The Daily Zeitgeist - Getting Dark Money Out Of Politics (with Josh Lynn) 10.29.24

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

In episode 1766, Jack and Miles are joined by head of RepresentUs, Josh Lynn, to discuss… Billionaire's Super PACs And Their Harmful Influence On Politics, Dark Money Is Only "Dark" To Us, Getting Dark Money Out Of Politics and more! LISTEN: ROCKMAN by Mk.geeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I respect Moodang too much. Okay. And I don't. To bring Moodang into the 36 chambers. I don't, Moodang is a child, Jack. That's true. Moodang is ready, does not know about, you know. Well, Miles, Moodang is for the children.

It's for the children, exactly. So. Yeah. What you kind of arguing for it. Yeah. So yeah. Is that what you meant? You meant that this is a good man? Yeah. Wutang is for the children. It's for the children. What you're kind of arguing for it. So yeah, is that what you meant? You meant that this is a good mixture because

Mudang is a child and Wutang is for the children? Is for the children? Yeah. Okay. Hey, hippos in the front. Let your feet stop. Hippos on the left. Brags you to death. Get both on the left, Brax to the left. I'm Julian Edelman. I'm Rob Gronkowski.

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Hello the internet and welcome to season 362 episode 2 of DURDAY LEAZI GUYS! A production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into American shared consciousness. And it is Tuesday, October 29th, 2024. You know what that means. Halloween's coming up and nothing else nothing else nothing happening exactly one week from this Tuesday nothing going on nothing I'm aware of. Please put on your squid game costumes and go about your day people it's National Oatmeal Day

though for those that are concerned National Hermit Day and also National Cat Day just nice and easy Nothing else happening celebrate those things all things that are good for your health oatmeal Having a permit we've heard a hermit and then cutting yourself completely off from human contact Is that what is that what they're saying when they refer to a hermit? Yeah, it just says it recognizes the hermit in all of us. I guess which means maybe our, you know, sometimes capacity to be introverted rather than being like,

and swearing off everything that the modern world has to offer in service of living in cave. Yeah, or just, you know, not interacting with people and using Uber Eats and only interacting with people over social media, Also really good. I'm told. Very good for us. Anyways, my name is Jack O'Brien, aka Moodang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with.

Moodang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with. Moodang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with. Moodang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with. There's no place to hide once I step inside the zoo. Bahadur, prepare for the moo dang Oh, man, I slang and bang surf cut like moodang that one Strange way on the discord did it? Yeah, I did it. I did it. I had to ask first of all I thought maybe I missed you guys talking about being parts of the Moodang clan when I was out last week.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray! It's Miles Gray, aka. Cause you're gonna go to the Elon store, and you're gonna give him all your money. Then he'll say what you want you to hear, he'll tell you it's cool, you just don't believe it Bail out of Elon's car, bail out or die tonight Cause those funky cars are killing walking people and nothing will ever be alright Ba da ba

Shout out to real big fish, shout out to Snarfula on the discord Because look, my love of ska is always there lying dormant, awaiting a moment to just, you know, blow out like the volcanic ashes of whatever name, whatever volcano you want to volcano du jour. So thank you for that. I just I wanted to do your eruption was devastating. Oh, yeah. Mount Dujour. I didn't I I'm not familiar with that song, I don't think. You don't know, sell out by a really big fish?

I got the scod just from your vocal performance. So. Ba ba ba da da. Ba na na na na. Ba ba ba na na. You don't know that song? Mm-mm. I don't.

I bet, maybe if I heard it. It was a good West Coast thing. Full instrumentation. Maybe I didn't know. I was singing it pretty good, dude. Yeah, no, you, I mean, I got the sense that you nailed it. So you either know that song or you don't. Yeah.

So I'm guessing you don't because that was. I guess I fucked up, man. I guess my childhood was misspent. And this is the first time I'm figuring that out. Trenches of Scott. Yeah. I'm like me. Yeah.

Miles, we are thrilled to be joined by the head of Represent Us, a good government group that does work around anti-corruption, changing voting laws, just general trying to fix democracy stuff for some reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, if that's what you want to do with your time, I guess. You know what we say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But hey, you know, I guess he's got ideas. So we'll hear about it. Welcome to the show. It's Josh.

Hey, guys. What a great intro. My voice cracked on Josh, but you are. Welcome, Josh. Yeah, thanks. Good to see you guys. I'm sorry I didn't bring a song. I didn't know I was supposed to bring a song. It's OK. It's OK.

That's how we started. That's level setting energetically. So now you come you're coming in in a deficit. And now energies up here. Yeah, yeah. You got a lot of love to do Josh. You guys it was like it was inspiring. It was inspired. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Anyway, nothing else happening this week. What are you gonna do for Halloween?

Yeah, let's just talk about mood dang. Yeah, just talk only about Halloween. Not anything past Halloween. No. Yeah. I mean, I Halloween. Not anything past Halloween. No. Yeah. I mean, I guess maybe a little bit we can, but we have to, if we have to. Josh, you're in Massachusetts

and you said that you are familiar with some Wu Tang yard signs that I wasn't aware of. Oh yeah. Presidents are temporary. Wu Tang is forever. Wu Tang is forever. I like that. So don't vote. Right.

Is that basically what we're saying? I'm not sure that's the message. Yeah. All right. I think it's like, it's the American version of keep calm and carry on. Ah, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, it's wild because I'm seeing versions that are definitely done in the MAGA style, which I guess makes sense that are definitely done in the MAGA style Which I guess makes sense that you some people would have like a visceral reaction to that font and be like what the and then like Oh good, who would hang this forever? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good to know good to know good to know I feel like that that trick is not that fun Like when somebody has a MAGA hat that like doesn't actually say MAGA it says like made you look dude Yeah, the major look guy. Yeah. Yeah Alright, Josh. We're thrilled to have you here. We are going to talk about some things that ail our democracy first again for some reason I

unfamiliar with any Reason this would be topical in any way, but before we get to that, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? Okay, so who I am. I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I feel like I have to be right about things. I know, it's a rarity.

It's not, couldn't be me, but let's proceed. So I may be one of these people who's guilty of getting into it with somebody, debating, debating, debating, and they'd be me, but let's, let's proceed. And so I may be one of these people who's guilty of like getting into it with somebody debating, debating, debating, and they'd be like, fine, let's just Google it. Yeah. Right. The most recent one was I used the term fungible in a sentence and I was talking to my mom. My mom was buying a house and we were talking about how money is fungible and like.

Capable of turning into a mushroom. Fungible. Yeah. You nailed it. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, I thought those are the Silla-Simon based kids lunch packs that Oscar Meyer. Yeah. Fungible. Yeah. You can nail it. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, I thought those are the Silla-Simon based kids lunch packs that Oscar Meyer was thinking.

Oh, fungibles. Yeah, fungibles. Hey, send your eight year old on an existential trip with fungibles. Wait, so that means, I only know it, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know it in terms of a non-fungible token, because that's where my money's at an NFTs. Mushroom tokens? Yeah, no, no, just, just just really cool stuff. Like Wu Tang

albums as an NFT. I'm, I'm upside down. Oh, yeah, that's exactly right. Like, that's what the term means. It's like you can you non fungible means you can't swap it for anything else. fungible just means two things that can be swapped. When my mom was looking at me like I had two heads using the term fungible. And I was like, mom, I know, I know what this word means. I just learned it a few years ago from another friend.

And so I Googled it and I was correct and I nailed it. And I just nailed the definition. It was awesome. Oh, that's wow. It's a good feeling. Yeah. That is impressive. You knew what fungible meant?

Only cause a friend who works in finance told me a few years ago. I was like, tell me what this word means. Jack for all the, yeah. For other people people you know that work in finance, Jack, I'm surprised you don't have fungibility on the brain. Yeah, I do again because I take a lot of mushrooms. You just stopped it fun. I'm a fun guy.

Oh no. My six-year-old's favorite joke right now. Well, it's one of the best. Yeah. Because I'm a fun guy. because I'm a fun guy. Because I'm a fun guy. There you go. I have that on t-shirt.

Yeah, that's a good one. What is something that you think is underrated, Josh? This will make people not understand who I truly am, but the tater tots at Burger King. Oh, look, I'm like an organic food guy, farm grown, eat healthy all the time. Tater tots at Burger King are, they're only available in the morning. They're like the breakfast food and they're just, they're underrated. I don't know what else to say.

Like they're so crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Huh? Get yourself some. This interview is over, Miles. I told you, if he brought up BK, how did they, okay. So when we're talking tots, are they, they're just like little guys, right? Like the thumb segments or are they little discs? I call them thumb segments.

They're like little, yeah, they're little tots. But the thing is we all spend all of our time talking about French fries, right? The French for our wars between all the different fast food places personally, I'm like, hand cut fries or nothing. Yeah. Right. Like it has to be fresh and cut fries, but something about BK tater tots. They're just like, they're perfect.

They're like perfect. I don't know what else is right. I'd say I spent 70% of my time talking about French fries, but I'm a pretty well-rounded individual. So I talk about other stuff. Yeah, they're 30%. I guess my kids are death, but 70% solidly fries. I've never had these.

How do they compare to the McDonald's hash brown? Those are floppy. I'm going to say that right now. Yeah, McDonald's hash browns are floppy. I get a lot of flop. I'm, you know, I like a floppy fried thing, but they're, they could be more. I mean, there's not as good, they're not as consistent. I will say that. Worst case scenario.

I'd say they're floppy, but they can be crispy. Like they can have a nice crisped up, like just anything you rub them on turns translucent. Oh yeah. Like the Simpsons episode where Homer had to gain all the weight. Yeah. Yeah. And Dr.

Nick rubbed it on the wall and then you can had to gain all the weight. Yeah. Yeah. And Dr. Nick rubbed it on the wall and then you could see a bird crash into it. Yeah. Hey, don't call me out when I'm stealing Simpsons jokes. Sorry. I feel like everyone who likes The Simpsons loves that Dr. Nick. Picture that moment. Yeah.

I think I was probably picturing that moment too. Wait. So what is it? Yeah. What is it about it? It's like they're, so they do the greasy thing for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But you get a little bag of just these perfect little,

I'm showing with my hands, people can't see it, but it's like a perfect little golden nugget and the outside is so hard and crispy. And as soon as you crunch it, the inside is just fluff. Wow. It's like a gnocchi wrapped in crunching. Oh my God. I mean, I'm telling you guys, I'm not overselling this. I just, there's not a burger king near me.

I feel like our burger Kings on, on the way out, like, I feel like, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Burger King still King. Headline. Yeah, exactly. But okay. Now I'm, now I'm on the look for that.

I like breakfast. I like before 10 30 or something. I know, I know it's, You have to get there by peak. It's like before 10.30 or something. It's a breakfast only food. I know. I know. It's. I'm never up before 10.30. I feel like we should pick 10 foods that are, you know, mass produced chain restaurant foods and then like prank food, like culinary reviewers and like

just bring them before that, like put BK tater there are, I know, look, you asked for something, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm't know. I think the Burger King tot would hold up in any five star restaurant. Yeah. I wonder like if there are.

I know. Look, you asked for something underrated. Yeah. No. Okay. This is perfect because it's a total blind spot when it comes to BK. Like just completely out of context, I feel like the perfect Bloomin' Onion or, you know, whatever the Chili's rip off of that is, could wow the right person. Like presentationally, it's impressive. Sure, sure, sure. It's I feel I feel like sometimes when I'm eating at Chili's or Outback, I feel like I'm having fun cuisine or I like to pretend I am.

What is, Josh, something you think is overrated? I'm all tired tough guys like the tough guy routine. Yeah. In general. Oh boy. You came to the right show, Josh. I've been thinking about this for a long, like a long time. Uh, I'm 46 now and it's taken me many, many years to realize that like, you

actually don't have to be an asshole to get ahead in life and the more successful people I meet who are just like wonderful individuals taking taking care of the people around them being great leaders, I just keep meeting people who are that personality type, and they're hugely successful. Right? They're not like crushing other people to get there. Right? I just I'm all about it. I think it's overrated to play the deaf guy routine. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I feel like also to like in entertainment, a lot of the time to like on a production level, the people who have that sort of like ethos or they're like, I'm easy to work with, I support other people I work with, like, I'm not toxic, typically do very well. Also, like you, I feel like people should strive for one of those things where you go, Oh, them, they're the nice, they're the best fucking person I've ever met. Yeah. I love working with that person. Oh my God. It's so good. Yeah. Why would you not want to be that? Yeah. Versus like the other thing it's like, he made me like carry a 10 gallon water jug above my head for 40 minutes because I, I miss, I miss quoted the Simpsons in front of him in a meeting. He threw a phone at me. And then when he missed, he had another phone close at hand that he also threw at me.

Is that Bezos? I think that was Silver maybe. Isn't that someone's actual... Yeah, that's an actual... Did Jack do that to you, Miles? Is this like a... No, no. Okay, I'm just... I cry for help. I don't know. I'm just checking in.

Hey, you know, ain't nothing broke here. Ain't nothing to fix. I think this criticism of tough guys is overrated. You want to know what's overrated? Oh, we got a tough guy over here. Oh, I'm sorry. So you think it's overrated to get things done, get the most out of people. Yeah. Do you think it's a generational thing, though, too? Like, I feel like because in my working experience,

I've worked for these like tough guy, asshole type people who like somehow really make it to the top. No, no, no, not at all. But like, I mean, like sort of in that sense where the experiences we have like coming up, we sort of that evolves us into the way we treat people as we sort of move ahead in our own careers. And I feel like just generally speaking, I feel like a lot of workplaces do have a shift where people are a little more like, yeah, I worked with some pretty fucked up people. So now I just want to make sure that I have like a more chill, nice environment for everyone I work with, because that's typically how people do a better job rather than being like totally stressed out all the time. Yeah. I mean, that's what every new expert who's been studying this stuff for their whole lifetime finds What I've seen though is the narratives that are around about like who's the most successful people and what are the models and how? Do you make a ton of money sure it's it's typically not like do you know who the CEO of Target Corporation is?

Right, like that's an incredibly successful business. I don't know their name offhand They're not making themselves famous by writing books and being all flashy and saying crazy things on the internet. They're just running the business, taking care of their employees, doing a good job. And like those are the stories that I think would be interesting to hear rather than the sort of tough guy hero narrative, you know, which is also like, clearly people are successful with that. Oh yeah. I once dispatched a puppy because it was so unruly, and now I'm not actually going to be vice president. Although I thought that.

Instead of keeping that as a dark secret that I never tell anybody, but a therapist who I really trust, I'm going to put it in my memoir so that people think I'm a good leader. Oh my God. That's a Kristi Noem reference for listeners who aren't up on Kristi Noem. Because I hear this about Amazon, for instance, people who work at Amazon,

grown people crying in the office. Because it's so dope to work there. Because they keep crying. Tears of joy because of how kind they are. in the office. Because it's so dope to work there. I can't believe it. Crying tears of joy because of how kind they are. Clearly. Because they're lucky stars. I'm not talking about the people who have bracelets that monitor their pulse and won't allow them to go to the bathroom.

At the executive level, you hear about things being difficult. Steve Jobs, apparently very difficult to work for. So it feels like there's a lot of like the bad is still out there. And I do. Yeah. I don't know. Like you heard in the Hollywood 2, right? It's just like. Yeah. I think it's just the easiest way. Most people just think I can motivate people by screaming at them or threatening their livelihood. Yeah. Like, and that is the easiest way.

It's not effective, but sure. It could be like, oh, if you don't like that's what Steve jobs would do is like make this fucking thing this small. They're like, that's physically impossible. They're like, then I will fire you until I find the people that can like, okay, one moment, one moment. And I mean, they pulled it off, right? Yeah, exactly.

They didn't pull it off. Right. So you're like, oh, that didn't work. Whereas the other part that takes a little bit of like nuance and understanding human emotion and emotional intelligence is like, how can I motivate people in a way that isn't just like, I'm going to put you to the sword. You want to die? It's like, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Maybe that's not the best version. I worked for one of those who was like super tough guy over email only. And like you'd be in the next room over from him and he would send the wildest meanest shit and then you just walk into his office and be like, hey, read your last email and you'd be like, hey, what's up? How's it going? Oh, no. You know, wow. And that's how you knew he was tough and a good leader. Yeah. Because he was a keyboard. head games, though. Right. Exactly. I didn't know. Yeah.

Yeah. You sent that anyways. You know, water under the bridge. Yeah. All right. Anyway, protect your fucking neck, loser. What was that? Nothing.

Nothing. Have a great day. It's almost like what I also wonder how much of it is people getting to the top by acting that way and how much of it is once you get to the top and accountability is removed, you start acting that way. Oh, that's a great question. I was thinking about this in terms of like,

just tying back to the Wu-Tang jokes earlier. I was thinking about this in terms of the like 19, 20 year olds that were coming up in early hip hop when I was a kid. Yeah. Like they're all grown men with babies and like you see Snoop on TV at the Olympics having the best time ever. And then you go back and listen to his albums from when he was 19 years old.

He was on trial for murder. I remember as a boy. Right. But like that, that was a path and they all got off of it once they got their success, cause they were like, I don't want to do this anymore. And so I don't know. I don't know what the answer is with that, but it's definitely it's definitely been on my mind Right, like that was a crazy life. They were living. Yeah kind gentle person you see before you today and mr. Miles Gray once

Choked to choke somebody out for leaving anger management early. They thought it was, they thought they were tough for leaving anger, the anger management movement. They thought they were tough. And so you had to put them in their place. My parents' marriage was exploding upon re-entry before my very teenage eyes, so I didn't have the best emotional outlets. I'm a different man now. Yeah.

And I'm just saying this is a underdog tale for the ages. I turned it around folks. I turned it different man now. Yeah. And I'm just saying this is a underdog tale for me. Yeah, it is. I turned it around, folks. I turned it around. Yep. I do love that you said, oh, so you're a tough guy. I said, you're tough.

I don't know why. You accused him of thinking he was tough for leaving the movie, Anger Management early. That he didn't like a movie. What was wrong with the movie? I don't know. I just blacked out the second. I'm still pretty mad at him wrong with the movie? I don't know. I just blacked out. I'm still pretty mad at him for leaving the movie early.

To be honest. Josh, you asked the right question. That is the right follow-up question. Wait, so what's wrong with anger management? Yeah, I just took that as disrespect. This feels like the meta thing about this story is that it was anger management. Exactly. I know.

I feel like you had to have made this up. Josh, you never saw the movie. Miles has never seen the movie. Never seen it. I won't. He was just like blind rage. It's just a blind rage. What if it's bad and I'm just sobbing, like watching it? And this is the moment in which I too would have locked out of the theater.

Yeah. Sorry. He. Sorry. He was right. He was right. Yeah, he was. He was. All right. Let's take a quick break.

We'll come back and we will talk about finance reform in politics and what's all this money doing in there. We'll be're back. We're back. And all right. So we want to talk about how money operates in politics these days, in particular with, we did just remember over the break that the elections coming. That was the thing besides Halloween, there is a presidential and many other

elections coming up in a week. Are you going to vote, dude? I mean, I think I've proudly said that I'm undecided. I'm still making up my mind. I don't even know if I want to get out there, but I guess I will. So it seems, seems pretty grim out there. Yeah. You got to vote guys.

Yeah. Come on, man. You know, I said it. All right. I'm gonna have to come. All right out there. Yeah. You got to vote, guys. Yeah. Come on, man. All right, Josh said it. All right. You have to. Come on. All right. No, yeah.

We are kidding. I do just find it funny, the idea that there are still people who are undecided. It's really wild, right? It is. I think it's just people who are willing or unwilling to reveal their terrible biases publicly to a certain extent. Maybe they just really like public opinion polls. And so they're like, I'm und, wait, what? What you're saying is that, you know, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this So tough choice, huh, between these two? Tough choice and have the person be like, yeah, I still didn't hear enough. I'm not sure. Wait, what? What, you didn't hear enough racism? The Harris Trump debate?

All right. So one of the goals of this episode, I've heard so many billionaires getting involved in this race. I really want to like schoolhouse rock this shit. Help us understand how one million dollar in billion race, I really want to like schoolhouse rock this shit. Like help us understand how one million dollar in billionaires bank account, or let's go 100 million dollars, make it more realistic, in a billionaires bank account goes from numbers and account to us not having more effective plans to address climate. You know, like what, what, how exactly is that working? Right.

Cause I think most people, the most of us, we hear like, Oh, this bill, like they're getting in the race to the tune of X million dollars. And I think most people like it sort of stops. It's like, okay, so that'll be used for like ads probably. Cause air time's expensive, but it, it manifests in a myriad of other ways. So how, how should. So how does it manifest

in those other ways aside from obviously I think the most visible stuff are like the ads that you see. Right. And the ads, so let's just back up to like what they're actually trying to do, which is convince people to vote one way or the other for one candidate or another. That's ultimately what the race is about. And the way that that gets done is ads tell you the story, but also the flyers getting mailed to your house, people knocking on your door, ads that chase you around the internet content that gets created. I don't know if you get a fundraising emails and emails on your phone, all that text messaging, all of that costs money. Right? Like that's also that's all right now. It's crazy. Me too. I just blown up.

Biden texted me last night. Yep. I have one from maybe Nancy Pelosi. It's like that. Thanks, Siri. Yeah, maybe. And so let's just like, let's go through the, how it actually works. Right. So who's running those ads, who's paying for all that stuff. You've got the DNC and the RNC, the Democratic committee and the Republican committee that are supporting the

candidates. You have the candidates campaigns themselves. So like Harris has a campaign, Trump has a campaign. And then there's all of these things we call independent expenditures, which are people in groups who are organizing outside the party apparatus to spend money on campaigns. And those are known as political action committees or PACs and So you can have a PAC or then there's a super PAC which is basically the same thing with no spending limits at all It's just a different denomination and the only thing with super PACs is they're supposed to be totally separate from the campaign But like if you got a PAC called the MAGA PAC, we all know who they're supporting. There's no actual separation, right? Right.

So these people are raising and spending tons of money and then running their own ads and doing their own mailers and their own door knocks to get out support for that candidate. MAGA PAC is Donald Trump. I just Googled that. Sorry. I just wanted to- I'm glad you checked it out. I was just saying. It's tricky.

Are you an undecided voter? I'm a low information undecided voter. I should clarify. That's a bad, I think. Yeah. Okay. Maybe not. This one.

Oh, that's him. That's Trump. Yeah, I knew it. I knew I like, I just had to Google to make sure. But I guess this all fits, I think, because like we also hear about like dark money spending, like there's all this dark money that that goes into our elections and things like that a lot most of it in the form of like, you know, nonprofits that have like opaque

donor lists. So you're like, I think I know who's I don't I don't I actually don't know. But there's they have a lot of money. What is like, you know, I think looking at them not even just this race specifically just generally, I think we've we've gone from like Obama and oh 08 sort of being like, public funds might be good to be like, who am I kidding, man? You're going to get destroyed if you're not taking these huge sums of money from outside groups.

What's been kind of like the evolution? I know obviously Citizens United is a Supreme Court decision we talk about a lot because it's like, hey, yeah, you, the corporation have the same rights as a person to spend as much money on a race. But what's kind of like, was it ever in a good space or is it truly that I feel like since my time in politics, that was really like when it just went completely bonkers when, you know, you're ordained by the highest court in the land to be like, yeah, man, just let it rip with your dollars, however you want. And you said that those two are not unrelated.

You being in politics and things just going from bonkers to absolute bonkers worse. I think you said off mic, I was smoking on that SuperPak. Yeah, you were smoking on that SuperPak. Of loud. Of loud, yeah. I did turn my hat backwards and skateboard into frame to say, yeah, yeah. Force pierced your own ear.

Yeah, that's cool. That's good. I'm sorry, Josh, but actual question. Let's just talk about how much money it really is. We're talking about $5.1 billion this year, be a billion with a B going into these super packs, getting spent on the elections. And you kind of lost me with the, Has it ever been good or less bad?

Oh yeah. Right. Like it's just been different bad. If you go way back in American history, right? Like we all know the stories of the smoke filled rooms and like, and that's, yeah, that's how politics used to happen. And then smoking on that super PAC dude. Yeah. Cupid's exactly what smoke-filled rooms. 2012, Citizens United happens. And it takes us from the era of PACs. So people being able to get together and spend

some money on politics with regulation saying there's a limit to how much you can spend. So they just ripped the roof right off of it. So it became unlimited and all billions and billions of dollars start flowing in. And the problem is we, the American people, can't see where candidates are getting their funding from. So like it could be coming from overseas. It could be coming from people with bad intentions.

We know a lot of it comes from a big industry here in the US that's trying to stop regulation from moving. And so they create these big packs and they basically like, let's say I was a lobbyist and I was like, hey, Miles, I know you're running for office. And I think it's great that you do. But I've got 100 million dollars in a pack. Great. And I know you got this candidate Jack who's running against you who might be a little bit, you know, you might be a little bit cooler with what we need to have done. And so what do you think about 100 million?

Cool stuff about smoking. Oh, dude, I love whatever you're doing, man. I love crypto. I love gasoline. I love plastics, microplastics. So dude, I'm your guy. I'm your guy. What about an NFT made of fossil fuels? Like, and you said the Supreme Court ripped the roof right off of it. That actually sounded really cool, but it's bad what they did. Yeah. Ripping the roof right off. Cause I do that sometimes to a party and when I do it, it's kind of cool. But yeah, that is.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah. But you're not taking American democracy down with you. Okay. Let's just go back. That was 2012, right?

And we say, okay, forget it. There's no more rules about money in politics. And since then we've seen the two parties move further and further apart, which means that big money has more control over these two parties that run everything. We've seen the American people get more and more disillusioned with the political system. Like we all just kind of take for granted now that like, oh, the whole thing is bought. Like it's all bought, sold and paid for. And so like, they're never going to do anything for me. And then we see studies from major universities that actually underscore the same point, which is like, yep, the political system doesn't work

for you regular Americans. And I think if you tie a line back to 2012, from 2012 to January 6th of 2021, you kind of think like, well, if people are that disconnected and that angry and that correct that the whole thing has been bought and sold. It's no surprise they're going to show up being really angry at the Capitol. Like, we've turned it into a breeding ground for that kind of behavior. Right, because it's all like it's feels it's like an

illusion. People are like, but I thought this is I'm my the outcomes I'm looking for will be achieved through this quote unquote political process. But all I'm seeing is like an exacerbation of all the things that make my life more difficult. And the people that are being enriched look nothing like I will my life looks nothing like the way there's look. Yeah. And I feel like that just turns into, yeah, apathy or anger or whatever, and more and more people just, you know, I, I, when I think we all understand it is, uh, it's frustrating to see that, but absolutely.

If you think about it, because there's no rules. The people that have the money to make hundred million dollar donations, they are doing just fine. They've been doing just fine since 2012. They're getting more and more and more share of the economy going to them. And meanwhile, regular Americans are getting completely left behind. And right now, neither party is stepping up to fix it. I mean, there's a clear difference between the parties.

Obviously we were joking around before, but like clear difference in the two parties. And nobody seems to have the balls to actually step up and deal with the problems with the political system when they're in power. Otherwise, you know, maybe like, maybe Obama would have done it when he had power in both houses in his first term. But like it didn't get done.

Because the other part is like the FEC also it's I remember at that time when Obama was in office, like there was a chance to maybe put more competent or people who were more dedicated to enforcing campaigns finance laws, like as commissioners at the FEC. And that just kind of came and went. And yeah, that's where you kind of, I think, and that's where it becomes easier to see like, well, what are the differences? Because at the end of the day, like they're all sort of both, both parties are beholden to playing this sort of game of like, well, I also have to answer

to like corporate benefactors, which we've now just kind of, we're taking the mask off. That's kind of what's going on. They, it's all about money. They have about money. They have the money. What am I going to do? Swear off that money and they can completely blown out like in an ad war or something because I just don't have the funds to compete and it's yeah.

Now we're at this place where we're I guess at the bottom already. Can we get more bottom or Oh, we can always get more bottom. Or yeah, we can go bottom. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. It's so yeah.

The signal is no longer, like the idea of a democracy is signal goes from people to the politicians or the institutions that can actually do something about the will of the people. And that stopped happening, like kind of completely in the last. Yeah, I don't want you guys to get like totally blown up on the internet.

So we're going to talk about the democracy versus Republic thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you said, like we're supposed to be able to vote for representatives in our republic who are supposed to do the will of the people, but they don't, they do the will of special interests and the people that are funding those super PACs and the people that are funding their campaigns. That's what they have to work for. Yeah. If you, if you think about it, like the, the body politic, the metaphor of like a body, the signal not getting from the eyes to the brain that moves things because like that would be a disorder that person would be in trouble or they would be really high off that lab pack. I'm just picturing somebody like in

involuntarily punching themselves in the face. Yeah, it feels like the metaphor you're going for. Yes, exactly because they're high off that super pack of wealth. Okay, yeah you said something in our last conversation that kind of put a lot of this into perspective, just when I hear dark money, I never really thought about the fact it's only dark to us. Like we don't know where the money comes from, but the politicians know that that's just like, so like they have to do the extra work to keep us from knowing who is funding their campaigns.

That's just so inherently sinister. You know, if you think about the motivations of somebody who's giving a hundred million dollar donation, it might be because they have a worldview and they really want to support it. Like it might be just totally all good, right? Like I want to see more rights for this group or that group and I'm just going to give a ton of money to support it. The other scenario is that they're piling up all this money

and they're making a phone call to a political consultant or to a politician and saying, hey, I got this giant pile of money that's about to go to either you or your opponent. And we're going to make sure that if you don't support the thing I care about, then you're going to lose. And it's that that's so to go to either you or your opponent. And we're going to make sure that if you don't support the thing I care about, then you're going to lose. Right. And it's that that's so sinister. Right. And it's exactly what's happening with, with all this stuff.

It's it's folks who are spending shit, tons of money to make sure that they have political power that is over the power of the voters. It's terrible. Yeah. I mean, like what are some examples that I, that peep, that kind of go over people's heads and how like, I think most people were like, yeah, they, they put money behind a candidate. And then this person, they get to office, they're able to find a way to make sure that, that that donation didn't go completely unheard that that results in legislation that's favorable to them. I think that's like one easy way to think about it. But like, what are some other ways that, you know, just just to kind of for people to fully understand outside of just sort of like these very easy to understand examples, like what are the more nuanced ways that this is completely, completely like perverting the process?

Yeah. So in 2014, Princeton and Northeastern University did a study together and they looked at 1800 public opinion polls over the course of 20 years to find out whether or not the laws that Congress passed actually represent the will of the people. And when they plotted all of their data for average American income earners, they found that when 0% of average Americans want something,

there's about a 30% chance that Congress is gonna pass that law about that thing. And they also found that if 100% of Americans want something, there's a 30% chance that Congress is going to do it. That's the key takeaways. Yeah, it's like, it's not good. It's not great. No matter what the American people want. There's about a 30% chance that Congress passes a law. In other words, we have near zero statistically near zero impact on public policy, we the American people. They ran the same data for special interests and wealthy donors and all that. And

they found that those groups actually do have influence. And then when you think about it, practically, like there's all sorts of issues that Americans really do agree on that are just like common sense solutions to stuff that we care about, whether it's background checks or abortion, or like there's lots of really difficult issues that Americans want solutions on. But the only way that we end up talking about it is this incredibly wild, divisive way. And that goes right back to the money in politics, because they have so much more power when we're all talking about the extremes rather than common sense solutions. Yeah, there were just a, there's been some moments in the Biden administration where it felt like he was like,

yeah, man, I want to Jack, but my hands are tied where it felt like he wasn't talking specifically about Congress. But it was like- They said he wasn't talking specifically to me, Jack. To me. I know that was confusing, but he called everyone Jack and Mac. I feel like that is what he's referring- When you're a politician, you're stepping into this system where you are beholden to these massive moneyed interest groups. the stuff that he was able to get past, for instance, with regards to like pushing back on just tech monopolies and the power of the tech

industry, I was reading the, this, a New Yorker profile of like billionaires who are donating to Trump's campaign. And like it's, there are some of these traditionally Democrat donors who like switched over because they're like, well, we just can't live like what Biden has done in this administration is like unconscionable. It's just like he's like trying to regulate, you know, completely unregulated tech power. So yeah, it just, it feels like, like it's pretty clear how it works. I guess we just don't hear the specifics of it. Like on a day-to-day basis, it feels like it's one of those things that like in

the mainstream media, they, they won't just be like, yeah, now all that money's going to Trump because there was pushback against like tech oligarchs in during the Biden administration, you know? Totally. The first time ever this year, the crypto industry is the largest super PAC industry. Their crypto companies are giving more to politics than any other group, $204 million going into the campaign. Right. And yeah, it goes back to the same thing. It's like, they don't, sure, I guess they don't want to be regulated. But like, isn't it the government's job to do what's in the best interest of all the

people and not just like those that have already made a ton of money off the system that we have? Yeah. And so- a ton of money off the system that we have. Yeah. And so. Well, and I think that's like all roads lead to, well, it's, it's just the, the just obscene influence of money that creates this sort of like legislative gridlock

to like, to a much more extreme extent. Because like, to your point, whenever people like, even politicians like, well, it's not that easy. What they're saying is like, well, in this game, if I step out of line, that special interest group, they come in and they primary me and put someone else up to race to in the race against me, that'll be much better funded than me. And then I will lose my seat. And because I want to be the most popular person in my state, I have to do whatever it takes to stay in office. And so

it's really not so much about what you want, but like, half of making it seem like I'm acting out the will of the voter and my constituents and the other half making sure I damn sure do not cross these donors because that's really, that's who causes the most damage because they can actually influence the voters more than the voters can influence me. And look, if you want to get anything done, you have to be in power. Right. And the only way to stay in power is to fundraise. The New York Times did this awesome expose recently where they interviewed a bunch of members of Congress

who are on their way out. So they're retiring this year or whatever. And one of them talked about, in order to get a bill put forward, you have to be on a committee, right? Otherwise you can't even move a bill. And in order to be on the committee, you have to hit your fundraising goals for

the quarter, which is some ridiculous amount, $250,000 or something. But in order to be the person who decides whether or not the bill makes it to the floor of Congress, you have to be the chair of that committee, which is an even higher fundraising goal. And so when we talk about like the system is designed to stop good people from getting good things done, it's that kind of thing. It's like, no matter how well intentioned you are, you're gonna have to go fundraise from special interest

in order to get anything done. And if that's who you have to fundraise from, and then you cross them, you're cutting off your source of power. And so until we fix this problem, it's just gonna keep getting worse. Okay, so there's a fix. Yes.

There is a way. No, it sounds like we're fucked. I think the episode's over. Yeah, that was a great, really happy podcast. Happy Halloween, you guys. All right. Well, thanks for everything. Okay. So we just cut there. Josh told us there might actually be a solution.

So we're going to take a break. We're going to come back and we're going to hear what could possibly be done about the way the system operates. We'll be right back. And we're back. We're back. Yeah, I don't know. We talk a lot about the difficulty

that we have as Americans imagining things, and having a political imagination for a different future. I was alive for when McCain-Feingold was a thing, and people were like, oh, that's a good bill. That is one of the things that made John McCain's name because he like made campaign finance reform, a big sort of bipartisan issue of like getting money out. And even I now like looking at the way things currently operate as we have

this like presidential election where fucking Elon Musk is one of the main players. It's hard for me to even imagine how we back out of this. But yeah, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that. I think the first thing is you got to remember that the folks who founded this country weren't given permission by anyone else. The founders of the country were some young folks with a vision who wanted to see things differently than they were, and they had a whole entire revolution about it. So it's deeply embedded in our history that we change the system to make it work better. And what that could mean now is changing the rules of the system so that if you're a lobbyist, for instance, maybe you can't bundle millions of

dollars to give to a politician to ask them to pass a law anymore. That's a thing that we could pass today. You could pass laws to end gerrymandering today so that you don't have politicians drawing their own voting districts. You have voters drawing voting districts so that they're fair and equal. All of these things would help put power back in the hands of the people. And when we talk about what are the reforms that would actually change the system, it doesn't need to be through the federal government where everything is totally stuck. We

can do it state by state, because elections are run in the states, not federally, according to the Constitution. And if you go state by state and pass laws, making it putting campaign finance limits in place, making it so lobbyists can't give gifts to politicians, so that ethics and transparency are baked into the law, you really move the needle. And then if you really want to fix things, you implement public funding systems for elections, which means that the funding for elections comes out of taxpayer dollars. Instead of coming from super PACs and billionaires, anybody can run for office by talking to their neighbors, by making a

strong case and by qualifying to get public funding. And that's totally affordable. It would cost something like 0.1% of the military budget alone. 0.1%, we could have clean elections across the entire country. And that's $70 trillion, 0.1% of the military budget. Right. Yeah, it's ridiculous. No, right. Because that's also too, it also means that there's a level playing field. It's like, well, if everyone is using the same, these, these same sort of fixed funds, you can't then be like, and then I can call in a strategic airstrike from a pack to then like take me over the edge.

It's like, no, no, no, this is, this is the budget. This is what you get now. Make it work based on your, you know, the merits of your candidacy. Um, right. Not instead of whether or not you're, you know, best buddies with some billionaire who you went to Princeton with, right? Like that's, yeah, it's like level playing field, or you can consider it like free market capitalism, where nobody has a true leg up. And it's actually the best ideas when and who's going to do the most for the people and who can get the most popular support. And then they get into office and they actually have an incentive to do the things they said

they were going to do instead of getting into office and then fundraising more. Right. And being beholden to people who paid for them to get into office. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, and surely these common sense solutions you're talking about, but like, did you take those from science fiction books? You're, you're certainly stealing those not from other real countries or our own history, right?

Those are just made up solutions that you dreamed up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I also dreamed up a 180 victories in the last 12 years for the groups of people that have been working on passing these laws across the country. And so like all kidding aside, this year, there are 21 ballot initiatives across the country that are designed to make government work better for the people. And so in states across the country, people are going to be voting on some of these reforms.

And this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about before. We're like, you get it on the ballot, you get organized, you get it on the ballot and you win. And then you've changed the laws in your state. And when you have enough people organized and willing to fight for it, we can change this stuff and we can win. Yeah. I think that's really important, like an important point, because I think we look at the broader consequences of money and politics. Like you just can't get anything done. The rich control everything, which yeah, no, that's true.

But rather than thinking that there is this, like this other bill or something we have to pass federally, it's like all of the pressure of their influence sort of leans on the idea that it is legal to do this. So the best weapon against that is just to kick that leg out, which is to say, you aren't able to spend unlimited sums of money. It's very, it's that we're, we're cleaning this whole thing up and very quickly that influence wanes because if you have no other way, I mean, maybe they'll be clever and they'll be like, Hey, do you want some NFTs on the side?

Cause I can't give you money or whatever, but either way that we can just address a huge, huge pain point in the system, which is this one specific thing. And to your point, it's not something we need to wait for, like from, for a federal election to decide or a presidential election, decide this is the person that can help do away with it all. It's like, for an organized enough at the state level, this is a much more effective way to really take, to take that sort of that, that, you know, this, uh, this, what's the word I'm looking for this pestilence, um, off of the table.

I'm glad you use the word pestilence. It's one of my favorite magic, the gathering cards pestilence. How are those ballot initiatives performing? Uh, we'll see on November 5th. You're not riding the polar coaster? The polar coaster. I've never heard that one before. I like that. I've known if they're super popular with voters. Super popular with voters. When you talk to voters about what these things do,

even like rank choice voting, open primaries, fixing gerrymandering, voters love it. It's just a question of whether or not we can get enough information into their hands to make these choices. And then on the money and politics stuff, it's like these ballot initiatives usually win with huge margins. And so all the money and politics related ones, I'm not worried about at all. Some of the others will be tighter, but like it's democracy. It's messy. Sometimes you have to go to bat a couple of times before you win. Right. Is the- Not me. I hit a home run every time. Go ahead, Miles. What are you going to say? I know for probably people that listen to this show, it's really easy to be like, yeah, no shit. We don't want corporations and billionaires to have just

unlimited influence through their money on political races. And I know like sometimes when you hear conservatives talk about. Like the billionaire bogeyman is like George Soros or some nonsense like that. But it's also interesting to know that like it does have real bipartisan support. So they're not, I don't know if they're necessarily looking at it at the same way to be like, yeah, look at, look at all the power Elon Musk has. But there, I think, but some people are able to relate that their own pain and suffering is somehow connected to the billionaire class too. Totally. And like, it's not just that the solutions are bipartisan, it's the problem is bipartisan too. Right. There's no, there's no question that candidates on both sides are beholden to PACs

and super PACs and the billionaire class and special interests. I will underscore, I don't think this is a both sides kind of thing where like both sides are equally bad and both sides are doing exactly the same thing about it. I think it's clear that like voters should be able to make a decision about who's going to do the right thing for democracy, so to speak. Right now, without me getting into any specific candidates, there's some pretty clear differences there. but the problem. It would be really helpful if you could just give me the answer because I'm still undecided. No, I think you got it. I think you. Okay. It's Wu-Tang, Jack. It's Wu-Tang is for the children.

Yeah, write it in. But like, if you look at the top 10 Super PAC donors, they come from both sides of the aisle. Like our friends over at OpenSecrets did this, they follow it all the time. We did a big study with them this year. It, the money is coming from both sides to buy influence on both sides. That is true. It is also true that voters on both sides understand the problem and want it fixed. Like, of course we do.

We just, we know that we want it fixed. I think where it falls off is that people don't often believe that it's fixable, which is just a myth that we have to get over. And then we get stuck in this partisan battle where conservatives are like, I don't know, changing the rules, we should leave things the way they are. It's tradition and liberals are like, throw the whole thing out. Like, let's start over. We have to get common sense about it. And it's really easy to do. Like if you actually look at the policies that we're talking about moving here, if you're look at the policies that we're talking about moving here, if you're a lobbyist, you shouldn't be able

to give donations to a politician. That's common sense. And so it's just about being you're joking around about like, low education voters, if we could all just be a little bit more educated, like read the ballot packet when it comes home, take a little time, learn about what you're voting on and get it done. I think there's a much better chance. Yeah, I guess my, and I, and get it done. I think there's a much better chance. Yeah. I guess my, and I, and I do think, I just want to say on the record, I think the corporate influence is bad, but what happens to the entire lobbying industry?

If all the people that lose their jobs, I mean, they're going to have to go to some other kind of consulting gig on Capitol Hill and I'm just worried about those people and I'm worried about them. And I just, you know, I come from worried about those people. I'm, and I'm worried about them. And I just, you know, I come from K street and I want to let them know. I'm still thinking about you, baby. I feel like maybe what the lobbyist state is a lobbyist to help them protect their interests.

Oh my God. That sounds like a trillion dollar industry. Oh my God. Yeah. I think I just set you guys up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the last episode of the show, Miles. I'm going to make a trillion dollars

being lobbyists for the lobbying industry. Who's lobbying for y'all though? That has to exist. Some friends of ours made a great video a few years ago. It's like these poor sad sack lobbyists that nobody is looking out for and it's got Sarah McLaughlin music in the background. It's like these poor sad sack lobbyists that nobody is looking out for. And it's got like Sarah McLaughlin music in the background, you know, like adopt a lobbyist kind of thing.

Right. They're like, I had to fly commercial to Davos this year. You know how humiliating that is? Exactly. I had to fly through Frankfurt. Okay. Oh my God. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. Just before you go, another danger that comes up in your work is foreign influences. Can you talk about just what the fact that foreign influences are able to participate in American democracy? Like what are the theoretical or even real problems that we've seen as a result of that? Yeah. Start with the theoretical. Let's just say that you had a super PAC and because it was a super PAC and you had unlimited secret dark money where nobody could really see where it was coming from or where it was going. There again, sounds like it's on the up and up to me, but yeah, sounds good to you. But that's because you're obviously a Russian plant. Thanks. Clearly. Yeah. There'd be nothing stopping you from taking international money. And so when we look at where these super PACs get their funding from,

of course, some of it's going to be foreign. Like there's no rules saying that it can't be. It's just unlimited money and it comes from wherever and there's no traceability. Like that's that's in and of itself a problem. And then we get into the real practical things. This is actually one of the solutions. The state of Maine this past year passed a law saying that any corporate entity that was more than, I think it's 5% foreign owned, was no longer allowed to make any contributions to candidates or ballot initiatives in the state of Maine. So they passed this law and as a result, the next cycle, there was 80% less money going into ballot initiatives in Maine. And when we looked at why, it's because Maine had a ballot initiative that was about Maine citizens' ability to choose

how they make their electricity, like home rule over electricity. And all of the outside money that had been coming in was of course coming in from multinational oil and gas companies that wanted to use Maine as a pass-through for. And so it just, it's like exactly the problem, right? Like you want citizens to not have all that foreign influence, but instead be able to just vote their conscious of whether or not they think something's a good idea without folks from

Canada or Russia or wherever trying to sway our elections. And also it feels like that will pull better to be like, you can't have foreign corporations, you know, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. At least starting point, you know, like get a foothold and then people see, oh shit, that like changed the way this election runs before they're like set up a bunch of American shell companies, I guess.

I don't think you have to be like xenophobic to think that it's bad for foreign governments to be meddling in our elections. Right. Like that's just, that goes down to like the sovereignty of a nation. We need to be able to protect our own elections and run them our way without foreign influence running ads telling us who to vote for in our own state, our own country. That's sketchy. I get it. I get it, man.

So Canada is what is the main problem. I think we can all agree. I think so. It's mostly Trude No, I get it. I get it, man. So Canada is the main problem. I think we can all agree. I think so. It's mostly Trudeau. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's Trudeau. That's Trudeau. And that though? Sorry, sorry. I had to, it was right there. I really like that one. Josh Lynn, such a pleasure having you on the Daily Zeitgeist.

Where can people find you, follow you, find out more about what you guys are doing? So you can find represent us at www.represent.us. We're on all the social media is at at represent us. And you can find me at at Joshua G Lin. Should I have called the organization represent that US instead of represent us? And that's a great question. No, no, we're called represent us, but the URL is represent dot. Jack's in a panic.

He was texting me the whole time and then should I represent dot? You did not hear anything I said this whole time. Josh seems to be mad at me. Yeah, he's like, that was sick, dude. Obviously, like down with the Super Bowl and all that, man. I'm not back. I know. Shadow the Green Bay Packers, dude.

Oh, man. Big Brett Farr fans over here. So, yeah, on the cloud pack. I know, shout out to the Green Bay Packers, dude. Oh man, big Brett Farr fans over here, so yeah. Yeah, anyways. Great, and Josh, is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? Is there a work of media that I've been enjoying? Yeah, tweet, you know, something on social media, as we call it, you and I.

Is there something I've been enjoying lately? I don't know. I consume a lot of media, but my, my thing is like, I'm always trying to figure out if I can write a tweet that will go viral and they never do. Oh, so yeah. But here's one, like there's one that I wrote recently that I thought was pretty clever. Can I read it out loud?

Yeah, please. Yeah. Whenever I'm worried that I'm not paying enough attention to the details, I remember that X, also known as Twitter, still uses Twitter blue on all their buttons, which I just don't understand. Like get rid of that. And that Google hasn't updated the buttons when you go to save your Gmail settings.

There's still these like 1990s buttons. Yeah, right. Every time I see that, I'm like, how are these massive companies with like super, talk about tough guys. Like, where's the macho tough guys saying like, how are these massive companies with like super talk about guys? Like, yeah, where's the where's the macho tough guys saying like, Hey, go fix that button or you're fired. Nobody's doing the tough guys are gone. They're gone. It's a good reminder. Yeah. Where have all the tough gangs? Let's help that. Let's let's get that viral. Let's get that one viral.

Where have all the tough guys go is what I just said. That's how the English language works. Miles, where can people find you as they're working media? You've been enjoying. Twitter, Instagram at milesofgrey. If you like the NBA, Jack and I talked that on the basketball podcast. Miles and Jack on the official NBA product.

Also, if you want to hear me talk about 90 day fiance, I do that on 420 day fiance. There are a couple of things that I like. One is apparently there's a Jimmy John's sandwich. That's just a gigantic pickle. Um, as the bread, um, it looks, it looks, don't tell me this. I don't know. It can't be real, but anyway, but the quote tweet is from, uh, autumn at fall Sunday.

That's just saying, this is some of y'all thinking you get bread whole time. You and a pickle. Wow. Yeah. There you go. That's the fucking art right there. That's poetry. And then another one at cereal burrito tweeted, God, never seen San Francisco this bad spider webs completely covering entire businesses. Skeletons just strewn about sidewalks in every neighborhood. Things have to change. Truly could be a Fox News story.

How have they not done that? Zombies walking the street. I do just want to shout out Super Producer Victor, who was silent throughout the entirety of this episode talking about the ways that our democracy is being torn down around us brick by brick. And then when Myles shows that Jimmy John's pickle sandwich, entered the chat to say, what the fuck? What the fuck? Not the About outside spending no no no what the fuck are they doing Jimmy? Yeah, or John all right Victor We see where your priorities are a right places. Yeah in the right places

emo normie tweeted Huck boo ah Spook on that thing haha just a, just a little something I came up with. Happy Halloween, guys. Well done. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website,

DailyZeitgeist.com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes. The notes. We'll link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Miles, is there a song that we think people might enjoy? Yes, man. Just the artistic evolution of the artist, McGee, M-K-dot-G-E-E. Really like the last album that he put out. It's called Two Star and the Dream Police. And he has a new single that just came out last week called Rock Man.

And it's really dope. If you like, like his, the guitar pedals he's using is really cool. Like he has his very own unique sound, but this track kind of reminds me of sort of like the police, not the law enforcement, like the sting band with like the harmonies and just like kind of the vocal melodies and stuff So if you're a fan of the sting led police

You'll probably like this track called rock man by Mickey and this is some modern stuff and it's good So put this in your speakers and enjoy all right We will link off to that in the footnote for the daily zeitgeist production ofist production of iHeartRadio for more podcasts from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows that is gonna do it for us this morning, back this afternoon though, to tell you what is trending. And we'll talk to you all then.

Bye. Bye. I'm Julian Edelman. I'm Rob Gronkowski. And we are super excited to tell you about our new show, Dudes on Dudes. We're spilling all the behind-the-scenes stories,

crazy details, and honestly, just having a blast talking football. Every week, we're discussing our favorite players of all times, from legends to our buddies to current stars. We're finally answering the age-old question, what kind of dudes are these dudes? We're gonna find out, Jules. New episodes drop every Thursday during the NFL season.

Listen to Dudes on Dudes on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.