Some More News - Even More News: Republican Wipeout on Election Night

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Hi. On today's episode, comedian Sara Caplan joins Katy, Cody, and Jonathan to discuss Zohran Mamdani's victory in NYC, the widespread Democratic victories across the U.S., and what it means for 2026. They also chat about Sara's decision as a trans person to leave the U.S. in the face of nonstop transphobic, violent rhetoric from the right.As always, we recorded right before that big thing that happened.Follow Sara on Instagram: @sararosecaplanPatreon.com/somemorenewsshop.somemorenews.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Oh, hello. And what? Welcome back to even more news, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. That's right. I knew it. I thought you were going to say that and I was right. And I'm going to say what you think I am, which is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm Cody.

Hi. Blah, blah, blah. Thank you for introducing yourself so eloquently. Everybody, we are very excited to welcome a first time guest to the show today. a writer and comedian and philosophy graduate student, Sarah Kaplan. Welcome, Sarah. Hello, thank you all so much. And you also get to meet my cat, Sevi.

Oh, Sevi. I'm sure Sevi will have a very important voice on this show. I'm very cute. Quite a structure Seve's got back there. I spoil them. We just dragged them on such a long trip. And I couldn't resist. Give them a little treat.

A little treat to live in. We're going to be talking more about that trip later in the episode. But I do have to mention that Jonathan is also here. Oh. Okay. I knew you were all worried for a moment, but he is here. He is well, I think. I want you to want to mention it, Katie.

I do want to mention it. But it's okay. We can work up to that. For right now, it can be a half dimension. we do have holidays and I'm in a celebratory mood this week so let's dig in let's do it yeah it's been a good week Saturday November 8th is National Saddle Hunting Day I don't know what this is Jonathan I didn't either I'm familiar with it well because it looks like a forest mountain type thing that you might have heard of at least describe it

Describe. Okay, so you buy this saddle for you. It's like a little hammock for your butt and you wrap it around a tree so you can lean back from the tree like this and have your bow and arrow and shoot an unsuspecting deer from high up in a tree.

And no one has heard of this so they made a day to try to. To popularize it? They want to popularize it or just let people? Well, there's a lot of gear. You can buy gear for it. Oh. I'm sure you can get designs.

Is it created by the people who make the gear? I mean, that's, I think perhaps enthusiasts did it. I think perhaps, and I quote, National Saddle Hunting Day began in 2020, established by Trophy Line, the company that invented the tree saddle, actually. Oh, there we go. This looks like a cheater's way of being Catness Everdeen. It's not even like an old thing. It's like a five-year-old device that they invented.

But I can imagine a much cooler usage of a tree saddle for like riding an int, perhaps. You could ride an ant. Oh, you could write an ant with a tree saddle. I bet that would be more comfortable for both parties. Yeah, you gotta just stand on a shoulder. More respectful, exactly. Although Mary and Pip never seemed to be worried about falling off while Treebeard is lumbering around in the forest for conservatively 20 hours.

I would trust Treebeard, too. I would have no concerns. I don't know with any of you are talking about. I mean, I can you guess. Was hoping it's some sort of. Mary Pippin. Treebeard. Mary Pippin, treebeard, and.

Ent. Traipsing through Fingorn Forest. No, I'm so happy about that. What is it? What is it? It's something that I should know and I don't. It's Lord of the Rings. Oh, it's Lord of the Rings.

Oh, I'm outing myself right now. Never seen them? Have you never seen them? No. Pretty entertaining. Pretty entertaining trilogy. You'd like the Inns. They're the big tree people.

They're the big tree people. They're talking trees. Do you like Groot? I love Groot. Well, you love tree beard. I know I will. Okay, we don't need to get into this. This is one of those things where everyone's always told me I need to do something and then I get resentment and I know.

No, no resentment. Let's move on because honestly, I'm going to get, I don't believe in cancel culture, but I'm going to get canceled for this. No, I need to move on. You are not. Everyone is very accepting. All they want you to do is go watch them and enjoy them. There's no canceling here.

I sent a photo for a wedding and I haven't seen it. It's standard editions. Also, Katie, tis the season. I've also lied to people. It's Lord of the Rings season. It's cozy time. I have lied to people at times and said, yes, I have seen it just so that they wouldn't bother me anymore. And now they all know.

Now they all know Well good news is that Online fantasy fans are Are really just awesome and cool Normal I know I know we've got a huge cross section here We could just bleep every

Identifying name that we've said Keep the entire section Well they know talking about tree How many things could we be talking about Groot tree beard what else I'm going to move us on to the news Surely we have to After my public embarrassment has been

Okay. Now that my public embarrassment is complete, I think we should pivot to the news. And even this conversation can't bring me down from the high I've been on this week because Tuesday was a very good day, wasn't it? Came out weird. Tuesday was a very good day. Jonathan. You want me to start with the election stuff? Because there was other good stuff that happened on Tuesday.

The day started off with a bang, so to speak. Oh, my goodness. Katie. Cheney's dead Dick Cheney died He's old I was gonna save Ding Dong the Witch is dead

For when Trump dies But I think it feels good now Ding Dong the Witch is dead You know it started off with a bang That guy Dick Cheney shot Surviving To getting shot by Dick Cheney He died later

He apologized to Dick Cheney For getting shot in the face By Dick Cheney He should have used a tree saddle Would have gotten him A tree saddle Better shot exactly More comfort, better angle

Well you all just say He was a truly monstrous man. Let's take some time. All right. Why, just for the war crimes? But he respects democracy. He respects democracy. And he really didn't help us win this election.

Sarah, any thoughts on dead dick? I mean, again, you put it that way. That's a different question, Katie. But thoughts on Dick Cheney, bad man, I'm happy he's dead. It would have been nice to see him have some sort of accountability. for his very bad actions, but that's fine. You know what has been satisfying? The lack of lionization of him.

Because now Republicans hate him, too. And MAGA certainly hates him. So just kind of died in the news, completely forgotten. And I believe this was true as of last night when I was putting our notes together, Trump has not mentioned it Not in a post Not on camera Every even like Joe Biden and

Clintons and stuff Or like well I disagreed with Dick Cheney He was a statesman and a blah blah blah blah blah Nothing from Trump For a former vice president of his party That's so far I mean you know The part of the party

But also It does I will say that It goes to show How someone's public image Can change over time with the releasing of true information

I'll say that that's what this moment speaks to for me that yeah even conservatives want nothing to do with them yeah you have time to catch up but also I imagine most conservatives don't like him because of him being like I don't know about this Trump guy

right like it's not like they don't care about the war crime to the torture or any of that kind of stuff I don't think because they're doing them now I definitely got a few jokes during the election of like, ooh, you've got Cheney on your side. That'll help. You know, vibes like that. I've sensed a general distaste across the aisle about him prior to the election. It's extra funny and perhaps a bit ironic that Dick Cheney died on 9-11-2, which we'll be talking about. We're going to talk about 9-11-2 now. Because that, yeah, his death really set the stage for 9-11-2.

I've been a little checked out of the news recently. I've been busy. And 9-11-2 is that what people are calling? I'm not going to guess out loud. It is. You can guess out loud. That's what it's correct. That's what they're calling Zoron.

That's what they're calling the election of Zohron. Oh, wow. That's what they're insinuating. I don't think anyone's used the phrase 9-112. Leading up to this, they've definitely been sharing tons of videos and photos of 9-11 talking about how he's going to do more about that that is bad. And it's just like, we're going to bring the terror to New York and all that kind of stuff. Lots of twin towers falling.

And then, like, you said you'd never forget, but you forgot. You forgot. They forgot. A lot of they forgot. As if the thing to remember is that Muslim people are bad, apparently, is what they wanted us to remember about 9-11. So sorry, Deborah, messing. Zoran Mamdani won, the mayoral election. I think it might have expanded by now, but by 9.

He got over 50% of all votes, the first New York City mayoral candidate to get one million votes since 1969, cleaned up around the city, embarrassment for Cuomo, the GOP is crashing out over it, New York has fallen, et cetera. Fucking Cuomo, man, losing so badly in the Democratic primary and then needing to do this for what, for what, to be embarrassed again, they don't. like you dude they don't like you at all they don't like you as a Democrat they don't like you as an independent maybe they'd like you as a conservative I don't know maybe they don't like you just not being in politics anymore just go away you've got money do you think he'll run for like Senate or something do you think he's going to go away do you think this is it for him like he's the kind of guy is like all right well I got one more in me I don't actually think so people say this is the end of his career maybe it is

maybe he'll get the message, but there's so much ego involved in every step of this decision and so much, I guess not summing out, but revealing of true character throughout this election cycle, the shit that he was posting and saying about Mom Donnie, it's wild. And it does seem like somebody whose whole identity is tied upon being elected and being in a position of a power as opposed to having any sort of ideology that grounds him or something. sense of you know what this is what the people chose he so i wouldn't very much not be surprised if i hope he does i hope he runs just the beginning i bet he runs like what what drove him to do that he lost already that's what i don't understand about this decision i i don't know like did he have a bunch of yes men in his ears or maybe this awakened to some kind of mass public humiliation fetish in which case if I were his advisor run against aOC next time yes oh yeah Senate all right do it to be clear he still got a lot of votes he did get a lot of votes as well there seems to have been massive turnout across the board notable that even if

either of the other candidates dropped out mom down he still won like yeah he got over 50 he got he got over 50 percent of the vote which I know people people were very worried about You know, well, if one of these guys drops out, then maybe Cuomo can actually, maybe you can do this thing, but that would not have worked. I think Cuomo should run for something, like, since he was already governor of New York and then he wanted to run for mayor of New York City, he should run for something smaller each time. Comptroller somewhere. Comptroller or dog catcher, which I've always been told from media is something you can get elected to, but I've never seen it on a ballot. That's what the shows say. Yeah.

I'd want to run for that. What are the odds that Donald Trump, the Trump administration does some move or they're like, Mamdani is illegitimate, either voter fraud or he's an illegal immigrant. And like, what if the Trump administration just asserts that Cuomo is the rightful mayor? Well, I feel like they would have made moves already to do that. That is something we were before you joined the call today. We were actually just discussing one of the curious things in the fallout from the election is the lack of, of saying this was rigged, this was stolen.

There does seem to be the president is out here speaking. We could watch a clip. He's out here admitting that the shutdown is indeed hurting conservatives, is indeed hurting the GOP. Conservative politicians, right? Not voters or people or anybody. No. Hurting them politically great.

Okay, awesome. Also about the shutdown and how that relates to last night. I think if you read the pulses, the shutdown, was a big factor, negative for the Republicans. The thing is, because he's not, you know, he's half invested in it because obviously Mamdani, as a figure, is perfect for Trump and his movement as, like, his enemy, right? Like, he's tailor-made for Trump to be, like, this guy, like, it's, it's, he's got all the, all the, you can say, like, oh, he's a Sharia communist, all the things, which many people have.

but he doesn't seem to have done that and it's like is he tired is he over it does he not think it's going to work um does he kind of weirdly respect mom donnie we showed that clip earlier uh this week of uh an interviewer being like you know a lot of people are comparing him to you and like how you like buck trends and this and this and he's like well you know like he's like there's a weird attitude he has about him but i have seen a lot of people who aren't donald trump uh talk about how the election was rigged. Obviously, like Sidney Powell, I think. Oh, she's still out there?

She's still out there. I saw one of hers today. Maybe Elon is boosting all the people who are doing that. Who knows? But she's doing it, and other people are. And it's the kind of thing that it very well could just, like, float up to Trump. And then he'll start saying it. Yeah.

It just was odd to me that, like, this was a blowout across the board, a bloodbath for Republicans everywhere that had elections. And I thought immediately they'd be crying fraud. I guess they want to save that for next year, potentially. They're still getting some of their chest pieces in place. When the margins are this big, I'm sorry. There's not a lot you're going to be able to do. I've seen a lot of like, especially in Virginia, not necessarily with the mayoral race in York, but like in Virginia, they stole this because this can't like, they're trying to do that. But the other thing that they're just saying is like well you know a lot of blue winds and blue areas moving on like they they just they don't want to contend with with the margins or anything like

that we should go through some of these results because yes there were a lot of somewhat minor races you know nothing's minor i i fully believe in the power of local politics and how important it is, et cetera, that said, it does paint a picture that I think we should all be encouraged by the amount of seats gained and just, you know, city controller positions different across the board gains for Democrats. And it's a big deal. It shows that people are upset, that people are paying attention, that they're going to vote and turn up. This is a minor election in the scheme of things to have this many people show up is a big deal and we should be bolstered by this anyway.

Yeah. And a lot of signifiers too, like for like specific issues, which we'll get to like in Colorado that like indicates again the sort of like, well, the problem a lot of the times of the Democratic Party is not saying things that people can like grasp on to and believing in something they believe in and being like charismatic and able to articulate it. So let's run through some of some highlights here, Jonathan. Yeah. So in Virginia, the Democratic candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, beat Republican winsome, Earl Sears by 14 and a half points. That's the largest Democratic margin. In 40 years, the entire state, every district shifted left. A lot of that is probably, you know, Democrats were very enthusiastic to come out and vote, or independents too, who are enthusiastic to come out and vote against Republicans and Trump's interests. They flipped 13. seats in the Virginia House of Delegates expanding their advantage from 5149 to 6436.

That's pretty significant. That's very significant. And the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, J. Jones, who sent those texts musing about Republican families. Well, when he was a kid, three years ago. He was a kid. Even he won. And the woman who leaked the texts, the Republican, lost. Because a lot of people on the right are very upset at this.

Like, can you believe they elected this man? And it does seem like the attitude from Democrats is you guys elected Trump. All bets are off with this stuff. The stakes are too high to, like we still have standards and we still do care, but the stakes are too high to. It's very interesting. We talked briefly about Jay Jones a few weeks ago and this scandal. And personally, I don't like it. leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't like talking about people like that way. And he was also included the kids in this texting scandal, fantasizing about death. It didn't like it. That said, it does speak to just how fucking upset people are with what is happening. And it also speaks to the normalization. I mean, this president tweets videos of him dumping shit over protesters. I don't know what to say. There's been a normalization of a violent rhetoric.

Obviously, that's different than the text, but just the whole soup of ugliness. And it's not what I want out of our politicians, but, again, speaking to people showing up and doing what they need to do to fight back, you know? Yeah. You know, and people are, I think it speaks to people, I've seen a lot of like, well, but Trump won this and Trump won this. And Democrats, people hate Democrats, and there's tons of polling that says that people to do hate Democrats. Democrats. But I think there's a big part of it. But I think there's also the sort of like, yeah, but they hate Republicans more. There's like that Donald Trump thing that he is capable of doing conning people as a con man. He can con people. But the Republican Party as a whole doesn't have that. And when you just put the ideas up, when you put just these issues or parties up against each other, people don't really want to vote for these freaks in the GOP unless the king freak is. kind of attached to them. But even then, his endorsements don't always work out. So, you know. He endorsed Cuomo at the last minute. And I think that there are some people that

were going to vote for Sluwa. I don't know how I pronounce this name? Slewa. Slewa. Whatever. Slewa. I always learn. It doesn't matter anymore. Maybe it does not matter anymore. Maybe pivoted to him. But, no, it's super unhelpful. This is a good point. Democrats had a good day. The Democrat Party's polling is in the toilet. It's not like that's going up. So is Donald Trump's. They hate both parties. This speaks, especially in this election where these are issues.

We still have so much to go through. Colorado approved a new measure that would tax high income earners and add it to create universal lunches for their children. And then any excess will go into the supplemental SNAP program. Awesome. That's a tangible issue. This is what people are showing up. This is what I want. If Democrats were smart, they would be looking at these results and saying,

woof, they hate us, but they're showing up for these people in these districts. It should be a clear message, clear as day. People want progressive populism. People want answers to our dire needs. And it's not about the Democratic Party that they're showing up for. It's about issues and it's about a need. It should be. And it should be, but I just mean to them whether or not they take that message is a whole other conversation.

But it should be the takeaway. And there's also a spectrum, too. Like, it's a range of progressivism. Like, obviously, Mom Dani is like, oh, okay, you're saying this, this is very specific. And, you know, what, Spanberger is not like this, like, far lefty, like, Democratic socialist person. Yeah, I think there's a lot, there are a lot of issues going on in different places. You're right. You're right, Cody.

it with one paint brush, but I think that it should be a major takeaway. And you're right. It's not as though everybody is a super progressive that got elected. But I do think it's the best options that they had. But to look at the whole picture, they should be paying attention to all the clues and to all the context here. Hopefully the lessons they don't learn are only, well, we moderate and we do Mom Donnie's social media. And we put those together. And we put those together. And that's what we do. Yeah. I have a few concerns about the lessons they'll learn, like in multiple directions. I think first, I think you're 100% right. Like, there's clear lessons the Democratic Party should be learning. But those lessons have been clear for a very long time. The Democratic

Party, I don't think it's that they're not smart people. I think it's that they just simply have different objectives and priorities than I do to touch back on Zoron for a bit. Like, he will, inevitably be a disappointment because his entire platform is the maximum of what he's reaching for like that's like his peak progressive agenda whether or not he individually like he can hold on to that as strongly as he wants but when he hits the inertia of a massive city machine like new york government he just won't be able to get it all done and i worry that the progressive voters that have been electrified by that kind of agenda will read that as betrayal or will, like, lose faith broader?

This is a pitfall of progressive movements in general. It's not that I think he will be a disappointment. It's more that I think we should all be prepared for the reality of how hard it is to get all this done, especially when there's a huge well-funded machine trying to stop you around every corner. Temper expectations. Take wins when they happen is good to do.

and don't expect the world. Also, I do think that Mom Dani is particularly skilled at politics broadly, like not like the like policy or this, but sort of like the politics of it, talking to people and communicating that aspect of it. And I see him being able to sort of navigate those struggles, like perceived or real failures, better than most, hopefully,

to sort of avoid that thing of like, Well, then are we going to abandon this person or abandon these projects or whatever and sort of holding it together? I briefly worked for Nithia Raman as a legal clerk when I was a law student. And what I found in that office that I found really frustrating was the preemptive self-moderating because she didn't want to put forward things that she didn't think would win or that had no chance at winning. So they would like moderate before I was attended protection. clerk. So my job was to research what other cities were doing and come up with like, well, this is what's possible. This is what's possible. And then watch it get watered down internally before

being put forward to other city council members. So like I love that Mamdani is like saying everything that he wants. I think that's awesome. And I think like the problem the Democratic party has in large part is they don't like losing. So they don't want to ever advocate for some position that they think won't happen. Yeah. Or will have to be watered down or have to be compromise like that's what you don't you don't pre compromise because then you have to then you'll still have to compromise so you whittle it down before it's even proposed and then you have to with the people you're proposing it to so just start up here and do that i think you're totally right like mom donnie's an amazing communicator so i hope he shows an avenue towards like here is how

you aim high and then successfully communicate through the inevitable process of government right in a way communicate why those things happen too like being able to communicate to people like well here's how the government works and here's why this had to be this way or whatever mom donnie is especially good at messaging that's why you you put your you know wish list your pie in the sky wish list because it sends a message and democrats for a long time have been very wonky with policy and trying to communicate the little wins we had this you know whole thing during Biden of well the wages are actually going up for lower income people higher than inflation things are actually really good right now we just need to find a way to communicate that to people but it didn't feel like that's what was happening because people were falling far behind in many other ways housing is such a expense that kind of thing they weren't able to communicate it and those little wins kind of don't like translate to people right the deliverism doesn't work. You have to have a vision and a message and, like, represent something. And you can just

watch one of Zoran Mamdani's promo videos and know what he represents. The way Trump does for MAGA, right? Like, Trump doesn't, he effortlessly has this, like, message and vision for the future. And a lot of it is, like, wink, winky, not policy stuff. But he conveys to his voters what he's going to do and what he wants to happen. And I think it's not just about having, like, an inspiring person, though Mom Dani is very good at this, but like articulating a vision and a message that Democrats have to get way better at. And then, yeah, the voters and people can actually hold on to that when things don't pan out because we know, well, if the message is still this, the goal is still this, we know that they keep saying this thing. And so you can keep buying

into it and hopefully not get duped over and over again and so on. This ad is brought to you by VIV Healthcare, the makers of Appritude, cabotegrivir. You never skip your SPF, and you carry hand sanitizer like an accessory. But what are you doing for HIV prevention? One way to help protect yourself from HIV is Appritude, a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of getting HIV in adults and adolescents weighing at least 77 pounds. You must be HIV negative to receive Apprude and get tested before.

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Bring your A-game and talk to your doctor. Learn more at Appritude.com or call 1-888-240-340. Jonathan, what else happened this week? So in New Jersey, this was kind of a surprise because there was a thought that the Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Chittorelli could win because he was running a more spirited campaign. New Jersey hates going with the same party three times in a row, and they had an unpopular two-turned Democratic governor. But then Democrat, Mikey, Cheryl, just blew him out of the water and won by 13 points.

It appeared to be another, like, we're just voting blue down this whole thing to stick it to Trump. A lot of the heavily Latino districts, which flipped to Trump in that high turnout election of 2024, this is much lower turnout, but it flipped right back in the numbers among heavily Latino districts were the same five years ago. So a lot of what we thought we learned or what a lot of pundits thought we learned about the just huge generational shift among young people and the shift among Latino voters, just, was not true. At least not in this election, it wasn't. It's just Trump shit. It's just Trump and like that old dying man that was going to try to run again. And then the like all this stuff we've talked we've talked about so much.

But like that's why it's not this like massive shift of like actually everybody fucking hates immigrants. And like I don't know. It's so overblown when it's like it's Trump stuff. It's Trump. get rid he'll be gone eventually the reactions are very funny though because a year ago democrats like lost young men and then there's like well we need a podcast host we need a rogan of the left we need a way to reach young men how do we reach young men and then young women came out and voted against Republicans in droves and today Republicans are like well I guess we got a repeal of 19th amendment right I mean like the reactions are completely different conservative women saying yeah it seems clear, I'd be willing to give up my right to vote in order to fix this. Are you, girl, please, what? No.

Just go talk to, if you, like, really, like, just go talk to women and convince them to vote the way you want them to, right? Just make your party better. I've seen so many of these things. Also, people, obviously, in specifically in relation to what happened in New York City, 9-11, to um i can't believe all these all these like progressive liberal women uh voting for sharia law that's going to take away all their rights it's like that's not what they voted for what are you talking about just stop being racist for one fucking second and like be normal i just want people to be a

little normal um and it's like you say that and like okay but a bunch of republican women conservative conservative women voted for the guy who bragged about how they can like grab him by the pussy like whenever he wants and like he's a seriously rapist. So what do you actually confused about? It's like, I wish they would just stick with the high taxes are bad and none of this stuff is going to work.

Socialism doesn't work. I wish they would just stick with that instead of the rampant Islamophobia. Although maybe because there's so many people on X, the Everything app, being boosted by that guy, maybe because they feel so emboldened to say this

awful shit that most people don't actually agree with it will be an even bigger turnoff like wait what are you talking about repealing the what are you talking about it's not the first time i've criticized twitter x whatever um in the algorithm for those of you still in the trenches there it's like you've got one side that says following and the other side that says for you you can toggle between them and see what the timeline looks like two different timelines my for you is just the moment horrific racist slop. How is that for me? And then you switch between it and it's just celebrations of Mom Donnie and of people saying all this inspiring stuff and then I switch back

to the for you and it's 9-11, 9-11. I just, people get mad when I say I'm shocked by things. I shouldn't be shocked. I get it. I want to keep being shocked. It's awful. It's ugly. That's not for me. They're just pushing it. They're just pushing it in our faces. And I look at that and I think this isn't real. This isn't an actual temperature gauge. of the other side. Katie, I think what your misunderstanding is what for you means in that context. You've been, you've become coddled and spoiled by liberal social media companies that are feeding you things you like.

When this, this new Twitter's for you is more of like, here comes the airplane with baby food, right? And it also happens, that happens to be 9-11. And that's what you need. Yeah, they want to give you the propaganda. you will change your mind. It's an indoctrination app now is what it is. I would posit that Matt Walsh's

for you feed is not filled with leftists. Oh, no. Well, he's already been done. That's not what he needs. He needs more of what he agrees with so he can spread it to other people. You know what? Thank you for clearing this up from everybody. Also, California, no big

surprise, but very easily passed Prop 50. Nobody wanted to have to pass Prop 50. but that is there to counteract gerrymandering in other states it's politics condolences, apologies to Arnold I know he was not

happy about this but I grew up in Houston and my parents Congresswoman is one of the congressional districts there that's been gerrymandered out so they will probably lose their rep well that's why we had to do it

they may be having second thoughts like it might not be a big enough wave next year anything can happen but like after the bloodbath this week they might have cut some of these districts a little close you know some of these are like the new districts will have voted for trump by four or five points like that might not be safe enough if next year is anything like this year. So, you know, good luck down there. In Politico, even today, they're like, next year, according to like top Trump officials, like next year, Trump's going to focus on affordability. It's like, what a hilarious thing to happen today. What a, what an interesting timing for him to say he's going to focus on affordability after Tuesday. Well, he ran on that. That's why he's the

president. He was the president because of that. And he didn't do it for a year. and I was like, oh, it's winning it won. I should do that now. Very clearly, they're like reacting to this, at least internally on how they can get back up on top. I want to point out his one big argument for how food prices are actually, don't you know, coming down, ignore your personal experience. They're actually coming down.

He brought this up at his like business conference in Miami. yesterday and then he trothed it. He wrote, 2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden. According to Walmart, so the Democrats' affordability issue is dead. And he said that, you know,

okay, Walmart's Thanksgiving dinner is 25% lower than it was last year. First of all, it's not like a prepared food thing. It's like a frozen butterball turkey and a bunch of cans. You get this. You get this. Like a can of creamed corn.

a can of green beans stuff like that and there's a lot there's a bunch of there's fewer things in it this year than there were last year and then they switched from the name brand cans to their Walmart brand great value cans which are cheaper yeah it's cheaper

and it's also shittier and if Trump had to eat that for Thanksgiving dinner he'd blow his brains out there's cheap food available at Walmart yeah great advertisement for Walmart. Look, I know that affordability was better with Democrats and that it's hard to get the messaging right, but shit's expensive. People are desperate. This does speak to me about

how this out of touch both parties are about the reality of what it is like to be making ends meet and to try to feed your family. And also whenever prices are down, you're so, no, it's not. Every state's different too. Like national, all national prices are up, actually. actually or down down is what he wants um do you think it's like it's it's out of touch to be saying that kind of stuff and then putting like gold calligraphy that say the oval office outside the oval office sure yeah having great gatsby themed parties i do the great gatsby themed party also i think it's funny for him to be like the the afforded democrat's affordability argument is dead then why are you focusing on it next year you did it that kind of gives me a little

hope, actually. Like, if they're actually responding to Tuesday elections and they're tempering their messaging, oh, so they think there might be elections next year. That's nice. Yeah. They need to worry a little bit. Yeah. Mike Johnson was also out there today saying, well, like, food, there's built-in inflation

in food. Food prices always go up a little bit. It's like, well, then, what, so the president is a liar? You're agreeing that the president of the United States, who says that all the food prices are down is a liar. If food prices are always going up, then why didn't you call out Trump during the campaign who said he'd lower prices on day one, that he'd push the lower prices button, you lying scum? He didn't watch, he didn't see anything from the campaign, so he couldn't respond to that. Does he know who is president right now?

Has he heard of this man, Donald Trump? I don't think anyone's asked him yet. I'm just so busy, guys. I don't know. Can't check the news. I can't Google president current. Yeah, I mean, it's not really his job to know that. Yeah.

No His job is to monitor his son's masturbation Patterns with that app Like any good parent Exactly Like any good parent Mike Johnson Paragon of Parenting I mean the amount of times my parents

monitored my masturbation Was it zero? The amount of time It was zero times It was zero That's only because they don't have the app yet They just said it to page me Is it happening? Is it happening?

Gen Z's like wait so In the 90s did you guys really like not use apps to spy on each other's like masturbation habits God, I thought that was just a movie thing but I guess that's really what the 90s were like and you had to roll up your windows How did your parents know if they were having

Nocturnal emissions at the rate of an 18 year old? Telegrams back and forth Like their parents did Oh sorry my dad just texted me my sperm count I'm sorry did you not get texts like this from your dad When you were like weird right? 30 hundred parts per million We want to leave time to chat with Sarah about stuff

But real quick, a couple of other news stories this week Nancy Pelosi retiring How about that? She's so young. I don't know why, but... Good for her, relax. Speaking of Mike Johnson and Nancy Pelosi, he mentioned that today.

He does pay the news sometimes when Nancy Pelosi announces that she's retired. retiring. And his thoughts are, former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has now announced her retirement this morning. That is a very important sign that I hope that you all will delve into. Even the famous San Francisco liberal is not far left enough for the neo-Marxist. Actually, Mike, she's 85 years old. She's retiring at 85, Mike.

It's not because she's not a neo-Marxist Sharia commie or whatever you think. or whatever you know you're supposed to pretend to think. She has to retire before she becomes another Diane Feinstein. Or Mitch McConnell. A Joe Biden. Before she gets murdered. Before she gets murdered. Or that.

Honestly, or that. Okay. Sarah. Obviously, it's not easy being a trans person in America right now. You and your partner recently made a big move to Canada. right we did that correct yeah tell us a bit about that yeah i'll clarify for the audience also i'm trans um and it's it's been bad it's been scary and so my partner and i are now where i'm i'm doing this recording from an Airbnb in Canada uh and oh they say hi oh they say hi

And we're here for at least six months, which is the length of the visitor visa while we try to figure out steps that are next. But we don't know what they'll be because the future feels utterly unpredictable right now. And that was a big part of our decision making. For me, I had a few friends who had left the country. And as they were doing it, I kept asking myself, like, do I think you're crazy for leaving? And the answer was always, no, I don't. It seems reasonable. So then I had to answer, so why am I still here? And especially post the Charlie Kirk shooting, there was that major uptick in like very terrifying transphobic rhetoric from the right discussion of putting trans people into, into, uh,

like mental hospitals or detaining us, the fact that trans people are all violent, violent criminals. And this is kind of pathetic, but the scariest thing I heard from any of them was from Greg Gutfeld. Yeah. Who is, for those who don't know,

the quote-unquote late-night comedian for Fox News, who's also on the Five. He said something along the lines of, like, in talking about, killed Charlie Kirk he said like oh well you know he killed he was killed by this tranny shooter and then he got called out for that

I was like oh no I mean the shooter wasn't trans he was like under under the spell of some transgender ideology and you know this transgender nihilist violence and just think about it like if you can if you can just decide if some guy can just decide if some guy can just decide well I'm going to be a girl and then nothing matters I'll just be a girl then

what's stopping them from just deciding that murder is okay now and it's like that kind of logic that's absurd it is absurd but like that's it that went unchallenged by his co-hosts on like a daytime casual comedy show on Fox News that for me was the moment where I was like okay I I just don't know I was actually messaging a bit with Jonathan about this as just, I have like a few random people that's reaching out to and I was thinking about it. And I also found I kept asking myself, like, how do I feel about the Jewish people who left Germany in the 30s? Specifically, do I think of them as cowards? Do I think that they did something immoral? I felt and continued to feel super guilty for leaving. The fact I was able to pack up my

life and come here in the way that I did and when I did is because I have parents who support me both emotionally and financially and were willing to help me do this. Like it takes a lot of, it's an immense position of economic privilege to be able to do it. I think that's good to acknowledge that and to have that awareness, but the guilt I don't know that you need to carry. I think it's your one beautiful life to live and it's hard. There's a lot of baggage. It's not like, you're renouncing your citizenship. This also doesn't have to be a forever decision for you. This also can be something, and your personal safety is important.

Did you feel bolstered at all by the results in the election this week? I did. Because it does seem, despite anti-trans fear-mongering, that does not seem to be anything that's moving the needle for people in this specific election anyway. Yeah, no, I did feel bolstered. by the election results. And I think that's great. I believe in general, most people are good or at worst and neutral. As a general human philosophy, I think that the Trump administration is super unpopular.

And for me, the calculation is like, I think they're unpopular. That doesn't mean I think they will necessarily fail. and I found myself basically doing like a Pascal's wager where it's like I don't know the future I don't know if I would be would have been in danger if I'd stayed or not no one does so would I rather be wrong in the direction of leaving and then maybe feeling like I overreacted a little bit in the future and having my friends be like oh I can't believe you left or would I rather be wrong in the direction of, like, staying. Yeah, for sure.

Are there any sort of, like, signifiers you're kind of looking for, like, that would sort of, like, make you feel comfortable about moving back? Like, like, oh, if this happens, or if, you know, obviously, like, Trumpism sort of dissipating over however many years that takes, but any sort of, like, more specific thing that would kind of push you there. Yeah. No, I mean, not, I don't have like a list of set criteria, but I did, like, my wife and I, my wife's also a trans woman. And we did decide actively, like when Trump was elected, it was an open question. Are we going to leave or not? And at that moment, we decided to stay. We lived in

L.A. And we were both like, it's hard to imagine anywhere being safer than L.A. Because it's not, like, trans issues don't exist all over the world. Like, and I think part of what especially scared me, what led to me being increasingly scared, was watching LA's failure to protect its undocumented population. Sure. And myself included in this just, I'm sure everyone can relate to these days, just life just went on in this very strange way while. so close to everything we were doing, lives are being ruined. Families are being split up.

People were being taken to who knows where and unknown if they would ever return. And I was seeing people who weren't directly impacted by it. A lot of people did do great shit. There's so much amazing resistance in community patrolling happening in L.A., like Union Del Barrio is doing awesome stuff. But it's just not enough. And it's like 7,000, 7,000 something people have been taking. from L.A., and I was watching that and thinking, like, well, if they do decide to come for trans people,

while I believe the state of California and the city of L.A. and my friends here will want to protect me, the question is, will they, and will they be able to? Because I also believe that they want to protect or like all all of our undocumented neighbors and I wanted that too and I wasn't doing nearly as much as I could have been either and so I don't know

what I would be looking for like I'd either be looking for some huge step up and the kind of resistance it's happening just at the level of the people which I don't know what that would even mean I'd want to see proof

that elections are going to happen freely and fairly I am not optimistic about 2026 personally like once you have National Guard stationed in every city I don't know how you can have a free and fair election

I guess if the Democrats do win the House in 2026 and the transfer of power happens I would feel more safe I think that's a good benchmark to give yourself to say looking at how things shape up over the next year

see how 2026 is looking it's a complicated decision and a complicated journey you're on yeah and just like beyond the politics, I also was just feeling increasingly personally unsafe in the U.S. from stochastic violence. Like, I'm on, I'm on an all-trans improv team at Upright Citizens Brigade in L.A. And we had a show a Sunday after Charlie Kirk was shot.

And I almost didn't go because I was like, fuck. I mean, what is stopping somebody? What stops this from being the next mass shooting? they're blaming us like and that's just pervasive in the U.S. Yeah, it's terrorism. I keep saying that the fear that starts to sink in about this rhetoric is getting so bad. It's so inflammatory. I feel personally targeted.

Am I really going to put myself out there? Am I really going to continue to pursue the things that I used to pursue? Am I really going to go to this public event? And we have to weigh that. It's not hyperbolic to be worried about it. It is our own personal journey to decide how much we're going to be, what we're going to do about it, where we're going to show up. I think these are all valid, you know, considerations.

If you are a cis person listening to this who has a trans family member or trans friend, just please reach out to them and let them know that. you're aware that shit is really intensely scary because that was also part of it for me was without throwing any shade on any of my friends like but just the knowing knowing that there are all these people who are paying attention with you and not feeling like this stuff is just happening unseen it's really helpful um and anyone who did reach out to me it meant a ton so i don't know it might you might think it's awkward to bring it up or whatever, but I would recommend you try it.

Thank you for sharing that. That is really helpful piece of advice that maybe isn't top of mind for people, but probably should be. We want to look out for each other. We want to protect each other and help everybody weather this storm. And, yeah, I will. And yeah, even being aware of like, oh, they're thinking about me is, can be enough. Well, that feels like a good place for us to wrap things up.

Today, Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today, to share a little bit about your journey. I'm sure that it will be helpful to a lot of people that are having similar conversations with themselves. I know it'll be helpful for me when I'm thinking about how I approach conversations with my trans friends. Yeah, so we really appreciate you taking the time. I hope it's going well. I hope your cats are enjoying the transition. Tell our audience where they can find you. That's what I wanted to ask.

You can find me on Instagram or YouTube at Sarah Rose Kaplan. It's Sarah, no age, rose like the flower, Kaplan with a sea. And I have not posted in a long time because I knew that I had an imminent border crossing. And I'm really bad at preventing myself from saying the things I want to say when I do record. So I will go back to posting things now that I'm safely out of the country. And, yeah, I mostly do trans, kind of trans philosophy, education, comedy content. Awesome. Boy, do you have anything to plug?

Do you want to? Listen to our show? Yeah, I do a podcast twice a week called Even More News. It comes out like Tuesdays and Friday. We try to get it out Monday night, but it can. So it's always so. What if I'm looking for like a long-form researched and produced sort of video? USA. So last week tonight, I think, is great on HBO.

Okay, great. Perfect. They just did a great episode on police chases. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really good. And there's other shows that do that too, but that's okay. Oh, check up. Puppet. They do need a puppet. Check out my band's called The Hot Shapes. We're on all the, we're on all the sound clouds. We're on all the soundclods and the smart devices and things. I got that fan. Like and subscribe, et cetera. Oh, some more news. Sorry, I forgot.

We have some more news. Check, watch that, please. Oh, right. That's the name of the show we run for years. Yeah, that's it. That's it for us. That's all of it. It's been a good week.

Keep that spirit. Keep that fire in your heart. Like and subscribe. Oh. Yeah. Like and subscribe. Remember. We love you very much.

Rest and piss, Dick Cheney much. Rest and piss Dick Cheney much. Thank you.