The Daily Zeitgeist - Alligator AlcaTrends 7/2: The House Freedom Caucus, Travis Kelce, Diddy Trial, Paramount/Skydance Merger

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

In this edition of Alligator AlcaTrends, Jack and Miles discuss the House Freedom Caucus vs. BBB, Travis Kelce's interview about his SNL appearance, the conclusion of the Diddy trial, the Paramount/Skydance merger (and the $16m payoff to make it happen) and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. People that were hard on me are not here no more, so I'm hard on myself. You know, make me cry. Listen to you versus you on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions. Did George Washington really cut down on charity? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair?

And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance,

it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeart Radio app, Apple, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We are telling our scientists today we have disdain for your expertise. And then you have

China as an exception saying actually we're going to invest a trillion dollars in new science. You heard that right. While the US is slashing science budgets, China is doubling down. This means here in the United States, less innovation, fewer breakthroughs, and falling behind on the global stage. This week on Dope Labs, Chelsea Clinton breaks down what these cuts really mean. Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello the Internet and welcome to this episode of Alligator Alcatrends. It's a fun name, Miles.

It's a fun name. Miles, it's a fun name. That one is courtesy of gross face killer. It almost sounds like the beginning of that Blackalicious track, Alphabet Aerobics. Yeah. Alligator Alcatraz, aren't it all amazing? Analytically, I assault animate things. Broken barriers bounded by the bomb. Remember that track? L lyrical empirical and

Spherical a miracle Let me live a long life lyrically lessons as a learned lame louses this lose my line livery A lot of people don't know this because you're not here before we start recording. That's how he loosens his lips I have to go through the entire alphabet aerobics by blackalicious track. Yeah, exactly My name is Jack and that over there is mr. Miles crack. Yes And this is the episode where we talk about what's trending right now in the news We will talk a little bit more about the fun Saturday morning

Cartoon hannah-barbera spin on a concentration camp that is happening in Florida. Elevator Alcatraz! Elevator Alcatraz! He hit a hook good. What is it, the Swedish chef from The Muppets auditioning to be a Southerner? He's a hard to burn, hard to burn, hard to burn. But we're gonna talk about the House Freedom Caucus

and how they might be fucking things up for the beautiful. Well, you know, they get the big, we get the big, we get the big, we get the big. Which we'll talk about the House Freedom Caucus and how they might be fucking things up for the We'll talk about tomorrow. It's not even called that anymore. Oh, yeah, Chuck Thank you. I think things are going to be a little different from now on. Thank you. Chuck Schumer Where's Chuck Schumer? Is he from Queens? Because like Nas, he ethered the fucking bill. Okay Absolutely Fuck Big BB. But no, right now the word shit show is trending because Marjorie Taylor Greene, remember her? She was on Steve Bannon's podcast called Sweaty and Racist,

where they were talking about how all of the deliberations over the big beautiful bill have devolved into what she calls a shit show. And again, she's very loyal to Trump, but she's also- At the fuck factory or is it elsewhere? It might be at the fuck factory, actually. Certified shit show at the fuck factory? Certified shit show at the fasc factory, at the very least.

She said, quote, it's a really dire situation. We're on a time clock that's been really set on us. So we have a lot of pressure. And then also given the fact that there's 435 members of Congress and it's hard for us to get on an agreement on anything, this whole thing, I don't know what to call it, it's a shit show. And I'm sorry for saying that. I know we're not supposed to say that on the air, but that's what it drew.

That's what it is. Okay. That's what she apologized for. Okay. Okay. Mrs. Space lasers. Now, while I know those margins are razor thin, it is important to caveat all that with

they will most likely cave and do whatever Donald Trump does because it is a cult and you know, they just kind of play the characters of people who give a fuck about things like the deficit, but really they're fine with the dirt. They're fine with this shit. So we'll see. I mean, there is a chance, but let's not hold our collective breaths. Republicans like pretty much are scared of Trump, right? There's, they're going to are, but the house, but the freedom caucus people are also out of their minds as like these fiscal hawk freaks. Cause there's like, we shouldn't be giving money to anybody for anything.

Bring the deficit down. And like, I think they use the deficit as a way to be like no money for anyone. That's like how they got into politics. I remember that the story about Paul Ryan, he was like, the time that I remember why I got into politics was at a keg party with somebody talking about how I wanted to like bring the deficit down. I was like, oh, fuck, man. That's sick, dog. That sucks so bad.

I mean, yeah, that sucks. But anyway, the House Freedom Caucus, which, you know, they kind of keep their numbers, it's like opaque, because they don't tell you who exactly is part of it. I mean, there are people who we know outwardly are. The Pew Research Group said it's around maybe 49 lawmakers. So keep that in mind.

You can only lose three votes. There are 49 of these people who are sort of aligned with this agenda. They released a letter- 49 Republican? Yeah, 49 Republicans. Yes, exactly. He's gotta get all 40, like basically 46 of the 49,

47 of the 49. Yeah, maybe. On his side. Well, I mean, but so they put out a whole letter saying, we have three big complaints. One, it actually increases the deficit, which is a huge thing for them, again, because they're horny for deficit to come down. It, quote, waters down cuts to proposed infrastructure investment and jobs act funding

and fails to ensure illegals are fully removed from Medicaid roles. Again, undocumented people are already ineligible. So that's just a fake talking point you do to rile up the racial grievance crowd. Not racist enough. Exactly, not racist enough that it's not acknowledging the racist fantasy world that we live in and we don't like that. They sat down, they cut the little package,

put their finger on the white powder, put it on their gums. Not racist enough. No, the same hit. Kill this guy, it on their gums. Not racist enough. Kill this guy. Kill this guy. He's not racist enough. He's a cop. But the other thing though too is that the moderates are like, you know, like the safety net programs.

I think the more, I mean, rational. This doesn't even make sense. People who kind of understand. Yeah, the fashion, the fashionel of it all. They're like, well, the $880 billion cuts to Medicaid, you know, I'm in a swing district. Like that's pretty much going to sign my boot from the office. That's assuming that we have free and clear elections going forward. James Carville already he's trending right now too because like if you think that Donald Trump gonna do anything But make a deal with the alligator devil and not rig these elections in the midterms. You're fooling yourself You're fooling yourself. He's not on and I got a I got a concentration camp in Florida

I could sell you if you think there's gonna be a free and clear election Yeah, I mean all their actions alligator Alcatraz Absolutely sounds like a fucking the home game version of James Carville politics that like he sells Play my game alligator Alcatraz. Thanks for listening to my podcast obviously big big shout out to the sponsors alligator Alcatraz for the new board game that we play where you play an Undocumented person who has been abiding by our immigration laws, but then you are painted as a villain and thrown away.

It's kind of a literal game. It's not much of a game. It's a picture of an alligator with an Alcatraz outfit on. But yeah, razor thin margin. So that could be the thing that maybe saves us for now from going full fuckery with this bill. However, Donald Trump has been

summoning these people to the White House to start closing deals. The simple ceremony with a circle of candles and feces smeared Bible. Yeah, exactly. And you go in and it's that one dude from the Harkonnen, like in Doom, like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, we're like, we're like, we're like, for the big beautiful balsa. All right. Well, while that's happening, Travis Kelsey. So this is just, this is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, Miles.

You know, I like to, I used to like to watch. I like to Photoshop images of me and Travis Kelsey together. I replaced Taylor with me. There's that, but I haven't shared most of those with the outside world. I do like to watch inside the actor's studio. I like to hear about the process of actors, like great actors like myself.

I like to learn. Yeah, I think Lipton passed kind of a while back. But as we were talking about recently, my massive obviously you know, obviously requires a lot of acting skills. And so I like to just like see what other actors are getting up to. Massive, mate. Yeah. Absolutely. I say that one word in a British accent sometimes. But anyways, a lot of great actors have come through the behind the actor studio, unfortunately, Lipped and Past. So now we have to rely on podcasts like Bussin' with the Boys,

which just interviewed Kansas City Chiefs, tight end Travis Kelsey about what it was like for him to act on SNL. And he said, the writers rooms were fun because you're just getting pitched ideas, the table reading for, uh, okay. So you're getting pitched ideas. However, uh, the table reading for a guy that can't really read that well, it was kind of a fucked situation. Oh, um, so yeah, I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of actually acting it out and Giving it a voice and giving it a character and things like that. I was just focused on don't fucking skip this line

So holy shit, I don't know man, I it's just It's funny. I was just I oh I now know know who the Bustin' with the Boys guys are because they're one of the shows that had Libs being like, we need to let Joe Rogan up. They were part of that sort of like Manosphere regressive misogynist sort of set. And then I remember people being really upset because Taylor Swift took a picture with them

and people were like, dude, these guys have some really dark takes and also a really grim past involving sexual assault. But anyway, it's not like, dude, Travis is just bussing with the boys, man. Just bussing with the boys. So I don't know, I just say, I'm gonna put that in the realm of like Gina Davis saying,

if you risk nothing, then you risk everything. Jeremy Renner, I live my life through fear. If I'm afraid of it, I'll do it just so I'm not afraid of it anymore. That's how you have to act. Or for a guy that can't really read that well, it was kind of a fucked situation. I feel like also like kind of in that world

where you just take inspiration. I've seen people just making fun of Travis Kelce. And then I see other people being like, as someone with dyslexia, like I totally feel this. And I'm always like, what is it? Is Travis Kelce, does he have a learning disability? We did look into that. And we could not find anything like that. Or is it by default when you play in the NFL, especially a position like tight end where you you, you bump in a lot.

Do you already have some kind of brain issue? Is it a Chet Holmgren situation where you're such a jock that you have no interest in your education? So you end up being like a little bit of that where he's like, I mean, T E mixed with Chet Holmgren. Yes. Culturally he is, he ended at a time when it was cool to think Reading sucks, you know aka like high school and like very specifically group of people in high school and

He hasn't existed Outside of a bubble since then so he's like, you know for a fucking guy like me dude reading sucks How am I supposed to do this nerd shit? What the fuck is there relate? What is it? Exactly. That's the main thing that I'm just like, oh, boy. It's like I didn't give a shit, honestly, until I'm like, oh, are is this just like some mind control shit where she's like, bro, this dude is not going to challenge. Like, I got this. Trust me.

You're doing nothing. He can't maybe they have a beautiful relationship the way that, you know, like of mice and men stuff. Hey honey, can you, can you cook up another one of the varietals of books that I love, babe? Yes. She's just blowing his mind with like, uh, recommending Dan Brown novels for him. Not even, she's like, Travis, you know, it's bear and stain bears, right?

Right. What? What? Wait, what were you doing here? Wait, what? Oh, fuck. Just busting with the boys, man. I believe in love. I'm happy that they're together.

It does boggle the mind, too. Brian the editor just said, wait, the cow jumped over the what? That's how you say that. What? Mo own. The cow jumped over the mo mo moana moana. It's moana. Oh, yeah. My favorite movie. Yeah. I'm not here to hate.

I am just it adds mystery to the world to imagine what things are like between between them behind. I'll say this Okay, as somebody who knows many people who have worked with Gronk another tight end Yes, right. You want to talk about can't read good. I don't know if it's the position but they can't read good Maybe I can read a fucking defense and I can tell my quarterback. Right. Does Shannon Sharp read good? Probably. Yeah, he seems like he reads pretty good. He just has terrible compromise decision making skills as an individual, but maybe he can read better. I don't know if it's being tight end or what, but you know, it, it's, it's, it's hard out here when you're,

when you're playing with a half a deck. Yeah. Anyways, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Don't miss the You vs. You podcast. Join Lex Borrero every week as he sits down with some of the biggest names in entertainment to talk about the real stuff, the struggles, the doubts, and the breakthroughs that made them who they are.

They go deep, covering childhood trauma, family, overcoming loss, and the moments that shaped their journey. These honest conversations are meant to take the cape off our heroes with the hope that their humanity inspires you to become a better you and therefore set you free to live the life of your dreams. Here's a sneak peek. I'm trained to go compete. I'm trained to be like harder, but sometimes that mentality stops you from stopping and smelling the flowers in your own garden. Is it wrong to want more? We migrated, our family migrated here. I'm like second generation.

Listen to You vs. You as part of My Kultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption.

My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance,

it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts. Every week I sit down with your favorite book lovers, authors, celebrities, book talkers, and more to explore the stories that shape us, on the page and off.

I've been reading every Reese's Book Club pick, deep diving book talk theories, and obsessing over book to screen casts for years. And now I get to talk to the people making the magic. So if you've ever fallen in love with a fictional character or cried at the last chapter or passed a book to a friend saying, you have to read this, This podcast is for you.

Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark.

I'm dying. When we step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box. And return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating. Which I was. Dead for 11.5 minutes.

My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple, to find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit,

and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. And we're back. And obviously, big news. The Diddy trial has come to an end with a split decision Diddy avoided racketeering charges. Some of the more serious charges did get found guilty on prostitution.

We didn't spend a ton of time talking about this trial. It was obviously big news in certain celebrity circles, but it did just feel like voyeurism to me a little bit. It was just, I mean, every time, man. So dark. And also just the testimony of some of the victims was super fucking heavy, man, the shit that they were describing. But yeah, like, I mean, he was guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. And he was like, I'm coming home. Those charges do carry like a minute, I think around potentially up to 10 years each. So at a maximum 20 years in prison, again, I don't know what that means if he's going to just walk out because he's rich. And we don't take, you know,

sex crime seriously at all. But holy shit. I mean, like, when I saw that, I was like, what the fuck? There was video and a bunch of people giving really fucked up testimony. I guess maybe that's- Seemed very systematic. I don't know, you know, just like a sexual predation, like somebody who like kind of used their wealth and influence to almost industrial a sexual predation, like somebody who like kind of used their wealth and influence to almost industrialize his predation, you know, like just like on a, on a vast scale. I will say that this story, as a number of stories do from time to time, like that there are just these details, like what one of the details was that he allegedly kidnapped his assistant at gunpoint

and forced them to break into the home of Kid Cudi because Kid Cudi was dating Diddy Zex. I do just like keep coming back to how bad wealth is for people, like just being extremely well, like this is the value that is at the heart of every every capitalism argument against socialism or anything that's not capitalism. It's not fair for someone to work this hard not get the money that they earn. They should get to keep all that. They earned it. And

I feel like at a low level, I think it can be a good motivator. But when it's at this level, at this level where people are just getting to accumulate cartoonish levels of power, we see time and time again that it just completely destroys them. They have unlimited power and they will destroy, it destroys them and then anybody who like gets in their way or around them Sometimes doesn't because your wealth allows you to skirt the consequences and your brain goes. Let's keep cooking baby

Yeah, I don't mean like it destroys them from a like consequences perspective Oh, yeah, but just like from a moral like having a actual like spiritual anything, any morality whatsoever that just fucking ruins them. And like those people are always like miserable. And I don't know, I just wrote just because I tried to car bomb someone. He tried to car bomb. You sound like a hater.

But yeah, it's just like people will just push to have more and more power, more and more, just like make it easier and easier to do whatever the fuck they want. But it's like bad. That is bad for anyone to ever just have the ability to do whatever the fuck they want at all. Like anything from any rich person ever turning out to be fucking evil, almost invariably to like, this made me think of Star Wars, where like George Lucas was like, God, the fucking studio and like all these people they're making me work with, like, why won't they just let George cook? And that he was like struggling with that for the first three movies. And then when he finally got to do whatever the fuck he wanted, we got the prequels, which you know, your mileage may vary, but that's why

we don't let George cook. I feel like in a sane world where we're able to just speak rationally and openly about like capitalism and its consequences, like this would be a point that lots of people would be making when a story like this happened the same way that if a person who committed a bunch of crimes had like a bad drug habit or like you know some sort of mental illness or something like that is what would be blamed that is what would be like highlighted we just like don't bring that up because the affluenza kind of of it yeah because i don't know like i it's's, it just seems very one to one to me, but like, well, I think it's because we, there's no, it hasn't reached like a tipping point where we all

acknowledge that obscene wealth is a bad thing. You know what I mean? I think it's like, no, that's good. That's a virtue to be able to exploit people's labor and accumulate millions and millions and millions of dollars. And then you can do stuff like get your weird. Did you see the people outside the courthouse? They were dumping baby oil on themselves like to celebrate like, yeah, because it's a cult. We are let us be cooked. I don't know. It's all very depressing, but I like it does like it. It does feel like it's all of a piece of like, you know, in the past there was a version of capitalism that like doesn't involve rich people

getting to keep as much money as they want forever and ever. Like, and I feel like we just very lost, lost sight of that. I think it's always just going to end up that way to be honest. you know what I mean? Yeah. That's just, that's what it do to you. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, yeah. But lots of examples, whether it be Diddy, whether it be the destruction of the environment and our ability to exist on this planet by oil executives or the changing of HBO Max to just Max and then back to HBO Max again, you know? Like billionaires, nobody's there to be like, that decision sucks shit, man. Yeah.

Well, and I think we're soon approaching a situation where if a billionaire heard you say that, they'd be like, ice, denaturalize them, take them away. They're hurting. Even less breaks on billionaires. Yeah. It seems to be the motto that we're running in the direction of.

Well, we finally have a conclusion to this story that we were all worried about. You know, Paramount, what do we need more than anything right now? We need a corporate merger. We need Paramount and Skydance Media to merge. And Paramount did it. They managed to give the Trump administration $16 million in a payoff slash legal settlement. But they're basically- It's a legal settlement.

I don't like that people are saying they bribed the administration to allow the Skydance merger to go through. I think that's in poor taste just because they paid $16 million transactionally to allow the merger to go through. So that for people who weren't following the story, they wanted this merger to happen. It was going to make all the leaders in the C-suite a bunch of money. And then 60 Minutes

had an interview that was critical of Trump. And he was like, well, maybe, maybe your merger doesn't go through and filed a lawsuit against CBS. And they both like got rid of the CBS news, like leadership, and then also paid Trump $16 million. And now he's like, huh, all right. Okay, I love the ghost protocol. I love ghost protocol actually. Yeah. The second one. It's my favorite. But it's all going to be worth it when we can reap the benefits of a capture. The Britt media, the sky dance paramount merger. Oh, that's going to be awesome. God, I was going to say paramount. So sucks. I needed it to merge so I could bring more content on there. More. What is that even going to be? Paramount? Like, is there...

I haven't heard, like, the pitches from people being like, this is actually good in any way other than, like, Sumner Redstone's family getting rich? Yeah. I don't even know. That's good. I don't know. Jesus Christ. Just another... Hey, just more bending of your knees. Doing knee bends. It's actually a pretty good workout. Yeah. All right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this Wednesday, July 2nd. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other,

be kind to yourselves, get your vaccines. We still can't get your flu shots. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to y'all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Kathryn Law. Co-produced by Bay Wang. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb, and edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries. On the You vs. You podcast, we welcome Polo Molina, music manager to the stars. From Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas, Ty Dolla Sign,, YG and Fergie. Here's a sneak peek. Are you so hard on yourself?

That's the way I was raised. And the people that were hard on me are not here no more. So I'm hard on myself. You know, make me cry. Listen to you versus you on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You the listener, ask the questions.

Did George Washington really cut down on a cherry tree? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never

forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us, on the page and off.

Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We are telling our scientists today we have disdain for your expertise. And then you have China as an exception saying, actually we're gonna invest a trillion dollars in new science.

You heard that right. While the US is slashing science budgets, China is doubling down. This means here in the United States, less innovation, fewer breakthroughs, and falling behind on the global stage. This week on Dope Labs, Chelsea Clinton breaks down what these cuts really mean.

Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.