo and I had multiple friends be like, you're crazy to go down there. Like, like everybody. And I guess that's something else that I wanted to talk a bit about, which is that, you know, the first time around during Trump's inauguration, I was like out on the streets. I was like, it sounds so silly now,

but like, I mean, almost don't even wanna get into it, but the idea of like resist, that had not yet become a cliche to me. And in the, you know, aftermath of Trump's first election, I was really clinging to that for like whatever hope or power, I didn't know it was gonna turn out to be like a bunch of grifters and like people saying like, hashtag resist and like meaning nothing.

At the time, I really clung to that. This time around, total night and day difference. Like, and I think the mood on the street, I think reflected that. I think that DC is exhausted. The people that generally I know who are like radicals, who would be out on the street, a lot of those people were like,

we're sitting this one out. Yep. Yeah. That was like a refrain I hear from a lot of black and brown organizing folks here in DC DC. Like this is not our fight We are we are sitting this one out and I don't blame anybody right like it's a lot We've all been through a lot. Yeah, and that's that's I guess if I could get across something and people listen It would be like don't just show up because they are right now They have the cops they have the courts if they want you to. They have the cops, they have the courts.

If they want you to show up in the street, the best thing to do sometimes, I'm not gonna say this is gonna be consistently the case, but is like, don't give them what they want. Don't be where they want you to be. Don't make it simple for them, you know? Again, I keep trying to say, and I'm not saying this in like, I'm so smart,

I know what everyone needs to be doing. I don't. But it's like not what we did last time, because that just didn't do it. Exactly. Didn't do it all. Didn't knock it out of the park. Wasn't a home run. The last time Trump was in office, y'all remember like the women's march and pussy hats and

all of that? I actually staffed the women's march that time around. I was one of the digital street team folks. So I was like very invested. This time around they changed the name, they rebranded to the people's march and they only had a couple of thousand people out there. And so, you know, I think it really goes back to what you were saying, Robert. Personally, I have a hard time with the idea that what we did then is what we

should be doing now that that that playbook is still going to work. And frankly, like 69% of white women voted for Trump, right? And so like, the idea that I would feel safe and feel solidarity with a bunch of women out on the streets, like being like boo Trump, it's just like, it's, I understand why the turnout was so low because I feel like solidarity and march on the street is clearly not where we're at. So that is not how we should be meeting this moment. Well, and even last J 20, there was like a large, large radical contingent.

And those people are similarly sitting out. And when you're looking towards the next few months, looking at like what kind of ice raids are going to happen, looking at what's going to happen for like reproductive health care, transgender health care, people are making the calculation that it does not make sense to like needlessly throw yourself against the walls of the state when we can stick together and see and see what happens and prepare for for all of those other things that are going to actually impact you and people that you know like seriously.

And it sucks to be stuck in that reactive position and there's things you can do proactively, but going outside and yelling in front of a fence probably isn't going to do any of those things. It's probably not going to help the people who are going to need help in the next few weeks. Yeah. And people are understanding that and it's leading to people reacting quite differently than what they did, you know, eight years ago. I agree. Yeah. I mean, Garrison, you really said it. And in this moment, personally, I am really wondering like what my role is.

Like, where can I fit in? There was a time where, you know, just being out on the street yelling, like being so frustrated, I have to take to the streets and scream in impotent rage. That would feel like something. And I just think in 2025, I have to figure out like what it is I can contribute and contribute that. And I don't know that it's protest as it used to be.

Like I used to be somebody who like protest protest was my thing, like, you know, I really got my start in the anti-war movement when I was in college and like, that felt like something. I don't think that that's what it is for me anymore. Maybe it's just age too, you age out of it or something. Sure. I think some of it is that like, the only meaningful definition of intelligence, really,

is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. And when the circumstances change in the way that they have and you're like, well, time to do exactly what we tried in 2017, that is not intelligent, right? Like I'm not, I'm not trying to be mean. And again, I'm not saying I know what the smart thing is, but it is, we got to be pivoting. We got to pivot in a lot of different directions right now. So yes, and I don't know that I see some of the institutional powers that be, even people who are ostensibly on our side doing that pivot, right?

I'm very much in this sort of nonprofit industrial complex. All the organizations who were like, oh, well, where should we be putting our money and this and that? The first time around, I just see them doing the same old thing. And it's like, I don't know that that is what's going to save us. And like, don't get me started on how useless the Democrats are, because I'll go all day. But like, when Trump announced that he was moving the inauguration inside, they printed little jokey shirts that said snowflake. I'm just so sick of that. Like that sort of like sneering, dunking, useless stuff that doesn't translate to meaningful action. I'm just so sick of it. I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Yes. Yeah, I mean, that's what's in part what lost some of the election is that general attitude

and that conception of them throughout the country. And yeah, getting your little like snide remarks during Hague's confirmation hearing might make you feel good and might generate a good clip for social media. But is that actually going to stop him from getting into the cabinet position? I've had so many arguments about this with people over the last few days who still insist that like what the fascists can't stand you making fun of them. That's what they hate is you laughing at them. And like, I think there was a stage at which that was a valid tactic.

And you know, there may be elements of that in the future, but like, no, they don't care. They're winning. I'm not saying like, don't fucking make jokes with your friends to like keep yourself sane. I'm saying don't mistake dunking on them on social media for doing anything that matters because it doesn't. Oh, okay. I'm not even sure like I have so much to say about this. So I have been saying this for

a very long time and you know we were all at the Democratic National Convention. I have to admit that I was there as an influencer but the thing that annoyed me so much was like that exact sentiment and that exact sentiment fucking lost I think that the thing that pisses me off now is the complete Unwillingness to be like where did we go wrong? Maybe the memes and the jokes and the calling them weirder than this and that that maybe it felt good in the moment But it actually didn't translate what happened unwilling to do that completely unwilling Now, you know you see I would almost argue that like the weird stuff but it actually didn't translate what happened. Unwilling to do that, completely unwilling. Now, you know, and you see, I would almost argue

that like the weird stuff, I think if they'd stuck with it, there was something there. I think the emphasizing how outside of like the American norm these guys were and like what we want to accept in our communities, like there was something there, but they didn't stick to it. You know, the next big time we saw Tim Walz, he was talking about how he wanted to be friends

with JD Vance on the fucking debate stage. But also I think that's a little different than just like calling him fucking orange Mussolini or whatever the fuck. Like I think there's a point in a messaging tactic. It's like Trump gets mileage out of the names he uses and the way in which that's part of how he got where he is. So I'm not saying that aspects of these tactics

can't be used well. I'm talking about the way in which people, liberals and folks on the left are continuing to do the fucking like, Trump shit. That's not getting us anywhere. I could not agree more. And yeah, I mean, I agree. I think the weird stuff could have like had legs.

I think that they were kind of like scatter shot at that point and they were like, oh, people seem to like this. Let's lean into this. Oh, this new thing, let's lean into that. The thing that I remember very clearly was when Tim Walz was talking about how, oh, we have a saying in Minnesota,

it's mind your own damn business. Yes, yes. Yeah, so like my partner is from Minnesota and he was like, oh, that is like absolutely a Minnesotan thing, mind your own damn business. Yes, yes. Yeah, so like my partner is from Minnesota and he was like, oh, that is like absolutely a Minnesotan thing, mind your own damn business. Yeah. You can sell that, yeah. So I agree, but yeah, the like calling Elon, Elmo,

like all these little cutesy things might feel good and like get you a hit of dopamine and get you a few, you know, likes on whatever, but it just, it's not gonna save us. And I'm so sick of it. I feel like in some ways it's all anyone has to offer right now and I'm sick of it. The Indicator is a podcast where daily economic news

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There's someone crossing the street. Sorry, I didn't see him there. If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. ["The Ad Council"] One of the interesting things when looking back at the last version of Trump's J-20s,

you did have these large these large militant groups, would later probably be dubbed Antifa by the media, but there was a presence in the street. And this time around, really the only sizeable militant presence in the street was like the first return of the Proud Boys. Did you stumble across a gaggle of black and yellow clad militants in the street? Yellow and black.

Not a gaggle. I saw one lone one. I'm sure it was like, I've lost my groove. Like a little duck. I had to help a baby duck get back to its mom last year. It was just like that. Yeah. Right down to the IQ.

I have some friends right now who are in the DC airport and it is chud central over there. Oh fucking bad. It sounds quite bad. I saw a friend posted about like all of the Trump merch and they were sitting next to two individuals debating race science in the airport terminal. So that is the vibes of the DC airport as of Tuesday, the day after the inauguration. But yeah, like the return of the Proud Boys is like one of the big things that I think we're going to see these next few weeks is the amount of far-right militias or these

you know, more like street gang type groups who have been so emboldened by Trump essentially giving them permission to do whatever they want to now, now that they know that they're not going to face any kind of like real legal repercussions for, you know, carrying out whatever actions they want to against people of color, queer people, etc. And that's going to be interesting to see. Like this is certainly a sign that suggests some embrace, but I'm kind of wondering, if we're looking back to the Nazis, the OGs, what the Nazis did was marginalized and actually purge a lot of these guys fairly quickly because the folks that were the best at like rabble rousing

and fighting in the streets were also kind of like the least reliable at helping to keep a stable system in the city, right? Like after the Nazis took power, one of the big issues they had is like, we still have a lot of people who are kind of like in the middle, including? Like after the Nazis took power, one of the big issues they had is like, we still have a lot of people who are kind of like in the middle, including most of the military. And one of the things that keeps scaring them

is all these fucking goons running about. And we still want what the goons are doing, which is like certain people beaten and thrown in camps, but we don't want the goons doing it. We want the cops doing it. And I guess kind of we're all waiting to see how different or similar what comes next looks to that. And I mean, what do you make of like,

I guess I knew it was coming, but when all those J6 goons got pardoned and so like you have like the leader of the Oath Keepers, the leader of the Proud Boys getting released from DC jail. Like, what do you make of that? There's two things. Number one, this is something that he had campaigned on. It's something that there was a lot of support

from his base for, you know? Like the fact that in order to kind of protect himself, he had to really heavily embrace the idea that nothing bad happened on January 6th. And if it did, it was the fault of, you know, the mean old Biden cops. And so he kind of had to do it. The degree to which he shows up and is close or actually directly embraces Proud Boys and

guys like Tario is going to tell us a lot. And I think we'll be seeing that very soon. If they are kept at arm's length and kind of letting them out is all they do, then I don't know how much we're going to see of these guys. If there's a real embrace and an attempt to use them as a way to kind of extra legally deal with his enemies, then I think we start seeing them really make inroads and pushes in places like Portland, trying to get people out so that they can do violence to them and then get pardoned or just have the violence ignored and the other people get thrown into is like Portland trying to get people out so that they can do violence to them and then,

you know, get pardoned or just have the violence ignored and the other people get thrown into prison. And I don't really know which way I think that the state is landing right now, which is not to say like, I think one is clearly less violent than the other because his other option is he's going to be having his feds do that kind of shit. I think that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from the not knowing of like, it could go this way or that way. Both are bad, but what flavor are we gonna get? Like, that's the thing that is really getting to me right now.

Yeah. Do you wanna talk about what the Proud Boys were actually like up to on Monday? Yeah, so as you said, this was the first time that they, en masse, came to DC since January 6th, and they marched through the streets of DC, holding a banner that said, Congratulations, President Trump.

And they chanted, Who Streets Our Streets. Which by the way, that is such like, again, as someone who kind of like came up on like street protest, y'all are doing the chant all late. Like, I hate that. I mean, the situation has continued to be proven correct.

The levels of recuperation for even like your diametrically opposed like militant enemy side is just fucking crazy. Yes. And I thought this, I mean, speaking of J6 writers who were all pardoned, I saw this video that really kind of broke my heart. It was a video that some MAGA dipshit took outside of the jail where all those people were being held. And so there was a black DC elder who clearly is just like minding her business, walking down the street in her city.

And she gets baited into an on video screaming match outside of the DC jail where this MAGA guy yells like, like, oh, we didn't do anything wrong. No crime was committed. And she's like, you all killed a cop. No cops got killed, which is not true. Like, it goes back to what you were saying, Robert, about how there is this need to quickly have it be like something that wasn't that big of a deal.

And one, to see that in person in this video was was wild to me. But two, seeing like a DC elder like take the bait broke my heart because I wish I could have been in that moment to be like, honey, you don't need to be screaming. This guy wants you to be screaming at him. He wants this video of you screaming at him on the street. This is like exactly what he wants. Yeah, I entirely agree. You know, the biggest takeaway from being out was just how sparse it was.

Like, you know, the first time around, I probably had four different people staying with me, two of whom got arrested during the big anti-Trump protests. This time around, I didn't have anybody, I didn't know anybody who was there. And I do think that reflects kind of where people are at. I think people are exhausted. People have been through a lot. People are maybe pacing themselves and sort of like

don't want to blow their rage wad on the first week, which I totally understand. But I think it really remains to be seen, like whether or not this vibe is going to take us through the next four years. Are people just tuning out? Are we checked out? Are we so exhausted and overstimulated already that we're not going to really us through the next four years. Are people just tuning out? Are we checked out? Are we so exhausted and overstimulated already

that we're not gonna really be paying attention? And in some ways, I feel like that's exactly what authoritarians want. Yes. That's where it's difficult. Or that's one of the many things that is difficult, is that checking out is not the answer, but you simply can't react to everything that happens. Showing up and burning yourself out in the answer, but you simply can't react to everything that happens, showing up and burning yourself out in the street.

It's like the cops continue to do bad things. And every time a cop does a bad thing, you and your friends throw yourselves at a police station until you all get arrested. Then you won't be able to do anything else because you'll be in jail, you know? Like, and like, these are hard realities, which is why it necessitates new kinds of thinking, creativity, you know? It, to some extent, unsatisfying. And I guess part of what I would say is if people are giving you answers to what we need to do

that sound very clear and satisfying, you should maybe not trust that totally. Yeah. Because the responsible answer in my opinion is that like, it's very unclear how to get out of this or what the right things to do here are. We just know that what we've been doing hasn't been working and the first step to wisdom is accepting that.

Oof, I love that. Something I know that isn't working is I'm glad that we're not doing... I thought you were going to pivot to ads. Actually, let's pivot to ads. You're so good at ads. You could teach a class on it. Oh, yeah. Well, I waited 28 minutes this time to do it, but at least we have the second one in there.

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Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. We're back, Bridget. Sorry, where were you going? Something that I'm glad we are not doing this time around is remember during the first Trump administration how the Washington Post changed their tagline to democracy dies in darkness and everybody gave them a shit ton of money because it was like, yeah, we need like good investigative the Washington Post changed their tagline to democracy dies in darkness.

And everybody gave them a shit ton of money because it was like, yeah, we need like good investigative journalism, traditional media, that's gonna save us. I'm glad that this time around we've all cut the shit and it's like, no, they're part of it. They're not gonna do a goddamn thing. Absolutely not. Yes.

They don't give a fuck. Fucking Jake Tapper couldn't roll over fast enough and like so even I mean I'm sure y'all have talked about this to death and I have been thinking about it non-stop But Elon's seeing how the traditional press reported on his salute It's like oh, what did he do like like the way they will contort themselves to not just come out and say it is astonishing to me. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's one of like the scariest things is the degree to which they're trying to memory all stuff happening as it happened.

And at the same time, okay, yeah, he did a Nazi salute. He's a Nazi. This is not the first thing that's made that clear. We need to move on knowing he's a Nazi, but we need to move on. You know, like that's right. I don't know. I don't know what to do other than, you know, maybe there's some utility in spreading clips of him next to the fucking guy from American History X.

But I don't know. I don't know how that's going to help. The fact that he is in this position where he can do something like that on stage and it actually doesn't matter is like so much more frightening to me than like than like Elon Musk like doing like a very like low border control like version of the salute when he's like wrapped up in some like excitement and he's trying to like meme to like his like fans on 4chan. The fact that like he's even just allowed to do that and like it doesn't actually matter. This will not affect him in any way is more what's interesting to me because yes we've all known that he's been

a Nazi for quite a while. He's like shared things that are like essentially like Nazi race science on Twitter before. He is he is engaged with like extremely anti-Semitic conspiracy theories before and you know the largest anti-Semitism org in the country has completely capitulated to these people. Oh my god. So like they've hollowed out everything that's like supposed to be like, you know, the institutional blockages, whether that's, you know, places like the Washington Post, whether that's literally all of the tech companies, the degree to which like everyone has cozied up to Trump, which

is like also like very different from 2016. Exactly. Everyone was like fairly like united institutionally was united against Trump. And you know, the same way we like we don't see, you know, people out in the streets, you know, writing or even doing like large protests, the actual you know, institutional powers have have decided to instead of actually trying to fight this guy, they're going to try to see like how friendly they can be like how much can they get out of this? There's this like resignation. And I don't know how long that'll last. Right.

I'm not sure if like, you know, once Trump becomes the establishment figure that he's been like deriding for the past few years, like once he falls back into that zone, if we're going to see more resistance to him from like institutional levels, but you can't like count on it. And the degree to which it is like different from 2016 is like worth remembering. Like a phrase me and Robert talk about sometimes is like the forever 2016. Like the fact that it feels like we've never really left 2016. Everyone kind of acts like we're still in 2016, like this is such load bearing year on our entire cultural consciousness. But the fact is we aren't in 2016 anymore,

and you can't act like we are. You actually have to move on from that. And we're starting to see more of that in certain corners. You see some of that among some of the radicals, some of the anarchists, as well as, you know, the tech companies and the CEOs and the media companies. They're just, you know, changing the degree to which they're moving away from their 2016 mode.

You actually just gave me a little bit of a silver lining that I had not realized, which is like, it kind of is useful to see so clearly where these institutions and power holders stand. And it's like, when like, I remember watching tech companies like change their logos to Black Lives Matter or post the Black Square. It's kind of freeing to be like, we don't have to do that shit anymore. We all don't have to pretend, and we don't have to pretend either.

We know where you stand. You've made it very clear. You could not make it, you could not have made it clear where your alliance is. And let's go from there. Like, it almost is, it almost is sort of like trimming the fat a little bit. We no longer have to take these, these institutions as serious as allies or something. Yeah, there's going to be a degree to which like people's masks come off more than usual. I mean, I think certainly this next Pride Month will be interesting to see how people

change. Pride Month 2022 or even Pride Month 2017. Oh, yeah. Pride Month 2022 or even, you know, Pride Month 2017. Yeah. I was at Pride in San Francisco in 2020, and it was very big, very happy. But there was like a rind to it. You know, there was like an edge to it of. Are we going to be able to keep doing this? You know, there's a dispensary, you know, I don't smoke, but a friend of mine who I stay with when I'm at San Francisco does. And so I was with them at this dispensary and it had like a sign talking about its history, which was that

the person who founded it's a very nice one. It's like an Apple store inside. And the person who like started it and ran it did so because when they were younger, their partner had AIDS, HIV and then AIDS and marijuana reduced some of their symptoms and they had to go buy it in the nearby park, which was a lot uglier of a place and a lot like it was sketchy. They got robbed a couple of times. There was a lot more violent crime and just kind of there are even in a place like San Francisco, which is so like gentrified in such a way. Like when you're talking with like,

especially the older members of the queer community, they're not just like rich out of touch tech people, they are old battle scarred queers who went through some of the ugliest moments of this nation's history, and we're kind of bracing themselves for it again. So yeah, I'm very interested to see what it's like this year, you know? But even that, I feel like there's a, I mean,

it's grim shit, but there's a kind of hope in it that like we've been, people have been here before, right? Like, you know, there have always been queer people, trans people, black and brown people, immigrants, like we are America, and like, we've always been here, baby, we're always gonna be here, and like, making are America. And like, we've always been here, baby, we're always gonna be here. And like, making our way and like, holding on, embracing ourselves and doing what we gotta do and enduring,

like, that is what we fucking do. And so in some ways, as grim as that is, it's kind of hopeful, question mark, also? Yep. I'm just on the edge of my seat. Yeah. I mean, it's certainly, you know, lots of people who I surround myself with are, you know, looking towards ways to take control of?

like their own bodies and stop relying like wholly on any kind of government government like agency or or model for that as well as doing a lot of a lot of reading on the old like a anti-deportation anti ice resistance from like years and years ago not just from like the Trump era anti-ice resistance from like years and years ago, not just from like the Trump era, but from like from the stuff like like way before. If we're not going to be out in the streets doing, you know, slightly mindless protest where you're marching in circles, you can use that time to instead like educate yourself and build connections with people and you know, read about these things that may become more and more important to know, at least so you have an understanding of history as the next four years start happening quite quickly.

That's so insightful. Yeah, I think when things feel hopeless, reading about how folks, you know, our elders, the folks who came before our ancestors, how they dealt with stuff like this has been really hopeful. And it's like, yeah, I guess I just try to tell myself, you've been here before and people found a way to make it through and, you know, it feels uniquely tragic, but in some ways it is not. And as scary as that is, it can also be sort of like grounding. Yeah, and like the same things won't work, but you also need to understand the things that didn't work last time. And it's good to know, and it's need to understand the things that didn't work last time.

And it's good to know the things that did. It's important to have that understanding so you don't feel like you're having to reinvent the wheel every single time. And that type of generational knowledge sometimes is really tricky to pass down in these sorts of spaces. And it doesn't. And sometimes it requires a degree of initiative to actually seek out that information on your own. The internet's great and terrible. And it sometimes requires a degree of initiative to actually seek out that information on your own. The internet's great and terrible. But it has a vast catalog of history. Yeah.

I want to talk a bit about the speech that that bishop gave at the Trump's first church service as president the second time around. Because that is of all of the fucking media people getting clapped at for making fun of, you know, whichever, you know, Hegseth or whoever. Yep. That I think actually did matter a little. At least it was the there was the courage of saying it to their faces in a way where their reactions were had to be filmed.

It's also it's also not trying to dunk. It's not trying to create like a viral moment. It's like genuinely upsetting to them to get like reminded of like what it means to be human. Yeah. And like maybe that's more important than trying to get your like Katie Porter top 10 funniest moments in Congress like a compilation. Exactly. Yeah. And to be very clear, if you didn't catch this, the right Reverend Mary Ann Budd, BUDDE, who was the Episcopal Bishop of Washington during a church service where Trump and Vance and basically everybody in the new government was sitting, made a direct plea. Quote from this from an NBC Washington article referencing Trump's belief that he was saved by God from assassination, Bud said, You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are

scared now. And then she referenced specifically transgender people, queer people, people in democratic families, independent families who were frightened right now about what the new administration means as well as migrants. And she made a point of saying like the vast majority of whom are not in any way criminals. And yeah, like, regardless of whether or not in any way criminals and we added like Regardless of whether or not they have the right paperwork. Yeah, there was rage on Vance's face Which is part of why I'm like that's an act of actual courage

There's been one Republican representative who said that she needed to be deported, but she's born in New Jersey Deported back to New Jersey. Yeah Representative Mike Collins of Georgia. So one of your guys, Gare. Oh, thanks, thanks. Gare, are you from Georgia? Well, no, but I live in Georgia. They live there now.

And as someone who lives in Georgia, the only people that I think should be deported back to New Jersey are the Costco guy and his kid. Get them out. Send them back now I do think I do think we should be deporting large numbers of people to New Jersey just because my old boss and friend Daniel O'Brien lives there and I want to fuck with him a little bit make the traffic worse like see how you deal with that Danny boy no it was like I think the most useful thing I've like I've seen yet yeah it's still like largely symbolic but like at least someone took a big public risk, you know Yeah, yeah courage. Yeah I think it's the writer Sarah Kendozer who has this line that I always think of if you can't be brave be kind

I think that like people who we see doing acts of big acts of bravery right now like that's I mean It's just there are so few of them and I think especially when I look at like the tech leaders, they have so much fucking money. Somebody said on Blue Sky, what is the point of having fuck you money if you never say fuck you to anybody, right? Like the way that these people turned out to be such yellow bellied cowards is wild to me.

And so people actually having conviction and actually speaking to power, I think we should be lifting that up wherever it happens. Yeah, I can think of like one tech guy with a lot of money who's turned out to have any kind of a backbone, and it's the guy who made that fire watching app that everyone in California is using right now, Watch Duty, who's basically had said stuff along the lines of like, I don't know, I see all these other guys who got rich in tech

talking about going to Mars, and I think it's much more useful to try to help people survive on Earth. Something along those lines and has made a critical, in tech talking about going to Mars and I think it's much more useful to try to help people survive on earth. Something along those lines and has made a critical like it is a critical life saving piece of technology that actually is what we should hope for from tech. You know, anyway, Bridget, what else did you want to kind of make sure we got into today? Well, this is going to sound a bit random, but I have to just make sure that this gets in there because I'm talking about the impact of Trump's inauguration and what the next

four years will look like for, not just for people nationally, but folks right here in DC where this is happening in our backyard. And I have to give it up for the service industry folks of DC the last couple of days because they- Oh my God. I have heard horror stories, and I just... I guess that's what I mean, is that don't forget that there are real people who have to like put up

with these people's bullshit and do it with a smile, or they might get fired. And you know, in Adams Morgan, which is like pretty close to where I live, a woman at an Irish bar had to be removed by a staffer because she was screaming white power at the bar. Like these people do not get paid enough to deal with this and they are like the backbone of our city.

So I just wanted to shout them out, especially since, you know, Trump switched up the inauguration because of the cold question mark. And so a lot more of these people were just sort of wandering around the district on inauguration who otherwise Would have been confined to like a very specific neighborhood downtown And so they were going into our bars going into our restaurants And yeah, I just really feel for my industry folks who had to deal with this You know, they're not paid enough, but they really are the backbone of our city. Hell. Yeah

You know I started this conversation talking about all of the horrible things that Trump has said about DC and how he's going to take it over federally. And like, you know, he said, like, we will take over the horribly run capital of our nation and Washington, clean it up and rebuild the capital so there's it's no longer a nightmare of murder and crime. But rather- It's that hell hole.

I know this like hell hole where like people live and raise their families and go to parks and ride bikes and have great times. Yeah. You know, I had a chance to talk to the mayor about this and I will say our mayor, Muriel Bowser is not convinced that any of this will happen. She is saying like, you know, I think that Trump says a lot of things. I think at the end of the day, he is probably not going to mess with DC's home rule. And so I just wanted to say that if you're if you're in DC and you're listening and you're thinking like, what does Trump, you know, mean for DC? Are all these big threats

that he has made going to come true? All I can tell you is that our mayor does not think it is likely. So if that is useful to you, I hope it brings you some comfort. Oddly enough, one thing that's given me comfort is like Trump has twice in the last day, both when talking about Gaza and when talking about North Korea, weirdly enough, gone under digressions about how good it is a place to build condos. And the degree to which he's still focused on like real estate deals as opposed to the broader fascist project is hopeful just just because he is a bottleneck through which a lot of this has to cover,

and he is clearly not as personally obsessed with every aspect of this as guys like Stephen Miller. Yes. Right, he even makes fun of Miller a little bit for that kind of stuff. So there's a degree to which, well, his own personal eccentricities, there's aspects of this it might slow down.

This motherfucker is not out here trying to genuinely govern. Like, come on. So in some ways that is heartening of like, oh, well, he's just going to like do his scams and whatever, whatever. Like, if he were to actually take over DC, that's an incredible amount of work and labor. And I don't think he's got it in him. So maybe in some ways, some of these threats will like fly under the radar. I don't know. Yeah, guess we'll see

Bridge it where could people find you? Well, you can listen to my podcast There are no girls on the internet about the intersection of identity and tech and you can follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie in DC all right find Bridget follow BridgetMarianDC. All right. Find Bridget, follow Bridget, and follow somebody smart. I don't know who they are. Figure that out. Good luck. Godspeed.

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