Some More News - SMN: One Year of Joe Biden

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

Hi. In today's episode, we ask questions about Joe Biden's first year as president. Questions like, "What's his name?" and "How's it going, Joe?" Support SOME MORE NEWS: http://www.patreon.com/SomeMoreNews We now have a MERCH STORE! Check it out here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/somemorenews Athletic Greens is going to give you an immune-supporting FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase if you visit http://athleticgreens.com/morenews today. Again, simply visit http://athleticgreens.com/morenews to take control of your health and give AG1 a try. Right now, when you purchase a 3-month Babbel subscription, you'll get an additional 3 months for FREE. That's 6 months, for the price of 3! Just go to http://BABBEL.com and use promo code MORENEWS. That's B-A-B-B-E-L dot com, code MORENEWS. Babbel—Language for life.  Right now Trade Coffee is offering a total of $20 off your first three bags when you go to http://drinktrade.com/morenews. Executive Producer Katy Stoll (@KatyStoll). Written by Katie Goldin (@KatieGoldin). Directed by Will Gordh (@will_gordh). Edited by Gregg Meller. Graphics by F. Clint DeNisco. Head Writer - David Christopher Bell. Producer - Nick Mundy. Researcher - Marco Siler-Gonzales (@mijo_marco). Associate Producer - Quincy Tucker (@LTP313). Follow us on social media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  Support the show!: http://patreon.com.com/somemorenewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wow, welcome to news. Hope you are well. God, so much news all the time. It's like they say, the news start coming and they don't stop coming, you know? Fed to the news and I hit the ground running and so on. So much news is my point. Down the news shoot every single day

and I don't even know where it comes from. The news shoot just showed up one day and well, my life has never been the same since. I remember happier times, the taste of strawberries. I think I had a family, had fun. Didn't make sense not to live for fun. Oh, hey now, more news. Cody like news.

Ah, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. We have a new president. Oh, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. We have a new president. Oh, that's neat. And apparently he's been the president for a whole year. Wow, really that doesn't sound right. But it's right here written on this paper that's blank. Okay, well, I guess today we're going to look into this so-called president

of one of the most powerful countries on earth and find some stuff out. For example, what is his name again? And also, who is he? What's he done in his first year? What hasn't he done? Did he keep his campaign promises? But mainly, what was his name?

Snow lion? Toe biting! There's a B in there. Hold on hold on let me i'm gonna just who is president america safe search off and uh oh oh wow you may recall i uh you guys have been trying to convince me that I am Bernie Sanders. I'm not. I like him, but I'm not Bernie Sanders. Look, I didn't overpromise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen. So get this. The president of the United States is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. And it turns out he's been doing all kinds of stuff for an entire year.

And he's actually giving a speech as we were recording this episode about how well he thinks he's been presidenting. A speech that we sure didn't have time to watch before making this, you know, because of the way time works. So we absolutely reserve the right to film pickups or awkwardly add clips later in post-production. So don't be shocked if we do that, all right?

I warned you, you've been warned. Anyway, you know, I guess someone has to talk about his first year, because people have been generally quiet about this Biden fellow since he took office. His accomplishments, his uncomplishments, his general vibe have all kind of flown under the radar, unless you're Fox News,

in which case he's an authoritarian commie trying to force you to go to a doctor or something. Heck, since he became president, we really haven't even done an episode just about him. And partially, this is due to the fact that we're all just so very tired of thinking about the president. Because of that bad one from before, you know the guy.

Trump was like this circus gibbon, constantly screaming and shitting and throwing his shit and humping piles of his own shit to the point that nobody could look away. So when you suddenly close the screaming shit fucking gibbon exhibit and replace it with like a sleepy goat, it may be a relief. Maybe you don't even want to hang out

at the zoo anymore at all and go do something else. So everyone just moved along and ignored the fact that this sleepy goat still very much holds all of our fates in its cute little hooves. Oh, goat president, look at you, you little guy. Glad you're out there making the world better. No, bad goat president. Oh, naughty. Oh, but look at his little bloodstained hooves. Who's a good bloody goat? It's you, it's you, it's him. Unfortunately, Biden doesn't quite have the charisma

of blood goat president, who might've actually just been Satan, I think. His current polling numbers are super not good. Yes, he certainly won by the most votes ever cast for a president, but like it still really shouldn't have been as close as it was, you know, because of all the obviously bad things Trump did.

And so it seems like the people who did vote for Biden didn't particularly like him. His best quality was that he wasn't Trump, which is a precarious starting point. And so we let him run the country with the hope that he'd like do something good, perhaps in a way that would steer us away from the next election,

just being a return of Trump or a Trump like figure. And so this is why we really need to steer our attention back to the president. Much like he himself is doing in his recent speech. We too are going to take an unflinching look at how Biden is doing in his first year. So let's begin. No pulling punches.

Who's even gonna care, right? Statistically speaking, if you're watching this, you probably don't love Biden. He doesn't really have that obsessive Trump base. There are no Biden mega fans or people going to door to door proselytizing how great he- I wonder who that could be.

I didn't order pizza and I'm not in a pornography yet. Let me slowly get up and answer the door. Hello, Mr. Cody. You didn't answer the door, so I threw myself through the window. What are you doing? Hi, Wormbo. Yeah, we were just recording an episode about... Sounds fun!

One year of Joe Biden. Oh, yay! A Mr. President Biden episode! Yay! Yeah! Yay! Listen, Wormbo, this isn't necessarily going be the most flattering look at your buddy, Joe Biden. So you might want to... You're not gonna leave, are you? Wormbo knows his best friend, Mr. Cody, will be fair to his best friend, Joe Biden.

Seems ominous, but okay. We're actually gonna start this off with a look at some of the positive accomplishments of the Biden administration. And then, you know, maybe you'll get sleepy and head out after that. Wombo never sleeps. Just run the next title.

The Good. Yay, good Biden, good Biden. Yes, good Biden. It is important to pay attention to the things that he's actually accomplished. Not only important to pay attention to the things that he's actually accomplished. Not only because it's good to see where we've made progress and how,

but as proof that you actually can do things as the president of a country, which is important when holding presidents of countries accountable for inaction. You know, if we ever actually decide to do that someday. Like if we had more than two political parties and didn't have to base our vote off of who we think eats the least amount of shit.

Like if accountability didn't basically amount to knowing problems and yelling about them with the hope that Democrats could do something constructive besides just being the less evil option. So fine, here's my fucking vote, you least amount of shit eaters. Just a thought. For example, one of the immediate good things Biden has done

is simply reverse a lot of Trump's bad policies. Biden signed 15 executive orders on his first day in office, many of which addressed the terrible decisions of the previous administration, and has in the past year signed 76 total executive orders, as well as a number of memos and proclamations. He rejoined the Paris Agreement on climate change, canceled the Keystone XL pipeline,

and signed legislation to regulate the emissions of greenhouse gas methane from the oil and gas industry. While these actions are, strictly speaking, the bare minimum when it comes to reversing our steady course towards climate disaster, it's at least a reversal from the Trump administration, whose approach to climate change was to do it a lot and hotter.

Because again, all the Democrats have to be is slightly better than furious malice. He was a really good wrestling heel for the left in this regard. Like how in July of 2020, Trump ended a 17 year pause on federal executions that resulted in the deaths of 13 people. Biden's justice department has since reinstated

that moratorium, which is good, but also it's not so much progress as it is just cleaning up after the last guy. Biden also ended Trump's ban on transgender people in the military, again, not a step forward so much as a step not backward from the previous administration. Not saying it's not good he did this, obviously,

but it would be neat to lurch out of the stagnation of simply playing tug of war with civil rights. And in fact, that is happening to some extent, as Biden has also directed federal resources to help prevent violence against transgender women, specifically having the Office on Violence Against Women fund grants for transgender serving organizations. The National Institute of Health

has also prioritized research on gender affirming procedures in order to improve standards for both physical and mental health. And speaking of human rights, Biden also signed executive orders stopping the Muslim travel ban and halted construction of the very expensive border cheese grater. He also directed the DHS to begin uniting migrant families that were separated under Trump, although not nearly as many as we need. Not by a long ass shot of a butt. Other Trump policies that Biden has reversed is the 15,000 person cap on refugees allowed to enter

the US, which Biden increased to 62,500, which he intends to raise to 125,000. But more on this later. Geez, what else? Oh, he also freed up billions in disaster aid that was meant for Puerto Rico after the hurricane back in 2017. So that's good.

Maybe we could have done that earlier, but again, wrestling heel. I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack. Today with storm preps underway, he blasted the island as one of the most corrupt places on Earth, adding, I'm the best thing that's ever happened to Puerto Rico. Biden has also reversed Trump's attack on national monuments and native lands.

Trump had removed federal protections of New England's Northeast Canyons and Seamount's Marine National Monument and Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, opening them tocase Escalante National Monument, opening them to land development and mining. This was opposed by conservationists and Native American tribal groups who pointed out that it was an attack on their land and culture.

Biden restored the federal protections of these monuments. So again, good in the sense that he's not doing the explicitly bad thing. But it's kind of like praising a babysitter for not pissing directly on your kids. But in his defense, Biden has done more than just reverse some Trump era policies. In terms of the environment,

he tightened fuel efficiency standards so that by 2026, fuel efficiency will be nearly one third higher than it is right now. That's an actual campaign promise he followed up on. And speaking of, he's also been addressing his campaign promise of rebalancing the federal courts after Trump appointed an astounding 30% of federal judges during his term.

So I guess that's still a Trump issue, but Biden has gotten more federal judge confirmations at this point in his presidency than any previous president. His appointees are also far more diverse by race, gender, and career experience, including former public defenders, civil rights attorneys and voting rights experts.

So that's good. But also it turns out the Democrats are across the board, just more likely to confirm a racially diverse group of judges than Republicans. Imagine that, wowee. So it's all still kind of par for the course for any Democrat in office, which isn't to say that's bad.

There are even some things that Biden is doing that aren't just business as usual. And we can certainly talk about those after we talk about these extremely good advertisements. As we say in the professional ad biz, slide these products inside of you. Hey there, kids and kiddos. I hope you are enjoying the video so far. I probably am, I think. of you. I bet. What's my secret? Well, aside from eating the cards to gain their power, I often use AG1

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That's B-A-B-B-E-L.com, code more news. Make your language good-ish, good now. Make language, yes. Okay, we're back and that was our final ad break. If you don't count the other ad break, we'll be doing in just a little bit. So let's talk about some stuff Biden has done that isn't just undoing the work of the previous guy.

Things that you could, perhaps if you want to, call progress. For starters, Biden's administration has actually shown more backbone when it comes to breaking up mergers, something that potentially could go against the norm for his party, which is largely split and often stagnant on this issue. He appointed two major opponents to monopolies to his administration, antitrust lawyer Jonathan Cantor as the Assistant Attorney General to the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, as well as Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

Cantor is a critic of big tech, has fought on behalf of Google's competitors, and has advocated for more aggressive monopoly busting against tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Cantor is also a critic of the consumer welfare standard, which is basically a measure of whether a merger is good or bad based on the effect of the prices

and availability of a product, not on any other considerations such as the effect on the prices and availability of a product, not on any other considerations, such as the effect on workers or public safety. If antitrust regulators just apply the consumer welfare standard, they may only be ensuring cheap prices for products, not good wages or treatment of employees or quality of life for consumers and so on.

Lina Khan is a legal scholar and antitrust expert who is also critical of the consumer welfare standard. She wrote an essay in the Yale Law Journal called Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, which was highly critical of the way that Amazon can skirt antitrust legislation just by keeping prices down. And that this is insufficient in measuring the harm

that a de facto monopoly like Amazon can cause. The fact that Biden's appointees are critics of this rubric is a potential huge step forward in more aggressive antitrust enforcement, which we desperately need right now. You could say we're horny for it, if you were some kind of pervert, which you are. The reason I'm going into such detail

on these two Biden picks is that they represent a significant change in combating mergers and monopolies. In July, 2021, the FTC rescinded a 2015 policy that limited their ability to enforce antitrust regulations. This means that the FTC now has more fangs when it comes to combating corporate monopolies. So technically still a reversal of something bad, but not a bad Trump thing.

So different, still good, but not forward good. I don't know, regardless, the FTC is already blocking mergers, including the attempted merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, and is suing to block the merger between Nvidia and Arm, which would be the largest semiconductor chip merger in history.

So again, not necessarily progress so much as good appointees stopping a couple of bad things packaged as progress. Meanwhile, internationally though, Biden is also making some changes. And just to be clear, much of the following is a lot murkier in terms of the good or bad label we can put on it.

So maybe let's do a new title card real quick and we'll call it, fuck, I don't know. The Good-ish? Breaking news this morning out of Afghanistan. Sources say the U.S. is now completely pulling out all U.S. personnel from the U.S US embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours. That is different from what we heard on Thursday from the president who said some personnel would be pulled out. Oh yeah, remember that?

Seems so long ago. So Biden did stick to his word and pulled US troops out of Afghanistan, which, you know, didn't go great, but on a larger scale was absolutely something we totally needed to do. And you could argue that the only way the withdrawal could have been less of a flustered clock

would have been if we had negotiated surrender with the Taliban, perhaps admitted that the entire ordeal had been a lost cause and actually prepared accordingly. But of course, selling a total surrender to the Taliban and abandonment of the Afghan government would have been admitting that we actually lost this 20 year war, which we did, but which would also be a pretty hard sell.

We did a whole episode on this and how the longer we stayed there, the more the fuck ups just kept building and the more humiliating withdrawal was gonna get. So a lot was dumped on Biden's lap. That said, super not gonna pretend like he nailed it either, but more on Afghanistan later. But hey, at least drone strikes are allegedly down,

which maybe you haven't heard about, because weirdly they're not bragging about it. The Biden administration has decreased the amount of freedom the military has to order drone strikes, requiring White House approval for any strikes outside of active war zones, which, wow, kind of wild that wasn't the case before, but apparently Trump got rid of that rule

to do more murders, which really sounds like something he would do. Now, getting the exact numbers is actually quite difficult because it turns out the military isn't too keen on telling us how many things they've blown up or if those things were civilians or not. And geez, look at this. Turns out Trump revoked a rule requiring the military

to report drone strike deaths. Seems bad and like something we should change. But it's true that from the information we do have, drone and airstrike numbers were down in 2021 from what they were in 2020. And that's good. Except for all the stuff I just said about how we don't really know the specifics and double Gs.

Maybe it would just be better if the numbers were a bunch of zeros, like double whopper with extra Gs. Maybe I'm being an idealist here, but perhaps someday we can have a president who doesn't routinely kill anyone at all via sky robot. Like maybe when the president claims that the US is not at war for the first time in 20 years,

but still does like drone strikes and has tons of military bases and continues to sell weapons of war. And again, still uses weapons of war. Maybe the US is actually always at war and claiming that we're not because there's technically no official declaration is a convenient lie to make us feel better.

But let's say these numbers are accurate and true. Again, the strange part is that Biden hasn't been bragging about doing less murder, because that seems like a good thing to point out when you're a president or when you're out on a date, job interview, et cetera. Unless the job is to murder people, I guess. Maybe it's because he doesn't want to be seen as weak

for not murdering as many people as his predecessor, or maybe he's planning to resume doing more drone strikes after they review their policies and somehow come to the conclusion that more killing is good. So maybe by bragging about doing less drone murder, he would be admitting that drone murder in general is bad and something that most other countries don't do nearly

as much as the US and by bragging about it, people would start realizing this and thinking perhaps we shouldn't do drone murder at all. And we can't let that happen. We already got the drones, but what would we do? What would we do with all these extra drones lying around? Aggressive gender reveal parties? Biden also passed the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package

in the first few months of his term. So like fucking almost a year ago, which garnered wide approval. Even 41% of Republicans and conservative independents supported it. Biden's child tax credit may help to cut child poverty almost by half. The obvious question is,

why don't we cut child poverty in whole, but then that would cut into our precious Oscar bait industry. But the COVID relief package is truly a step forward. It breaks with decades of new Democrat orthodoxy by having given out direct cash payments to most U.S. households instead of the cumbersome tax rebates under Obama. Though you could also argue that Biden's package was a continuation of a half-assed payment Trump started. But anyway, the child tax credit did not have work requirements. Again, a break from democratic orthodoxy since Clinton.

And unemployment was not only extended, but also topped up significantly. It's actually pretty cool that the stimulus package moved a couple steps away from the Democratic Party's belief that people in need should have to jump, fetch, and roll over for a scrap of welfare, a philosophy that's held strong since Clinton's welfare reform that ended cash assistance.

So there we go, the good and goodish stuff. Yay, episode over. Yeah, actually, we're now gonna move on to the ads, just a few more ads, and then we're now gonna move on to the ads. Just a few more ads and then we're done with ads. Oh, yay, ads. Wombo loves the economy. Of course he does. Hey, are you tired of drinking lime juice

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So do it, go take the quiz at drinktrade.com slash more news and start your journey to your perfect cup. Ah, get on the coffee craze early and try trade. Ah. And we're back and there are no more ads left and Warmbo is here and we just talked about all the good things President Biden has done in his first year. So many good things, and Warmbo is here and we just talked about all the good things President Biden has done in his first year.

So many good things, but Warmbo doesn't understand. If we already talked about the good things Joe Biden has done, then why is Mr. Cody still making an episode? Yeah, so hey Warmbo, can you hold this brick for a second? Oh neat, Warmbo loves... Mr. Cody, Warmbo is stuck under the brick. Oh no, we better call someone to help you. Wombo loves... Mr. Cody, Wombo is stuck under the bridge. Oh, no.

We better call someone to help you. But while I got you pinned down there and we wait for help... The Bad. All right, let's get into it. Hey, how you doing down there, buddy? Wombo kind of likes the feeling of being crushed. Great, you chose the worst possible response. Thanks for that.

So unfortunately, sometimes presidents don't do good things. One could even describe these things as bad. This can be from genocide on US soil, to war crimes, to sex crimes, to openly talking about doing a crime while doing other crimes on top of the crime you're talking about doing. This is why maybe they should all go to jail

because historically and currently speaking, presidents doing monstrous things is about as American as apple pie. God damn pie president. This is why I voted for blood goat. You see this gag headline is funny because Biden ordered a pointless drone strike while we withdrew from Afghanistan and killed 10 civilians,

including an aid worker, his family, and seven children. Ha ha. Remember that and how they lied about it and then got caught in the lie and had to admit they killed those children. And now the New York times even has footage of the drone strike that shows it seemingly happening in a densely populated neighborhood that killed children and civilians that no one got in trouble for doing. Remember all that war crimes and civilians that no one got in trouble for doing? Remember all that?

War crimes and child murder and jokes. Everyone's having a great time except for those people who died. And even funnier, we aren't holding anyone accountable for killing them. You get it? You get the joke about how everything is bad? But Mr. Cody, maybe you was just a little mistakey.

Oh no, my foot slipped. You okay there, bud? Yeah? Got it right in your mouth there. So as I was saying, it turns out that there are other bad things that have come out of the Biden administration besides murdering a whole family in cold blood.

Biden has decided to continue some Trump era policies that could be described as Trumpian, except it's Biden doing it. So I guess they're Bidenian now? Take our immigration policy. Please, no, really, please, someone take away our terrible immigration policy because Biden's not gonna do it, see?

Title 42 was a policy enacted by the Trump administration, which uses public health as an excuse to summarily expel asylum seekers in violation of US refugee law without any due process. It's really interesting that we have specifically deemed asylum seekers as too risky in terms of COVID, but still allow travel from basically all other countries. And there are no vaccine or COVID test requirements

for domestic travel in the US, even though we have the most recorded COVID cases in the world. It's like we're hypocrites or something. Also, even the CDC themselves could find no reason to have Title 42 in effect. So hey, maybe it's just a shallow excuse to kick out refugees trying to avoid being killed

in their home countries, maybe? While perpetuating a narrative that immigrants are dirty, unclean, you know, seems fucked up, like the kind of thing we'd want to change. And yet Biden's administration has continued this policy with over a million deportations using Title 42 in the past year. What this means is that if a refugee is fleeing

almost certain death by murder in their home country, if they try to seek safety in the US, they risk being summarily returned home to probably be murdered. This defies the Refugee Act of 1980, which allows a refugee to set foot on US soil to seek asylum. And there's no other way to do it.

No way for a refugee to apply online for asylum or while not on US soil. So if they're immediately turned away or expelled, that means they're not being given their right to seek asylum. So, you know, criminal, it seems, both morally and legally. But, but, but, but Mr. Cody friend,

Mr. President Biden friend said on his internet website, joebiden.com slash immigration slash, that he will welcome immigrants in our communities and reassert America's commitment to asylum seekers and refugees and take urgent action to undo Trump's damage and reclaim America's values. Sure, man, but he's kept Title 42,

which expels refugees before they can exercise their legal right to seek refugee status, so. So maybe he just forgot it to get rid of it? Actually, the Biden administration has defended using Title 42. Biden's Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, We have the authority to expel individuals under the laws that Centers for Disease Control have. It is their public health authority under Title 42,

and that is what we will bring to bear to address the situation in Del Rio, Texas. Well, maybe it's just hard to get rid of because of laws. Yeah, except the ACLU filed an injunction to challenge the expulsion of asylum seekers under Title 42. And in September, a federal judge granted them the injunction and the Biden administration is appealing the federal injunction that would have blocked Title 42. So, you know.

But Wombo, no, understand, Wumbo feel funny. Well, you know, maybe just close your eyes for a bit and stop talking and moving and breathing and then you'll feel better. Anyway, there have been some things the Biden administration has just kind of dropped the ball on like a bit of an oopsie with forgetting to file the paperwork for Biden's FDA pick,

which means they couldn't get that confirmation until just this year, which they finally did, except it's all still pending a vote in the Senate and we don't even have a date for that yet. There's also the fact that Biden seems to have an obsession with reaching across the aisle. He desperately wants to work with Republicans

to get stuff done, which feels like a humiliation fetish at this point, like a puppet who gets off on being crushed, I guess. Because, you know, have you seen the Gop lately? And by lately, I mean the last 30 years. And yet Biden has stated he believes that Trump was an aberration, although in fairness,

would end up walking that statement back. Although in extra fairness, he seemed to walk it back about voters, not the Republican party specifically. And so he still seems unwilling to take any major stance against a party that's devolved into bizarre anti-vax politics and obsession over wokeness. Mr. Potato Head now apparently has to go by Potato X. And the whole point of Mr. Potato Head is that you can move the parts around. He was America's first transgender doll and even he got canceled. I think our society is reaching the point

of herd immunity with cancel culture. And really it's not a culture at all. It's a cult and it's a cult with no grace. Right, while the COVID relief bill was being passed by the Biden administration, Republicans were busy discussing the finer points of whether Mr. Potato Head's dick or lack thereof will lead to the downfall of Western civilization.

These are the guys Biden takes pains to say he can reach. Why can't we get some of that ornery Biden out here to go, "'Listen, you horse ass donkey fuckers, "'have fun arguing about putting little plastic dick "'and balls on a potato while Papa Joe gives everyone "'in America money and healthcare and shit. Now, obviously Biden and the Democrats can't ram any legislation they want through

because Senators Manchin and Sinema are basically a Republican and a hot topic Republican respectively. But while it's true that reaching across the aisle can get things done, the things that do get done using this method are usually exceedingly pro-business. The bipartisan infrastructure bill, for example, did get passed, which seems like a victory

for the idea of working with Republicans. But that kind of depends on how much you believe in things like preventing climate change from killing a bunch of people. The infrastructure bill excluded the Build Back Better plan, the thing Biden campaigned on. And importantly, the bill fails to address climate change significantly.

And by cutting out build back better, misses out on major ways to cut emissions. Rapid Energy Policy Analysis Toolkit calculates a marginal reduction in carbon emissions through the infrastructure plan of 58 million metric tons by 2030. Now this may sound like a lot, but not when you look at what we should be doing

to keep the temperature from continuing to rise. According to research by Stanford University, University of East Anglia, and the Global Carbon Project, one to two billion tons of carbon must be reduced per year globally to prevent an increase of two degrees Celsius. Given that the US is responsible for around 15% of global emissions,

let's see, I'm gonna do some math, a little math, a little fake math, gonna write some math on this paper, and it's real, don't worry. And the see, I'm gonna do some math, a little math, a little fake math. Gonna write some math on this paper and it's real. Don't worry. And the US at the very least needs to reduce emissions by around 225 million metric tons per year to prevent us reaching this two degree rise in temperature, which means that figure of 58 million tons per eight years

is a little low. But it's better than nothing or is it? Because another estimate conducted by the Georgetown Climate Center found a possible increase in CO2 emissions if you account for the increase in auto traffic that follows the expansion of roadways. According to their research, if we devote our roadway infrastructure dollars

to maintenance and low carbon investments like electric vehicle charging stations, then the infrastructure bill would reduce emissions. But if these funds go towards building new roads and adding lanes, it will substantially raise emissions. So cool, no, opposite of cool, which is hot, very hot. Two degrees Celsius hotter. So I guess the question is whether it's worth it

to pass bipartisan bills when they don't address existential matters of planetary destruction or possibly maybe even accelerate our path towards them. And I don't know, I'm just an artfully disheveled news guy with my foot on a puppet, but it seems like this strategy of reaching across the aisle is not so good in the long run. Maybe I'm being hyperbolic,

but there's this stereotype that the United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists because that would set a precedent and encourage more people to use fear to get their way. Not to call the GOP terrorists, you know, even though they did try a coup. But what I'm getting at is that at some point, someone needs to put their foot down,

even if it means getting less done in the moment. And when it comes to something as incredibly existentially important as the fucking climate, we kind of need a president who not only refuses to budge, but is very loud and aggressive about an extremely real problem that most of America is becoming increasingly concerned over. It should be all he talks about,

his build a wall number one big time priority. That is assuming he actually gives a shit. Because speaking of worsening the climate disaster, the Biden administration was responsible for the biggest sale of oil and gas drilling leases in the history of the Gulf of Mexico. While the administration argued that they were compelled to do so by court order,

it turns out this isn't really true, or if you prefer, it was a lie. A memo by the Department of Justice revealed that the Biden administration was not required to make this huge sale. The court order only lifted Biden's pause on new drilling, and it seems that the Biden administration was not required to make this huge sale. The court order only lifted Biden's pause on new drilling. And it seems that the Biden administration took this as an excuse to go, ah, heck, we can't stop all drilling.

Well, we might as well do one of the biggest oil and gas auctions in history. And so you really have to wonder if this effort to reach across the aisle is actually just a really good way for the Democratic Party to look like they're trying without actually trying. It's kind of like how they love propping up Manchin as a single roadblock

when there's actually a handful of Senate Democrats who quietly agree with his agenda, but don't have to take the same heat as him. It's the go ask your mother of political strategies. The preferred perpetual stance of the Democrats to act like things are simply out of their hands. Elect Democrats to protect abortion rights, they scream, while holding the motherfucking majority.

And while Biden might not be able to do as much as we'd like, he could at least call their stupid asses out, make a stink and actually drum up a base in a way that frankly, Trump was able to do. Weird to invoke Trump as a positive model for something, and I super apologize for that. But if he was good at one thing,

it was branding his extremely stupid ideas and actually influencing the ideology of his party, regardless of whether or not they were able to accomplish those things. Publicly calling out and shaming the GOP members who were blocking his agenda. Mitch McConnell should have challenged that election because even back then we had plenty

of material to challenge that election. He should have challenged the election. Schumer would have challenged the election. But Mitch McConnell didn't have the courage to challenge the election. He's only a leader because he raises a lot of money and he gives it to senators. That's the only thing he's got. That's his only form of leadership. He should have challenged the election.

Albeit a very bad and wrong agenda. Can't stress that enough. Not saying Trump is good, but what's to stop Biden from going on TV and calling Manchin a coach-faced anus head who is killing the planet? Or going to town on the culture war obsessed GOP for not giving a shit about the American people

during a global pandemic. But again, that's assuming Biden actually gave a ghost of a sliver of a turd about the fact that the planet is dying, or getting ahead of the pandemic, or actually looking competent or good before the midterms. After all, if the Democrats lose their majority, then they get to comfortably act

like the country is once again out of their hands. Nancy Pelosi can go back to making fiery clapbacks instead of sweatily justifying her stock market scams and responding to an attempted coup with a performance by the cast of fucking Hamilton. We're privileged to have a contribution from one of the great creative talents of our time, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

May his beautiful words be an inspiration to us. Thank you to Disney's Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda for solving our crumbling democracy with a song. Hey, pretty interesting that Nancy Pelosi has stock in Disney. I wonder what that's about. Anyway, speaking of other embarrassing things, sanctions in Afghanistan.

Remember how I said more in Afghanistan later, earlier? I was referring to now earlier. Might as well talk a bit more about Afghanistan, the country we bombed a bunch and finally pulled out of after years of making things worse. And then never really admitted that we lost the war and acted all surprised and shocked when the Taliban took over.

Well, now Biden is punishing the civilians in Afghanistan who have suffered the most during the war with sanctions that are going to starve a bunch of people to death. The World Health Organization warns that a million Afghan children may die of starvation. And according to director of the Center for Humanitarian Health, Paul Spiegel,

I can clearly state that if the United States and other Western governments do not change their Afghanistan sanction policies, more Afghans will die from sanctions than at the hands of the Taliban. Worm, but you getting all this? A million children may die because of Biden's sanctions? Eh?

Boy, it feels good to just let all this out in front of a crying pin down puppet. What else? Oh, COVID. So the COVID relief bill was pretty good, but heck, COVID's still around. So we should probably do something about that, eh? Maybe, eh?

Yeah, that was after all, Biden's biggest promise of his campaign. Oh, look at that. Biden promise tracker, cute. And it says it's in the works. So hey, job done, show over. Let's just for fun though, look into it a little bit. So take our horrendous COVID testing situation, please.

See, I'm doing the- The- Any young men. Thing, you know, again, where I wait to take my wife, but I don't have a wife and instead want someone to take away our terrible pandemic planning instead. Do you get it? Do you get the joke?

Warmbo, do you get the joke? So yes, according to health experts, at-home testing can help mitigate the uncontrollable spread of COVID. And it makes sense. You might want to get a test before you go visit your immunocompromised grandma and kiss her directly on the mouth, tongue optional,

or talk to her even remotely in her vicinity because Omicron spreads incredibly easily. See that red line? That's Omicron spiking straight up, which is what epidemiologists call a vertical line, or maybe that's geometry. Anyway, it's bad. And so Biden's gonna get us all free COVID tests, yaha!

Well, they promised that you could get a reimbursement after you pay for at-home tests through your insurance, who are famously very good at efficient and reimbursing patients for costs. Now, some pointed out, hey, maybe that's not a great idea for A, the millions of people who don't have insurance, and also the many people who can't afford to wait for some far away reimbursement.

And we should just distribute them for free, which led to this very chef's kiss exchange. Tongue optional. Why not just make them free and give them out and have them available everywhere? Should we just send one to every American? Maybe. Then what happens if every American has one test?

How much does that cost and then what happens after that? All I know is that other countries seem to be making them available in greater quantities for less money. Well, I think we share the same objective, which is to make them less expensive and more accessible, right? Every country is going to do that differently. Ha ha ha ha ha! What? You want us to send out free tests to everyone so people could easily get tested for COVID

for free? A scoff to you, I say! Think of the cost! Where would we get that kind of money? From our military budget, which has ballooned to $740 billion? Bah! Probably, I guess. And you think this would help stop COVID

and would actually be far less complicated than a delayed reimbursement scheme? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yes, actually that does make perfect sense. But you know, every country does it differently, you see. What, are we gonna be posers and copy another country? No, sir, we're gonna do it our way, a less good way. In fact, the current shortage of tests

is not being seen in Europe, where according to the New York Times, rapid testing is widely available and inexpensive thanks to government subsidies. People can visit testing sites like tents outside pharmacies in France or abandoned nightclubs in Germany and get tested at no charge.

Many people also keep tests in their homes and self administer them. So why can't we have that here? Well, the fact is we can, and Biden could make that happen if Biden signs an executive order reclassifying COVID tests as a public health tool. European suppliers could sell their surplus of tests

to the US. Even Boris Johnson's UK was able to send out free tests to their citizens. There's no reason that the US couldn't. Oh, right, that. Our healthcare system, a woven patchwork of scabs, spiders, and dead leaves is really bad. And COVID makes it really obvious how bad it is.

That and all the people dying of preventable diseases before COVID, but you get it. If only we had a president willing to embrace change in our healthcare system. Do we have one of those? No? Okay, good to know. It's just too darn expensive,

says the president of a country that spends 5 billion a year on tanks that the army has repeatedly said it doesn't need. So yeah, here we are, squarely in hell, and that episode where White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki scoffed at sending out free COVID tests sure touched a nerve with a lot of people. And the outrage over that press conference may have put pressure on the Biden administration to actually commit to giving out free COVID tests starting the end of last year.

So I'm announcing today the federal government will purchase one half billion, that's not million, billion with a B, additional at-home rapid tests with delivery starting in January. We'll be getting these tests to Americans for free, and we'll have websites where you can get them delivered to your home. We've arranged for it to be easier for you to find a free COVID testing site near you on Google. Just enter COVID test near me on the Google search bar, and you can find a number of different locations nearby where you can get tested. We're going to continue to use the Defense Production Act, as we did earlier this month, to make sure we're producing as many tests

and as quickly as possible. The bottom line is it's a lot better than it was, but we're taking even more steps to make it easier to get tested and get tested for free. So that's cool, but also kind of late, given that we've already endured the huge spike in Omicron cases, and by the time the tests are distributed, we may well be over the spike, but hey,

they started giving the tests out this week. So that's good. I mean, good unless you live in an apartment or there's more than four people in your household or if the pandemic started a couple of years ago. So basically the White House was able to look like cruel idiots and then half admit they were wrong and then kind of help.

But hey, Poe buddies Nerf it. And listen, Mac, you can just Google it, you know? An official White House statement explains, "'We have arranged for it to be easier for you "'to find a free COVID testing site near you on Google. "'Just enter COVID test near me in the Google search bar "'and you can find a number of different locations nearby "'where you can get tested.'

"'I'm sorry, you arranged for the search term "'COVID test near me to give results "'reflecting the search term COVID test near me to give results reflecting the search term? You needed a special deal for that? Anyway, thanks for explaining how Google works. We all definitely didn't know that before you posted that statement. But sure, honestly, better late than never. Well, some of it is still never,

like a rapid COVID test developed just weeks into the start of the pandemic that never received FDA approval because of excessive red tape. And again, this could be solved by an executive order reclassifying the test as public health tools and heck, maybe some better leadership at the FDA. Oh, right, that thing.

Also, quite frankly, some things are simply not better late than never. Like how we're now finally investing in vaccine plants overseas long after so many people have already died. Boy, it sure appears that there are things that this Biden fellow could really be doing better and sooner.

And geez, gee, gee, weasel, in fact. Maybe we should talk about that a little bit more. What could he be doing, but isn't doing, and what can a president do anyways? Sometimes what a president doesn't do can have just as many dire consequences as what a president does do. Right now, Roe v. Wade is under attack in the courts

and in a perilous position given Trump's conservative judicial appointments. While you could blame Hillary losing for this or Susan Sarandon for existing, I guess, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg not retiring under Obama, Obama himself backtracked on a promise to secure Roe v. Wade. During his campaign, he said he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that would have prohibited

federal, state, and local governments from interfering with a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Obama promptly broke his promise and said the bill wasn't his highest legislative priority. And now here we are with bounties on people's heads if they help a woman seek an abortion. In 2008, Obama was elected

and he had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and the House. So it doesn't seem like there was much stopping him from trying to pass the bill. Maybe Obama was afraid of the backlash from conservatives he'd receive if he'd signed the bill. But on the other hand, he received backlash for what kind of mustard he'd put on his suits or whatever. So I'm not entirely sure the Democratic presidents should always operate based on avoiding backlash from conservative pundits. And you see the resounding effects of lack of action,

where now it may be too late to save Roe v. Wade from being torn apart during a later presidency. So the things Biden fails to act on now may not be noticed until years from now, but still profoundly matter. It is true, however, that a president's powers are limited. It's kind of a funny little paradox. The executive branch could unilaterally

order a nuclear strike, something maybe we should, you know, look into, perhaps, maybe that's a little bad, but they can't unilaterally pass legislation, which is good because you don't want a dictator. Checks on presidential power by a representative body are good. What's bad is that our electoral system isn't very democratic.

Hello, Wyoming, which has 70 times the proportional senatorial power as California, et cetera. So when you have a Senate and House that heavily leans conservative out of sync with the political alignment of the population, a minority of the population can overrule the policy desires of the majority, even with a president who wins both the popular vote

and the electoral vote, which doesn't even always happen. Hello again, people in Wyoming, whose votes in a presidential election are worth four whole Californians, huzzah! But this isn't about America's most squarest state. It's about Joe Biden, America's squarest president. So what can a president actually do on their own? Over time, this has actually changed.

Article two of the constitution sets and limits what a president can do, and yet is surprisingly brief at only a little over a thousand words. And it's just vague enough that it's open to different interpretation over time. Presidents can expand their powers during times of emergency, real or imagined.

Boy, seems like you could define something like climate change as one of those emergencies, or you know, the pandemic. During World War II, FDR was able to greatly expand his power through War Powers Acts. FDR in general often tested the bounds of presidential power. Presidential power researchers believe

that FDR's fireside chats were integral to keeping FDR popular and helping justify his expansion of presidential powers. These addresses during which the president would speak to Americans through a radio program, peaked in listenership after Pearl Harbor with nearly 80% of Americans tuning in to listen. While FDR's expansions of his powers is often viewed as justified, except for the whole concentration camps for Japanese Americans thing,

you can also see how a president who is similarly charismatic with high viewership ratings can test these presidential norms in a frightening way, like Trump, who used Twitter as his direct line to his followers and called a national emergency in order to push through construction of his border wall without congressional approval. And of course, in the time between FDR and Trump, there have been plenty of presidents who have expanded executive power.

Remember 9-11, or did you forget 9-11? Holy shit, you forgot 9-11 for a second, didn't you? You make me sick. Well, the panicked aftermath of 9-11 granted Bush the opportunity to greatly expand his powers, which has remained true for Obama, Trump, and now Biden. This expanded the president's military powers, established the Department of Homeland Security,

which consolidated the powers of 22 separate agencies, allowed the president to create the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and the endless detention, torture, and lack of fair trials that followed. But at least Guantanamo Bay is closed now. It's not. But Mr. President Biden said he would, Mr. Cody.

Well, he didn't. And in fact, the Pentagon just invested $4 million toward keeping it open. Did you hear about that, Warmbo? Hey, Warmbo, did you hear? Did you hear what I just said? Why are your tears green? Nevermind that.

So presidents can also use executive orders with varying degrees of success. Bush opened Guantanamo Bay with an executive order. Obama started DACA with an executive order. And Trump did the travel ban of people from majority Muslim countries using an executive order. Obama started DACA with an executive order. And Trump did the travel ban of people from majority Muslim countries using an executive order. But executive orders can be challenged in courts if they overstep the judicial branch's interpretation of the Constitution. And they can be reversed by the next president, like what Biden is doing with many of Trump's

executive orders. A president can also sign an executive action, which sounds similar to an order, but it's a lot weaker. Executive orders are legally binding until overturned by the courts. Executive actions are not legally binding and more like a stern warning by the president to do this thing, Jack, but the federal agencies directed to do it

don't legally have to follow through. Another question is what presidents should and shouldn't do in terms of exerting executive power. Ruling by a formal decree and breaking previous norms doesn't always make for an effective presidency. Trump was great at marketing himself to his base, but terrible at actually getting legislation passed. His lasting impact comes instead through other actions,

such as how thoroughly he filled the federal courts with his choice of shitty judges, his massive tax cut to the wealthy that redistributes wealth to the wealthiest, and the way he led the political philosophy of the right completely off the rails. More completely off the rails, I mean. So what can and can't Biden do? And what should he be doing that he isn't doing? One thing he could do, but isn't doing, is, you knew this was coming, cancel student debt. This is a situation in which an executive order would be powerful as Biden could forgive the debt owned

by the federal government. This accounts for 92% of total student debt and would make a huge difference for people drowning in student debt, specifically people in low income households, depending on the specifics. But would this get struck down in the courts? Not necessarily.

A report by the Great Democracy Initiative looked into laws surrounding eliminating student debt and found the Higher Education Act grants the education department the authority to compromise, waive, or release any claims it has against student debtors, and that administrative student debt cancellation of any ambition would be most efficiently accomplished

with a president fully committed to the project. Importantly, courts may not be able to strike it down given that there would need to be an actual plaintiff that could claim they were harmed by the executive order. Currently, Biden has frozen debt repayment until May, after previously saying he'd end the freeze in February. But he so far hasn't kept his promise to forgive $10,000 per borrower in student debt.

Mostly, he's been trying to enforce previous debt forgiveness programs that were already enacted, such as the debt relief program for borrowers with disabilities who have not been receiving the loan forgiveness they were entitled to. But he hasn't started any new debt forgiveness initiatives,

which may be due to his own lackluster feelings on the matter. During his campaign, he undercut Warren and Sanders' debt relief promise of $50,000 and over per borrower, promising only $10,000, which, as I just mentioned, hasn't happened yet. Student loans are crushing my family, friends, and fellow Americans. Me too. The American dream is to succeed, but how can we fulfill that dream when debt is many people's only option for a degree?

We need student loan forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your administration has proposed. We need at least a $50,000 minimum. What will you do to make that happen? I will not make that happen. Or, here's an idea. Instead of a complicated program of working off debt with volunteering or means testing it until everyone's so confused, nobody even knows how to apply for forgiveness,

just like that debt relief program for people with disabilities we talked about, what if you just forgive the debt with an executive order and tax the wealthy more, if you're worried they'll benefit from forgiveness too much or you know, that whole complicated thing you mentioned with working in a battered women's shelter or so on. I do think that in this moment of economic pain and strain that we should be eliminating

interest on the debts that are accumulated, number one. And number two, I'm prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not 50. Mr. President, let me ask you. Because I don't think I have the authority to do a place on the pen. And the thing I do in terms of student debt that's accumulated is provide for changing the existing system now for debt forgiveness if you engage in volunteer activity. For example, if you were, if you're teaching school, after five years, you'd lose you have $50,000 of your debt forgiven if you worked in a battered women's shelter, if you worked and so on. So you'll be able to forgive debt.

Thirdly, I am going to change the position that we have now to allow for debt forgiveness, this is so hard to calculate, whereby you can now, depending on how much you make and what program you saw, you can work off that debt by the activity you have. And you cannot be charged more than X percent of your take home pay so that it doesn't affect your ability to buy a car, own a home, et cetera. Why would you have the authority to sign off $10,000 in debt but not 50,000? Is there some law that puts the cap on all debt forgiveness at 10,000?

No? So you just don't want to because you say so? This doesn't even make sense if you think he's trying to avoid bad politics. Some form of student loan forgiveness is wildly popular with over 66% of Americans supporting it. And with 77% of Democrats and 50% of independents supporting student debt forgiveness up to $50,000

for people making up to $125,000. So the only reason for Biden to not do it is because he doesn't really want to. Maybe it goes along with his tweeted theory that I know Americans aren't looking for a handout. They just want a fair chance to get ahead. And I'll work every day to make sure folks get that chance. What do you mean Americans don't want handouts?

Because we put money into the government. So any money we get back from the government is just getting our investment back. And if these polls are to be trusted, we want our investment put towards saving people from drowning in interest accruing debt for the rest of their lives. But maybe Mr. President Biden secretly wants to,

but he can't because- Nope. Because the Republicans- Nope, this is something he could do on his own. But maybe, maybe our evil witch cursed Mr. President Biden that if he forgives student loan debts, he would explode.

Sure, bud. Yeah, no, that's probably it. What Biden can't do is something like end the filibuster, which allows the minority party to stop bills from being passed unless there's a 60 vote majority. Biden doesn't have the power to get rid of it himself, as this is an act that Congress would have to pass, and is currently being held up by Manchin and Sinema

and the aforementioned secret cowardly senators hiding behind them. Even with the combined force of people like former presidents, Bill Clinton, Obama, and Oprah, even Tim Kaine is trying to convince these clowns. And that guy is hardcore. Tim Kaine, ah, Tim Kaine in the membrane. Tim Kaine in the brain. Tim Kaine in the brain.

Boy, do they love that guy. So what could Biden do? Well, he could try to use his bully pulpit to call out Manchin and try to convince him, but this runs the risk of Manchin getting pissed off and switching parties. And Manchin is openly being courted by Mitch McConnell to do so,

as that would make old Jally McFacemelt leader of the Senate. And while the filibuster remains in place, more ambitious changes like adding seats to the Supreme Court wouldn't get past the Senate. And while a president can pressure justices to retire, they can't make them. And while Biden could try to convince Justice Stephen Breyer to retire during his presidency,

Breyer has no obligation to do so and may resent being asked to. But again, do we really want to be held hostage like this? And is it better for Biden to actually call this bullshit out despite that possibly getting less stuff immediately done or hurting someone's feelings? Or does Biden even really care? Because even with these kinds of roadblocks,

there may still be ways he could use his influence to shift the stance of the Democratic Party from always being in retreat to actually helping promote a left-wing philosophy. Passing legislation is an important part of a presidency, but almost equally important is shaping the tenor of the party, being a communicator, a leader. Despite passing legislation, including popular bills like the COVID relief package, Biden's popularity has fallen. Six in 10 people cite their discontent as believing Biden accomplished little or nothing. Clearly Biden's marketing of himself is not working

and he can't rely on the media to prop him up. He's neither flashy nor outrageous enough like Trump was to merit constant free attention. He's simply old and tired, nor is he a media darling with vague analysis such as, if you'd passed your bill 16 days ago, it would be more effective. On sort of the reality check inside the White House. Look, yesterday, that event, I'll be honest, it felt like, it just felt like an event out of time. That event might've been impactful in August or September or October.

It feels more like an epilogue to the ending of what's going to, might not be a good story for Democrats in 2022. Thanks, Chuck. Great stuff. One thing Biden could do is learn from past presidents like FDR or, you know, Trump. While FDR and Trump are about as far away from each other

on the political spectrum as you could get, other than the concentration camps they both did, what they do share, other than the concentration camps, was their ability to personally appeal to the American public. The fireside chats that FDR did were unprecedented. They weren't like a typical formal presidential address, but a comforting presence of someone talking to you

like a friend. Similarly, Trump's Twitter feed didn't read like a president's so much as it did WeedGoku69's, the dude you'd get teabagged on Call of Duty with, which while stupid was still an effective way to reach his base. Or if done well, this is a way to reach even outside your base. Trump's strategy obviously didn't work as well as FDR's

as FDR was a four-term president and Trump was a one-term loser president. But Biden could learn his lesson from both of them and try to do a modern version of the fireside chat. Unfortunately, this requires, aside from not being tired, a savviness for how to go viral and pick up the attention of the public, while also being relatable and charming,

which Biden doesn't excel at. In an election where people were simply desperate to get rid of Trump, it sure would have been neat to have a candidate with some kind of passion that would lead us into the midterms and ensure we could keep all the Trumpism from returning, possibly in the form of literally Trump,

since we never did bar him from running again despite the multiple impeachments. It's almost like this dispassionate moderate Biden fellow shouldn't have been the person that the party got behind in the primaries in the first place, but geez, who could have seen that coming? Look, I know it's sort of too late now and I'm not trying to blow my own extremely robust horn,

but seriously, how wild is it that after the most partisan and toxic Republican president, the Democrats thought it would be good to counter them with a man pathologically plagued with this rhetoric about getting stuff done with the GOP. And despite Mitch McConnell's statements that he's going to stop all of Biden's agenda, Biden somehow remains optimistic saying,

"'Look, he said that in our last administration "'with former President Barack Obama, that he was going to stop everything and I was able to get a lot done with him. And yet today, here he is saying the complete opposite as if he was blindsided by this. I did not anticipate that there'd be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was

that President Biden didn't get anything done. Holy mother of shit. The vice president of a guy who was perpetually stonewalled by the GOP is saying he didn't expect this extent of Republican obstruction. The Republicans who have continuously told him they would specifically block everything he tried to do. Are we really hearing that correctly?

He's like the manager of every new Jurassic Park, swearing that this time they won't get their staff eaten by ancient lizards. Charlie Brown taking a kick at that football again and again, even after Lucy says to his face that she's gonna swipe it away. An obvious clown shit fantasy that everyone else can see except for him. It makes my eyes well up with rage blood

just thinking about it. I can feel it. I can feel the blood right now. Is he constantly hallucinating? Or perhaps does Biden actually just like not give a shit? Or rather, is this actually what he wants? Is the entire Democratic Party secretly in favor of perpetually being the party of protest?

The oppressed always on the ropes, crushed, if you will, by the rock that is the Gap. And I say to my Republican friends, take back your party. The country needs a big, strong Republican party. Here I say that as a leader in the Democratic Party, but we need a big, strong Republican party. You've done so much for our country.

Does it? Really? We need a strong Republican party to stop everything the Democrats say they want to accomplish? I tell you, if I was in some sort of drawn out battle to do things I think are good, and there was another group of people trying to stop me

from doing those good things, and in fact, doing bad things instead, I would actually want them to be pretty weak. But sure, yeah, no, let's have a strong Republican party to represent some kind of very valid political philosophy. Controversy once again surrounding North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn tonight as he doubles down on his comments about the 2020 election being rigged and stolen. And all this while investigators right now are looking into the calls that he's made during the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. Fox 46's Ryan Krueger joins us live tonight with

the story. Ryan, do we know right now what investigators are looking for specifically? Yeah, so Cawthorn is one of nearly a dozen Republicans who had their phone and social media records subpoenaed. That is according to reports out there. Now, the House Select Committee that's investigating the January 6th riots is looking to see if any of those Republicans, including Cawthorn, played any kind of a role leading up to the violence of that day. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Congressman Madison Cawthorn. In his short time in office, Asheville Republican Madison Cawthorn has made a name for himself as a conservative firebrand. I sent you a text shortly thereafter and said, listen, I'd like to go on because the way

I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb. I don't buy that. Yeah, 100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration. Huh. Maybe she just means she wants Republicans to go back to being the party of Reagan. Last night I tell you to watch that thing on television that I did. Yeah.

To see those, those people in those African countries. Damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes. So yeah, return to a strong, normal Republican party, I guess. The thing is, Pelosi is right in that the Republican party is changing. While Trump certainly wasn't an aberration and more like the inevitable result

of where the Republican party had been going, he did signal a paradigm shift towards breaking norms, cues, anti-vax, et cetera. But it seems like Republicans and Democrats are responding to this shift in vastly different ways. Republicans are trying to keep up with the increasing velocity of the far right treadmill towards authoritarianism,

while Democrats continue to cling to the romantic notion of returning to normal. But normalcy is a mirage. There was no good normal before President Trump because the conditions before Trump led to Trump. Recreating the conditions right before a disaster will just lead to another disaster. So when Biden soothes his donors saying

nothing would fundamentally change, we're just committing ourselves to a time loop where Democrats cling to moderate ideals, get nothing done and lead to yet another and more extreme Republican party in charge before pleading we return to normal every time. And then every time the Dems do get control, it's back to fixing the disaster of the last guy

while never really pushing any progressive ideas forward. So at best we stagnate while the other side inches us towards authoritarianism and fascism until the heat death of the universe, otherwise known as the extremely disastrous future midterms. Hey, Wormbo, did any of this get through to you? Oh God, he's yeah. He's gone. He's fucking gone. I got free, you silly goat. Good God. Don't you worry. While Mr. Cody was

talking about how good friends he is with Warmbo and how worried he is about those scary Republicans, his pal Warmbo found out how the Democrats can win the midterms after all. Democrats get elected and they eventually serve two terms, as both Bill and Barack did, to fix things. I mean, people want these leaders, and both of them obviously were charismatic and very bigger than life, you know, kinds of leaders, but they want them to fix things. So I understand why people want to argue for their priorities. That's what they believe they were elected to do. But at the end of the day, nothing is going to get done if you don't have a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate. And our majority comes from people who win in much more difficult districts.

And our majority in the Senate comes from people who can win in not just blue states and hold those wins, as we saw didn't happen in Virginia, but can win in more purplish states. It turns out that Mrs. Clinton had the answer this whole time. Why would she be wrong? Yep, there it is. I think my eye is starting to bleed. Yay! Happy eye bleed! Happy eye bleed. Hey everybody, thanks for watching! I've... this hurts, but leave a like and subscribe bleed. merch with Wormo on it and not this shirt. So there are other ones though.

And taking this off. Thanks for watching.