Some More News - Even More News: Time To Join The K-Hive?

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Why hello there! Welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name's Katie Stoll. Hi, Katie. Thank you for having me. Hi, Katie. I'm not high. Oh, good. That's good. It's the afternoon. I'm Cody.

Hi. Johnston name last ton. First name Cody. I'm not the country music singer Cody Johnson, just so everybody knows. Oh, by the way, Jonathan's also here, too. John's here, too. By the way, happy to be here. We're thrilled. Oh, by the way, Jonathan's also here too. John's here too. Oh, boy.

By the way, happy to be here. We're thrilled. Guys, first off, hi. I just need to establish for our viewers and listeners, we recorded an evergreen episode of Way Less News, the show that we're working on. It's true. That is the same format, but a similar format, but we try to talk about as little news as possible.

News always seeps in. Anyway, that was supposed to be your 4th of July week episode, but there's a lot going on in the news, and we felt that it would be lame of us to sit this one out, especially because Jonathan's out of town next week. That's true. But for now, we're going to talk about the opposite of way less news, a lot of news.

Much more. Much more, way more news. And speaking of working when we intended to not work, Friday, July 5th, National Workaholics Day. Oh yeah. It says, take some time off to relax, slow down a little bit, and maybe schedule a vacation for you and your family.

Little last minute to schedule a vacation, but hey guys, give it a shot. I thought National Workaholics Day would be a celebration of you working. Working too hard, yeah. And so like go off and get it. But no, we're giving you the day off. But only to the workaholics.

And only so you can schedule a vacation for you and your family, not so you can do anything. Right. There should be like a few weeks before National Workaholics Day, there should be like a national plan ahead day. For workaholics day. Recommend like, oh, plan a vacation. So then when National Workaholics Day comes around, it's planned and you can go on that vacation.

I do like how like vague and noncommittal the description is though. Like, maybe, I don't know, slow down a little bit. Maybe schedule vacation, do whatever, which, you know, is good to do. So when last our three heroes met, that's us, we're the three heroes. Oh yeah, I follow we were

reeling from The debate spectacle debacle from last week. Actually. Yeah, I was gonna like we're reeling. No, we were reeling Yeah, lest you think the immediate response unless you believe some of the pundits who are saying the immediate response wasn't that bad We're all watching. Like this. Get out of here. Just don't lie. You can say it's not that bad and that's your opinion that's wrong. Don't lie to us. Stop lying. The amount of people, the spin in the weeks, the weeks, the week. The media frenzy over this and like-

Only reason people are freaking out about this is because the media reported on it. What are you talking about? I mean just full on panic mode. We were watching it to report a podcast but we were watching as Americans, you know voting Americans who could barely contain our grief. We saw it, we all saw it.

I don't know what you guys have seen in your feeds and social media platforms, but for my friends that are not as political as I am as we are, you know, it's interesting to watch reactions and everybody being like, it doesn't matter. Stop saying bad things about Biden. We need him. Blah, blah, blah. And then like record scratch. People being like, I was wrong immediately. Whoa, I was wrong. I was wrong. But then other people being like, I don't care. He could be comatose and he's my president. I don't like that. We don't want a comatose president. It's true in that like, yeah, there are a lot of people who would vote for a corpse over Donald Trump. That's simply true. And that's great that that's the opponent that we have this year, somebody like that. But guess what? Some people

are alive and some people are more alert and some people can energize voters in a way that a corpse can't. That a corpse just can't. If you're saying you vote for a corpse instead of Donald Trump and you're settling on the corpse, then you're just trudging along to that voting booth and you don't have to do that. We don't have to do that. The day is coming soon and we might have to do that. But not yet. Right now is our last chance.

It's very interesting to see the sort of floodgates open about something that at least many people, many people are saying, we've said for how many years or months? Years. Years that this is a problem and will be a problem. Even as recently as when the primaries could have happened. Although according to a lot of people in the news we had primaries and we all settled on Joe Biden We did not Like the I well This is another thing to the gaslighting and the weird lies about like well actually this is brand new information all that kind of stuff Doesn't mean you working on people as much anymore because it's so laid bare

I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's equally frustrating to be like, yeah, you mean the thing that we've said for so long and we're maligned by the way and told that we want Donald Trump to win for saying these things that now everybody is saying. It's frustrating that that was the experience, but it's nice that maybe it's happening. I guess it's, it's not good. It's a lot of people being angry at each other.

I got someone we can be mad at. Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Yeah. Just going to put a fine point on this. You just like, yeah, we need fucking primaries. We need primaries. You just like yeah, we need fucking primaries. We need primaries. I don't care that the the argument of oh We're gonna siphon votes away from Joe or make him look bad before he gets to the main event stage

Sat on this podcast and said it I'll say it again We needed to vet him on a stage under a high stakes high pressure situation We needed to see him on a stage under a high stakes, high pressure situation. We needed to see him perform before you put him next to Donald Trump. And also just for fuck's sake, just in general, it should always be true that we have a primary because that's the opportunity for people to vote for the different policies, the different plans that the future of the party, the future of our goals,

and that's an opportunity for Joe Biden, say he is after all of that, the nominee, well, he gets to hear what other people want, what people, what the voters want. It is not okay for that just to have to be the way that it happened. Oh, I mean, just, yeah, I think they're like, this is a very unique circumstance

where that's definitely true. But we have a whole episode about primaries are good. You don't have to like accept it like, well, they'll will be perceived as weak. You can just not do that. You can demonstrate that you're a thriving democratic in the true sense of the word party and celebrate democracy and it'll be a little contentious and that's

fine because at a certain point that will all go away. You know you can argue about like oh in 2016 like I really hated that blah blah blah. Bernie campaigned for Hillary like a hundred times. Like that stuff goes away at least at that level pretty easily once, well, we have to be a party again. Yeah, we get it. You rally behind the candidate, but we haven't had a voice in who the candidate is. Joe Biden was our option. Some sort of people running, but they weren't actually given a shot.

It would have been nice, especially again in the context of Donald Trump specifically. He's this bogeyman, this threat that we also take seriously as a threat. He's bad, orange man bad, and so on and so forth. I've seen, not a whole lot, but I've seen, obviously, like, there was the laundry list of sort of excuses and reasons of like, well, he had a cold.

Well, he wasn't prepared enough. Well, he was too prepared. He was tired that day. He came back from a trip 12 days earlier. I heard the stutter, obviously, is another excuse is coming back. That's not what was going on. I've seen a few people say that like, it's because, like, Donald Trump makes him mad and, like, he, you know, it makes him, like, harder to keep his stutter under control. First of all, that's not what's going on.

Sorry. But also, if that's what's going on, that's bad. It's very bad. That he is uniquely incapable of confronting his opponent. And we'll probably get into this a little bit when talking about possible replacements for the thing that's not gonna happen, and nothing ever happens. But there's an element of talking specifically

to Donald Trump that might be beneficial. And if your argument is that like, he's just so mad at his opponent that he can't speak to the people, that's bad. That's bad. It's bad also just in general, because it's showing a lack of being able to control emotions or whatever. Ability to control your emotions.

Exactly. And it's not just Donald Trump to be worried. This is the president of the United States. This is a high stakes job, a high stress job, filled with meetings with people who are probably impossible, frustrating, difficult, other world leaders. Like Hunter.

Who's always there now, apparently. Okay, so Cody doesn't think anything will happen, but all the world is a Twitter. A ext. No, I was saying like- Oh, I know, but sorry, that's how words work now. All the world is an ext. Ugh, get that shit out of my mouth. With the possibility that he might hopefully drop out.

And if so, what does that look like? Boys, answer, tell me, please, please tell me what does that look like? Well, so this is just, we'll go in order, I guess. So is he gonna drop out? I mean, I said nothing ever happens. Maybe he will. He did announce today, announce,

he had like a little meeting that leaked immediately after a lot of other meetings with all these governors meeting with him and all, and like, you know, people are gonna be writing letters. There's way more people are going to be calling in this party. You're going to be calling for him to resign or at least step down for the actual election. But he did say today in a meeting that he will not be doing that.

He oh, the quote was really the quote. Let me say this is right. I'll do it for real. Sorry. Let me say, that was fun though. Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, as simply and straightforward as I can. I am running.

No one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving. I'm in this race to the end and we're going to win. He also alluded to the thing he keeps saying now and everybody keeps saying, that you get knocked down, you get back up again. We love tub thumping references in this house. That can be his campaign song.

It literally will be. That's what he's going to do. And I would jump in there, Joe, and just say, you didn't get knocked down. You tripped over your old, old balls. You fell. Oh, shit. He said it.

I know you got to have a narrative and stuff. You didn't get knocked down, you fell by yourself. And I think that a lot of people saw this statement and are like, oh, it's over. I think he still probably will drop out. Yes or no, we're not predicting anything because we'll be wrong. I literally asked you to give me a definitive answer.

Then yes he will. This is disappointing. He's not gonna say Then yes, he will. This is disappointing. He's not going to say he will until he does. Right now he's going to say, I'm not going to, I'm in it to blah, blah, blah. But time will pass and the pressure is going to mount. And I think he needs to say this now because they don't necessarily have a plan probably. But once they have a plan, he will say a different thing yeah the Pelosi statement she was like I think it's an

important conversation to have which is something she never said about Feinstein I mean if four months ago she would have been like this is the most disgusting right you could ever say he's the president you're undermining you want Trump to win all the things that we've heard for so long. Multiple Democratic members of Congress have. Ibern said he'd be like open to like a mini debate or like a primary, right? A lot of people have said they've been open to it.

And of course, in private, dozens of members of Congress are like, he's gotta go. It might become untenable for him to stick around. He might still say, no, I'm the underdog I'll fight whatever. Underdog. He'll just take us all down with him. Congress for 30 years and vice president for eight years and president for four years such an underdog. Get out of here Joe. So that brings up I think the coconut tree in the room which is if he drops out is it automatically Kamala? Because she's the easiest answer.

She's the most president. She gets the war chest. She's ready to go. Yeah, I mean, in some ways, I guess that's the most clean cut, except that she is appallingly unpopular. Not as appallingly unpopular as Joe Biden. I think she's not Donald Trump and likely to survive until 2029. I think there's a lot of people

that fit those two criteria. And I think because of her institutional cache right now, having been the vice president, it might be the easiest if Biden drops out and endorses her immediately. I don't know if we get to an open convention. And it look, I know online vibes are one thing. It is fun to see people be like, all right, screw it, screw our values, screw whatever, we will be behind it. It'll be such a relief to have Kamala and not Joe. Look, she still probably is an underdog against

Trump, even though Trump is a very unpopular candidate and nobody likes him but it might be exciting enough to feel like anybody we pick is going to be an underdog at this point because we haven't had years of campaigning of people getting normalized to the idea of this new person we haven't allowed people to become leaders really stars within the Democratic Party. I've seen this a lot, and I tend to push back on this, even though there's not a lot of test cases for it. But the idea that there's not enough time for people

to become familiar with the candidate or get on board with them. Sure. I'm not saying you specifically. I've seen it a lot of like. I feel attacked. I feel attacked. I thought we were friends. Well Yeah, it's just getting chippy even here and even here on the pod. You too. Everybody just calm down a little bit

You too. Okay. Wait, I just want oh no you say I was I said thing cute and not related About what? Well, we're all wearing the same color scheme today, and I love it. I guess we are. We are! You know what? Okay. Never mind then, no attack. This is not an attack. Sorry, please continue with your important point.

Now I realize we're wearing our team uniforms. We are! We love it. Okay. I mean, there are a lot of bad arguments out there for like, why not to do this? And I do think that one of them is that sort of like, well, how are we going to like people aren't going to get to know this person or this person? Like how do we we don't have enough time. I think that's silly for a couple of reasons. One is that not this fact, like portion of America, but much of America fell in love with the Hock Toi girl in two days.

Like we get to know people all the time. And if they are the opponent to Donald Trump for president of the United States, it's not impossible to like, oh, you do debates, you do interviews, you, like it's easy to get people on board with the person. Even if they're not like super known. I wanna qualify that. I am all about it.

Let's get somebody out sooner the better. Somebody in. Sooner the better, sure. Sooner the better, sure. Sooner the better. Absolutely. More time possible. I also think it's fair to acknowledge that most people have,

it's not about necessarily the name recognition, but in general being comfortable with a candidate. How long do we have to convince people that Kamala is not a cop? I don't know that we should. I don't know if the Democratic Party cares about her being a cop helps her. I think it helps her.

I know. To that point, like there- I just picked up an example of something. I just meant like, or Buttigieg, that he's not boring, or that Newsom is not still married to Kimberly Guilfoyle. I don't know. But this is all stuff that that matters for the primary, for the internal democratic stuff.

But whoever it solidifies around, they can try and pretend, but MAGA is not gonna be like, I'm not voting for the cop. You can't, that's untenable. And they'll handle it, they'll frame it however they want. It's 30% of America, they're in that cult, and that's whatever.

But in terms of the issues that a lot of us have with some of these candidates, I don't think that is the broad consensus. Or it would affect those candidates in the same way. But you get my point, is that the more time the better. We're wasting time, and it we're wasting time, absolutely. It's less about the name recognition. It's like, yeah, a lot of people fell in love with Hock-Twa,

but does everybody, did everybody really understand the nuance? Is there time to get messaging out? At this point, it's just like a five alarm fire. Yeah, I also think there's an element of just like, oh, it's not Joe Biden, who is it? Like that excitement will click with so many people. And the fact, honestly, the fact that it's like

such a bizarre, rare thing to happen in elections, I think that the attention would actually help because that's, as we know, attention is currency in a lot of these scenarios. And if you have attention, I'm like, oh, look at this, and of these scenarios. And if you have attention, I'm like, oh, look at this, and currency is money. But if you have all this attention on like, oh, new person, new person, oh, it's not Joe Biden,

oh, like all this stuff, I think that would get people excited in some way. Although I will say, so like the comma of it all, it is very fun online, we're all having a really good time. And I do have a cover of Wheels on the Bus that I can share if people are interested in that. Wheels on the bus go round and round. There are issues with Kamala, obviously, not just like the cop of it all and the various things,

but, you know, historically, has not been a great candidate, right? She was the first out in the primary. And part of that is probably because she talked to Biden in early December and they were like, well, if I win, then you're- She was hemorrhaging. She wasn't doing well. She was not performing well.

At all, which is, again, my point. And she has these clips that are very entertaining. So does Donald Trump. He says weird stuff all the time. And she is way more like lucid and intelligent than Donald Trump, sorry. Of course, she's not. Of course. I would just say there's an element of,

there's an element of Kamala that's like very, she has these charismatic moments where she's like a real person, you know? And taking it out of context, they're like, they perform kind of goofy. But also she was a real person with a real job for many, many years. Before she was Senator,

she had a real job. When she was Senator, a lot of times when she would go viral, it would be for these moments in Congress where she's grilling somebody or being a serious person and I would just say if people don't think about how to debate Donald Trump specifically it's so weird it's like yeah you're doing debate prep no it's you need to yeah she could be great up there with him but I think

there's a there's a way to contrast, and again, this isn't like, all cops are bastards except for Kamala. But the contrast is, if it were her, is a cop against a felon. That's what the contest is. Donald Trump is a liar and a criminal, and she represents law and order, and I hope she would bring to it where it is that serious nature

where she's like because there's this clip going around when she was running for Senate in 2016 her opponent at one of the debates at the end dabbed like the opponent like did her little like closing statement and she dabbed and Kamala would just sort of like saw it and like kind of smirked and just like, and then said, clearly there's some distinctions between candidates this year. And she like continued on. And like, that's the energy of like, he's a clown,

you're a serious person and like, yeah, you've got like, you've the personality stuff, but like, in contrast with him, dismiss him. Like that's, you know, it's easy to like, oh, I'm riled up, I'm so mad, I'm gonna yell with him, dismiss him. Like that's, you know, it's easy to like, oh, I'm riled up, I'm so mad, I'm gonna yell at him, this is this, no, let him be a clown and you be a serious person. You actually made big inroads for me right now

in terms of Kamala as the person specifically going to the cave. Specifically because of, it would be satisfying to see her on the debate stage with Donald Trump. Yeah, maybe not. She might fumble it. And it's possible for everybody. But the other thing that you just unlocked for me, and I don't know, gosh, has this been happening? Maya Rudolph is a shoe-in to play Kamala on SNL.

Big four years for her. I don't know if she has been, but I would posit if she hasn't is because they have someone else. Kamala is very, very good. No, no, no. There's another comedian actress who does a Kamala impression online, and it's incredible. I know, but Maya Rudolph.

I know, but. You know what SNL would do. They'd be like, who's the celebrity who most resembles? Maya Rudolph. Maya Rudolph. When it comes to a debate, first of all, I don't think Trump would do it. He'd be like, she's not the candidate,

Biden's the candidate. He can only lose by debating her. However, I do think she would let Trump say what he's gonna say, and then she would just say like, okay, back in reality, here's what's really going on. And she would much more eloquently, I think, do it than what we saw. She would do it more eloquently than Joe Biden at 2 PM.

Yes, exactly. Let alone Joe Biden at 9 PM Eastern. What were they thinking? Oh, I mean, honestly, like Pete. Pete's really good at that stuff in Congress explaining stuff. Like, that's not true. In reality, this is going on. That's why Joe Biden's so uniquely bad

for this exact moment. But we should talk about some of the other names being floated here. Pete Buttigieg is one of them. Like I said last week, yeah, let's get that nerd up there. Let's see what he does. I mean, the thing is- I love nerds.

I love nerds. I'm not making fun of them. Well, the thing is with this conversation is that it's literally anybody. Literally anybody 2024. Just like they're, you know, Well, the thing is with this conversation is that it's literally anybody. Literally anybody 2024. Just like they're candidates that might be worse off and the polling would change once the party is behind and they're in the spotlight and so on and so forth.

One thing I think we should remind ourselves, semi consistently of, is that most people don't like Donald Trump. He's not likeable, he's really obnoxious, and you have to talk about him every fucking day when he's the president. And it sucks, nobody likes it. Yes, there are diehard people and there are people who are going to vote for him, and they're like, I'll blow it up, like nothing matters. There are people who like him and will vote for him. But most people view him unfavorably.

People are going to get mad at me for saying this. who like him and will vote for him. But most people view him unfavorably. People are gonna get mad at me for saying this. And you're right. Most people find him distasteful. And I know you're talking to me. People always seem, one or two people frequently send messages about me saying this kind of thing.

But I live in the mountains. I recently moved here look it up even if people don't really like him they're not thrilled with the Democratic Party in general and Joe Biden and the people are pretty confused and this is very chaotic and I'm not positive but I don't think those people were like maybe eight years ago. I'm talking about people that voted Biden but are kind of on the cusp.

They're distressed because they don't like Donald Trump. But in their mind, their life was better because of XYZ. But what about the Democratic? If they voted for Joe Biden in 2020, and now they're like, I don't know about the- Against Donald Trump. I don't know about this. Against Donald Trump. What has happened since that they're like, not now, I about the- I don't know about the- Against Donald Trump. Against Donald Trump.

Right, that's what I'm confused about. I mean, all the things, guys, come on. The things that are spin that I can argue back with. Inflation, wars, spending on Ukraine and Israel. And I mean, these are conversations. OK. I don't believe you. I'm going to push back a little bit, Katie.

That's right. This is all a total- Is it more because they're anti-trans Perhaps or I mean I'm literally culture war thing. I Understand no because inflation makes sense. I can't imagine Hear me when I say no, okay. I mean there are people of course I like I can think of plenty that like, sure, yeah, there's that. But I'm talking about people that genuinely feel distressed. They voted against Trump for Biden, and are really turned off of Biden and the Democrats in general. It might be enough to

get a new candidate in. I'm saying let's not take it for granted. Like I'm responding specifically to Cody saying the vast majority of the country doesn't like Donald Trump, which is probably true. I think that's still true though, is the thing. But I don't know that that's enough reason for them to not vote for him again. I believe all this stuff is still a risk. Switching is still a risk.

Like we don't know that it would be better. We don't know that people would be more comfortable. Biden could win. I think so. I don't know. I think Biden's going to lose and that Gretchen Whitmer or Pritzker or Kamala would have a better Shot. I think the bigger risk is Doing that and then the Republicans are like we're gonna just sue to keep them off the ballot and the Supreme Court will be like Yep, they're not a ballot

So you better do a write-in keep Biden's gonna be on the ballot And so the Democrats can decide to do a write-in campaign for Kamala and it's a complete disaster I think that's a likelihood. Yeah, there are so many complications there that the Republicans would take advantage of But I think if that's not an issue if let's say whoever it is can get on the ballot and then that person stops sending weapons to Israel and we get 40,000 people in Michigan back, that gives us a way better chance than anything we're doing with Biden right now. And I think it is independent of some of those things you're talking about, Katie, which I don't doubt. Definitely, and I'm not discounting what you're saying, it's true, but I do push back slightly on the narrative that everybody, like it's not binary like that. There are a lot of people in this gray area that are not transphobic.

They might not understand it as much, but I mean, I really would love for people to believe me and hear me when I say that I have a lot of really great conversations where people to believe me and hear me when I say that I have a lot of really great conversations where people that are confused about trans issues talk to me about it. And they'll be like, well, can I ask you this? And they'll be like, that makes sense.

A few people that I would say were on one spectrum and over the course of my time here for conversations have said, you know what, I don't have a problem with it. You know what, you're right. I wouldn't mind sharing a bathroom with a trans woman. They should vote against Donald Trump again. But for real. Because he's going to do the opposite of that.

But it's ingrained in then that the Democratic Party is a mess, and they're economically feeling the pinch. And I can scream it from the rooftops that that's not. No, the prices thing makes sense to me. Joe Biden didn't cause your but it's like I mean I get I literally posted today about how prices are too high. So like I I believe that I I think that there are For of course, there are people that are transphobic and all this shit, but I'm saying that there are more people I'm pleasantly surprised by how many more people are just kind of confused. But no, I think I get that.

It's like prices were lower four years ago. They're always lower four years ago, but they were way lower. Four years ago, most of the time that Biden's in office, he pulled out of one of them. And we're not like and we're not in the Ukraine. We know that we're spending a lot of money going to try to flatten Gaza. I know I'm not arguing with it. But that's what it looks like. Katie, why are you voting for Donald Trump?

Everybody hates me and thinks that I'm a Trump apologist for saying this. No, we don't think that. It's just the thing that I want people to accept. And like, I'm not, yeah, I don't doubt that there are people in that camp. I just think that ultimately more people hate Donald Trump than love him. And

recalibrating the Democratic Party to seem like they have a coherent spokesperson would do, hopefully do wonders for that problem. Absolutely. Even Kamala wanted to call for a ceasefire like way earlier. Totally. And seems to be. We've got so much more that we can should talk about. Okay so I guess it doesn't matter anybody with a pulse sounds good to us but names floated. Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer that could be a very smart choice. You have seen a lot of people, even with the Kamala doll, would be like, well, a woman can't win or a black woman can't win.

First of all, black man won twice. Fuck off. This country is very sexist. Country is very sexist, but at the same time, there's a very important issue focused on women going on in this country. And it might be helpful actually to have a woman vocally standing for that, right?

I would love it. I would love to get a woman up there as our official, like this is all like a running ground, gun, hair, Hail Mary moment for us, no matter what. Let's put a woman in there. Also, I mean, 2016, I guess was not the right time, but it might be the right time to give people the choice of Donald Trump or a woman.

A woman. And hope that even just that is enough. I don't know. I guess I'm also running on just sort of like a general optimism. That's good. You know, we've talked about this. Trump, things he says now versus things he said

eight years ago, they're worse now. He's worse now. He's saying a lot of things that are worse than what he used to say. And I just have this, I guess, naive optimism of like, surely, surely now he will be rejected. It is a duty of us to simply reject him. Especially now that he's like, I might kill you if I'm elected,

and now I can. And now he can. So let's talk about that. There's all sorts of stuff that you put in this doc that are interesting that we've brushed over, like whether or not Republicans will even allow that person to be on the ballot, but those are all theoretical. One thing that's not theoretical is what the Supreme Court

has been up to this week. Good stuff. Dying? Oh, only zero of them died, unfortunately. No, they're going to save that for the next president. So I guess we should start with the immunity of it all. So yeah, in a six to three ruling along party lines, the conservative Supreme Court says

presidents have presumptive immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while they are president So this means that Trump is off the hook for any of that stuff. He did while he was president So the the perfect phone call that's within his official duties the slate of false electors you can make the, was part of his official duties. And now everyone seems to agree. I haven't seen anyone say that's not what this ruling says, that the president could

order SEAL Team 6 to kill a political rival and there's nothing that can be done about it. I keep looking for, okay, but we could still impeach him in theory, right? You just couldn't prosecute him criminally for those things. You know, and this opinion also gives the president a lot of immunity for things in what's called the outer perimeter of their authority. You know, even though, okay, he's not, he could give the Department of Justice an illegal order, but it's kind of part of his job to give orders to the Department of Justice an illegal order, but it's kind of part of his

job to give orders to the Department of Justice, right? So you could let that slide, and even if it's an unofficial act, you can't use his motive and you'd have to prove, the government would have to prove that the president was not acting in an official capacity and you can't use any presidential documents and stuff to do that. So it's such a high bar that you basically can't ever prosecute the president even if it's unofficial. Joe Biden ordered Trump's assassination.

Don't worry, he already said he's not gonna do that. He said he's not gonna do any of that. Not gonna talk to court, not gonna, yeah. If we had any expectation that this would also be applied to democratic presidents, which it won't. But if it was, yes, in theory he could order some special elite force from the army or navy to assassinate Donald Trump and Biden couldn't be criminally prosecuted for it. I imagine if that were to happen, which it won't, that the Supreme Court would

find a way to say, well, in this case, kill Joe Biden for it. So you're not allowed, looking at this one, you're not allowed to look into a president's motives? No, because you can't know whether it's official or unofficial. The president has like immunity and all of the internal calls and documents and stuff are shielded from Being evidence according to this. I it just Know this one like the elector but like the electors down thing seems There's even a quote from

Coney Barrett About Coney Barrett didn't join That she she joined in the 6-3, but then didn't concur with that part She kind of left a little sliver where she's like, I think right the electors are like campaign stuff. That's like Campaign related not like official business of the president It's not the president's like official business to campaign for president and the rest of them were like, thank you very much Right. Thank you. Thank you so much, Amy. Thank you so much. But like, goodbye.

It's not as if this hasn't sort of been true to a degree. And practically speaking, but when you make this an official thing, like no, the president has immunity, you're just opening the floodgates for what could be. We're just setting the floodgates for what could be. We're just setting the stage for somebody to use this to their advantage. It's all theoretical, because every president

has committed crimes, and none of them have ever been prosecuted for it. So this has been basically true always. Even though the phrase, no one's above the law. But if all of this stuff, if this case, if this had been a Democrat that denied the election, if all selectors, all the things, all the things that Trump had done,

if he was a Democrat, there's not a, I don't see a world where Republicans would be like, yes, now let's give presidential immunity to the guy that we hate. Oh, sure, they'd already be doing the Cersei Lannister shame walk. No, they want a king.

And they know that they get one. But they rail against, they call them the fascist Democrats, the fascist left. Yeah, because they're frauds and liars. And they're fascists. They believe it. Some of them believe it. They have to be inconsistent and lie and pretend

like they believe in freedom when what they want is a king. Some of them say this out loud now, but they want- A lot of people say it out loud. They're like, we just need a dictator to clean shit up. Yeah, they want a king, and they trust that the current Democratic president won't exercise those powers because obviously they won't. We can't do anything.

It's, well, people are looking bad. Yeah, so they. Yeah, so they are, I think, are confident that, oh, we do this now, then, well, maybe the court can stop Joe Biden or whoever from becoming the president and get the next guy, which is going to be Trump, and then it's all done. then the country's over yeah I try not to be like a doomer about this stuff but I don't for like if Trump wins and he's alive in 2028 I do not see a I don't see a future where he allows there to be an election no in 2028 no you think says yeah he says there's no well once he realizes that he can't really he either gets the Supreme Court to interpret the 22nd, whatever amendment it is, he gets them to rule that it just meant consecutive. You can do more than two or whatever. And if he can't

do that, he'll just say, it's been brought to my attention that my opponents are in league with Antifa to cause violence around the election. And because of that, I am am canceling the 2028 election temporarily and then there's just never an election again. Well, I mean you hear people that live in other places with strongman authoritarian Dictators and they're like this is how they get you. Yeah, it's not hard. This is the playbook. No. Yeah It's a bit of a slow creep. And then it's, you know, there. I think right. They they or they do enough voting rights laws that they just ensure that Democrats can't ever win again. And then they have this, oh, we're mad at you.

And they let them do it. And it just never matters. And then they were just like, well, you you cheated. You do you lie and stuff like that. You're just saying what we say, you know, it's yeah. I guess it's definitely a possibility and I definitely hear everybody's and share the concern about what could happen, especially with Donald Trump. I would say that there is a world

where he doesn't really wanna be president like we've established and at that point, he won't, he'll be totally immune and all of his crimes will be done and he will be ready to just go make money Maybe um, I don't think That's how his brain works necessarily especially anymore Because he's I mean he's old and

dying but also he's a Narcissist and Once he he wants to be the guy who's the president forever, right? He would want that. It's not the same thing, but Biden just being like, I'm not going to step down. We're doing this. And like, you all said I couldn't do it, but I did it.

I'm the only guy to beat Trump. Fuck off. You're just one man. It's the same impulse of the legacy and the needing to prove yourself and the needing to be this thing. And I don't know if he would be like, ah, I'll step down, or I'm not going to run again.

I'm just going to go enjoy my Mar-a-Lago life. He could be the president and just live at Mar-a-Lago if he wants. At that point, he can do whatever he wants, not even be the president. But he would be the president. they basically have all the levers of power to where it does not Matter if they have the house or the Senate if they have the courts and if they got the like admit all the like administrative and

bureaucratic positions like Can't do anything anymore That's and they're probably going to get Congress this year. Maths not looking great there. In another stunning, surprising six to three ruling, the court struck down Chevron versus the National Resources Defense Council, which is a landmark 1984 ruling, which allowed government agencies to make rules within that agency's purview if Congress hadn't explicitly made a law about it. And this said that judges had to defer to the expertise of the agency in question if

there was some dispute over language. This new ruling says they don't have to do that, that agencies don't have any special expertise even if they're like scientists at the EPA. Even if that's their expertise? Yeah. That judges get to decide what the language means and this basically means that agencies don't have to, that they can't pass rules because, or they can pass a rule, but then they'll get sued and if it's the wrong

judge looking at it they'll say yeah I don't like this rule and I dispute this language and it's thrown out it makes it so it just it guts the regulatory administration yeah and like people with actual expertise in these issues specifically like I mean the conservatives have wanted this for decades because they don't want regulations they don't want any president, let alone a Democratic president, telling them where they can pollute, what they can do, what banks can do. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

now won't be able to do some of the stuff that they do. Because I don't know some of the specifics, but they said, oh, we're going to get rid of junk fees and overdraft fees. Well, maybe now that's off the table. Maybe it is. The judge says, well, we're going to get rid of junk fees and overdraft fees. Well, maybe now that's off the table. Maybe it is. If the judge says, well, there's no law specifically about this. Right, it not only stops, yeah, people, again, who know what they're talking about,

talking to a judge who was holding up a snowball. And they're like, well, global, that's cooling. Global warming isn't, whatever. That wasn't a judge, but still it's the same fucking thing No, it's just judge bill o'reilly. Yeah can but like, you know it not only makes that difficult and Will have you know judgment passed down that don't necessarily understand what they're what they're talking about

but also it gums up any movement or progress because it's going, like you're saying, it's going to lead to all these lawsuits, which puts a pause on everything anyway and draws it out. Their whole goal generally, and look at Project 2025, look at just Trump's general incompetence and inability to govern and everything the GOP does, it's all just sort of we want there to be no departments in the government. We want five guys to run the government. And then you can do whatever, people be damned. It just makes my head spin because I also understand the reason why these agencies exist and why this is bad and bad for our future, bad for

everyday citizens, for consumers, for our children, for the environment. They always, I think Alito has said this a couple times when they do stuff like this, they're like, look, we're not saying these rules can't exist. Congress could simply pass a law because that's what Congress does all the time. And the map is gerrymandered in such a way where the side that wants these rules could easily win and pass all of these laws. Um, and then of course, even when Democrats do have the presidency in the house and the Senate, they only do like, they do a little bit of it.

Well, yeah, I'm, I feel like I'm, I feel like I came in hotter as a this is bad than I intended to. It is bad. It's been a very depressing week. It's all this stuff that's like, yeah, again, this slow chipping away. You see more and more every day like this, like these Heritage Foundation freaks like talking about like the violence that they actually want. And you know, they're gonna they want to repeal like the Civil Rights Act and like all these like all the this progress, this idea of like basically using the phrase like we want to repeal the 20th century, everything that happened there.

And that's a lot of stuff. And they're not pretending anymore. And seeing all this stuff sort of like slowly build up and chip away and chip away and then guy trying to run for reelection. And the other guy, like the other guy being Trump is just, I don't know, it's not great. And there's no way to predict how things will go because who knows? Which is so, yeah. I thought you guys did.

I thought that's why we gathered here today. Well, that's why we're having so much fun saying, let's fall out of the coconut tree into the proper context and get on the K-Hive. Why not? Maybe that'll be. OK, you know what, guys? I think that this might be the right time for Cody

to play Wheels on the Bus. I've been practicing all week. OK. The Kamala version, right? I've been learning. No, the real version. Oh, the actual Wheels on the Bus. The real version. It's the real version. Oh, the actual Wheels on the Bus, okay.

It's the real version. The wheels on the bus, I need to hear myself. Wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town. The doors on the bus. It's not working.

Open and shut. Open and shut. Open and shut. The doors on the bus. Open and shut. All through the town. Oh, say can you see by all the dawn's early light. Isn't that Water King?

I would love to hear Kamala sing the national anthem. I wanna hear what that is. All right, I think we've done it. We did it, we're here. We've arrived at the end, we've talked about it. We're gonna miss you next week, Jonathan, but have fun. Yeah, well hopefully it's a slow news week. You know, nothing's going to happen.

Hopefully. Nothing to talk about. Nothing to happen. What could possibly happen, Jonathan? That's what you said about this week. I'll be back in two weeks, and it'll be like, oh. Wait, two weeks? Well, two weeks from today.

Oh, wait, yeah. Right now. For the people. I was like, oh, no, Jonathan. I wrote this down wrong. No, it'll be like, so what do you all think of President Hawk to a girl now? OK, well, I didn't expect that, but here we are.

So be it. We haven't quoted that name yet, but all options are on the table. She knows how to get a job done, a specific kind of job. But still. OK, that feels like a good note to leave on. Hey, guys. Hi.

I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to you out there in the interwebs. Been a rough week. It's hard to celebrate our country, but I hope you enjoy your day off. You're going to be hearing this after. I hope you enjoyed your day off and please know that we do love you very much. Much. I mean it.

Much. I mean it. Much. Heels on the bus, go round and round. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.