945 - Hashtag Fordow Fail feat. Libby Watson (6/23/25)

All I wanna be is ill jumpo.

All I wanna be is ill jumbo.

We need a bottle tampos.

All I wanna

Hello, everybody.

It's Monday, June 23rd, and we've got some choppo for you.

On today's episode, Felix and I are joined by our old pal, Libby Watson, who is back with us.

Libby, thanks so much for being here.

Hello, thanks for having me again.

It's been a while.

It's been too long, Libby.

And originally, we were going to have you on last Monday, and then it became clear that the United States was going to get involved in the war in Iran.

So, like, this whole week, I'm like, oh, God, I'm going to have to do serious episodes all week.

You know, what more is there to say?

And Felix, to echo your concerns, I was like, we got Libby coming up for Monday.

What are we all thinking?

Really don't want to do another serious episode.

But thankfully, Donald Trump has heard our concerns.

He has responded by doing possibly the most farcical U.S.

military

in history.

So I'd like to begin there.

I'm glad that we don't have to do a serious show.

i and i don't want to underplay the gravity of this situation but thus far uh u.s war in iran seems to be quite a dud from both from both sides well yeah so iran like um they did another like symbolic strike you know flashbacks to true promise 2 i i if you're an aor fan like me you remember True Promise 2.

It was like, it was last year.

It was like, hey, we could do this if we wanted to strike which you know to be fair to iran would have worked like 10 years ago but just doesn't work uh at least on israel during the suicide pact murder suicide pact years but um this time they they did it again they did it at a you know basic at uh in qadar which they did last time as part of tp2

and um

This time, you know, you know,

Trump is, he's losing interest because he just made a post.

I want to thank Iran for warning us before the ballistic missile strike, no one got hurt, which is like, I still stand by the core thesis of the series on conservative media we did, which is all these guys are George W.

Bush, which has held out true.

But George W.

Bush was not this fat and lazy.

He really, I think he thought about what does it mean to be a wartime president?

And he thought about

FDR making all those speeches, going to Yalta, so destroyed by Ozimpic that he died months later.

And he was like, I don't want that.

I don't want to go out like FDR.

So it's, I mean, good times for AOR fans because it's looking like, you know, he did what Democrats do whenever,

like Democrats did this during COVID to make themselves look busy they would do the equivalent of striking iran in state government which is banning vapes yeah i'm just kidding i don't think those things are morally equivalent but i mean it's the same idea they were like let's look busy you know

It sort of reminds me of like when two guys are fighting at a bar, but they don't really want to fight.

So they're just kind of like hitting their shoulders into the other guy, you know?

Yeah.

Just

kind of knocking into them or whatever.

It's like, well, we need it to, we need everyone to see that we got into a fight, you know?

Yeah.

It does seem to be like, this is something for like domestic political consumption here because like the line over the weekend from the Trump administration is, we're merely bombing Iran.

We're not going to war with them.

And

also like, oh, JD Vance said, we are not at war with Iran.

We are at war with Iran's nuclear program.

And that's so, has anyone ever done, like, has Al-Qaeda ever been like, we're at war with the DNB?

Like, we hate the Don't.

We're at war with Carrie Fitzgerald and no one else.

Well, it's just like, the fact that them and all of the leaders of their vassal states in Europe are just like, Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear bomb.

But so that's why it's okay for Israel and the United States to preemptively bomb them.

But also, Iran, you need to come back to the negotiating table right now.

We all want peace.

Like, they bomb Iran's nuclear sites and then they're like, can't get mad at us.

Can't get mad at us.

No war.

No war.

We didn't say we're going to war with you.

No one could get mad at us.

And you have to negotiate in good faith because we all just want peace here.

I don't know.

I don't think we'll like know the full story with like, there's been a lot of this, a lot of people saying, acting like their secret agents, including the president, you know, how Trump went.

It was part of a deception plan that we negotiated with them.

I saw after these strikes, which like for an hour, the website was unusable.

It was a combination of like john pedoritz and like you know uh neocons who had some shine in like 2014 because of syria who have totally fallen off like jamie kerchik they all write for websites called like you know the corner the foot you know read my new expose on irani and sleeper souls in germany in the fudge i don't think i will I don't think anyone will.

All these guys who have totally fallen off, you know, posting, we did it.

How does that taste, Ayatollah?

You know, John Podhorus wishes he worked at the fudge.

Yeah, that is

his ideal publication fudge.

Like, you know, unusable for an hour because they're all pretending, oh my God, it's so...

It's a, you know, now it's a question of how fast can we get Vishana's grandson to Tehran because the people are rising up.

And we've destroyed their nuke.

We've destroyed their nukes they were going to kill us with.

And then, and, you know,

I'm a big proponent of just, you know, you don't always have to post immediately.

Besides, you know, saying these post event, but just as far as like prognosticating an outcome, making predictions, you never have to make predictions because, once again, you don't get anything for predicting anything.

No one gives you a prize.

But, you know, time passes.

It sounds like.

At the very least, they were able to move all their nuclear material, which

is for guys who are winning for a certain fatwa to get ignored.

Pretty awesome.

I mean, me.

But

Fordo might not even

been touched.

Obviously, touched, but not destroyed.

It's deep, deep, deep under a fucking mountain.

I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about building mountain bases,

but people that do are saying, if you still have season tickets to port out don't you know don't throw don't throw them in the trash you're probably still going to be able to go um

i made reservations for next week i'm not canceling yeah no yeah i i i support this game my father supported this game his father before him i'm not no

i'm a true axis of resistance homer i mean that but the trump thing of like i was doing negotiations to uh you know, to lull them into a false sense of security.

During the triumphalist period, the two hours after the strikes, a Fox news anchor said that she was doing

willful deception too, which is like fucking great.

It's like you have to keep being a news anchor after that.

Yeah.

Like, I feel like no one who watches her gives a shit.

I'd never even heard of this lady, but presumably you don't want to be like, oh, by the way, I could be doing a military operation where I'm lying to you at any time.

But

all of this, like Trump saying, thanks for giving us the heads up, makes me wonder if he actually was like subordinate to Israel on all this, in part because

I don't know if he would spray.

I mean,

if Miriam told him to, I think he would spring for it.

like him just coming out and admitting it does it runs against what we know about it does seem like it was him trying to protect his ego like maybe

the only report that for certain i believe is the one where netanyahu calls him and is like i want to do this and trump is like uh can you not but you can if you want like just disinterested and annoyed at the problem and i think like he just he gave conflicting signals which obviously mean yes and then he was like okay i have to like you know i have to own this to not look like a loser well uh there is some insight to Trump's decision-making process, comes courtesy of the New York Times today

that writes: Mr.

Trump had spent the early months of

his administration warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel against a strike on Iran.

But on the morning of Friday, June 13th, hours after the first Israeli attacks, Mr.

Trump had changed his tune.

He marveled to advisors about what he said was a brilliant Israeli military operation, which involved a series of precision strikes that killed key figures in Iran's military leadership and blasted away at strategic weapons sites.

Mr.

Trump took calls on his cell phone from reporters and began hailing the operation as excellent and very successful and hinting that he had much more to do with it than people realized.

Later that day, Mr.

Trump asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were playing.

He said that everyone was telling him he needed to get more involved.

Then it goes on to say, the president was closely monitoring Fox News, which was airing wall-to-wall praise of

Israel's military operation and featuring guests urging Trump to get more involved.

Several Trump advisors lamented the fact that Mr.

Carlson was no longer on Fox, which meant that Mr.

Trump was not hearing much of the other side of the debate.

Oh, my God.

He needs to have the right friends on television to tell him what to do.

Yeah.

And then, like, and I just want to say one thing about this is that he's like, he sees it.

He sees the Israeli attack on Iran presented on television, and he's like, wow, very cool.

Actually, this was my idea.

And then, like,

a day later, he's doing posts on Truth Social saying,

no one raised oil prices, okay?

Like, I'm monitoring the situation, but if anyone raises oil prices, they're going to be in big trouble.

Well, it's just like the immigration thing where he was like,

you know, obviously going absolutely insane,

you know, like Gestapo mode with the ice stuff, but then being like, well, actually, we shouldn't do this with hotels and restaurants because I just heard that that's bad when we do that.

So I don't want us to do that anymore, obviously.

And then obviously they keep doing it because, you know, he doesn't know or care.

But I do think that like the lens of with Trump always has to be like, what is he seeing on TV?

And does he think this will look cool on TV?

Like, I'm sure that he was convinced by someone that, like, you know, a couple of high-profile strikes or whatever, A, wouldn't be seen as war because JD Vance says, well, we just, it's just not war.

We'll just say we're

striking them.

It's not war.

And B,

you know, someone convinced him that it's like, yeah, this could look really cool on TV.

And look, all your friends on Fox are saying you look really cool when you do this.

So it's not like, don't raise our oil prices, don't do it.

It is so funny.

Yeah, so I forget who was someone I follow said, it's not a command economy, it's a scold economy.

Yeah.

It's so like, you remember, again, all the guys who write for the fudge made fun of,

you know, like Elizabeth the Warren Democrats when they said, oh, it's not inflation, it's greed inflation.

And they're like, what do you, you can't just ask companies not to charge higher.

That's what they did with the tariffs.

That's his whole strategy with the tariffs: was like, okay, but actually, don't, what are you doing?

Don't raise the prices on stuff.

I didn't want you to do that.

It's incredible.

Yeah, yeah.

I just, I mean, I, it's also like, who is it addressed at?

Like, is it OPEC?

Who does he think it's addressed at?

The gas station, shell.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a shell.

Yeah.

That would be, that would be awesome.

If it just, like, the lowest guy in the total, like a doctor who owns free gas station.

All the guys in New Jersey used to have to pump gas because of state law yeah

if you like opec can raise prices whatever

uh but like if you own a gas station just take it on the chin for like a couple months for me right i'll get you back i'll then mo you

another uh i just another one of the uh the reactions from the white house that i really enjoyed is uh jd vance who said over the weekend i empathize with americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East.

I understand the concern, but the difference is back then we had dumb presidents.

And this time it will be different.

We've got an alcoholic in charge of the Pentagon now.

We have a guy who's

has shakes if he doesn't get his third gen and tonic before 11 a.m.

But it's going to be it's going to be different this time.

Again, during the like, you know,

one night period of celebration when they were acting like, you know, know, this is, you know, this was like the end of the Ben Shapiro book where they own Iran.

They, they, I saw someone say, oh, and by the way, I think everyone underestimated Pete Hegseth.

And it's like, why?

Because, like, the planes didn't crash into the ocean.

Well, he's not actually flying them.

Like, like, what would it take for you to, like, not think that, like, if the planes tried to take off and just like careened into a billboard?

and then like, like, yeah, no, the planes that are $2 billion a unit made it to their destination.

Aerial refueling has been a possibility since fucking World War II.

And then the other thing they said is that...

One of the B-2s had to land back in Missouri because John Fetterman wouldn't put his seat belt on.

Yeah, yeah.

We're turning this bomber around right now, Mr.

Fetterman.

Okay, fuck.

I don't care anymore.

well well how about that the b2 the p the b-2 pilots passed their breathweiser test the thing that everyone said was going to slow down this mission they they also said that um there were no leaks which is like you mean the thing that everyone knew was going to happen for a week yeah

like yeah yeah no one found out about it uh speaking of the uh the b2 bombers i i did really enjoy the reaction uh where pete hegseth was like you know god bless our boys in those planes.

And then, of course,

the classic liberal media correction, they were like, actually, one of the pilots was a woman.

Oh, yeah.

Did she have to stop to ask her directions or what?

And now, if it turns out that the Fordow facility is still completely intact, I'm sure women are going to get the blame for that one.

That's the one.

Yeah, that's the one that the woman was supposed to bomb, but she forgot she was on a period and she had brain fog.

uh another aspect.

I mean, like, it was a, I guess it was sort of an indication of like how this whole weekend would would play out because, like, you know, on Saturday, I'm seeing, you know, U.S.

strikes Iranian nuclear sites, and I'm thinking, oh, God, like, you know, like that, that sinking, nauseating feeling.

Then I'm watching the baseball game, and then, like, Fox tells it that, you know, if you'd like to keep watching the game, like, switch over to FS1 because, you know, like, all Fox channels are coming over to a statement by the President of the United States about U.S.

military action in Iran.

And I'm wondering, Libby and Felix, did either of you guys watch the Trump's national address on Saturday night?

Awesome.

I unfortunately missed it because I was out being on the West Coast.

That was rough time for me.

I will say,

one of the highlights is at the end where he just says, I just want to thank everyone.

In particular,

God.

I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military.

Protect them.

In particular, God.

We love you, God.

But

for me, the absolute best moment of this, keep in mind, he's flanked by Heg Seth, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio.

The whole crew, the whole gang.

The heavy hitters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The A-list, you know, the alpha dogs.

And as Tracy says, first, he says, I want to thank Netanyahu.

I would like to thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He thanked Israel

for the fact that, by the way, every one of those bunker buster bombs, I found this out today, costs $500 million.

That is a common misconception.

They probably cost $500 million to develop, but

the only quote I've seen on per unit cost is like $20 million, which is like a bargain.

It's a lot of people.

Cheerfully withdrawn.

Cheerfully withdrawn, but the prospect of the President of the United States thanking Netanyahu for our efforts to go to war on his behalf

was nauseating.

and he said of him and benjamin netanyahu he said we worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before perhaps better than any team has ever worked before yeah

any team like like the 96 bolts yeah

he said yeah so like just just like the the the the spectacle of trump thanking israel on television for us doing them a massive favor yeah oh my gosh you know what that sounds like that is like when like when someone gets a cameo from like Eric Roberts or something to say, like, you guys had a really great sales quarter, I heard.

And I, I heard that you guys have like smashed all of your sales goals.

So your boss just wants to say, well done.

If I learned one thing about teamwork, it was on the Pope and Cranach Village when I was working with Mickey Rourke.

And we worked together probably better than any actors have ever worked together on a movie.

That is, that's like one quirk of

cameos that I love is when like the guy will pretend that he like organically heard about, like, a medical device sales firm in Dallas having a really good quarter.

Like, Eric Roberts is like, hmm, I need to check the medical sales trade journals that I'm always reading.

Yeah, for like Bloomington, Indiana, or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I, the, uh, the truck, like, thanking Israel for um asking us to do something for 30 years was

like the perfect farcical cap on the entire night.

But I love the like, oh, and by the way, like, thank you, God thing.

it reminded me of uh at ufc 100 or ufc 116 when brock lesnar had that big brock lesnar had this horrifying poop disease that almost ended his career prematurely in mma and he came back from the poop disease to defeat shane carwin in a come from behind victory to defend his title at ufc 116 and in his speech afterward where he was like he was clearly a rock like carwin was a really hard puncher and like rocked the shit out of lesnar in the first round he said i'm so grateful that i have this amazing body that can do all these things so i just want to say to god god bless you god god bless you

well well i mean like it's just like uh trump's remarks were like they're only he was only on tv for about two or three minutes and like it seemed like he wanted to just get the get get keep the show moving like didn't want to say too much and then he was basically like any more questions uh pete hegseth will be giving a press conference at the Pentagon tomorrow at 8 a.m.

And

you can see him just start sweating.

Oh my god, Pete was doing

a Henry Hill type day for Pete Hegseth getting up at 8 a.m.

I thought you were going to say you're just going to give a press conference at McCormick and Schmick's.

They got happy hours till seven.

We'll be giving away tickets to Fog Hat later.

You know that Pete was doing like the elky mat the moment he heard that?

Yep.

Oh my god, if I go to sleep at 6 a.m.,

Two solid hours,

but um, but no, Felix, to your point was like the uh, the unbearable triumphalism of like the Ayatollah, your days are numbered.

Like the people of Iran are rising up, and it's just like, oh, all the Zionists who were just like so hyped because, as you're right, Felix, they've been trying to get America to do this for 30 years, and then it seemed like we did, but then almost immediately after, we're like, kind of like, not really.

And And Iran's missiles are still slamming into teleview on Sunday and Friday night.

Because it sort of seems like they're trying to do the Houthi thing where they're like, well, if you stop attacking us, we'll stop attacking you.

We'll call it quits after this round of symbolic missile exchanges.

But we're definitely still bombing Israel.

We're definitely going to be still hitting them.

We're going to be bombing the shit out of them.

Like I said,

I don't know where this is all going to go.

Obviously, like, you know, I mean, I'm making fun of it, but the stakes of this, like, you know, couldn't be higher or more

horrifying uh considering like does anyone have any real faith that the united states and the trump administration has some sort of fortitude not to get involved in like a much more serious war than the one they've already started it does sort of make you wonder like is there anything that at this point israel could not make us do uh right it seems like the answer is no well libby i was thinking about that with uh like another round of tramphilism on the internet over the weekend was all the people posting photos of kamala harris being like bet you wish you voted for her now she i know she would never have gone to war with Iran.

And, like, look, to a certain extent, this is there, there's cope on both sides here.

And I'll cop to it.

Maybe Kamala Harris wouldn't have preemptively bombed Iran at Israel's request.

It's just, if that's the case, she's made no indication otherwise.

Because, like, do you really think someone coming out of the Biden administration has the fort, like I said, has either the ability or the inclination to say no to Israel ever?

Yeah, like, I mean, Kamala, by all indications, she's not done with politics.

And this is a very unpopular president.

This war is incredibly unpopular.

She said fucking nothing about it.

And

people posted the clip of her saying that Iran is the, you know, our greatest threat, which is, you know, she's not unique in Democrats and saying that.

What is unique is the sheer terror in her eyes.

When she says, our greatest threat.

That's easy.

Because

the thing with Kamala is not that i 100 believe she would strike iran well i i i don't know that for a fact

we'll never know because she threw the election she did everything possible to make sure she lost the election well what i do know is that more than any other democrat who has run for president in our lifetimes more so than bill clinton She has no beliefs.

And I don't mean that in that like she's a, you know, a

genius cynical operator.

I mean, she just has never thought about that part.

And she

has not thought about it so much that when she gets asked questions like that, she goes, oh my God, what I know this one.

Fuck.

And that doesn't instill a lot of confidence.

It doesn't instill a lot of confidence that, like, yeah, I don't think she would, but like, what if, similar to Trump, enough people convinced her, hey, you're going to get yelled at if you don't do this.

Yeah.

She seems to move her on fucking everything else.

It's the reason why

during her, you know, we call it a 2019 presidential primary campaign.

That is how long it lasted.

During that, she was like, I'm cheat, hey.

I'm an Afab, you know, like it's just.

She had policy positions that like even Elizabeth Warren would hear on that debate stage and go, what the fuck?

What are you talking about?

Yeah, she was Medicare for Medicare for all who wanted, or whatever, right?

Yeah.

Well, that was Pete.

That was Pete, I believe.

Sure, sure, yeah.

She had some, I think she had like Medicare Advantage for all.

I think that was her thing, you know.

She was like, This is this is really good.

Um, wait, so Medicare for Advantage for All, so it's like uh, people who aren't on Medicare can now buy a supplemental private insurance for Medicare that they don't have.

Yeah, I honestly like, I blocked it all out.

I tried not to think about what they, uh, what they all said at the time because it's so hilarious to think about now.

But I mean, the other thing about this is that like you don't even have to think about, you don't even have to theorize about what Kamala would have done because Chuck Schumer, who is the fucking Senate Democratic leader, said, oh, I'm really pissed that he didn't, I'm really pissed that there's no War Powers Act.

I'm going to vote for it.

It's like, what the fuck?

Libby.

This is the next thing I was going to bring up.

The other thing, Donald Trump did the Democrats a huge favor by not consulting with Congress before he started this war because like it just reveals like, yes, this is flagrantly unconstitutional.

And any Democrat not talking about impeaching him immediately for one of the gravest violations of the Constitution imaginable, you know, we're full of shit.

The line from the Democrats in Congress right now, like Adam Schiff, is this is a totally illegal war that we should have been consulted about first before agreeing to go along with it.

Yeah, it's like I was supposed to be able to hold your hand while you press the button and you started it without me.

Like, it's it's a completely different objection.

It's just yeah,

I the statement from the like Democrats on the uh Senate Foreign Relations Committee was complaining that they didn't get briefings,

which like again, I mean, like we don't know what lies to tell our constituents.

Please send around the talking points.

This all goes like this goes back to another issue, another central issue, which is like, okay, so from 2016 to 2021, 22 about the posture was that, you know, Donald Trump is, he is at once once like a fever over the Republican Party that has to be broken, but he's also like, he's a madman.

He's a fucking lunatic.

He's a criminal.

We're going to throw him in prison using the powers of Merrick Garland.

And then, like, you know, obviously their response to

a close victory by Trump in a cost of living election against an incredibly unpopular incumbent administration was like, oh, all right.

Well, I guess the average person is that duck dynasty guy who died.

And so

they've dropped that posture.

And now, you know, before all that, they were in favor of like him moving the embassy still.

They were in favor of killing Suleimani.

And the central contradiction there, of course, was like, okay,

you agree with this madman, this lunatic who should be in jail on like.

80, 90% of foreign policy things, but you think he should call you first.

But now, like, now they've dropped that, like, he needs to go to prison thing, which it doesn't endear people to you, more conservative voters.

It just, again, makes you look like, hey, you got us.

We were lying.

And now with now with this, it's like, you know, the guy we were lying about, we admit he's great and he's bringing jobs back.

His foreign policy thing is reckless and insane.

And we would like the opportunity to agree with it.

And it's like, okay, then just kill yourselves.

I don't know if you saw this, but

I mean, like, there are some Democrats in Congress who are like, you know, Rokana has this war powers act right now, like intended to constrain President Trump's ability to, you know, get us much further involved in this war.

And again, just to be clear here, we have already gone to war with Iran, okay?

Like, there are levels of degrees, but like, this is an act of war.

We are at war with Iran right now.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked today if he would be supporting Rokana's War Powers Act.

And his response was, I have to take a look at it.

I haven't read it yet.

Remember?

You can't imagine.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, look, Hakeem, I know you got a lot of other important stuff to be paying attention to right now.

So, but maybe I'm going to stop doing that with everything.

Like, when the IRS sends me a letter being like, you didn't pay your taxes, I'm like, well, I haven't read it yet.

I don't know, man.

Remember, again,

fucking, this was more like I say to you, whenever Trump would tweet something where it's like, you know, we're going to end like birthright citizenship, So like something that would be on truth social.

They would ask like Kevin McCarthy, oh, have you seen, what is your response to Trump's latest, you know, proclamation?

And he would go, I haven't seen it.

And that way it was like a running thing that if you would ask a Republican who is in anything but less like anything except like, you know, an R plus 90 district, they would go, I haven't seen it.

Is it this is the exact same fucking thing?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because like Republicans with Trump is like, they just don't know what to do.

Like they, they've, they've, I feel like they are completely paralyzed by feeling like basically everybody agrees with Trump and Trump won.

And I don't even know, I don't know what their plan is other than just like wait for him to die.

And then all they've got is J.D.

Vance, which honestly may be kind of a good plan.

Well, I mean, the double problem for the Democrats is that they all support a war with Iran, but they know how unpopular it is.

And they need to find some way.

of supporting it and not supporting it at the same time because like uh you know doing and like like the last thing I want to say about this, it goes back to the like the Tucker Carlson's humiliation of Ted Cruz and this old question about do you blame voters for getting it wrong or do you blame the politicians who ran the campaign that they voted or didn't vote for?

Because like, you know, a lot of the triumphalism about like, bet you're sorry you didn't vote for Kamala now.

Like, you know, all you one-issue voters have doomed us to this.

I mean, like, the corollary to that is that yes, like that so many people voted for Trump because they thought he was an anti-war candidate or that like he cynically made overtures to, like, I'm the peace candidate, and no more stupid wars, no more foreign entanglements.

Yes, obviously, everyone who voted for him based on that pitch is a rube who got rooked as they rightly should.

But like,

the ease with which the, you know, like the Democrats have just surrendered the viability of an anti-war position, or just like the idea that they were willing to allow Tucker Carlson to be the voice against U.S.

empire and imperialism or interventions abroad is just like

ceding the entire field to the far right and then imagine and then wondering why they get elected.

I honestly think they prefer for it to be, to them, like having Tucker be the voice of that isn't a failure.

In their best of worlds where like, you know, things get fucked up so bad that, you know, the average voter just wants like

ostensibly left to center institutionalist like Joe Biden again.

They would love a sort of, you know, and they tried this as hard as they could during the Trump years, to brand anti-interventionism as like a bad misinformation Russia thing that can get you banned from all social media.

Yeah.

And it's just, once again, like if Kamala Harris would not have bombed Iran, she could say so now, and she could have made any indication that she was for peace on the campaign trail.

Every attempt to, I mean, basically any engagement with this issue at all indicated that she would do the exact opposite.

So, I mean, like, once again, the idea that you allowed yourself or allowed people to get rolled by an obvious fraud like Donald Trump, just because he would simply say,

we've done too many stupid wars.

I'm not going to do any more and I'm going to end the ones we already have.

I mean, yeah, we're seeing now that, yeah, obviously he was full of shit about that.

But, like,

why is it so easy for him to say that and people will vote for it because like he's the only candidate who is saying something like that?

Right.

And obviously, like, the pundit, any online politics fucking whatever, anyone who like believed Trump, especially like again, after we saw him as president, who believed that is completely risable.

Everyone, if you actually believe that, you are a fucking idiot.

I don't know how many people in your life this describes.

Or it wouldn't even be in my life.

It would just be people I've known in my online dealings.

But like, you know,

I have, if you've know enough people, you've seen people who've like switched over, like the trauma of losing in 2020 was too much for them.

Among the people I know that, you know, loose acquaintances who flipped over, it includes like someone who got me too like disproportionate to their follower account.

Like, like someone who, like, so I always think, like, you have 1,500 followers.

How are you always getting me too?

What's the point?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, I was, what the fuck?

Just generally, like, dopes.

Dupes.

People who, like, their posts before this were like, well, you guessed it.

I clicked on another phishing link.

So, you know, not smart people who fall for that.

And to their credit, a lot of these dumb dumbs that I've seen, both ones I know and I don't know.

They have been like, what the fuck?

We didn't vote for this.

Wait, now they're telling me he did this stuff last time?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, I mean, it's like the people that, again, with the immigration stuff, the stories of people being like, well, I didn't think he was going to deport,

you know, I don't know what the end of that sentence is, moms or kids, or I thought he was just wife.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I didn't think he was going to deport.

Sometimes it's just me.

I didn't think he was going to deport me.

Yeah.

You know, and it's just like, I don't know.

We got an information crisis, I guess, because I don't know where you could have gotten that.

Yeah, but

Will is right, though.

Like, if you cannot, like, say, hey, this guy, like, in his last weeks in office,

like,

you know, made it that much more difficult for us to ever have any sort of diplomatic relationship with Iran by assassinating, like, you know, two millions of Iranians, a national hero.

If you can't even come out and say that's bad, if your only criticism was, it may have been imprudent.

Yeah, it's your own fucking fault.

Once again, you can blame the voters for being stupid or you can blame the politicians they're voting for.

And just like, I guess the last thing I'll say in that regard is that, you know, like there was a time in my life where I used to think that this could make a difference.

I'm not so certain anymore, given the way things have gone over the last couple of years.

But like, I think it should be of note.

for the Democratic Party that like over the weekend, every single Democratic politician or media figure who promoted the the war in Iraq was doing the exact same thing for the war in Iran.

And I think it's just, it's maybe worth considering if like they, if those people had suffered any professional consequences for their disastrous judgment or outright deception, would we be in this position we are now?

Something to consider.

Like I said, I'm not even optimistic about that, but it's just something to consider, given that not like every single person, the only person who suffered any negative career consequences for supporting the Iraq war is Hillary Clinton in two presidential elections.

And that's not nothing.

That's not nothing.

But everyone else is still on board the gravy train.

And now they're telling you,

look, this will be a limited strike.

And it certainly won't be like the Iraq war.

Yeah.

It makes you wonder where the fucking popularist guys are.

Because I saw some poll that was like, the question was, do you want war with Iran?

And

the vote in favor was 5%,

which is like, that's like a margin of error of some guy pressing the wrong button on his keyboard type of stuff, you know?

Yeah, that's literally 5% of the population works for the corner and fudge.

Yes.

It's all they somehow have a billion dollars.

The fudge is somehow like better funded than the New York Times.

All those places are because it's always like, you know, a guy who founded like a website that you've like an app you've never heard, like the dumbest thing you've ever thought of.

And it has like 800 billion users.

It's like an app where you take a picture of food and it tells you if it's good or bad for you.

Like, if you take a picture of a hamburger, it says, I don't know, and it's worth seven trillion dollars.

Those guys are always funding the fudge because they're always like, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm politically homeless.

I like Donald Trump.

I don't like Donald Trump, but I love Israel.

Where do I get it?

What party is there for me?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So I founded the fudge to hire Judith Miller and Eli Lake.

Well,

this leads into

the next topic for today, which is,

if you don't live here, maybe you're sick of hearing about it.

But tomorrow is the New York City Democratic primary for the mayor.

And we got a guy here.

We got Zoran.

And

this is a big deal here in New York.

And I want to talk about this for a second.

And the first thing I'll say here is that, like, as Helix said about predictions, I cannot, nor will I offer a prediction in this race.

We all saw the polling.

It shows that Zoran has a lead now on the second ballot.

All I would say is I'll believe it when I see it.

But what's important is what the poll shows is that he very much can win tomorrow.

He can win this primary.

And everyone who wants him to win should be.

acting like he's five points down right now.

Like, I think he has a very good chance to do it.

Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it.

But like, we're on the verge of maybe some, maybe something good instead of something bad happening.

And I'd just like to talk about like the, as this race has tightened up and the national media has, I think, to their, like, as they're kicking themselves now, belatedly started to take an interest in this.

Chris said something over the weekend that I thought was very on point, where it's like, anytime anyone who's like vaguely left-wing and just like seems like a nice normal dude gets within spitting distance of winning an election, they just come out with he's going to kill you

and and that and that was the tenor of uh the the advertising and a lot of i saw over the weekend here in new york city including eli wiesel's son putting out an ad that compared zoran to hitler i just i hate eli wiesel's son it's like it's like you weren't in the camps bro you were a hedge fund manager for 30 years like what the he's a hedge fund manager and he's i read his wikipedia which by the way he has enough free time to clearly write his own wikipedia oh that rocks i'm gonna check that out right now yeah it is so there it's so long

it's so it's so

long for this guy that no one i have never i've met all types of freaks as i've alluded to i've met people who are like i was institutionalized for all 2019 because i try i tried to kill myself to bring back the sci-fi series the avergence

and i go i've never heard of that you're a maniac felix it was never

by the way.

And I don't regret my actions.

This is the lead into the expanse.

This person was even crazier than you.

But, you know,

he's a hedge fund manager.

And like, who does this work on?

Who's like, oh, his dad told him all these stories about the Holocaust?

And so he recognizes when he sees Zoron, that's really a camp guard in waiting.

I saw another guy call it an existential threat.

Existential.

Yep.

Are you?

Have you made plans to move in case it happens?

Right.

Because you're not going to exist when if it does, and it's like a coin flip.

Well, I mean, like, I saw over the weekend, like, Zoran got like some death threat or something.

Someone was like, I'm going to blow up your car.

And I thought the, uh, the, his, his campaign's response was that he doesn't own a car, which I thought was pretty funny.

That's really nice.

I love that.

That's a real urbanist.

But I was like, and then that guy, Whitney Tilson, was like, we all have to condemn violent rhetoric like this.

You know, threats have no place in our discourse.

And I was like, Whitney Tilson is the only reason he's running a campaign is that he's like a vessel for millions of dollars to be spent to send mailers to my house in New York City telling me that Zoran is essentially going to kill all Jews.

And it's like, if you believe that that were true, why would you get angry that someone threatened to kill him?

Yeah, you're okay.

If you're saying that he's the next Hitler, like, are you condemning Klaus von Stauffenberg for that Operation Valkyrie was like uncivil or like should have gone through the normal political process?

Yeah, you're okay with killing like potentially two million Palestinians.

Yeah, you know, you're okay with probably.

I Windney Tilson, has anyone asked him about the

Fordow fail, as I'm calling it?

Yeah, let's get that hush sugar on everybody.

Fordow fails.

Yeah, all the AOR heads.

We need you.

You know, presumably that's where all this stuff is worth it, but not like killing him is too far or like, I don't know, blowing up his city bike.

One thing I saw just before I started recording today from Brianna Wu, fast becoming one of my favorite

sort of denizens of the discourse, is that she posts, responding to the poll that shows that Zoran is now the favorite in the mayoral primary.

She writes, was talking with a Jewish friend this weekend, and she noted a historical pattern.

When Jews no longer feel safe in a city and leave, it often collapses culturally and economically.

Baghdad and Aleppo are strong examples.

Oh, my God.

Now,

two things I'd like to note about this point of view is one,

I like that she is basically saying that the Jews do control the culture and economy of New York City.

Yeah.

And the examples of Baghdad and Aleppo are telling because it's sort of like she's threatening to bomb New York City if we elect the royal guy mayor.

Because there's like, I wonder why the culture and economy of Baghdad and Aleppo collapsed recently.

Well, did she, maybe she means like, I mean, if she means this example, she's awesome.

The Baghdad that was sacked by Genghis Khan.

Like, Genghis Khan was like, no more Jews.

We can go in.

We can kill everyone in fucking Baghdad.

She might mean that.

I mean, like, I think it's so telling that Brianna Wu, I mean,

a lot of people, they're so young, they only know her as like the crazy Zionist lady.

People who don't know, Brianna Wu was, she was a Gamergate figure.

You know, the thing we said we would never talk about.

The most important issue of the 21st century.

It gave us Donald Trump.

It gave us the nation of Iran.

Iran did not exist in 2013, and then Gamergate happened.

It gave us Israel.

None of these things existed until Gamergate.

It's the most important thing.

If you don't talk about it, you are complicit.

But

she so basically she was this like, just this crazy lady who made, you know, mobile games.

She made mobile games where you are, I guess, like a cat person in space.

And it was like, it had the most like tortured development cycle.

It takes like a year to make these games, but it took her like a decade.

It was like her war and peace.

But when Gamergate happened, she just sort of like jumped on it and was like, you won't believe this, but a sniper tried to kill me.

And it's like, you're right.

I don't.

I think you're a fucking lunatic.

But she was even like, you know, during all this time, you just, you know, the joke about

this is the most important issue.

You have to have a position.

That was a lot of the, if you were on the like.

left liberal internet at the time.

There was a lot of that.

You were hacked to take a position on it,

even though you did not have to but even you know 2015 2016 there was a realization among people that maybe that this lady is a bit cuckoo maybe she likes inflict saying that a bunch of things happened to her that in fact did not

And it's so telling that after there's no cultural currency for that left, you can't be someone who's like, hey, my mobile game that I've been working on for the past 30 years is finally, we're finally putting out a demo.

That you can't like juice donations or attention or media jobs out of that.

That she's like, what's the next like victimhood thing I can get on?

Zionism.

Well,

one lesson what she says, when Jews no longer feel safe in a city and leave, it often collapses culturally and economically.

I think Brianna is actually staking out here a huge opportunity for Jews who want to stay in New York City after Zoran wins, or if he wins.

Because like, think how strong their cultural and financial power will be if they are the only jew left in new york city like felix you will be running everything oh my god after everyone flees because of the existential threat of free buses oh my god i hope you i hope you pigs are in for ready for some pain

no more sticking ball sports all combat sports and axis of resistance live stream you guessed it

mixed gender equinox finally it's not going to be all men sexually harassing just kidding That does not happen to me there.

Just like another thing of note from the weekend in the mayor's race is that

the endorsements that have come in for Cuomo are hysterical.

They are awesome.

They are absolutely.

It's like a fucking

Transformers guy of

fucking

like race.

Jeffrey Epstein associates.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Glenn Dubstein.

Because, okay,

he got the Epstein trifecta.

He got Bill Clinton, Glenn Dubin, and Larry Summers.

But my favorite.

Did Glenn Dubin even make endorsement?

Glenn Dubin, like the only reason you know who Glenn Dubin is.

Is because of Epstein.

Yeah.

Like literally, it's just like, oh, famous billionaire rapist pedophile.

That's it.

There's no one who's like, I really liked his fucking futures trades in 1997.

And you know who Glenn Dubin is because you work in hedge funds who are already voting for Cuomo.

It's one of those things where, like, do you remember when Hillary Clinton endorsed the opponent of Nithya Rahman in LA?

And it's just like, what are you, why are you getting involved in this?

Like, when, like, clearly, a, a, uh, like a group text has gone out being like, hey, we, we got to bring in some big guns.

Like, we want rapidly, like, Bill Clinton to weigh in on the New York City mayor or Jim Clyburn is another great example.

Yeah, no, Clyburn was my favorite.

Yeah.

That was the absolute best.

Like, congressman from South Carolina.

Yes.

And, like, they were like, oh, like, that carries a lot of weight.

And, like, look, it worked in the South Carolina primary when it was Bernie.

But, like, how many New Yorkers know who fucking Jim Clyburn is?

Well, and it's just like, it's so telling as an example of the thing that like people on the left are talking about, which is like, hey, it sure looks like all of the worst guys you know really don't want this to happen.

And even if you don't follow politics, it's like, huh, I guess that would maybe tell me something about whether I should vote for this guy because everyone who I hate seems to hate him, you know?

I saw a great post that was like, why didn't Zoron try to win Clyburn's support?

And it's like, yeah, that would be what a great use of time that would be for him to travel to South Carolina and be like, I know that you hate my entire program of politics and you have no connection with the state, the city, anything.

But can you like take resources away from

phone banking, from canvassing, and just try to get Jim Clybird's support?

I love all the people who do this.

And they, there's like a little like trick, a little lie by omission where people talk about Jim Clydeburn in these incredibly aggrandizing terms for this like complete cynical piece of shit.

And I think it's, they think that people won't look him up or know who he is.

And they're like, if I just talk about him this way, people will assume he's like a respected civil rights icon.

Like

John Lewis.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, that's not, yeah.

You know, not a corrupt word healer from South Carolina.

Black Mayor Quinnby, as we've said.

Yeah.

No, I mean, like, I was just like, look,

obviously, there are no moral victories here.

And it's going to be gutting tomorrow if it's like razor close and he doesn't win.

But I will say that it has been inspiring to watch like Zoron run really an old-fashioned campaign campaign.

And I'm thinking about that thing he did over the weekend where he walked the entire island of Manhattan from Inwood Park to the Staten Island Ferry.

And, you know, shout out our friend Donald Boringstein, who's doing all of Zoron's videos, which have been

eight plus.

And it was just like to see him just out in the streets of New York, very clearly, he loves this city.

And like, he got dapped up down the whole fucking island.

There was a crowd of like 40 or 50 people following him.

Just everywhere he was in the city, people were dapping him up.

The energy is clearly all on his side.

That being said, like, look, I've seen this movie before, but I'm just saying, like, he's got a real chance.

And if you're in New York City and haven't voted already, there is a good chance that, okay, tomorrow in New York City, it is going to be 110 degrees with like 90% humidity.

Probably the worst weather the city has ever experienced.

Who do you think that favors?

If you get out there and vote for Zoran tomorrow, there is a good chance that your vote will be taking the place of two or three elderly Cuomo supporters.

So I think that alone is worth suffering the heat.

And it's worth suffering.

And, you know, if there's any time left you have to canvass, I know this is like the last hour, but like, I know all of our listeners of the show really want to see Zoron do it.

I really want to see him do it.

So, like, this is worth it because it's in the palm of our hands right now.

Yeah.

All the Cuomos supporters who miraculously survived his first urge of his own supporters when he was governor.

Mother, mother, mother, please.

He's like, they are going to die in line tomorrow.

Like, that is, you know, there is no greater way to eliminate old people than a heat wave.

um i was thinking of like

if they were trying to prove that uh clyburn has a connection to new york and some a popularist guy being like oh yeah what's this and it's just kill the killer season dice scene but with clyburn editing it in

he was in this entire movie

a new york favorite

he's long been an affiliate of the diplomats yeah and then like i guess the last thing i'll say about this is like the one of the one of the most amazing things to me about about this race was the New York Times' efforts to not endorse anyone in the race and then waiting until the last minute and doing an unsigned editorial saying Zoran is unfit to be mayor.

Like they first they announced that we're no longer endorsing local races.

Then they put out this bizarre thing where it was like the council of learned New Yorkers, including the CEO of Warby Parker and a guy who works at the Manhattan Institute.

And they were like, who are you voting for and mayor?

And the results were too varied.

Like it was just like there wasn't any real consensus.

So then they waited like another couple days and then they did this editorial where they just, it's like a non-endorsement endorsement of Cuomo because they're like, though we regret we have to vote for this sex criminal, like Zoron, blah, blah, blah, for reasons is dangerous and unfit for office.

And they were like, he recalls the, like, you know, it's just like, it would recall back to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

And I'm like, was it really that bad?

I mean, I remember Bill de Blasio being okay.

I mean, the city didn't fall apart under him.

It was literally.

Pretty fine.

Yeah.

He got to that university pre-K.

Yeah.

Stop and frisk.

Crime did not go up.

In fact, it went down.

It was literally a joke to blame stuff on, like, to say that de Blasio's New York was like this hellhole, like this 28 days later landscape or whatever, because it was just like fine, I guess.

It's certainly not like the sort of specter that I think they are trying to raise.

I also liked about that editorial that apparently it was written by David Leonhart, who lives in fucking D.C.

So what the fuck?

Are you kidding me?

Yeah, he lives in D.C.

I don't see how they're doing that with like, by the way, Bill de Blasio, his approval ratings like in New York, his base never abandoned him.

And he did, he at least did one of the things he said he was going to do, which is what a fucking low bar, but a monumental achievement, especially for fucking mayor.

And if we were just stacking them up, who disgraced New York War, Bill de Blasio or Eric fucking Adams?

I know.

And

the fact that like Bill de Blasio's tenure as mayor of New York City invalidates like anyone who's like on the socialist left from ever running for mayor.

But Eric Adams being one of the most ludicrously corrupt crooks who's ever sat in Gracie Mansion, ever been mayor of New York City.

That doesn't credit centrist Democrats at all.

The fact that this guy

is now personally in the pocket of Donald Trump because he had 56 federal indictments that were squashed.

Can you fucking imagine what would happen if Zoron went out there and they were like, What do you like about New York?

And he said, Well, it's crazy.

You know, one day you could be eating a chopped cheese, and the next day it could be 9-11.

Because that's basically something that Eric Adams said.

But, you know, I mean, like,

all I'm saying is that there's a real opportunity to make all these people eat shit tomorrow.

And I'd really like to see it happen.

I really would like to see it happen.

Yeah, me.

I'm still stuck on like the Glenn Dew.

Like, is there like a pipe fitter in Rockaway who's like, I'm waiting to see what Glenn Deven says.

says well I mean it's just I mean like I don't think it is an exaggeration at all to say that the people who have endorsed Cuomo and are his loudest supporters are to a person um Zionist sex criminals yeah

you know or one or the other or both but I repeat myself like you could not get a worse collection of

vile people coming together to tell you that the like you know the nice young guy is actually really dangerous for the city so we have to

regrettably we have to elect the guy with 13 sexual assault allegations.

Have we heard of harassment or whatever?

Have we heard from Alan Dershowitz on

who he's going to be supporting?

Because I've been waiting to endorse before I know who Alan Dershowitz is endorsing.

Well, this is the thing is, like, I keep hearing from the Democrats that, like,

we need to sort of rebrand the party.

We need to attract young people.

We need energy.

But, like, anyone who would conceivably fit that description

is not towing the line on Israel.

So you're shit out of luck.

Like, you can have one or the other because no one under the age of 40 likes Israel anymore.

And they're not going to.

That's not turning around.

So

you're going to be continuing.

If you're the Democrats, unless you want to

change the brand, you are going to continually be stuck with the Zionist sex criminals running for office.

That's your brand.

It's going to be really interesting.

As a resident of California, it's going to be really interesting to see what Gruesome Gavin does with that stuff

as he tries to grow into the national spotlight, which I think personally is going to fail enormously.

I don't think there's any

chance that anyone is going to be fooled by him for a second because he is just so he's he looks like the guy from

Futurama who gets bonitis.

My moon!

Like he's just the most, he's just the most obviously horrible guy.

But I wonder, like, you know, he's like, I don't know, maybe the youngest prominent Democrat who might, you know, run for president other than, I guess, Pete Buttigieg, you know?

So I just wonder what he's going to do with all that stuff or whether he'll just keep talking about killing homeless people instead, because that seems to be his comfort zone.

Libby, I see, like, I see like a very DeSantis thing happening to him.

Where,

yeah, this shit is not playing outside of your state.

And it's weird because it's like, unlike DeSantis, he isn't making the case of being a liberal champion.

He, he is saying that he's going to like meaningfully take on Donald Trump, which is, you know, something that the Democratic base does like a lot.

But the problem is he has a record that suggests he is not doing that.

He has to contend with his record.

And I also, yeah, I just, I cannot imagine that act playing anywhere else.

Like, I'm, he can do all the fucking podcasts he wants.

He could do the John Fetterman, the thing that every Democrat has been doing of like, I actually greatly enjoy duck hunting.

You know, I, he can do that all he wants.

It's just,

no, you could not, you do not naturally occur occur outside of California.

Yes, actually, I, okay, I have a prediction now.

I think what Gavin Newsom is going to do is he's going to go down a fetimin-esque route by creating a fit, like a fake

shit.

Well, yeah, he could do that.

He could do that.

He never would.

He could not.

He could

probably die.

That would show me that he at least wants that.

Yeah, yeah.

I like that.

I think he's going to do, he's going to do like a sort of small bean mental health crisis where he's like, I have imposter syndrome and I have anxiety and like I'm taking a month off or whatever, and create like a bunch of discourse around that.

I think that's what he's going to do.

And that would be very California of him, too.

He's got to get married, though.

Can't be a bachelor running for president.

All right, I'll get a

wife.

I thought he was.

Isn't he married to that, like, Jennifer Seabrook?

Is he married

for Seabird?

I know.

She was like some actress who was in the 80s.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Siebel.

Yeah, no, yes.

His spouse is Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Okay.

Correction again, cheerfully withdrawn.

He's already checked that box off.

He's married to Jennifer Siebel.

I don't know if he has kids, though.

Does he have kids?

Yeah, he's four kids.

Four kids?

Fuck me.

All right.

He might have kids with, yeah, he has

kids with Kimberly Gargoyle.

Yeah, yeah.

He has at least one kid with Kimberly Gargoyle.

Fuck, that rocks.

She looks crazy.

It's so sad.

She had a really unique look.

I mean, this is a really popular look on shows like reacher they love making the love interest look like this but i call it the irish latina look

if you see it you know what i'm talking about yeah like on the most recent season yeah yeah

yeah yeah and the one before that uh reacher loves those irish latinas because they're the ones who'll go i know that you're homeless

you don't have to be my boyfriend You just have to fuck me, fuck me until we kill this guy.

Every man's dream.

But Kimberly Gargoyle used to look like a naturally occurring Irish Latina.

And then I don't know.

I know, I always think it's sad when people like look, you know,

even when they're not beautiful Irish Latinas, decide to look that insane because there's something in their brain that's telling them, like, this looks awesome.

You're killing it.

And that means they're insane.

Yeah, yeah.

It's, it's very much like Christy Noam is another great example of this.

Like, I realized recently that the person that I had been seeing on TV who everyone said was Christy Noam was the same Christy Noam who looked like a different lady five years ago.

I was like, oh shit, that's the same, that's the same lady.

She was cute.

She got a new face.

Yeah.

Yeah, she had like a cute look.

Like she was, I mean, if I was a fourth funeral and that was one of my mom, my, my, my friend's moms.

All I will say is that for men and women.

powerful men and women in Donald Trump's orbit like being in close proximity proximity to Donald Trump causes dysphoria of some kind.

Absolutely.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

All right.

Last thing I want to mention

before we move to the final piece of today's show,

I would like to mention

in the course of events over the weekend, I think it is important to note that Mahmoud Khalil was released from ICE detention in Louisiana and is free.

and with his wife and child in New York City right now.

He addressed his supporters on the steps of the Cathedral of St.

John the Divine just yesterday.

And I would like to say to Mahmoud, welcome home.

Yeah, it is, I mean, it is a crime that he was ever put through this, obviously.

It's horrible to get to miss the birth of his son, but it is, it is incredibly gratifying to see that at least

At least he made it out and is able to not only be with his family, but to immediately lead a rally, his first day out.

It just shows you what kind of person he is.

Yeah.

Like, you know, and then if you stand strong for what you believe in, like, you can,

I know it seems like impossible and terrifying, but like, if you stand strong, like, you can, you can make these guys crack.

Because, like,

the reactions I've been seeing, they are sick to their stomach over this right now.

And it's just like, you can make them crack because you're stronger than they are.

And you believe in something and they don't.

Did we see what Jake Oshenslaw said?

Yeah, he was like, he should be released, but we we shouldn't be listening to him talk because what he has to say is evil.

He said he should

neither be in jail or have a platform.

A platform.

Like he should be, they should remove his ability to speak.

And like, you,

you gave him the platform by arresting him in the first place.

Prison, yeah, exactly.

How many people had heard of him before that?

You know, it's like a, you know, a crime that I guess they hadn't.

But like, come on.

Like, the whole reason we know who he is is because of that.

And he did have a very funny comment that I saw quoted in the press about

the contention advanced by Marco Rubio and others that he was being,

he had been arrested for undermining the foreign policy of the United States.

And he was just like, he was like, the implication here was that I was a threat to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

He was like, I don't know if you see it, but it doesn't look like I've had much effect.

Right, exactly.

Oh, Christ.

All right.

Well, look.

uh libby felix as we've talked about today uh the world can be a fairly frightening place, what with all the war and violence and social decay.

So I think it's like time now to, at the end of this show, to change gears a little bit and talk about love.

Yes.

Because there's still love in the world.

And I bring this up because I saw a wedding announcement in the New York Times this weekend.

And lo and behold, it was our old friend, Sean McElwey, finally getting hitched.

And it got her right up in the New York Times.

So in the spirit of love and human relationships, I would like to read now the Sean McElwee New York Times wedding announcement.

This is beautiful.

The headline, this is the New York Times vows section.

Probably the best section of the New York Times, in my opinion.

Does it say

how long they were dating?

Because I want to know if this is the same girlfriend who he made bring chicken nuggets.

No, no, it is not.

It is not, Louvie.

This will be revealed in the article.

But

the headline to this wedding, the vows announcement, is debate is their love language.

It's already good.

It's already good.

Rachel Acheson intended to challenge Sean McElwey over political spending.

Instead, they fell in love.

God, this is like, this is like before sunrise.

This is like a Richard Linklater movie.

I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.

Oh, God.

It's very push-pull.

Yes, it is.

When Rachel Kelly Acheson and Sean Adrian McElwey first met at a West Village coffee shop in June 2022, it was too tense to be a meet-cute.

The first three paragraphs of this piece are pure diamond.

Mrs.

Atchison, at the time, the senior assistant to Mayor Eric Adams.

I'm going to run a bad COVID experience.

Mrs.

Acheson, at the time, the senior assistant to Mayor Eric Adams was planning to chew out Mr.

McElwey, a pollster with whom she shared a mutual friend.

Mr.

McElwey was conducting polling on behalf of Protect Our Future Super PAC, which was backed by Sam Bankman Fried, the crypto billionaire later convicted of fraud.

So both of them met at a time when they were top advisors to two criminals.

Yeah, what was the meet cute?

Are you wearing a wire?

Yes.

Are you?

Yes.

Like, that is the thing I hate about this debate is love language.

Like, okay,

for anyone.

This might be one of those things where I say something that I think everyone believes, but I reveal myself to be insane.

But,

you know, it's kind of hot to get into an argument.

I

a lot of people, I think a lot of people feel that way.

Yeah, that one's cool.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not, not me particularly.

Women being mad at me for any reason is like a nightmare to me.

Yes, anyone being mad at me for any reason, I don't want to hear it.

Sometimes it's the way, like, there was a woman I was like in a, we'll say, it's complicated, but we'll say a relationship for a while, right?

But in the

days before we like fully broke the seal, I remember I went to this Halloween party with her and we had the stupidest fucking argument I have ever had.

And you know, this is so 2017.

You want to know what it was?

It was, she was like, well,

I think Comtown's bad.

You're morally better than that.

And I was like, you don't understand that that's what I did, you know?

This thing that no one should, we were like hissing at each other.

You don't understand.

No, you.

And

the entire time I was like, this is so fucking hot.

And

it was, I was so like transfixed by it that literally,

I guess I could say this now because this guy got me too'd.

Some like this shitty writer like met me there where I was bricked up, like just thinking about this argument.

And he was like, he was trying to talk to me.

And he was like, I saw the Kevin Burns Vietnam documentary.

and i'm like not paying attention oh was this the guy who tried to kiss me for being rude to him about the ken burns

i i yeah i was like i was like bricked i was like bricked the fuck up like my pants were probably dripping in pre-comp

he's trying to talk to me about this i'm not even looking at him and i'm like oh yeah i like heard it was bad and he like he writes it in his review of it that came out like a year and a half after the ken burns thing did he was like um i met a left-wing podcaster.

It should be a name.

He was looking at Instagram while he talked to me.

He said, he called my family Compradors.

And it's like,

I was A, rock hard not listening to you.

I said like three words to you.

He didn't mean me.

So there was no rebuttal.

But that's how I was so transfixed by it.

And it's a common, it's a common thing.

But the weird thing is with this, there's no, like, it's not debate.

They don't care about any of this shit.

These are just like positions that, like, the next guy, the next unindicted, like, uh, campaign finance schemer who pays them, uh, will pay them to briefly believe.

Yeah.

It's not, it's just, it's just a funny little joke to them.

It's not a real argument, like, is Come Town bad.

Yeah, Felix, I really like the idea of you get, like, your brain getting some wires crossed.

And then every time you listen to Come Town, you get an erection.

And you're like, what the fuck?

Yeah,

for a while, I would.

He was my roommate.

I think I would know if Nick was a Nazi.

It was one of those things where it's like, I'm hearing myself say it.

And it's like, I know in 30 years, I'm going to be like, I was such a fucking...

Why was I scream pissing?

Like, why was I so mad about this?

Like, I want to kick my ass in 30 years from now thinking about this.

But at the time, I was like animated by it, bricked up.

But back to the New York Times.

And really, I must credit, I'm so glad all the details of this meet-cute were captured by an FBI wiretap and preserved in the New York Times Mouse column.

So it says, okay.

So she was senior assistant to criminal mayor Eric Adams, and he was working at the time as a working for the Protect Our Future Super PAC, the initiative backed by crypto criminal Sam Bankman Fry.

So he goes, She was angry about political spending in general, including the more than $11 million that the Protect Our Future put towards Carrick Flynn, a long-shot congressional candidate in Oregon.

Someone who Jack Reacher kills.

And this is it.

As a proponent of effective altruism, Ms.

Atchinson felt strongly that the money should have gone to charity.

What a fucking

ass.

This is.

That's not, by the way, that was not the argument.

An Eric Adams employee saying, I think you're spending too much on campaign finance.

It was, hey, you should have been bribing our guy.

Yeah, exactly.

There's something really funny to me about the fact that I just Googled Carrick Flynn and the first result is still his LinkedIn page.

Such a huge failure, Jesus.

Carrick Flynn, like I, when I read that name, when I thought Carrick Flynn was like, you know, he founded like, you know, what are those apps we were talking about?

Like, where you take, you, you take a picture of your TV and the app tells you, that's not a book.

You can't read that.

You know, he made like $11 billion founding.

Is it a book or not?

That improves literacy.

But no, he's just some guy with an office job.

What was the deal with this guy?

Why did Sean love Carrick Flynn so much?

Okay, I'm going to call this reading series Richard Link

Before Sundown.

Back then, Mr.

McElwee was the head of Data for Progress, a progressive think tank and polling firm that he helped found in 2018.

In November 2022, five months after the coffee shop encounter, he was asked to step down amid betting allegations.

The two are strong personalities with a penchant for debate and forging connections.

Their conversation that day, they said, also covering polling he had done on voter support for animal welfare laws, an issue she, a vegan since high school, was very invested in.

So what began as verbal fisticuffs at the coffee shop quickly bloomed into romantic walks through Washington Square Park and jaunts to an East Village public pool.

Ms.

Atchison said that Mr.

McElway's experience with data for progress, he is, in my mind, a better person today than when I met him.

Miss Achetson, 33, is a food policy wonk who became deputy director in Mr.

Adams' office of food policy.

So she's the one who makes the smoothies for him.

Have you seen like the awful Eric Adams smoothie that he makes?

Oh my gosh.

It's like black, right?

Well, he just puts everything in there.

It's bizarre.

It is one of the worst.

Like Dan Quinn has made a smoothie that looks like that.

It is some very frightening food gore.

And again, like most Eric Adam things, it suggests that he doesn't do this ever.

Yeah.

And so he's been lying about Enie.

What does she think about Eric Adams's admission that he eats fish sometimes, by the way?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hellgate reminded me of that, but like

he's a vegan that eats fish sometimes.

Wait, he puts romaine lettuce in his

bag.

What is the fucking point?

There's like no nutrition.

It's just water.

It's just, it's just

like, I think, again, I think he's like, it was another weird lie where he's like, I make a smoothie every day.

Yeah, toast.

I used to, when I couldn't afford a blender, I would just step on the fruit.

But he's never done it.

Right.

Like he's ever.

So, yeah, she was deputy director in Mr.

Adams' Office of Food Policy.

She left the administration at the end of 2024.

Oh, convenient time to leave the Eric Adams administration, by the way, to start to start a nonprofit.

She interviewed heavily with several other government agencies.

Her food nonprofit is Food Policy Pathways, for which she is executive director.

She was raised in Washington, D.C., and graduated with a bachelor's in philosophy from Boston University.

Mr.

McElwey, 32, grew up in

an evangelical family in Ledyard, Connecticut.

He received a bachelor's degree in politics, philosophy, and economics at the King's College, a Christian school in New York City, before earning his master's in quantitative methods in social sciences at Columbia.

Quantitative sciences?

Quantitative methods.

He got a master's in quantitative methods.

Quantitative methods in social sciences at Columbia.

I think that's too specific.

I don't think you should be able to get a master's in that.

I think that's like one part of a master's.

As someone with a completely fake master's degree, I think you should have to have a better master's than that.

Is it normal to be from an evangelical family in Connecticut?

Yeah, yeah.

That's normal.

Yeah, there's this shitload of evangelicals in America.

Well, that's true, I suppose.

Just thinking about them in Connecticut is just strange and disturbing to me.

That is weird.

That is very weird.

I always, I mean, one of the funny things about Sean's rise um was that he was formerly like he was i think he was a cato guy at one point but it was the fact that he had this very like you know he would be carrick flynn in another life

he seemed he you know very much uh a product of his background but he it's he brought that attitude into you know whatever he did So

Libby, this, Libby, you brought up the chicken nuggets, and I think this next paragraph will sort of like put a shine on that experience.

Sean is quoted here as saying, I think of bad relationships as lowest common denominator relationships, Mr.

McElwee said.

Each person pulls the other down.

If one eats poorly, the other will eat poorly.

But a good relationship is a highest common denominator relationship.

That is so good.

So this is Sean blaming his old girlfriend for him being fat.

Yeah.

Fat and evil.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I

love, you know, my last girlfriend, it just didn't work out.

Nothing but the best for her.

She's a total sweetheart.

Love that girl.

She did make me fat and evil.

Like, can you think some fucking responsibility bells?

Since meeting Mrs.

Ms.

Atchison, Mr.

McElwee has become more committed to healthy living.

He also became vegan and neither drinks alcohol.

He is the founder of Positive Sum Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in public opinion, strategic communications, and advocacy strategy.

Wow, all three?

All three of those things they specialize in?

Amazing.

Positive sum is such a stupid name.

Hey, where number goes up polling?

Like, I know, I know it's like, you know, zero sum, but it's like, it sounds stupid.

It sounds like a guy who is trying to defeat allegations that he doesn't know anything about math.

Like, oh, yeah, well, I've called my firm

big numbers.

So how about that?

I go, oh,

I don't know anything.

Why did I get my master's degree into quadratic form?

And why is my polling firm called Square Root Polling?

Ms.

Atchison said she had been transformed by the relationship, too.

She had never pictured herself having children, but with Mr.

McElvie, she does.

Their lives became integrated quickly and seamlessly.

In November 2022, she moved into Mr.

McElvie's apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, where they continue to live and became engaged in August 2023.

On June 5th, the couple was married married by Yanfeng Chang, an official at the Manhattan City Clerk's Office.

Their parents were in attendance.

Two days later, they held a celebration at Tamerlane Sanctuary and Preserve in Montauk, New Jersey.

And okay, this is the point where, like, yes, listener, if you're hearing this tone of my voice, it is sour grapes that I was not invited to this event,

despite knowing Sean socially 10 years ago.

But like, I am a little bit bitter about not being invited to this celebration of their relationship in Montaigue, New Jersey, because it included plant-based nonprofit employees, hedge fund managers, alternate protein-focused venture capitalists, and politics.

That's just soil and green.

It's the soil and green people, the people who are turning homeless people into energy bars.

They were in attendance at the wedding.

Alternate protein, not plant-based.

It's an alternate.

Alternate.

It's made from something.

I don't know what.

They were.

Okay, so

the protein capitalists and political consultants were invited to participate in community building breakout sessions, as they called them, which included salsa lessons, improv, a storytelling workshop, and board games.

If you like stumbled into this wedding, you would become Saeed Ketto.

Like, if you were not exactly the people who are supposed to be there, this would be a radicalizing event for you.

God damn.

The drizzly weather cleared in time for the ceremony portion of what they called a learning wedding.

Oh, fuck off.

Fuck you.

The drizzly weather cleared in time for the ceremony portion of what they called a learning wedding.

If you

hey, it looks like incrementalism worked on God.

We pushed him to the left at our wedding and it stopped waiting.

That's what I'd say.

By the way, clouds.

After a guided meditation and a pause for Miss Acheson's introductory speech, the couple exchanged their vows.

Mr.

McElwee promised to keep building together and made several references to the bride's preternatural ability to connect others.

Guests were instructed to fill out a questionnaire before the wedding and were sent a spreadsheet listing the other guests and their LinkedIn profiles.

A plant-based catering company, Jam Cakery Events, provided food for the BYOB reception, and in place of gifts, the couple requested that every guest write them a one-page letter in advance.

The letters letters are compiled into a notebook to be read and enjoyed on their honeymoon.

Is this attending a wedding or like applying to a job?

Yeah, these people have made these people have made having a party for your friends to celebrate you and your love together into possibly the most interminable ordeal imaginable.

All things considered, the hours of time you've had to put in.

Oh, we got invited to the wedding in August.

Fuck, I have to update my resume.

I love that it's B-Y-O-B.

Like, it's that is the perfect, like, judgmental shit.

I don't don't drink, but I don't care if people don't, you know, yeah, yeah.

I

like if I ever get married, even though I am biologically incapable of processing alcohol, I will do an open bar.

Because the point of a wedding is not like to do breakout groups or to build or anything.

It's for your cousin.

For your aunt and uncle to have fun.

Your aunt and uncle to have fun.

For your cousin to get bricked up arguing with a bridesmaid.

I think having a wedding, not providing alcohol, and then making people go to a storytelling workshop is one of the most evil things you can do to a person.

That is fucking insane.

Saying, yeah, here's the LinkedIn profile of 200 people that you're going to do a storytelling workshop with.

By the way, there will be no beer.

Insane.

You can bring your own.

Like, the wedding where there's improv breakout.

Oh, fuck you.

I really just want to thank my Nana and Pep Pep.

They traveled a really long time to be here.

They came across the country.

They're very tired from the trip.

But could we just get you into this game of settlers of Catan we've got going?

Sit down here, grandma.

Sit down here, grandma.

Write this will.

I didn't even think about that angle.

Think about like, you know, they're probably,

I don't want to make accusations, but I think that they have a grandpa who's like

that, the elder Bundy who took over that

place in Oregon in 2015.

Or like, you know, the old guy from Duck Dynasty, the guy who made their family evangelical.

They have like a Korean War veteran like Clin Eastwood and Granjorino grandpa who have to go to that.

And they're like, Bill, I've never met you before.

Are you

with my gun?

KPMG?

It says Felix, and it says the letters were compiled into a notebook to be read and enjoyed on their honeymoon.

I'm just imagining them flipping through their notebook of well-witches, and then they just like open one page and a gun falls out.

And it's just for the grandfather saying, Shut up, pussy.

Shut up, pussy.

I mean, like, the grandpa, like, presumably, some of his, like,

you know, like, shit, not shit kicker, but like, hot dog neck, I wear, you know, wearing a USS battleship hat, relatives were

at that.

That was a fucking culture shock.

And I would actually be on their side for once.

Those types.

Well, to close out this vows announcement, I've never been to a wedding like this, said Stanley Wang, a regular at McCalby Acheson Poker Nights.

The energy of the couple's first meeting was some kind of portent.

Two rabble rousers who long for nothing more than a spirited discourse.

Rabble rouser?

Yeah, what is he talking about?

Supporting Richie Torres?

What crazy rabble rousers supporting the pie-in-the-sky radical Eric Adams.

Two rabble-rousers who long for nothing more than a spirited discourse.

Oh, my God.

Marriage for us will be a long debate, Mr.

McElvie said to Ms.

Atchison, who wore a thrifted ball gown in front of their guests.

When we debate, we grow.

And I vow to always debate and grow with you.

I'm debating taking my own life.

Mazletov.

Mazletov.

Really, seriously, congratulations to this wonderful couple.

Now, by the way, is there other betting markets on the success of this?

Oh, fuck me, dude.

Well, it's nice that the leech have someone to write to when they're in prison.

Do you think like that when Eric Adams, he's like, it's the end of Casino, it's him, like all, all, all, all, all the like Septarian, like, NYPD captains who are his co-conspirators.

and he does this yeah why take a chance

they're on that there is a house in New Orleans thank all the ride that mick mck elbie actes in poker night where you going jack off

what about mick elby he's solid a marine he's big and fat a marine

he's so he's soft and glad

uh why take a chance but you know what if there's always It is always worth taking a chance on love.

And

I don't want anyone to get too cynical or jaded about that.

Love is what makes life worth living.

And so

sincere congratulations to the young couple.

Well, I think that about does it for us today.

Libby, thanks so much for hanging out with us.

And before we go, if people want more Libby Watson, you got a new sort of streaming project out there that I've been checking out.

Yeah.

I love to tell our audience about it.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm streaming streaming a few times a week, mostly playing souls games, so like Elden Ring and Bloodborne and having a lovely time.

Also got a new podcast.

Libby, I thought,

could you do something a little bit more in tune with what our audience knows and cares about?

Yeah, sorry.

I'll play the game where you kill JFK.

How about that?

Excellent.

That is a game, by the way.

That's a real game.

JFK Reloaded.

JFK Reloaded.

Yeah, I've been wondering if I could get away with playing that on the platform.

But also, I do want to to mention a new podcast with me and Charlotte McDonald's called What's All This Then.

We talk about Britain and

just a silly topic of British stuff every week.

So, like, you know, Tesco or Mr.

Blobby or Sausage Rolls or whatever.

It's a fun time.

Come check it out.

Mr.

Blobby.

I don't know what's going on.

Yep.

Yep.

Right.

So

links to Libby's stream and podcast will be in the show description.

Libby Watson, it's been too long.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us.

Oh, thank you for having me.

I had a blast.

All right.

Till next time, everybody, that does it for us today.

Bye-bye.

Please go and vote for Zorano if you're in New York City and do anything possible to prevent an old person from waking up tomorrow.

Or get them to the polls very early.

My mama said, okay, hurry, love.

It's a game of give and take.

Okay, hurry, love.

No, you just have to wait.

You gotta trust in time.

No matter how long it takes.