Some More News - SMN: Loud, Celebrity Politicians – Part One: The GOP

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Sources:

. Oh, hey, I didn't see you come in because you didn't. Because that's what video is. I'm Cody Johnston and here's some more of the news. Some more news is the name of the show. Speaking of what video is, there's a cool hip new place people are getting their video and with the proper upgrades, even images and text,

it's called the internet. You can even see politicians on this internet. Word I knew. Many of whom are internet famous. Yeah, I obviously wouldn't know what that's like, but with a lot of gumption and a fair bit of research, I think I can speak to the topic. Ever since political debates were first televised in 1960

and a waxy bejowled Richard Nixon lost to the sexiest Catholic available at the time, the line between political fame and the kind of fame we award for stuff like singing, playing sports good, or whatever we were using Snooki for, has become increasingly blurred. There have always been famous politicians because humans are interested in power and powerful people.

But with the advent of TV and social media being loud and controversial, making bold public stances, even being taller or more conventionally attractive than your rival, are all ways a politician can boost their stature and hopefully stay trapped in the horrible hell job they'd kill anybody to keep. And while this isn't exclusive to one political party, the GOP has sure mastered the art lately.

If you're one of them dummo rats, you might look at some of those loudest and most idiotic on the GOP and wonder how the heck are they staying in office? Are these people secretly good for their states and districts? After all, one would hope that the politicians who hogged the spotlight would then use that giant megaphone not just to campaign, but to do stuff,

and not just hand stuff at a theater. Stuff for their constituents, stuff they said they would do. Are the loudest, most famous Republican politicians doing the things they said they would for the people that got them elected? We should find out, right? Especially with this whole election dilly happening this year.

And heck, if you're good, we'll do the same thing for Democrats. Perhaps, I don't know, in a week from now. Cool, a two-parter. The Loudest GOP Politicians, part one, a child of fire. Right, are the loudest and often most toxic GOP figureheads actually doing their jobs? That seems like a fair question at a time in America

when we're lousy with billionaire super yachts, but we can't get our regular folks clean water, good food, a decent Star Wars sequel, affordable housing, accessible social services or healthcare. Well, if you don't have anything substantive to add or a solution to bring to the table, if your electorate can't even stand on the planks you built your platform on

without falling through the cracks, you're more than an impediment. You are a serious problem and you're killing us. You've taken the role of a champion of the people and use it to buff your campaign coffers or for cheap tawdry fame. And remember, you can support some more news on Patreon for special bonus stuff and the personal friendship of me,

Cody, who will come do a shody at your howdy. Sorry, ho, hody. House. I was trying to say house. Also, I will not come to your howdy. Matt Gaetz, father of Nestor. Oh good, let's kick this differential diagnosis off with Mr. Matthew Gates,

a man whose nose appears to be some kind of black hole sucking in the rest of his face. Matt is the Republican representative of Florida's first district, which faces some very real problems like an affordable housing crisis, homelessness, and climate change driven events like Hurricane Sally. So what is Matt focused on?

Well, he got Kevin McCarthy removed as the speaker of the house after an intense and intensely public feud. Can homeless people move into his old office or something? Probably not. Anyway, you remember, it was a shit show so big and juicy that if this were a show, we'd be going to commercial right after. So it's a good thing this is a show D.

Speaking of show D, that's what Matt allegedly did to a 17 year old girl in 2019. It doesn't have a ton to do with his governance, but also doesn't it though? Gates represents the part of the Florida Panhandle containing Pensacola and Crestview. District one is a big tourist hub, boasting several billion dollars of economic impact a year

and about 800,000 folks, mostly white folks, it should be noted, with a median household income of around 65K, and mostly working in healthcare, retail, service work, or tourism. And hey, what combines retail, service work or tourism. And hey, what combines tourism, service work and retail? Taking a 17 year old across state lines for sexual purposes in exchange for something of value.

If he gave her health benefits, we're talking the full Dodge Durango. But let's close the gates on the trafficking issue for now, because the voters who keep Matt in power sure have. Like, don't get me wrong, kind of feels like there's nothing else to say about a guy who simply shouldn't be in power on account of being investigated for sex trafficking a minor.

But here we are, saying more things. Also, stuff. Matt's constituency skews older, and the first is historically a Republican stronghold. Why don't these aged crackers feel any qualms about the allegations? Mainly, low trust in media reports, AKA the most awesome aspect of the internet,

AKA being able to live in whatever reality you want to, regardless of anything. Says to, regardless of anything. Says here, regardless of anything. But what's odd is that even if we take out the sex trafficking, which we shouldn't, but even if we did, Matt's still not very good at his job. After all, I doubt all those healthcare workers in his district were aided by Gates publicly mocking masks

during the pandemic, or the fact that during the height of the pandemic, he was most focused on going to Wyoming to insult Liz Cheney for voting to impeach his special daddy. Matt clocks in as below average or worse in the baseline ways people often judge a congressperson, like number of bills sponsored, how many are bipartisan,

and how many collaborators they're able to muster. To be fair, I'm not sure how important being bipartisan is, and in a lot of cases, I'd say it's bad to take a centrist stance, and there are many different ways to be an effective politician. But we're here to turn all the greasy little stones over, so it's worth noting.

Gates sponsored 307 bills and racked up 67 co-sponsors for bills introduced, which only puts him in the 19th percentile among his Republican colleagues. The top Republican by comparison has collected over a thousand co-sponsors for bills. Mm, that's, ooh, that's a lot of sponsorship. Out of the Florida GOP delegation,

16% of bills sponsored by Gates were bipartisan compared to the top reps, 46. As far as the 16 bills Matt himself introduced during the 117th session, none made it out of committee. That includes the Disarm the IRS Act and the Stand Your Ground Act. And in case you're curious, that Stand Your Ground Bill is exactly

what the rest of those laws are like, an attempt to give Americans the right to fight back even if fleeing is an option, which of course we've seen the results of many, many, many, many times, often involving illegal and racist shootings, often of teenagers, from people who think they are magically protected. It's basically a law designed to make every white person

Mr. Strickland in the Biff timeline of Back to the Future. You might think that the Disarm the IRS Act is metaphorical, but it's actually a literal bill to disarm the IRS of ammunition, as Gates explained to cat turd appraiser, Tucko Jumbotron. Why would the IRS need millions of dollars worth of guns and ammo? Well, Joe Biden is raising taxes disarming Americans.

So of course they are arming up the IRS like they're preparing to take Fallujah. Scuff, I say! The IRS arming themselves? Outrageous! As Gates explains, this is clearly because Joe Biden is coming for your taxes by force, like the Sheriff of Nottingham, or Rottingham, if you're feeling silly.

And that would be scary if it wasn't a complete lie, because the IRS has, since fucking 1919, It'd be scary if it wasn't a complete lie because the IRS has since fucking 1919 armed specific agents for criminal investigations and not routine audits. And in fact, this last year, their ammunition purchases were lower than previous years. In other words, Matt Gaetz is just wasting everybody's time, especially the people who elected him.

Also, hey, what if the IRS is standing their ground? Can you disarm them? I have nipples, Matt, can you disarm me? Ah, the jokes, they make the existential horror go down easier. If you don't eat your horror, you can't have your hate. Gaetz also led a campaign against the practice of earmarking funds, which is the process

of reserving a portion of taxpayer money and directing it at a specific project designed to help your district, thus circumventing the usual process. It's a controversial practice that we will be covering a lot. And Matt seems to be using the issue to help sidestep his previously alluded to legal issues,

claiming that the earmark process has been completely compromised and corrupted as a way to provide kickbacks and graft to certain politicians or their pet projects. Specifically, he said, quote, "'I'm being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors, yet Congress has reinstituted a process that legalizes the corrupt act of exchanging money

for favors through earmarks. So he's not wrong that there are problems with earmarks, but they can also be a very useful tool. And in fact, we'll talk about that more in the next video because earmarks are a really good way to gauge what a politician cares about. And of course, Matt's quote doesn't really change the potential sex trafficking stuff, Matt.

That's like me saying, how could Shakey's ban me for nudity when 9-11 was way worse? It's like that if I also caused 9-11, which... I didn't. Because it turns out that Matt Gaetz loves earmarking funds. Matt is among the top 20 house lawmakers seeking earmarked funds.

Specifically, he wants a little over 140 million to build a giant hanger for recently built training helicopters at the Milton Naval Air Station, because to quote Matt, "'Without this hangar, the next storm will rip through "'this new fleet of helicopters, "'causing a catastrophic waste of taxpayer resources.'"

And that's interesting. You know, considering that he voted against federal disaster relief funding to aid those affected by Hurricane Ian. So as long as his toy choppers are safe, Gates is good. The people that elect him no matter what can go piss into the wind, which there happens to be plenty of actually.

Because keep in mind what I said, earmarks are typically used to fund projects designed to help a district. Gates could be requesting up to 15 project funding proposals and the only one he's asking for is this helicopter hanger. Seriously, we're going to list a lot of other earmarks from other politicians in this and the next episode.

They range from infrastructure to community projects for their district. But for Gates, it's just this one thing. In a state that is regularly pummeled with storms and a district that struggles with housing and income issues. And all he wanted was a hanger. The closest thing we could find to Matt giving a shit

about the housing problems was this 200 word article saying that he was concerned about affordability in the state and thinks the solution is state backed reinsurance, which is when insurance companies get their own insurance and is actually already a thing they are doing in Florida and seems largely designed to protect insurers from being sued by the homeowners they fuck over.

By the way, that article has seven paragraphs and six of them are a single sentence and broken up by ads. Bad job, Wear News 3. Anyway, this would be the part where I make fun of Matt for ignoring climate change, but Matt actually does believe in climate change, which makes him that rare kind of mythical creature among far-right Republicans.

He's like an eagle mixed with a horse, mixed with a perfect Dungeons and Dragons role. A hypocrite, a majestic, magical hypocrite, flying high and accomplishing literally nothing while staying in office despite massive scandal. I'm depressed now. Let's move on to Lauren Boebert. Cool, much better. Fuck. Well, at least we have some Beetlejuice jokes to look forward to.

Did someone say Beetlejuice? Gah! Hi! Yes, I said Be- No, actually don't. Nobody say it the third time. Can't be too careful. Since Wombo has been disillusioned they did about Mr. Joe Biden because of Mr. Cody Silly Goaty Shody, Wombo is looking for a new president to elect. Well, you can't personally choose the next president of the United States. Wait, can you? With a little imagination, Wombo can do anything. Also, druid magic. Cool.

Well, do me a favor and ignore every single person I talk about today. Also, let's break for some ads so I can calm down. Breathe into a bag full of glue. Maybe do some nitrous. Slam a mad dog. Yeah, be right back. Not gonna chug it this time. It actually tastes good.

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Please. Hey, we're back. And there's even more, some more news, if you can believe it, which I can, because I'm incredible. Warmbo is rummaging around my kitchen, I guess looking for the next Biden. And we're trying to figure out if the loudest, most celebrity-leaning politicians in America

are using that Jersey Shore clout to get anything done for their voters. And speaking of people who would totally date the situation. Boebert juice, Boebert juice, Boebert juice! Get it? Juice like cum. Or I guess like the famous character she was watching

while giving a handy, which results in cum. It's word play. Look, we're sex positive here at the Showdy. What you want to do in the privacy of your own seats at a Broadway theater in a world where everyone has a camera on them at all times is your own business. So let's put the score and blow Burt jokes

back in our pants before Lauren gets a hold of them and finishes us off. You know what? On review, that sounded dodgy too. Let's get into the business of governance and just say that Beetlejuice is a known aphrodisiac and we all agree about that. Hoof, mm, damn.

Okay, also, this isn't even the latest horrible news about her since we began writing this. It's hard to even keep it up. Just like, ah! No more sex jokes. No more. Boebert is a Republican repping the third district of Colorado,

home to roughly the same number of people Gates represents. That trend continues as her constituency is also mostly white with a median household income hovering around 60K. Nearly 12% of her constituents live below the poverty line and major industries there include healthcare, social assistance, retail trade, and construction. The city of Pueblo,

among the most diverse population centers in the district, was once a hotspot for the steel industry and is now trying to reinvigorate itself with other industries like marijuana, grow ops, and renewable energy. Nevertheless, the area still struggles with drug addiction, violent crime, and poverty. Kind of counterintuitive then that she voted against

the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which thanks to Democrats was passed anyway and provided stimulus checks and additional unemployment payments to her constituents. It seems like another case where the person we're talking about sucks for the people they represent. Surely it won't be a pattern. The majority of her district's voters are independents,

but a strong Republican base, and at least enough independent voters, have thus far kept Boebert afloat-bert with her platform of having bad policies and embarrassing public spectacles. While she is like Matt in that she says earmarks on federal funds are terrible, she's not like Matt in that she says earmarks on federal funds are terrible, she's not like Matt in that she actually follows through

and voted against any earmarks in the 2023 fiscal year, as well as a major Biden infrastructure bill. That's pretty disconnected from the needs of her constituents whose support has fallen off mostly around this issue, which led to her only narrowly keeping her seat in 2022, staving off her Democratic challenger by a little more than 500 votes.

After that close shave, Lauren's hatred of earmarks has softened somewhat, like her date did in the middle of the second act. Damn it! I swore to myself. I swore to myself. Swore to myself! She submitted 10 funding requests for the 2024 fiscal year, mostly to do stuff like repair roads and bridges,

otherwise referred to as infrastructure. But she's not a majestic hypocrite, you see, because she claims to have come in and helped fix earmarks so that they are no longer corrupt. And by that, I mean, she presumably at most gave input to a committee that she was not a member of that then made slight changes to the earmark process. Specifically that members now need written proof

that the project is eligible. And also they've slightly lowered the cap from 1% of spending down to 0.5%. And also they've banned money being used toward museums and memorials for some reason, which I guess is enough to totally fix earmarks so that Lauren Boebert can now use them and take credit for it,

along with the rest of the GOP now hogging earmarks. So yeah, thanks. Thanks for doing that, Lauren. Anyway, in and around Pueblo and other population centers, in the third, other major issues impacting voters include water and wildfire management. And while Boebert has proudly supported efforts to streamline water conservation projects

and made deals with the logging industry to thin Colorado's forest to mitigate fire damage, she remains a climate change denier, instead blaming forest fires on eco-terrorism and left-wing lawsuits. Decades of eco-terrorism and far left lawsuits have shut down our forests. A left-wing lawsuit is when you slip on avocado toast

while working on your screenplay and sue the small batch coffee roasters tasting pavilion. Causes way too many fires that. And while thinning forests can help to mitigate fires, this is an extremely short-term solution for a very long-term problem. Let's put it this way. She's less of an eco warrior and more like one of those

dopes from the beginning of Fern Gully. She's closely tied to the oil and gas industries and voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which included incentives for a new wind tower manufacturing plant in Pueblo. But despite none of her bills making it out of committee and her voting against the 2023 appropriations package with hundreds of millions

in water conservation spending in it, Lauren loudly claims victory on water and fire issues. She says one thing and votes another, often the very opposite. She's also sponsored the fewest bipartisan bills of all her Republican colleagues, and once missed a debt ceiling vote because she was literally just late,

then claimed it was an intentional no-show made in protest. Do we have a clip of her making this brave stance? They just closed it. They closed it? Yeah. Hey. There you it? Yeah. Hey, there you go. Yeah. That's twice she's been foiled by CCTV

for those keeping track at home. So naturally, sensing that her district was not happy with her ideology or governing abilities or basic competence or how embarrassing she generally is, Boebert has decided to educate herself more on the issues and change her policies to better help. I'm sorry, I'm kidding. She's moving to a redder district,

which I guess is a thing you can just do. Are you too shitty for one place? Just move towns like a virus mutating to avoid immunity or that monorail guy. We're not even talking about her district getting more blue, even though Boebert has blamed Hollywood elites for her decision, big question mark there. Meanwhile, actual people in her district,

even very right-leaning ones, have said that their issue with Boebert is that she absolutely doesn't focus on what matters in their district, such as, in their opinion, gas prices and rent increases. She sucks and jerks, which is fine. All right, we're moving the hell on. Meaning that it's time to strap on our life jackets

and take a Ted Cruz. Oh God, that sounds awful. Probably goes to Cancun though, so that's nice. Ted Cruz, the creepier one. Okay, well, we've talked about Ted on this show a lot, but unlike the country and presidency, we can't do this video without him. Not to mention that Teddo is running

for reelection this year. I sure hope that goes video without him. Not to mention that Teddo is running for reelection this year. I sure hope that goes well for him. Teddy Bear is chief Dorcas of Texas, every district, all of Texas, and got that way by campaigning on a populist message, railing against the political establishment, bank bailouts and big tech, and positioning himself as a maverick outsider,

frothing at the stupid badly shaped mouth to repeal Obamacare. True to his moronic word, he spent much of his time in the Senate gremlining around whilst failing to do just that. In 2013, he spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours to advocate for the defunding of the ACA. Just like Mr. Smith goes to Washington

if it starred a mouth breathing troglodyte. I'm not a big fan of Ted Cruz, which in fairness might tint this report on the piece of shit. Anyway, speaking with college students in New Hampshire on the campaign trail in 2016, Dump Brain Cruz said he didn't have health insurance because Obamacare took it away, which was a lie.

In 2017, he fought with his GOP colleagues on their healthcare plan replacement, advocating for a provision that would allow insurers to provide bare bones healthcare plans instead. The GOP healthcare bill exploded, but Cruz was back at it in 2018, backing a lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General contending that the individual mandate under ACA

was unconstitutional. Of course, Ted never crafted or championed any kind of reasonable replacement to the ACA. In fact, although millions of Texans have since received healthcare coverage through the ACA. In fact, although millions of Texans have since received healthcare coverage through the ACA, Texas still has the highest uninsured rate. Thanks, Ted. The state just recently started working with the ACA

to the benefit of its population. Meanwhile, Ted has refused to extend Medicaid, saying that doing so would worsen health outcomes for the most vulnerable, which is demonstrably false. Also demonstrably false are Cruz's little, ah, shucks, eyebrows, waxy, candle stump of a head, and any claim of rogue maverickness.

In fact, Ted is one of the most entrenched politicians in Washington, serving as a legal advisor to the George W. Bush campaign, representing huge companies like AstraZeneca and Google, and serving as a board member for the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute, a thinly veiled lobbying group that helps secure the very bank bailouts

he railed against during the 2008 financial crisis. Also this, also this. With a lot of these politicians, you have to explain why they are abandoning their district or in this case, entire state. It's pretty unique that there's just a photo of Ted literally doing that. That picture is like a picture of Warren G. Harding

pointing at the teapot dome. Eh, anyone? No, nah, ah, come on. Classic presidential scandal jokes. A picture is worth a thousand turns. Cruz has since championed deregulating the Texas power grid and tried to blame the state's ensuing high power rates on the quote, green new deal radicals.

For his 2024 reelection campaign that I can't stress enough is happening this year, he's presenting himself as a straightforward, effective legislator. To do so, Ted's primarily pointing to tax breaks he helped institute, both for the most affluent Americans and for private rocket companies like Blue Orbit and SpaceX, vanity projects for, you guessed it, the most affluent Americans.

Seems like that's the team he wants to be on. In fact, the cuts Ted boasts about either did nothing or raised taxes on most voters in his state. Although in 2018, he also secured relief for victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. And the official SMN stance on hurricane relief is that it's good and necessary. So, you know, glad he's turned around

after voting against aid for hurricane Sandy victims in 2012. But yeah, generally speaking, the appeal of Ted Cruz makes the most sense if you have a lot of money. Those aforementioned cuts ended up being an enormous transfer of wealth to the richest folks in the nation and placed a bigger tax burden

on poor and working class people. The cuts proved to be lucrative for the wealthiest in Texas while 1.6 million Texas households either receive no tax cut or an increase in taxes. As usual, the richest Texans get an outsized share of the cash and everyone else can go hang. An easy way to remember this classic rule is, if you cut the word taxes out of the word Texas,

you're left with nothing. So in the end, I guess Ted is reasonably true to his word in that he follows through on some of the evil stuff he said he would do, but he's also evil behind the scenes doing stuff that's the opposite of what he said and punishes the most vulnerable members of his electorate. So also not true to his word.

In short, he is short, evil also, and gross. He's a sniveling worm of a coward who still posts jokes about how he abandoned his state to go to Cancun and who the day before we filmed this endorsed for president Donald Trump, a man who once accused Ted's father of murdering JFK and accused Ted's wife of murdering all of us with her hideous dog face.

So yeah, just get it over with and host a podcast on the Daily Wire, Ted. That's what you clearly actually want to do. Oh, you already kind of did that with one of those Daily Wire freaks? Okay, perfect. You know what though? The facial hair was a good idea.

See, fair and balanced. Jim Jordan, not the best wrestling coach. Oh yeah, next on the chopping block, Jim Jordan, come on down. Your district, Ohio's fourth, is laughably gerrymandered and overwhelmingly white, serving as a Republican stronghold since the 1930s. And by using the second tense,

I kind of locked myself into a conversation with you. That doesn't really work for the rest of the segment. So I'm gonna bail on that. They win this round, Jim Jordan. Hey, Jim sucks y'all. I'm not even talking about his actual politics or his past career ignoring sexual abuse. Just his batting average.

Jim's repped district four since 2007, yet has only introduced 30 bills, none of which have made it to the majors. He hasn't even co-sponsored anything that became law, but Jim don't care. Jimmy cracked corn like a honey badger. That's how little he care. That's because, as some have speculated,

Jordan's actual role is to obstruct and agitate so as to make the Minority House Freedom freedom caucus far more powerful than it should be within the GOP. Basically, he just wants to aid Donald Trump, no matter the cost, before Trump inevitably throws him under the bus the following news cycle. JJ is the giant megaphone in the hands of the minority opinion havers, the guy at the party you can't ignore,

but only because he won't stop flicking you in the ear. So how has focusing entirely on the national drama surrounding Trump affected Jim's voter base in the fourth? Well, that kind of depends on whether you make tanks for a living, because that's mainly what Jim has focused on. In his early years, Jim co-sponsored three earmarks. He sponsored $268,000 for a workplace safety program at the University of Findlay,

which sounds good and might be good, but it's worth noting that he also received $80,000 in lobbying from that same university that year. So, you know. There was also $98,000 for a water project in Findlay, which is probably good, although it's worth noting that what that money was for probably didn't help that much. The city of Findlay announced on their Facebook page that residents on the west side of South Main Street from 6th Street to 3rd Street in the 1400 block to the 1200 block are on

a water boil advisory due to a water line break. Cool. So a little bit for water, a little bit for workplace safety, but only for the place that gave him money. And then there's the co-sponsoring of over 5 million for the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio, also known as the place where the tanks are made.

You might've actually heard about this, how we have continued to manufacture tanks despite the United States military basically saying, please stop buying us tanks. We don't need tanks. We have nowhere to even put these silly tanks. And that's thanks to Jim Jordan, the guy who used federal taxpayer money

to bail out a tank factory because, well, what else is his district gonna make? It's a perfect representation of how these capitalism-brained elderly GOPers work. We clearly don't need tanks. The logical answer is to evolve and push laws to open up new industries in his district. But since that's too much work,

nobody wants to work these days, he's just going to stay the course until the tank business inevitably falls apart under its own weight, like some kind of surplus of really heavy things. Ironically, most of these extra tanks are now being sent to Ukraine to fight in a conflict that Jim Jordan famously said

should have no taxpayer support. So he's like one of those mythical birds we keep bringing up. Neat. He's also the big eared bloke who's currently making a big brave stand for non-compete clauses, the nasty little addenda in workers' contracts

that often limit their ability to search for work in their chosen fields following a layoff. That's right, the FTC was considering ditching them, but Jim's sticking up for them, despite campaigning on a platform of less regulation. He also took the Biden administration to task after the East Palestine trail derailment, but has since taken no steps nor supported any legislation

that might have tightened safety regulations to prevent the tragedy from happening again. He opposes earmark spending while also earmark spending. He's trying to defund the federal judiciary because of its persecution of Trump. And he tried and failed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, but also derailed the GOP alternative

for not going hard enough in the paint. He doesn't seem to want to do anything, but he sure likes complaining. So working backwards, if you're a white gerrymandered Ohioan, that's less access to healthcare, less legal recourse, unsafe trains, and a hindered ability to seek employment. But hey, at least, at least there's enough tanks, tanks for everybody,

a chicken in every pot and a tank in every garage. You know what? I need to calm down. And the best way to do that is for you to watch these ads while I huff from my calm bag again. Ta-ta! It's January and you know what that means. I'm coming to get you.

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So head to factormeals.com slash morenews50 and use code morenews 50 to get 50% off. That's code more news 50 at factor meals.com slash you guessed it. More news 50 to get 50% off. DeSantis smile. I don't feel calm at all. Just dizzy. My heart is really going. Also, welcome back. I should calm down, but ow! I don't feel calm at all. Just dizzy. My heart is really going. Also, welcome back.

I should calm down, but ow! Give me calm, Lord. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Just very unpleasant overall. Fuck you, Lord. Is this because of all the monk skulls? I put them back when I was done playing. Okay, so Marjorie is a famously far right politician

who also makes waves by taking bold principled stances. You know, like taking pictures of herself with a gun next to the squad and saying people need to go on the offense against these socialists. If the squad is the Avengers, Margaery is, well, not Thanos. He cares about the environment. Carnage? Ah, who cares?

Anywho, MTG, which does not stand for Magic the Gathering, taps Georgia's 14th district for her mana needs. It's mostly white mana coming as it does from mostly white folks of the suburban and rural working class persuasion. Their largest city is Rome, which from what I can tell, seems like a nice place to live. They're struggling like everyone,

but Rome is growing economically and prominently features a booming healthcare and education industry on account of several colleges in the area. They're building a lot of housing and even have a brand new middle school on the way. Seems better than that other Rome. Have you seen the condition of their stadium over there?

Embarrassing. When looking at this research, I was actually wondering if we needed to do a fun twist where it turned out that MTG was A-OK for GA. Until I looked a little more into it and found out that Marjorie is very vocally against the Rome City Commission that's been approving these steps forward.

Wah, wah. Quote, we've got democratic city commissioners that encourage Black Lives Matter and want to defund the police. They also allow the sales of sex toys in front of children and ignore drag queens. God, is she boring. Marjorie goes on to attack every single good thing

that Rome is doing, including that middle school and their development of affordable housing. That article also notes that the city commission in Rome isn't in any way run by Democrats. She just saw that they were doing good and logical things and I guess made the assumption. This isn't the only good thing her district is doing despite her.

For example, her district is currently in the middle of enjoying extreme growth in the green energy sector. Thanks in large part to Biden acts like the 2021 infrastructure bill and 2022 semiconductor act. Specifically because of those acts, a Korean solar company is now building a $2.5 billion plant in Dalton, Georgia.

Hey, thanks Biden, Marjorie should say without the irony. Of course, she's not saying that. In fact, Marjorie voted against all of the bills that have now greatly benefited her district. She has since meekly shown support for solar power saying, quote, I support all kinds of energy, and has gone on to try and credit these new jobs to efforts made by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp

and Trump instead, all while hoping that no one remembers how incredibly stupid her views on renewable energy have been. Because of course, of course, she doesn't believe in climate change, right? Actually, incorrect. Marjorie is actually fighting on the side of climate change.

We've already warmed one degree Celsius. And do you know what's happened since then? Here, let me tell you. We have had more food grown since then, which feeds people. We are able to, producing fossil fuels keeps people's houses warm in the winter. That saves people's lives. People die in the cold. This earth warming and carbon is actually healthy for us. Can't stress it enough.

Marjorie's district is doing well despite her. But that's it enough. Marjorie's district is doing well despite her. She's like David Zaslav, swatting away any opportunities to succeed and somehow staying in power. And this is all due to her national image and clear desire to climb the political ladder, which to her credit has enabled her to hitch a ride

on the same white agreement train Trump rode to the top. Her district has enough right-wing ghouls to keep her in power, so long as she stays being a weapon of their resentment. And that has pushed her into some tricky positions, often cutting off her own nose to spite the libs. For example, she proposed the Protect America First Act, which would put a four-year moratorium on immigration

and speed extraditions for undocumented immigrants, many of whom have historically filled the vacant positions her community needs occupied so they can restore their economy. A mostly industrial manufacturing area and the so-called carpet capital of the world, many of the jobs in the 14th now stand as empty as the middle of a rolled up carpet.

Similarly, to stay true to her rhetoric, she's had to forego earmark funds and even vote against spending bills that would have sent money directly to her district. The most I could find of her actually putting money to her district was her appropriations requests mainly focused on fire and sewer departments, which in fairness is not bad,

but is also baseline governing because her top priority very clearly and vocally isn't helping her district, but rather pandering to the far right people in it who don't realize that the main reason their district is doing okay is because of John Brandon and the Democrats. Anytime she tries to go bipartisan

or step away from her MAGA image by say, voting for the debt limit increase, her constituents call her a sellout and smack her back into line. I guess that's what you get for intentionally moving to a deep red district you don't care about just to get elected. Margie's trapped, you see,

in a one lane race that pits her voting base against what's actually best for her state and alienates her from anyone on the other side of the aisle. She's the least likely House member from Georgia to sponsor bipartisan bills. Of 27 bills, only one of hers ever made it out of committee, which for the record is actually pretty typical

for someone's freshman term. She of course is also the most likely to just flip out on you, especially if it helps her get elected by harassing the victims of school shootings. How did you get major press coverage on this? And how did you get kids? Why do you use kids?

He's got nothing to say. Sad. Yes, sad. Good word for it. See, this is ultimately what MTG does best. And it's very telling that this loud, obnoxious harassment occurred before she was even elected. She's just outrage bait,

the human embodiment of a boomer meme. Her name is attached to bills like the Kyle Rittenhouse Congressional Gold Medal Act and the Fire Fauci Act, none of which have ever seen the light of day. Not to mention, she voted with McCarthy 79% of the time this term, relegating her to the position of a plus one vote that can largely be taken for granted.

Again and again, her social politics force her to forego bills and funds that would obviously improve living conditions for her voters, or even and funds that would obviously improve living conditions for her voters, or even take measures that directly harm them. Lately, her bills have just been focused on impeaching a bunch of people her party doesn't like, because she knows that's what her base wants,

even if they need other things. If there's a poster girl for politicians who are only here to play to the national stage and couldn't care less about their actual electorate, it's Greene. Meanwhile, her district is continuously bailed out by the exact ideology that she loudly claims to hate while very quietly accepting the help of.

She is the saddest, most obvious of the hypocrites. All talk, no action. And the moment you put her under a little bit of accountability, she shrinks into herself. In fact, you think that Speaker Pelosi is a traitor to the country, right? I'm not answering that question. It's speculation. You've said that, haven't you, Ms. Green, that she's a traitor to the country? No, I haven't said that. Okay.

Put up Penance Exhibit 5, please. Oh, no, wait. Hold on now. So, to restate our core question, do the loudest politicians actually get anything done? Are those things correlated at all, even a little bit? And how new is this phenomenon really? Don't get it twisted. That sounds painful.

America has always been obsessed with celebrity and people in power. The Pharaoh was constantly dodging paparazzi, as we all know. It's pretty apparent some kind of fixation with the highly successful among us is baked into what it means to be human. But once upon a time, being a famous politician meant that 50 people or more had read the

theses you nailed to the church door. Then it meant we could see you on TV in between our stories. Then we went and elected a cowboy actor president. And now it means house reps posting clapbacks to each other on the same platform that I used to promote my album Laverne, now available for your purchasing and listening pleasure. That sucks, not my album, The Phenomenon. It's petty and small, especially the last part

about Laverne by The Hot Shapes, which the New York Times called listenable. As everything about everything has been ramped up with the advent of the internet and social media, we've gained unprecedented access to the private lives and most intimate off the cuff, not at all vetted thoughts of politicians, especially the politicians that openly welcome

that kind of attention, like so many puppies dressed as office workers. I don't think someone like Lauren Boebert would have made these same headlines in the 60s, right? Beetlejuice wasn't even written then. Low-level politics has become a national pastime. If a mayor does something really stupid, literally everyone in the country

now has the ability to engage with that, often directly talking to that person on Twitter, at least until Twitter dies very, very, very, very soon. Is that bad? Well, it goes both ways, right? Behind the drama, some of these folks are doing the exact opposite of what they preach, while others struggle to get anything major

through the system, but are at least pulling in money for their district. And yet, in many cases, it's hardly affected the way we view any of them, because few of us live under their direct control. So does being a do nothing celebrity keep these people in office longer? Does it boost political careers more than normal?

We really have cases for both sides. After all, take the biggest showman of them all, the president himself. Yeah, right, yeah. I meant Biden, obviously. I meant Biden because he's so goddamn riveting. I meant Trump, you mook. You could argue that Donald Trump

could only become president in this climate. He is basically the final form of do-nothing GOP politicians using their personality to thrive. So far, that only took him to one term, which arguably is way too far for him to get. But then you see DeSantis who tried to do the exact same thing, coast on his anti-wokeness, anti-Disney publicity stunts, and nobody bought it

for a few reasons. One being, you know. And as your president, I will not let you down. God bless you. Governor DeSantis, thank you. I think what it comes down to is this. If you rest your political career on fame and celebrity status,

you will also die by those same rules. Because if there's one thing America likes from its celebrities, it's to go away, to make room for new celebrities. Shows have characters and characters have arcs and arcs resolve, damn it. And if you don't do so naturally, we will fucking make you. After all, what's the most thrilling part of a show?

When they kill off a main character. Of course, I'm talking about scripted shows. The rule doesn't really apply to talk shows or hosting. Oh good, he has a knife for some reason. Anyway, being famous at the national level might seem like a great way to ensure a long tenure, but my theory is it actually gives you a baked in shelf life.

Unless you're able to constantly reinvent yourself, people will get sick of you more than someone who just quietly does the work. I think that's part of why the GOP doesn't respond to DeSantis. Voters looked at him and went, yeah, we already have one of those. Without doing the underlying work required

to serve your real honest to goodness constituents, your house of cards will eventually fall apart like the show House of Cards. The politicians who've stuck around the longest also seem to have done the most work on the ground. While those who focus solely on the show will, God willing, find themselves ultimately chewed up and spit out like America does to all of its celebs,

except for Taylor Swift, may she reign a thousand years. But we'll see. I mean, next up, we're gonna cover the Democrat version of this premise. Perhaps that will give us some new insight. But in the end, it's probably too late to put the jack back in the box, as Lauren Boebert can attest.

The line between politics and celebrity is blurrier than ever, if it even existed in the first place. And while it's pretty natural for humans to become fascinated with each other's little idiosyncrasies, it's also ruinous and guarantees we will never accomplish the things we hope to.

So yeah, next episode, we'll take a gander at the other side of the spectrum and see if the most famous Democrats are any better at following through on their promises. Their hollow, hollow promises. Just stop stabbing my calves! Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Don't, that's, ah, three, no, you fucking evil!

You evil fucking sock. You, he ruins everything. Oh no. Somebody is hot man. Hey, I'm the host with the most. That's a reference to something. Ah, what? I'll ask later.

Thanks for watching and make sure to like and subscribe the video and to the channel. We've got merch at a merch store, shop.somemorenews.com with stuff on it. We've got a podcast called Even More News and you can listen to this show, Some More News as a podcast, if you prefer. Go to the podcast store and say, check please after you've ordered the podcast

and then you pay the check, leave a tip and listen. We've got a patreon.com slash some more news. I think I mentioned that early in the episode. Check that out. I've got an album from my band, The Hot Shapes. I'm half of that band. Our album's called Laverne. Check that out.

I guess we're plugging that this time. And you know what else? Because I don't.