Some More News - Even More News: Oh Boy, We Hate Agreeing With Tucker Carlson...

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

Hi. On today's episode, Akilah Hughes joins Katy, Cody, and Jonathan to talk about Donald Trump's decision on Iran, which is apparently happening in the next two weeks. They also discuss Tucker Carlson's contentious podcast episode with Ted Cruz, the Supreme Court's discriminatory ruling on laws banning gender-affirming care, and how the GOP wants to sell off America's public lands for oil drilling.Here's the "portrait" of Trump we're referring to in the second half of the episode: https://x.com/jeffmason1/status/1935381453010850056Here's a graphic representation of federal land that the GOP wants to sell: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=821970f0212d46d7aa854718aac42310PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/joinPluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Oh, hello. Hi. Welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. It so is Katie Stoll. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. And I'm Cody. The end. We have a great guest, folks. Founding host of the podcast What A Day and current host of How Is This Better on Courier.

Very pleased to welcome Akilah Hughes. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I feel like I'm back to my roots with like daily vibe news like knowing what's happening Well, I know have you missed it? I'm sure Soul crushing yeah, I miss the audience I miss you know talking to the wonderful people I the news has only gotten worse and I can't believe it. I really thought I was in the peak worst Gosh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Jonathan is also here. Oh, yeah. Hi. Oh, yeah.

We got an oh yeah from him. All right. Yeah, I'm in my Kool-Aid era. The kids know what I'm talking about. I have no idea if it's a thing still. Our demographics don't skew that young, so I think we're cool. Akilah, on this show, we honor whatever holidays are happening. Almost always they are bullshit fake holidays, although we happen to be recording on Juneteenth, which is a federal holiday.

It's a real holiday. Yes, I am black and from the South. And so I love Juneteenth. I think it means something different to me now. Like growing up, I was like emancipation. Yeah, like black people are finally for real free. But now I'm like, this is a good celebration of like just how lazy white people were back then, where it was like, I will do anything not to tell these slaves they can leave. I will wait years.

Actually, I will burn their mail that says they're free. So someone shows up and physically takes them from us. So, uh, yeah Sorry white people you have to do your own jobs, but it looks like you're getting all of them. So Congrats. Sorry folks. I Forgot I forgot about this because everyone's like, oh man, if Trump hears about this, he's going to cancel Juneteenth as a federal holiday. And he is the one who proposed it becoming a federal holiday, which I forgot about in September 2020 because he mentioned this at a rally in Atlanta. He thought he would win Georgia doing this.

He did not. Black people were like, you're right on some things like the holiday, but everything else we still don't like. I feel like maybe Biden would do that else, we still don't like you. I feel like maybe Biden would do that anyway, so we don't need you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He was trying to get that black, you know, the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman. Still no got that though. Still rocking with Andrew Jackson. Trump's got a lot going on, but I'm sure he'll find out that Juneteenth exists any minute now and pretend that he didn't propose it becoming a federal holiday. Yeah, I totally forgot that. That's so fascinating. I do think it's so interesting people's reaction to this. Even now, they're still doing it. Obviously, these aren't necessarily the great thinkers of the world. But for example, I'm going to read a tweet from. Cat Turd.

Oh, Cat Turd, The poet of our time. Kitten shit, what's he got to say? Tomorrow is the holiday that nobody ever heard of until five years ago. That is such a fascinating, beautifully ironic tweet considering the actual details of the holiday and how long it took. It's like, yeah, exactly.

You didn't know it until now, man. It's so funny, Cat Turd is like, yeah, I finally know this. I don't know if you saw that somebody responded to him. And I think it was a white person who was like, I'm from Texas and we've celebrated this every year. And his response was just lol, whatever. Yes, exactly. Can't argue with that. Okay, moving on.

So you like adjusted your no, of course not. How miserable is the right that they're like a day off? It's so weird. First of all, day off. It doesn't mean anything, I don't even care what it is. In the middle of the week. Right. These are the people also who are like,

America is the greatest country in the world. And actually we were one of the first nations to abolish slavery. Actually the Republican party did it. America, so like they build up that idea so much, but as soon as there's a holiday that gives them the opportunity to be like, we abolish slavery and that's good, they can't do it.

They can't even do the thing that they pretend to care about when it suits them in other arguments. Exactly, the party of Lincoln suddenly back to loving slavery. Take the win folks like gosh, okay, Akilah So you are now in the YouTube video as a business welcome With your show. How is this better? Tell us a little bit about it and and what topics you're trying to stay up on top of how you you got to this point

So how's this better is a new show from Courier. You can listen to it wherever you get podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. I love the videos. I work really hard on, like, making myself look good for them. So, if you would like to see me attempt to look great, that's fun. I love the cinematography, but... So, the show is literally about how is this better? It's asking the question of all of the changes being proposed politically, socially,

just where we are as a culture and comparing it to what came before. So the topics range from, you know, is it better to sell the national parks to Mark Zuckerberg than just let them be the thing we pay for and get to experience as citizens? You know, we talked about the history of Mark Zuckerberg and how he started his career. I mean, obviously, he started with hot or not trying to compare women. Yeah. But so, you know, maybe not so different now. But there was like a small era where he talked about wanting to make the world a better place. And he was funding these like immigration nonprofits and really seemed like he had some sort of like

emotional center. And now he's just like artisanal chicken nuggets and Muay Thai. So is that better? No. I will say most episodes we answer the question with a big old no. Things are not better. These proposals are not bringing us to a place where we're more connected to each other. We're more understanding. We are driving anything forward. Generally speaking, we're kind of regressing today Today, the same day that you're listening to this,

I have a new episode about DEI, but specifically through the lens of deleting Jackie Robinson's legacy from the DoD website. And yeah, it's not better. So I definitely think you should check it out, but my origin story is YouTube. I started my career making YouTube videos, so it's weird to be back in a format that actually isn't just so like, My origin story is YouTube. I started my career making YouTube videos.

So it's weird to be back in a format that actually isn't just so like, hey guys, let's talk about prom. The tone has shifted, yeah. Maybe different original content. Yeah, Cody and I, all of us have started at some place making videos online. I mean, we came of age in the entertainment industry

with YouTube with, and just how it's changed and shifted, but then also come back around where, yep, there we are making videos on YouTube again. Speaking of videos on YouTube, I mean, this isn't super important, but I just need to tell you that I think about it all the time. My friend, Milana, you did a series of comedy shorts

with Milana and friend of the show. But I claim her first because I've known her longer than you guys have. Just obsessed with Brightanic. I love the patty cake one. Thank you. Oh, it's yeah. Everybody who's listening, if you haven't seen it, it's called Making Fun with Akilah Milana from Comedy Central. It's on YouTube. There are three sketches we did in 2020.

So funny. We like filmed them in January. They came out right when we all got stuck at home. And they did really well online, but they're the best thing I think I've ever made. Like I loved working with Milana and Brian and Nick and like they're they still hit. So definitely check them out. I really am like that's that was us in a weird era of just being comedic geniuses. So yeah, check it out.

They're good and fun and very well performed and produced. Thank you. Yeah, I guess. Did they stop because the pandemic? I'm assuming that that yeah. Well, yeah, the cliff notes is like all of the Comedy Central executives who are like, and this will be a show if it does well online, got fired literally a week after they came out. I'm like, but this is performing better

than your old Kian Peele sketches. They're like, it doesn't matter, we don't work there anymore. We can't do that. They're doing pranks now though. So if you guys like pranks, pitch them pranks. Well, this has been fun. I think it's time for us to move on to

Not fun? The news. Jonathan, can I ask you one question? Yes. Are we at war with Iran? As of this very second, no. However, it's kind of like, you know, how when a will they, won't they on a TV show goes like five seasons, and you're like, just tell me already, we're kind of in that holding pattern. So just before we started recording, press secretary Carolyn Levitt, she's standing up there at the podium,

she says, I have a message directly from the president. And I quote, based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks. Do presidents often do cliffhangers about war stuff? It's so weird how he talks about everything. Still, I'm like, what do you mean you'll wait two weeks and then decide to go? To war? And does he mean to go to the negotiations or to the war? Or just to Iran, generally, to be there?

Right. It's a cliffhanger about like whether or not we're going to go to war, but it's also a cliffhanger of the sentence of like, well, wait, what are you saying? To go where? To what? Specifically to war? Like, I mean, are you going to go? Because that's a different conversation. And also, go now.

No one's opposed to him going. I support our president fighting for our nation himself. Someone just load him up with one gun and drop him at the border. You got this, buddy. Everything is reminding me of the John Mulaney horse in a hospital clip these days bit. I'm like, you don't know what I'm gonna do.

Next one, on Wednesday, Trump said, I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm gonna do. I remember seeing that a few days ago and like it blew my mind. And then like a bunch of other stuff happened and I forgot about it. He likes that we're all like, are you doing a war?

He's the reality TV show guy. It's really gross, it's fucked up and horrible that it's about going to war, specifically. The last person in the world that I want in charge of making any of these complicated decisions is this man. And Netanyahu. Yeah. And Pete Hegson We're gonna find out from him in a text before we find out from Trump

I was very concerned based on all the stuff He said this week because it was only I think two days ago that he was tweeting we have complete and total control of the skies over Iran and unconditional surrender and Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran. So I was like very worried that like this was going to happen at any moment. And then yesterday he had a flagpole ceremony where he put up a couple of flagpoles and had some workers standing behind him and he said these are the best poles.

It's such a beautiful pole we thought we'd put it near. I mean, it always looks best when it's near. At Doral, I put it right near. I have a similar poll. That's our guy. That's our guy. There he is. He's clearly not stressed. And there's just nothing behind the eyes for him. He's like, look at my big shot is flag-polled. I'm like, people are gonna die. Stop looking at the flag-poll. Put it down. You can't put it down.

The idea is that MAGA was anti-war and anti-interventionist. That's what they said. So they should be against this. Obviously Marjorie Taylor Greene has gone on television to say this is bad, but she hasn't, as of the time we're recording, signed on to the supposedly bipartisan legislation in the House that Ro Khanna and GOP rep Thomas Massey have put forward to try and reassert

congressional authority over war powers. You would think that the MAGA people in Congress would want to do that, but since MAGA only stands for what Trump stands for, that's probably not going to happen. They're in a tough position right now, Jonathan. Let's have some compassion for these clowns. I don't. Rough out there for snicker fans.

No, but yeah, this is true. And there's a large part of MAGA that does not want this, but it's very difficult to go against what Donald Trump is saying. You're not going to see a lot of courage, I guess, except from Tucker Carlson. I do just want to add, I'm from Kentucky. Thomas Massey has been a representative from there for a while. He's incredibly conservative and he has been pushing back against Trump since he took office

again. And so it is like truly the deepest mind fuck of my life that like that is what's happening now is a Kentucky like red, red, red Republican is leading the charge of like, hello, is everybody wake up, wake up, Chrissy wake up. Like, what are you guys doing? Take what you can get, I guess, in these trying times. You know, Ted Cruz even do that interview with somebody on the left. You know? Exactly. He's not going to.

I mean, he had a whole podcast with some guy from The Daily Wire for like a year and a half about how Trump shouldn't be impeached. It was called Verdict. It still is, I think, for some reason. It was about the Trump impeachment. About the impeachment and how it's all a big lie. They're all floundering. It is a really interesting tension going on between the sycophants and like we're in the cult and Trump's demand.

But also what is he saying? Gutfeld, of course, is saying basically like, you know, let's just all right. I know that we had like there's all these other wars and there's a history we have in Iraq and Libya and all these other wars, and there's a history we have in Iraq and Libya and all these places in Afghanistan. Push the backstory of history aside, which is a direct quote, basically urging for a fresh start with Trump,

because maybe this is a good war, and he's smart, and you've trusted him up until this point. So like, everybody's got their perspective, but let's just like let him do, let cook, basically, is what Rockwell is saying. Yeah, listen. It's so funny. And even in the middle of it, he's like, and I know I sound wishy washy here,

and it's like, yeah, I know, because you have to, because you can't actually have an opinion on this. Like, what is our end game here? Even our? What is the, I'm not including myself in this, you took us out of the Iran nuclear deal. Not that long ago. Or is it because Israel jumped in and now we have to be in?

If it is just about getting rid of their nukes, they literally, I don't think they can do that without us. They need the Americans bunker buster bomb, which may or may not even do the trick. So if that is what you're signing up for the reality is that end game. I don't think unless I'm totally wrong and please tell me I don't care. Tell me I'm wrong. The end game is the problem of whoever is president 20 years from now. Right. Yeah. But also I mean everything else that is leading into this, right? Like, they're making college impossibly unaffordable.

They're proposing getting rid of Pell grants at the same time, which is only going to force poor people into the military to fight whatever dumb shit Donald Trump signs them up for. And so it's like, it does seem like the end game is like, oh, these people who are the working class and like we're going to make it a much larger class and have less, a lot less money and resources. They're sort of just cannon fodder. Like I feel like that's the end game. And I'm like, but if the conservatives really believes that he was not going to be this war person and it's going to be their kids going to war.

Such a good point, Akilah. Why aren't they standing up like that? Now's the time. It's your kid who's going to be coming Such a good point, Akilah. Why aren't they standing up? Like, now's the time. It's your kid who's going to be coming back in a box. Hello? They've been laying the groundwork for this for a long time. And even the anti-war faction of Macca

has been laying the groundwork for this. You see it in every single speech that Vance gives to the military or about the military. He will always slip in phrases about when we go to war or when we send you to war and then he'll sort of correct himself. Like if we, if God forbid, we ever have to do that, he will always lead lean towards this narrative of like when we have to send you to war. Calling them war fighters. Calling them war fighters. Exactly. All the language they use and it's all this war time rhetoric while posturing

that you're anti war to prepare people. They're all you're bragging about all the like the recruit recruitment's up and all those things you're talking about. Akila where it's like, yeah, they're stripping away all of these avenues for people. And we know that military does pray recruitment praise on poor people. That's how they get their recruitment numbers up. I think that that's also honestly part of why there's such a push for people to have kids right now. And like, I'm not anti-kid, I'd love to have kids one day. I just think

that it's like very creepy that they're like, but we need these kids. And I'm like, I don't know, I think the reason that the birth rate is down is because 15 year olds aren't having kids anymore. But I guess if you know, if you need that, because you're going to have to fight this war for the rest of eternity. And it does seem like all of the people who are eager to go to war with Iran are happy to have no in-game or out-date or real plan for what's happening there. I feel like a key thing about Trump is that I think about COVID. He never had a plan. Even health care, there's never really a plan. It's just like, we're going to do this thing and then whatever happens happens.

And hopefully I'll be dead by the time, you know, chickens come home to roost. One can only hope that Fox News decides that it doesn't want the United States to go to war with Iran, because apparently there was a report in Rolling Stone yesterday. Fox News is demanding war with Iran, Donald Trump is listening. So whatever Hannity wants really, whatever the like, I guess has been Fox News. Yeah, the Glenn Beck's of the world. Yeah, what about the,

let's get back around to Tucker then, let's. Speaking of Fox News has been. Speaking of Fox News, yeah, it's like a perfect transition. Yeah, you guys really set it up. If you don't know what we're talking about, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas went on, it's just called the Tucker Carlson Show, I believe, which he posts on X the Everything app, because he's not on anything now. He just makes a show. It was at Rumble. Which he can do.

It's a network called daddy's money and he just Is it talking to the people yeah, I think it's like TCN Tucker Carlson network or something like that Tucker was a bit more hostile to Senator Ted than I think he thought how many people living around by the way I don't know the population at all. No, I don't know the population You don't know the population the country you seek to topple How many people live in Iran? 92 million. Okay. Yeah, I-

How could you not know that? I don't sit around memorizing population tables. Well, it's kind of relevant because you're calling for the overthrow of the government. Why is it relevant whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant? Well, because if you don't know anything about the country-

I didn't say I don't know anything about. OK, what's the ethnic mix of Iran? They are Persians and predominantly Shia. OK, this is you don't know anything about Iran. So I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran. You're a senator who's calling the government. I have so many feelings about this interview. Even when Tucker Carlson is saying stuff that I'm like,

okay, yes, queen, get it. Like, you know, God, please understand, I'm joking. But he is so unpleasant and so smug. A few times, like watching this, I'm like, Tucker, shut up. You're so obnoxious and kind of dishonest doing a few gotcha things, but to make the larger point of like, we shouldn't be doing this war with Iran. He even makes a point, at one point, Ted Cruz says like,

well, they're a weakened country and stuff. And Tucker's like, so they're weak, but we gotta be scared of them? Like he's pointing out that fascist tactic of like your enemy is both weak and strong that Ted uses. Tucker Carlson uses it all the time too, but he can recognize it when Ted's using it for something that he disagrees with.

So it was just sort of this weird like back and forth between like a Senator doing his propaganda and a fascist propagandist doing his propaganda at each other. And I happen to agree with one of them about not going to war. It's like watching JD Vance debate a flat earther. Like, right. I'm like, I hope the earth swallows you both. But I agree with Janss. But exactly.

But like you're not doing and you're not doing it like honestly, you're doing a bad job. But like, I agree with Yance. But exactly. But like, you're not doing it like honestly. You're doing a bad job. But like, I agree with you. My favorite thing about, like specifically that clip from that interview is that like a lot of people online, the fake bots, the bots and the three people who are still on Twitter, were like sort of latching on to, was like, wow, Tucker could be a journalist if he wanted to.

And I'm like, let me just do a point of order. This isn't even journalism. To me, this is like a bickering couple. It's like the people who should have gotten divorced a long time ago and Tucker's playing the role of the wife who's like, but you said, but that's not right. And you just, you don't even know where it is in the Bible. And that's what you believe.

Like just nagging. And then you see Cruz with his explosion of, well, I know what I'm talking about. I didn't say that. And I'm like, OK, so I feel like you all need to go behind closed doors, talk to a third person about this and then come back out and be like, we were wrong about going to war. We shouldn't go to war. Well, apparently they did talk to a third person because apparently Tucker Carlson called Trump

to apologize for this interview, yeah. I want to give a little context for, not that it didn't happen, I'm sure they chatted, but we know Trump makes things up about the content of his phone calls. Oh yeah. So he was in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump says, Tucker's a nice guy.

He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that. So maybe he maybe did a Elon. Oh, it wasn't even about this thing. I'm sorry, I called you a pedophile type thing. But he probably was like, listen, I disagree with you about this one issue, sir, but I love you.

I'll do anything you want. They pause in the middle of this argument about going to war to bicker about who who likes or doesn't like Trump. I've read about a newsletter attacking Donald Trump and calling him complicit. I've never attacked Donald Trump. Yes you have. And by the way.

I campaigned for Donald Trump. Yes. And this is like after anti-Semitism this is the last refuge. You're an anti-Semite and you hate Trump. I love Trump. For all of Tucker's posturing and his correctness on this issue and his like, oh, I'm being adversarial for once in my fucking life. For all that, he still can't say

that he's criticizing the president or that he doesn't like the president. Like he can't cross that like, that one line that MAGA has, which is that you do not insult the president. You don't disagree with the president. And if you do, you need to couch it and all this other stuff to avoid the backlash that is inevitable.

And he can't do that, even though we have texts from Tucker Carlson talking about how much he fucking hates Trump. It's so pathetic and funny. One part that really stuck out to me, especially in the extended version of that first clip we just shared, is that at one point, Tucker Carlson says to Ted Cruz, I don't believe you believe that. Um, you know, Ted Cruz was saying, like,

you said, Tucker, that you don't believe that Iran's trying to kill the president. And he said, I do believe that, but I don't believe that you believe that. There's never an instinct from the media that we have today to say, I don't believe you. We just listen to conservatives bloviate forever about, well, this is my religion, and this is this thing, and this is that. And there's so little time where the people are like,

but your actions don't line up with that. So I don't think you really believe that. And that is like, ah, like fresh air. I'm like, please, can we call out the points where we just don't buy it? Like every people buy everything Trump says. And I can never get over the fact that the entire election he was saying, I don't believe in part of 2025. I don't know what it is.

And people are just like, sure. It's like no one's question was, I don't believe you. And also, what is the plan instead? It was just, well, he said he's not into it. What parts of it do you disagree with? Yes, follow up. What do you disagree with? What do you agree with?

Say an example. What are we doing instead? Because you do have to have a platform. It can't just be, I'm not doing Project 2025. And like now immediately everything is Project 2025. Right. Because nobody's curious. It's like, no one wants to push back and say, well, I don't buy it.

So now you have to prove what what your other belief is. And I'm like, can that be the thing we take from this? Like as members of whatever media independent, you know, super corporate, whatever, like it's OK to not believe what the person you're interviewing is saying and say that to their face. Yeah. Especially when their actions and other words they've said are directly contradictory to what they just said. And that is like why he like he was ready for those kinds of things and moves

partly because he's so dishonest all the time. He's like, I know how to lie. Right. I know you're lying. And to to like talk just about his role in this and the spectacle and like what he's getting out of it and so on. Again, no war with Iran. That's great. For context, for folks listening, Tucker's origin story, I think is relevant in most situations. He was in print journalism and he was coming back from lunch. I believe the exact quote was he came back with a take out hot

dog. Yeah. I believe it was the phrase. I think that's what it is. Take out something. The fancy man is a take out hot dog. You got a hot dog on the street. Got a hot dog?

Yeah, right. You didn't eat it for here. We don't know the color. But they're all take out. It's a hot dog. Yeah, he's like, I had a sit down hot dog. It's like, all right. But he was intercepted. OK, Buckley.

But anyway, he got back from work and everyone was at lunch and he was asked by someone at work, hey, they're doing an interview on, I think, CNN and CNN or SMBC about the OJ trial, which was going on at the time. They need an expert to talk about it. Are you good? Can you do that? And he, in book he wrote I didn't know anything about the trial

I didn't I wasn't paying attention to it at all But I said yes, and I was on TV like an hour later He knew that he wasn't an expert for this thing that he was going to be talking about He lied and said he was and then he went on and bullshitted for half hour. And that's how he got on television by knowingly lying and saying he's an expert on something like it's it's just like that is what has been from the very beginning. That's who he's been.

I think it helps for Tucker that he knows he he's not moving up. He already got fired from Fox News, so he's already doing a step-down thing. But every other journalist is like, well, maybe there's still... Even Terry Moran, who's in his 60s, was like, I probably shouldn't say... Do you really think it says MS-13 on his... I shouldn't hold up a photo. But I feel like if it wasn't Trump, Tucker would do that these days. He'd be like, what are you talking about?

What? What's he talking about? You know, he'd be a I don't like my face and I don't think I'm capable of making a face as obnoxious as Tucker. He's it's God. He's the worst. He's an evil person, but he's using his power, his evil powers for good in this one instance. You don't have to hand it to him, though. We don't have to hand it to him. We don't have to hand it to him Yeah, there's all these moments. There are these Where Ted Cruz is like, why are you focusing on on the Jews and then like Tucker's like wait

You're accusing me of anti-semitism and then Ted's like no, I'm not. No, I'm not. No, I'm not And then he's like, yeah, you are you just implied this and just like that's not what I said And then Ted says, okay, if it's not anti-semitism, what is it? You just said that you weren't accusing him. You just said, what are you talking about? There's so many moments like that where Ted is just like unprepared for anybody, anybody to like point things out or call him on anything

or listen to what he's saying. Also, I think everyone hates Ted Cruz. Like, is it like, that's just the facts of like our Congress and people who've had to work with him. And so it's like, I'm sure that Tucker's like, I'm not gonna do this to everybody. But if Ted Cruz is gonna show his dumb face, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna work out hard.

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and Good Burger. Don't do stuff, watch stuff. Never stop watching stuff at the stuff watching places. Bring the action with you and stream for free on all your favorite devices. Pluto TV, stream now. Pay never too. Okay, so on Wednesday, the Supreme Court released a 6-3 ruling which upholds Tennessee's law banning gender-affirming treatment for minors. It's a 6-3 ruling, as you would expect, and I read through

for minors. It's a six to three ruling, as you would expect, and I read through Chief Justice John Roberts' explanation, and his main argument for this blatantly discriminatory ruling is that, well, the plaintiffs say that this violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it discriminates based on sex, but it doesn't discriminate based on sex. but it doesn't discriminate based on sex. How does it discriminate? It discriminates based on age, which is fine, and discriminates based on a medical procedure that is banned for both transgender boys and transgender girls. So you see it is not discriminatory based on sex.

It uses a typically like Robert's logistical loop to do the thing that they wanted to do. And then they both he and Clarence Thomas, by the way, argued that gender affirming care is way more controversial in the medical community than it is. They refer to as experimental in their. Amy Coney Barrett signed on to this and then went further. Amy Coney Barrett, and I take back everything I said about her having integrity a few weeks ago when she did something we liked. I mean, that's just how it is.

I'm gonna defend Jonathan a few weeks ago. It's not like you went hard in praise of. I didn't go hard in the paint for Amy Coney Barrett. Amy Coney Barrett, no. She went even farther and made an argument that trans people do not count as what they call a suspect group because they are not distinct and discrete as say women or Latino people or black people or other groups that have protections in specific ways.

Wait, she used the word discrete for being black? I'm like, yeah, what are we talking about? I feel like people always know. I feel like they always can tell. The discreet, yeah. Like, do you mean like the discrimination is discreet? Cause I'm like, it feels very, that feels loud. We're all colorblind now.

Yeah, I didn't even tell you guys. That's really hard. Just for people watching, it's not a tan. I am in fact black all the time. And so if I do feel like I'm facing discrimination from people like Target, you know, I feel like that's absolutely because they can see it. But sure, Amy, it's different.

It's different for trans people for sure, yeah. Well, she points out like, listen, for women and black people, there's a long history of discrimination in this country that had to be rectified. But trans people, that's not even Mentioned decades ago, so you can't really say that there's a long history It's like it was fully illegal till like ten minutes ago, and now it's illegal again like what is talking about right?

You're like are you serious with this one? So they're just trying to say they're not they're not like So they're just trying to say they're not they're not like Yeah, she's like they may have been privately discriminated against by individuals But that has nothing to do with the law the law which we need to start discriminating Is a hundred years of Jim Crow style oppression of trans and then Right distinct and discreet group. Everybody's gotta pay their dues around here. I haven't seen you guys hit with water hoses and that's all I'm saying.

Like what is she talking about? More water goes like- What is she talking about? This is absurd and infuriating. I mean they've been going further and further and sort of each lawmaker has their own sort of end goal in mind of like, you know, banning like socially transitioning or banning like medical care for for adults. Like it is a it is getting it's going to get closer and closer to what we just talked about. And then there'll be a distinct group and then we can be worried about their rights when all of that has happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can't learn from other mistakes.

We actually have to make them now again, always, because what is progress? What's the point of progressing? How else how else are you going to not learn the lesson if you don't keep doing it over and over again? You got to do it over and over again to keep forgetting about it. It's heartbreaking. There are people out there that are being kicked off of their treatments that they've been undergoing. It kind of knocks the wind out of me sometimes. Like we're sitting here joking and I love it.

It's fun to, you know, commiserate together. But like the reality is, is that this is devastating. This is really truly devastating for so many people. It also lays the groundwork for the federal ban. Like, this was a case that they were hearing about Tennessee specifically. I've seen, like, local organizations saying

there's probably 100,000, you know, trans kids in Tennessee. And, like, you know, maybe they don't even know yet, but whatever, like, that is sort of what they're projecting is, like, to be harmed in the immediate. Once the Supreme Court says something like this, now you have every other state coming out of the woodwork and they know they can't be challenged. And so it's like it does have legs. It's not the sort of thing where I think for a lot of these rulings, you know, people will be like, well, then you'll just go to a blue state.

You'll just go somewhere where it's safer. And it's like, right. But I can attest to even being here in California, in Los Angeles. Like, once Roe came down, you have challenges to abortion clinics in Beverly Hills. Like, they're challenging their ability to even have space. And like, you know, like realtors are saying, we won't sell this land to them.

So you see that the trickle down isn't just like, well, here are these regressive places, and I guess you just have to go, you know, that the trickle down isn't just like, well, here are these regressive places and I guess you just have to go, you know, in the seventies would be San Francisco, I guess today would be anywhere in California. That doesn't guarantee any amount of safety or protection. Like the federal government's job is to make that a thing. And now we have this activist court, you know, it's just, it's really horrible. And Trump has made it clear that states don't have rights. That's not it.

There's that. But even in California, there are huge pockets of California that are not liberal in the way that the cities are. And so that's a whole other ballgame, even in California, but even in Los Angeles. I mean, I don't have this in front of me. So it was at the Children's Hospital of LA that paused doing gender affirming care for patients and starting treatments.

And that's in Los Angeles. It felt maybe in Trump won that like they can say whatever they want, but like, we're going to have our things, right? States rights, we're gonna have this stuff. And now, especially when it comes to public health, they want to control everyone's body. So it is gender affirming care, it's vaccines. We took my son to the doctor, and the doctor was like, okay, he's done, he doesn't need any more shots until he's four.

And I was like, and we're going to be able to get those, right? I was like, not to get political, but with a doctor, but it was this nervous laughter. Like we're not doing anything different, but like once certain vaccines aren't mandated for a elementary school anymore, then insurance companies can decide not to cover them anymore. Like this stuff can happen and it will affect people in blue states. And so the Supreme Court's language where they say, listen, states should be able to decide this stuff and then people can always go to a different state as if it's easy to move states. It is for them. They can get on their friend's private jet and go on

a fishing trip. But that's not even going to be enough for them. And there's not going to be, I mean, what they're proposing for, you know, the big, beautiful bill, it's like there's not even going to be the state level, like assisted health care. It's going to be one of those things like everything else in this country. I guess this is what they mean by running it like a business where rich people are not going to be affected. If you're lucky enough to be a trans kid with a rich parent, you'll probably be able to find care. You'll probably

be able to find vaccines. But everyone else is just going to be left to the mercy of the market. And the market does not have our best interests at heart, especially these huge, you know, multi-billion dollar, trillion dollar healthcare companies that are happy to charge you, you know, a million dollars for a polio vaccine, because Trump said that you can't have it anymore. Transkid with a rich parent who also supports you. Right. I mean, the levels, because let's look at Elon Musk's kids. Can we have a brief moment of levity where we talk about this hilarious photograph of a portrait? It's one of the funniest things I've seen recently. I don't wanna overstate it, but I thought it was so fake.

I thought it was AI or fake or something, but the guy who tweeted it works at Reuters, so it's a real thing. It's like a poster, like the Punisher's nephew would have in the basement. It's so wild that he saw like on some meme on Truth Social, like print that out, put it on the wall. Yeah, make it big.

It's not even as big as the other two pieces of art. And you're like, see this and you're like, wait, why is it there? What's going on? And the reason is it replaced a portrait of first lady Hillary Clinton. Ah. Well, you gotta commend his sense of style

and decorating, like very cohesive. You can picture him there, like up a bit, note lower, oh perfect, it looks perfect. No frame, no frame, just printed on the- It doesn't even like it, it looks so out of place. It's like if you went to like Monticello and you're like, this is where Thomas Jefferson lived. They also had this weird print out of him.

Like fighting the dinosaurs. We also got this weird print from the beach in Venice. It was funny, we were talking, I got spray painted with like earth here. Here's the invasion of Normandy and here's Pepe the Frog. Yeah, exactly. Here's an Etsy drawing of him that he just thought was It does look like he got it off of Etsy.

It was supposed to be a bumper sticker. Yeah, exactly. Well, no, you can order it as a bumper sticker. You can exactly. Well, no, you can order it as a bumper sticker, you can order it as a coaster, you can order it as a 12 by whatever you want. Whatever you want this amazing design on, you can get it on anything. Available in Shopify. It comes with every, a free one

with every order of Trump slop, whatever the trick of the boat, the crypto. Yeah, there are not 50 stars, but that's fine. That's fine, you don't need 50 stars. It's only five Trump coins. Hannah and Matt at McDonald's. Okay, that was a, you don't need 50 stars. It's only five Trump quads. Hand them out at McDonald's. Okay, that was a fun little moment of levity. Before we wrap things up today,

I think we should check in real quick with Oobababa. Yeah. Oobababa. What's Oobababa? The one big beautiful bill act, which is its official name, passed house. They're they're making changes They're really ooh, they're going hard in the Senate. They're probably gonna get rid of the Medicare cuts so they can cut Medicaid more That's that hard. Yeah, but right senator Mike Lee who's had a busy

Spies this man senator based Mike Lee. Yes senator This man senator based Mike Lee. Yes senator Based Mike Lee who had to delete some tweets mocking the murder of Democratic representatives in Minnesota after he was called out in person by his colleague Tina Smith anyway, we're not talking about that The Senate committee that was nine months ago That was nine months ago three days ago Yeah

the Senate Committee on energy and natural resources which he heads released its portion of the Senate Republicans version of the budget reconciliation bill and in that bill it Mandates the sale of at least three million acres of public land in the American West out of a potential million acres of public land in the American West out of a potential 258 million acres over the next five years. Three million is the minimum, which is like the size of Connecticut. Is there a max? Well, the max is all of them. This is what I'm getting at. This is what I'm getting at because I feel sorry, there's more to set up. There's something slightly sneaky and the framing of it in my mind to say at least three million because when you say that in comparison to 258 million, you're like, all right, but it

doesn't stop there. Please go on. Well, I want to share this visualization of a bunch of the land that is available and it's either available to purchase from the Bureau of Land Management or the U S forest service. This, uh, this tan stuff is Bureau of Land Management. The green is U S forest service. That's a lot of land.

And when he was called out, when based, Mike Lee was called out on Twitter, real Mike Lee responded like none of that area's for sale. And then he got community noted, because they still do that, because he is lying. There is confusion around this. You know, I've heard a lot of like, this can't be serious, or it is serious. And they're like, well, they're not.

Just like listen to them, yeah. Do I imagine immediately there's a huge land grab? Not necessarily. Well, I was just going to say, so like, the first episode of How's This Better literally tackles this. And we spoke with a lobbyist on behalf of the parks, like the actual national parks, which I think they're all leaning in to say, like, the national parks are fine.

It's the forests that will go. And it's like, what do you think the national parks are surrounded by? And do you think the bears can read the sign when they walk onto what they're drilling? And do you understand what the point of all of this is? The thing that really strikes me about this issue, because it's like, okay, there's the basic,

this is just, you shouldn't be giving the federal government this land. But again, we have to get back to like, what is the plan? Because we, everyone on this call, everyone in this country, owns that land. There is no plan to pay us for three million or two hundred fifty three million acres of land that we own and have paid to upkeep for hundreds of years. No, this is to pay for their tax cuts. Yeah, we didn't get those $5,000 doge checks.

I don't think we're going to get anything for this. It's to line their pockets. And so it's like people need to wake up. Like if it was your house they were selling, you'd be like, fuck you, pay me. People are like, well, if Trump wants to do it, I'm like, so you're going to give away literally land that you own, meaning like tomorrow you could drive to Yosemite and just post up because you've been paying for it versus like, sorry, there's a big fence here because we're going to cut down all the trees and kill all of the animals. And, you know, we'll just not have

any anything for you to go to in this country that doesn't require you to spend tons of money to experience it. Like people just really don't have any sense of what the point of paying taxes is. And like, I think that's why Doze was able to come in and be like, see, we've saved money, even though it's like, right, but you're taking all of our benefits, you're taking all of the things. There's just with everything, there's unintended things that you don't even think about that comes from this, the building of, okay, more, yes, expensive places, stuff that used to be accessible to all of us that now has been turned into a luxury resort is now being turned, yes. And then there's, yeah, for drilling, for oil, for, you know, fishing, for, I mean, literally all of

the natural resources. So it's like, the land has its own value, but then it's also like the resources that the land provides. And so it's like, so you're telling me that you would sell it and now you're going to have a whole fishing industry of these rare fish that we kept alive for hundreds of years that you then continue to profit from? I don't fully know how this works, but I do know that a lot of ranchers and stuff that let their cattle graze on certain swaths of land. And so now that might not be accessible to them. Part of this conversation, like, within the money

that they're like, okay, we're gonna make all this money by selling the land, is firing all of the staff. And so we spoke with a park ranger in that episode, Adam Auerbach, he used to be in the parks. Now he advocates on behalf of them. But he was talking about how, how like they fired all of the people who are like the janitors, the front desk people, whatever. So what you have now are PhD people

who have studied this land for years to tell us, okay, well, these, like, here's what's happening here. If it's getting hot, these animals and these, you know, bugs and whatever is here is they're leaving. So you can expect that. Like they can extrapolate for what that will mean for the rest of the world. And they're like, now you work at the front desk. Now you change the toilet paper. You don't actually get to do your science. I've got friends in the forest service whose entire

job during the summer, especially, you're literally surveying to make sure, to see the impact of humans on nature, to see what invasive species are popping up. They're cataloging. There are lots of improvements that can be made to the Forest Service. A lot of that comes with better funding to be able to hire more people because we're severely understaffed.

But these are vital things that nobody's out there thinking about. But now you don't have access, you don't know what's happening, you don't know how that water comes downstream, ends up in our water system and then affects the population that's not in the private land. I don't know, I could go on for days about it,

but it's very terrifying, and I honestly don't really know what there is to be done about it. Call your fucking people again. This is an issue that people, it's one of those issues that I think is, it's not non-partisan, but it is, as everyone's been talking about, this is an issue that affects everybody.

They are the most popular federal employees. Exactly, it's a very popular, people like nature generally and there are conservatives who want to conserve like the beautiful things that nature has to offer. So it does seem like a lot of people like a lot of people pushing back against base Mike Lee are Republicans who are like, what are you doing? Even beyond just like our enjoyment of it, like the Republican argument is like,

well, we're running the country like a business, so we're going to try to make money here. The parks make more money now than the oil industry does, like because of recreation, because of people visiting. 300 million people visit the parks every year. That's nice. That's basically the entire population of the country. People come from around the world to see it. And so it's like, we're not even thinking in a business sense. Like this is just another grift.

And I think that like people have got to wake up. The answer is like showing up, showing out. You know, I went to those protests last weekend, the no Kings day and the online leftists can be mad about the signs about brunch who gives a fuck. But like the reality is people were out there talking about science. They were talking about the national parks. They were talking about immigration.

They were talking about all of this. Like people care. And I think that that show of of just millions of people taking a Saturday where they could have stayed at home matters. We need more of that. We need people to be willing to say with their chest on a daily basis, you can't take these from us. This is my land.

I own it. One last thing that I'll say people love that want to talk about my town. Everyone uses Facebook in this little mountain town to get news or whatnot. And I've started seeing people posting like, is this true? This can't be true. I'm like, yeah, that's what we've been talking about for a while. People outraged. How can I change this?

And this is not people that are of my persuasion. Politically speaking, doesn't make me feel good that they're finally seeing that. I am pointing that out as another thing that is breaking through that does feel nonpartisan. It does feel like across the board, this is not what people wanted or expected, even though Project 2025. All of it, all of it, all of it.

Bleed it out for us. But that would require people to read or know how to read and then choose to read, which I feel like is less and less popular. Or just to be just a little bit more incredulous. Just stop being so credulous about every single thing they say. Every single thing, right.

Well, you guys, we've arrived at the end of our show. I think we did a good job covering topics, keeping it light and real. Yeah, super late. I think you did a great job covering topics, keeping it light and real. Yeah, super light. I think you did a great job wrapping it up. Thanks. Akilah, it was such a delight. As a really good compliment, I did too.

It was, you did such a good job complimenting me. You're all our pros. Please tell our listeners and viewers where they can find you. Yeah, I am Akilah H. on Instagram, but my new show is called How Is This Better from Courier. You've probably seen their posts. They do a lot of posts in their own,

like TikTok and Instagram. We are breaking into YouTube. We would love to have you as a listener. I think you get my vibe, and so you definitely will like the show. So yeah, check it out. It comes out every Friday, and we have four episodes as of this episode airing.

So come catch up. We would love to have you. Yeah, if you like our show, you're gonna like Akilah's show. Um... And if you don't like our show, keep listening. Don't leave a comment or anything. Yeah, you don't need to tell us. Yeah, tell your friends that they should like it, even if you don't.

Exactly. Go listen to Verdict if you're not enjoying this. Ew. All right, folks, we're outta here. Have a good weekend, and remember. What? We love you very much. Much.

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