The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.2 Trump's New Tariffs Are Worse Than Expected, Why Elon Musk FAILED BIG in Wisconsin, & What's Next...

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

So far this news has liberated me from my disposable income... Head to https://dbrand.com/DEFRANCO today to reserve your DBRAND “Killswitch” case for the Nintendo Switch 2 launching in June 2025! Use code “PHIL” for $20 OFF your first SeatGeek order & returning buyers use code “PDS” for $10 off AND your chance at weekly $500 prizes! https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL   https://BeautifulBastard.com Get 15% off the best tees and hoodies out there with CODE: "PDS15" on top of select 50% OFF sale items. Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33JwaV8TZGE&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Liberal Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat, Republicans Win Florida Elections 08:11 - Trump Liberation Day Tariffs Are Here 09:39 - Sponsored by DBrand 10:54 - U.S. Health Agencies See Mass Layoffs 14:05 - Cory Booker Sets Record with 25-Hour Speech 19:11 - Israel Plans to Seize “Large Areas” of Gaza with New Ground Assaults 21:33 - 18 Rosie the Riveters Given Congressional Gold Medal 23:59 - Comment Commentary ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #ElonMusk #DonaldTrump ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Elon Musk just failed to essentially buy an election with Democrats winning huge in Wisconsin and what that really exposes. Trump's Liberation Day tariffs are officially here and buckle up. Cory Booker's record breaking speech has sent shockwaves and then some good news to help keep you sane. We're talking about all that and much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered, and how people are reacting to it, starting with this.

Elon Musk failed to essentially buy an election yesterday. And in general, Democrats came out of a series of elections with some solid momentum. But of course, the question remains, well, how much momentum really? And can it actually carry over to electoral wins in 2026? And so where I'll start is with easily the most high stakes and important of the races,

and that was a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin that would determine whether the court retains its 4-3 liberal majority or flips conservative. You know, this election, it has sweeping implications, not just for Wisconsinites, but also for control of Congress because the liberal court could potentially redraw congressional maps

that give the GOP six of the state's eight House seats. And what we ultimately saw there was the liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, easily beating out her conservative opponent, Brad Schimel. With most of the votes in, Crawford has taken a solid 10-point lead, beating out Schimel 55 to 45 as of recording. And that is just so significant for a number of reasons,

starting with the fact that we're talking about a big margin in a state that Trump actually won in 2024. I mean, it's a state that has also been decided by less than one point in the last three presidential elections. With that said, I need to know that Democrat-aligned candidates have won Wisconsin Supreme Court races

by similar margins in recent years, but the turnout in this race makes it especially notable. The turnout was just over 2.3 million, and that's more than the 1.8 million voters who showed up during a 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that became a referendum on abortion. And in fact, the turnout from this special election, it wasn't too far off from the numbers we saw

in the last midterm elections when there were many important and competitive statewide races that ultimately brought out 2.6 million voters. But again, with all that, you have experts saying that it is very difficult to really view this election as a major referendum on Trump's first months in office that will accurately predict anything about the midterms. But one thing that was very clear is that Crawford's win,

it was a definite rebuke of at least one major pillar of the Trump administration, Elon Musk. Because Elon, he tied himself to this race very, very closely, spending a ton of political and monetary capital trying to get Schimel elected. Which I'm also sure has definitely nothing to do with the fact that Tesla has a lawsuit pending in Wisconsin that could end up before the state Supreme Court, right? And not only did Musk pour more than $25 million into this election, making him by far the biggest spender in what became the most expensive judicial race in US history, he also actively campaigned for Schimel in public appearances, posted about the race

constantly on X, offered people money to sign petitions, and gave out questionably legal $1 million checks to voters. But it appears that that potentially backfired with the New York Times explaining, instead of making the race an early referendum on Mr. Trump's White House and abortion rights, Wisconsin Democrats pivoted to make Mr. Musk their entire focus, while Republicans rode the wave of his largest. Right, his generosity, his gifts.

But that, in turn, appears to have given Democrats one of the best possible political gifts, a great fucking boogeyman. Right in the past, we've seen Democrats using Trump as their boogeyman, tying him to conservative candidates as a way to mobilize against them. Though that obviously didn't work in 2024. In fact, Democrats actively seem to shy away from highlighting his connections to Schimel due to fears that it would actually have the opposite effect

in energized pro-Trump voters. And this is, you know, despite what he may think, Musk is not Trump. He has clearly upset a number of voters with his doze shit and his unfavorability is lower than Trump's both in Wisconsin and nationally. And so as one Democratic strategist put it, he's good foil.

Trump is a good foil in many ways, but at the end of the day, a lot of people voted for Trump. Nobody voted for Elon Musk and especially the outsized role he's played. Now, of course, with that, it is impossible to say how much of a role Musk played in swaying this election. Though I will say, very notably, Republicans did worse in the Supreme Court race

than in the other statewide election for superintendent of public instruction, where Musk wasn't really a big factor. So you have many Democrats saying, the outcome here, it is evidence that they're anti-Musk messaging, it's effective. And it's possible that maybe Republicans feel this as well. And I say that in part because today we saw reports

that Trump is telling people in his inner circle, including members of the cabinet, that Musk will be stepping back from his current role in coming weeks. With Politico, which broke the story reporting, Musk's looming retreat comes as some Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability

and saying they increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability. Now, as far as what might happen, you have some insiders telling the ally that the transition will likely correspond to the end of Musk's time as a special government employee because the administration had given him that status, insisting that he isn't actually the leader of Doge. This seemingly in part to avoid legal issues that have arisen over an unappointed official

having so much power as well as to exempt Musk from certain federal rules around ethics and conflicts of interest. But also the thing about the special government employee designation is that it comes with a 130 day time limit, which for Musk would expire in late May or early June. But all of this is notably here,

some sources have said that reports of Musk being pushed out or being overblown, claiming that Trump is still very happy with his work. And at the very least, Musk won't be leaving until his work at Doge is done. You know, for now, we're gonna have to wait to see there though. It does mark a significant reversal

from just about a month ago when you had White House officials and allies saying that Musk was here to stay and that Trump would find a way to keep him after the 130 day limit. And also, you know, in recent days, both Trump and Musk have been alluding to some kind of transition or semi-departure

with the president telling reporters on Monday, At some point, he's going to be going back. He wants to. But, oh, I'd keep him as long as I could keep him. In that, after last week, you had Fox News' Brett Baier asking Musk if he would be ready to leave when his special government employee status expires, and Musk responded, I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that timeframe. But again, who really knows what's gonna happen? I mean, yesterday when results were still coming in

in Wisconsin, you had a spokesperson saying, as the president said, "'This White House would love to keep Elon around for as long as possible.'" So who really knows what's gonna happen at this point? All I would say is, you know, that was the news, this is my opinion. I really don't foresee a situation where Trump

like throws Musk under the bus, how he has with like people in his first administration. If there's an ending or a transition of him leaving that role, they'd probably do that as cleanly as possible. Because for all the things that Trump is, he is not an idiot when it comes to knowing a person's value, especially if he can use them.

And having the world's richest man who owns one of the most powerful social media companies, that's not something he's gonna wanna ever throw away. You know, all of the Musk stuff aside, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race wasn't the only notable election that took place yesterday. Because as we talked about on Monday, there were two special elections in Florida

to fill House seats vacated by Republican representatives. And while both of those seats ended up staying red, as widely expected, the big question here was how close the margins would be and if Democrats could make gains. And although neither ended up being especially close, even the race for the sixth district, which some polls showed as being competitive,

Democrats still overperformed in both contests. Because with most of the votes counted, returns show that the Republicans in both districts won by around 14%. Now, obviously, that is a solid margin, but not compared to how Trump performed just five months ago. Trump won the sixth district by 30 points in November,

more than double the percentage of votes that the Republican candidate received now. And in the first district, which wasn't even the race that had competitive polls, Trump won by a whopping 37%, with the Dem even managing to flip one county in the district, a county that Trump had won by 19 points. And in fact, according to the data,

Democrats' overperformance in the first district was the biggest of any of the roughly three dozen special elections since Trump was first elected in 2016. Now, of course, with this, despite those margins, you had Trump patting himself on the back, attributing the wins in Florida to his endorsements of the candidates. But this is Democrats, for their part,

have taken the races as encouraging signs of a broader momentum. Right in that, because in addition to his endorsements of the candidates. But this is Democrats for their part of taking the races as encouraging signs of a broader momentum. Right, and that because in addition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, Democrats have clocked a number of other wins in smaller elections recently. Right, flipping two state Senate seats in special elections in both Iowa and Pennsylvania.

And as Democratic pollster, John Anzalone explained, when Democrats are outperforming or winning, it's a big psychological boost in a time when Democrats are feeling pretty low. They're going to be dealing with a political environment that Trump has created, which is not good right now for Republicans. But of course, one of the biggest questions is,

can they keep this momentum going until the midterms? Because at the risk of just repeating myself over and over, off-season and special elections are not always good indicators of broader trends, especially this far out. Return out is lower in these, and they've been skewing more Democrat in recent years, especially among higher educated,

politically involved Democrats who weren't able to sway the presidential election or many other key congressional races in 2024. And as experts have openly acknowledged, including Anzalone, Dems are good at capitalizing on anger, but that is also more of a defensive position. It's not a substitute for economic focus, messages, or other more affirmative efforts to connect to working class Americans. With them adding, any time that we've been winning is because they've been losing. Republicans screwing up is not a democratic strategy. But for now, we'll have to wait to see how this plays out. And of course, in the meantime,

I would love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. Because as I always say, especially for the newbies, yes, this is a news show, but I also want it to be a conversation. So let me know your opinions, your reactions, your reasoning, and you might even be included in tomorrow's show.

But then next up today, we got to talk about Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs. Because at 4 p.m. Eastern today, he took to the Rose Garden to say that for decades, our country's been looted, pillaged, and raped by both friend and foe alike. With him saying, oftentimes, friend is actually worse than foe. And then with that, announcing reciprocal tariffs, calling it a declaration of economic independence. And among other things, claiming this will bring jobs and factories back into our country.

He then announced that a 25% tariff on all foreign-made automobiles will go into effect at midnight. Trump also went on to talk about tariffs on certain things like motorcycles with specific countries. But then Trump saying of the reciprocal tariffs that there's actually some math involved. They're not direct one-to-ones. And with that, he whipped out this big handy-dandy chart. And you can pause it to see what every single one of those are. You know, there was a huge range on display. So for China, he added at 67% to our reciprocal tariffs of 34%, the European Union, 39% to our reciprocal 20%, with Trump then going on to announce a minimum baseline tariff of 10%.

And then in general, regarding his reciprocal tariffs, saying, you know, these are not one-to-one, that these are kind reciprocal. And then saying, if you want your tariffs to be zero, then make your product here. And this is always saying to the other leaders of countries who might be calling to say, hey, can we get an exemption, that they should drop their tariffs, their barriers, saying that they manipulate their currency. You know, for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens. And I mean that on several fronts, because this announcement happened just as we were uploading today's show. So, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see what is the reaction online? What is the reaction from world

leaders? What are the reactions from the markets? And so, you know, in the meantime, from today's show and tomorrow's show, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? What's your reaction to the news today? And how do you think this is going to play out? And then I've got more big news for you in just a moment. But first, you know, today is huge for Nintendo Switch lovers out there like myself. You know, the long awaited launch date for Switch 2? June 5th. And of course, there's more. It's got a larger 7.9 inch display, eight times of built-in storage and up to six and a half hours of battery life. Plus the console can be bundled with an exclusive Mario Kart world, which let's be honest,

it's gonna eat everyone's summer up. And Nintendo is finally acknowledging you have friends with Game Chat and Game Share, so you can yell at each other and play locally without buying two copies. For fellow slightly older gamers, as well as I'm gonna be introducing this to my kids, yes, you get Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, Soul Calibur II,

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Living seemingly having all of their staff fired after they were turned away when they tried to show up to work yesterday. And that program, it helps run senior living centers and also runs the Meals on Wheels program, which is credited with giving 216 million meals a year to the disabled and elderly. With the former head of that group under the Biden administration, Alison Barkoff, telling outlets, the programs that ACL implements improve the lives of literally tens of millions of older adults, people with disabilities, and their families and caregivers. There's no way to have these layoffs and not impact the programs and the people who rely on them. And of course, this is other programs run by the HHS have also effectively been gutted, where the Division of Energy

Assistance reportedly had its entire staff laid off, meaning that programs like LIHEAP, which helps 5.9 million low-income families pay for heat and cooling bills, they're left in complete limbo. And this is, it's not like the money can just be clawed back either. For that program I just mentioned, Congress handed them $4.1 billion. And legally, that money is supposed to be spent

on that program, except now there's no one at the program to use the money. It's being reported that it's unclear what's gonna happen there. And with that, in an announcement last week, the department said that many of those roles would instead be taken over by the HHS itself, but how that will actually function, it's unclear.

Also, we saw other major agencies under RFK Jr.'s leadership being axed. We had top administrators at the office that oversees the FDA's tobacco response getting fired. And this is while traditional tobacco has been on its back foot, the agency was forced to grow recently in response to the rise of vaping,

which has been the focus of tons of lawsuits from the feds. And so it's feared here that the cut could heavily undermine those efforts. Additionally, 130 of the leaders at the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine were fired. With those people being veterinarians researching how to best respond to bird flu, which is something, of course, that the United States has been grappling with for a while now, it's one of the big reasons eggs have been so expensive, as we've had to keep culling chicken population. And that, of course, in addition to the risk of bird flu potentially jumping to humans on rare occasions. So even if it's rare, it's dangerous

because it could be the first step to possibly becoming the next pandemic. And on top of that, they've also issued recalls on a variety of pet food over fears that it's contaminated with bird flu. Also, it appears that in addition to cutting leadership, another strategy seems to be cutting the middlemen who actually make the programs run smoothly.

So for example, we saw the Center for Veterinary Medicine also having substantial cuts across its communications and purchasing staff, leading one FDA official to tell CBS News, the food compliance officers and animal drug reviewers survived, but they have no one at the comms office to put out a safety alert,

no admin staff to pay external labs to test products. And so overall, it's expected that these layoffs will have wide ranging impacts that are hard to really quantify right now with the head of the American Federation of Government Employees Union saying, "'Cutting 10,000 critical public health jobs "'puts every American at risk,

weakening our defenses against disease outbreaks, unsafe medications, and contaminated food. Congress and citizens must join us in pushing back. Our health, safety, and security depend on a strong, fully-staffed public health system. And of course, this isn't even the end of the cuts of the federal government either. You know, departments like the Department of Agriculture,

they haven't started their White House order to reduction in force orders yet, other than offering buyouts and early retirements. You know, the mass layoffs that we've seen elsewhere in the federal government, they haven't started their White House order to reduction in force orders yet, other than offering buyouts and early retirements. You know, the mass layoffs that we've seen elsewhere in the federal government, they haven't started yet. And this is, they're the third biggest non-national security department in the country. And so generally speaking, we've got big news here

and even more big news just around the corner. But then next up from that, we got to talk about 25 hours and five minutes. That is how long Cory Booker stood on the Senate floor speaking virtually nonstop in protest of Donald Trump's administration. With him starting at 7 p.m. on Monday night and ending around 8 p.m. Tuesday night,

which historically made it the longest speech in congressional history, with him beating the record set in 1957 by the segregationist Strom Thurmond, who filibustered the Civil Rights Act for over 24 hours. Which, you know, as many have noted, makes this feat 68 years later even more symbolic, since Booker himself is a black man. And in fact, he later told reporters that was part of the motivation for him to keep going. I always felt that it was a strange shadow to

hang over this institution at the longest speech. All the issues that have come up, all the noble causes that people have done, or the things that took the leadership. I just found it strange that he had the record. You know, the main focus of this speech was the state of our country in 2025. And he talked about fucking everything. He went military grade yapper. He covered healthcare, education, immigration, housing, the economy, social security,

veterans affairs, agriculture, trade, foreign policy, democracy, women's rights, racial equality, and more. And even with that, he says he didn't get to everything he wanted to cover. With his staff even reportedly having worked throughout last week to fill 15 binders with 1,164 pages of material for his speech,

which notably is why he never pulled out any of the gimmicks used to kill time in previous filibusters and marathon speeches like reading the phone book or Dr. Seuss. In fact, when fellow Democrats tried to introduce some levity, such as when Chuck Schumer or Amy Klobuchar invited him to chat about sports or music,

Booker acknowledged them, but refused the distractions and went right back to his speech. I won't stand for the collective assaults on the Constitution by a man who even the highest judge in our land, a Republican appointed judge, said stop threatening and bullying other branches of government. And despite clearly getting worn down as the hours passed, he just powered through. With him saying as late as 15 hours in that he still had fuel in the tank, and some 21 hours in you had Ted Cruz even tweeting a joke that he was contemplating pulling the fire alarm.

But obviously he didn't, and Booker continued, and a few hours later, the bell tolled on Strom Thurmond's legacy. Would the senator yield for a question? Chuck Schumer, it's the only time in my life I can tell you no. I just want to tell you a question. Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?

Right in there, he had a clearly emotional booker there wiping tears from his face and placing a hand over his heart. But even with that, he still didn't stop. He kept going for almost another hour. And, you know, also I'll say, when you think about the raw demands made upon body and mind, like this is pretty impressive. First of all, obviously he couldn't sleep. So you can imagine the exhaustion

that he must've felt from that. He also couldn't use the bathroom at all. And according to his staff, he wasn't wearing a catheter or a diaper. With him later explaining that he had fasted since Friday and stopped drinking water on Sunday night. Which I mean, just throwing myself in there, if that was me, I'd barely be able

to form words halfway through. And that's without mentioning the muscle cramps and spasms that he says the lack of water caused, in which he was apparently struggling to keep under control as the speech progressed. And then also there's the fact that he had to stand up the entire time without a single break for 25 straight hours.

Because that is one of the Senate rules, that you have to remain standing if you wanna hold the floor. And actually with that, you had Senator Chris Murphy explaining that Booker had someone remove his chair just so he didn't feel tempted to sit down. All of which, of course, led him to feeling aching back pain and sore legs. Especially because keep in mind, this is a 55 year old guy. He's going to be 56 this month. You know, with this marathon speech, he finally concluded his performance and you can literally hear his voice quivering with the weight of the burden that he endured. The power of the people is greater than the people in power.

It is time to heed the words of the man. I began this whole thing with John Lewis. He said he had to do something. He would not normalize a moment like this. He would not just go along with business as usual. He wouldn't know how to solve it. But there's one thing that he would do that I hope we all can do

that I think I did a little bit of tonight. He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. It's getting good trouble. My friend, Madam President, I yield the floor. You know, like we talked about briefly yesterday, the reaction from Democrats has largely been

one of thank you. Thank you for doing something big and bold and speaking truth to power in a way that garners attention. Thank you for acknowledging this is and bold and speaking truth to power in a way that garners attention. Thank you for acknowledging this is not normal and we are in unprecedented times because not only do people need to pay attention, they need to get involved. And of course, even those were general reactions to the speech as a whole with many individual clips

and moments going viral, people attaching themselves to that. You know, kind of like I said yesterday, as it was still going on, it's gonna be very interesting to see if this ends up being a blip or this ends up being a spark. Because that is something that the Democrats need. Their approval ratings have been in the dumpster. With the main feelings we've seen from Democrats and independents being, it's not good enough to just not be the

other guy. Do something. And so we'll have to wait to see, is the something from Cory Booker, the something we've seen from AOC and Bernie, does it turn into more and more? But then next up from that in international news, Gazans are once again finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place and being forced to flee their homes after Israel announced that it was going to seize large chunks of the territory.

And this coming after Israel already renewed fighting in the territory after negotiations on continuing a ceasefire with Hamas fell apart. You know, each side blaming the other, and we've talked about this in detail before, but for those who missed it, Israel said it wanted a new deal that would get hostages released quicker, while Hamas said

it wanted to continue under the old framework, and either way, the deal is dead. But then today, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that troops will move to clear areas of terrorists and infrastructure and seize extensive territory that will be added to the state of Israel's security areas. And of course, with this operation, Israel conducted airstrikes with many locals feeling they were indiscriminate. With. For example, a UN clinic sheltering families reportedly being hit, which killed at least 19 Palestinians, including nine children. And that is on top of overnight strikes

that killed at least 20 in Southern Gaza. With that, you had Israel claiming that Hamas terrorists were hiding at the clinic, so it was a valid target. You know, if that sounds familiar, that's because it's a pattern that we've seen. Hamas has long been accused of hiding their forces and facilities among civilian targets, and Israel uses this as justification for bombing those targets and

leaving everyday people caught in the middle. And then, you know, all of that, it's bad enough, but things just got worse for many Gazans. Because on top of renewed airstrikes, ground forces are also clearing out a massive chunk of land to expand a security zone between Gaza and Israel. Which, to be clear, they've been slowly making the zone bigger and bigger throughout the war, and it's on top of another corridor that Israel controls, which effectively cuts Gaza in half. And anyone living in this so-called expanded security zone area is once again

being forced from their homes. So for many Gazans, especially in the north, this is a bitter pill to swallow. It's only been a few months since they've been able to actually go back to their homes after being forced to flee south, and now they're on the streets again. And then making this horrible situation even worse

is that Israel has blocked aid shipments from entering Gaza since March 2nd, which makes it the longest aid drought since the war began. And you have aid groups like the UN also reducing their operations in Gaza because workers keep getting killed by Israeli strikes. Now, also with this situation, we saw that the news that Israel was expanding operations in Gaza, that was met with pushback within Israel because you had the hostages and missing families form, for example, which represents many of the hostages' families saying in a statement that they were horrified about the news that more operations were being carried out. And generally speaking, many of the hostage families worry that continued fighting is

just a death sentence for their loved ones. And right now, while obviously we're going to keep eyes on this, in the meantime, it really does look like this humanitarian disaster is just going to keep getting worse. The people there have fewer and fewer supplies. Many are losing their homes forever. And if Gaza manages to be a thing after this war, it'll have a lot less land. But then next up from that, for your daily dose of good news to try to preserve your sanity, 18 real life Rosie the Riveter women, they were dishonored for their work during World War II

because the Gary Sinise Foundation Soaring Valor Program brought 18 women down to the World War II Museum in New Orleans. Right in that, because they were a handful of the 5 million women who embodied Rosie the Riveter, a famous painting by Norman Rockwell that was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1943,

with a calling upon women to fill the vacant positions in the workforce while the men were overseas during the war. And so each of these Rosies, they received a personal tour of the museum where they were given a hero's welcome, and they were even stopped several times by museum patrons for pictures. And as they walked through the museum,

the women, most of whom either are or are approaching 100 years old, talked about their experiences during World War II. Like Jane Tucker, for example, a 97-year-old woman who left rural Alabama in 1947 with her mom and her sister to work in a shipyard as a welder, telling NPR, I worked in Savannah, Georgia building Liberty ships and I learned to become a welder when I was just 16. It was all top secret. Loose lips will sink ships. And adding, the men said we couldn't do it. They said, oh, they're too emotional. They're too petty. They'll be sick a lot.

They won't come to work and they'll be too weak to do the heavy work. So we said we can do it. And then there's Erlina Avila, who was only 15 when she started working as a riveter on B-25 bombers saying, from inside the wings, that's where I used to work. I was little enough, I could crawl in the wings.

But they're then going on to share that she was motivated to serve after her brother was drafted and sent overseas. And saying that when she was turned away by an army recruiter because of her sex, she went to work for the defense plan. And with that saying, it was freeing and noting that many members of her Navajo tribe, they weren't even allowed to vote yet.

And then you had Susan Taylor King, a 100 year old black woman who was a riveter at an aircraft factory in Baltimore saying, I think it was the first time in my life that we could go in a dining hall, eat with everybody because they could not segregate us when we worked on the federal jobs. And saying, we did this because we wanted to win the war.

And then, you know, with all this, at the end of the tour, the Rosies were awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest honor that the US can give to a civilian. With the Gary Sinise Foundation's vice president saying, "'Oftentimes, it's the soldiers "'who are really paid attention to as they should, "'and these women are often forgotten.'"

But then adding, "'We're here to remind them that we do not forget them and that they really are truly critical and wonderful. What they did was very, very appreciated. And the foundation's work actually goes beyond just a celebration. And according to NPR, they're also working to collect the oral history of these women

for the archives in the museum, meaning that these stories and the spirit of Rosie the Riveter, they will live on. And so while it is definitely not as prestigious as a congressional gold medal, these women are absolutely our bamfs of the day. And I think I can speak for everyone watching that we thank and appreciate these amazing, amazing women.

But then finally today, I gotta give out a congratulations. And then let's talk about y'all's comments on yesterday's show. Starting with congratulations to Courtney H, SeatGeek's latest weekly winner, and another theater fan who's excited to use her $500 in tickets to see Chicago. Which I'll say, I'm jealous, I haven't seen that live yet. But also for everyone else, that's right. SeatGeek

is still giving away $500 in tickets and you should definitely enter today if you haven't already. I mean, just imagine being the next winner and snagging $500 towards seeing your favorite artist, sporting event, or play. I mean, there's over 70,000 events to choose from. And all you got to do, it's so simple. You just add code PDS to your SeatGeek app profile for a chance at the weekly $500 prize, no purchase necessary. So yeah, get in on it. It's easy. It's a win-win. But like I promised, let's talk about y'all's comments on yesterday's show and comment commentary. And while there are a lot of comments and conversation around a number of the stories, there's definitely a big focus on Trump and the deportations. Ryan G saying, what's the point in having a judicial

system when your government keeps continuously overstepping them? You know, while that was one of the most liked comments, if not the most liked comment on yesterday's show, there was some pushback, right? With, for example, Insignia saying, well, if I remember correctly, Donald Trump was very clear in what he'd do if elected. And now he's doing exactly as promised. The people voted, democracy voted for it.

This doesn't mean it's right, but it does mean democracy win, and he's just doing what he promised he'd do if elected. But there was also a fair share of pushback to that comment with people saying people did not vote for citizens to be sent by mistake, you Russian bot, as well as no one truly voted for the secession of an independent judiciary. Sure, they might enjoy the wins now, but they sure as heck would still want someone around to enforce the Second Amendment when the

Dems are back in charge. You know, just regarding that back and forth, a few thoughts. One, well, there is a fair share of bots everywhere online. YouTube comment sections, acts, anywhere. We do need to try to get away from the idea that anyone that disagrees with us is a bot. Right, as ridiculous or ill-informed as you may see opinions and comments online, there's a lot of real people behind those. So also too, in Signia's comment, it really does make me appreciate

and want even more checks and balances. Because maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but it really felt like that comment was like, hey, people voted to try to break checks and balances illegally, you know, through power and fear of the legislative branch and just lawsuits and fear with the judicial branch. But then third, to go further, if you disliked Insignia's comment, you also have to get into the mindset of, well, why would people want that to happen? I think if you look at recent polling, it does not benefit anyone to just paint all

Republicans or all Republican voters with this broad brush and saying, they all just want this specific one thing to happen. But also understanding there are a huge chunk of people that do want that. And then also trying to dive deeper and go, well, why would someone want that? But it's gonna be for a number of different reasons though. I would think that the two main ones,

there are people that want something that isn't actually close to representative democracy. They just wanna have power and impose their will on people. And then for others, you know, they just feel like the system has fucked them. That if you throw in the wrecking ball that has been Donald Trump and Elon Musk, then maybe, just maybe,

a different system might benefit them more. And I think the people that are in that camp that specifically voted for Trump, those people, I think, are reachable. More independent voters who saw the Democrats as just kind of the status quo, and they opted for, I mean, as John Mulaney has joked about,

the horse in the hospital. You know, to that point, it feels like we have people like Cory Booker yesterday acknowledging during those hours and hours the failures of Democrats. That through their actions and inactions, they helped pave the road for where we are today. And actually, you know, kind of touching on that,

there was a lot of conversation regarding the broadband rollout and now Starling getting involved. Right, and that of course, connecting to a big part of the conversation we covered with Ezra Klein and Jon Stewart about just how slow things can move. With life's little lover saying regarding the broadband rollout,

former telecommunications engineer here now in IT, everyone's acting like the planning and process are overkill but these rollouts are massive and insanely complex. Skip the checks and you're asking for budget blowouts, delays and dodgy work that needs redoing if not worse. This obsession with move fast and break things might work for apps, but not for infrastructure. When it goes wrong, it goes really wrong.

Just look at Australia. I was on the ground during our broadband upgrade. The original plan was solid. Slower, sure, but it would have worked. Then the opposition came in, said it was too slow, overhauled everything to look good politically, and the whole thing fell apart. No nationwide fiber, rural areas left behind,

huge budget blowouts. So much of it had to be redone. I saw dangerous, sloppy work just to tick boxes and say it was done. Rushing something this big doesn't save time. It just creates a bigger mess to clean up later. You know, definitely with that, there are a number of things I agree that move fast,

break things, that is not a great policy. Or when it comes to the idea of Doge, of cutting out a lot of bureaucracy, right? Making things like getting around the red tape and simplifying things, right? Making things like cut it, getting around the red tape and simplifying things, right? Don't have bureaucracy for the sake of it with people, you know, getting involved and taking money. The idea makes sense.

When the idea is move fast, make big moves, break things. And those things end up being people, social goods that are life-saving either in the moment or preventative. It's often part of the reason the what is so much less important than the how. They both matter, but the how is where we often see the biggest disconnects and the biggest impacts.

But then moving on to the final thing that emerged in those comments was the general sentiment from y'all, your words, was essentially fuck Joe Rogan. Or the Derr is saying, I don't give a fuck what Rogan thinks. He's one of the people to blame for this mess. He should have seen this coming from miles away. And Rogan talking about the immigration issue

as if he isn't complicit with the role he played in getting Trump elected is crazy. Not going to lie. You know, with that, regardless of your opinion of the Dave Portnoy, Joe Rogan, Ty Dray, the people that were supporting Trump and then also like calling things out, it's like, oh, that's kind of fucked up. You know, some people having the mindset of, go fuck yourself. Others saying, oh, well, this is good. You know, we got to leave some room, some grace for people to pull back. At the very least, I think it's eye-opening and important to talk about and see where the wind may be blowing. But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is where your Wednesday evening, Thursday morning dive into the news is gonna end. But of course, remember, I've got a brand new show for you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

Thank you for watching. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.