Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1160 | What Dismantling the Department of Education REALLY Means

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Today, we're discussing all things Department of Education — what it is, what it does, and what President Trump's executive order dismantling it means for both the department's own future as well as for you and your family. Secretary Linda McMahon is overseeing the downsizing of the department, but don't worry, school lunches, special education programs, and student loans aren't going anywhere. We also talk about soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo waiting for a "click" with his longtime girlfriend, Georgina Rodríguez, before he proposes to her. Never mind that they've been together for more than five years. Of course, this is only a symptom of a larger "forever girlfriend" trend we're seeing, and we don't like it. And lastly, we talk about the season finale of the show "Severance" and what it all really means. Share the Arrows 2025 is on October 11 in Dallas, Texas! Go to sharethearrows.com for tickets now! Buy Allie's new book, "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": https://a.co/d/4COtBxy --- Timecodes: (05:30) Dismantling the Department of Education (17:38) Fact checking media myths (22:22) History of the Department of Education (32:50) Department of Education goes woke (42:26) Cristiano Ronaldo and his forever girlfriend (49:15) Stay-at-home girlfriend trend (56:01) “Severance” season finale --- Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks - Experience the best coffee while supporting the pro-life movement with Seven Weeks Coffee; use code ALLIE at https://www.sevenweekscoffee.com to save up to 25% off your first order, plus your free limited edition Lent tote bag. Good Ranchers — Go to GoodRanchers.com and subscribe to any of their boxes (but preferably the Allie Beth Stuckey Box) and get free bacon, ground beef, seed oil free chicken nuggets, or salmon in every order for a year. Plus, you’ll get $40 off when you use my code ALLIE at checkout. Carly Jean Los Angeles — Go to https://www.carlyjeanlosangeles.com and use code ALLIEB to get 20% off your first CJLA order, site wide (one-time use only) and start filling your closet with timeless staple pieces. Patriot Mobile — go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE or call 972-PATRIOT and use promo code 'ALLIE' for a free month of service! --- Links: Sold a Story Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sold-a-story/id1649580473 --- Related Episodes: Ep 1159 | Nicole Shanahan on Christianity, Vaccines & the Lies of Leftism https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1159-nicole-shanahan-on-christianity-vaccines-the/id1359249098?i=1000700656721 Ep 990 | Taylor Swift’s Blasphemy & Title IX Betrayal | Guest: Kristen Waggoner https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-990-taylor-swifts-blasphemy-title-ix-betrayal-guest/id1359249098?i=1000653375778 Ep 734 | Teachers Unions Must be Stopped | Guest: Marissa Streit https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-734-teachers-unions-must-be-stopped-guest-marissa-streit/id1359249098?i=1000592498170 Ep 662 | Teachers Union Demands Anti-White Racism https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-662-teachers-union-demands-anti-white-racism/id1359249098?i=1000576402439 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

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mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819382. The Department of Education might be going away forever. And you're probably hearing a lot of scary things about that. But we are separating fact from fiction on that subject today, as well as telling Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend to run for her life. And we will explain why. Also, if you are a severance fan, wait till the end. Brea and I've got some different theories about the series and how it ended. And if you are not a severance fan, I'm just going to tell you, you probably don't want to stick around for that segment because it won't make any sense to you. Anyway, this episode of Relatable is brought to you by our friends of Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Code Alley. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. You guys are loving yesterday's conversation with Nicole Shanahan. If you have not watched that yet

on YouTube or Spotify or listened, wherever you listen to your podcast, I really encourage you to do so. She's such a vulnerable, sweet, honest person. I personally was very edified by her story and her admission that her mind has changed on really big things like abortion and like faith, the most important thing, the gospel of Jesus. And testimonies always buoy my own faith. And I know that her story. will do the same for you. And, you know, as I was listening to her revelations about different things, for example, when she tells that very meaningful, compelling story of going to a pregnancy center and realizing while she had been helping fund Planned Parenthood, helping women have access to

abortions, she had never actually looked at the other side of that choice, which is keeping the baby. And she hadn't actually supported women and making that life affirming choice and how God, through his grace, has just revealed this reality to her that was always right before her, but that she just didn't have eyes to see. And God does that for all of us in different ways in our road of sanctification. And it's so important for us to remember that not only in the lives of other people when we're listening to their testimonies, especially those of us who grew up in the church, you're a lifelong Christian, seeing other people who are either new to the faith or who aren't Christians yet and thinking like, how can you not see that?

How do you not know that? How do you not feel convicted by that? And while I think it's okay to think, yeah, there's right and wrong and everyone should be able to see that, we have to understand also that the Holy Spirit is going to do his job. He is going to bring the good work of faith to completion and that he is faithful to sanctify and to make holy God's people. And I thought about this analogy. The other day, I went into this shop. I'm trying not to reveal like too much information about like what it is and where it is. But I went into this shop and I said, okay, this must be new. Like, when was this built? And they said, 2008. I was like, okay, so this is not new at all. This is the first time that I'm seeing this and I literally drive by this place every day.

But this is the first time that I've needed to go into a place like this. And so I simply did not have eyes to see it until I was in this stage of life, in this stage of motherhood with my kids and the stage that they're in. this was the first time that this has been on my radar, but it's always been there. And it just reminded me that we don't have eyes to see things until we are in a place where we actually need to see them. And there are so many lessons, I think, that are applicable to that, whether we are talking about like our compassion and understanding for other people and not being able to see their perspective because we haven't been where they are. But also just like in our own spiritual journeys, I think sometimes we want to be able to see everything right now and understand where God is taking us, what things mean for all of our

wise to be answered right there, but it's simply not time or we haven't been given eyes to see yet. So we have to have faith in the Holy Spirit in our own lives and also in the lives of others and just pray earnestly for God to give us the wisdom to see the things he wants us to see, but also to have patience and peace with where we are in a lot of different ways. And so anyway, I was just thinking about all kinds of things as I was going back and watching yesterday's episode, just so much packed into that conversation that was very revelatory. So again, check it out if you haven't already. Okay.

today we're going to try to get to a few stories and then Bree and I at the end really want to talk about some TV, some lighthearted stuff. But first, I want to answer some questions that you guys have been sending me about the executive order to end the Department of Education because I know you guys have been seeing a lot of stuff out there, not even from like hard left sources, saying that dismantling the Department of Education is going to be disaster. especially for poor kids, especially for kids with special needs. And I am here to tell you that that is simply not the case, that the Department of Education has become a very bloated entity that is largely corrupt and has a relationship with teachers, unions that has led to, yes, more money out there that is supposed to be going to schools. But that money has not actually translated into any sort of students, uh, since the establishment of the Department of Education in 1979. So first, let's go through what this executive order actually is, because unsurprisingly, there's a lot of misinformation out there about what it even says. So last Thursday, President Trump signed this executive order. He was surrounded by schoolchildren at their little desks pretending to sign their own executive

order. It's really cute. It directs the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department and return education authority to the states. So here he is. Sought 1. I said, let's use that same pen. I don't know. Is anybody superstitious, Sean? Let's use that same pen. Okay. Very sweet. Here's the language from the executive order. The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of Department of Education and return authority over education.

to the states and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services programs and benefits on which Americans rely. Consistent with the Department of Education's authorities, the Secretary of Education shall ensure that the allocation of any federal Department of Education funds is subject to rigorous compliance with federal law and administration policy, including the requirement that any program or activity receiving federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label, quote, diversity, equity, and inclusion, or similar terms in programs promoting gender ideology. Okay, so your tax dollars, which are going to the federal government and then are being channeled

to the Department of Education, currently because of the progressive policy that has been put in place by this bureaucracy over the past several decades is funding programs at public schools that tell students that white people are on the side of the oppressor, will get into those specific programs, that black and brown kids are always on the side of the oppressed, that they need to be social, racial justice, activist, and are also promoting the idea that a boy or girl can be born in the wrong body. You might say that's not happening at your public school.

You might be right, although you might not be right. chances are you don't really know what's being taught to every student in every class at your public school. But even if it's not happening at your particular school yet, it is happening at schools across the country. If you've been listening to this podcast or really any conservative podcast for the past several years, you know this to be provably true. And again, we'll get into a couple examples of that in just a few minutes. Ultimately, the executive order reads the Department of Education's main functions can. and should return to the states.

It also cites the increased spending, the unaccountable bureaucracy, and the failing education scores as the reason for this policy action. And we will get into the specifics of that as well. So really two main directives in this executive order. Neither of them say the Department of Education is over. One, the Secretary of Education,

Lyndon McMan, will work toward closing the department. She is the, she's a former wrestling executive wife to WWE founder Vince McMahon. I watched the documentary on him. It was actually pretty sad and kind of interesting, but they've been friends with Trump's for a while. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, was co-chair of his 2024 transition team. Any remaining Department of Education funds will not advance DEI or gender ideology. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leave it told reporters, that the order wouldn't shudder the agency, but would greatly minimize it.

Also, Secretary McMahon would ensure that, you know, the benefits continue, but the student loans will no longer be managed by the Department of Education. Now, they're not going to be canceled. Some people are saying student loans are going to be canceled altogether. That's not true. They will be improved. the handling of them, Trump says, will be improved by transferring this program to the small business administration, which is headed up by Kelly Leflare from Georgia. So a day after he signed this executive order, President Trump announced that he would be moving that system to SBA. They will manage the student loan portfolio. So managing the loans, auditing for fraud, working with private lenders. He says, Trump's reasoning says, basically that the SBA is just going to be able to handle this process much better. He described it now as a mess.

He suggested that their portfolio with its lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans, is pretty complicated. So this is just like anything that is currently handled by federal bureaucracy. It is inefficient. It is ineffective. It is wrought with at least vulnerabilities for fraud. And so everything that is that Trump is taking over right now and that Doge has its hands on, they're trying to make it more efficient and more streamlined. So that's what's happening there. The goal is absolutely to dismantle the Department of Education.

And Trump has been very clear about that since 2015. He tweeted about it. He said, you know, Common Core is terrible. This is because of a federal takeover of education. and he has wanted to take this down for a long time. He's already done multiple executive orders, ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling, expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families

that directs federal agencies to prioritize federal funds to support school choice initiatives. And so this is part of why people voted for him to make sure that our education system is actually teaching. kids how to think and is not indoctrinating them with social justice ideology that is making them very stupid and I guarantee that is happening to some extent at every public school across the country. All right. So how could this actually happen? Will it actually happen? As I said, has to go through Congress. What would that process look like? What is the likelihood of that happening?

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There are only 53 Republicans, which means this is going to be, very tough to do because I guarantee you there will be zero Democrats, zero Democrats who want to get this done, even if they did agree with it, which I guarantee you they don't because the Department of Education, along with the teachers unions, they are progressive, they are supporting Democrat politicians, largely using your tax dollars. We'll get into this. Public unions should be illegal for that reason. But they don't want this. They don't want this to close down. They don't want to even shave off a little bit of bureaucracy because it helps them win election. So it's going to be very hard for this to be completely eradicated through Congress. Now Trump can continue to do what he's

doing. He can use Doge. He can use the leadership of Linda McMahon to try to delegate all of its current responsibilities to other agencies so that it dwindles so small and basically has no power whatsoever while still technically being there, like technically having a building. That's probably what he'll do because it's probably not going to pass Congress. Thomas Massey, Republican from Kentucky, he said that the Senate should use the budget reconciliation process to pass the measure and that would only require 51 votes. So if they have the gumption to do something like that, it could possibly get passed. I'm not sure if Republicans in Congress have the motivation and the courage to do that because I guarantee you there are Republicans. There are. There are Republicans in professing, you know, so-called conservatives who think this is the wrong move of whatever interest they have. There are some Republicans, unfortunately, who take money from the teachers unions and they will be against this. But we'll see, we'll see what Republicans in Congress can get done. And if they take.

Representative Massey up on his suggestion. So just separating some fact from fiction here, we'll go through some myths that we've been seen from the media and we'll clarify them. We'll fact-check them using a resource from our friends at the Heritage Foundation. So one myth that we see is that programs helping students with disabilities will end. And a lot of you have reached out to me about this, understandably upset because you have a child with special needs or maybe you're a special needs teacher. And unfortunately, private schools tend to not have the resources for special needs kids. Like I went to a Christian school growing up and there was some support for kids who maybe had ADD or ADHD, but there wasn't a special education department. That's just

very rare. I can think of one Christian school I know that really had. like pretty robust support for kids with autism and different kinds of learning differences. Most kids, most parents of kids with Down syndrome and other more serious learning differences have to go to public school. And so you're hearing from outlets that all of those programs are going to end. And that's understandably scary. But the truth is that the individuals with disabilities education act, which gives these kids a right to in education will remain in place. But the management of these programs will shift to the Department

of Health and Human Services. Again, this is an effort to get rid of the Democratic bloat is what I accidentally said, but just bureaucratic bloat is what I meant, but it's kind of the same thing. And to make this more efficient and to give more responsibility, more oversight to the state and local communities because that's, you know, really a conservative tenant. But the closer you are to the people that you're serving, the better you will do at actually serving them because you know their needs better. That's why we have the system that we do with representatives and senators and electoral college, why we don't just have a pure democracy and one big federal government like people like AOC would want. Another myth is that access to Pell Grants will end. So Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards given to undergraduate students to help.

help pay for higher education. They don't need to be repaid in eligibility hinges, or hinges, rather, on a variety of factors. Some people are saying, this is going to be over now. Well, that's not true. The Pell Grant program was created before the Department of Education. It's going to remain in place. But just like the whole student loan process and program, it's going to be shifted to the small business administration.

Another myth that you're seeing is that school meal programs will end. While this has nothing to do with the Department of Education, actually, this is already under the Department of Agriculture. And I will take every opportunity to remind people that the administration that threatened to take away school lunches from poor students at schools that received federal funding was the Biden administration who said, if you do not comply with our rewrite of Title IX, which says that you can. not discriminate in spaces according to so-called gender identity, meaning you have to allow boys

into girls' locker rooms and girls' bathrooms if they, quote, unquote, identify as a boy. If you do not comply with that school, we will take away your SNAP program and we will not give you free lunches and breakfast for your poor students. That's what the Biden administration did. That's what the Department of Agriculture under the directive of the Biden administration did. If you don't allow boys into girl spaces, we will take away food from poor children. Okay? That's verifiable. You can look it up yourself.

We've talked about it many, many times. So I don't want to hear anything from Democrats. Oh, taking away school lunches. One, it's not true under this executive order. And two, I didn't see a single one of you complaining about that when the Biden administration did it. Evil all around. Another myth, American education will suffer. Look, American education is suffering.

suffering. It's suffering. Has American education gotten better or worse since 1979 when the established? When the department was established, it's gotten worse by every metric. The Department of Education has not closed achievement gaps or made education spending more efficient, according to Heritage. And I would agree, students, teachers, and taxpayers are better served by ending this failed experiment. So why was the Department of Education even instituted? Congress created it in 1979 at the urging of President Jimmy Carter, who received a first-ever presidential endorsement from the country's largest teachers' unions shortly after pledging to the union, his support for a separate Department of Education. The Department now oversees education policy and administers funding for school programs and for individuals, like, you know, the loans.

The Department of Education spent $268 billion in fiscal year 2024. And some fun facts, taxpayers, that's you and me, we spent 200 billion extra dollars at the federal level on schools through the Department of Education during the COVID-19 pandemic. So this is combined allocations from the CARES Act and from the CRRSA Act and the American Rescue Plan. all of these pieces of legislation gave more funding to the education department, which is actually insane because as we'll talk about was the education department along with the teachers' unions that were pushing for school shutdowns. And yet they were saying, we need more money. We need more money, which is a pattern from the DOE and these teachers union. So that is on top of the more than $60 billion that the institution spends annually, that we spend annually on a federal school

funding. So has this translated into student betterment, higher student aptitude? Just if we look at over the past few years, okay, we've spent $260 billion over the past few years through the Department of Education on public schools. Well, today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows. This year, this is mentioned in Trump's executive order. This year's next. This year's National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that national scores are below pre-pandemic levels in all tested grades and subjects. Okay. So that is reading. That is math. That is science. When you look at every grade in public schools, they are doing worse than they were in 2019. Okay. Let's look at the bigger picture. Let's go back even further.

stats show increase in spending while student aptitude has decreased. So federal spending growth in 1979 when the DOE was established, its budget was approximately $14 billion. This equates to about $57 billion in today's dollars. By fiscal year 2024, the DOE's net spending reached $267.9 billion. Adjusted for inflation from 1980, this reflects a real increase of three. 371% since its inception. And maybe you're thinking, okay, well, we've got more people here. We've got a lot more people. We've got more public schools than we did. So we needed that increase in spending. Okay, well, how is it worked out? Per pupil federal spending has risen. So this is something that you hear a lot from the public school advocates, from the teachers unions, that we need more money. We need more money. We're not spending enough money. But per pupil federal spending has risen since 1980. 1980 federal contributions to K through 12 education were about $300 per pupil, okay?

Only $300 from our federal tax dollars by 2021 to 2022 federal funding per pupil hit approximately $3,171 per dollars per student. Okay, so we're not just talking about an increase in population. And so we're spending about the same amount, even adjusted for inflation per student. with more students. No, we are spending a lot more per student on a lot more students. So how has it worked out for us as we have increased our tax spending? The National Assessment of Educational Progress provides this kind of long-term data for student performance. So we'll get into those stats to look at just exactly how we are doing thanks to the Department of Education and our tax dollars

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Math scores for the same group actually fell from 304 in 1973 to 300 in 2019. And also, like, I would say that it's probably worse than that, that the standards and the testing and the questions have actually changed. since 1979. The standards just aren't as rigorous as they used to be. The 2022 in AEP results showed sharper declines. So it kind of looked like it was a little bit steady in 2019, but man, we've taken a huge dip after COVID. The 2022 results show that fourth grade reading scores fell from 219 to 21% of fourth graders were reading proficiently. Only 40% of fourth graders were reading proficiently. Only 40% of fourth graders were proficient in math in the 2002 assessment. In lower performing fourth and eighth graders posted the worst reading scores in over 30 years.

For 13-year-olds, 2003 in AEP scores dropped to 256 in reading, down four points since 1971, and 269 in math, down five points since 1973, reverting to levels last seen in the 1970. or earlier per NCES, 2003 reports. ACT scores hit a 30 year low in 20203, averaging a 19.5 out of 36. I'm not trying to be offensive, but 19.5 on the ACT is a very low score. It's a very low score. For that to be the average score of the ACT right now means that we got problems. We got problems. And it's not, I'm not trying to say that a student is inherently dumb or does not have the capacity to be better. And I don't think that standardized tests or the end all be all for measuring someone's IQ or aptitude, but it is an indicator. And 19.5 is low for ACTs. It means something is wrong. And the fact that we have not seen increases in all of these metrics, but we've actually seen dips.

In these metrics, despite the fact that we are spending so much more per pupil than we were in 1979, means that there's a big problem. I really encourage everyone to go read or, sorry, listen to. I think you actually can read the transcripts, but listen to Sold a Story. It's a podcast that I listened to a couple years ago. The facts are actually a lot worse than the ones that I just read. 80 percent, I believe. and you can go listen to it and fact check me, but it's about 80% of black fourth graders specifically right now cannot read.

Can't? Did you know that there are eighth graders, ninth, tenth, tenth, twelfth, twelfth graders in this country who read at a kindergarten level? It was, what was that stat, the Baltimore school from a couple years ago. I remember Fox News reported on this, that it was something like 85% of the graduating class. could not read or do math at a middle school level. Okay, so our requirements have changed. Our rigor has changed.

Aptitude has lowered. And yet we are spending more and more money. So what in the world is happening? Well, we are replacing time spent in math and reading, teaching the building blocks of education and critical thinking. with progressivism. Christopher Rufo reported, he reports on a lot of this. The Department of Education was caught funding a teacher training program

implying that babies are racist. And so this is a program. It looks like it was published in 2019. Again, through the Department of Education, did you know, racial awareness in the early years, talks about at three months, at nine months, at two years, at three years, at five years. and talking about how basically at young ages, kids show racial preferences that they can actually be racist and that that is something that needs to be trained out at school. So this is a government funded, Department of Education funded program for teachers that they are learning how to basically weed out or try to get out the so-called supposed racial biases in the five-year-olds that they might be.

teaching in pre-K. The Department of Education granted a $25 million grant to the National Comprehensive Center. This is a program under the DOE designed to enhance instruction quality and close achievement gaps. The Comprehensive Center argues that teacher evaluations and standards are weaponized against teachers of color because the standards use terms like professionalism and communicates in appropriate ways urging that appropriate only means white ways of expression. In one training, the Comprehensive Center instructed teachers to flick that white man off your shoulder to resist settler patriarchy and the white gaze. Here's top four. Teacher evaluation tools are being weaponized and they're in particular being

weaponized against teachers of color. And the way that they're being weaponized. weaponized is through the language of professionalism. For example, I'll give you a concrete example. The use of terminology such as communicates in appropriate ways. Who gets to decide what is appropriate? And that's typically white ways of expression. Okay. So this is a center, again, a program funded by the Department of Education that is supposed to be training teachers. Of course, the Department of Education over the years has shown itself to be very progressive. We've got this one post on formerly known as Twitter from the Department of Education, a happy pride month. It's got the transgender flag on there. Everyone, no matter who they are, whom they love has an

equal place in our democracy, LGBTQI plus. Youth deserve an education free from discrimination and harassment. That means that you need to allow. boys into girls' bathrooms. I mean, there's no reason for a department of education to be promoting this kind of thing. What, like, why would it have any say whatsoever on a child's preference for a certain gender or like their so-called sexual orientation or their sexual desires or what they think about the validity of their genitalia? I mean, they don't, they shouldn't have anything to do with this.

kind of backwards ideology, especially when you're talking about minors. It's freaking weird and creepy. Also, they posted in 2023, we celebrate and honor the qualities that make us unique, stronger, and richer education experience for all. Pride is about inclusivity and diversity, they said. And then, of course, in COVID, you'll remember that we spent $200 billion extra on COVID during that time period through various pieces of legislation. And, And it was the DOE that said in 2021 that we could only see one student per row, that we need to maintain the correct use of masks that also inhibited learning during COVID. They pushed the COVID vaccine on kids in 2022.

They pushed the booster for kids in 2022. And remember, all of those extra billions of dollars sent to the department. Department of Education and they were pushing COVID propaganda. Now, just a little bit about the teachers unions. I've talked about the teachers unions a lot. They are corrupt entities and they contribute to the bureaucratic bloat that is in not just the Department of Education, but also the public schools in general, individual public schools. Your school probably gets, except if you're in some rural areas, probably gets a lot of, lot of money that is not actually translating into student success is also not translating into

raising your salary as a teacher. But you've probably noticed that there are a lot more administrators than there used to be. This is called a bureaucracy and it gives the teachers unions more power. It gives the administrative bloat more power, but it doesn't actually help a school run more efficiently or spend your tax dollars more effectively. The National Education Association, the largest labor union, the American Federation of Teachers, have lobbied the Department of Education to continuously increase federal spending on education. The centralized nature of the DOE allows unions a central place where they can advocate for programs that benefit themselves, hire more staff, increase their own membership.

For example, increasing federal two spending allows the unions to advocate for hiring more staff, giving them more members, that gives them more money. They get paid. The union leaders get paid more because of that. The DOE distributed $190 billion in COVID relief funds with unions like the NAA reportedly influencing guidelines to favor hiring unionized staff over non-union contractors. emails uncovered in 2022 showed that the American Federation of Teachers leaders directly shaped CDC guidance through DOE contacts, pushing to delay reopenings, and therefore keeping teachers on paid leave longer rather than prioritizing students. So the two big teachers unions are notorious for funding Democrats and liberal causes.

In the 2024 presidential election cycle, NIA, gave three. 3.2 million dollars to Democrats, 29.2 million dollars to liberal groups. The AFT gave $2.8 million to Democrats and $4.4 million to liberal groups. So they are donating to Democrats using your tax dollars through programs, through support that they are getting through the Department of Education. So your tax dollars are funding progressive groups and liberal campaigns through the teachers' unions.

through the Department of Education. And that is true of all different kinds of parts of the federal bureaucracy, which is exactly why Democrats do not like Elon Musk. That is why they are saying nothing about the terrorism against Tesla owners and Tesla dealerships. They don't like Elon Musk because they don't want the bloat and the corrupt racket that they've got going on to end. It is how their campaigns are funded. It's how they stay in power. USAID and the Department of Education are two of the biggest perpetrators of this very corrupt

relationship that is going on that you are funding with your tax dollars. So I think that this is all excellent. I'm glad that this is happening. I want education to improve in the United States. I think a great first step is for education to go to the states, to go to local communities. And honestly, I have not heard a good argument against that. all right um so i hope that at least answered some of your questions about that there's a lot more we could discuss but we got to get into a couple other things next sponsor for the day is carly jean

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Right now, if you use my code AllieB at Carlyjean, Los Angeles.com, you get 20% off their entire site if it's your first order. Carlyjean, Los Angeles.com, code Allie B. Okay, let's talk about this video that I saw going around on X, and it's Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer player, if you don't know. And his girlfriend. So they have a Netflix documentary right now on Cristiano Ronaldo. And there's a video that has gone viral of him being interviewed with his longtime girlfriend. And the interviewer asks, like, when are you going to get married?

They've got kids together. They've been together forever. And here is his response, SOT 7. They're with the bromita of the boda and the boda pa when? In what moment, Jennifer Lopez, I've got that song, of The Anioulai, that,

I've been been to be and it's something that it's a thing. When I do the click,

as it has been many things in our life, you know, what I'm referring, that can

be a year, as it's a month, as it's a single percent, that

that will be sure, that's I have no idea what she said. I'm not given anything

about what she said. I don't know what she said. But he said, I always tell her when we get that click. That is the answer that he has, that he has for the reporter who asks, so like, when are you going to get married, y'all have been committed to each other for so long? He says, when we get that click, like everything in our life, and she knows what I'm talking about.

It could be in a year. It could be in six months or it could be in a month. I'm a thousand percent sure that it will happen. Let me break it to you. Spoiler alert. It's not going to happen. Girl, why? He is getting the milk for free. He's getting the cheese. He's getting the cream. He's getting the ice cream. He's getting everything that you can get from milk for absolutely free. There is no reason for him to

buy the cow. And also, so this took us into kind of like a rabbit hole of Ronaldo and who he is. And he's actually kind of just like a strange guy. He has multiple kids from different women, but we don't know who the women are because he used surrogates to get these women, or to get these women, to get these children. And his current girlfriend is not the mother of all of his children, even though they've been together for a long time, even through the births of some of these children. Okay, so they've been together since 2017. I think I said they've been together for 10 years, but I guess it's only been eight years.

They met at a Gucci store where she worked. Rinaldo had twins, Eva Murillo and Mateo, who were born on June 8th, 2017. Okay? Via surrogacy in California, again, we do not know who the mother is. It's not her. This is through a surrogate. So he maybe he actually was with the woman that he created these children with and they are her eggs, but it could also be just an egg seller.

So he bought these eggs. He rented this womb because he wanted. children, even though he wasn't with anyone. Rodriguez, his current girlfriend, says that she has taken on the mom role for all of the kids. Because, Bree, you said that he had other kids before 2017, too. I don't see that on here. Yeah, it's under the family structure section. He only has one.

He has one other kid. Yep. From 2010. From 2010, he doesn't have any kids with his current girlfriend. He does have one now. Or actually, they have two. They had a child in 2017 right after they got together. And then they had twins and one of them passed away.

Okay. So he has twins and one other child with his current girlfriend naturally. Like she gave birth to them, but through different surrogates, supposedly different surrogates, definitely at least one surrogate. He had twins in 2017 as well. And he has a 15-year-old son that he has. had via surrogate in 2010. Yeah. If I'm understanding things correctly, yes. And she says, his current girlfriend says, yeah, I basically have become their mom, but he says that's not true. Well, he hasn't said that's not true, but every time he talks about it, he calls himself a single parent. So in effect,

yeah, he's saying he's the parent. She's not. So, yeah. Okay. And he has said that he's not going to share the identity of his first son's mother. He might, when the time feels right, I guess it's got a click again. It's just got a click. And that him being a single parent is not a problem. He said in the world, many kids don't have a mom, don't have dads or dads die or moms die. Cristiano, that's his son's name, has a dad.

An unbelief, wait, is he saying that? He's talking about himself? Yeah. An unbelievable dad? Yes. Okay. I'm going to write myself a Mother's Day card this year to my kids. You have an unbelievable mom from me.

You're welcome. An unbelievable dad, a grandfather, a grandmother. I have the support of my family. So when he calls himself a single dad, Bree, like, do you think that he was the one, like, changing the diapers, taking him to play dates and things like that? When he's a single dad, what do you think he means? Yeah. It's hard to imagine that he, a professional soccer player, has time to be doing things like that for multiple kids.

Yeah. So I think he loves taking the credit. But it is kind of weird that he has like taken the initiative to have more kids seemingly without a partner just himself. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure he has tons of help. Yeah. And they're raising kids.

Right. It's, and it's very strange to basically say, also, he doesn't need a mom. He doesn't need a mom. Well, that's just really sad. I guarantee you there are some serious issues there. Everyone has a mom. It's just a matter if you know your mom or not, and motherlessness or fatherlessness is supposed to be a tragedy.

It's not something that we should purposely contrive, as you guys have heard me talk about many times when it comes to surrogacy. And just again, for the record, I'm not just against surrogacy. when it comes to same-sex couples. I am against sperm and egg selling and surrogacy for all different people because it creates a broken situation. Adoption redeems a situation that already exists. It solves the problem. But surrogacy, sperm, egg selling, all of this, it creates the broken situation.

It creates the problem. So he obviously he's got a history there. He's got some problematic, sexual ethics, reproductive ethics, but also when it comes to his relationships. And you know, this is kind of like a trend that's been talked about, the forever girlfriends or the stay-at-home girlfriends. We talked about it at the time when we saw this going on on TikTok. But here is a video that went viral on TikTok that shows that this is something, I guess, this is a subset of social media where girls are bragging about being stay-at-home girlfriends. It's sot eight. This is my day in the life as a stay-at-home girlfriend.

The first thing I do is take my aloe shot. I love having this on an empty stomach. And I take my greens. Then I get straight to making Luke's coffee because he's definitely a caffeine. First thing in the morning kind of guy. I am adding some honey and cream. And I made these cookies yesterday. So I'm going to give him a couple of those to eat with his coffee.

Then I love to open all the blinds in the house. and get all the sunlight I can and make the bed, of course, to keep the house tidy and looking its best. Okay, so he's got a maid, he's got a cook, he's got someone that will sleep with him, and he does not have to commit. Marriage is more than just a piece of paper. It is not just a commitment.

It's not just a contract. It is supposed to be a covenant. It's supposed to be really difficult to get out of for a reason. You're supposed to be bonded not only for your sake, but also for the sake of the children that marriage is supposed to in principle create. This is disordered and it leaves this woman in particular, especially if she does not have a job extremely vulnerable. Girl, what you are doing is preparing him for his wife. And look, guys love to work hard for things. You give them a goal.

They want to go after it. They want to be able to sacrifice. They want to be able to prove that they have enduring. they have perseverance, that they are strong, brave, courageous, all of that. If you give them everything they want easily and they have nothing to pursue, they eventually lose interest. I'm talking, of course, like pre-marriage. After that, he's still motivated by the drive and the journey and the challenge of providing

and protecting his family. But before that, the pursuit is extremely important for a man. God wired them, and if you are giving them everything, then you are undermining his instinctive and inherent need to chase after something in a healthy and respectful way, of course. Here's what I would tell someone if they were in this position. I would tell them that you are worth committing to. And if he wanted to commit to you, he would. And he would have already done it.

Now, maybe there are some extenuating situations and exceptions out there where you're not getting married or not getting engaged right away, but there's never an excuse to live with a man like this. There is never an excuse to play house and to play marriage and to be his stay-at-home girlfriend and take everything special away from marriage before you even get there. and to dismiss the need for commitment and for sacrifice by simply so easily and cheaply giving over your body and your time and your energy and your talent to a man who does not love you enough to really commit. This is what I would say to Cristiano's girlfriend too. And I think a lot of guys or a lot of girls rather think, well, if I leave him, I will never find someone else. I can't do better than this. And what if I never do? What if I stay single forever? And I would say, first of all, there probably is someone out there better. There just probably is. There probably is a man out there who would pursue you and who would commit to you and would make sacrifices for you and who would

honor you. But even if there's not, it is better. It would be better to be single than this. at least you would be single and be able to preserve some self-respect instead of constantly worrying and thinking, is he ever going to see me as good enough? And just the anxiety that comes with wondering if you are ever going to be what clicks for him. And what is it? What is it about me? What is it that I'm not doing that is making him scared or not want? to be exclusively committed to me for a life.

And you don't deserve that kind of anxiety and that kind of worry and fear forever. There's so much solace that comes with covenantal marriage. And that is why God, that's part of why God created it. And just from a Christian perspective, it is only man, woman, and marriage that can reflect the spiritual eternal reality of Christ in the church, girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, they don't do that. God cares about your heart. He cares about your body. He cares about your soul. He cares about your mind. He created marriage as a safe space for all of those things. That's how it's supposed to be. And going outside of those parameters is always going to have consequences. Namely, it's going to break your

heart and hurt your body. So just keep that in mind. You need better than that, girl. Need better than that. All right. Let me tell you about our next sponsor and then Brie and I will do some quick severance talk. All right. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. They offer a way to vote with your wallet. Remember when I said that you don't have to wait to vote America first every four years. You can do that every time you spend money. You do that every time you switch to a company that actually shares your values. Patriot Mobile is a company that shares your values. They are supporting the First and Second Amendment, the sanctity of life are veterans and first responders. Their customer service team is all 100 percent.

America-based. So they make switching super easy, very simple. You don't have to compromise at all. When it comes to the quality of your service, they still use the major carriers. And so no worries on that. You can keep your phone. You can upgrade your phone. Right now when you use my link, Patriotmobile.com slash alley, you can get a free month of service with my code alley. Patriotmobile.com slash alley code alley. Okay, so our fellow severance watcher, Nate is not here. We have a substitute for Nate. And is it because, is it specifically because he didn't want to hear spoilers? It might be. Because I respect that. I told him, I told him, please finish by Tuesday. That was his homework assignment. And he said, I'll try my best. And he may not have. He may not have. So he's our wonderful camera operator. And he and his, he and his wife. He and his wife. I think are behind us. And I was sincerely worried when I knew we were going to talk about this

that we would spoil up for him. We would have made him go out of the room or something because I don't like spoilers. Okay. So I'm warning all of you out there. If you have not watched Safferance, there will be spoilers here. If, you know, not everyone in here can go out of the room because then we wouldn't be able to do it. But some of you might, if you want to avoid the spoilers. Let's do a disclaimer. Let's do a disclaimer. Just like you give your disclaimer when you listen to Taylor Swift. We do not endorse all of the themes or all of the content of severance. Of course, I'll just give a warning. There are like there's one like gay relationship that you don't really even like see very much of, but it's just there. It's part of the plot, which they could

have definitely done without. Burke could have been a woman. Yes. There is a couple sex scenes. But again, like for TV these days very mild. And like I always fast forward through those. I just even if I wasn't morally against that, I find it really uncomfortable. And there's cussing. There's yeah. And there's I would say some demonic themes. Would you say?

Yes, there are. Yeah. Did you notice? I mean, this is kind of just like all over the place. We're just shooting front of the hip here. But there's like definitely Baphomet. Yes. symbolism. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, there was so much speculation, and again, we're jumping

around, but, you know, the goat scene in the last episode, there was so much speculation about what the goats were for and people were coming up with all these theories. And I saw a tweet after the finale that was like, oh, so it literally was just goat sacrifice. Yeah. I think they were probably trying to implant one of those chips that had like a human mind in it or something into a goat. There's probably some weird experiment, but it did look. like they were just sacrificing the goat for religious reasons. Well, yeah, because that's basically what Mr. Drummond said. Yeah. When she said, you know, how many of these am I going to have to sacrifice? And he said as many as, I don't know if he said the board or the leadership as many as

they want. I thought she was going to shoot him right then. Yeah. By the way. Yeah. And that's not actually what happened. Okay. Let's talk about the goat people for a second. I didn't know what direction we were going to go, and we could talk about this for probably hours and hours. So the whole time we're trying to figure out what the goats are. And I thought actually that this was just going to be a random thing that they never followed up on just to like kind of make us wonder. The goat people, who do you think the goat people are?

Because they are strange and very different than macro data refinement. Well, my thinking was always just that like these innies are essentially like born. They have some knowledge of how to be an adult, I guess, but they're essentially born when they are like created. And I feel like the goat people are weird because all they know is taking care of goats. And probably some of them only like are hanging out with goats. So I never thought that much about that. Yeah. Like why they're so weird other than maybe that's just how.

their inies were like taught to be. Yeah. And they're all just kind of a product of their environment and training and all of that. Okay. This is probably thinking too far. I don't have you listened to any of the Severance podcast. A little bit. Yeah. I've listened to some of the episodes and it doesn't really like give anything away. So after I listened to it, I was like, oh, maybe we're thinking too hard about this. But I do have a question about if any of these people were dead and were revived. And because I would say some of the goat people looked like they had been buried for a long time

and had been brought back to life. It almost looked like they were from a different era. Now, I think your theory could totally be it too, kind of like Dwight and his brother. Like they kind of look like that because they lived on a beet farm in the office. So like they, it could just be that. But I did think are these people basically like,

dug up from cemetery and revived to do this job. I don't know what you think about that, but that also leads to my question about Gemma and who she really is and what happened to her to get her inside. Yeah, because there were theories. There were lots of theories that Gemma did die and they just took her body and created Miss Casey out of her. And now we have more answers.

What's the answer? What's more answer? Well, we have more answers in that we know that the person, personhood of Gemma still exists because she recognizes Mark in the finale. Yeah. But yeah, we don't know if that's, you know, the exact same person or if something weird and nefarious was going on with her body. We still don't know that for certain, I guess.

I think it's safe to assume they faked her death and just kidnapped her and had her down there. But, yeah, I guess we don't really know, no. We don't know. But there's one comment. Now, we don't know how much she knows. So the lady, I forget her name that was helping reintegrate Mark. Oh, yeah.

I forget her name too, but yeah. She made a comment when they were like they were in the basement and he like looked at her remains, Jimma's remains or what he thought were Jimma's remains. And she said, is that her? And he was like, yeah, I think so or I thought so. And then he was trying to ask like, how would they have gotten Gemma? And she said they know people at the morgue. Now, I don't know if she knows that for sure or if she's just saying that because that's the interesting storyline to me.

Are they reviving people? Are they reviving people giving them new consciences? Is that Cold Harbor? Like, is that the project of, because I still haven't totally figured out like what they were trying to accomplish and what they felt like was so new for humanity for Gemma? And what's weird also is when James Egan, the father, when he comes down and he sees Heli sitting there. And he, weirdest interaction.

And he goes, I don't love my daughter, Helena, but I don't see Keir in her, but I see Keir in you. And it makes me wonder if their whole goal is to create Keir,

the person, create his consciousness again and like implant him into an actual person so he can live forever, essentially, if he's their religious figure. I don't know if they'll go down that route. But I feel like it's clear that they're going to use Hellie as like now the test subject for things because they see Kieran her.

Yeah. She seems like the new person. I'm curious what you think about the ending and what you think about Mark S making the decision that he made because it's very contentious online. Okay. Can I tell you what I hated and I thought was so I loved this show and that the acting was so good. I just felt like just from amateur perspective, like the directing was so good. Everything was amazing. And I thought it was so sloppy and so rushed when they did the camcorder thing.

I thought the camcorder thing was so cheesy and lame. Like I don't know how else they could have done that. And we did find out some important information. Any outy mark or, you know, communicating there. It went on too long. I thought it was so lame. And of course I'm not at any mark at the end of it. because Audi Mark made his like home run argument when he was like, whatever you feel for Hellie, multiply that by thousands.

And that's what I feel for Gemma. So you can see why I have to get her out. And like any Mark is like, no. I don't get that. I totally disagree. What you love to the campwater scene? Yes. I disagree about that.

And I disagree. I'm not mad at what he did at the end. Oh! I know. I know. Okay, so the camcorder scene, I thought, was really interesting just artistically, if I may, because blue, the blue coloring on Audi mark and the red coloring on Eni mark, I just thought was really interesting. The fact that it's on a camcorder, because everything in Keertown or whatever it's called is like old. Old.

Everything. Even the outside world, which we don't have answers for yet as to why. That's a very, that's like, I feel like you see that a lot. You even see that a little bit in like stranger things. And like there are different shows that do that. I feel like it's just creepy. Yeah, but those shows, most of those shows are like set in the 80s. But I feel like and maybe someone out there can remember, I feel like there are shows that have done this kind of thing before where it's hard to tell what era they're in.

Oh, yeah. True. True. I think this is one though where they very intentionally are dating it. They're not trying to leave it ambiguous. They're like, this is not in 2024. Where we're setting it. Yeah.

All the cars are old. All the technology within Lumen is like old. But they don't match decades. Like they've, some people have smartphones. Some people have flip phones. The cars are from the 1950s, the 1970s, the 1980s. Yeah.

The hair, the styles. Huh? Have we seen a smartphone? Mark and his sister are going back and forth on a smartphone. But they also have flip phones that are work phones. Yeah. And all of the style is you could see it as 70s, but you could also see it as current. Like, Heli's clothes are current.

Sure. And their suits are current. Mark's hair might be 70s. I think it is purposely very ambiguous. Ambiguous. See, I felt like that on the inside that they purposely made it ambiguous. Maybe it's on both, though. But I forgot what I was saying now.

Sorry. Why we brought that up to begin with. But. Well, the end. Like, you like. Yeah. Okay. I like the camcorder scene. Just because I thought it gave a good, it was such good tension with him himself and him realizing, oh, maybe I can't trust this person who has enslaved me, even though he is apologizing. I thought it was great. But the ending, I get it. I get it. I thought it was like a really romantic ending because a lot of people are saying, well, he should have just sacrificed himself for his Audi. Why would he do that? He has the idea of his own personhood that is separate from this person he knows nothing about other than that they share a body on the outside. And he went to all the trouble of saving his wife. And then he chooses

to spend as much time as he can with the person that he loves because he doesn't see himself as outy mark. He sees himself as any mark. So I don't think he's doing something, I mean, he's doing something selfish in that he's doing something for himself. But he doesn't have any obligation in my mind to sacrifice himself for his Audi. Okay. It's not, I just, I don't think that artistically it was the wrong choice. It makes it interesting because now I think Gemma is going to want to rescue Mark. Real Mark, because real Mark, it's not just any Audi Mark.

It's real Mark versus not real Mark. Because any Mark, it doesn't have a real life. He doesn't have a real life. It is not real. Like his, like his memory spanned back to being on the conference room table. Like he, anything that is real about Mark is borrowed from his Audi. And the Audi is real and is in like covenant of marriage with like a real person who was actually born. And I understand that Mark doesn't know any Mark doesn't know that and can't comprehend that.

But there was a moment that Heli said, because I understood this and I sympathized with this when he He was like, I don't even want to finish Cold Harbor because I know what we have to do. Yeah. And he's like, I don't want to go out there. I want to stay here with you, which I thought was sweet. And I understood. And Hellie said, but I'm her. She understood that.

She said, but I'm her. I'm Helena Egan. Okay? Yeah. And he got it. He was like, okay, this is hard for me to understand, but I get it. Because that is true. That's the whole thing.

She understood in that moment. I'm her. I'm an Egan. I'm not just anyone. like I am an Egan and you can't love me. And we can't love each other and we can't be together. And we have no meaning. He understood it then.

Now, what I didn't understand is after the marching band came, why they stood around like, for five minutes. You just had a whole plan of how you had to sprint to go get Gemma. And so you finally did. Him and Gemma, they get together. It's beautiful. She, as her inny, is trusting enough to be like, okay, I don't fully get this because I have this conscious, conscious over here, but I'm going to like go to Mark. They're so excited.

They're so together. He gets there, even knowing that Heli is Helena, he still is like, he knows it. He does know it. He might not be able to feel it, but he knows it. He's still like, and he knows because he's integrated. So he knows that that is his wife. He at least has a some understanding that like, wow, they had a real marriage and a real relationship in all of these things. And he still says no. He still says no to that. Knowing what he knows. And he goes to Hellie, where the heck are they running? No one knows. Where are you running? Are you running back to Mr. Milchick? Are you running back to Dylan? Where are you going? Where are you running to? I don't think that's the point, though, because I think what you said artistically, I think it's really beautiful because

because what he's communicating is I don't care if it's 10 minutes and then they shove me in an elevator. But why are you running? Why don't they just stand there? Yeah. Well, I don't know. I don't know why they went and ran down the hallway. I don't know where they're going. But I think he probably understands I'm not going to stay down here forever because obviously somehow my, someone's going to put me in an elevator and I'm going to become outie mark.

And he will choose to never come back here. So I think it's just- You don't think he knows they were never going to let him out again? They're never going to let him out. You don't think they're ever going to let him out again? No. I mean, Drummond was about to kill him. Exactly.

And I think it's just like they're going to let her out. Yeah. Because she's an Egan. They're not going to let him out. Maybe not. Because he's going to become like Miss Casey now. Oh, and be tested. Yeah.

Because they never finished Cold Harbor. Maybe. That's what I think. I don't know. And she. She looked back at Miss Casey and I thought it was a glare. I did two at first. The actress who plays her was like, oh, no, she had empathy for her for the first time.

And I'm like, you didn't convey that at all. I thought that too. And when I saw her make that face, I was like, oh, is she Helena right now? Me too. Maybe you're supposed to. And Ben Stiller immediately was like, yeah, there could be different interpretations for that on the podcast. Because I don't even know. It's funny how like the actors don't even necessarily.

know for sure what is being conveyed. Yeah. Okay, one more thing. This could go on and on. This kept me up. Irving. What do you think happened to Irving?

I have my own theory. And what do you think was going on with him? Like why he actually knew some of the stuff that was going on in Lumen? Yeah. I have no idea. I have no idea. I guess we'll figure that out in the next season. seasons because he's not gone forever. I do not think he's gone forever. People love him too much.

Really? Yeah, I don't think that they would do that. I don't know. I don't know what your theory is. I took it pretty much as like he got away for a while, but he's probably going to come back. And I think Bert was probably being generous in allowing him to escape. That's that's your theory? Yeah. Okay, I love that we like land in totally different places. My theory. is that he was a goon. Yeah. And because that's what Audi Irving thought and knew somehow. We don't totally know how.

I think that Lumen knew that Irving knew things. And that Burt, the interaction between O&D, their romance all along was planted. and that they knew from the very beginning that this is how they were going to coax him into this, basically being taken out to pasture. Because you know, remember Irving, he kept on falling asleep. And when he would fall asleep, he would see really scary stuff like black lava. And obviously his Audi was painting this thing. So they knew that he knew things. So they had to take him out somehow.

And I think that he was 100% right when he knew that Bert was a goon, a henchman for Lumen. And would, because he's like what he had written down that Bert read was like he drives them places, but like we don't know. And then he literally says, okay, will you take a ride with me? And Irving is like, oh, sure. I know that none of that stuff is true about you anymore. I'll take a ride with you. completely unrelated, right? Yeah. So they take a ride. He doesn't know where they're going. They go to this mysterious train station. He gets in a train all by himself goes away and is like la-di-da. He is convinced by Bert until the very end. It's kind. It's kind. You're like, oh, you're just taking a nap. It's really sad. And Bert is like, wow, you're being so generous and kind. You're sending me off somewhere because we can't ever be in love. And Bert is like, no, this is my job. I'm paid by Lumen to make their problems go away. And he was a problem that went away.

Okay, but hear me out if they had already known. Because we see that scene when he's at Byrd's house for dinner. Yeah. I think it's Drummond goes into Irving's apartment. Oh, I don't think it's Drummond. Oh, so then some Lumen guy. Yeah. I was assuming it was someone from Lumen.

The guy who is behind Mark's computer. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He goes in and he sees all the stuff. I don't know if they knew before that. But if they did know before that, it'd be pretty easy to take someone out.

like that. You would fire him and then just kill him. So I don't know that they would have to go through all of that. That's like so much to go through to set all of that up to like catch him. And I feel like Bert saying let's go for a drive was a misdirect. I feel like they wanted the audience to be like, uh-oh, that he's about to take him out and then he decides not to. That's what I think. Because I don't think they can get rid of him. I also don't think they would write the only gay characters to be evil. I just don't think that they would do that from a TV writing strategy. I think they would. I think that, I mean, they made Mr. Milchick likable but evil. Yes. They made women likable but evil. I think they, I don't think they really care about that. I don't think Irvine is evil. No. Irving is the likable one.

I think that they can make Bert evil. I mean, Bert literally says in the ride to the train station, We're very boring people by now. Like in the ride to the train station. Yeah, I would drive people places, but I never hurt them. I didn't know what happened when I drove them places. And then he does that for Irving. That doesn't mean necessarily Irvine is gone forever. But Irving didn't become a really big problem until he tried to drown Helena.

Right. And that could have been when they were like, okay, we thought we could tolerate it. But now got to get him out. That's true, because that is when they fired him. And when Bert showed up, right? Well, in Audi, Audi world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know.

Maybe that's true. I just, people love them and people like really loved their relationship. And so I... Bert and Irving? Yeah, I know. People really liked it, though, and they were shipping them. And so I have a feeling that the intention was to make that like a, oh, I don't really know what happened. But this is going to be romantic anyway kind of situation.

And I'm not saying that I love that. for the narrative. I think your theory is probably better for the narrative and more interesting, but I feel like maybe that's what they were going for. I don't know. I don't know. And some people also think that Helly at the end was Helena. And I don't. I think she was Helly. Yep. She was helly, I think. And yeah, I don't know. There's still so many questions. So much that was not answered. So we'll see. I guess in a year. Yeah. Thankfully not, hopefully not like three years. There's not another writer's strike. All right.

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