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the wokemup. Hey, So, MARII, let's begin this week by talking
about the big Foreign aid bill. I guess you'd call it that House Leader
Speaker Mike Johnson today sort of an about face on I would say, at
least in the Ukrainian funding part of it, and I believe it was signed
yesterday past the Senate seventy nine to eighteen and was signed by Joe Biden.
Obviously, this has upset many on the right. So how do you feel
about it? What's going on? Yeah? And just the other thing I
would add to the data that you provided there is that it passed. The
Ukrainian funding, which was sixty one billion dollars passed over the objection of a
majority of Republicans in the House. So it's not surprising that Republicans are not
thrilled by it, and it wasn't that Mike Johnson ever said he wasn't going
to give Democrats what they wanted on Ukraine. He actually said he would,
he just said originally that he wouldn't do it until and unless there were real
changes on the border. And so there are no changes on the border situation
obviously, and he didn't even really fight for that at the end. So
I think that's also why people are upset. They kind of understand there's a
limit to how much Republicans control in Washington, and there's an even bigger limit
to what real conservatives control in Washington. So these funding packages for Ukraine have
always passed overwhelmingly. This is the one that actually had the greatest trouble,
but they were hoping to use whatever leverage they had to get something for Americans
as well. Do you believe that if it had been folded into an actual
border bill, that the Republicans or most of the Republicans who opposed it,
at least in the House, would have been open to funding Ukraine further or
is there a contingent there that just doesn't think Ukrainians deserve any more money.
I mean, I think, obviously, when you're dealing with the tiny,
tiny majority that the House Republicans are dealing with they are understanding that you have
to compromise, and you know, you get this, I get that type
situation. There are certain people who just think it's so reckless to be engaged
in a proxy war with Russia that has no chance for victory, that it's
just strategically disastrous to do it. And they might have opposed it no matter
how much they got in there. But I really think the problem for a
lot of Republicans was just that they got. They got less than nothing.
They got Ukraine funding, you have broad bipartisan support for helping out Israel,
even helping out Taiwan. The other thing they got royally screwed over, which
a lot of people are upset about, is just absolutely no change to the
Faiza authorizations that allow for total abuse of Fourth Amendment rights. And was that
a separate bill? That was a separate bill. Well, the way that
Mike Johnson did it is he created a rules package supported by the Democrats and
again not by the Republicans, or not by most Republicans. The rules package
pleased the Democrats. Let's just say that where you would sort of pretend to
have separate bills that were then all folded into one bill through the congressional procedures
in play, and so you could pretend to have you could you know,
pretend that everyone gets a nup or down vote on different things. So,
but the voting on FIZA was actually really bad from both Democrats and Republicans.
So I think what happened, you know, Mike Johnson was called into a
room and things were explained to him on Phiza, right, and everyone's like,
well, the cias something over him or has some weird you know,
not everyone there are conspiracy theorists. I think it's much more simple than that.
I think they just scare them by telling them that if we don't pass
this, look, this would have happened. You know, a B and
C would have happened and passes. With the Ukrainian bill, I feel like
he got called into a room and said, listen, Ukraine is about to
collapse because I think that that's going to happen at some point, and that
if we don't fund them, that's going to happen and you will be blamed
and it will be politically disastrous for you. Do you think that I'm on
the right, right, I think there are two separate issues there. So
he's been claiming that he backtracked on everything he claimed to believe in because he
went to a skiff and in the skiff things were revealed to him that made
him betray his voters. That's his argument. And by the way, Politico
and other media outlets have all these hagiographies of Mike Johnson right now because he
betrayed his voters, and they're written up in like really glowing ways. But
it's actually just like you described, like he says. When you read it,
you're like, oh, I think the problem is Mike Johnson isn't very
smart, like not just gullible, but he does not seem to be the
most incandescent light bulb in the Republican chandelier, Like he just wooh boy,
we are not dealing with a with a mensa scholar type here. So he
says, yeah, that he went into the skiff, and they are the
same people who cooked up the Russia collusions and who said Hunter Biden's laptop was
Russian disinformation, told him that he had to support Ukraine. I mean,
but when he talks about it, it's all kind of stuff that we already
know from reading, even like the Wall Street Journal situation for Ukraine is very
bad. That's because the fundamentals of this horrible war are very bad for them.
I mean, people have been lied to about the nature of the situation.
So for Russia, they view it as an existential issue that they gained
control of part of Ukraine because of how Ukraine has not been neutral in the
sort of NATO versus Russia situation. Ukraine egged on by the US is just
you know, they're losing all their men. The infrastructure situation is very bad.
And Russia, contrary to what we were told two years ago when we
began funding this, we're now in the third year. It's kind of doing
all right. Like their military has been realists established after taking some heavy losses.
Their economy is doing very well. Meanwhile, Ukraine has horrific problems with
recruitment of men to fight this war. They don't have the money, they
don't have the means, and they just you know, it's just a scenario
where nobody, by the way bothered to explain what exactly is going to happen
here. Like the best argument I think from the people pushing are continued involvement
in this proxy war is that if we continue to be involved you know,
for years or decades, who knows how long that it just kind of bogs
Russia down. That's what they're that's and so people go, oh, I
don't like Russia, so I'm willing to bog them down. But we don't
have a lot of Sorry for just going off on this, but we have
a lot of strategic thinkers or statesmen in DC, perhaps none who are saying,
Okay, so while we're doing this side venture, what's China doing?
How does this enable the China Russian alliance to grow? And should we be
concerned that most of the rest of the world thinks that what we're doing here
is not worthy of their time or energy to join with us. And oh,
by the way, we now also have a growing conflict in the Middle
East that we also need to pay attention to. Oh, and would you
believe it, we are once again distracted from the looming threat of China.
You know, so sorry, there's so many angles to go here. But
but Mike Johnson went into a skiff and he heard that things weren't going well.
He could have read the Wall Street Journal to get that same information,
and it scared him into betraying his voters. Yeah, I mean, I
just here's my take on is I just think they are unserious people running DC
and unserious people in Congress. And you don't have to be like take Faiza,
Even if what they told you in that room were all true, it
still doesn't mean that you can't push for some kind of reform of the process
to ensure that Americans aren't caught up in it, to ensure that there is
more oversight to change things. And he doesn't want to do that same thing
with Ukraine. I'm I don't, I'm not listen. I don't want Ukraine
just to collapse right now. I think that's problematic. But I also feel
like, you know, you want to give funding with some kind of endgame.
You want to ensure that the Europeans are doing what they should be doing.
You want to ensure that there's some kind of endgame or purpose to it
all, which it just seems to me there isn't and we can't even debate
it. If you bring it up, you're a putin stooge. And I
am not out you know, I'm not saying, you know, I'm not
out there with like, there are people who just don't like Ukraine. They
don't think we should be involved. I'm not there, but I feel like
we can't have a real debate about this because everyone has just so unserious about
this is like a total, very serious situation in the sense of, you
know, I was reading about Henry Kissinger recently, you know, and how
he I think about how he dealt with stuff and how he looked at the
world. I'm not saying he was perfect, but we don't have people like
that looking at the world anymore. It's just become so simplified and danger in
that way. And that goes to the Middle East as well for a lot
of people. So I don't know. I guess I'm just still ranting,
But no, I want to talk about the strategy thing too. But it
one thing you just said reminded me of another. One of the talking points
from people who love this war is that we're actually just funding ourselves. So
they'll say it's like they lean into the to the complex part of the military
industrial complex. They say, yes, we're asking for sixty billion dollars to
fund our proxy war against Russia, but really that's just funneling money back to
the Midwest where the weapons are made that will then go up and smoke in
Ukraine. And I was talking to an actual member of the military industrial complex
this weekend, and he was saying, of all the stupid arguments that are
out there, this one's actually the stupidest, because what you actually want if
you are a weapons dealer in the is not US taxpayer funded weapons development,
but other countries doing it too. And the more that the US takes on
the role of defense for all of Europe, the less that these other countries
in Europe purchase from the armstealers. Does that make sense? So, like,
the best scenario would be if the US were saying, hey, Europe,
if you think this is a problem, why don't you act like it,
Why don't you increase your budget? And yes, by the way,
we make excellent weapons and we are happy to sell them to you. That's
actually the best way for these military contractors to make their money. And then
also the US can also do it to build up its own weapons supply.
Like the idea that we make weapons and then they just go away to Ukraine,
and by the way, we're still left with our complete depletion of weapons
is not actually great. I'll be Devil's advocate now for two issues. One
I would say that I think people underestimate the salience and effectiveness of that message
that we're building things here. I do think that people care about that in
a way that they live in places where there's where it matters, right,
and other people don't care that much, Which brings me to the second Devil's
advocate position is that I think we overestimate how much people actually care about this
issue. And I looked at a Bloomberg pole recently, it had it at
the bottom. So what I mean is is Ukraine, did Mike Johnson look
at those polls and say this issue is not really that important. It gets
people on the internet worked up, but for the average voter it won't matter.
I don't know if I completely disagree with that, but let me now
do We're just going to have devils everywhere if I can increase this devil's augment
there, I agree to Actually that people don't totally care about foreign policy,
which is why the betrayal of the voters is not about funding Ukraine, but
about doing nothing for the US border. Because voters do care about the border,
do care about the US economy, they do care about crime and the
seeming like complete destruction of our own country. And when you work every fiber
of your being to help Joe Biden accomplish his policy agenda and you just don't
do anything for your own people, voters do care about that. But then
I also want to say that I was really happy to see corporate media democrats
and even like Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson do this like smug, condescending victory
tour this week. I want them to do that. I want them to
own every bit of this. And if I can just back up a little,
if you think about how this funding package was supposed to go through last
fall, yes at a much lower down a mount, but was supposed to
go through last fall, and it was delayed because the American people are not
super jazzed about fighting a war without any strategy for success. I mean there,
if they had been given a strategy, if anyone tried to give them
a strategy, maybe it would be going better. But it was always going
to pass, and it didn't pass easily. And generally speaking, the American
voter does not love the interventionist foreign policy that has been shoved down their throat
for the last twenty or so years. Like you really starts with the end
of Bill Clinton doing some of his democracy spreading. At the end of his
term. You might remember George W. Bush wins in part by saying he
doesn't believe in nation building. Then nine to eleven happens. He changes course.
He suddenly is the world's biggest proponent of nation building. So Barack Obama
comes in, also critical of this strategy, and then he gets cowed.
And then Donald Trump comes in, also critical of it, and does far
more than any other president to resist some of these pressures that are in play.
It is politically toxic to support the you know, the Joe Biden,
Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell foreign policy. It's not an impossible victory for these
people. Obviously they're all in office, however low their approval ratings may be.
But I want them to just be tied with it. American jobs are
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Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, I mean,
I again, I'm more open to intervention than you are, I think,
but I will say that and I don't and I stand by my devil's
advocate position that it's not that important. But I do think it's important in
the sense that it broadly makes Republicans look weak and obliging to Democrats. It
makes them look like they care more about a border abroad somewhere than they do
about their own, and those things matter. So it's not like someone asks
you about Ukraine, You're like, yeah, I don't really care, but
you do care that Mike Johnson looks weak, that Mike Johnson is helping Ukraine
not the United States border, when we have this thing going on that I
do think many Americans care about. So in that way, I do think
it matters, you know a lot. Well to that point, I saw
a piece today that was talking about how Joe Biden had managed to get everything
he wanted and give up nothing, And the piece basically center on how his
strategy. By the way, someone sent this to me with a picture of
Joe Biden licking an ice cream cone and saying, imagine being intimidated by this
guy, you know, In other words, Mike Johnson was intimidated by mister
ice cream liquor, Joe Biden. But the piece said that he the Joe
Biden team strategy was to appeal to Johnson's vanity. Basically, don't criticize him
for a period of time and then scare him with lots of intel. So
basically, app he'll do his vanity and deal with the fact that he's very
gullible. And I was talking to someone close to the previous speaker about what
the previous speaker would have done, and I think we had talked earlier about
how I was not a fan of removing Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, and
I feel pretty vindicated by that in light of recent weeks. And Kevin McCarthy
is by no means a conservative, I mean talk about a Washington DC creature.
He totally is, but he would not have put himself in the worst
possible bargaining position. He whatever else you say about him, he was like
obsessed with wins for Republicans. He didn't really care what kind of Republicans they
were, but he wanted to give Republicans like things to run on. By
the way, Republicans have literally nothing, I think, to work with here
in terms of what they've done in the last last time. I think,
how you just described McCarthy as exactly a type of person you need running being
the speaker. It's exactly the type of person you need in the Senate.
You want wins. It's a bad partisanship. That's why you're there, you
know. I just want to quickly say that everyone kept saying that Mike Johnson
was had been, you know, was acting in a bipart as a manner,
and how you describe I have this list of euphemisms that I keep of
medio euphemisms. Bipartisanship means Republicans get nothing but give up something and Democrats get
not everything they want. You know what I'm saying, And that's exactly what
has been happening for a very long time and happened now. He just seems
even agree with him or not. He just seems like a weak person or
I don't know how smart he is or not or whatever, but I do
know that he is not right for that position, and this can completely be
blamed. I'm sorry on people who had some ridiculous personal vendet against McCarthy that
made no sense, But even if they were going to do it, they
did should have had a person, you know, to rally around before they
toppled the guy running things. Well. I would like to continue kind of
praising Kevin McCarthy, but if we want to blame people, he also shares
some of the blame. He made some He was really great at winning people
over, but he also picked some unnecessary fights that came back to bite him
in the end. But I don't want to get distracted by that totally,
to just point out that his strategy would have been to deal to lean into
the fact that he doesn't have a ton of power but has some you know,
rather than you if your goal is to get something for your voters and
something that your members can run on for the looming election, rather than dilute
your power, you position yourself as an equal to the president. So he
would have been like every day out there saying if Joe Biden wants X,
he's got to give us why, you know, and just being real simple
in your messaging, but repeating it having meetings at the White House where you
go over there and you do one on ones, whereas Mike Johnson deferred to
the Senate to fix the border, and then Mitch McConnell used also Glibal Ray
lank or what's his name Roy Langford? Did I James Langford? I have
no idea where I came up with another name. I love the name Roy
James Lankford to work with Democrats on a fake border protection bill. Mike Johnson
had nothing to do with it, and he didn't try to have anything to
do with it. And then when it appeared and it was a total joke
that no Republican would support, like no real Republican voter would support, and
it falls apart. He's got nothing. He brings Hakeem Jeffries into the pool
of people. So all of a sudden, instead of it being Mike Johnson
versus Joe Biden, it's Mike Johnson versus Aqim Jeffries, Mitch McConnell, Chuck
Schumer, and Joe Biden, you dilute your strength that you have by bringing
all these other people into the process and by not having clear messaging and not
having clear goals. And I think it's just a combination of you know,
he's got a bad situation, he's got a very small majority, he's getting
horrific advice from some of the top people around him, and he's not very
bright, and like, it was not that impressive that the Democrats rolled him,
because it's not hard to roll a weak and stupid man if your part
is in DC creature and you're running the House, you know, and you
have a slim majority. You meet the President, you say, listen,
we both you know you're not giving me anything with Israel Aid. We both
supposedly want that aid Ukrainian aid. Let's say we both want it. I'm
going to get hurt by this. You have to include something that we want
that you don't want, Like you need to give us something, and he
doesn't. He did not do that. And you know, now he's basking
in the praise, you know, in Politico and the New York Times and
a ton of articles, and you know that's not going to help him with
Republicans. I'll tell you that right now. And it's not going to help
him with Democrats because the first time he does something they don't like, they're
going to destroy him again, you know anyway, So let's change unless you
have anything else on that topic. Oh, I don't know. I just
was my husband. I think I sometimes I talked to a lot of people.
Then I forget who said what. You forget who your husband does.
Don't forget. I don't forget that I'm married, and I don't forget who
my husband is. I just don't remember if he was the person who said
this, but he said something about how the most embarrassing thing about about Mike
Johnson's favorable media coverage is that he doesn't seem to be embarrassed by it.
And I mean, this stuff is really embarrassing. Like if I don't expect
much of the Republican Party, I really understand that they're the stupid party.
Mike Johnson is definitely putting this stupid in the stupid party here. But if
you don't understand that, it's not good for you when Politico is praising you
like that's just And by the way, Mike Johnson got praised by CNN for
being they called him like Churchillian. He praised CNN himself. He told Jake
Tapper, a main pusher of the Russia collusion line, that he was always
fair like this is there's no party representing the average Republican voter, like if
it, let's like leave aside Ukraine, let's leave aside the border. If
you're too stupid to get the corporate media or the enemy, like right,
yeah, it's It's not a good look. I mean not from the perspective
of a normal, average Republican. That's what I'm saying. He just looks
obliging, and he just doesn't look like a person who's fighting for you know,
with a very small minority, but fighting for his constituents, like you
agree with him or not. I also love this thing where the media does
this all the time, where they pretend that someone is brave who agrees with
basically the complete DC main Oh my gosh, me in line opinion. Right,
Johnson was so brave to figure out a way that someone with his lack
of intelligence could get super well paid after he leaves office. That's how brave
he is. I hate that word courage and bravery when we use it in
the United States. Especially in politics, because it's not really bravery unless you're
putting yourself in some serious financial or some other way risking something, and none
of these people risk anything anyway. Is that it? On that right?
We don't like it. We're nae? Where nae? On the Ukrainian I'm
so sorry. Just a one last thing you saw almost immediately in fact,
like one of my friends I saw hosting that, it was almost like he
understood that the Ukraine War is not going well and he wanted to displace blame,
super big fan of the proxy war, and he's like, anything bad
that happens is because American, some Americans didn't want to support this earlier.
And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no,
this is all around your neck. This is one. You own this one
hundred percent. Whatever happens from here on out, you own it. And
by the way, you've always owned it, but like you definitely own it
after this week of mocking your voters and mocking Americans. Oh my gosh,
Mitch McConnell yesterday, this is such a bad thing to say. But you
know, I am I always worry about like my so, I am very
polite on air. I try to be right, But anyone who's been on
set with me knows that I sometimes say things like not totally nice words when
we're not on air, but I'm alone in a cubicle at Fox. Yes,
you're not cubicle. What do you call it? Like the So sometimes
you're on set, which means like you're in a big room with tons of
other people, and sometimes you're just staring into a camera in a tiny cold
room. So I'm in one of those rooms, and I'm supposed to be
talking about, of course, the topic everyone wants to talk about, which
we'll talk about here shortly, which is the Columbia protesters. But they're showing
Mitch McConnell, Mitch McConnell, who's like unable to address any of the nation's
problems really but wants to take a victory lap for the Ukraine funding, and
rightly so he deserves he deserves every bit of that victory lap. He owns
this. But he was like, I think we've fun l turned the corn
or on the isolationists, which you know, if I can just pause here,
he's ripping on his own voters and defaming them as isolationists, not because
they are, I mean, like truly speaking, an isolationist is someone who
does not want to have any engagement in the broader world economically, socially,
politically, militarily. Right, so opposing one proxy war with no chance for
success does not actually make you an isolationist, and to say it does makes
you stupid. But yeah, he was like, we finally turned the corner
on us on the isolationism and its proof of that. Noticed they don't like
it when you called them a soolationists. I was like, anyway, I
was. I was just I was hoping for the impression and you gave it
to us. So of course, Like, while I'm sitting there and like
the poor gentle ears of the producers like in far flung New York or wherever
they are, I just start shouting not nice words at Mitch McConnell. And
I was like, you know, I should be more careful about this.
This is not I was off air, obviously, but probably not the most
don't want to get on a hot You don't want to get on a hot
mic. That's a problem, right, You know, I don't even want
to say this because it's going to get You're just going to yell at me.
There are plenty of isolation that's out there today, to be honest,
you know, who want to kind of on the populist right, who want
to shut down immigration totally, who don't want any kind of globalist trade,
who don't want to be involved in any conflict, including some with the longtime
allies. I don't think that that's the case for most of Congress. Vast
majority of Congress is not that way. But there is that element. He's
not talking about that, but that element exists, right, Yeah. I
think I actually think that's true, that there is an element of that,
and it's growing every day. Like it's sort of like if you're in a
fight with your spouse, you you know, each side gets more extreme the
less giving the other side is. And so the more that Washington d C.
Responds to legitimate concerns about being overextended, the more you're like, well,
screw it, I'm just going to become even more like I'm going to
pull I want to pull back even more. But and and and I even
think there's like a subset of people who are who are happy to embrace the
label and mean it in a in a sort of George Washington farewell speech kind
of way I got it. But it's also true that just the vast majority
of Americans I think, you know, with lots of differences along the way,
and even I would put in this people who support Ukraine funding and people
who don't. They want a strong military, they care very deeply about our
posture globally, and they don't want to be involved in reckless wars, you
know. And that's it's a pretty balanced, like long running American position.
You can you can get it in the Republican Party back to Eisenhower or even
maybe beyond. There's a balance to it. Yes, we very much want
and need a strong military, and also we don't want to make ourselves make
ourselves less safe by being involved in conflicts we shouldn't be. That's not isolationist,
Yeah it's not. And what you just quickly what you just hit on
about how people sort of their their position hardens and it gets more extreme sometimes.
I think that is something that's happening now on both sides in a way
that is incredibly dangerous. Where we got where, like the US has been
lying to us since John Adams, you know, the government, you know,
like it's just gotten so insane, and the left does it too,
but it's it's so dangerous to sort of it's almost like a year zero stuff
where you just don't believe anything that's ever happened. And that is just,
first of all, it's a waste of everyone's time. But more than that,
it just creates conspiracies, It creates it's just it's I don't know,
this is a bigger topic, so I'll leave it, but I think that
you hit on something that's kind of important. You know, maybe for another
conversation, do we want to move on to the show trial that's going on
in New York, which I think I just want to say, out of
all the trials, is probably the most ridiculous of them all. I don't
know if you agree with that. I think that's general consensus for good reason.
Do you remember when Alvin Bragg indicted Donald Trump. All of the like
never Trump crazy people on in corporate media and otherwise they were actually kind of
mad at Alvin Bragg for doing it because it was such a flawed indictment over
a non crime that they worried that it would make the other indictments that were
about to come out seem more political. Yeah, and in fact they were
right to have that concern because Alvin Bragg coming out with like I don't remember
how many it was, like thirty one indictments for a private non disclosure agreement
that he didn't pay for with campaign funds, Like I can actually as much
as it would still be political to charge someone with it if if he had
paid for it with campaign funds, the idea that it that it's illegal to
pay a private non disclosure agreement that has many benefits to you with private funds
is just, you know, amazing. It is literally literally he is charging
Trump with trying to influence an election. I think about that for a minute.
He's running and he wants to influence how people think about him in that
election, and that is what he's being tried for. And I honestly believe
this. The far left doesn't is once a one party state. They don't
believe Republicans should be able to basically run campaigns or elections. This is why
they're called They call them semi fascists and anti democracy and all that stuff.
And this is just insane. I don't care what you think about Donald Trump.
There's no way a normal intelligent person can read what's going on right now.
In that New York court room and believe that this is how America should
function. There's just none zero. This is the worst show trial in American
history in the sense of people at high and high levels of power. I
mean, this is completely politically motivated. I don't even understand why they're doing
that. I think this is helping Trump. I think this is helping Trump
immensely well. It clearly. I think the fact that he is handling it
well in terms of the campaign is handling it well, should not take away
from the fact that what Biden and other Democrats are doing here is horrific.
Like, yes, you can say the campaign has handled it well, and
the proof of that is that they are leading in polls. And yet it's
also true that Democrats have figured out a way to try to bankrupt their top
political opponent, possibly put him in prison, and at the very least remove
him from the campaign trail, and also force all of the campaign dollars that
should be spent on persuasion or ballot harvesting or other things to be used to
fight this effort. And yes, Americans are outraged and disgusted by it,
and they are rallying behind Trump, but it doesn't change how horrific this is
for Trump. Yeah yeah, I'm not arguing about that. I just mean,
and I don't even mean like some Democrats going to be like, yeah,
truck, you know, I got a because I would need to save
the system, I need to vote for Trump. I mean, there are
people on the fence why know this is a personal observation who are like meh
on Trump, you know, and they're like, this is insane, you
know what they're doing to him. And I think that it motivates maybe people
who wouldn't be excited to vote for Trump to want to vote for Trump and
because they believe that. And I believe too that Democrats would be doing that,
trying that this specific thing or this specific charge, but would be try
trying to pull the same thing with you know, Jim mcred state presidential candidate
or Ron DeSantis or whoever. And I think that that is what hurts him.
I think polls bear that out as well. But so if I can
just add another little point before we get more into the trial too, I
was talking to a family member last week. Did I say this already last
week? Don't I go ahead? And all, who's not like a natural
trumpy type person. But he was saying that it overwhelms him to think about
how what they're trying to do against Trump, how he knows that if he
were to simply stop being a threat to Democrats, all of his problems would
go away. And yet he gets up every day to keep fighting. And
this person was saying it makes him really devoted to him. And you compare
that with the topic we were just talking about where mister Ice Liquor applied just
the gentless of pressure and the media said, if you would change your mind,
we'll give you good coverage, and Mike Johnson folded like a cheap launchair.
And compare that with President Trump having to be in a courtroom day after
day, missing out on campaigning, missing out on his life, to deal
with what is obviously a show trial by a completely corrupt prosecutor, in front
of a completely corrupt judge, and in a jury pool that was ninety percent
Democrat, pulled from a ninety percent Democrat area. It's crazy. Yeah,
So, so Bragg is basically trying to convince a jury right that completely legal
actions are illegal, do you know what I'm saying. So it is kind
of a perverse, not just a perverse undermining of the justice system. It
is literally trying to convince people that things that are completely legal, like trying
to suppress information that makes you look bad during an election by by coming to
a voluntary agreement to pay someone money, for instance, not to share,
which is you know, debatable. Maybe information or whatever is completely legal.
So we are making things that are completely illegal illegal moving forward for just one
political party. That's what's happening here. Or am I reading it wrong?
I mean, what I mean is it's more than a I called it a
show trial, but it's actually more than a show trial. It is changing
how the legal system can work for made for sorrows backed prosecutors in major American
cities where businesses exist, by the way, where they can go after you
know, the NRA. I mean York went after the NRA and it was
a completely political, politically motivated thing as well. You know, yeah,
I have been worrying about this. It's a in my mind. One of
the things that brought me to this same thing you're talking about here is the
media coverage of this as if it were a legitimate trial. You know it.
I watched this little clip of Chris Hayes and some left wing you know,
pundit. It sounded like what you might expect North Korean media to be,
like, you know, just praising a show trial and coming up with
increasingly absurd reasons to praise the show trial. And I was thinking, this
isn't just a show trial. This is a wholesale destruction of rule of law
in this country, like this is this is how the republic ends. And
I don't mean by that like this particular thing, because we've kind of been
in a series of steps that are extremely bad. Even thinking, Okay,
so Donald Trump is on trial for a private non disclosure agreement paid with private
funds that he marked after the election in one way that Alvin Bragg says,
you should get like thirty one charges for influencing an election that was prior to
the way that you classified it. I mean, it's just it's an absurd
legal argument. And compare that to Hillary Clinton and the DNC gave money to
a law firm in twenty sixteen called Perkins Cooey. The money was used to
create the Russia collusion lie, a world threatening lie that Donald Trump was not
who he claimed to be, but in fact had been a long running secret
Russian spy operative who was colluding with Russia to destroy the country, and what
charges were placed against them for that, for funneling that through a law firm,
funneling like a national security destroying lie through a law firm as a campaign
expense. I can't remember. Was it nothing? Oh right? Nothing happened
to them like it's And you cannot tell me that Americans don't hate this.
You know that you could create those lies, You can cause so much damage,
you can destroy so many lives, and nothing happens too. And meanwhile,
a non disclosure agreement that basically affects nobody other outside of you know,
Donald Trump's family is worthy of going to prison for. I think every thinking
person knows that that that case is nonsense. But I think they have rationalized
and justified anything in pursuit of stopping Donald Trump, who they believe is going
to destroy the You know who's a fascist, it's you know, et cetera,
et cetera. And that kind of lack of respect for the system and
norms of politics and of law is what's actually destroying this country. And what's
going to happen is the side's going to adopt them as well, because you
can't have a system where one side gets to do what it wants and the
other can't do anything to defend itself. And that is how the republic is
going to end. And I don't know, no one seems concerned. I
mean, did you see the MSNBC front page at like nine thousand stories about
this trial. Yeah, and someone pointed out there was nothing about the Columbia
protests, but there was also nothing about anything else in the world going on.
It was one hundred percent about the Lawfair, presented as if it were
real. And that's just journalistically indefensible to act like what's happened. I mean,
the story here is the lawfair. I mean, why can't you have
I mean, you just need to have one person on there who challenges some
of the assumptions that these people are making to have it. I'm sure you
know. I keep thinking about back when Romney McDaniel was going through her horrific
situation and NBC said we will not tolerate a single Republican on our airwaves,
and Steve Hayes, the former editor of The Weekly Standard, who presented himself
as like a defender of the right half of the country for years, just
sat there looking down and like, I haven't seen him talk against the law
fair. I know he personally like is overcome with emotion against his orange nemesis,
but like to not say anything like is rule of law not more important?
Like can you care about anything more than your personal hatred for one man?
Like the country, rule of law, basic founding principles, Like does
any of it matter or does it all have to be subsumed to your hatred
or one individual? I think it is subsumed. I think any kind of
belief in neutral principles is gone for vast majority of people, A because they've
been destroyed by one side of particular, but B because they don't see it
as a viable way to get into this fight anymore. So that you know.
But yeah, I mean you're right, I don't. I don't understand
a conservative should and some do. I know, you know, some of
the anti Trump people do. No, we don't like to hear this,
but there are a few who have called this afars I mean no, I
mean yesterday Politico ran a story about a wholesale media conspiracy of never Trump activists,
including like Bill Crystal, to coordinate talking points and like test out legal
test out their novel legal theories. I love how they call them novel legal
theories. Like John Eastman is having his life destroyed for advancing a theory that
was so legitimate that the US Congress had to like change the law to deal
with its legitimacy. But all these left wing attorneys get overturned nine zero at
the Supreme Court. Nothing happens to them, no disbarment attempts, no negative
media coverage. They keep their TV contracts like it's it's all those people on
Arethy's Trumpers who well, Andy McCarthy's were in a lot of really good pieces
about how this is a farcit, you know. I all I'm saying is
I think that I have been arguing with you about this for a while.
I think there's a distinction to be made about the people who are on that
call that you're talking about, who are authoritarians who have rationalized, like every
two bid authoritarian in history, destroying rule of law because you know, to
save the country, to save democracy, to save something. And there are
other people who are not exactly on board with that. Those people are just
democrats. Now, I don't even understand why we're protecting like Bill Crystal is
not a conservative, he doesn't believe in conservative like he's complains about Dobbs like
he's a pro abortion open socialist. He said he is a socialist who advocates
for Democrat electoral victories. Yeah, I just say he's not so. And
there are other people, consider myself among them, I think do not like
this is for Eddie Scary who do not like Donald Trump but are willing to
understand what's going on and not you know, you know, just make you
know, destroy the country just because they don't like Donald Trump. I think
there's a difference. I don't know, And I just want to concede your
point because I was like, honestly thinking I couldn't think of any never trumper.
And Anny McCarthy has openly embraced the never trumper label, and he's he's
not just been all right on some of this stuff. He got there much
quicker than he normally does, so like in previous issues, I remember when
I was kind of screaming about the Russia collusion scam, he was like,
I worked in the Justice Department, trust me, these are good people.
And then a couple of years later he was like, no, actually it
was horrible, and it was awful, but like on this one, he
kind of got there more quickly, which which is actually helpful, not just
to get to the right place, but to get there more quickly. But
when I think of people like you, I do think that's don't I don't
consider that the juvenile never Trumper position is just you don't like Trump. But
I think that's actually a surprisingly large contingent of the of America right now would
be people who absolutely do not like Trump and are far more horrified by what
his enemies are doing to the country. I did call myself an anti Trumper,
you know, in two thy sixteen, and because I think that I
was talking about that election, you know, for me. But the but
he never in front of a word has meaning and it is not stupid because
if someone who runs against Trump is much worse than Trump, then I'm not
a never Trumper. Then I would have to be pro Trump. Doesn't mean
I'm a fan of the guy. It means that there are choices to be
made, and I understand that many voters feel like they have two choices,
and in some sense they do, and they choose the lesser of evils,
or maybe they like Trump whatever it is. But but it just doesn't make
sense because once you say never to something, that means you have to rationalize
everything you do to stop that guy. And that's where we are. That's
where we are. That's why that phone call exists, and that why people
can't see straight anymore, at least from my perspective. What's the next?
Do you know what what's next on the docket for Trump? After he gets
out of this court room? If he ever gets out. It's freezing in
there. He said, he survives that. Did you like how some of
our staff who are apparently always fighting over the thermostat in our office, really
glummed onto that part of what Trump was saying, like see see you can
you can put things too cold anyway. By the way, it was a
bunch of men fighting about it, not women. I've never ever said the
thermostat's too cold in my house. Okay, So I don't want to talk
about the other things that are happening. We should save that for next week.
But since you asked, there are some I mean, I think the
the Jack Smith trial over confidential documents is slated to begin next month. I
don't think anyone actually thinks it will happen, in part because there are so
many fights over what evidence is admissible or inadmissible. There's been some super interesting
release of formally redacted or documents that were attempted to be redacted, that has
all sorts of interesting information about how much the Biden DOJ threatened people, and
you and played hardball to gin up this case against Trump, which was actually
considered one of the best cases but is kind of under scrutiny not looking so
good. Unsurprisingly, you are delayed on the other Jack Smith trial, which
is the anti free speech one, the one claiming Donald Trump doesn't have free
speech, because the Supreme Court is ruling on well, actually tomorrow they're going
to hear immunity arguments, which I actually think they will side with the government
on, but I could be wrong. And so once that's resolved, that'll
probably come out at the end of the term, or other things will come
out at the end of the term, like this other Supreme Court case about
whether you can use an obscure sar binz Oxley provision to go after political protesters,
just the ones you don't like, And so that won't happen until later
in the summer, and then there's ongoing issues with the is it Letitia James
saying, you know, she just lost her attempt to further harm Donald Trump's
financial position on Monday. And then there's the funny Willis corruption trial, which
has been bogged down by various pleadings related to her own corruption and conspiring.
So it's a lot of lawfair going on all up and all over the place.
Did you see Liz Cheney, I believe it was in the New York
Times had an op ed where essentially, as many others have admitted through their
writing that they believe that all of this needs to happen before the election,
which it just tells me that this is all about the election, and I
you know, they're admitting that it's law fair. They're admitting that they're trying
to affect the election through this law fair, and that's it, you know.
I mean, it's so how can I say it? It's so obvious
that everyone knows it, and yet we're still going through all this so anyway,
in part because corporate media act as if this is all legitimate, and
that's what's very you know, it's it's very offensive to see people just covering
it like it's these are real trials or real things. And I'm not saying
that the repercussions aren't very real, you know, just like happens in other
countries, particularly you know, reminiscent of the Soviet Union and other places like
that, you can get convictions. In fact, you can get convictions.
That's what I was going to say, Well, do you think there's any
chance, even an outside chance of Dury and York's like, this is not
snow. So I was talking to someone at Fox who is an attorney,
and they thought that actually there that this is such a bad case, it's
like such a joke, and since it only takes one person to withstand and
the pressure of the entire world, that maybe there will be no conviction.
But I think it's far saner to just to anticipate a conviction, like a
quick conviction, and that every you know, no one's been stopping any of
this. No wiser minds have prevailed on any score. So it's just the
whole point is to get a quick and easy conviction. They're going to get
a quick and easy conviction, whether it's this one, this one, this
one's actually one of the easiest ways or one of the other trials, they
will get their conviction, just like Alexander Navalney was easily convicted in Russian show
trials, and political prisoners all over the world get easily convicted in show trials.
And when you run Democrat prosecutors running Democrat like crazy novel as they say,
novel theories meaning never before ever used against anyone else who's not orange,
in front of Democrat juries and Democrat judges, Democrat jurisdictions, you're gonna get
at the conviction. And it's kind of cope to think, like, well,
maybe maybe wiser minds will prevail. I mean, they might, but
it's not worth it. I mean, my expectation is that there'll be a
conviction. I'm just wondering. I think that that would be an incredible moment.
You know, if a jury, even a few members of a jury
said no. I mean, I don't think it's going to happen, Considering
considering the comments I've seen from potential jurors, I don't think that he has
a chance. Last political topic, I just want to touch on what's going
on at Columbia University and other former places of former elite institutions. So obviously.
I mean, I'll just give you my position. You know. My
view of this is that there are pro hamas antisemitic protests going on targeted at
a lot of Jewish kids, and Jewish people who have nothing to do with
Israel don't control Israeli policy, even if Israeli policy was wrong, which I
don't think it is. And here is what really so, I think a
lot of people believe this is just about Jews or just about Israel. I
think that's wrong in some sense. I think this is a issue that folks
who spend tens of thousands of dollars every year to send their kids to colleges,
to all kinds of colleges, elite ones, but maybe not so elite.
And by the way, when I say elite, there are in quotation
marks. At this point is that this is why I should hear the scare
quest in your You're sending your kids to places that will teach them to hate
decency, not just America, not just Israel, but decency. These are
indecent people making a historical, not even a historical pseudohistorical arguments justifying murder of
civilians. They are they are terrible people, and it really makes you think
about, you know, where we're going, I think as a country,
So I think it's a bigger issue than that. And then when the president
can't even makes odious moral relativistic comments about you know, both sides. October
seventh. I don't know that sus something terrible about where we are right now,
I think, and I think it matters for those reasons as well.
No, nothing, I mean I am so unsurprised by what we're seeing on
these campuses. I am mildly annoyed at people who are surprised or who are
acting like this is somehow materially different than all of the intolerance that has been
bred there for decades. Like number one, I like to remind people that
the BLM riots that they all supported the BLM agenda included support for Hamas.
Do you remember that? I do? So, like people are like,
can you believe that four years later the current incarnation of the BLM rioters is
anti Semitic, And it's like, yeah, I can believe it. And
by the way, when I was like pointing that out four years ago,
Mitt Romney was like marching with them in the frickin' streets. So for the
Republicans to all be like, this is very bad now. I'm like,
where the heck have you guys been? Why is it bad now? It
is very bad now. By the way, it's terrifying, Like I'm horrified
and I see these, you know. By the way, AOC the other
day was in the Bronx or something and she's she's giving a speech in defense
of the peaceful Palestinian protesters. And while I was watching it, I was
watching it on a split screen with what was happening at Columbia at that moment,
and it was like Jewish students getting things thrown at their head, and
she just kept saying peaceful, peaceful, And you know, but having said
that, God bless her, like she knows to support her people and people
on the right. The left has never disavowed Lewis Ferricon, you know,
in fact, they kind of celebrate him, and the right is easily cowed
by mister ice cream liquor saying would you please give us everything we asked for
nothing in return? Yeah, I mean I think there were some differences.
There were some differences between BLM and I agree with everything you said. I'm
just saying that it's easier to scare people by calling them racist or cow cow
them into submission, which is what they did. I don't know that many
people understand the depth of the kind of the bigoted hatred that goes on in
these progressive groups with BLM, but also the Women's March. Virtually every founder
of the Women's March was a complete anti semi fans of Louis Farakhon. I
mean, why are we even making like, of course they are there the
racism of the dei like belief system that is the complete basis of the Democrat
Party, by the way, Like that's all they've been doing for decades is
calling their opponents racist, calling them bigoted, and also you know, just
being very racist and bigoted. And how they did it, and people seemed
kind of like okay with it, Like it was okay for Joe Biden to
say Mitt Romney wanted to put you in chains, And now that the Columbia
students are saying that Israel wants to put all of you know, the Arabs
and chains or whatever, people are like, oh, this is bad now.
It's like, well, it's always been bad. It's always been a
hateful, destructive ideology, and it's not more bad because it's happening right now
to Jewish students, like, it's it's just evil, it's I want everyone
to renounce it all, not just the anti semitism of it, like and
I want the people who supported it up until the moment it broke out into
open jew hatred to admit that they were wrong to tolerate it when it targeted
people that didn't look like them. Listen, I think this is counterproductive to
demand the people coming to their senses? You know, actually, are they
coming to their senses? You look at someone like Bill Ackman and he's like,
DEI is great, but it can't be antisemitic. It's like, well,
you get to pick one. I think that some people are coming to
their senses. Some aren't. There have always been. I don't like when
people talk and I do it too, probably when people talk about Jews as
a group in this way, you know, Like I know Alan Dershwitz has
sort of been a conservative for a bit, but you know, he's always
been pro free speech. I actually just think he's an old fashioned liberal.
And there are many Jews who were that way about speech. Now I'm not
saying that they're going to go out on a limb and lose their jobs to
defend you know, some conservative speaker at a college. But I think that
many of them are coming to the realization that this crosses all kinds of lions.
I'm just happy that people are waking up. I'm very and I am
surprised. I know what you said, but I'm a little surprised at how
wide spread the open hatred is. Meaning I am a little surprised that the
president of the United States can't simply, unequivocally, specifically say anti Semitism that's
going on is wrong. He has to throw in Islamophobia, he has to
throw in this or that. And by the way, this is the guy
that lied, because he lies about virtually everything that he ran for president,
because of what happened in Charlottesville and what the press, Donald Trump said.
What he did the other day is by any measure, every measure, worse
than what Donald Trump did during that small outbreak of one hundred people. Incidentally,
and I want to just remind people that what he was lambasted for not
just by Democrats, not just by the media, but even by Mitch McConnell
and other so called leaders of the Republican Party was saying that there were good
people on both sides of the debate about whether to tear down statues, good
people on both sides of the debate about whether to tear down statues. That
was falsely claimed to be a view that there are both there are people on
good people on both sides of the debate about racism, and that was not
true because at the time that he said that, you know, tearing down
statues, that's like an open debate, which was by the way, way
too generous to the people who want to tear down statues. But let's leave
that aside. That he condemned, you know, condemned repeatedly and unequivocally white
nationalists and racists and whatnot. And then for the next two years everyone said,
but did you say it in the way that we wanted you to say
it. We wanted you to use these particular words, and you didn't use
these particular words. And so every day, I mean, it was mass
hysteria, widespread mass hysteria. And then this week Joe Biden says, there
are good people on both sides of October seventh, and it's crickets. I
actually wondered because Mitch McConnell emerged from his shell yesterday to condemn his voters.
I was like, okay, but I bet he was savvy enough to condemn
Joe Biden as well, for saying they're good people on both sides of the
horrific October seventh attack, which is, you know what this debate is all
about. This is when the protest started. It was October seventh. It's
not you know, that's I feel like people are like losing side of what
that was. It even like losing remembrance of what it was. Those videos,
those images, those stories are so horrible. I can like barely think
about them, and yet we just move on and we just act like they're
not even real, right. And Mitch McConnell, who the day after Donald
Trump said that there were good people on both sides of the debate about whether
to tear down statues, came out and said there are good people on both
SuDS, and yesterday, when he had a perfect opportunity to go after his
best friend Joe Biden for this, was totally silent. Yep, yep,
you know. And it's even worse in a way. It's like he has
not first of all, hamas is not accepting any ceasefires. So all these
protests and they're just anti Israel. Israel could literally give Gaza tomorrow to Hamas
and those and they would still want Israel destroyed. There's no play caating mollifying
these people. But more than that, the media lied also here because before
he was asked that question and both sided it. He put out a statement
for Passover, and in that statement he condemned anti Semitism. But then when
prattled on about two state solutions, he wants to give Hamas a state,
right, talked about others and all this nonsense. So I looked it up.
His rama Don statement only from last month. He noted the terrible suffering
of the Palestinian Palestinians. He repeated the fake Comas casualty numbers, so he
repeated the terrorist propaganda. He talked about Islamophobia. Nowhere was there a mention
of anti Semitism or anything. But yet you cannot find a single Democrat talk
about anti Semitism without mentioning Islamophobia. There is no Islamophobia going on, and
right now in Columbia or Yale or anywhere else, AOC stands there and says
it's peaceful. But the media also does that. I saw a NPR reporter
say that, I saw a Washington Post reporter say that that it's mostly peaceful.
That's a really, that's a so you know what, most neo Nazi
marches are also mostly peaceful, and no one sits there and says they're fine.
So, yeah, we have a Charlottesville every day and Democrats don't care.
They're for it. Most of them are for it. Stephen Miller,
not the four or Trump person, but the other tweeter who I like,
he said these Yeah, he he, I think properly said he. You
know, he points out how he aoc hates her jobs, that she tastes
her job, and that she wishes she could be a Columbia, you know,
chasing Jewish students off campus. And I think that that's completely correct.
All those squad members are like that. I contant you know this. I've
been writing about this for the Federals for many, many years. The there's
anti Semitism all over. It's not ideologically specific, it's fringy. Yeah,
it is embedded with Ian right now the Democratic Party in a way that it
is not in the Republican Party. Candice Owen doesn't have is not a congress
woman, aoc Is Bowman is ilhan Omar is on and on and on,
and now Joe Biden works to modify them, not the Jewish voters, because
Jewish voters no longer matter as much the Democratic Party. And that's just how
it is. Anyway. You know, this issue gets me very worked up.
It's gonna be come, it's gonna it's gonna be hard to come down
off my high horse. Right now, we've gone on long. So should
we close out with some culture discussions? Do you have any culture discussions too?
I went to the zoo on Saturday. Yeah, and I hate zoos.
Have I told you about that? No, you haven't. I am
the youngest child, and somehow I missed out on going to zoos as a
kid. I say somehow, but like actually quite hilariously. Twice I fell
asleep on a bus ride to a zoo for a field trip and they just
left me on the bus and didn't let me come into the zoo. So
at the age of fifteen, my dad was sort of like, oh gosh,
we've got to get her to a zoo, and he took me to
the Denver Zoo and I was horrified by it. There were these beautiful big
cats in tiny, you know, glass type cages, and it just made
me really sad. And I'm obviously not an animal rights person, but i
just feel very strongly like I want these big animals to be able to roam
freely. My husband thinks that this iss that zoos actually help preserve species by
raising awareness and you know, interest from a wide variety of people. But
anyway, quimping. I had not taken my kid to a zoo either,
and we've been doing different things each weekend, and so we went to the
National Zoo. It's mostly devoted to pandas, except they don't have any pandas
now, so just these huge, like actually nice areas for pandas but no
pandas, And then lots of signage is all like they're their motto is kind
of or not mono there what do you call it? Like their mascot is
they're the little There's pictures of pandas everywhere, but they're gone. But I
really did enjoy some of the bird bird stuff, which also of course made
me sad because birds should be free to fly. Such loser very animal specific
on this, like if I don't like the animal. I'm happy it's in
a cage. I did see a Kimodo dragon that was probably I love.
What's my favorite animal? I love? So every time we do stuff with
my kids, I'm like, what was your favorite part? And they'll ask
me too, and I'm just like obsessed with Kmodo dragons. I walked way
out of the way to see the Komodo dragon and then it we were near
Adams Morgan. We were doing a really long walk in DC, and so
I there used to be some good record stores there. I knew they were
gone, but there was a different record store there. So I went in
there and I got this. I got like some good albums and one thing,
you know, one thing that was weird, like I got. Then
I'm saying, we need outro music, so you're going to have to just
mention one of these albums. So I well, I got the iconic Go
Gos album. We got the Beat. Vacation, the vacation location, I
don't know if it's called vacation, forgive me if it's not. Ever the
one where they're ski they're water skiing, they're all water skiing and singing.
I think that was the video for vacation and that's the that's on the cover
of this Okay, And so it's an okay album And like they were,
they were good. I really like them. And sorry that I'm I'm trying
to get the name of the album and I'm and I'm struggling. Just you
know, I spent Oh yeah, it's Go Gos Vacation. Yeah, and
I the Denver Zoo now does not keep the big cats in very small cages.
They have like a really nice are last time I was at the Denver
Zoo, I'm sure I don't care how big the cage is. Cheyenne Zoo
in Colorado Springs that's a great zoo. You can feed the giraffes and stuff.
Okay, I really just want them to be free, and I don't.
It just makes me very said. Okay, so it was Go Gos
Vacation. Then I got something I'd been wanting for a long time, which
is the Vision Quest soundtrack. And have you seen that movie? Of course?
You know how my you know my age, that's what Madonna and Matthew
Modine and that Linda Fiorentino. Yeah, super hot. So it's like totally
inappropriate. It's amazing how inappropriate. The eighties teen movies were I mean,
right, isn't it about like having an affair with an older woman? Yes?
Also how he develops like an eating disorder, I think. But anyway,
excellent soundtrack and it goes yeah, and she's in the movie, and
it's also one of my favorite songs that's in there, and also the Lunatic
Fringe song, which is great, so I keep playing that. And then
I got the Blonde Redhead Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. That one was worth
the most because it was a first edition whatever type thing. I own that
as I'm leaving. I mean, it was a huge. It was like
a lot of people there, small store, and then I was like,
oh is it record store Day? Oh yeah, and it was like,
uh yeah. First of all, I actually understood I don't get so then
then I was like, oh, you know, I should go to my
local record store. So I took an uber there with my kid, met
my husband there, and there I got a Jill Scott comp because I realized
it didn't have an Ahl Scott. But it was there that I realized I
don't understand what record store Day is. Do you understand what it is?
I think It started as a way to help boost Vinyl sales for local record
stores. But I know, what I do know is that I'm not really
a huge fan of it because a lot of the reissues they do are just
the regular old album, but a lot of interesting new reissues happen, and
I do like that, but it's sort of become very I don't know,
it seems like kind of a rip off most of the time. But like
I say, I think initially it was for to help local record stores.
What's interesting I saw a story is that I think this year, for the
first time in a long time, Vinyl will out sell compact discs again.
And I can tell you that's not something I thought would happen in you know,
nineteen eighty seven or eight when I first bought my first compact disc.
But anyway, yeah, that's cool. Anything else, I think the DC
Zoo I've been to a lot. My kids loved zoo as I used to
go all the time. I think the DC Zoo is actually relatively fun to
walk around, and it is kind of big. I think, Okay,
the Denver Zoo I thought was better. I think it's an excellent zoo.
I know my extended family likes to do things at that zoo, like zoo
lights, and I think they have concerts there or something like that. But
yeah, I'm just I'm not I'm not a zoo person and I've really tried.
But I actually had a good I had a good time there, and
I was glad that I went. We also saw some great eight type you
know, rang tang Western Lowland you know. Uh so that was cool.
I liked that, And and elephants and lions, tigers, moto dragons are
amazing because they can like bite you and kill you. They can have they
have poisonous like corrosive acidic saliva that breaks you down. And then I was
watching a documentary they just get in the water and they'll like swim like ten
miles to some outlying island to come kill you. They are like the most
deadly animal and they're just a lot of fun. They don't usually move at
the zoo. They kind of lay there. But when they move, You're
like, wow, this is amazing that this exists. Thank you, that's
much. I did watch two movies Cool do you want to go first?
Though? I also watched two movies. But why don't you just go first?
I mean, one was Moulin Rouge, which I really like and my
husband does not like because he's a man, and but I genuinely, I
don't know why exactly like it, but I just I've never been a huge
fan of musicals, but the way that they use modern music to tell a
love story I think is great. And even that it's sort of normal people
doing the singing makes it. I like when they do that. I like
when like there's someone doesn't you know, isn't professional singer singing. I always
kind of enjoy that. But yeah, I haven't that movie is was out
a while, like twenty years ago, right or something. And then so
this was like a movie night with one of one of the kids, and
then we watched the new Lindsay Lowhan movie Irish Wish. Is this like a
Hallmark movie kind of thing or it would be along those lines, but it's
you know, it's just Netflix and very bad, but in a totally enjoyable
way. I found. I like sometimes bad movies, I don't know how
to explain it, but it's just delightful to enjoy the silliness of it all.
And this was pretty silly. I liked it that I hear I have
three things. My wife had never seen a Roadhouse the original, so we
watched it. I have I don't know if I have seen that bego.
I used to love it as a kid, and what's not to love.
It's fighting, you know, naked, you know women, and you know
nonsense. But it does not hold up. It did not hold up,
and it was disappointing. Yeah, it's just like just didn't hold up anyway.
That was disappointing. You always romanticize your youth, you know what I
mean. Then I saw two other more yeah, or modern movies, contemporary
movies. I saw Glass. Do you know what that is? No,
it's about Philip Glass. Now it's a movie by m knighth Shamoh, and
it's like him. It like combined. Do you remember the movie Breakable?
Unbreakable? Oh, unbreakable sorry, which is Bruce Willis Unbreakable get the whole
point of the movie off. So Bruce Willis isn't it? And uh uh
Samuel L. Jackson. But it also has the character from a movie called
Split that he did, which was that actor's name, James James McAvoy.
I think who plays like all these characters? And I had to say it
wasn't great, you know, but all these movies are slick and nice to
look at, but the story wasn't there, Okay. And then I saw
movie yoused So and we talked about American fiction with It's his name, Jeffrey
Wright, where he plays that author who is you know, I thought that
so anyway, he's, would you say, like an upper class African American
who, like, you know, I think his brother and sister are both
doctors, this and that, but he and he's sort of put off by
how black writers are always kind of, lack of a better word, put
in a ghetto of writing to write only about like what white people kind of
perceive as black issues. I guess is that a fair way to describe it.
Like I love that scene where the black woman's talk like she's very intelligent
and then she's reading out of her book. Yeah and that, and that
white woman just stands up and like starts clapping like crazy, Like I just
thought that was great. So I think it touches on some interesting stuff and
it's kind of an interesting and in a way brave ish movie, but I
don't think it goes far enough. It's kind of both sides it and uh,
so and it seems like it's going to be about that, but it's
actually about more about family, you know what I mean, and friendships and
stuff. So I thought it was very well made. I liked it,
not you and I liked it, but it kind of made me sad how
it just sort of fell apart at the end, but like it could have
been done better, but I still liked it. Yeah, I think my
expectation was that it would be about something more socio political or cultural, when
it's really more just a personal movie about the guy. So it was like
but in the end, after the movie, you know, after sometimes you
watch a movie or like, I can't believe I just wasted two hours of
my life, and sometimes you're like, well that was interesting, and I
thought about it afterwards. So I think American fiction would fall in the latter
category for me. So if I had to recommend it, didn't it.
I think it was nominated for Oscars and stuff, right, pretty sure it
was. Yeah, Well, I did think Jeffrey Wright was extremely good in
that. And I say that as someone who's been yelled at on Twitter by
Jeffrey Wright, so oh yeah, oh yeah, he's nane. But I've
never seen him be bad in anything. I think he's a really high quality
actor, you know, yeah, yeah, it's just it's good. And
I did think I think it was a directorial debut by whoever directed it,
and so I thought, if that's your debut, you're starting off really well.
Like he could get much better. They did it weirdly felt like to
me. You might disagree. I don't even know if you watch his movies,
but it felt weirdly like a witty allen Ish kind of movie in a
way, like it was the way the conversations went, in the way he
filmed it. And also maybe because it was about upper class you know people
and stuff like that. I don't know, I don't know. It was
all right. I'm also, Oh, I just want to repeat one last
thing on culture. I thought the show Fallout was just freaking amazing. I
loved it, and I don't say that often. I don't know if it's
for you, Molly, I would say maybe probably it's not for you,
but if you like science fiction and Murkie science fiction and it's on Amazon,
and I just Walton Goggins was in, it was just amazing and I liked
everyone in it. That was great. Nothing I might try it. I'm
going to just tell you ahead of time. You might not like it.
I thought it was good. It is very gratuitous violence in it. No,
I don't like that. Yeah, I just remembered that there's this other
thing I've been slowly watching while I work out. Was I talking about this
last week? I don't know. It's Steve Martin's a Steve Martin documentary called
Steve Martin. No, I think I watched this maybe. I don't know.
It's like three hours long and I'm not done, but it's on Apple
Plus, and I am really enjoying it. I find him to be an
intriguing person, and I never was super into his comedy. But the first
half is about his comedy, and then the second half I think is going
to be about like movies and his personal life. I did not never enjoy
his early comedy at all. I found it to be like like the King
tut stuff and the like he was when I was really young, his stand
up like he'd fill stadiums up, you know, and it was he was
incredibly popular and then I was young, But later I didn't get it either.
So I don't know if it's just a generational thing or not, But
I like him. He's interesting and smart. Right there, tried to add
to that discussion. I don't think I really did. Okay, Well,
who knows what's going to happen this week. We'll talk about it next week.
Until then, he never was Freedom