Some More News - Even More News: The U.S. Government Wants You To Buy A Tesla For Some Odd Reason

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to put you in a new Tesla today! Come on down to Wild Elon's Carporium and check out a brand new Cybertruck, Model S, or Model Y guaranteed to not catch fire while you're still on the lot. Plus, stick around while Katy, Cody, and Jonathan talk about the wishy-washy statements about Mahmoud Khalil, the cuts to the Department of Education, RFK Jr. being wrong about measles, and more. Get the world's news at https://ground.news/SMN to compare coverage and see through biased coverage. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access through our link. Note: We recorded this before Chuck Schumer folded on the funding bill. We'll talk about that on Monday. Double Note: We mispronounce Tommy Tuberville a few times, but whatever, that guy sucks. PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenews MERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.com

Hey everyone, Jonathan here. I just wanted to pop in to let you know that in the episode we recorded yesterday, we did have a conversation about the continuing resolution and Senate Democrats options with that. And then Chuck Schumer made the whole thing irrelevant a couple hours after we finished recording. So you're not going to hear anything about that in this episode, but we will cover it in depth in our Monday episode. So that's that.

Thanks for watching. On to the show. Hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. This is Benny. Hi, Benny. Hi, Katie. Hi, little, little guy.

I don't know what to say. This is the first and only time I've ever done this so I don't actually know how to yeah. Your name? Cody. Cody. That's your name. It's Cody.

Great. Hello. Jonathan, also here. Hi. That's true. We'll work out the kinks of this thing. If you're gonna be on the podcast you have to sit still. You're not gonna be on this podcast.

Okay, be free. Don't bark. I wanted to show off his snow jacket. That's cute. I'm wearing my snow costume. It's a costume. Have we not been through this? I think we have. Maybe we have. I, people would call it snow gear, but I think it's a costume.

An outfit. It's me playing the part of someone that knows what they're doing. But you do know now. I'm getting the hang of it. It still feels like a costume. It still feels like I'm cosplaying as somebody. You gotta own it. You gotta be confident.

I do own this. I bought it. No, you gotta like, you gotta like own the idea of it. I am. You gotta own the idea that you are comfortable and you're rightfully wearing that. It is not a stranger's outfit.

It is not a stranger's outfit that you're renting and wearing a costume and putting on a show. You're not putting on a show for anybody. Okay, you used the proper word. It's a costume. I think you've been out there long enough, though, that you're not cosplaying anymore. You've been there so long,

that's your uniform or costume. That's what I mean. And then when you go back to the city, then you'll be the, the- In my LA costume. Your alter ego. I think I need to elaborate a little bit that I call a lot of things costumes.

My outfit for the night is my costume for the evening. Are we doing that speech from Kill Bill 2? Where he talks about how Superman's the real him and Clark Kent's the, you know what I'm saying? We're not, but we can. Also, I disagree with that monologue pretty strongly. Well, it's being given by the villain. Exactly.

Therefore, maybe he's misinterpreted it. Maybe he's wrong. Maybe that's why he's wrong. Exactly. No, I know. We don't need to talk about Kill Bill part two. No, we do need to talk about holidays. Kill Bill part one? Oh. But Friday, March 14th is a holiday I can get behind,

sort of, I don't know. Uh, National Pie Day. The number? Yummy. Oh, the numbers. It's the number. Pie is 3.14159265. The number? Yummy. Oh, the numbers. Okay. This is a number. Pi is 3.14159265. Three, four, one, four, one, five, nine, two.

Three, two, three. I was trying to make it that song. Eight, six, seven, five, three, oh, nine. It's too many numbers for that. It's too many numbers. It didn't work. I was trying it on the fly. It's going to be like the lamp shop, lamp shop's play along theme song where it just keeps

going and going and going. Yeah. We should make phone numbers nine digits now. Like, wouldn't that be an executive order that Trump would do? It was trying it on the fly. It's gonna be like the lampshops play along theme song where it just keeps going and going and going. We should make phone numbers nine digits now. Like wouldn't that be an executive order that Trump would do? Like we would instead of for too long,

there's too many of us, nine numbers, you know? Yeah, he would say that. Yeah, we do hate him. Well, we're gonna start off with updates on Mahmoud Khalil and what is going on Jonathan? As of right now he remains in an immigrant detention center in Louisiana, a private prison basically. We're gonna have to build more of those probably huh? Sure we will. Sounds like it.

They're under construction with what lumber who knows but we're gonna do it. Yeah. The Trump administration did not like his involvement in activism at Columbia last spring They're making the argument not that he has broken any law He has not been charged with a crime but that he's like giving support to Hamas by his existence here That's kind of the Secretary of State's Argument they're using this bad area to be in here guys's argument. They're using this- It could be a bad area to be in here, guys.

Yeah, they're citing this obscure statute and they say the Secretary of State, quote, has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States if he is to remain here. They should describe what those consequences would be. Yeah. They should draw a line between what they're claiming he's doing to what they're claiming will happen, theoretically.

Or they should all resign and not do this. But I think it's none of those are actually likely. None of these options are on the table. Yeah, that's absurd. They're clearly using this as a test case to ramp up and get rid of more and more people for no reason, no reason. They haven't charged him with anything. Why is he still in that prison?

Why is he still being detained? Why is he still detained? Why is he, why? I don't even think it's a signal. Donald Trump says Khalil's detention is the first arrest of many to come. That is a statement coming after significant blowback from people on all sides. Yeah. And, you know, they're definitely trying to make Khalil a statement because many people, including Democrats, find him unsavory because of the position he took between Israel and Gaza.

So they're thinking, well, they're not going to have that much problem if we go after him, which they should. They absolutely should. He's a green card holder and permanent resident who also didn't do anything wrong. Didn't do anything wrong. Didn't do anything wrong. It's similar to the going after USAID where it's like, well, this is a target that I think we can kind of let enough people will be like, oh, that's something we should be concerned about so that they can go after other targets easier in the future. There was a child who was born here who was a US citizen that they deported along with their family Is this the one who was just? undergoing brain treatment ten-year-old with brain cancer treatment

Yes So like US citizens are 100% already getting swept up in this in these disappearances Even though we don't know the details, but okay surely the Democratic response has been good. Well it depends who you consider the Democrats and what you consider a response. So 14 Democratic members of the House signed a letter demanding his immediate release, including Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, James McGovern and Jasmine Crockett. I don't know how you feel about this, AOC took some heat for not signing it, but her chief of staff was defending this decision.

They said she was waiting on a detail and she would have signed it, and she has spoken out against Khalil's detention. That's the thing. There's no information about this detail. I'm very curious what that detail is and what's the detail that would be the thing that would stop you.

Like if, oh, we got this detail, this information, now she can sign it, what would be the thing that would stop you. Like if, oh, we got this detail, this information, now she can sign it, what would be the information of the detail that would make her not sign it? I haven't seen anything about what that detail is, but she has been vocal about it. And also some things about like what we're dealing with now is this inability to address everything in a timely fashion, in a quick fashion. There's all these like votes that need to happen now or letters that

need to go out and so on. And it seems like they need to get on the ball and be able to react quicker and more uniformly. And instead of like, oh, now there's this new letter and don't worry. like she signed it. Like there needs to be a more fast acting coordinated effort because they're gonna be doing they, meaning like Trump and MAGA generally, they're gonna be doing more and more things every day, quicker and quicker, more intensely.

And there needs to be a defense that is like able to, you know, bob and weave. I don't think that anybody is unclear about where she stands on this issue or issues like this. So there's that, but I do agree with you, Cody. That does in general speak to the inherent lack of organization and responding to the inherent lack of organization

and responding to the dumpster fire. It just makes for this situation where like now we're talking about why she didn't, you know. But also only, when that 14 Democratic members of the House sign this, that's only 14. That is so- It's a low number.

So disappointing that I'm almost more preoccupied with that element of it in general than what AOC did or did not sign when I know her stance. There's a place in certain levels of politics, I think, for let's wait and see how this plays out. This is not one of them. This is the Trump administration testing if they can disappear people that they don't like. Amidst all of this, I do want to call out a senator. Senator Chris Murphy gave a statement and released a video about this.

And he did a pretty good job, considering,, like only 14 of these Democrats signed this thing. There's always going to be this tension of like, well, we need to condemn the alleged anti-Semitism while also saying like, I disagree with you, sir, but I'll defend your right, whatever. He was very, pretty unequivocal about this. This has nothing to do with supporting Trump. This is about supporting an American value, maybe the most important American value, protecting free speech, even if it's speech you disagree with. If our new reality is that a president can disappear an opposition protester with no

charges filed against them, we are not America any longer. Today it's Mahmood Khalil, tomorrow it's me or you. You know, there was nothing mealy-mouthed about it. He was just like, this is what's going on. This is what's happening. It's wrong. This is what they're trying to do. We need to defend this person.

So I just wanted to like, you know, it's good to say, it's good to say good job when somebody does like, when one person is doing, you know. Should we contrast that with Chuck Schumer? I was going to counterpoint job when somebody does like when one person is doing, you know. Should we contrast that with Chuck Schumer? I was going to counterpoint it with Chuck Schumer who began his statement, I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports and have made my criticism of the anti-Semitic actions at Columbia loudly known, period. Then the next sentence is Mr. Khalil is also a legal permanent resident here and his wife,

who is eight months pregnant, is an American citizen. God. He had to start with it too. He couldn't have like- I abhor, is the- Like, the first thing. Just not meeting a moment. I abhor the Trump administration's gall in thinking it can detain people for no reason

and then say they have a Revoking your visa and then when you find out he has a green card saying we're revoking that now Nope, I have for his opinions. Oh What you were saying is important actually though Maybe that should have been because also and here's the thing that many people in the party seem to not I they probably understand It maybe they don't care. Maybe they don't care. Maybe, I don't know, whatever. Trump's still out there, Chuck, calling you a Palestinian.

And Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I'm concerned. He's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian. Okay. That's what I'm saying. He's saying you're a fake Jew.

Like, this is not helpful. It's not working. It doesn't, it doesn't help anybody. It is hurtful. There's so much to be frustrated and angry about in this. And I keep coming back to that, like this weird, bizarro landscape we're navigating where things that aren't anti-Semitism are landscape we're navigating where things that aren't anti-Semitism are being pegged as anti-Semitism and things that are actually atrociously anti-Semitic are being described as defending Israel. It's madness. Maybe every episode I should mention that Elon Musk did a Sieg Heil on stage twice, you know?

Oh, twice. Twice. Then Steve Bannon did it. Also to say, to insinuate that Chuck Schumer has been anything but very supportive of Israel and mealy-mouthed and inconsequential in his defense of Palestine. But regardless, it's the most, and it was when Joe Biden said it too, he didn't say

it the way Trump is saying it. But when Trump says Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned, he's become a Palestinian, he used to be Jewish, he's not Jewish anymore because of him saying anything against the disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil is like the most anti-Semitic thing an American president has ever said. It's appalling. It's like Joe Biden was also being anti-Semitic when he said no Jew in the world will be safe without Israel. Like that sucks and was offensive and like the idea that this one religion slash ethnicity must be 100% tied

to the atrocious policies of a country that you may never have been to and will never go. And he keeps doing it and they're just in the Oval Office filming him while he does it and then they put it on the news. And the chyron says Trump takes questions during meeting with Irish PM, I guess. Yeah, that is the context, technically. Yeah, it's disgusting. Going from the Biden thing to this is so much worse. And again, Chuck, you know who this person is. You, this isn't going to like, you're not going to get like, oh, wow, Chuck Schumer, a real Jew from Trump. Like what, like what is, what is this?

Yeah, like and hammer that. Where is Schumer's statement? I mean, I could go to his Twitter and look through it and see if he said it's incredibly anti-Semitic to suggest that I'm not Jewish because of any of these political positions. Why is President Trump the one who gets to decide who's Jewish and who's not the same way he got to decide who was black and not You know, well, he gets to decide who anyone is and who and what anybody is he gets to decide who is a real American? That is what this is all about getting rid of Non-american people whether or not they have citizenship or

residency, whatever it is, he decides he is the king. He is the spiritual will of the people to these people. And so if he can say, well, you're not, you're not, you're actually a Palestinian, then everybody around him will be like, yeah, you're a Palestinian. That's not a real American. Not to mention using Palestinian as a slur. I didn't quite mention that as well. Yeah, I feel like we did back when he first

started saying this, but yeah, that's also appalling. Like turning the word Palestinian into a slur is a whole other thing, but he gets to decide, you're a real American, you're not a real American, and that is what this is about, and even if you have all the proof in the world that you are actually an American, if he says you're not, then you're not. And you got to go.

This is just the beginning of what we're going to see unfold. And it is terrifying. It is terrifying to think about bigger groups of people being taken away. We're all focused on this one person and response time still hasn't been quick enough. It still feels ineffective. It feels very powerless. A lot of protesters out there getting arrested. This is a thing that matters and people are out there.

Although I believe, was it Tuberville? Tuberville or Tuberville? I don't was it Tuberville, Tuberville or Tuberville? I don't know. Tuberville. Tuberville. He was out there I think yesterday, just straight up being like, yeah, we gotta arrest all the protesters.

But when it comes to protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same. Send them to jail. Free speech is great, but hateful, hate, free speech is not what we need in these universities and they don't need to be doing things that that they're preaching from Hamas about anti-cinematism like Where are we now? It is

bad Cody in the house Listeners the one thing about drywall is you can poke a ton of holes in it before the landlord finds out you're trying to hide your precious marble collection in the walls. And another thing it's easy to poke holes in is the freaking news, am I right? A tool I use that makes it even easier is Ground News,

which you can find at ground.news slash SMN. They're a website and app we sought out to sponsor us that gathers news from left, right, and center so you can keep everything straight and not lose your marbles. They've got great features like reliable factuality analysis that tells you which outlets are on the level

and which are full of horse pucky, much like my walls. They're just full of it. So if you want to get all the headlines, context, and analytical features, head over to ground.news slash SMN. With that link, you can save 40% off unlimited access. And with that money you've saved, you can buy a drywall patching kit

and keep your valuables hidden from prying eyes. Again, that's ground.news slash SMN for 40% off unlimited access. The link is in the description. The sentence is over. I wanted to talk about the infomercial that took place in front of the White House on Tuesday. Cool.

Where Donald Trump and Elon Musk just talked about how great Tesla vehicles are for a while. Oh, well, I trust those guys. I would buy whatever they tell me. I can give you the pricings right here. I can read them off of Trump's cheat sheet. Model X, 112,490, parentheses, silver. What a deal.

Model S, 108,990, blue. All cars have self-driving, just needs to be turned on, parentheses fee. Yeah, he had a little cheat sheet where he could go give the specs. It basically looks like the copy that's given to us to write ads. Must have been official business of some sort. Or is it just that everyone's Ganging up on poor Elon. Well, I think I mean, let's see what it's up to right now Tesla stock is Good. I mean look it's down 32% in the last month and all the people who used to buy Tesla electric cars no longer do because they think he's a Nazi now based on what and people on the right, well, they tend to not like these woke juiced cars. So funny.

It's so but again, the weird, bizarre world we're navigating where the right is so pro Tesla and the left just hates Tesla. But the left likes electric cars, but the right doesn't like electric cars. And he's gonna roll back auto industry things, pro electric car. Yeah, and also I've seen people be like, the libs, they say they're environmentalists, but they hate Tesla. Yeah, do you understand any context whatsoever? Like, do you think we-

Of course they do, they're just trolling you. Like, we're not in a vacuum sealed container, just being like, oh, an electric car. There's somebody who makes those electric cars and he's done things and said things that maybe we disagree with. It's absurd. But the reverse is very funny.

You have Trump out there literally buying a Tesla for him. Everyone's like, oh, but Joe Biden did it too. Joe Biden didn't buy a Jeep in front of everybody and tell a country to buy the price. Like, that's just not the same. I get the visual comparison, but he didn't go out there and be like, I bought this. This is mine now. And that same day, like Rachel Maddow wasn't out there being like, I also bought a Jeep. Sean Hannity bought a Tesla that same day There's a slim chance that

Elon was just like I'll give everybody a Tesla if you say that you bought it. I've And he just announced he's making a hundred million dollar contribution to Trump political action committees Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, he begged them to do this commercial. It's blatant corruption right out in the open and the reporters are out there saying like, Mr. Trump, what was your first car? Like these are the questions being shouted at him during the commercial.

I've never had a car I've never driven before. This is one of those stories where we're pointing out the ridiculous corruption going on in plain face, blatant corruption in our government. It is absurd, it's disgusting, put them all in jail. And that's why I really do want to emphasize it first before we say like okay well some of this stuff was silly and funny and it's silly and funny because of that context that this is the most flagrant corruption. Absolutely, this is a nightmare. This is a fucking nightmare.

This shouldn't be happening. It is a clown show. And something funny happened, which was essentially, you know, he's like, yeah, I got it. It's for the White House. I guess he got one for his granddaughter, Kai. He got a cyber truck for Kai.

But now she got a cyber truck for all of her golf clubs, which she knows how to put in the back, I guess. But my favorite part was, he's like, yeah, okay, so we got this Tesla, it'll be for the White House, people can drive it. I'm not gonna drive it, because I get driven around. And then Elon's like, well, it's got autopilot. You could do the autopilot.

And Trump's like, I'm not going to do that. Yes, well, the CyberCat starts production in Texas next year. And it's self-driving. We have so much confidence in the self-driving nature of it that it will actually not have a steering wheel. It will not have pedals. It'll either self-drive or not drive at all, but it'll self-drive. And I'm going pass on that position. And it is very funny because he's buying the products

and promoting the products and then being like, I'm not gonna drive in a car without a steering wheel. I'm not gonna just sit there while your robot death machine drives me around. He says what everybody is thinking. Sometimes he says what everybody is thinking. Very relatable. I also just wanna to point out,

he mentioned he doesn't drive and he's never driven a car and stuff. If any, any, any, any Democrat ever in the world ever said that, they would be freaking out. It'd be like the news of the week, like this person's never driven a car. What feminine energy? They'd do something about it,

about how he's never driven a car. They'd be like not a real man. Or whatever. All that stuff, all of it. Or they'd be like oh this elitist, this like golden spoon silver man with his like with his with his platinum butt in the car like. The hypocrisy will never not be astounding and I'm torn between wanting to stop pointing it out and needing to point it out all the fucking time.

Yeah. Because yeah, Cody, you're correct. And these are the same people celebrating, yeah, we're getting corporatism out of the government. The fuck you are. You're leaning in, baby. You're leaning all the way in. It's fine that he's taking over.

What would you feel if it was George Soros that bought fucking Twitter and bought the election? How? He did. Don't you know that he's taking over. What would you feel if it was George Soros that bought fucking Twitter and bought the election? How he did you don't you know that he did that he owns it right now. Don't confuse me God don't gaslight me Jonathan speaking of the stolen election and Democrats just sort of like going along with everything and being really ineffective in their resistance against the Slow creep of fascism Gavin Newsom's out there having Steve Bannon, the other Zeke Hyler out on his fucking podcast. While he's like, actually the election was stolen

as we might disagree and he keeps going about it. Gavin's like, great point about other stuff. I'm not gonna mention that the election wasn't stolen. You liar, you lying Nazi on my show. It is disgusting. Gavin, you're worse. You're worse than we already thought you were. You're out there like doing like photo ops where you like tearing down homeless people's encampments and you got worse somehow. Unbelievable.

It's terrifies me because he's obviously positioning himself to try to be the front runner, to run in the next election. And he's going about it in this way. But he's very reviled amongst progressives and very much so along the right. And I have seen some people, this is like people I know, but the Facebook community up here, you get your road closure news, whatever,

so you see posts for random people. And there's like angry posts from people saying, look what he's trying to do. I guarantee you he's already campaigning. I'm like, yeah, I agree with you. I don't like it either. I'm coming at it from a very different angle than you are. But it does terrify me that that is the crystallization

of us not learning our lessons. That is the crystallization of us doing this again and again and again. When we're not looking for the actual populist, the people that can be an actual messenger for our party, or the party, it's not my party, I don't know what I am, but the party most closely aligned with me, I guess. Whatever costume. It's like, what the party most closely aligned with me, I guess. Whatever costume.

It's like, what costume are you going to be making me wear in a few years? New scum. I mean, it'll probably be the, please vote for Gavin Newsom so we don't have Vance or Donald Trump who's running again. That is a catchy slogan. That's the costume. That's what's on the t-shirt. who's running again. That is a catchy slogan. No, that's the costume. That's what's on the t-shirt. That's the costume. Please, I guess, vote for Kevin Newsom.

He's got Milo on his podcast this week. Please vote for him. Oh, he is gonna have Milo on his podcast. He is gonna have Milo. I don't know if you even call it running to the right, but it is. Catering to the right, that's for sure. He thinks he can bridge this divide, and again, get all those swing voters who are never going

to vote for a Democrat, because they're not actually swing voters, to vote for him. And you're legitimizing the scum of the earth at the same time. You are legitimizing these absolute freaks with abhorrent viewpoints who you should just ignore and talk about the good things you'd want to do. And you're letting them say, like, just like messed up lies and then refocusing on like one like nugget of something you might agree with a little bit about like honor, like dignity or like some like banal fucking point like that you could read on a greeting card.

And he's like, that's a really great point Steve But also the election wasn't stolen. Maybe you should say that I Yeah, I would slightly disagree and say that there are swing voters that we can get But those aren't the people listening to Charlie Kirk or Steve Bannon It's not enough to like matter are the other people that are entrenched. The swing voters are a more nebulous category. There's other types of public figures you can invite on to have conversations with. Yeah. We gotta get that Bannon vote.

No, I don't mean there are swing voters. I just- But it's not those people. Those people aren't your conduit. Steve Bannon isn't your conduit to a swing voter. Maybe fucking Theo Vaughn is. Real swing voters don't know who that is. Theo Vaughn is.

Yeah, I mean, Gavin Newsom should just go on podcasts if he wants to talk about this stuff. Go on Joe Rogan, go on Theo Vaughn. Great. Absolutely. Cause Theo Vaughn will be like, you're making a lot of sense to me, man. I can't do it. Yeah, homie. But like, yeah, he's in it.

Yes he will, but I'm not joking that that is the the weird category of like men that want to be able to say the R word, but also really would like Medicare for all. I think the Democrats are ineffective and maybe Donald Trump has a better shot getting shit. There's a weird there's a bunch of it. Oh, yeah. I know. Yeah. And like, well, the thing weird, there's a bunch of it. Get mad and be proud. Yeah, and like, well the thing is, it's always in one direction. He's, if you're going, he's not going after people

who want Medicare for All. He's never gonna say the words Medicare for All. Unless it's derisive. No, but that is what will get you votes. He's gonna say like, you know what? I think you should be able to say whatever you want in the workplace. That's what he's leaning towards.

He's leaning towards the like, you should be able to say the R word, whatever you want, and we love That's what he's leaning towards. He's leaning towards the like, you should be able to say the R word whenever you want and we love it. I'll say it with you. He's not gonna go after the like the important stuff, the material changes that are necessary. He's going after all this culture war bullshit and having Charlie Kirk on to say,

my 13 year old son is really convinced by you. What a great point Gavin, a 13 year old was convinced by a propagandist like online. You should work on your parenting skills it sounds like. Oh also everything is computer. Oh yes he said everything's computer. Oh right everything is computer. Which he's right.

This is a different panel than I've had, everything's computer. People don't like it computer, they want knobs and buttons but everything's computer. Everything is computer. Hard to find a car that's not all computer. Also during the whole thing, he's like, I have a friend who has like five Teslas.

What are we doing? Like, man of the people out there just being like, yeah, all my friends have nine Teslas and they want more. Okay. Go Jonathan. I get you, I get you. get you like no it doesn't matter I wanted to start a whole new segment on this show called actually sir That's illegal where I just point out I looked it up

They're in violation of 5 CFR section 2 6 3 5.702 use of public office for private gain And even if you point out that, well, Trump is not a federal employee, he's the executive, so he's not breaking the law. Elon Musk is. Elon is. He's a special government employee using his position to make himself money, even though I don't think it's going to work, through these means. Oh well.

What else has been going on? So despite a court ruling blocking Trump's executive order to move trans women into men's prison facilities, many trans women have still been transferred, opening them up to violence, humiliation, harassment. This is just so gutting and an example of one of those stories that's easy to get brushed under the rug because there's so much happening and you're not following it as closely. I just cannot imagine being a trans woman

being transferred into a men's prison, how horrifying, nobody's got your back, you are not safe. And it seems that this judge, this lawsuit, it only pertained to the 17 plaintiffs on the lawsuit. So those 17 women have not been transferred, but that, I don't know, tons of other people have and already have and are already feeling the effects of this and they've got no recourse. This is just, at least for the time being. It's very dangerous, yes. Well, it's hard to, you know, obviously, prisons have a responsibility to keep records

of things that happen, but like that information is going to be harder to access. Absolutely. It's going to be hard to know exactly how many people are assaulted or die as a result of this. I mean, the executive order was also plainly illegal because it violated the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which George W. Bush signed in 2003, which says prisons have a responsibility to take action to prevent sexual assault in prison facilities and they should take LGBTQ plus status into account when making housing decisions.

This was a bipartisan agreement a couple of decades ago and now it's a callous cruelty calculation. Performative callous cruelty, yes. I don't want to sound callous by saying it is only performative because it does have actual effects and material effects. But like it is fake to them. The people doing this and Trump and his entire party, it's fake. There are two quotes I want to read from Trump.

First one, everything is transgender. Everybody transgender. That's all you hear about. No, that's why we won the election in record numbers. Why do we hear about all the time? It's not like you won't shut up about it. You won't shut up about it. It's an issue that was created by you and your party as a wedge issue. And as this culture war distraction to

be able to have a target for your cruelty and to get people on your side I would also like to read this other quote from him men being able to play in women's sports I tell the Republicans I said don't bring that subject up because there is no election right now But about a week before the election bring it up. That's all it is. There it is He just says all these things out loud. It's just he just says it out loud. If you're really passionate about this issue on his side, he thinks you're stupid. And he doesn't care about it. And he's using it to manipulate you and to hurt people. And that is all it is. End of sentence, I guess. End of sentence and should we go on

to this next horrific situation? Yeah. The status of the Department of Education. Yeah, it's at half status. The Department of Education laid off about half of its workforce this week and Secretary Linda McMahon said it's just the first step in effectively

eliminating the Department of Education. I will say the DOE says that all the funding is going to continue to be dispersed and that the layoffs are consisting of research employees and outside partnerships. However, that research is incredibly important. It's how we know things to how students compare to students in other states and other countries, how testing results can be analyzed. Why would you need information in a Department of Education? What are you talking about? What is this? This is nonsense.

Are we smart or not? Are you educators or not? You should know all the answers, the information already. You should know it already. Yeah, this is a vital part of the Department of Education, a vital part of how we improve our education and access to education. I'm confused when they say, but for the moment, federal funding will continue to be dispersed,

but not once they eliminate the whole department. The department of education they wanna get rid of. Oh yeah, I did say for the moment because it will be eliminated and all this funding will go away. I just want to make sure that that's clear. It's not like, okay, breathe a sigh of relief. This has real, real effects for people

in Trump voting districts, a lot of them. Yes. Most of them, all of them, it affects everybody. I mean, we're seeing food cuts to programs for kids that get food, that's where they get their meals. Gotta get rid of that food, you gotta get rid of the food. LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho

said a drop in federal funding would bring catastrophic harm to students. Quote, we receive an excess of 750 million earmarked for poor students, English language learners, students with disabilities and connectivity investments so that students can be connected with their learning, breakfast and lunch programs. These are vital, vital for children to be able to have time to learn, space to learn,

food. It's just, it's truly ghastly. Dated laptops, accommodations for students with disabilities, like basic stuff. Not like we're gonna have a big woke trans party after school every day where all the kids come and we're gonna instruct them on gender ideology. No. It's like schools in rural communities and suburban communities to give them access to the basic things you expect to be in a school.

And this limit is shot at the bare minimum chance of receiving an education. It's like such a simple concept. Like we want to make our kids educated and healthy so that they become good adults. Yeah, and okay, so that our country continues to thrive. We wanna be innovators and like leaders in the world, but we also don't want to like feed kids or like help them learn about the world

and socialize them and foster all the things you need to innovate and to be leaders. I'm taken aback by how little people seem to understand what the Department of Education does. They just think it's like, oh, this woke program that's telling us what to teach in our schools. No, man, that's not it at all. That is not it at all.

It is providing you the ability. Some communities are rich because of the taxes that they pay and others aren't. Two towns over can be a wild disparity between what resources are available to your students. Because Trump says, well, we're going to get rid of the Department of Education and then we're going to give the money to the states and states can run their own education. Has he outlined a plan to give all this money that they're going to save from cutting the department and taking all this funding? Are they going to give it to the states?

Has that plan been given? Because that's billions of dollars that have to go out, right? 750 million just for LAUSD USD which means how many hundreds of billions for the country are the schools getting that are is another federal agency that continues to exist going to disperse that money what are we doing here we don't know nobody knows's computer. Ideas of plans. Also along these lines, I mean, all the tomorrow education stuff is, it's just like they're just cutting every single thing,

every single thing. The US Postal Service just signed a deal with Doge, which is a weird way to phrase it and a weird arrangement, to cut 10,000 workers in the next month through a voluntary early retirement program. Somebody retired at my local post office recently and I'll tell you what, really slowed things down. Just one person gone.

I'm glad that she got to retire. Good for her. Congratulations to you. It's like quick round, I guess. We talked briefly about all these cuts and obviously like air traffic controller stuff. I don't know if we briefly, yeah, we discussed recently the little blow up between Elon and Marco Rubio

and Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation and how that conversation ended with, I believe Trump, telling Sean Duffy, you need to hire the geniuses. These need to be graduates from MIT. And then obviously, Elon unfollowed Sean Duffy on Twitter. And then Sean Duffy shared a flyer, a digital flyer with Uncle Sam, I want you for air traffic control. And it was all the requirements to apply.

And the bottom one was no degree required. And I thought that was pretty funny. Sean Duffy is the surprising hero of this story. Very funny. Just like everybody sort of like, they knew what they had to deal with with Trump, right? Like they know what they're getting into. And Trump, right? Like they know what they're getting into and like maybe I can, I'll handle it

and I'll like, oh yes sir, whatever you want. But I feel like they just didn't expect this extra Elon thing to be so entrenched in it where they have to deal with him every day. Yeah, Sean Duffy's no stranger to real world challenges. Oh, that's so true. Real world Boston. Road rules. That's why he got the job because he was on road rules challenge.

It was Boston. Sorry folks for saying it was Seattle. Do we want to talk about really, really briefly because we are always running out of time, just like what a liar RFK is about measles. Like it's so dangerous. What a dangerous man. He's been all over the place lately. He's given some interviews. He did a steak and shake commercial

with Sean Hannity at Steak and Shake. Well, Steak and Shake is famously very organic, healthy, you know, anti-carcinogenic. No, yeah, but because there is, you know, a measlescinogenic. No, yeah, but because there is a measles outbreak in Texas, New Mexico, cases popping up in New Jersey, Oklahoma, California, because people aren't vaccinated anymore. More than 250 people with the measles right now.

He's been telling a bunch of lies about it. He says it's very, very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person. He said that natural immunity that you get after a measles infection can later protect you against cancer and heart disease. No. No. And then he's talking about vaccines. He says we don't know what the risk profile is for these products. We need to restore government trust. The vaccine thing, well, obviously there's this, because the CDC, they're still putting

out information and RFK has put out an op-ed on Fox News, like, vaccines can help protect against blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like the form letter. And then he says, but it's obviously a personal choice. And he leaves out the fact that you get to hurt immunity for measles once you're at like 95% vaccinated, and we're now at like 82%, I think. Or if it were at 82% in Texas. It's, we're actually, it's in counties.

So from what I understand, we've been at like 97%, like if you're looking at it the whole country or something around there and now it's down to like 93. Not good but okay but it's in these certain counties. Yeah Gaines County sorry is where it's 82 percent. When you get down to in the 80s that's a that's a real problem. That's when it starts to spread. That's when you see outbreaks like this. And yes, a reminder that, you know, a little girl died in West Texas recently. That doesn't happen now.

This used to be the reality prior to having the measles vaccine. And it's not just death. There's permanent damage that can come. There's brain damage. There's damage to, you know, various different functions. There's lots permanent damage that can come. There's brain damage, there's damage to various different functions. There's lots of things that can become a lifelong disability. Blindness, deafness. It's so wild how short a period of time it has been since we actually grappled with this

and universally celebrated the fact that there was a scourge that we no longer had to be afraid of. People would lose their children to measles and now we've just erased that. Yeah it's a you see online so many feel like why do they people have so many kids back in the day? They all died from stuff like this. They had to have like 20 kids. Yeah they're also doing like this whole like something like we're gonna we're gonna study we're gonna study the link between Vaccines and autism is a big thing thing like message. They're sending we did we do we have one of the most studied correlations in like public health like

What are you talking about? Yeah Because go do another one I guess but like my suspicion is that you will do it wrong and lie about it And they'll do it and they'll come back with this same correlation like huh? We tend to start diagnosing kids with autism around the same time they get a lot of vaccines when they're young because that's when Thing that's when things happen when things develop. Yeah, that's when things develop. That's when things happen. It's a correlation There's never been any link found and it has been widely widely studied But the the the guy that Trump nominated to be CDC director has had to back out because he's been even

More anti-vax than RFK publicly was He was like just really into Andrew Wakefield Who's the guy who did the original fake the fake man? I was a big fake the fake guy the liarism Study. The fake man, the fake guy. The liar, the liar doctor. Yeah, the liar doctor. Oh, God. I feel like we covered a lot of territory today.

We did talk about it. That's why I feel that way. Also, shout out to people that showed up to the merch store and got some Johnson merch. Oh, yeah, I know. We bullied you into buying a mic with my picture on it. Now it's our best selling item. I wanna remind you, there are other stuff in the show.

No, no, no. It's just a convention. It's not a best selling item. I know, I'm just joking, but thank you guys for your support. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being you. Remember.

What? Fuck what I always say at the end of the show. We love you very much! I said I don't love yourself. If I'm not seated, I'm not tipping. Do I want to see a picture of your baby? No. If I have to scroll more than 10 seconds, he's not cute.

Settling gets you an ugly boyfriend. So we're going to help you out. We sure are, because we have the life expertise. We have mastered throwing shade with intention. We are in the business of helping you find and keep your man. And we're here to teach you the fine art of tactful pettiness. Join us each week as we traverse the world of pop culture, chat with our celebrity friends,

and show you how to accept yourself without taking life too seriously. Get new episodes of tactful pettiness with me, Cody Rigsby. And me, Andrew Chappelle. Every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and anywhere you get your podcasts. Stay petty bestie.