Some More News - Even More News: It's Constitutional Crisis Time, Baby!

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Hi. Katy, Cody, and Jonathan are here to break down the showdown between the Trump administration's wildly illegal actions and the federal judges telling them to please stop it. Plus, they analyze Elon Musk's bizarre appearance in the Oval Office. And the measles guy just got confirmed. Get the world's news at https://ground.news/SMN to compare coverage and see through biased coverage. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access through our link. PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenews MERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.com

Hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. Oh hi, I'm Cody. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome. Thank you so much. For being had. Gotcha.

Jonathan is also here. Hi. Hello. There he is. That beginning was like the beginning of a video welcoming you to a cult, you know? Oh, yeah. Was that the energy I was just giving? How a cult, you know? Oh yeah. Was that the energy I was just giving?

How are you all doing today? I'm like, oh, I'm ready to- Oh, that's the energy Cody was giving. Is that not, do we not- Are we not- Like that energy? Are we not all one? I think we're all one.

We are all one now. I'm ready to write a check. I'm ready to continue to be made of light. I feel like it's time to talk about some holidays, because holidays are always a good thing. Friday, February 14th, Valentine's Day, okay. Okay. No, let's not talk about Valentine's Day,

because that's a stupid holiday, even though. I mean, unless you like it, folks. Unless you like it. Celebrate your love, it's fine. This is the same. Eat some candy. All of these holidays are stupid and fake. Not this one that I'm about to say,

which is that Friday, February 14th is National Ferris Wheel Day. This is to commemorate the birthday of the man who invented it, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. That's a name. It's a solid name. Jonathan put some interesting tidbits in here.

I have an interesting tidbit to share, which is that I do not like a Ferris wheel. I don't like it. I don't. Scares me. Have you ever been on or is it like a thing? I'm not getting on those. No, I'll tell you my last Ferris wheel story.

I was young. I grew up in the Bay area and the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, but all of the displays in downtown would be beautiful and Macy's. And they had, so my mom and my mom's girlfriends and their kids would go every year and just wander around dressing our coats and caps

and get hot chocolate. And there is a rooftop, or it was at this point, a rooftop amusement park thing that they would build for the holiday season. They have little roller coasters and a Ferris wheel. Is it? Well, it seems dangerous, but that's fun. I'm on top of Macy's in downtown San Francisco on a Ferris wheel and my mom and I get stuck

at the very top of the Ferris wheel for a long time and it was cold and I'm not good with heights and I was freaking out and I just remember mom being like just take deep breaths Just imagine you're in a hot bath It's all light, it's okay. Yeah, I'm interested in joining this hot bath cult. Oh It's funny you say that Okay. Yeah, I'm interested in joining this hot bath cult. Oh, it's the jam. It's funny you say that. If you go in the chat, there's a digital pamphlet

you can check out with all the information you need. Oh, literature, that's very nice, thank you. We love literature. I'm gonna let you guys take the wheel for most of this episode while I check out this pamphlet. Please do. Okay, you're gonna learn a lot. If you have any questions, we don't take questions.

Sure. Okay, you'll see my social security number in the chat here. That's fine. Perfect. We're just giving that out. Oh yeah, we probably do. You could find it. Easily, probably.

So much news to get to. Let's do it. Did you guys watch the Super Bowl? I know this answer. Yeah. Jonathan, did you watch the Super Bowl? Yeah, my team won the Super Bowl? I know this answer. Yeah. Jonathan, did you watch the Super Bowl? Yeah, my team won the Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles.

Your namesake. Your namesake. My team, they're mine. I have them and they won. They won because of you. I mean, I did exactly the same thing that I did seven years ago when they won and I did not do any of the things I did two years ago

when they lost in the Super Bowl. So this is a little woo-woo that way. No To make sure I did the exact same thing and it worked. They worked. That's all the evidence that I need. In fact I'm gonna remember what I did on this one this year because though the one seven years ago when they won was like an amazing day, because they beat the Patriots and backup quarterback and all this stuff back and forth. But this one also felt great because they just won very handily.

Very handily. Throughout. I do wish it was a better game, but. Not me. It is what it is. I'm perfectly thrilled with how it went. I just wish they didn't let them score a few garbage time touchdowns at the end.

That's the thing. 40 to six would have felt better. They needed to go all. 40 to 22, but I'm okay, I'm okay with it. You guys like the halftime show? How do you interpret it though? How could you possibly understand what he was saying? Symbolism.

Easily, but I just like that little stinker grin he kept giving. Oh my gosh, it's so good. I've never described, I haven't seen anybody describe it that way, but every time I see a photo, one of those memes of him grooming at the camera, I'm like, little stinker!

Oh, he's absolutely a little stinker. Yeah. It was perfect. So funny. We all needed that day, I think. Yeah, the game and the halftime show is like, all right. Although I will say, some of the commercials are really bumming me out.

Sure, which one in particular? Not even anyone in particular. All the AI stuff was really bumming me out. Sure, which one in particular? Not even anyone in particular, all the AI stuff was a bummer. Yeah. Just sort of the parade of like, celebrities all the time are in these commercials and stuff, but it was one of those things where it's like, you see a celebrity in a commercial,

and they're like, all right, who's gonna show up in this one? I don't know, Martha Stewart? Is it gonna be like Lil Jon? Like what, like who, like who, just like, it's gonna be five celebrities and they're all, have nothing to do with each other and it's all gonna happen and it's like, oh, the economy, I guess, is not going great or like.

Wow. Did you guys hear that? The storm, yeah. To all of our listeners, there is a big old storm happening where I live, so we'll see what happens. We're all experiencing weather, but that was intense. Thunder or God bullying, I don't know.

One thing about the commercials is sometimes there are celebrities that seem to not match, and it's fine, though. We got John Cena and we got Dr. Ruth. Yeah, Mila Kunis is gonna be there, and we're gonna get, yeah, exactly. Like they did, they do the when Harry met Sally thing and you're like, okay, who's gonna say

I'll have what she's having? Exactly. Who would make sense here? And then it's Sydney Sweeney, okay. But what about her makes that make sense? Her availability. Yeah, well that's the thing. Availability and willingness to take the money.

It's a little bit of a bummer. I'm a commercial actress or I have been, Well, that's the thing, availability and willingness to take the money. It's a little bit of a bummer. I'm a commercial actress or I have been, haven't been doing it much lately or all, unless if you're casting commercials, I'm available. But it used to be that the Super Bowl was a really fun time to gather with your actor friends and see which of your friends broke through. And there's just fewer of your, I certainly did know people in commercials this time and I'm thrilled for them, but it's just a few people for the most part at celebrities, except

gosh did you see Sam Richardson's? Oh yeah, it's always great to see him. I just died at that one. Love that Totino's. Love seeing them show up anywhere. We need to stop delaying the inevitable and get down to it. Well, you know, we discussed there's a lot going on, but the big question is, are we in the middle of a constitutional crisis? Because when the constitution is like seemingly not followed by the executive branch and you're like, okay, proudly is that that's it

Is that the thing we're in a dictatorship now the end has it happened? Yes, but not all experts agree I was like, are you gonna make us feel better about this or worse? I think maybe I mean, I don't know I don't know. I don't feel great about it. I know I already know I've already read the research Yeah, I mean Trump and Doge they're doing a bunch of stuff. There's executive orders all over the place. We're getting into every agency and gutting it seemingly without congressional oversight. Courts are often ordering them to stop doing those things.

And in many of the situations, they seem to have stopped doing them or paused doing them or some of the funds are going out, but in other areas it seems like they are ignoring the courts. On Monday a federal judge, the same judge who ordered an end to Trump's funding freeze, said that the administration was in violation. They were still holding up funds and the judge is like, you got to release the funds. It's very unclear to me how much access Doge still has into various government systems and which systems the orders were for them to stop.

Which is so funny because the argument against us freaking out is, they're being so transparent. No, man. We'll get to the musk of it all. We'll get to it. Every week, forever now. This is the very scary part of a dissent into authoritarian rule, where we have these checks and balances. Congress is obviously in complete Republican control,

and they're just rubber stamping everything. They seem happy to give up their power. The judges are saying no to a lot of this stuff, but they only have so many tools to actually enforce it. They can fine Elon Musk, okay, or They can like have him arrested in theory. Okay, but the US Marshals are Operated by the Department of Justice which are just gonna be like no if such a thing was ordered So we kind of have to cross our fingers and hope they decide to follow court orders,

which Trump says he will. Yeah, he did say that. He says a lot of things though. He does say a lot of things. It is interesting to see Musk blatantly just sort of, yeah, boy, I'd do whatever actually. Here's my son. What would you like to say, child?

And Vance is like, pretty explicitly saying like, judges can't do this. That's not what they're here for. They can't do this. And Trump's like, yeah, I follow the courts. And if they say no, I'll do an appeal. And that's how it goes. Like, obviously, like we shouldn't believe him or trust him,

but it's interesting to see him sort of like try to blanket over what other people in his orbit are saying. Highlight what JD Vance has said to say that, to argue that we're not in a constitutional crisis or that the crisis in fact is the courts. Yeah, I've been working on my JD Vance. Oh, do you want to do it with your JD Vance? I've been working on it, yeah.

Okay. I've been working on it, okay. If a judge you want to do it with your JD fans? I've been working on it, yeah. I've been working on it. Okay. If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general on how to use discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control

the executive's legitimate power. This is such nonsense. This is so fucking wild to me that anybody would see this and think, that's a good point. This is the opposite. He's a true believer. This is his project. This is why he's there. If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be

illegal. Okay? If a judge would try to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power. That is what it's there for. This is what our democracy is.

It's checks and it's balances. The whole point was to avoid having a singular figurehead who has too much power. That's the point, JD. Aren't you a lawyer? But Trump's, but we love Trump. And so it's okay for him to do it. It's okay for him. I just can't stand it.

His legitimate power. Yeah, it's wild. I do like, because JD's a, again, he's like, he's a true believer in this project that they're trying to do. Whereas Trump is just like, I didn't have to go to prison, thank goodness, it seems. And it's just, he's such a little weasel.

He slipped in that like, his legitimate power. I mean, to the extent that he's basically been paid by Peter Thiel since, for like more than a decade and- Effectively he is. I'm just saying even worse than that is someone that is just opportunistic. Yeah, I mean, that's what I mean. Like, sure. And I mean that as an actual insult, even worse than a true believer.

Because if you're just like a true believer, then you're brainwashed. You're whatever you're maybe you're operating to your best of your moral compass. I genuinely think that this is. I guess I. Yeah. So I guess what I mean, I don't even mean true believer as in like, yeah, this is like, I mean, he's like the guy, one of the people there who's like, yeah, this is what we're doing. This is the plan, this is the project,

this is what we're doing, not necessarily like, yeah, I really believe these things I'm saying. True believer in the goal, not in like the actual, not in the actual, whatever he says. You know, he called Trump Hitler five years ago. Not the little Hitler, America's Hitler. America's Hitler.

The American version of Hitler. So the good version of Hitler is like. Yeah, no, it's just funny where he's like, look at these two irrelevant examples. This would be bad, huh? But what about this thing? The intention of what federal judges are for. What about this?

What about the actual irrelevant thing? Right. Two different things are completely different, JD. Good for you. It's just scary that they are laying the groundwork for wholesale ignoring of federal courts and maybe the Supreme Court, depending on what they decide to do. They're basically already saying, like, we reserve the right to do the authoritarianism. They're telling everybody what they're going to do and seeing how people react and on their

side they're reacting favorably and we will run cover for this when it happens. Yeah. They're dipping a toe into the water realizing that it's pretty warm out there. Yeah. And he's not the only one. The White House press secretary said the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch. Okay. All it takes is kind of one statement from the Oval Office where Trump says, these federal leftist judges are out of control and we will not be succumbing to their authoritarianism. And then that's checkmate constitutional crisis. Crisis in that, I don't know how we get out of it, which is really frightening to think about.

And I don't think that's necessarily imminent or happening. This is all going very fast, much faster than maybe Trump can these days. He seems to not be able to keep up. Musk, on the other hand, is- He's ready to go, yeah. That is terrifying. I mean, it is terrifying. Well, they're going to... Right. Whatever they Well, they're going to write whatever they do.

They're going to just say that their opposition is so funny. It's just like whenever like when the right when especially during COVID early COVID yeah, you're on this like track to like just kill everybody and like this sort of nihilistic approach to the world. And then they heard that like, oh, no, the Democrats are the death cult because of the vaccine or whatever it is. Like whenever they hear a new term, they're like, they actually, actually, you're the thing that we just heard about. Yeah. You're the weird ones. Like, they've never talked about a constitutional crisis before they were accused of participating in one or perpetuating one or introducing one.

I think there was like a you're the real fascists thing. Yeah, exactly. Because you want people not to use slurs, I guess. Every step of the way, every time. Just listening to you guys talking about this, it makes my heart beat a little phase. The whole idea of like, no good sir, I'm not the fascist, you are the fascist sir.

Yeah, words mean nothing to these people, so. Everybody's a fascist. Hey, it's Cody. You know, the news is a lot like the ocean. It ebbs and flows, it's salty, it's filled. You know, the news is a lot like the ocean. It ebbs and flows. It's salty. It's filled with monsters beyond our comprehension. And it's a deep, dark, vast abyss of crushing despair

from which there is no escape. But listen, I want to tell you about Ground News, which you can find over at ground.news slash SMN. That's a sponsor we specifically sought out to partner with. It's a website and an app that gathers news from all over from the entire political spectrum and allows us to compare coverage

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So you should check them out because the news is an obsidian chasm of hopelessness, just like the movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Again, that's ground.news.smn for 40% off unlimited access. The link is in the description. The news is out there. There's this idea that so far,

since they're not like wholesale throwing everything out, that the legal strategy for Democrats is maybe kind of working. I've seen a few articles about this. There's a Semaphore article today, actually the hashtag resistance is working. The argument being like the system right now is holding up, the institutions are holding up,

and Democrats just have Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer being the messengers of this and they are terrible. They're real bad. They are so bad. I'm trying to figure out what leverage we actually have. What leverage do we have? They control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. It's their government. What leverage do we have?

I mean, that is so demoralizing to me. And maybe that like, right, like I haven't watched that entire speech, right? Maybe that's couched in something. There's other stuff that he tries to communicate, but if you are trying to communicate other stuff, even in that Semaphore article, there's some quotes from him of like, yeah, we're doing this and like, there is other stuff, but don't say that. Don't say that part. Because that's the part that's going to get clipped and that's the part that's going get clipped and that's the part that's gonna that's gonna make people feel Demoralized because also like, you know the Mueller the Mueller she wrote aspect of all of it where it's like

All these things we can't frame them. Like well, we're gonna take Trump down now and I think that people are craving they're kind of craving but like reticent about like that Type of solution because like well, that's not gonna happen about that type of solution because, well, that's not going to happen. And all these boring lawsuits and things going on in the background, a lot of them are about specific executive orders and things. Those are the things that you're holding and chipping away at. It can't be framed as, we're going to take Trump down because of this call he had or whatever it is.

It's this other stuff. And so yeah, people are looking to them and you just can't say, what do we do? Well, when Republicans aren't in power, they still are a big pain in the ass. Your job right now, part of it is to be a pain in the ass and to slow things down as much as possible. Yeah, use whatever rules are still available to you too. And like if it's, yes, and if it's like three weeks in, you can't go out and be like, we're trying to figure out what leverage we have.

You should have been figuring that out weeks and weeks and weeks ago. You shouldn't be figuring, trying to figure that out and like pontificating on it like out loud in front of cameras three weeks in. The morning after the Joe Biden debate. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. And that's, and then we'll ask the other thing, like a week after the election is when a lot of these people

were like, oh, here's their plan. They're gonna do project 2025. We need to do this in the legal system to try to stop some of this stuff. And I mean, at a bare minimum, yes, all of that. And your job up there is to galvanize us and to make laws and whatnot. But when you're up there paying a public facing speaker,

you need to communicate all of that stuff, but also remind us that midterms are in two years. Remind us of the other things that we can be doing. Remind us about the lawsuit. Find the calm within you to communicate to the rest of us. That's what I would suggest. Yeah, it doesn't fill us with confidence when you throw your hands in the air and like, well, we haven't even figured out what we can do.

Well, do that and then talk. I also want to just underscore what I just do. Well, do that and then talk. I also want to just underscore what I just said. Midterms are in two years, you guys. A lot's gonna happen, because this has been three weeks, but instead of thinking about this as four years, I have been thinking of it as two years that we're working towards

to make some significant changes. I don't know if that's, Cody just says it's helped. So I guess it is. I just gotta say it I mean, you know, there will be elections in 2026. I still believe oh, yeah, it's just like they'll look How they're gonna look we don't know but we don't yeah, but still it's like a lot to It would be a lot for them to completely remake every I mean districts There's lots of stuff they can do lots of laws they can pass in the next two years.

They have a very thin house majority. People are going to be upset if for no other reason than the prices of shit is still going up. So they're likely to lose the house. Oh yeah. I mean the swing back is going to be swift. They're going too hard in the paint right now, right away. It's very off-putting approval for even like Musk

and Doge and everything is going down. Like nobody likes what's going on. It's frustrating, but remembering what Trump is like has started to happen. Yeah, for sure. He's not good. I'm glad that you, I've said this before, booted from Twitter. Yes, I'll still call it Twitter. It's not good. I mean, I'm glad that he, I've said this before, booted from Twitter.

Yes, I'll still call it Twitter. It was Twitter then. But there was a bit of removing him from the public eye and forgetting how stressful it is when this man has a platform and is communicating. And so I do think that there was an element of amnesia. So in this context, I think it might be helpful to talk about, because we're talking about the resistance and what are they doing,

why, what's Schumer doing? Is he doing a great job? We will win, we will win. What, is it Connolly? Is the oversight committee guy doing a great job getting out there and communicating to the people. We're so glad that AOC isn't in that position. What a terrible communicator she is.

People hate her. God! But one thing I've also seen recently is a lot of smug, depraved liberals pointing out, like, we're the Gaza protesters. This just proves. Thank you for bringing this up. smug, depraved liberals pointing out like we're the Gaza protesters. This just proves that they didn't actually care about this at all. This has been driving me wild.

This is really frustrating for a lot of reasons. For one, it's not really true. There are protests going on still. There are protests about on still there are protests About ice raids like going on shutting down LA shutting down LA main it freeways Apparently the Dallas police said that they weren't gonna help ice do raids Which we'll see if they hold up that promise, but that's good. So there are these protests going on. There's a protest this weekend about Trump's plan to If we are.

After trends Gaza and make a resort town. And that's going on in DC. I think it's outside of maybe the Jordan embassy. Although I think Jordan's already said that they aren't going to go on along with the plan. I don't know. But the point is, there are protests going on. But another thing,

the people who were like, the plan. I don't know. But the point is, regardless going on. But another thing, uh, the people who were like, you don't actually care about this. Uh, that's why you're not protesting now. You spent all year saying the protesters were stupid and bad and wrong and that you liked what's going on and that they weren't going to change anything. And those protests were crushed. Um, they like, encampments were destroyed. Like they, like there was a huge media and political apparatus to buy a bipartisan effort basically to crush those protests.

And the protests were for specifically getting a ceasefire which regardless of the moment, see how it's gonna go. We don't know for the moment, I see how it's gonna go, we don't know. For the moment, that has been achieved. That is one of the goals. So there are like all these reasons going on, but like the people who are pointing it out,

no, you don't care. You're doing this little smug parade because you're happy that like you can get points by saying, well, they don't care. That's why they're not protesting, well, they don't care, that's why they're not protesting. No, you don't care. Yes, everything Cody just said, but also we're not quite sure what's happening.

And yeah, I think that it's fair to assume that even how poorly that those protests were handled under Biden, it's gonna be so much fucking worse under Donald Trump. And I think that that's actually a very reasonable thing to take into account as we're actually assessing what it is that this wild man is even saying, the stuff that comes out of his mouth.

And we're like, wait, we don't even know what we're trying to protest at this moment. Is it, you know, and it's been three weeks. So chill the fuck out. We aren't happy with what's happening. Nobody's happy with this. Because it is a rhetorical thing he's saying for the most part. It's like, okay, we got the ceasefire and we'll see how that goes.

And rhetorically, I want to do a resort town there. I guarantee you he's moving forward with that shit that you're gonna see outrage and an uproar. But there's a lot that's coming down the pipe all at once right now. Also they are preparing to crack down on protests quite a bit. There are a lot of local councils and stuff sort of re-giving police more powers

to use certain types of less lethal weapons and so on. But I wanted to just sort of this general, like, where are they? Why aren't they protesting now? A few things. Where are the libs doing? Like, there's no like there aren't these big marches. There's not this big upswell of protests going on generally. So are you saying that like nobody cares about Donald Trump being the president now?

But I wanted to point out there are so many reasons and like sociologists and people do study protest movements and the things that affect protest movements and the size of protest and all these things. There are all these reasons that can feed into that. I'll just say that for the title of this study, it's a grievance shocks and coordination and protest. Grievance shocks are basically like these like big, like sudden,

like in the word grievance shocks of like this big upswell of like a tangible, like sudden grievance that leads to protests. And they talk about how a lot of big protests, they will happen because of, not because of the amount of grievance about a topic, but about how they got to this place and how gradually it happened. Even like the abstract even talks about like, it's like, it's the boiling frog stuff. So if something is happening slowly and build slowly, you're not going to have this massive upswell. It's why like, yeah, the George Floyd

protests. Well, this thing happened. We're going to get out in the streets. The L.A. the Muslim ban. That was like a thing that like a grievance shock happened. The Palestine. Nobody was like really protesting Joe Biden like for anything other than like, hey, you kind of suck and like you're like, we wish you could do this. And you're like, obviously, very, very old.

But nobody. But then this thing happened. And that was a shock to everybody's system, which got these protests started as opposed to Donald Trump was already the president. The shock already happened. He was elected the first time. And so everybody got out in the streets and did their protests. That was that moment. Then he stopped being the president. And then he like showed up again slowly and then he became the president again.

So they're like there are all these sociological reasons why there's not this massive upswell of protests now in the second term because of just how these things work. To assess a society's potential for protest, it is not enough to know the current distribution of anti-regime sentiments. We also need to know how they came about suddenly or gradually, is the point. Do you think that there's something that could happen that could shock us to that level? To to get people that's what I've been wondering. I've been thinking about that and I do not know.

I think I think people have some lines. And but again, like this, like the you know, even the just the line the rhetorical like the Gaza stuff where it's like, oh God, yeah, I mean, that's Trump I get, like it's a different kind of shock. So like, you know, a Muslim registry, that's, or like some like specific, like building of specific kinds of camps or like,

you'd hope that there could be something that does that, but we're still in this limbo of camps or like, you'd hope that there could be something that does that. But we're still in this limbo of this gradual like, oh, it's Trump again, I guess. It's very, very, very, very difficult to know. I mean, I think he says stuff and he would love for all of it to happen. But he said stuff and you don't know what it's actually going to be. And I do think there has to be some element of like, oh, this shit is happening. The Muslim ban was happening, you know? And again, yes, I think our barrier to entry

was much shorter. The line was closer because it was so, all felt so extreme. And it was and is, but now we're desensitized to it. We're used to horrific things happening. And I think, I just, I do think that there's a line but I think there has to be something very concrete. Right now we're swimming in a stew of theoretical fear. I mean there are actual things happening but we don't quite

know what the outcome is of them. It's also cold and rainy and winter right now and it won't be in a few months. I was going to say weather has a lot, again like these are like, and it won't be in a few months. I was going to say, weather has a lot to, again, like these are like, like, why aren't they people protesting? There are many reasons. It's studied whether is another factor in this. Even elections are factors in this. Like there are so many factors to why there's going to be a big upswallow protest. I think there's a lot of people that are on our side of the spectrum who do believe in science and do have appropriate fear of diseases and pandemics.

And right now there's lots of stuff circulating, but again, not in the notes, but bird flu is concerning and it is spreading in other animals and it's in cows and in our milk supply and this is all happening at a time when data is being purged and communications from agencies are not being squashed. So there haven't been updates on that in a couple weeks and I don't think that's breaking through and I'm not saying that that's the reason why people aren't protesting, but it's top of mind right now. And the measles guy just got confirmed. Measles guy just got confirmed.

And the measles guy just got confirmed. I'm just highlighting that because you might not have information. I know that, yeah, we're all aware of the eggs, but no, this is mutating into, and I'm not trying to be alarmist. This could never mutate into something that's truly catastrophic for humans. But if we're our food supply, it's showing up in pet food now.

Yeah, we should be concerned. It's okay to- We should at least have some information being given to us. Information would be good. Well, that's the other thing too. That's part of his MO at the beginning of the pandemic was like, and he admitted it out loud, I'm pretty sure, in at least one interview where he's like,

yeah, I didn't want, or it was maybe it was a leaked phone call, I don't know, time is meaningless. But he was like, yeah, I didn't want people to panic. So I lied. Like he said, like, yeah, you don't want people to panic so you don't share information. And that is part of this. Like they don't want people to be alarmed or panicked about something.

But information is important. That helps us to not panic because then we have the information and we can assess it and know that people are thinking about these things and doing something about it. Just to put a button in this, I guess, or pin in it, or like, we'll talk about it again every single week for years, I guess. So we die. I just wanted to lay out like not just the general like vibe reasons there might not be protests right now and like the reasons that a thoughtful person might be like oh probably this, probably

this, probably this. I wanted to point out that like there are studied reasons why this is probably not happening and there are psychological and sociological things that feed into this and it makes perfect sense. And it really does seem like most of the people who were like, why are the protests? Cause they never cared about it in the first place. All the Noah Smiths of the world, Matty Glazes of the world. No, you're saying that because you didn't care about it

and you don't care about it. And you're just trying to get little weird internet points and pretend like it's not actually a problem. And if you're out there being like, why aren't you now protesting Trump's purported ethnic cleansing? So it's an ethnic cleansing now? It's just very frustrating.

I fuck those people so much. Let's discuss that press conference. That wild press conference. Is that what you'd call it even? I don't know what to call it. It was so weird. Because it wasn't a press conference. Elon and his fucking child that he parades around like a prop and then Trump sitting there looking very grumpy.

Very lumpy and grumpy. I don't mean to body shame, but also he's so gross. He was lumpy and grumpy and Elon was presenting himself like a villain. He was standing there villain-like. I'd like to talk about Doge. Would you like to see my child first? His mother hates that we're here right now.

I'm disgusted by him bringing that kid around. I think I said this to you guys yesterday. I would not be surprised if when little X turns 18, if he said, oh yeah, my dad was only around when the cameras were on. He only wanted to seem like a father. He was never around. I want nothing to do with him. I don't know.

I don't want to put words into Alexa's mouth. He's a kid. He shouldn't be part of this as Grimes, his mother said. He should not be in public like this. And I agree. I think it's gross. Yeah, it's completely gross and it's grotesque. And it is also just so odd and a little depressing

to see so many people duped by it. Like they're like, it's so cute. And he's bringing, he's bringing his kid to work. First of all, Elon Musk would never let an employee bring their child to work. That employee would be fired immediately if they tried to bring their child to work. So this idea of like, no, he's normalizing

bringing your kids to work and like family values mixed with like work ethic. No, he's not doing that. He rejects that entire concept at his companies. He's not going to allow that to happen. It's because it's him and it's a prop to distract from his awkward, awkward communication skills. Also, I'm just gonna piggyback on our conversation

with last, from last week with Milana when she was being very clear and I think correct about her stance of sharing children, just on social media, let alone a press conference like that in the Oval Office. This is a child, this is a child, their own little bodies, their own little autonomy. He has no ability to make a decision for himself.

Sharing your children's image like that is just so wild to me. And he is a public figure, but he's got a lot of other children. We don't know what they look like. It's very disturbing to me, but that is beside the point. I don't wanna get bogged down in this.

Let's talk about the- Totally. But like to, yeah, just to button that up, his, the child's mother has repeatedly said that she hates this. And it's abusive. And knows it's bad. I think that that is abusive. And it is abusive and Elon knows it.

She's tweeted many times even of like, please can somebody contact Elon? I want to see my children. He has stolen their kids from her and he is parading the child around for many weird reasons. Like the human shield has been tossed around, distraction generally, a sort of like PR element, but also it seems like some of it is spite

against the child's mother and it's really, really gross. But anyway. Yeah, I'd like to play this clip of Elon explaining himself in terms of transparency and potential conflicts of interest. Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions, we post our actions to the Doge handle on X and to the Doge website. So all of our actions are maximally transparent. In fact, I don't think there's been, I don't know of a case where an organization has been

more transparent than the Doge organization. Oh God. So this is the Doge website and maybe this has updated since last night when I checked it. On the front page of the Doge website, this is just has updated since last night when I checked it. On the front page of the Doge website, this is just the Twitter, like the things they're tweeting. It's been ported in here. If you click savings, receipts coming soon, no later than Valentine's Day.

So maybe you'll have the receipts by the time you're there. And then he's created an unconstitutionality. Unconstitutionality index. Because these are rules that agencies created and these aren't actual laws. I mean this is propaganda. No, this is absurd. And the tweets. Rules and laws are different by the way.

The fact that he's like well, these are rules made. Yeah, they're not laws made. So like, what's your fucking problem? Like they're different things. Sorry, Jonathan, continue. No, and the receipts of all the fraud and like obviously waste and fraud according to them are just, it's really blended together.

All this stuff is just stuff they don't like. There's the DEI. Yeah. There's the DEI. Yeah. There's... I mean, well, we got rid of 199 wasteful contracts. One of the big contracts they got rid of, or number of contracts, was in the Department of Education. They basically decimated the Institute of Education Sciences, which does research into

new digital tools, education techniques, how students learn. They were just like, well, that's completely wasteful. How is that wasteful? It's vitally important. The Doge account tweeted, today the Department of Education terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million. One contractor was paid $1.5 million to observe mailing and clerical operations

at a mail center. I could not, I mean- I don't believe you. Maximally transparent. Which one? What was it doing? Because you've described a lot of things that you're like, oh, this is the most wasteful thing. But then if you click, like one click over, you find out it's, oh's cancer research and part of this uh Press conference include him saying some of the things I say will be incorrect then don't Say them man Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected so nobody's gonna bet a thousand

I mean any you know we will make mistakes but we'll act quickly to correct any mistakes. But yeah it's hard to believe like okay you just gave me a numbers those mean nothing to me. You're not giving me any context or specifics. What do you mean this person was paid one and a half million dollars to meal shit? I don't believe you. I don't believe that that's what you actually saw. There's something else. Yeah, it's also it's very frustrating. I mean, so many things about even just that very, very short clip. We're the most transparent ever, actually, of all of all possibilities to be transparent. You're deleting other agencies information from being publicly available.

Like they're going into websites. Yeah, like they're going into the, like the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, deleting data and pulling stuff down. You're doing the opposite. You're making things less transparent and you're doing it secretly. It is not transparent.

We're not being sensational when we say that that's what's happening. We know that that's what's happening. Yes. Scientists are saying that's what's happening, by the way. Yes, like the people in these organizations, like yeah, there's deleting stuff and getting rid of data,

pulling stuff down from websites. That was information available to you, the public. It is the opposite of transparency. They are also, for the most part, it seems, all the receipts I've seen have come from usaspending.gov, a website with information that is publicly available and searchable. All this stuff that's coming out is from usaspending.gov,

just a database that you can search. That's transparency. Saying that like we're actually the most transparent. No, you're just getting this stuff from, everybody could have done this. Anybody could have looked this stuff up. The framing of it is really gross. And the idea that he's policing himself is absurd.

Like, when is that? When? Imagine all the Trump voters who are watching this right now. Thanks for watching. Imagine literally anybody else with like five companies doing all of this stuff and saying like, well, I'll police my own conflict of interest. Yeah, imagine George Soros doing this. George Soros being like, actually,

I'm deleting a lot of these things that I find are wasteful and illegal. You can't do that when there's a conflict of interest, you remove yourself from that process. That gets rid of the conflict. That's how these words work. Even if there's not a conflict of interest you remove yourself from that process that's that gets rid of the conflict That's how these words work even if there's not a conflict of interest and I know this is very quaint to say That's this is illegal. You can't just can't just do this Congress appropriates money I know is like who said it a thousand times. I know I know it's just like it's so frustrating to be like well

I guess it's not effective to say something's illegal anymore for like people to do Also, not illegal to say any I mean, it's not effective to say any kind of fact But it's also illegal for you to say that I can't it's that that's the real illegal thing That's the thing too. It's like so you just say whatever and like well some things I say aren't gonna be true So like do you think maybe you shouldn't like just pick random individuals and call them evil for no reason an entire like it's I This guy fucking sucks so much I did want to point out. I don't have the account in front of me I apologize if you're listening and you

Apology accept originator of of this somebody replied, I just shared a screen grab of this weird man in this room doing his little thing. Somebody pointed out, he looks like a super villain and a henchman at the same time. And I think that's perfectly accurate. He's just like, it's like a henchman and a super villain got together, like what if we made one guy?

And he's just like, what can I do, sire? Do this for me, like it's the same thing, it's so good. He is the penguin working on his own plot for his own power grab. Is that accurate? That's pretty accurate, yeah. Okay. With like Grimoire worm tongue vibes.

With the trumps and the falcons against each other. Have you ever seen Trump just slumped over sitting there like, oh, there's cameras. I don't need to say. Fascinating, isn't it? Interesting. I don't know exactly what's happening. I just think that Trump is in too deep with this man. Well, and if we if we believe if we're to take the words of Elon's son

at their word, they do whatever they want at SpaceX and no one will ever know. And no one will ever know. They quietly do whatever they want, no one will ever know. But it is fascinating to watch because what's actually effective, not effectively, what is happening is instead, I mean we're all angry and worried about Donald Trump, but most of our attention right now gets sucked up by the actions of Elon Musk and not Donald Trump. And I do consider them very similar figures. We have talked about that a lot here,

but it is fascinating to watch this. Like his ego must, I mean, he's got to be seething inside. Oh yeah, I mean, you can, you can. You can see it. You can see it, specifically, Elon's son being there, he does not enjoy that. Yeah, it's very interesting, because also, like, they're very similar in so many ways, but also Musk actually has, like, an ideology

and, like, a project, like, he wants to do certain things. And Trump does too. He's got the racism, obviously, but it's mostly just sort of like being in power and having that control and not going to prison. Right. And again, the racism. But Elon has like, no, we're going to do this. We're going to do this and we got to get rid of this organization. We got to do this. We got to gut this. We need to deregulate everything so I can do whatever I want."

So they're kind of at odds, but they are aligned. And it's very clear that Elon's got him on a leash somehow. Elon talks in this press conference about the mandate. He's like, well, this is what people voted for. This is what they wanted. And you know that's not true, that they didn't want to get rid of all the cancer research. You know that's not true. Yeah. That is to know like get rid of all the cancer research you know, that's Not also that is not true. Yes, isn't it weird how morality not a majority of people

It's always the GOP that says things like elections have consequences You never hear Democrats say that cuz they Jen in a general sense want good things But when people are like, hey, do it to a thing the GOP is like, well, this is the consequence of you electing the evil people I don't know what to say. Yeah. I don't want to brush past your point that this is not what their mandate is, or what everyone would say, like there's a clear mandate. No, there wasn't.

They did everything in their power to distance themselves from Project 2025 during the campaign. Donald Trump discredited it, said it has nothing to do with us. There's actively a thing right now that I'm worried about with abortion except that I'm always am but you know stood up stood up on that stage and effectively lied saying like we got what we want blah blah blah but now you know Robert F Kennedy is like yeah we can take all we can do we can we can take abortion off of the table of this we can withhold this for place it is just so wildly different from what they actually campaigned on. I know that, yes, there are lots of unelected government officials.

They're appointed. There's congressional approval. He probably would get the approval, but it's not this. It's not what we're seeing happen. And one more time, just to make sure we're all clear, Donald Trump won with fewer votes Then he lost in 2020. This is not a mandate By any definition of word. This is not what people want. Some people a small percentage of people. Yes

Very small. Very small. Um, yeah. End of rant. No, it's you're I agree with you completely And it's really important to keep reminding people of this. Yeah, because it is like one with fewer votes than he lost. Didn't win with a majority. One of the plurality. It's like I forget. It's like one point four percent difference or something like that. So when you're saying people voted for it.

OK, but like 78 million people didn't. And also, I just want to hammer in your point about like they all the things they're doing that they have a mandate on, they backed away from. Right. We're not doing that. We're not doing Project 2025. This is I like I like some things, but most a lot of it's like wild. We're never going to do any of that stuff. So that stuff should be off the table. Obviously, it's not for so many reasons they can do whatever they want. They won, it sucks, who knows what's gonna happen.

But you can't just say like, well we're supposed to do all this stuff. No, no, no, you said you wouldn't do those things specifically. The only thing people voted for, which is a real fucking bummer, is mass deportations now. That's what was on the signs.

And food prices. And tariffs. And tariffs, which are being wielded in weird ways. And they are doing, they're working on those mass deportations now, which I think even though that was one of the promises, I think we can also still reject that and protest that. Of course it is. For so many reasons. We talk about these a lot in our next episode. And I do think that most people don't really understand what that means. No.

But even at that, so let's give that deportations, food prices, that's kind of why a lot of people were swayed and ineffectiveness of the Democratic Party, general fear for themselves and et cetera, the future, but it's not dismantling the Department of Education. It's not halting research for cancer, cancer research funding. It's not.

I don't recall Trump ever mentioning that we're gonna get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I don't, that never came across to me either. That didn't break through. We're gonna give you back your late fees. Everyone will be charged late fees again. Yeah.

I gotta get working on my impressions. There was that poll, I think it came out today, and it said, what should the president be focused on most? And it wasn't a majority, like 34% said inflation, and then like 31% immigration, and then something like 25%, the economy in general. So a majority of people, the inflation and the economy,

and then two thirds of people said he's not focused on food prices enough. Like we're just- You mean the thing he said he's gonna do? It's just the food prices job. Like, that's what being the president is, apparently. It's the food prices job, and if you aren't focused on it, well, maybe, unless they change all the rules effectively,

it'll come back to bite them in a couple years. Not that I want food prices to stay high because we all need relief and stuff, but, I hope he loses. I hope he loses. Yeah, we lose. This is how you lose people's support. It's weird that we have a president in his second term. And I'm like, I hope he loses when he runs again.

Right, right. Yeah, yeah. I feel like my head's going to explode. Sorry. But that's why I've got this beanie on. It's keeping it in. Exactly.anie on, it's keeping it in. Exactly. You guys see it's like a helmet?

It's protecting me from all the contents of my brain exploding off the top and leaking everywhere. Major risk if you have these little bits of shadow in your blood and your body. That's interesting shadow. You will be issued one of these hats and beanies if you sign up with all of your information and a lot of your money.

I'm definitely willing to give you the security codes on my credit cards for some of those, those beanie hats. That's perfect. And if you have any grievances about this, sorry, the CFPB will no longer exist. So you will have no recourse. Wait, can we sell beanies that have something along the lines? Cult?

I don't know, well I'm gonna think about it. I'm gonna say our cults. Do you wanna, yeah, I can look and see if there are beanies available. Cult stuff. Let's sell some beanies. Cult stuff. Cult stuff.

Actually. Put it on a shirt, cult stuff, put it on a beanie. Put it on it. Cult stuff. Sign me up. I think maybe we've done it here today. Have we done it, boys? Gentlemen, I'm so sorry.

I don't mean to infantilize you. Yeah, little Cody and little Jonathan. Look at my little podcast host. Look at how cute they are. Look at my little podcast host. Listen to him. Don't listen to the words he says. I've never said anything like that around him.

He's not just parroting the things that I say, certainly. I've never even met this child. But also, isn't he making you like me more? I feel like we shouldn't end on darkness. Should I show you guys my drawings of dogs? I'd love to see your drawings. That's a perfect way to end an audio podcast. I'm just trying to figure out how to,

I like this one the best. I've never drawn from a dog. For folks at home, it's a dog. A dog. If you're listening, it's a dog. If you're listening, it's a dog. If you're listening, it's a little Benny. It looks like Benny. Yeah, I was trying to draw Benny It's a little Benny vibe. I guess so I get and then these are not so good, but you know we're working on it I'm home. It's a lesser

Doodle of a dog, but it's doodle. I'm sorry That's just I drew this one first, and then I started to draw Benny and now I don't know what they're doing If you're listening at home, it looks like one thin Less drawn dog is humping the more drawn. Yeah, the more detailed dog is getting I was just trying to get the basics. Anyway, did that cheer us all up? I feel great folks listening at home Did drawings cheer you up? They're really cute folks listening at home. All right, well, like and subscribe. Okay.

For more of this. It would help us out. I haven't done that yet, I'll do that. It would help us out. I don't think I have either. Why start now? I mean, you guys should. You should start now.

And, yeah, I don't know, Patreon, we have that. Merch store, we have that. Merch store, we have that. Beanie's coming soon apparently. Maybe some other fun merch coming soon, Jonathan. Yeah, yeah, more new merch coming soon. Maybe we finally dialed in a drawing of someone. That special someone. I really don't wanna spoil it, so I can't say anything.

We're not gonna say anything else. We're not going to say anything else. All right, we're going to end this show. And before we leave, I have to tell you and mean it from the bottom of my little stinker heart, we love you very much. Crazy new. Much. And I mean it. Hey, girlies. I'm Cody Rigsby. And I'm Andrew Chappelle.

We're here to announce our brand new podcast, Tactful Pettiness. Now on podcast one. We have a lot of opinions. Flip flops in New York City? You don't love yourself. If I'm not seated, I'm not tipping. Do I want to see a picture of your baby?

No. If I have to scroll more than 10 seconds, I'm not tipping. Do I want to see a picture of your baby? No. If I have to scroll more than 10 seconds, he's not cute. Settling gets you an ugly boyfriend. So we're going to help you out. We sure are because we have the life expertise. We have mastered throwing shade with intention. We are in the business of helping you find and keep your man. And we're here to teach you the fine art of tactful pettiness.

Join us each week as we traverse the world of pop culture, chat with our celebrity friends and show you how to accept yourself without taking life too seriously. Get new episodes of tactful pettiness with me, Cody Rigsby and me, Andrew Chappelle. Every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and anywhere you get your podcasts. Stay petty bestie.