Some More News - Some More News: Is Everyone Stupid? An Election Investigation.

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Hi. Well, we're doing this again.... I guess. So, let's ask the tough question: are Americans just plain stupid for electing Donald Trump? Hosted by Cody Johnston Executive Producer - Katy Stoll Written by David Christopher Bell PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenews MERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.com Blueland is on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and the planet. To take advantage of their best sale of the year for up to 30% off your entire order, go to https://Blueland.com/MORENEWS Get the world's news at https://ground.news/SMN to compare coverage and see through biased coverage. Subscribe for 50% off unlimited access – their biggest discount – through our link. AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. So make sure to check out https://DrinkAG1.com/morenews to get this offer! As a special holiday offer, Whisker is offering up to $100 off Litter-Robot bundles. AND, as a special offer to viewers, you can get an additional $50 off when you go to https://stopscooping.com/MORENEWS. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code MoreNews at https://Mandopodcast.com/MoreNews This week only, you can take 50% off any new SimpliSafe system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is your last chance to claim their best offer of the year. Head to https://SimpliSafe.com/MORENEWS to claim your discount and make sure your home is safe this season.

Oh, oh, I just ate a whole bird, beak and all, or bill, depending on what type of bird it is. I didn't check. Hey, how's it going? Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Me neither. OK, well, what else is new that that Kraven the Hunter movie is coming out soon? Supposedly. I mean, yeesh, they keep delaying that. What's the deal with that? What other movie news? Ben Stiller is joining the new Happy Gilmore movie, so that's good.

If you were worried that the abusive orderly wasn't coming back, well, he's back. Not sure why, but he's back. He's back, baby. He is back. He is back. Not sure why, but he's back. He's back, baby. He is back. He is back. He is back. Never going away. Okay. What, what else is happening? Prince William is shaking things up. I hear he's going to modernize the

monarchy, which is totally not an oxymoron. Okay. The Dodgers won the thing. You know the thing. Jake Paul and Mike Tyson got in that fake fight and we've got pivoting to the Dow Jones. Bitcoin is making great strides. Okay, we're gonna talk about Trump. Whoopsy, the world is sliding into authoritarian rule. Our bad, oh, Gadzooks off Fiddlesticks, fascism.

So here's some news. Donald Trump, a rapist and racist and fascist and a very dumb and incompetent criminal with bad ideas who wants to do Nazi stuff and tank our entire economy in the process and sucked off a microphone and will exclusively cater to the ultra wealthy with absolutely no guardrails or resistance

and will likely try to deport millions of innocent people while dooming our country to becoming a charred and crumbling wasteland where we have to wonder if the climate change will kill us faster than the nukes is the next president of the United States of America. Shoot. Additionally, it looks like the Republicans will officially have majority control

over all of Congress, the whole thing. And so as of filming this, the legislative, executive and judicial branches will all be under very hard right Republican rule. Christian nationalists and corporations and venture capitalists and weird grifters have won the country. And I know what you're thinking.

Well, technically you're not filming this because it's digital. And like, okay, sure. But is it really the time for that? No. Anyway, the episode's over. Have you enjoyed it? I hope you did.

Credits aren't going yet. Okay, I guess we'll talk some more because obviously there's a lot to unpack, a lot of hot takes to plop out. Luckily, we'll have Trump's entire second and third and fourth and fifth terms to really dig in. And a lot of what we talk about today will be explored in larger videos in the future.

For now, we want to focus on the fact that a large portion of America wanted this. America got together and voted to not only have Donald Trump be in charge, but for the entire country to swing red so as to give him absolutely zero resistance to do whatever he wants, which is explicitly a lot of cruel and bad things that will objectively hurt the country, including political retribution. They voted for that. He told them what it was and they said,

yes, please. They wanted him more than they wanted the other person. I forget their name, but you remember them. I think they drove a bus, there were wheels involved. Anyway, we're gonna ask a series of questions that we suspect a lot of you are also thinking, starting with the most obvious and pressing. Are people stupid?

Great question. Surprisingly, the answer is mostly no. The American people aren't stupid. I mean, some people are stupid. And while a lot of them are apparently pretty racist and sexist, or at the very least aren't stupid. I mean, some people are stupid. And while a lot of them are apparently pretty racist and sexist, or at the very least don't care that they voted for a very racist and sexist guy, it's not exclusively that either.

People are, however, generally very ignorant when it comes to politics. Like a lot of us, including we here at the Shody, often forget that most people aren't weird political nerds. And I think after Trump's first victory, a lot of people just assumed that Americans, when faced with what was presented as an aberration, would become more involved. But it turns out that Trump did the opposite of that, at least according to the data we

have. Partly because he wasn't so much an aberration, but rather an extension of and permission slip for the Republican Party. But by the end of his first term, the majority of political posts on Twitter, an already niche sample, came from just 10 percent of users. So that's a fraction of a fraction of people. Meanwhile, most people at this time were either casual followers of politics or completely checked out. By the end of 2023 and at the start of the election, everyone was exhausted by politics and had a generally negative view of both candidates.

And hey, they weren't wrong. We can argue until we're blue and our sexy faces that the reason politics got more exhausting is because of Trump, but Americans weren't paying enough attention to listen because people are busy. They have kids to raise, dogs to walk, cats to be dismissive of them.

They work all day at the office or dildo factory or Lockheed Martin or all three. They watch Grey's Anatomy. There are over 20 seasons of that show and I have no idea what it's about. I assume the genitals of some guy named Gray. To be clear, I'm not being dismissive of these hardworking dildo factory workers

obsessed with a fictional man's penis, but rather I'm being dismissive of me, of us, of political junkies who can oftentimes forget that most people aren't as plugged in. And in fact, want nothing more than to tune it out. It's Joey Pants in The Matrix, eating the steak. Ignorance, bliss, et cetera, you've seen the film.

So that's all to say that kissing babies apparently still works in this country. Not literally, babies are disgusting, but it turns out that if a mediocre or perhaps terrible white dude in a suit simply speaks with authority and acts like he has a plan or the concept of a plan, he can bullshit his way to win an election. Obviously there's more to it and we will get to all of that.

Nothing is ever one thing. But for example, it seems like most Americans don't know anything about how the economy works. Why would they? It's money and math. That's two of the worst things ever. You can explain all you want that the rate of inflation is going down or that the president doesn't control gas prices

or that certain decisions might look good, but create a sense of false prosperity. But all people see is what's in front of them right now. And right now, everyone around the world is unhappy with inflation and taking that out on the incumbent leader. In a way, there's not much to be learned about losing to Donald Trump because this is currently

just a worldwide phenomenon. That people are unhappy about inflation and incumbent leaders are getting voted out. It could have been Lindsey Graham up there. All you have to say to most people is that the other person, the one in charge now, is why things are expensive, and you have a plan to help the economy

and that the plan is good. Even if, get this, the plan is actually very bad. The National Retail Federation estimates new tariffs could cost Americans billions, raising the price of a $50 pair of sneakers as high as $64, a $40 toaster to $52, a $2,000 mattress set up to $2,190. A CNBC analysis says among the most vulnerable to tariffs

could include retailers like Five Below, Wayfair, and Dollar Tree, brands like Yeti and Crocs, and of course the customer. How fucking sorry, stupid is it that voters who specifically said they were very concerned about inflation voted for a man that explicitly said he would do a thing that would make prices go up. That's not my opinion, that's just what tariffs will do.

They are taxes put on imports into the country that the business importing the goods would pay and would then pass that increase onto the consumer in order to still make a profit. Trump is proposing a 60% tariff on imports from China. So like all the stuff he sells and a 20% tariff on imports from everywhere else. And so for example,

if Walmart wants to sell the next PlayStation console, they have to purchase a bunch from Japan. Not to mention that a lot of video game consoles are manufactured in China. In fact, this isn't the first time Trump tried to do these tariffs that would directly hurt the gaming industry. So if Trump does finally implement his tariffs,

Walmart will have to pay way more for those PlayStations and would in turn have to sell them to us for an estimated $1,000. So why would Americans vote for a guy who wants to impose tariffs that would cost them nearly $80 billion a year, and not just vote for him, but specifically support tariffs?

It's probably because they don't know what tariffs are, and it seems that no one explained it to them well enough. Take this with a grain of libertarian think tank salt. But when the Cato Institute asked 2,000 people if they supported tariffs on blue jeans, they said yes, so long as they didn't have to pay more for the jeans. That's like saying you support railing cocaine

off of Santa's red hard cock, so long as you can still get a good night's sleep for church in the morning. This is just one of many examples of people voting directly against their self-interest. The Teamsters, if you recall, refused to endorse Harris or anyone, which is wild, but I guess it's a hard choice for them.

On one side, there's Biden and Harris who literally bailed out their pensions back in 2022. And on the other side, there's Trump, who has literally supported firing striking workers and whose administration repeatedly went after unions and will now likely continue to do that. Don't get me wrong, Biden also did some bullshit and then tried to fix that bullshit, but the choice here is still pretty darn clear.

Like you would think that the deal we have with our government is very simple. If politicians do good things, we will continue to keep them in office. We're their boss after all, and a good boss recognizes and rewards good work. But what we're learning is that this apparently isn't true anymore. They're boss after all, and a good boss recognizes and rewards good work. But what we're learning is that this apparently isn't true anymore.

We have broken that contract, which might be one of the most disheartening things I've ever said out loud. And I've said a lot of words. There's a disconnect, one that we've known about for a while, but perhaps underestimated. Remember how some Americans were against Obamacare, but for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare? There is a long history of people seemingly voting

against their best interests because of ignorance, much like how there were states and voters that chose to protect abortion rights and still voted for the guy who endangered them. There is going to be a long and exhausting examination of the split ticket Trump voters in this country. AOC has already started reaching out to them because there are people who voted for her and Trump somehow.

If you voted for Donald Trump and me, somehow. If you voted for Donald Trump and me, or if you voted for Donald Trump and voted Democratic down ballot, I would really love to hear from you. Good idea. I hope she runs for president in the future, assuming that's still possible to do. She will win. Even if you don't like her, I'm sorry folks, she's gonna be a president one day. So while a lot of the answers she got varied, a common thread was that both she and Trump felt real and were seen as outsiders from the establishment. And so never mind that Trump definitely isn't those things, that's what people perceive him to be. His bumbling bullshit and obvious lying is seen as authentic

and he presents himself as caring about the working class, even if he doesn't. It's the same reason why there was a crossover with Bernie voters and Trump voters, an authentic man or a con man. They're the same. As we've said, Americans are sick of partisan politics. At least that's what they say,

despite polarization indicating that they engage in it. But they say they are sick of both parties, and they are sick of the establishment. And so it would be really, really, really, really stupid, perhaps if you were running against Trump, to lean in to how establishment and status quo your party is and how it represents both parties that everybody hates. That would be very, very, very. Are Democrats stupid? Yes.

This time, the answer is a hard yes. I'm not talking about voters, obviously. I'm talking about the extremely dim people running the Democratic Party, a party that seemingly has nothing to offer the American people. We talked in our Reagan episode about how Carter and the establishment Dems

aggressively rejected New Deal politics, aimed more for the center, and were promptly demolished by Ronnie. And yet it's painfully clear they learned nothing from that loss. And boy, we don't want to say I told you so, so instead I'm just gonna smirk silently for a second. Ah, I forgot how to smile.

What I'm getting at is that the last huge victory for Democrats didn't involve a guy pandering to Republicans in the center. It was a black man literally running on the word change while saying he wants to tax the rich and create universal health care. Never mind if Obama kept his progressive promises, he still ran on them while the Republicans tried to label him a terrorist and then he won, twice. America's desire for a non-establishment leader

with clear calls to action amazingly exceeded its racism. The dude's middle name is Hussein. They try to remind you of that all the time. And so you'd think that just by glancing at that one campaign alone, the Democrats would have a clear path to victory going forward. That people, all people, don't like how America is shaping up. We're not happy with the status quo

here. And so no matter their politics, people will gravitate towards someone with a bold sounding plan that addresses our desires to change the status quo, to move forward. And that plan can be progressive or fascist or bless their hearts, libertarian, so long as it recognizes that there is a problem, explains itself clearly and is decisive and distinct from the opposing party. And for the love of all,

you should never ever sell yourself as business as usual or a slightly moderate version of your opponent or my goodness, absolutely do not embrace the establishment ghouls who remind everyone of why America sucks in the first place. Why America sucks in the first place. I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning. Or, you know, you could get Liz Cheney

to do some fucking zingers, I guess. Seriously, Kamala, I know you're watching. If all those emails are any indication, you're obsessed with me. Why did you embrace Liz Cheney? Nobody likes her, not even Republicans. Who were you appealing to here? What demographic were you told this would win over?

As I said before, nothing is ever one thing, but boy, things can be a lot of one thing and a lot of what cost the Democrats this election was their bizarre appeal to Republicans, who it turns out, absolutely did not vote for Harris. It's weird I have to explain this, but Republicans are going to vote for the Republican.

If I went to a restaurant and said, boy, I'm really craving the fully loaded nachos. And the waiter said, yes, we have that. But for the same price, you could get the semi-loaded nachos instead. I would likely hit him in the neck, which is exactly what happened at Applebee's. I didn't get kicked out either.

I guess you're allowed to do that. But it's even worse than that because not only is appealing to Republicans going to not win over Republicans, it also allows the GOP to control the narrative. For example, why the hell did Harris suddenly focus so much on being tough on the border? Both Democrats and independents showed very little interest

in border security as a top priority. In fact, a study on this showed that in Europe, social democratic parties going right on immigration does not help them get right-wing voters and in fact alienates their supporters. So why even entertain it? Why not talk about other problems? When you have a fascist demagogue scapegoating immigrants

and crafting this us versus them narrative, you need to offer a counter narrative. You know who you could accurately blame for a lot of our problems? Billionaires. That's a narrative. You can both vocally defend the vulnerable, like immigrants and trans people, and go on the offense. You can counter the fascist's narrative,

but instead the Harris campaign tried to like out-Republican the Republicans on immigration. If you offer a Republican light version of Republicans, people are just going to vote for the more Republican version because that's what you want. You simply can't out Republican Republicans. And by trying to do that, you signal to moderate Americans that immigration is actually a problem.

Average voters will look at that and say, Oh, Harris also wants to crack down on immigration. I guess that's actually a big issue. And then guess who they are going to vote for. Hint, it's not the semi-loaded nachos. It's just frustrating. And reading into the internal conversations, it feels like they were surrounded by people

purposefully trying to throw the election. Remember the whole right-wingers are weird trend that was picking up steam because they are? Well, that was overruled by pollster Jeff Garan, the advisor who, according to CNN, told the Harris campaign to knock it off with the, they're weird talk as it was too negative. Imagine a political party being really negative and winning.

So they dropped the weird talk, but I guess this Garen guy must know his stuff. After all, he's the guy who helped pull off the spectacular Hillary Clinton losses of 2008 and 2016. He is, by the way, handling constructive criticism on Blue Sky very well. And there's just so much of this. Like they were told, begged,

to stop campaigning with Liz Cheney. Rolling Stone reported that an operative had sent data to the Harris campaign, specifically showing that the Democratic base needed to be energized and that trying to convince Republicans to vote for her was a mistake and that they needed instead to focus on Democratic voters in battleground states.

The operative told Rolling Stone, quote, we were told basically to get lost, no thank you. Which unfortunately is also what voters told Harris on November 5th. Whoops, fucking, whoops, fucking whoops. Like we're not right about everything on this show. And in fact, we're gonna talk about what we're wrong about later.

But we were extremely fucking right about the Democrats and their refusal to accept this glaring reality. Remember back in January when we did the entire episode about how Democrats should hold a primary? Well, gosh, geez, they super should have done that instead of plowing forward despite Biden's obvious unpopularity. Instead, they dragged him out like Grandpa Leatherface

until he was literally incapable of speaking while still insisting that the polls were totally fine. Do you really believe you're not behind right now? I think it's all the pollsters I talk to tell me it's a toss up. Fun tidbit, it turns out that by a toss up, what Biden actually meant was that according to his own internal polling,

Trump was on track to win 400 electoral votes. But hey, at least they finally replaced Biden with the person who barely made a dent in the 2020 primaries for having no clear message other than Joe Biden is racist. And that's really the problem. The Democrats have no clear messages or goals beyond playing defense to Trump. I'm gonna use a call of duty metaphor

because apparently we super need to appeal to young white men in this country. There's a multiplayer mode called domination in which the two teams vie for control over three points on the map. And whoever keeps the majority of those points the longest wins. The secret to winning isn't to take all three points, but rather take two of those points

and then constantly attack the one remaining point that the other team has. And by forcing that team to play defense, they don't have the effort to take full control. And that's exactly what conservatives have done. They've attacked what little control the Democrats have, forcing them to remain in a constant state of defense. And now they've lost all of Nuketown.

Man, that map was so fun and relevant. Also, we love Bitcoin now. Gen Z men, please like and watch us. Yes, I love crypto. Like, Doja Cat. Is that one? I don't know. Anyway, the Democrats now exist

in a perpetual state of defense. They have zero control over any branch of our government. And honestly, I think they kind of like it there. Because when you're constantly framed as the resistance, your only job is to declare that bad things are bad and ask for donations. But you don't have to actually try to solve them. You can boo and shout that conservative solutions are wrong

without having to present an alternative. And they like that because, and this is very important, the actual counterpoint to conservatism, as in the actionable solutions that would actually help the working class and the Democrats could pitch to Americans, is progressivism. It's like Bernie would have won shit.

And while Republicans have no problem embracing the far right and demonizing immigrants and DEI and trans people, the Democrats refuse to embrace the left, and especially refuse to demonize the ultra wealthy and corporate overreach plaguing the country. And that's because they are also those people. According to the Atlantic, Harris was originally going to attack big businesses

in her campaign, but quickly abandoned that strategy after talking to her brother-in-law, Tony West, also known as Uber's chief legal officer. Holy goddamn hell. I want to repeat that. She was going to campaign against big businesses until her brother-in-law, a higher up at one of the worst companies in an industry

that desperately needs to be reformed, implored her not to. And she listened to him. So instead, they just floundered in the middle, insisting that everything is actually not that bad, and that the solution is to make small incremental changes so as to not piss off their wealthier supporters. Say what you will about Republicans, I certainly do, but they don't care who not piss off their wealthier supporters. Say what you will about Republicans. I certainly do, but they don't care who they piss off.

They don't care if their politics are ultra partisan and they have a very clear and specific list of things they want to do. Even if those things are bad and stupid, they are still promising aggressive action. And sadly, there is no strong progressive party that can do the same or sway the Democrats. Because, and I can't stress this enough, as long as both of our main political parties are dedicated to protecting the interests of billionaires,

there will simply never be a major progressive change in this country. People will always get frustrated and turn to the one extremist side before remembering how bad they are and swinging back, but not before the government moves a little more toward fascism every time. That's the problem. Or maybe it's wokeness.

I bet it's wokeness. Listen, we need to take an ad break, and when we come back, we're going to talk about whether or not liberals will learn anything from this experience, or perhaps just blame trans people and vow to move more center right. Spoilers, it's that second thing I just said.

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Go to it. Oh, hams. The holidays are a-comin'. Time to eat a lot of hams. Ham sausage, stuffed ham, hamburger, eggs and ham, ham radio, ham. It's hard to stay healthy, which is why for every ham I slam,

which I actually don't, pigs are such cute little smarties, but for the purposes of this bit, for every ham I slam, I slurp down a delicious bowl of AG-1. So really, let me sit backwards in my chair for a sec. That's short for second. I run around a lot doing this show,

and I also look forward to drinking my AG1. For starters, it actually tastes good. It's creamy and mixes well, like me. It has extra vitamins and supports gut health for those days where you're just not eating great. Ham days, I call them. And they have travel packs for when you're off visiting your ham parents or ham-aw or ham-paw.

And here comes the part where I get to drink some, my favorite part. ["The Little Mermaid"] Yes! In me! It's good. Sometimes I'll put a little ham at the bottom as a treat. Not this time.

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Honestly, we're probably way down on the enemies list. And yes, that does make me feel a little insulted. Fuck you, theoretical enemies list. Feeling a lot of stuff. Very vulnerable right now. Frankly, I could really use a friend or... Wow, it's a me. Jesus fucking Christ.

Great news, Cody! You're never gonna believe it. I have enough money to buy back the show from Warmbo. Warmbo? Oh my God, are we still doing a running narrative after all this? The sun still rises, fucko. Anyway, so I invested in a bunch of private prison companies

and gun manufacturers and something called Wokefinder, and now I'm loaded. Isn't that great? Pretty sure that's actually the opposite of great. Yeah. Well, okay. Opinions are like worms. We all have them inside us at some point. Some sooner than others. Okay. Hey, listen, I'll pay you 50 bucks to let me host for a bit. Unlike you, I can't be bought. 75. You have my Venmo, right? Sure do. Okay, bye. Hey y'all, it's your pal.

Listen, champ, we both wanted to be here for this terrible, terrible event. Because sure, I might have prematurely dumped the show budget into a series of evil stocks, but I didn't want Trump to win. But I do love finger pointing, because after the Democrats lost bigly, there is the obvious question of who to blame. And wouldn't you know it, people don't care much for introspection except for me. I'm really good at introspection, which is probably why I'm so charming and humble. So long story short, after everything we just pointed out about Democrats, it seems that they are determined to refuse to learn any lesson from this.

And so it is time to ask another question. Are liberals stupid? Honestly, this is just an extension of the last segment. But now with Katie. See, a lot of people just aren't going to accept the fact that Biden and Harris and the establishment Democrats fucked the dog on this one. At least not for a while. And so naturally, we've already been flooded with some of the most unhinged takes coming from liberals trying to invent a narrative where they are actually blameless. So who is actually to blame then? Let's speak some hard truths. Now I'm going to speak some hard truths to my friends in the Democratic Party.

This is not Joe Biden's fault. It's not Kamala Harris's fault. It's not Barack Obama's fault. Is the fault of the Democratic Party in not knowing how to communicate effectively to voters? Okay, that's Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky, and well, she's right that the Democratic Party can't communicate to voters. Pretty weird that she apparently doesn't consider Biden or Harris or Obama part of

that party and therefore blameless, but let's hear her out. For a number of reasons, we don't know how to speak to voters. When we address Latina and language, listen, language has meaning. When we address Latino voters as Latinx, for instance, because that's the politically correct thing to do. It makes them think that we don't even live in the same planet as they do. Oh, uh, what? So it wasn't Joe Biden's fault.

It wasn't Kamala Harris's fault, it was the people who say Latinx's fault? Is there any polling data that shows this, or are you perhaps just being weird and mad? See, in these convulsing throes of denial, we're seeing a lot of masks slip right off as seemingly left-leaning people just full-on blame minorities for some mysterious reason. But I guess you know that saying, scratch a liberal and he explodes like a water balloon full of tiny Hitlers. Joe Scarborough, Julie Roginsky. They have nearly pissed themselves in their excitement to throw trans people in the wokes under the bus. Even before the election, they were doing this. The trans ad has had impact.

And you're hearing that from the canvas. Yes. And they've run that. We talked about this earlier. They've run that 30,000 times during football games. It's having an impact. The campaign is blind to it. They just are blind to it.

So the broad theory here seems to be that, no, it wasn't the fact that Democrats tried to court Republicans and run on moderate and meek policy, but rather that they overly focused on special interest groups like trans people and were too PC, and that came off as elitist to the common working class. Which is weird because they didn't actually do that. Like factually speaking, Harris and the Democrats didn't do that.

Harris was actually really dodgy about trans rights. So you can't just like pretend a thing happened because I agree that the Democrats have lost all messaging for the working class. Woo, boy. Oh boy. Do I agree? They have.

But to finish that sentence with, and it's because they're too focused on trans rights, is zooming past the actual problem. Especially since we have information about what the voters actually cared about. CNN exit poll results didn't have any data on how much trans issues affected the election other than the fact that most LGBTQ people voted for Harris. But when you break down what people ranked as one of the most important issues driving people towards Trump,

it's not trans issues or wokeness, but inflation and the economy. The two most important issues, according to voters polled, were the economy and democracy. 32% of voters ranked the economy as the most important issue. 34% ranked democracy, while only 11% said immigration was the most important issue.

And inflation seems to play a big part in it. 53% of polled voters said inflation caused moderate hardship. 22% reported severe hardship and 24% reported no hardship. 52% of respondents believed Trump would better handle the economy. There were also strong disapproval ratings for Biden

as 59% of respondents disapproved of him as president. In terms of whether voters thought Harris was too woke, there was no exit polling question we could find that asked that, but voters were asked about how extreme the candidates were. Harris was viewed as less extreme than Trump with 47% of respondents saying Harris was too extreme, while 54% of respondents found Trump to be too

extreme. Heck, 12% of the people who thought Trump was too extreme voted for him. So does any of the data actually point to a voter base alienated by Harris's wildly pro-trans leftist campaign that didn't actually exist? No. it points to what we already described, a voter base unhappy with inflation and unhappy with Biden. But instead of ever actually introspecting about whether the tepid, moderate campaign Harris ran was actually effective, the Maureen Dowd's and Joe Scarborough's

and other spineless, gutless media ghouls just grab the nearest minority and chuck them right under the bus. Heel on the bus, go round and round. Not now, Kamala. I'm speaking. It's ironic because I think this mask off moment is indicative of the actual problem. Just like conservatives, some liberals will much rather blame minorities than actually fix the problem. That's literally why Republicans can more easily sell their

message. Instead of talking about the complicated and systemic issues, they can offer a really easy scapegoat that has the added bonus of feeding fear and xenophobia. Because again, they're all rich people, right? The leaders of both parties are rich elitists who went to the same private schools and will solve our problems so long as they don't threaten their status. And so I think a lot of the liberals have been dying for a reason to demonize certain minorities. Because many of them seem to be just as racist and just as bigoted, but aren't allowed to be that.

And so instead of perhaps realizing that Kamala's non-commitment on Gaza was a mistake, they're going to blame Muslim people for not voting for the genocide. Instead of wondering why Latino men voted for Trump, they are gonna seethingly post that they hope Trump deports them all. This idea that Americans deserve Trump is a breathtakingly elitist and cruel perspective that proves exactly why people didn't trust Democrats. The idea that we should wish harm upon some young woman in a red state that can't get an abortion, or some poor family in middle America who will be crushed by inflation,

or someone whose grandparent gets deported, is evil. Nor do we need liars, by the way. We do not need our own Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro. We don't need our own grifters, as many have speculated. Aside from the fact that the Democratic Party already has its share of shills and partisan hacks, it's actually good and healthy to be able to criticize your party. It's good to not be in a cult and add more distrust and misleading information into the world. We don't need even more people ignoring

that Joe Biden was wildly unpopular and should have stepped down for a primary. We don't need more people saying, well, actually, it's good that Joe Biden is so old and frail. And actually, he's secretly 27 years old. He's doing a Benjamin Button. Checkmate, GOP. This is all to say that on top of not learning the right message, a lot of liberals are going to use this moment to push even worse messages to Democrats, to shape the party in a way that they've wanted to shape it for a long time

by abandoning progressives and minorities. Liberal journalist journalist Mattie Glacius wrote a long screed on a common sense democratic platform expressing his desire for this, quote, I think that anyone who identifies as a leftist or a progressive should vote for Democrats. But that doesn't mean that Democrats agenda should be driven by those on the far left. A big tent democratic coalition needs leftists. But left-wing candidates are rarely winning tough elections, and too often, they're not improving governance of the solidly blue places where they're elected. Iglesias lays out a number of principles he thinks the Democrats should follow in the

future, two of them being race is a social construct, but biological sex is not. Policy must acknowledge that reality and uphold people's basic freedom to live as they choose. And also, public services and institutions like schools deserve adequate funding, and they must prioritize the interests of their users, not their workforce or abstract ideological projects. You see, folks, it's trans people and woke ideology in schools that must be purged from the Democratic Party. A sentiment also expressed by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who begins her piece with, some Democrats are finally waking up and realizing

that woke is broke, and writes, the party embraced a worldview of hyper-political correctness, condescension, and cancellation, and it supported diversity statements for job applicants and faculty lounge terminology like Latinx and BIPOC, black, indigenous people of color. This alienated half the country or more and the chaos and antisemitism at many college campuses certainly didn't help. Does she present any actual data that the term BIPOC alienated half of

the country or more? Let's see. No, no, that's dumb. Who needs data? Data's for wokes. Also, as we already showed, there isn't any data. It's just vibes. But beyond vibes, these people are transparently trying to cover their own asses. Kamala Harris ran the campaign they wanted. Joe Biden reads Maddie Glacius and watches Joe Scarborough. They got the centrist non-woke campaign. They're complaining that they didn't. And now they're scrambling to blame someone else because that campaign lost. They're jumping at the opportunity to say, you see, see, the center-left campaign lost, which obviously means progressivism is dead.

They're all seemingly trying to get the party to further abandon the left and shift even more to the right, as if the solution to creeping fascism is to… kind of like agree with it. It's as if liberals see how cruel conservatives are and assume that's why they are winning, and that we should do it too. But even if that was why, would we want to win that way? If winning against Republicans just means becoming a slightly less fascist version of them,

honestly, I'd rather lose. In order to reject fascism, people need to be offered an alternative, not a diet version of it. But hey, now that we mention it, we should probably address all the racism and sexism and how, despite Trump being Trump, the Republican Party has continued to support him. Because, hey now, here's a question. Are Republicans stupid?

Well, the question, are Republicans stupid, is an entire subgenre of this show. So I guess the people I mainly want to talk about aren't the Republican base or his MAGA cult, but rather the establishment GOP and conservative pundits who know that Trump isn't good for their party, who, in fact, might have once said that Trump is a Hitler who wants to do bad things in them, hypothetically went on to become his vice president. You're Ben Shapiro. You're Mitch McConnell. You're Max Walsh.

I'll even throw Elon Musk into this category. People who know that Trump is a liar and a criminal and an idiot and a rapist and still pretend to like him. Because while the Democrats are dying this slow, mediocre death under Trump, we can't forget that he has absolutely demolished the Republican Party. For them, it's less of this floundering fade into oblivion and more like Gala mainlining the One Ring. It's a seemingly unstoppable swerve into the abyss, this one-way ticket to a bunker

murder-suicide. And we are already seeing Trump's complete disdain for the democratic process within his party. He's already trying to circumvent Congress to appoint his cabinet of freaks without Senate approval. His party's Senate! A party that has just completely rolled over for an authoritarian monster. And while I can't speak for all of them,

their reasons seem to be one of three things. The first one is short and simple, but let's do a fun little countdown anyway. I never get to do countdowns. Cody always does the countdowns. Okay, okay, Katie, get it together. Okay, starting with number three. They are partisan hack cowards.

So let me expand on that. Actually, nevermind. That one speaks for itself. Damn it. I already messed up this countdown. Katie, this was your big chance. Okay, number two. They need something from Trump.

So there's a very broad range defining the something in that sentence. What I mean is that there is a breed of Republicans who are willing to risk the entire country in the hopes that Trump can be used for their personal benefit. That could be an ideological benefit, or perhaps if you're a pedophile,

you might need Trump to appoint you as the head of an entity investigating you, hypothetically. Trump is a criminal after all, and so is the crime guy he can abuse his power to absolve a lot of other crime guys. This incredibly includes himself. guy he can abuse his power to absolve a lot of other crime guys. This, incredibly, includes himself. Trump needs Trump to be president for this reason, but so do a lot of the people who got jailed for that coup on his behalf. But I think it's very intentional that Trump

is picking people for his cabinet who either A. have some kind of scandal brewing or B. is a political dead fish who wants to revive their career. For the latter, there's dog killer Kristi Noem, veggie tray expert Dr. Mehmet Wegener's Oz, the real world Boston and Road Rules All-Star participant Sean Duffy, Fox News host and alleged sexual predator Pete Hegseth, Linda McMahon, and charisma killer Marco Rubio. It's like Celebrity Apprentice, but you can't like ignore it or change the channel. Hey Marco Rubio from 2016, how do you feel about your new boss? There is no way we are going to allow a con artist to take over the conservative movement and Donald Trump is a con artist.

Well, you were half right. Hey Marco Rubio, what do con men famously go after? Is it marks and rubes? Perfect. Poetic. Anyway, of course there's also Tulsi Gabbard for some shirtless horse riding reason. She's always there. And then, again, there's Matt Gaetz, who was literally under investigation for being

a pedophile or, apologies to our libertarian viewers, a fibophile. When Trump announced he would nominate him for AG. That was such a boldly disgusting move that even Matt Gaetz felt it was too extreme as he has since withdrawn from that nomination, surely out of the goodness of his heart, and not because every Republican lawmaker told him to on account of him being seconds away from serious jail time. In fact, since recording this, there might have already been some new and messed up story about him that came out. Oh, I don't know, maybe he got in a shootout with the police. Anyway, RIP to Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress hoping that would prevent the ethics report from being released and allow him to take his new job, but it turns out it doesn't matter because he's gross and everyone hates him, so now he has no job.

The point here is that Trump likes these people because he can extort them. They will do or say whatever he wants lest he turn on them. It's the same reason I have Cody's parents on my payroll. And I think that's why his administration always burns through people and why he always keeps these scummiest characters close to him. Keep your desperate sycophants even closer.

For everyone outside this radius, we get the mega donors who have an ideological or financial goal, but aren't being literally strong armed into a role. Little Elon Musk is the obvious example. He needed Trump to deregulate the various industries that make him billions. There's of course, Miriam Adelson, who is pushing Trump on pro-Israel policy, the Peter Thiels and tech libertarians who want to push ideology and get rich, and the Republicans who want Trump for control over the Supreme Court and so on and so on and so on and so on.

What I am describing are people who are so rich or want to get more rich to the point that they don't care what Trump does. If he tanks the economy, doesn't matter to them. If he rounds up immigrants, well, he won't round up the rich ones. None of this is new. But what is a little surprising is how lazily Trump is doing it this time. Like, he didn't have to literally try to put Matt Gaetz in charge of the DOJ. But I guess that's easier than pulling some strings to get his investigation dropped. Nor did he need to literally create a fake little Department of Government deregulation

for Elon to lead. But I guess he's lazy. Elon was like, hey, could you deregulate a bunch of stuff for me? And Trump said, here, man, you just do it. I'm tired. Like it's your friend asking you to help them move. So you just throw them the keys to your truck instead. Just fill her up when you're done. Lord knows if Elon will actually have the power to do much, but Trump might be guessing it'll just, you know, keep him busy. You wouldn't know it from looking at him or reading his tweets or watching this show, but Elon Musk is apparently very sad and annoying. Anyway, it was always obvious that Trump was using the presidency to help his rich friends, but somehow it's even more obvious now. He realized he didn't even have

to pretend to hide it this time. Everyone just knows and they don't care. And I think a lot of that is because of reason number three. So let's go back to the board. Petty revenge. Right. Sometimes life is simple. Trump's entire presidency was fueled by his grievances, grievance regarding Obama specifically, and about being a laughing stock. This

also applies to a lot of his supporters and party, whether they even realize it or not. Because while we can recognize voters who might be concerned with inflation or border security, there's no denying that a large portion of people voted for Trump three times, either out of racist and sexist spite, or to protect their privileged status in society. I know that it feels like a cudgel to hand wave a bunch of people this way, but it's also true. There is a historical pattern of white backlash

to advances in civil rights. The first black person elected to the Senate was in 1870. Seven years later, the Jim Crow era began. In 2008, we elected the first black president of the United States. And no matter how advanced we think we are, of course there was going to be a backlash to that. I think it's best described as grievance politics.

The idea that some people would rather drive the car off the road than let their opposition drive. And for the far right, a lot of this has never been about what's better for the country, but rather just winning, winning for their people. And in their minds, the left have been winning the so-called culture war for too long. The Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter, the horrifying onslaught of non-white and female characters in blockbuster films. Oh, a black elf, better get the fascists on that. Make Middle Earth great again.

There has been this aura emanating from the Republican Party, this oppositional defiance disorder so great that they turned wearing protective medical gear into a fucking hissy fit. And that all, coincidentally, ramped up with the first black president being elected. I'm not even sure they realize it. Like, have you ever seen a toddler get mad that no one is paying attention to them so they just start acting out? And if you call them on it, they have no way to articulate the feelings. That's this.

Every time a minority in this country gains a little bit more ground, a lot of people see that as ground being taken out from under them. And their response is to push, to claim the thing happening to the minorities is actually happening to them. Women started pointing out their underrepresentation in video games, so they created GamerGate and claimed that video games were actually pushing white men out. Me Too pointed out that women were being systematically abused on a large scale, so they created the Manosphere. They learned that DEI was a thing, and now Trump wants to give reparations to white people

affected by anti-discrimination laws. That would be so silly and obvious if it wasn't utterly disgusting. Because to these specific people, the idea of civil rights is a zero sum game. They operate from a perspective of exclusion. So that's how they reflexively view inclusion. They have it in their heads

that when someone points out historical and cultural inequalities, they're secretly saying that white men should feel guilty. When you try to include underrepresented people, it means we want to do a white genocide. It's this binary thing in their minds where they either have to feel shame or pride with nothing in between. No nuance, none, not at all. It's really bizarre. And it was created and perpetuated by a very organized right-wing propaganda campaign to the point that it's leaked into the mainstream so much

that people don't even realize it. There are gradients of it, you know? Not everyone is a Nazi. But when you hear people saying, well, you know, I am a little concerned about these drag shows, for example, that's them buying into it. They are at the bottom of a hierarchy of right wing propaganda. It's often masked with other concerns like a state's rights or religious freedom. But when the mask finally comes up, it is best summed up like this. Hey bitch, we control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again. Okay? Men win again. And yes,

we control your bodies. Hi. I'm your Republican congressman. Hi, I'm your Republican congressman. It's your body, my choice. Man, that small child sure has a lot of anger in him. There is now a surge of weird sexist attacks on social media from guys claiming that they've won some war against women. And I don't wanna speak for all women, but I don't think most women are trying to have a fucking war. They just wanna not get assaulted and be forced to carry the baby or not die during childbirth.

Also, please don't surprise us from behind or we will kick. Hmm, that might be horses. Or both, is it both? I think it's both. It, that might be horses. Or both, is it both? I think it's both. It's both women and horses. Anyway, that bitter little wiener really sums this up. The fact that a lot of Trump voters are still bitter and weird and angry even when they won.

They're angry and they won because they don't actually know why they're really angry. They saw a black woman running against a white dude and voted for the rapist simply out of personal spite. That's it. They might claim it's about other stuff, but that's what their lizard brain actually did. Anyway, I guess that concludes our segment called Shit You Already Knew. It's time to go to a break. But when we're back, we're going to name one more surprise stupid. Who will it be?

Put your votes in now, folks. They may be the last vote you ever vote. We love our cats. They're like little lions, but they can be a real pain too. They scratch furniture, sneak into your room at night to steal your breath while you sleep, and of course, the pooping. Oof, they never stop pooping, and will never stop. Until you're dead that is.

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Hello America! How's your balls? No, not those balls. I'm talking about your testicles. Do they smell? Are you a smelly sack, like a serial killer's basement down there? Well, Cody can help with that.

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stinky here on the show. Pee-yew! Under the lights. Pee-yew! With this weirdly silent studio audience. Everybody! Pee-yew! Nobody's gonna do it with me. Okay, Mando keeps my many parts fresh Which makes me feel fresh and as a special offer for listeners new customers get $5 off a starter pack with our Exclusive code that equates to over 40% off your starter pack use code more news at shop Mando.com That's s h o pO-P-M-A-N-D-O.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. And tell them you like the jingle. I run a tight ship up here in the mountains with my family. I love my family and they love me. My family would do anything for me here in my compound and to keep my family

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They all laughed when I bought stock and the literal concept of fear, but who is laughing now? Okay, hey, did you send me 75 cents? That was the deal, 75. Give me the show back. Give me the 75 cents back. It's a dollar transfer fee.

Okay, cent, goodbye. We are all in this together, buddy. I was- Hey, we're back. I'm back. We've been talking about how everyone is stupid and bad and racist and sexist and will never feel the warmth of the sun again, but I'm doing fine.

And as we near the cold, dark end of this video specifically, we have one more question we need to ask. Because sure, we've wondered if America is stupid, if Democrats and liberals are stupid, and if Republicans and MAGA are stupid, but we left out one very special person. Are we stupid? Hey, fuck you, me me who counts as we,

who is telling me that we is stupid. I should clarify because I'm also confused. When I say we, I can really only speak for myself in this show. I'm not saying you are stupid or that our many talented writers are stupid, but I could be saying that if you want me to. Like if that's your kink, I'll do it.

But also, if you've aligned with a lot of what we've said here on the showdy, maybe you count in this group. Perhaps you've even drank the official Some More News elixir that grants the powers to hear my thoughts and your thoughts available now at our merch store. I guess what I'm really asking here is this, what did the far left or progressives or just anyone who saw what Trump and the Democrats were barreling toward,

what did we do wrong? There's been a lot of speculation, a lot of think pieces, a lot of finger pointing. And as we have said, it's important that we also finger ourselves. So instead of trying to speak for a group of people, I'm just going to finger myself while you watch. So for starters, maybe we were too hard on the movie Lady Ballers. Let me explain! I'm not saying that movie is good. It's transphobic and unfunny and not a well-told cohesive story.

Just watch our episode about it. It's a bad movie. What I'm really saying is that we were perhaps too flippant about the daily wire and conservative efforts to make their own entertainment and independent media. The right wing has made a deliberate effort to appeal to non-political casual audiences. As a result, young white men specifically have been infiltrated with far right ideals and inundated with the sloppy leftovers

of grievance fueled rightwing propagandists. Someone makes a Twitter account about gaming or cool architecture, and then slowly slips in Nazi shit for viewers to absorb without even realizing it. Now, I'm not saying we should be liars or try to manipulate people or pander, but rather we have to start contending with the fact that most Americans aren't politically minded.

They don't want to think about it. They're going to hear Trump say for months that he's going to do tariffs, and they're going to wait until after the election to Google what tariffs are. And so while we can't make them or trick them, we could try to meet them on their terms. I don't know, we're a political show-dee here. I'm not sure how we specifically can be a political show while also reaching a less political audience, but I'm open to ideas.

A dragon? Maybe dungeons too. Yeah, that could work. We already have Warmbo. He's like a dragon in that his breath is unusually hot. I guess what I'm saying is that, as we already mentioned, there are examples of areas voting both for Trump and for Democrats or leftist causes down ballot.

And as silly as that seems, we have to contend with the idea that a lot of people aren't ultra-partisan, which is good in theory. I'd argue that we try to and even succeed at framing a lot of issues here as non-partisan, which is good in theory. I'd argue that we try to and even succeed at framing a lot of issues here as non-partisan. We've also tried to appeal to young men on this show, and we've seen success there.

But it's clear there's just more to do, more need to focus on a wide range of issues, and honestly, a little more non-political fun to be had. I like video games. We should stream video games. We should stream video games. We should talk about movies. We're gonna stream video games and talk about movies. Katie, download Minecraft.

We're gonna offer people a little more mindless distractions perhaps. We don't have to change our values for that to happen. This idea that the left needs their own Joe Rogan is misguided because again, can't stress this enough, we don't need to be liars or utterly credulous or host liars or be propagandists. Also, Joe Rogan wasn't a political show.

It was just some guy talking about whatever with whomever, and he got gradually and easily propagandized by right-wing liars and weirdos, and now he's pretty dang political. But what that idea is circling is that the left needs to have more appeal to people who just are like regular fucking people who may think they don't care about politics, who may think

that certain topics aren't political. I know it's weird to focus on men, but as we saw and have talked about, men are lost right now. And not in the fun island mystery way. Oh, if only. But also it's important to recognize that whenever men whine about their problems,

we need to treat them like actual babies. But when women bring up their problems, it makes a bunch of Nazis. It's an interesting dynamic there, something to consider. But another mistake I think a lot of us have made is the idea that weird little online freaks weren't going to appeal to America. Because it turns out that a lot of Gen Z

are also a bunch of weird little online freaks and voted for the freaks. And I say that as a weird little online freak myself. A lot of us thought we could write off people like JD Vance and Musk as being unappealing because they are. They're stupid losers who also happened to win. But I guess young people probably saw their tweets next to Harris's ultra curated and very official tweets

and felt that one side was more genuine than the other. Even if that side was lying about eating dogs. But I guess when you look at Gen Z, who grew up in this ultra sanitized corporate internet, watching ultra sanitized corporate movies, they probably starved for flaws right now. Also, they were probably influenced by their Gen X parents

who won't shut up, but everyone is soft now because they drank water from a hose or whatever. I don't know. I don't talk to young people and in fact, throw things at them when they come near me. So I'm just speculating. I don't need to make sense of it.

I don't even know if I'm fingering myself hard enough or to any kind of completion. Don't laugh, this is serious. And this next fingering is bleak, but probably needs to be said. I feel like maybe we overestimated how progressive this country is, which isn't to say we should abandon progressive ideas.

And I'd actually argue that the country is very progressive on a lot of things, but just doesn't realize it. Again, Bernie would have won. But as something that a lot of people of color will remind us every time this shit happens, this is just what America is. When you look at the last 60 plus years,

America has been way more right leaning. For every incremental victory for progressive movements, it's lurched 10 steps into oblivion like a horse being electrocuted. It has been a fight this whole time. And I think growing up when I did, it's easy to forget that. You come out of the Bush era of freedom fries into Obama

and you think, well, maybe it's getting better now, but it didn't. And you're shocked for a second. And then you go, oh, right, the freedom fries. I remember again. So that's, you know, a bummer. But we're not ending on a bummer. No bums here. So what can we even do?

Okay, spoilers. This section is also kind of a bummer. I'm sorry, because we have to assume Trump is going to do all the stuff he said he wants to do. Granted, there are things that might prevent him from doing those things. And if he is prevented from doing them, people are gonna call us alarmists

for saying he'll do bad stuff. But frankly, that would be great. I would love, love to be wrong. I would love to prepare for the worst and for that to be a waste of time. But that's not gonna stop me from preparing. So how do we do that? How do we prepare for a second and worse Trump term?

Well, that depends on your skin color and reproductive organs, obviously. And we will probably be discussing this more in depth in the coming months. But broadly speaking, and in the most optimistic scenario, you're gonna wanna order your burgers well done. I know that's a weird place to start, but if that brain worm or those deregulation ghouls

get anywhere near the USDA, food is going to be perilous. Ironically, they might make everyone voluntarily stop eating meat because it's so bad. The thing they claim the Democrats will force people to do, they're just gonna do it. They spent so much time saying, you're not going to make me eat the bugs, and didn't realize they were voting for an administration

that would just let more bugs in their food. Elon Musk and the deregulation lust means that we should prepare for our infrastructure to fall apart over time. Our education system could be in trouble. Read to your kids, I'm just gonna get that out of the way. Get your kids excited about reading and thinking critically and being curious about the world.

It's unclear though, how drastic Trump's plan for removing the Department of Education would be, or if he can really even do that. Student loans, for example, might be kicked to corporations. Special needs and low income students would lose support. And of course, a lot of people will lose their jobs. There also might not be federal regulations for education standards. A lot of states might suffer more than other better funded states, those suffering

states, ironically, being red states, because this is important to stress, if Trump gets to do the things he wants to do, it's going to affect everyone. Everyone knows or is somebody who gets money from programs he wants to cut. Everyone will see prices go up if he imposes his tariffs. More and more products will have recalls. There will be mass outbreaks.

If a disaster happens, Trump will likely direct less funding to FEMA because he did that before. It will also depend on the state you're in. Trump almost didn't give California aid because it's a blue state and he's an extremely terrible person. So if you're in a disaster prone area,

otherwise known as all of America, you need to get a bug out bag, also known as an emergency kit, first aid, water, freeze dried food. Be prepared for our infrastructure and agencies to fail in this quest for deregulation and efficiency, which ironically involves making a new department with two people in charge.

At least Elon will airrop sick Doge memes. Oh God. We should also prepare for economic hardship. The tariffs aren't the only problem. Trump is going to cut green energy projects, which will affect some states more than others. As I said, a lot of people get money or aid from the government that probably don't even realize it.

And of course, there's the mass deportations. Now, this is the most cold and uncaring aspect of Trump's plan to deport millions and millions of vulnerable families, but it's worth noting that this would make food way more expensive and cost the country billions of dollars. Trump has claimed that Americans would fill in the lost farming jobs, but that's not actually how it works.

A lot of these places don't have a waiting workforce to fill in the lost farming jobs, but that's not actually how it works. A lot of these places don't have a waiting workforce to fill in the gaps. And we have data showing that migrants actually boost the economy and are filling jobs that Americans simply won't be there to supplement. Simply put, mass deportations would be removing a vital part of our workforce. But it's also, and this is very key, evil.

And I don't think people are ready for the collective trauma of what that would look like. To see families rounded up by the millions and shipped to a private prison where they would be separated from their kids and spouses. This is going to affect people you know, your coworkers, your neighbors, possibly your own family. It is going to carve a hole in this country, a massive, terrible wound that will take decades

or longer to heal. It will be an act that we won't be able to come back from, an act we should all feel shame for, especially if you voted for Donald Trump, who said he was going to do it. And you might not be able to face anyone who voted for it or supports it. It's okay to protect yourself emotionally from the people who did this. But if you have the privilege to or the ability to, you're gonna watch some of those people realize the terrible thing they helped create.

And if you can, it's constructive to help those people find their way back. If you have people in your life who voted for Trump or are even just Trump curious, it's important to point these things out. When things go wrong, when little things get worse, point out not just that it's Trump's fault, but that we knew this would happen. And maybe their sources of information are flawed or lying to them. If you know somebody who is generally against

private prisons and the disgusting profit motives that drive them, point out that the private prison industry was thrilled that Trump was elected because they will get to make more facilities in order to implement these mass deportations. You don't need to brag that you were right, but it's important to point to things that indicate that Trump maybe is, well,

in the words of his chosen secretary of state, is a con artist. Yeah, maybe he is and always has been a con man. As he keeps hiring and appointing people who wrote Project 2025, maybe gently point out that he was obviously clearly lying when he said that he didn't know anything about it. And maybe the people who were warning about it

weren't being hysterical for crying out loud. If you know someone who downplayed that one Trump post where he says, well, we should suspend the constitution, maybe gently point out that he's now also talking about doing away with birthright citizenship, which is literally in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, for absolute fuck's sake.

Anyway, we all have to prepare for all of this, for protecting ourselves and the people close to us from the horror this would all create. Get to know your neighbors, your community, get your passports done, have a plan for the erosion of justice and morality that this would create, and the rage, the many people who will be jobless or destitute and lashing out. Gosh dang it, here's a video of a squirrel hiding a nut in a dog.

Yeah, nut in that dog. I am so sorry. Oh God, it got so gross. I'm sorry. Listen, we have seen a lot of mass horrors in this country. Vietnam, assassinations, so on. But in our recent history, there's been an influx of America itself being the victim of horrible violence.

9-11, school shootings, COVID. Often this trauma was brought on by our own refusal to fix a problem. There was a mass of helplessness and frustration and trauma in this country as we watch our leaders choose money over our lives over and over again. And for some of us, there's clearly a mass mental health crisis that's opened the door for a cult leader to take control.

It is bleak. America has always been an uphill battle, but we are now Frodo at the foot of Mount Doom. There's just no other direction to go but forward. We can't give up. Because the final and most important way we can prepare is to experience joy, to reach out to people if we're feeling hopeless,

to see friends, to mend old grudges, be kind and be generous right now, push back on the hyper individualization and isolation that contributed to where we are now, demonstrate the benefits of collaboration and community. The Grinch stole Christmas, so we have to sing and dance and perhaps prepare to fight and rise up against the Grinch

and burn him out of his mountain cave. That is how it ended, right? They killed Nate the Grinch in a delicious feast. Anyway, back to entertainment news. What's new in Kintseltown? Are you kidding me? Yah! Ah!

You know what? Let it burn. I take it all back. You let me down, America. You really fucked me on this. I'm the sexiest man alive. Okay? I'll prove it to you. See?

Wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, there's a siren over there, there's a vacuum over there. We're having a great time. Hey, thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like and subscribe. We really got to start saying that at the beginning of the video so people see it. We've got a podcast called Even More News.

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The live long and prosper. May the et cetera be and so forth.