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Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,

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an idea.

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Speaker 2: The population of atheists in this country is going through.

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Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If

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I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not.

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Speaker 2: Because I put my hand on a book and made

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a wish.

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Speaker 1: And working together for a more rational world.

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Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.

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Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.

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Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the

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Thinking Atheist podcast, hosted by Seth Andrews.

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Speaker 2: This is the audio of a Substack article and it

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was borrowed from Monday night's live stream My Secular State

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of the Union. Donald Trump gave a presentation last Tuesday,

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and so I had some commentary in advance of it.

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Of course, Trump's speech is already behind us, but I

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thought this Secular State of the Union was still pretty relevant.

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So I'm releasing it here as a bonus broadcast, and

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if you would like the written version, the Substack link

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is in the description box. Traditionally, in January or February,

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the President of the United States stands before Congress and

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gives the State of the Union speech. This thing uses

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the same template every year, big claims about the economy,

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a list of the president's achievements, and vacuous plays to

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American patriotism. The speech is also conveniently vague and loaded

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with applause lines. There will be a singling out of

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at least one quote unquote great American somebody who is

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sitting in the balcony. The cameras will look up and

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focus on a first responder, a civil rights movement hero,

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or some other everyday person, and the arena will laud

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and applaud before, during, and after the State of the

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Union speech. There will be smiles, but any outward expression

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of goodness will actually be a rictus of contempt for

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the other side. Tonight, as many Democrats are skipping the

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event in protest, expect many empty seats. And of course,

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this speech will change absolutely nothing by design. It's simply

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re en forces who people were and what they thought

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long before they walked into the Congressional chamber. Tonight won't

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exactly be a State of the Union that is officially

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scheduled for twenty twenty six, but it will be almost

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certainly a big Republican zieghile of white Christian nationalism, cruelty,

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and laws. If we're lucky, Trump will form a few

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complete sentences as he verbally pleasures himself with the usual hyperbole, greatest, worst, always, never,

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and the repeating of his favorite prepositional phrase in the

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history of our country. He'll be petty and childish. He

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will dehumanize and stoke fear, and he'll bask in the

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ovations of sycophantic ass liquors who used to call him

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Hitler but today call him daddy. And as usual, the

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media will go badshit crazy over every scrambled syllable that

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comes out of Donald's wordhole. I have this fantasy about

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a lightning bolt of new life striking the graves of

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founding fathers, who would crawl out of the ground, brush

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themselves off, walk into tonight's event, and deliver commentary. I

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suspect they'd look around and immediately began drawing up a

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new declaration of independence. I envision Thomas Jefferson quoting from

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his Notes on the State of Virginia from seventeen eighty eight,

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when he said an elective despotism was not the government

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we fought for, but one which should not only be

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founded on free principles, but in which the powers of

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government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies

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of magicistry as that no one could transcend their legal

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limits without being a fan actually checked and restrained by

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the others. James Madison would be there and he would

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ask the room, weren't you listening to the words I

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wrote way back in seventeen eighty eight at my New

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York Address. The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and

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judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few,

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or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may

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justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Benjamin Franklin

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would be there and he would reference his words written

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back in seventeen seventy four. Equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges,

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and advantages is what every part is entitled to and

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ought to enjoy. And I have this fantasy that the

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founders would pick a spokesperson among them to grab the

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microphone and speak directly to the big copper comb over.

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Perhaps John Adams would do the honors, defiantly telling Donald Trump,

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we came here to escape a king. You tissue skinned

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silver spoon draft, dodging, pussy grabbing, vendor, bilking, charity scamming,

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dancing baby. The oxygen you breathe is a waste of trees.

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We would explain our secular constitution to you, but we

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don't have the time or the crayons. What you have

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done and what you are doing, is a betrayal of

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everything we intended. It's unequal, unconstitutional, Unamerican. So we are

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going to write a fresh new declaration of independence from you,

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Donald Trump, and its first words will be the door

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is there off? You must fuck. Donald would not have

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to walk far to find the exit because he would

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be sealed in a soundproof dunk tank at the back

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of the room. Instead of water, the box would be

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filled with orange Fanta. Security would grab Trump by the arms,

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escorting him out to a clown car in the parking lot,

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and as he was being taken away, I would warn

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the attendees, be advised people, tomorrow he will be selling

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Trump and a clown car commemorative merchandise. And then my

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actual speech would begin. I would say to the eighty

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nine million eligible voters who stayed home in twenty twenty four,

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the only reason I am not more pissed at your

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absolute dereliction of duty is pity. Anybody motivated to be

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unmotivated in a time of national existential crisis must be

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critically ill or held hostage in somebody's dungeon. It's the

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only reason that makes sense. It's the only explanation that works.

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It can be that you weren't aware of the dangers.

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It must be that somebody had tranquilizer darted to you,

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making it impossible to reach the polls by seven pm

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to do your part for the protections of democracy and decency.

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Wherever you might have been incarcerated, or in whatever coma

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you must have been in, I hope there are enough

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people remaining in our defunded institutions to help you get

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out next time. To the seventy seven million people who

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checked the box by Trump's name last November, you used

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democracy to destroy democracy. You let someone play to your

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paranoia and prejudices. You believed a strong man who promised

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to save you if you would just surrender pretty much everything.

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You gave him the keys to the whole American house,

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no matter who else it hurts. There was another guy,

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not Hitler, but another guy elected in a similar way

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his name was Benito Mussolini. Mussolini played to Italian nationalists

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and notions of restoring national greatness. He was elected through

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the democratic process, and then he splintered the process so

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nobody could challenge him. A symbol of power for his

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government was taken from ancient Rome. It was an axe

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wrapped in sticks, called a fescio, which is where we

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get the word fascism today. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and

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the oligarchs are the axes. You are the sticks. That's

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your legacy. You propped them up and fortify them, completely

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blind to the iyer of being sticks that support an axe.

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Of course, we know what often happens to dictators, don't we.

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King Louis the sixteenth was dragged at the guillotine. Saddam

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Hussein was hanged. Mussolini himself was violently executed. Other tyrants

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in our history have been kicked out, imprisoned, or ruined

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in some way. Now I have no illusions that a

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guy as slippery and slimy as Donald Trump is ever

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going to get officially caught. Thanks to you, Maga, he

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has been able to avoid those legal limits referenced by

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Thomas Jefferson. Whatever else, history writes about you. It will say,

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or it should say, that you deliberately roped the United

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States onto your burning altar of zelotry, ignorance, ambivalence, or

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outright stupidity. In today's climate, Trump is both cancer and

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simp a black light at the crime scene. The rise

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of American totalitarianism has exposed stains that we just didn't

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see before. And those stains are you. That's your legacy.

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You're all about freedom, yet you are uninterested in the

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many responsibilities that come with freedom. To you, cooperation and

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coalition sound a lot like evil socialism. The notion of

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collectivist values makes you squirm. You bought into the lie

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that we're not all in this together because Americans are individuals.

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At some point, you'll hopefully come to learn that no

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one is an island. Someone or something that you care

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about will eventually get hurt, and you will scramble like

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a bewildered child, wondering how it all went wrong. In

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some places, this is already happening. Trump voter, will you

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one day reach out to the Americans that you've harmed

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when you lose your job, when you can't afford your

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cancer medication, when you're broke and sleeping in your car.

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Will others show you more empathy, grace, compassion understanding than

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you showed them? What irony it would be if an immigrant,

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a married gay couple, a transperson, a scientist, a public

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safety worker and a government job, A foreigner or another

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woke lib individual or group that you previously brushed off

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donated to you from their savings because your vote killed

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their social Security benefits. A lot of factors have gotten

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us to this point. There are thousands of gears in

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the machine, many of them installed by clever billionaires who

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have been scheming for decades. America. The billionaires are not

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going to save you, and it's unconscionable that three individuals

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possess more wealth than the bottom fifty percent of this country.

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The oligarchs aren't empathizing from their five hundred million dollar yachts.

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They don't even see you. How could Elon Musk, worth

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more than the value of one hundred forty world nations,

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be connected to an everyday American. I saw an item

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for sale on Etsy recently. It was a satirical poster

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featuring one half Donald Trump the other half Elon Musk

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in sunglasses. The caption said I'm with Elonald. Maga often

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argues that Elonald is working for the public good because

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filthy rich people couldn't be motivated by money. Trumpers, listen

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to yourselves, watch the oligarchs, while yours is a life

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of hard work, mortgage payments, medical bills, and the paycheck

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to paycheck grind into an uncertain future. Elon Musk today

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could lose three hundred and fifty eight billion dollars and

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he would still be a billionaire. Perhaps this is the

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greatness American conservatives are referring to. The ideal is to

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become a wealth hoarder, and until Maga can become them,

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it will worship them. Their naivety and ignorance boggle the mind.

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If you really believe that the billionaire Donald Trump works

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for you, you also likely believe the stranger in your

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junk email folder has your inheritance check, the stripper really

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is in love with you, and the Mara Lago Mango

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stands ready with a swank guest room, gourmet Big Max,

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and free rides for your family in his four hundred

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thousand dollars rolls Royce. I suppose infantile thinking should be

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expected in an America that has declared itself the greatest

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while failing to other nations in almost every metric employment, education,

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housing costs, crime rates, health care lifespan, overall happiness. Our

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response to that data isn't to elevate our standards, but

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rather to hold our flags a little higher in the

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hopes that claims become true by mere declaration. What else

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should we expect from a culture which has declared war

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on science. Often more afraid of cures than they are

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of diseases, Americans blink blankly at climate change. They're doubtful

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we landed on the moon. They're unsure that the planet

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is spherical. They scan the world for shiny objects, UFOs,

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star charts, golden toilets. It's unsurprising they'd be impressed by

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a Secretary of Defense who has denied the existence of germs.

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How can anybody navigate the real world when they don't

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believe in real things? The late cosmologist Carl Sagan wrote

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these words in his book The Demon Haunted World. He said,

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I have a foreboding of an America in my children's

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or grandchildren's time when the United States is a service

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and information economy, when nearly all the manufacturing industries have

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slipped away to other countries. When awesome technological powers are

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in the hands of a very few and no one

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representing the public interest can even grasp the issues, when

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the people have lost the ability to set their own

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agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority. When clutching our

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crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline.

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Unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true,

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we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

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Then we have the hypocrisy of Christian nationalists who hoff

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and poff about being followers of Jesus while adoring a

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guy who refuses to turn the other cheek, who loves money,

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who is an egomaniac, who lusts for women and commits adultery,

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who steals from charity, and who finds glee in crushing

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vulnerable people. I suspect if the best version of Jesus

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Christ showed up in the United States today, MAGA would

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shame him, shackle him and lock him, and get against

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Trump cult cruelty. It is ironically often non Christians who

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step up to love thy neighbor. In the last portion

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of my speech, I want to speak to the other

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free countries of the world. As you've seen, the United

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States is a divided states, but there's hope to be

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drawn from that division. Tens of millions of Americans are

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proud to stand against the oligarchs, the bigots, and the opportunists.

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It's true that we are disorganized and scrambling to find

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our footing under Trump's horrifying blitzkrieg. We don't necessarily know

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how to best derail the runaway train, but know that

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there is a resistance. We are seeing demonstrations in the streets.

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Lawsuits are piling up, Judges are pushing back against unlawful

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executive of orders. Economists are sounding alarms about a Trump session.

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Americans are learning how tariffs actually work. Senate offices are

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fielding over sixteen hundred calls a minute. Elected Republicans are

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feeling so much pressure from their constituents that they are

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canceling town hall meetings and seeking shelter from angry voters.

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Even Vice President JD. Vance saw a thousand demonstrators looming

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over his ski vacation. It was beautiful. The arsonists are

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beginning to get burned, and a percentage of former MAGA

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loyalists are falling out of love with the man who

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would be King Ukraine has been another rallying point for

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the resistance, as a slim majority of Americans are demonstrating

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solidarity with zeal Lenski. They're flying flags, marching in the streets,

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declaring support on social media, etc. The message is clear.

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Our White House may be currently putinized, but millions of

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Americans understand that Vlad is bad. Trump's war on the

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free press has been horrifying to witness, but as good

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journalists are resigning rather than kowtow to Jeff Bezos and

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his buddies, the United States is perhaps on the verge

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of a zeitgeist change. Independent reporting from autonomous platforms like

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substack in a cultural shift away from the Washington Post

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and major cable networks. And then we have the satirists'

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authors and artists eager to lampoon the self serious punks

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of privilege, Trump, Elon and the others undoubtedly win that

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Saturday Night lives. Most recent roast editorial cartoons have been ruthless,

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and the meme verse has been wonderfully reliable with things

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like images showing Putin walking Trump on the end of

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a leash, a wild haired celebrity drunk elon musk wielding

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his weapon at the Tesla Chainsaw massacre, and a tattoo

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of Donald Trump on a maga arm under the caption

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when sheep brand themselves and satire isn't mere fun. Ridiculing

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power is a liberation exercise. The emperors have no clothes,

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and so we draw them naked or in diapers. And

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the more they whine and threaten, the more creative our

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outlets become. Commoners know how to cook kings. This resistance

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gives me hope. I hope it gives the rest of

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the world some hope as well. I won't ask other

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free nations to give the United States a pass. Our

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government has broken trust. It's perfectly understandable that the countries

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of Europe and elsewhere feel inclined to maneuver beyond us.

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If punitive measures from former allies raise our prices, throttle

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our industries, and limit our options. I understand many Americans understand.

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But to anyone listening, please know that there are many

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who are standing against the many. And if free Americans

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survive this fiasco, if we can crush the oligarchy, overcome

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the bigotry, and restore sanity. I hope we might one

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day be given the chance to make things right again.

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The United States doesn't and won't deserve bloe trust, but

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if we one day extend a hand of friendship, I

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hope it will be seen as an olive branch by

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those who stood against hate and for our fellow travelers

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in this world. The state of our Union is frightening.

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We are possibly another empire falling or jumping to its death.

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The Republic may not survive. Our future is unknown, but

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whether or not we pull through, it is my hope

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that history will remember the millions of Americans who refused

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to go quietly, who stood for what is right, and

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who demonstrated what true love of country really is. And

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that is my secular state of the Union for twenty

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twenty five. I hope you enjoyed it, or at least

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I hope it resonated with you. Thank you for listening,

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and I'll see you next time.