The Daily Zeitgeist - Daylight Trending Time 11/14: Dick Cheney, Trump/SNAP, Midterm Elections

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

In this edition of Daylight Trending Time, Jack and Miles discuss the passing of world-class war criminal: Dick Cheney, Trump threatening to defy judges' orders on SNAP benefits, a check-in on Election Day and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go again. We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg, to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics.

Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here, is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets.

Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development. for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it.

They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when Reese Witherspoon calls up the king of thrillers, Harlan Coben, and says, let's write a book together. I was asking him basically to let me into his secret thriller-writing world. This week, bookmarked by Reese's Book Club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City

for the ultimate storytelling mashup. Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Cobin on their new thriller, Gone Before Goodbye. Can you think you're going to read for 10 minutes? And next thing you know, it's four in a morning. Get the story behind the season's most addictive read, already in New York Times bestseller. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's book club

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hello. the internet and welcome to this episode of Daylight Trending Time. We would also accept seasonal depress trend. Ah. That one courtesy of

Nick Semper Taranus. More like Dick Semper Taranus. Oh, hell yeah. Because Dick down. Dick down. The news media has been Dick down. Yeah. Dick in a box. I've seen that too. People show the

Dick in the box thing. Dick Cheney is Dead. Dick Cheney is died. 84. Dick Cheney is died. That is wild. My name is Jack. That over there is Miles. This is the episode where we tell you what's trending. But really, we're just over here. Pouring one out. And by one, I mean, piss.

Because he's getting a hearty RIPB. Rest in Piss, Bozo. Yeah. It is packed watch. It's time for the James Worthy, smoking a cigar memes to come out. But it's funny, though, too, because it also looks like, like, MAGA freaks are also celebrating this, too. Well, yeah, because he was, and that was his redemption, according to the mainstream media. They love a fucking narrative, man. They love a narrative. This guy, and then in the last years of his life, he really opposed Donald Trump.

So showing some courage there. He went from potentially killing upwards of four millions of people to then saying, I don't like this. guy and it erased all of it all of it miles magically restabilized the entire middle east um i mean it's amazing before we get into that very sad news you just showed me a video of a irish girl going to taco bell for the first time that's my work of media okay all right i won't spoil it but that's a bit that's a teaser but that is uh that is something that's trending on my heart uh beautiful it's beautiful it's also like for me as an american it's like my very one-dimensional idea of like an irish person

like she has flowing red hair too like the movies couldn't be more irish commercial uh it's so cute got a real accent got the real accent and everything challenging her dad do a fight um well i don't know about that i don't know if we got that far just in my dreams uh all right so dick chaney died on monday at the age of 84 due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and and vascular disease. This motherfucker was a mess. Crevy. Just a fucking leaking trash bag.

And pneumonia, cardiac, and vascular disease just jumped on. He didn't get the, I think for many years, he was surviving off that Mr. Burns shit. Like, you remember that Simpson's episode where they're like, somehow you have every disease known to man and they're all keeping themselves in equilibrium. Cancelling each other out. But of course, our mainstream media is paying their respects to a literal. monster and you know torture horn dog

launched a whole fucking subgenre of horror movies in my childhood where you know fucking the torture porn movies thanks to his illegal post 9-11 military campaigns not to mention the

insane expansion of authority for the executive that happened under his watch too and just kind of being truly one of these people who would just lie to the media and then the media is like, okay, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then you're like, uh, uh, it's, it's weird. It kind of sets us up for now.

Yeah, it was, it's weird to be watching, uh, the, like the erasure. But yeah, I mean, just back to, like the, well, we'll get into the estimates, but, uh, people believe he was responsible for, um, you know, indirectly or directly the deaths of as many as 4.7 million people, um, just, uh, unapologetic advocate of preemptive war and torture in the wake of the September 11th attacks and widely regarded as a war criminal who should have faced international prosecution. The estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths range from hundreds of thousands to well over a million, depending on the source, the war destabilized an entire region, paving the way for the rise of extremist groups like ISIS. and contributing to ongoing cycles of violence and displacement.

I do just, having been an adult, like a full-ass, you know, I guess when they went, so I was like in my early 20s. And I think it- The first one, or the second one. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. I didn't know how old you were. Sorry, sorry. I'm fucking ancient.

But I think it often gets written out. it's like he he was bad he was like strong and he was yes he was a brutal murderer he also sucked shit at his job like this that's why he was so it's because he was so bad it was like go harder on this failed idea going into the invasion was that it was going to be a cake wall like they were literally like we're going to go in there there's not going to be anyone there The people who are there, it's going to be like the desert storm where they just like sweep in and the people are freed. And it's like basically a military parade through the streets of Iraq. Like that was their theory of the case going in.

I remember like the coverage of the first day or two. They were like, yep, nobody's here. All good. Just like walking deeper and deeper in. And instead, he fucked an entire region for generations. like needlessly. They made up a fake story, sold it to the media. I think in retrospect, everyone assumes the media was like fully on board.

But like there was plenty of reporting. Like, you know, I was a dumb, like, early 20s person, but I was like well aware that this was bullshit. Like there was enough reporting that, you know, they were making up stories about weapons of mass destruction. they like there was absolutely no justification and they just like had this set like even before 9-11 people like this motherfucker wants to go to war with Iraq yeah so just so you know that's number one on his wish list yeah um but yeah the the thing that's interesting to seeing like all the coverage it's like just all the uh just the lying about who he was or just going for like the very objectively true parts he like vocal critic and former vice

president okay but maybe in these things you've got to talk about what the most effect the thing that they had the biggest impact on the world was and that was and that was the destabilization of the entire middle east and all the the domino effect of regional wars that broke out because of this the fumbling killing of millions of people the fun fumbling like accidental but then like fully conscious. Like, just continually doubling down on a decision that was very clearly wrong to everybody, like, the moment after, moments after it was made. And, like, it's, it's just frustrate. Like, these people who are, like, on his side of, like, the world of international relations, like, call themselves realists. Right. Where they're, like, we understand that,

like, force is the only thing. And, like, by even their own standards. He fucking sucked at his job. He was terrible. He had like an unrealistic, self-centered, you know, U.S. centered worldview that was out of step with the reality of the situation. And so they got fucked up, like really badly. And millions of people have suffered the consequence. And I just, I can't emphasize enough how much the world and the U.S. would run more efficiently and more people would be better off. if someone like this faced accurate accounting of his career right from inside the mainstream

media and just like generally and then swift and forceful justice from the international community like that is that's how the world should work not like as a bloodthirsty thing as a like this can't go down in in history as like well you know that some say and others say is like no he said going in, this is what was going to happen, he was wrong and he kept doing that shit over and over until, yeah, like, just to get to the estimates, like, there's an anthropologist and a cost of war director at Brown who examines how war destruction, like, affects people and has estimated that, like, the causal pathways from that initial, like, just bullheaded decision to start the war and keep the war going, estimated 3.6 to 3.8 million indirect deaths in the post 9-11 war zones,

including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The total death toll of those war zones could be at least 4.5 to 4.7 million in counting. Some people were killed in fighting, but far more, and especially children, have been killed by the reverberating effects of this motherfucker. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Every time this happens, right, it's just always like, oh man, he's like such a powerful vice pro. What a, like this person, a little controversial, but a little strong vice president. Yeah, strong, powerful is like the words that are being used. And he used that power to take a shit on the world accidentally.

He shit his pants. Like, that's what happened. Like, he's not, he's not powerful and like calculating and smart. He's powerful and a fuck up. Yeah. It's like when, when, when, how many of these. as you're going to have some kind of, I mean, none.

I mean, I'm not out of like anything from a CNN or CBS or anything like that. But like the one, like a good one will be then put that in the context of America's campaign of militarism, imperialism abroad, and how destructive that's been in the world and how maybe we need to look at these things again. But again, we're not into reckoning with our past. But I will say this, as the wise Genu and Rumi said in K-pop demon hunters, we'll never fix it unless we face it. Thank you.

He was actually, that is one of the cool things about Cheney. He was a big K-pop Demon Hunters. He actually wrote free for K-Pop Demon Hunters from his stuff. George Bush painted the people who he killed and whose lives he ruined and Cheney wrote K-pop Demon Hunter's songs.

Did you imagine they would be like I mean, if people don't know this, he actually wrote K-pop Demon Hunters also. That might be if maybe we give him a pass. It was a great musical thing that everyone loves now you know someone's a piece of shit when accidentally shooting your friend in the face was like one of the more likable moments yeah right but like that's the thing people that is on brand him accidentally shooting his friend in the face people were like wow

this guy like made a mistake like he that's all he did he accidentally shot people in the face yeah for like he got power by being like oh you're looking for a vice president let me take a look for you at me it turns out um and then just turns around let me look around here just as a 360 here i am yeah oh look it found one um turned his hat backwards yeah it's still me still me i know still me mr president he yeah he just a world-class piece of shit um yeah like like you said it is the thing of like he is the kind of guy where his mistakes lead to terrible terrible things even hunting somehow this guy bumbles into almost killing a guy you know he was out there hunting like where where like the people hold up frozen birds for

him to shoot at like that's probably why it didn't go so well frozen birds yeah they're just like dead already dead birds knocked out birds yeah yeah just toss them in the air did you get that one all right here he comes again it's coming back around Mr. Chaney. Mr. Cheney, I'm just going to put it on this chair and why don't you just come up right to it and just blast it? All right, there you go. That's my face. All right.

Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk about other shit. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will ever. end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stoned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble. And our couple retreats.

from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and

headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lily Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong.

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you guys. get your podcasts. The forces shaping the world's economies and financial markets can be hard to spot. Even though they are such a powerful player in finance, you wouldn't really know that you are interacting with them. And even harder to understand. Donald Trump's trade war, 2.0, is only accelerating the process of de-dollarization,

which in a way is jargon for people turning away from the dollar. That is where the big take from Bloomberg podcast comes in, to connect the dots. How unusual is a deal like this? Unprecedented. Every weekday afternoon, we dive deep into one big global business story. The biggest story of the reaction of the oil market to the conflict in the Middle East is one of what has not happened. Katie, you told me that ETFs are your favorite thing. They are. Explain that. Why is that the case? And unpack what it means for you. Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the Iheart

radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A combat surgeon with secrets, a world built on power and privilege, and the most unexpected creative duo of the year. As an actor for so many years, I would always walk into other people stories. And I thought, well, why don't I give it a shot? You know, and try it right up myself. This week, book, marked by Reese's book club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City with Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, the powerhouse team behind Gone Before Goodbye. Now a New York Times bestseller. I think we both knew right away that this was going to happen. It's a conversation about fear, ambition, and what happens when two master storytellers collide? I've never seen a woman in kind of a

James Bond world. Come for the chills and stay for the surprises. And find out why readers can't put it down. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And just an update. We had talked about how two federal judges had ruled that the federal government had to fund Snap so that people don't starve to death. Trump said on truth social that he's not going to fund the SNAP payments, like literally holding the U.S. population hostage, like children are going to go hungry. He doesn't give a fuck.

This whole thing is just to make it, again, he's trying so hard to brand this as a Democrat thing where he's like, it will only be refunded, quote, it'll be given only when the radical left Democrats open up the government, which they can easily do. And not before. first of all you can open it if you really want to again you can you can nuke the filibuster and go and go ahead and fuck people's health care over because that's what it's going to that's what's going to happen if you that's you go ahead you can you can but again this has real quick have you forgotten about the Epstein thing real quick no no no no no no no no up to

them the radical left yeah yeah it's a it's a good it's a two-pronged attack on health care and also just hiding the Epstein files. Okay. And I'm sure he probably made this threat again because the way that the people in the White House are looking at is like the polling is still kind of, you could still look at it and say, well, it's a little bit even, even though more people blame the Republicans. And because of that, they're probably like, this is fine. Let's hold out.

Keep going. Keep going. And say that it's the Democrats. But the longer that goes on, I'm not sure that that's going to be the case in terms of people's perceptions because they're like, why is the, isn't this the president? Too hard about it. Yeah. It does seem like the mainstream media could be pointing out a little bit more forcefully that they could end this anytime they wanted to with by nuking the filibuster. No, no. It's not a, yeah, it's always just like, you know, kind of just

saying what he said is sort of the way they report things and not much more commentary, especially because that might look. I don't want them to be mad at me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It does seem like his overall vibe is not like the way he wants to be perceived is not is not quite going through to people um about 63% of voters now disapprove of his his job as president um numerically reaching the highest disapproval rating across both of his terms according to CNN like the previous high was 62% after January 6th yeah like so he's less popular than after january six and people got over january six because they had biden in power to like you know use as a scapegoat but and they could pretend that maybe consequences

were coming to right but he's early in his own term and like as unpopular is the day after january six and like there's nobody for him to really rail against or blame for anything because he's in power. Like, I, I think generally the thing that hasn't worked that well for him is when he's, like, whining and whinging about, like, how unfair everything is. Like, that doesn't, the thing people want from him is to be, like, the, you know, I alone can fix it and, like, making fun of his, you know, being a bully. Like, that's what he's there for. And so when he's, and also there's probably, like, deep down, people understand that he was given $10 million, like, at birth like they so for him to ever complain about like how unfair everything like it's just

they they want a bully like privileged businessman who's going to like get shit done and the like I remember the messaging around him being like I actually won the election nobody's ever treated me more unfairly was like a loser for him and he had to like get rid of that and now you know it seems like his his latest thing people are like yeah so you're in power now and the economy is in bad shape which is also the thing

that torpedo Biden and his approval is when he got into power and was like I can't what am I supposed to do Jack I'm just the dang president of the U.S.

because I mean they're both right in a certain sense I mean not Trump but like Biden was right that like the forces of capital or actually who are making the decision the president but he is that you know what i mean it's like he was fighting against

it so it's like stupid it's like pretending he's not and like oh you're you're you're the gardener okay you're gardening you're the constant gardener the thing is like with the polling it only just makes you think like if they don't give a fuck about polling that should indicate that they don't give a fuck about how voting's going to work either yeah yeah yeah if i'm in that camp and you're as craven as these white house people are they're like well there's no way we can have a fucking free election. If we're seeing right now that you're putting up January 6 numbers in your fucking first year.

Cancelling Snap like on election day seems to send a pretty clear message that like, you know, enjoy your last free election assholes. And you see like what the fucking, you know, but this is the thing. Everyone, they'll go to their, you know, manufactured media environments, all the MAGA people who are, you know, even on SNAP benefits. they'll be fed a steady diet, no pun intended, rhetorically in the media of stuff. I'm like, well, it's still the immigrants, obviously,

which is the reason you don't have, even the thing that they're not eligible for it. Like, they're, they will, they will just do what they have to do to inoculate the base and get them to believe one thing. But I don't know. I mean, when your material conditions really begin to wobble that intensely, you know, you'll either wake up to it

or you're just going to go deeper into the fucking hole. Yeah, and it does seem like a lot of people are, you know, six and ten say that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in the U.S. Cost of living is the biggest issue Americans are currently facing. And that was one that he was pretty clearly clear he was going to solve in his first day in office. And it's actually so easy to solve. I'm just surprised as someone who's as emotionally stunted as him that he didn't do what he probably does in his personal life, which is just to buy his effect like buy affection from people like his kids or whatever.

I think for people that he was just going to be like daddy war bucks. Let it rain and just be like, yeah, let's let it rain. But instead, he's only shown interest in making deals with rich people and trusting his like billionaire, like oligarch friends. And they of course are the problem. They're the reason that people can't afford food in the first place. I feel like he would have got away with a lot more. if he put money in people's pockets to start.

Like if that was his opening gambit and people like, well, I got that money. And again, I'm trying to give him not giving him tips here. But I think it also goes to show that all the people that are actually running the show are the Heritage Foundation Project 2025, ilk of the, and they're just like,

the second we're in there, we're just Tasmanian deviling the fuck out of the federal government. Yeah, the people who got him in there are fucking ghoul. whose, like, policy decisions are, like, tear down everything that has been given for free, turn it into, like, a free market, free for all. And that just gets them richer. Yeah.

It is election day. Yep. Bomb threats were called into various polling places in New Jersey, causing them to shut down temporarily. So that's... Just like 2024 when we had bomb threats on election day to start postpone... Or, you know, temporarily shut down polling places. but yeah everything's happening California we got Prop 50

make sure you go vote for that if you have it's on 50 in New York obviously it's the Zoran race the fucking Cuomo Trump axis though really flexed its muscle by just doing overt Islamophobia

Trump called this is what Trump said quote any Jewish person that votes for Zeran Mamdani a proven and self-professed Jew hater is a stupid person Wow. So he's doing his Biden version of like, you ain't black if you don't vote for me. But even worse, you're stupid.

Okay. And then fucking Cuomo back pack put out images of like Mom Donnie with like 9-11 juxtaposed with it. Very original. Damn. Okay. Yeah. Did you see the one the like AI ad where it was like a bunch of criminals being like, I'm for Mom Donnie? Yeah.

Yeah. He's like, yeah, I can't wait for Mom Donnie. done to get in one guy was like i'm smoking crack and it was just like what the i can't wait so i can beat up my wife yeah that's what mom donnie's got that's mom donnie's always been pro pro domestic violence pro freed he's like i can smoke i can smoke my drugs at a safe injection site and i'm like it's for intravenous drugs but oh okay i i doesn't look a i hasn't lived enough to know about that kind of stuff um then they oh but it wasn't all racism though because Trump then said Cuomo has quote a record of success and that's like I mean again goes to show

you that there is really only one party in this country it's for capitalism yeah because when you have the Democrat they have the fucking MAGA guy going after what was supposedly his arch nemesis during the lockdowns and Andrew Cuomo being like yeah this guy's got he's a good he's a good egg that one just shows you it's like well when it comes to actually fighting you know any kind of form of economic equity yeah we're all in this We drop the act. We drop the act real quick. We dropped it real quick.

Oh, and then Governor Abbott said this shit. He said, fucking in Texas. He's a quote, after the polls closed tomorrow night, I will impose a 100% tariff on anyone moving to Texas from New York City. Are they being sold? Are people, how do you tariff a person? I don't know. Again, these people aren't smart.

They just use buzzwords to get the basic side. It's like, yeah, they tariff the New Yorkers that come here. It's like, but don't, I mean, if you're. going to get a little wonky here. Like, aren't they going to bring tax revenues? So is the theory that like all these people

who are planning on fleeing New York and we're like, I'm not going to vote for Cuomo. I'm just going to leave New York. Are now going to vote for Cuomo because he said they can't move to Texas. I have no idea. I don't even know.

I think that's just him trying to be like, we're not going to muddy this, the Lone Star State with a bunch of Empire State riffraff. You guys remember the Pace Pocom. fucking ads. The way we reacted when we heard something was from

New York City. And we stand by those ads. Pick up the pace. That's right. All right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this Tuesday, November 4th. We're back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other.

Be kind to yourself. Get your vaccines while you still can get your flu shots. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bay Wang.

Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. And edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go again. We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics.

Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut.

Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead

and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it, they actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night,

everything spins out of control. Listen to Helen Heather, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when Reese Witherspoon calls up the king of thrillers, Harlan Cobin, and says, let's write a book together.

I was asking him basically to let me into his secret thriller writing world. This week, bookmarked by Reese's book club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City for the ultimate storytelling mashup. Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben on their new thriller, Gone Before Goodbye. Can you think you're going to read for 10 minutes?

And next thing you know, it's 4 in a morning. Get the story behind the season's most addictive read, already in New York Times bestseller. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.