925 - Banshee, PA Chamber of Commerce feat. Kath Kreuger (4/14/25)

All I wanna be is a jungle.

All I wanna be is a jungle.

We need to

be so.

All I wanna

Hello, friends.

It's Monday, April 14th, and we've got some Shopa coming at you.

It's me, Felix, and Catherine today.

Welcome back, Catherine.

Hello.

Hello.

Glad to be here.

Now, today, obviously, a lot going on.

We have some serious stuff to talk about, but I wanted to open today's show with a question for you, Felix.

And it's a question that's based on

recently I have introduced Catherine to a little TV show, a TV show that I know you were a fan of.

I know we're both big fans of.

The name of that TV show, it's a little place called Banshee and Sheriff Lucas Hood.

So, my question to open the show today for you, Felix, is which fictional American town would be cooler to live in?

Charming, California, or Banshee, Pennsylvania?

That's unquestionably Banshee, right?

Because

I mean, like, Charming is, like, they're both eventful, but Charming is eventful in the way that, like, well, first of all, the median income in Charming is like $700 annually.

The Suns are the richest guys in town because they make just above the Medicaid cutoff.

$25,000 a year.

Yeah, like, before, like, they, the residents of Charming would have no way way to put on like the parade where Bobby Elvis like sings every year just without their own economic output.

But in Banshee, which is like a town of like a thousand,

they're constantly having like UFC title fights and like priceless diamonds are coming through all the time.

Like it's a really exciting place.

Yeah, I mean like I'm re-watching Banshee now.

Catherine had never seen it before.

What a trip.

And I was just struck by like similar to Charming, California, another pleasant, small American community that has a murder rate similar to like, I don't know, like a violent death rate that would only be comparable to the civil war in this country.

And I was thinking particularly about in season one of Banshee, where they decide to have like the town's annual spirit festival that gets attacked by a gang of bikers who grab people off their, like grab people off the street and drag them behind their motorcycles during their like farmers.

To be fair, no one dies, but yeah, it is a violent act.

It would be like living on the coast of the British Isles in the year like 600.

Are those votes I see on the horizon?

Yeah, like, I always think about that, like, especially in the first season, because that's when like Lucas Hood is just like, hey, I'm the sheriff.

Like, hey, I'm the first like telegenic guy in this town in the last 30 years.

He's the hottest man anyone has ever seen, and that's why every woman has to have sex with him.

I love how he has sex with the entire adult female population of Banshee.

And some arguable adults.

I love in like the, I think it's the first episode where he's like, he's just getting into Banshee, and he just, he stops into a bar, and with it, like, he doesn't even say anything, and it just, he automatically fucks the hottest woman in Banshee.

Like, right before he takes the sheriff's identity.

But during the first season, do you remember when there is that UFC champion who like weirdly this was filmed in what like 2007 yeah

they basically predicted jon jones because there is like there's a ufc champion like an mma champion it's not like the ufc proper but he like he's like a tall handsome black guy and is

like was more athletic than most heavyweight champions in MMA at the time but he's like I think he he commits a rape in Banshee but Lucas Hood just they have this like more brutal than they live fight.

Yeah,

he bites his ear off, like takes out his fucking eye.

And I always think, like, did this not make the news?

Like, the sheriff of this town, like, forever crippled the UFC champion?

No, I like the fight between Lucas Hood and the MMA guy because it sort of gives the audience an indication of what Sheriff Lucas Hood's superpowers are, which is that, like, the more violently he is beaten, the stronger he gets.

Like, Catherine, you were saying, like, he needs at least four broken ribs before he really starts a fight.

Yeah, yeah.

He's always operating with four broken ribs.

I also like that Banshee is like a town that seems like it has an actual tax base, but they can't do, they can't hire more than three cops at any given time, despite the murder rate being 3,000%.

I mean, like, that, like, talk about a stroke of luck.

They can only have three cops, but one of the cops is like, yeah, a guy who has like a Dark Souls perk in real life, where he loses enough if he loses enough hp he does like triple fucking damage i think i'm i'm remembering more of mangi

and i think this is where my illogical fear of getting my dick bitten off mid-fallacia yeah yeah because that that is like one of the first things we learn about lucas hood is that he did that to a guy there's a lot of actually

uh correction uh i thought this was going to have to involve him biting the guy's dick off which you know i guess would still have been a little gay even though it's in prison.

But no, he actually cuts the guy's dick off with a

blade.

A straight razor that the guy has in his own hand.

So he doesn't even have to touch the guy's dick to remove it from the albino guy's body.

I didn't know that.

Therefore, it's 0% gay.

0% gay.

Why didn't no one do that to him before?

Like, I get freaked out if, like, I don't know, there's a guarded razor too close to my dick.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Like, he was...

That, it must have been, like, a fucking, like, low-security prison for white-collar criminals and there's just this random gigantic albino rapist in there that's all the enron guys albino rapist

he's been doing that to like jeff skilling for 20 years

they finally add like one more violent criminal and he's like oh shit i didn't think that someone would do that

well i guess i have nothing to do for the rest of my life sentence he also never cut off he also never seems to get like any time added to his sentence despite like you know violently attacking and sometimes killing guys in prison.

These are all in flashbacks, by the way.

It reminds me of the Oz rule, where every like one in every 20 like brutal public murders, they're like, and they do it like it's in in-school suspension, where they're like, all right,

you're getting the death sentence now.

But it's like, what about the other 19 murders that happened today?

It's a wash.

It's a wash.

Just like, oh, one more Banshee-related thing.

Like, just to give you an indication of how fun this town is to live in.

Like, I think the episode after the annual Spirit Festival is attacked by a gang of bikers who are like, really, the really off-brand Sons of Anarchy.

Like, they're not even like,

they're like the classic biker gang where they're like, are we running guns?

No, we're just running from town to town, raping and assaulting people.

We're not organizing charity fun runs or anything.

Like, we're just a brotherhood of the road that, like, you know, attacking innocent girls.

If it was the sons, they would have killed more people, like, sheerly out of accident.

They would have been like, oh, there's another parade where Bobby Elvis could sing at.

They would have come up with some deal to sell bootleg fried dough

and it would have killed half the town.

Or the latest enemies they've made in the North Korean army show up in town and shoot it out with

like 80 people die in the crossfire.

The Hamas

gun running pipeline dries up.

And so they have to join forces with the Amish to traffic Pies.

And I got to say, Kai Proctor is one of the coolest villains that's ever been in the show.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, he's

the coolest villain.

He's really cool.

He is demand, as they say.

But I was going to say, I think it's the episode after the annual Town Spirit Festival is assaulted by bikers, that the next week,

the weekend detention for high schoolers is taken hostage by Wayne Grove from Heat.

Still an incompetent criminal who ends up dead.

And also still a rapist.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Has that guy ever played like

a nice man who runs a sandwich shop?

Like, I feel like that.

Yeah, I guess not.

I like, I feel bad for it because he's like, he's a great fucking scumback actor.

Like, one of the best.

He never misses the mark as a scumbag.

But it's like, it's sort of like my thing, how I want Gus Fring to play like, I don't know, like a goofball who's always accidentally spilling soup down in his

like a like a goofy waiter or something

yeah instead of like you know

he'll be playing to cretcio he should play to cretchio he it's like i know he i know he does interviews where he's like i love playing like the most evil guy in the world who like never loses his temper in every fucking role i ever played but he it's like wouldn't you like just one time want to play like a portuguese buffoon a little acting challenge i remember this story my grandfather told me about

like dropping in a clair down the university president's wife's cleavage by accident.

And it was like...

Excuse me?

Not during like a...

This was not him participating in the sexual world.

This was during like

really wasn't an like probably one of the least ofish members of my family ever.

But he just, it was like during some, you know, soiree, and he just, he was.

It was a Eclair Soi.

Well, you know how it was.

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I was like, it was post-war prosperity.

An Eclair for every man's hand.

The least fancy man in town, like the local guy, like the 50-year-old man who gets paid to shine shoes, ate graffiti rolls.

That's how good things were.

So even at like a seat here school, like the University of Chicago, they were eating Eclairs.

They probably ate Bruel now.

But

he just,

he still thought it was like the funniest shit ever, like 60 years later.

And it was.

It was.

And so I've always held on to that as like something that a goofball character should do.

And I would love to see Gus, I forgot his actual name.

Carlo Esposito.

I would love to see him do that as Decreccio.

I think he would nail that.

Oh, that'd be wonderful.

Well, actually, like, there is a news peg to my reminiscing about the wonderful town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, because

there's

a story that came out today about a violent act that took place in the state of Pennsylvania.

I'm referring, of course, to the arson attack on the governor's mansion while Josh Shapiro and his family were home.

Folks, you heard about this one?

I'm just about like, okay, so

everyone's safe, but someone tried to burn down Josh Shapiro's house while he was inside of it.

With a Molotov cocktail.

Yeah.

And apparently the guy who did it is an Andrew Yang supporter, which is like whenever a terrorist attack happens or like an assassination attempt on a public figure, you know, there's always this like

everyone is sort of white-knuckling it until the political affiliation of the uh attacker comes in until the Facebook lights come out, and this one just sort of like scrambles everything.

I mean, like, who's claiming this guy?

But I love the idea of like an abundantist vanguard of like an Andrew Yang, like an Andrew Yang, like weathermen or something like that.

But

I like the idea that like he's in interrogation and he's like there, you know, usually when someone does this, they're like, all right, we're going to bring in someone who can make you talk, but they're going to give him a deal to stop talking about it.

Like the moment, the moment they put his cuffs on, he was probably like, you're probably wondering why I did this.

Did you know that it costs more to make a penny than to...

And they're just like.

Well, look, we'll give you community service if you just stop fucking talking about this Andrew Yang shit.

Can you shut the fuck up about UBI?

Well, of course, Felix, like when I first heard of Josh Papiro getting his house burned in an arson attack, I immediately thought, well, you know, the governor needs to address this.

And what would that sound like?

Well, folks, I think it would sound a little something like this.

Y'all, you heard they tried to smoke me out?

I told them, I don't put my lip on no blunt touched by another man.

That shit's gay.

I smoke gas only.

Don't pass that shit to me, homie.

That's gay.

He's like at the press conference after it.

He's like,

We almost got toxic inhalation because, you know, I put a lot of plastic covers on all my phone.

It's actually something I've done my entire life, and my parents did it too.

I woke up in the middle of the night and I smelled something, but it wasn't Fabeloso, so I knew something was wrong.

How did they get my family out of the house?

I don't feel in no ways, burned.

Why?

So, like, why is it Andrew Yang guy mad at Shapiro?

I have no fucking idea.

He is actually like a mentally ill guy who went off his meds.

That's what it is.

Yeah, he's like a

Thomas Crooks type guy.

Like, just a confused, stupid American who's like, I mean, this guy probably, you remember how, like, the thing with Thomas Crooks was that he gave $30 to Biden and Trump?

That is so funny.

It's hilarious because it's like...

It's a little American guy, though.

Well, like, what did you think you were doing?

That's why I wish he lived because it's like, he would have, I would have like paid money to the government to like, you know, to add to my studies at the stupid.

I'm, you know, I've spent a lot of time around the stupids.

I'm fascinated by them.

And Thomas Crooks was like, to me, he would have been like, you know, the savage from Brave New World.

I would have spent the next 30 years studying him.

Felix is like the mind hunter, hunter, but for stupid people in America.

Yeah, yeah, because he's like, doing jailhouse interviews being like,

tell me about your pornography addiction.

Yeah, what do you buy at 7-Eleven?

I was just like so fascinated by like, how did he even get to like a political donation page?

Like, did he think, like, did he think it was like a sweepstake?

Did he think that's how you vote for them?

Did he like try to vote for both of them?

He thought he was entering like a morning radio.

You know, like get tickets to Hot97 if you just click this, and then you get five extra entries if you keep clicking it and share with your Facebook friends.

Tickets to Fog Hat if you donate to both presidential candidates.

Backstage passes if you kill one of them.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, you know, Thomas, and Thomas Crooks is like, I don't think he knew who Andrew Yang was.

So this guy's like less stupid than him, probably.

Thomas Crooks also, like, you could not trust him to start a fire on purpose.

He would have not gotten this far.

Absolutely not.

So I am, I would wager that this guy is not like,

you know, with Crooks, it was like they already had the beat on him because he was so awful looking.

He was one of those guys who is on the government watch list for ugly people, unfortunately.

It's the FBI garbage pail kid list.

Although your listeners get really mad when

we call people ugly.

I got a lot of people mad at me for my comments about Thomas Crooks, which really raises a lot of questions.

Yeah, it does.

But

no, like I've got more confidence in your appearances, Chopa listeners, you know, like you don't have to identify with this guy.

I've met them.

They all look like

fine young men and women to me.

With this guy, though, I get more the vibe of like...

Not quite the guy who shot Gabby Giffords, but like

it's very 70s is what it is.

When like the crazy people were more more ambitious and did stuff like this all the time, it really doesn't have a modern analog.

You're right.

I would guess that he's probably like out of people, modern people we recognize, he's probably closer to like the Joker shooter guy where he was like kind of a normal guy who was even you would even trust him to know what concepts like, you know, what is a passport?

Or like the awareness of the...

Do you pay taxes every year or do you just have to do it once?

You know, like he more of a person than the average stupid, stupid, but something went wrong.

Even the fact that it's arson feels like a throwback because, like, the Joker shooter, like, at least had it together to like have a legally purchased firearm.

And, you know, like, that shows more awareness of cause and effect than, like, you know, a Molotov cocktail, very effective, but feels like, you know, he could have just been drinking outside like a quick trip and then just gotten this idea and like walked a short distance to carry this out.

The quick trip near the governor's mansion?

Yes, Felix.

Yes.

It's Pennsylvania.

Come on.

I mean, it's like probably pretty hard to go.

Oh, no, wait.

Here's something for Pennsylvania listeners.

Was it a Wawa or was it a Cheese?

Wait, which one's better or which was the better sandwiches?

That's Pennsylvania culture.

What a throwback.

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

I saw myself there.

That was such a good time when it was just like, you know, no one was getting fired in media.

It was all like Chris Elizabeth type people being like, well, well, we've seen the presidential debate.

The real debate is fucking Wawon versus Cheets.

You're a terrible person if you like pineapple on pizza.

Yeah.

Well,

we have certainly moved on from those times.

The era of media abundance is over.

And now we live in the hour of the wolf.

And that's where I want to, that's where I want to go.

Yeah.

For the next one.

Oh my God.

I'm sorry, but like, think about if you were just like some like lame dick reporter for like Washington Post and you've been in a coma since 2014

and you wake up like now and you just you're like, all right, everyone, I'm back.

Okay, hot take.

I like Kelton Zones or something.

And all the people you used to talk to, they've all been fired.

Like they're all homeless now.

All their accounts are gone.

They're all in Blue Sky.

And everyone who replies to you is like, you're a pedophile who should kill yourself when you're doing like

when you're doing like a shot chaser tweet

yeah

all all your replies are like guys who live in argentina called like the mangele it innocence project

you're a fucking pedophile That's so scary.

I hope that doesn't describe anyone.

I hope no one's been in a coma since 2014.

Unfrozen politico caveman reporter.

Oh, yeah, that's that's really sad.

Oh, yeah.

Which succession character am I?

And then it's just like, you're going to the fucking gas chamber.

Here's your grandparents.

And they just see their grandma with like a red beam on her forehead.

Yeah.

Aoi.

I guess that's a good segue into where I like probably the

most important story of the week for this week's edition of

evil news.

How much worse can it be?

What's happening in the world of evil today and the horrible, unimaginable future in which we're all going to have to live?

And I'd like to begin with just like the ongoing stuff with like deportations, whether it's of like Mahmoud Khalil,

immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that his deportation could proceed apace.

Now, that is tempered by there is a judge in New Jersey that is still, like this case is still subject to appeal.

I did learn, however, that the immigration judge in Louisiana who ruled on this case is not, in fact, a member of an independent judiciary, but in fact does work for the executive branch of the government.

So that's always fun to know about.

But like, you know, even more barbaric are the cases of people who are just being disappeared to this like fucking death camp in El Salvador.

I mean, like, the case on everyone, like the name on everyone's lips right now is Emanuel Obrego Garcia, who's like one of these people who have been just disappeared to this El Salvadoran prison, Bukele was in the White House today in an absolutely grotesque spectacle of having him and Trump both say, well, we don't have the authority to return him.

And like, you know, the government has stated like openly that he was mistakenly deported.

And saying not our problem.

But then they're saying getting him back isn't our problem because he's in El Salvador's custody today.

And now the president of El Salvador said in the Oval Office today, I don't have the authority to return him either.

Well, the point is there are no mistakes, right?

Well, I mean, no, the point, I think the point is that, like, of course there are mistakes the mistakes are the point yeah like they're like the like the mistake would be correcting uh these errors because like they want to let you know that like there is no standard there is no set criteria for what what what someone qualifies someone as a gang member or a threat to america or a terrorist supporter or whatever and like all this stuff about how like oh we just we don't no one can find him we guess can't you know out of sight out of mind like what does raise the incredibly disturbing possibility that this guy is already dead?

Yeah.

Or that, like, you know, like, any, any number of these people who have just been, like I said, disappeared to a foreign country's, you know, terrorism,

without any due process, like, have already been killed inside.

The thing that's reminded me, the thing that I was thinking about a lot

while reading about this today, and,

you know, my own encounters with like Trump people, one of whom argued to me he's not dead.

And in fact, he's now safe from the gang.

What?

What does that even mean?

I don't fucking know.

Oh, yeah, the fact that you can't hear from him means he's extra safe.

Yeah, like who I just very confidently stating that, and I guess, like, technically, he's safe from a gang.

I get, like, I don't know.

What, in a prison that's run exclusively by gang members?

Yeah.

Well, I guess he's saved specifically from Prenda Agua.

was his point.

I don't know.

I think that's being too charitable.

These people are losing the plot.

Right.

I mean, like, like, I don't think they've lost the plot.

I think they have the plot exactly, which is that, like, anyone deported from this country that they support and anything that happens to them, no matter, like, if it's a matter of like, oh, they overstayed their visa by a year.

Well, then they deserve to die.

They deserve to be executed by the state via deportation.

So it reminded me of there were a few

instances of things like this with Gitmo and Bagram, where we renditioned someone either from like Afghanistan or Pakistan, or in many cases, from the U.S., we would rendition like citizens.

And in a lot of cases, like they were, the administration itself would admit that they were totally innocent.

This was completely an error.

Someone's neighbor lied about them.

Any number of things.

But the rationale for like why, even after they would get repatriated, why they couldn't get any compensation or

like, you know, legal admittance of wrongdoing was for national security reasons.

With this, there's no pretense of this and no repatriation because I think with this, like the, I think you're exactly right.

Like the point of like doing this to someone that they acknowledge has

cannot even be suspected of anything is the message it sends, which is like, you can't like, this is all so capricious and random and there is so little recourse that like if you thought you could just fly under the fucking radar, well, good luck.

So definitely don't try anything.

Definitely don't say anything.

Because, even like, even if you do everything right, we could still fuck up your entire life.

And it'll be a funny joke that we tell each other.

You know, and like, I saw another story today about how basically like just the ICE has sent out like just mass emails basically to anyone who has engaged the services of an immigration attorney, telling them that they have seven days to leave the country.

That, quote, their parole is up.

And these emails are also being sent to their lawyers who are U.S.

citizens as well, telling them to leave the country.

You also see that story about like some teen was like went around the corner to do laundry and ICE guys just grabbed him.

And someone said, like, this is not the right guy.

And they said, grab him anyway.

Yeah.

And now he's like being deported.

You know, like the punitive and totally arbitrary nature is the point to basically not only make everyone, you know, who's not an American-born natural citizen live in fear, but also just the idea that like even due process as a fundamental, you know, constitutional American right, or even just a right on American soil, can touch you or can save you is like being totally outmoded, and there's no recourse.

Absolutely.

And, like, and when I think about like whether, whether it is any of the students who are being charged with felonies or being deported from the country for engaging in political speech or peaceful protest on behalf of Palestine, or if it is any of the people who are from Central America who are now being, many of them who have never even set foot in El Salvador, who are now being, like I said, deported here.

Or are not even from there.

Yeah, like, like I said, like, or you know, like, even their parents aren't even from there.

Yeah.

Uh, based on like spurious accusations that they belong in a gang, which is like that they're in a gang, which is like, you know, control.

Trying to identify people's tattoos, which are just like

signs.

Exactly.

Stuff like that.

And it's just like, you hear the stories about these people, like, any of these names that people are talking about and that, like, are, you know, being used as a test case for like, we can do this to anyone.

None of them.

I haven't seen a single example of any one of these like deportation cases where it's like a skull, like a guy whose like face is a tattooed skull and is like, you know, some like MS-13 like serial killer or something like that.

Well, after the fact that all of them seem to be totally law-abiding, like just people who work and have families in this country, taxpayers, like to pay taxes, work, have jobs, not commit violent crime, like have been in the country for 20 years as like, you know, like without committing any crime and are just like members of the communities that they live in.

I think the point is, like, it is for the, for the Stephen Millers of the White House, for the people behind this policy, it is more dangerous for them to have people like that living and working in America than like a mess, you know, like whatever phantom of like the scariest illegal drug-dealing cartel scicario that you can imagine.

I think like they would much rather have like, you know, dangerous violent criminals in the country than law-abiding, like just like law-abiding family people and workers in this country.

Because like the message is they don't want, they don't want anyone in this country who's not white.

And then, like, the extent that there are non-white people in this country, they're going to try to get that number as low as possible.

And the idea that, like, if an impression can be created that, like, immigrants, documented or otherwise, are just normal people who want to live and work in America, that is an existential threat to the project of like ethnically cleansing this country that animates this policy.

Yeah, it's a blood and soil.

And, like, when I think about this, like, you know, like in conjunction with like, you you know, the tariff policy or just sort of like the closing off of America, I really wonder, like, what does this, like, you know, if we, if this continues, like, what does this country have to offer the rest of the world?

Like, I mean, we better start learning how to build things other than fucking the F-35 again, because like for all of my life, for better or worse,

you can nibble around the edges of how true this is or not.

But for better or worse, for as long as I've been alive, what America like offered to the rest of the world was it was a place that most people saw, correctly or incorrectly, as a nice, safe place to live, a place you wanted to, your kids to be educated in, a place that you want to visit or even move to.

Place of prosperity.

Because yeah, because like for, you know, like for better or worse, like this is a mostly a safe and prosperous country where like that gave the impression that it was ruled by a government and a legal system that had like checks and balances to prevent it from just being like the whims of one man.

And

I think think that the point is to like advertise to the world that like we don't want you.

This is not an open country anymore.

This is not a friendly country.

There's not a country that wants you even to visit America legally or work or study here.

Thereby betraying even the illusion that you know

that, yeah, this is a free country that has any value proposition to offer the world other than Marvel movies.

That's what we still build in this country.

The three things we export are pharmaceuticals, weapon systems, and Marvel movies, right?

Yeah.

But like the way.

And avocados.

Right.

And the way that we were able to just sort of like keep an edge to like keep building weapon systems and keep manufacturing pharmaceuticals was anyone who, any exceptional person, the implicit guarantee was that if you had enough resources and enough ability, that this would be technically, you know, the best place for you to possibly live.

Now that is obviously out.

There is no ability, talent, maybe even resources that could keep this from happening to you, right?

Right.

And I've been trying to like identify what like this iteration of conservatism is about, because it's, it's a bunch of things going in a bunch of different directions.

It's, you know, if you're a white shoe law firm, you have to like, take on anti-Semitism cases pro bono.

If you're a college, you have to accept like a guy who's three IQ points smarter than Thomas Crookes.

Yeah, if you're like, like just all this like weird shit.

But the most identifiable, if you could sum it up, right?

It would be that they are like basically advertising, okay, we're doing the strategy of tension to everyone.

No one can trust each other.

You will all hate each other.

There will be enough negative polarization that any awful thing, even done to like you, a member of your family, your fucking wife, you will go, well, it isn't actually like as bad as they said because articles are gay.

It's fine that they stomp my wife's head into hamburger because what if she was bad?

That's what the articles won't tell you.

And so while doing that, also creating a country that no one wants to fucking even visit, much less come to if they have any exceptional abilities.

What will replace that is, I guess, like we're going to manufacture like glow sticks because that's the only thing we have a supply chain for.

So just like a shittier place where everyone hates each other.

But if you like put it in those terms, the people, the ones who aren't like, what are you talking about?

We're going to go to fucking Mars.

We're going to have nuclear-powered aircraft.

Like the people who aren't part of that like palantir teal delusion thing of this being like Pax Americana, they're like, no, that is what I want.

It's like that leathery bitch I talked about who was like, no, it's our turn.

These people that they've never fucking seen in their lives that they, yesterday, they would have no opinion of them.

Now, the fact that they are, you know, that Corey Booker or fucking someone is bringing them up.

Good.

I want that guy to be stabbed to death in a Salvadorian prison.

Why?

Because

articles, fuck you.

Like, what?

Like, 40% of America signing on to go, let's make it as shitty as possible and as random and cruel and just pointless as possible.

I mean, like, I feel like she's a like a PAX America.

And I think what it really is, like, this is the building of Fortress America.

Right.

Like, based on the based on the completely hallucinatory phantom idea that we're all in the safest country on the planet, like, all under threat constantly, and that we should be paranoid and fearful of everyone around us, and that we're just going to build the walls physically and metaphorically to lock everyone out of America.

But really, what it's doing is locking everyone inside here and making this country like a fucking prison, which is to say more violent, hateful, racially segregated, where everyone understands that everyone is out for themselves and you can't trust a single other person.

Well, and also I think what's like outside your gang or tribe.

What's perhaps most striking about this is that like there's no prosperity doctrine included in it.

You know, like to me, the idea of selling Fortress America to people is that like we have to hoard resources amongst ourselves.

Like immigrants are taking it all.

But this is like, okay, everything in America is so shitty and your life is so degraded.

That's why we need to become Fortress America.

Like we need to become the escape from New York prison.

Like we're not going to improve anything for anyone, but at least no one else will come in into your shitty front yard.

It's like ensuring the shitty status quo without any promise of like, okay, that's why we're keeping out immigrants is because we want to redistribute the wealth to you.

It's like, no, just further inshittification forever and ever and ever.

Yeah, it's like, oh, like, why do we have to get rid of due process and freedom of speech?

So you can't have it either.

So yeah, so no one can have it.

Yeah.

Like, oh, so things will get better for everyday average Americans.

No, we're doing it so things will get worse.

Why can't a college kid sign an op-ed with 30 other people?

Because you have no free speech rights either.

And you're happy to give away those civil rights.

Because

what is the parable about

God saying, you know,

whatever i give you i'll give to your neighbor twofold and the guy says okay i'm taking out one of my eyes that's that's what this is yeah yeah and again like if we want to get really fucking bleak here i mean i think the reality is the fact that like this assault on due process and freedom of speech you know like the two core american values that like like i said whatever quibbles you want to make with it did advertise this country credibly to the rest of the world as a safe free country where like citizen or not you were free from like arbitrary detention and prosecution by the state.

Based on political agendas.

I think the fact that this is all being done under the guise of immigration enforcement means that I think probably roughly half of this country are totally okay with it.

In fact, they love it and are braying for more.

This is the perfect test case because it's both immigration, but it's also about, you know, like the next move is, which they're already kind of doing with like these law firms and whatever else, just being able to like suspend people's right to due process because they're political opponents of this administration.

Like that's what's next.

I am kind of reminded of, I mean, it really seems insane now in light of everything, like what these policies turned out to be,

the sheer unpopularity and hollow initial popularity of the administration, but the basic posture of

American liberalism, but specifically the Democratic Party in the first few months after the election, which is like, hey, I guess this is what this country is about.

And there's nothing we can do but just go along with it until they fuck up.

Part of that was just to like anything that they said or proposed about immigration, we just have to go along with because the amorphous blob of normalcy that dictates everything, the popularist credo that dictates everything except our policy on fucking Israel dictates that they just want Hersher immigration.

Okay, well, the smart move is to just go along with it.

I mean, I remember talking about this before the inauguration, and our conclusion was, like, they don't care when they fuck up, and there's no recourse.

And the point is just to, like, fuck up as many people's lives as possible and make as many people as fearful as possible.

But even then, like, I could not have predicted how...

True that would be or to what extent it would go.

But it should, like, the idea of just like go along with this until the fever breaks seems so fucking insane now.

It seemed insane then, but like holy shit.

I don't I think it would have happened anyway, unfortunately.

But just like lending momentary legitimacy to this was one of the dumbest fucking amoral things anyone could have done.

Well, and they have no answer to any of this.

They're happy to be caught flat-footed.

Their answer to this is holding up a folder in front of their faces for a photo during a photo op.

Oh, yeah.

We're fucking gorgeous Gretchen.

Gretchen, show that gorgeous face.

What are you doing hiding?

Yeah, yeah.

What are you doing hiding behind photos?

That's the future of the Democratic Party.

It's just like,

what are we supposed to do?

You know, they're in power.

It's their government.

And also basically, like, well, America's so racist that, like, what are we supposed to even do?

You know, we want those racist votes too.

So, like,

even with the people who are realizing that like it would pay off more to make a stand, like Corey Brooklyn.

Even he won't talk about like New Jersey residents that are being abducted by ICE because maybe someone might think they're anti-Semitic because they signed a fucking petition somewhere.

Also, did anyone control F his 25-hour long speech for Gaza?

Just a quick question.

What do you, I mean,

I didn't do that because I don't need to.

I already know the answer.

25 hours and couldn't mention fucking Gaza.

Especially because he was talking about, like, we don't want to live in a country where like the history of this, the wretched history of this country is sanitized.

Like, we need to stand up for the church.

You're sanitizing everyone.

And, like, you know, like, yeah, and he's like talking about all the activists of like, you know, the civil rights era and like how they they would feel about this now.

And then like the next day he votes to send more fucking bombs to Israel.

Yeah,

crime a fucking race.

And like, Felix, you bring up like the

Democratic, the

popularist,

the popularist credo.

The pop soda is.

As soon as something becomes popular, the Democrats should just adopt it, except for Israel.

And I bring this up in the context of, I saw this week a Pew

A poll conducted by the Pew polling group that showed that for the first time ever in polling this question, a majority of Americans by about 53%

now have an unfavorable opinion view of Israel.

And that's across the state.

And like, and this is not Democrats.

This is not young people.

This is like, it was not broken down by Democrat versus Republican.

This is across the board, all Americans, 53%.

And, you know, the poll is done by Pew.

So, I mean, I think it's a reputable

polling firm.

I mean, take it with all a grain of salt, but like, that indicates something.

That indicates a major seismic shift in public opinion on Israel that I don't think is going to turn around anytime soon.

But what is going to happen, like I said, Trump in his statements today in the Oval Office with Bukele said openly, the homegrowns are next.

And I would love to start deporting American citizens to the El Salvadoran death camp.

And it's just like, get the loyalty oaths ready for Israel or you're going to be fucking deported or killed.

Well, made a non-citizen overnight.

Yeah.

You'll be your green card rescinded.

Your passport taken away.

And just be like, you know, what they, they, these are like also meant to be fast deportations.

You know, like, it's bad for the administration that like Khalil has even been given his day in court.

Like, they want to disappear people from this guy.

He should have been tried in New Jersey, first of all,

you know, summarily like sending him to Louisiana.

Louisiana, this hell on earth detention center, which is actually a prison.

I don't know why people even say detention center.

And like, they just, they just want to, you know, get people out of the country before like their lawyer even has the chance to locate them.

And like I said, like, you know, like the attack on free space, like this is how they're going to continue to enforce U.S.

policy.

In, you know, like, I mean, it's like a twofold.

The empire comes home.

The Democrats and the media just simply won't talk about it.

They'll just simply ignore Israel-Palestine.

They'll ignore Gaza entirely.

And we'll talk a little bit about that more in a second.

And then, like, for everyone else, it's like you can just be made,

regardless of where you were born or, you know, your citizenship status, you will just be made like an,

de-personed, you'll be de-personed like overnight as a way to like enforce compliance in a country where now the majority of people are like, at the very least, look at Israel and go,

like, that's

it's too much, too much.

But are also happy to look the other way too far.

Yeah, yeah, at the very least, if not actively co-sign it, yeah, it's uh, it's bad,

like I said, uh, hour of the wolf, but I do want to get to

the other political stories from this week, which are like sort of the we see now this past week, sort of like the two avenues that appear to be opening up for the Democratic Party and like as

the opposition or the good party that you have to vote for because you know the guys, the ones currently in power are you know basically because you know turning this country into an outright dictatorship.

And the first one I'm going to begin with is, of course, Kamala Harris.

Yeah, remember her?

Headline here in Vanity Fair.

Kamala Harris has been quietly, carefully working the phones and plotting her next move.

Right, Terra.

Kamala Harris was most definitely saying, I told you so, about Donald Trump.

Last week, the former vice president made a surprise appearance at a women's leadership conference in California's Orange County, giving her first extended remarks since her November 6th concession speech.

Harris's tone was somber, with one major exception.

There are many things that we knew would happen, she said before departing from her written text.

I'm not here to say I told you so.

I swore I wasn't going to say that.

With Harris, with that, Harris briefly backed away from the mic, laughing and grinning.

I thought she performed incredibly well.

One of her best speeches, said Ashley Etienne, who worked as Harris's communications director during her first year as vice president and was in the room last week.

The way I read it was, she felt a little lighter in her presentation, but heavier in the depth of what she was saying.

It's so evil.

And, like, you know, like, this goes on to say, like, you know, she's been meeting in Beverly Hills with like, you know, a lot of Democratic Party bigwigs and well-heeled donors.

So just a point of information.

I think her first extended remarks were actually at a paid speech at a bank.

It was for Australia's biggest realtor conference.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Forgive me if I'm mistaking them.

I just hate this, like, I just hate this thing of like every time someone runs for president and loses, and they're like, they predicted all of this.

And it's like, what the fuck do you think a campaign is?

Like, do you,

is she going out there?

I mean, bullshit aside, I think he's he'll be a great president.

Yeah.

So you get no credit.

You lost.

You lost.

Yeah.

Like, you know, you predicted all of this, so did everyone else, but you didn't run a good enough campaign.

So you get no credit.

Yeah, this is just one more here from the New York Times.

Ms.

Harris, who jokes to friends that she is unemployed for the first time, has explored options beyond pursuing electoral office too.

She has hired the Creative Artist Agency to gauge interest in speaking engagements in a potential book.

An aide has held preliminary talks with universities about establishing a policy institute, though some warrant that could complicate her political aspirations.

Ms.

Harris has told friends and allies that she is still processing the November result in which she lost every swing state and saw record numbers of black and Latino voters, historically among most reliable Democrats, reject her.

But, like, I mean, look, like, I think that Kamala is absolutely getting ready to run for president again in 2028.

And once again, if polls are to be believed, she is currently among, like, among Democrats, the leading candidate to run again for president in 2028.

Also, just let me say, on behalf of all under and unemployed women in this country, we do not claim her.

We do not claim her.

We reject her wholeheartedly.

She's not welcome in the clubhouse.

That's just such like a bullshit.

Like, yeah, that's what everyone thinks about her.

You know, she's always just kept busy.

So weird to see her not at work.

Like, what?

Are you Jack Donaghy?

Like, no one thinks that about her.

No one's going to tell her to go

hike in the woods and learn to knit.

Remember that?

Remember how fun that was?

She's meeting with CAA.

I would watch a Kamala reality show that's like, if it was called like Doug and Kamala, achieving normal.

And it was about them like learning to pretend that they're like a normal couple.

Just like at dinner with Ella M.

Hoff and the son, you know, talking about like, hey,

how was the

downtown lit magazine party?

Was it, was it bussin'?

Yeah, or just like, I don't know, like going over like contract negotiations for when they renew the marriage.

Well, CAA can be valuable in that regard.

Absolutely.

So there's, yeah, Kamala out there.

Like I said, I think for Frolly obviously laying the groundwork to take another crack at it in 2028.

Well, who else is there?

And, you know, run on the, hey, I told you so platform, which, you know, like, fuck, fuck me.

It could work.

Who knows?

And then in contrast with, or perhaps not enough in contrast with, the huge rallies that took place here in Los Angeles this week for AOC and Bernie.

And like the Fight the Oligarchy Torah that they're going on right now, which is like, you know, is indeed like turning out huge numbers of people.

Like, it's not even running for president.

Biggest Bernie rally ever.

And yeah, and like, you know, I think a lot of people are saying that this is laying the groundwork for AOC to run for president.

And, you know, like, I've thought a lot about.

like these big rallies and like the obvious the obvious energy that they're like sort of channeling and like the the numbers of people that will turn out to support this because this is like what they want from democratic leaders in this country is like because given like as we just spent the last 20 minutes describing the atmosphere of just like choking fear and grotesquery that exists in this country and anger among

parts of like normie liberal voters about like their party's inability or unwillingness to uh challenge any of this or just like across like all demographic lines also yeah like someone just want like people just want someone to echo their anger and tell them that they're not alone and they're not crazy.

And to that end, I can't shit on like, you know, big public outpourings of like physical support and like thousands and thousands of people turning out for like, you know, what is, in my opinion, a mostly positive political message.

But that being said, like, I feel like I've seen this movie before, and I think like soberly, we should have to consider some of the limitations of this.

And like, yes, I'm sorry, critique the obvious blind spots uh as it regards gaza like what i'm sorry like an issue that obliterates all others in terms of how important and uh you know immediate it is among the people that we want to be to sort of carry the mantle of what is like a moral or progressive or i don't know liberal or socialist vision of what how this country could be governed uh in the future a country where whatever was done in gaza is just over there and it's implicitly okay

that is a country where everything else happened that is a country where citizens, green card holders, fucking anybody can be disappeared to a Salvadorian hellhole and never to be seen again.

It is not just foreign policy.

It is a test of how much people will accept.

There is no disconnecting them.

And yeah, like at the end of the day, I think it is better to have these than not, right?

Like I think it is.

For morale, solidarity, and like

you said, like the impression that you're not going insane, that like there are huge numbers of people in this country who are not on board with the evil that is just coursing through.

Right.

It's better to have like a physical presence for opposition, for them not to just think that everyone is just glumly keeping their heads down and shuffling through this, hoping it will end.

That is always better, absolutely.

But yeah, both for the gigantic blind spot and the issue that binds all of this together.

Bernie just said,

Israel has a right to defend itself, still fucking saying that.

And I do think, you know, for all like my criticisms of AOC specifically, I think Bernie has disgraced himself far more in the past five years between the two.

He has said and done the far more fucking disgraceful things for as bad as tirelessly working and all the other shit was.

But the thing that like frightens me about AOC as the next standard bearer is I think whoever comes next, if they have even a dream of unfucking things up, they are going to have to harden their hearts.

Yes.

They're going to have to go beyond where Lula is going.

They are probably going to have to break the law.

They are going to have to make people too afraid to just try this again the fucking next time.

And they won't.

I don't think that's her.

I don't know who that is.

I don't know who, if that person even exists in the realm of possible candidates, but I do know that in order to even get back somewhere, to even be in a position to make things better,

it would have to be someone who is ready to do this and cannot be derailed by

anyone who can adopt the language of a mid-sized American university house PR department.

Yeah.

Felix, you had a great line about AOC is that she's easier to move than a hitman in BC.

And like,

that is a huge liability.

You can just like, you know, like a video game where you can like throw throw a pebble and like the guards are like, what was that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you just say unsafe, she'll be like, oh my God, I didn't realize I was doing that.

Felix, I think the point you made.

about how like they have to be willing to break the law is so important.

It's like similar to what I said last week is that like any productive economic policy in this country will inevitably result in the stock market crashing.

So like you're just going to have to like get ready to, you know, steal yourself for the reaction when that happens.

And the good news is that the Trump administration right now is establishing the precedent that the executive branch can absolutely ignore a Supreme Court ruling as they're doing right now with these deportations.

You know, like, I guess, like, as terrifying as

that is, it does imply that a different executive could ignore the Supreme Court for a good reason rather than a pure evil one.

Yes.

I also just want to point out, like, to me, and people will probably get mad at this.

To me, like, the message itself reveals its limitations.

Fight oligarchy.

You know, oligarchy will be the death of us all.

You know, it's like one of the main reasons we don't have any nice things in this country.

But, and, you know, again, I don't care.

But, you know, it's similar to like Black Lives Matter.

It's inherent, like, of course, Black Lives Matter.

Of course, we should fight oligarchy.

But like, what is, what is the actionable part of that?

uh you know kind of organizing mantra you know like you have to fight against something and in fighting against something you have to advocate for a different, concrete policy vision of the world.

Fighting is not enough.

You have to be fighting for a better future.

And I simply think that like, you know, without teeth and without,

you know, like a real, a real plan.

like, you know, this organizing kind of like, you know, it's, it's good energy.

It's great to have people feeling not alone.

It's great to have people coming out of their houses and coming together and being anti-Trump and being anti-oligarchy.

But like, where does it go?

You know, like, similar to Black Lives Matter, all the energy of that movement, which was so heartening for that whole summer, you know, kind of just crashed and burned because it had nowhere to go other than

just vote for the next Democrat.

And, like, Felix, this is a point you made.

Like, look, this is what I mean by like, I've seen this movie before.

Like, we've seen the, we've seen Bernie already turn out huge numbers of people and like really motivate.

a large constituency of people in this country.

But like, unfortunately, that constituency in a one-on-one v1 primary or election is still not enough.

And like, I hate to say it, but like another example that comes to mind right now in New York City is Zoron.

Like, I think he's run a magnificent campaign and I think he's got great ideas and he has like really turned out a great deal of support, a lot of individual donors.

And like, I greatly admire what he's done.

And I'm not like, this isn't all just doom and gloom.

However, he is currently 30 points underwater to Andrew Cuomo, who has basically not been seen in public once since declaring his candidacy for mayor.

He has not done a single campaign event.

He has not done a single media interview.

He is living in a hotel and just waiting for the primary in June, and he's probably going to win.

And like, you know, once again, like, I don't relish in saying that.

I'm still supporting Zoron proudly.

I'm still going to vote for him.

And I think everyone should as well.

But like, that should tell you something.

And like, I don't have an answer to this.

I don't have a solution.

But.

If it is going to come down eventually to like, we gave it a good shot and we like brought awareness to a lot of issues and we like, you know, sort of expanded the horizons of like, you know, political possibility in this country.

But at the end of the day, we're just going to endorse the next awful Democrat who's going to beat us.

Because we couldn't get it done at the ballot.

Yes.

I don't know what the future is unless you're really willing to break with the Democratic Party.

Yeah, that is it at the end of the day.

We talked about it on our Melanchoan episode, and we've talked about it a lot in reference to Bernie versus his other counterparts in electoral politics across the world.

It strains credulity to say we're going to fight the oligarchy, we're going to take it down, and we are going to deliver a better vision of the future when you cannot fight the Democratic Party at its weakest.

At a certain point, you have to realize like there has to be fucking something else.

The Democrats aren't getting it done.

And also there are oligarchs on the Democratic side.

You know, it's again, it just underlines the limited horizon of this.

this particular message.

I think a positive political message would just be to like forget all policy.

Just be like, elect us.

And I promise to use all of the current executive powers that are being expanded right now to just jail everyone in the Trump administration without without due process, without a court, without a judge hearing a case to jail or deport all of these criminals or all these crooks and degenerates from America.

And like,

don't indict him 50 times.

Just get rid of him.

Right.

And like, even when you...

when Trump is gone or J.D.

Nance or fucking whoever, you will still have all the ICE guys who happily did this and are going to leap at the chance to do it again.

How do you make them stop?

I don't know.

Make them afraid of a fucking consequence for the first time.

Do some Nuremberg trials.

Yeah.

I mean, that is a proven way to at least make people too afraid to easily try it again.

You know, like campaign promise, day one, imprison Donald Trump, his family, everyone who served in his administrations and like freeze all of their assets and then get them out of this fucking country.

And then also like, and then do the same thing to like the entire infrastructure of their political and economic support.

I think you'd see even more than 36,000 people on the streets for that.

I think, yeah, I think that would have a message that would turn out a fair number of people.

That's just icky to Democrats.

You know, like it is, it is, you know, I mean, it's icky to me, too.

Like, I've been defending, defending freedom of speech and due process.

But, like, I said, we live in a world now where, like, it's the prisoner's dilemma.

You got to do it to them first because they're going to be doing it.

They're already doing it to you.

They're already doing it to you.

Yeah.

I mean, it all goes back to Bush.

There was a chance to put bush away to put away people like douglas fife and john yoo who signed off on the thing that got this ball rolling with the patriot act with the renditions of american citizens when no one saw no legal consequence no real professional consequence no social consequence for any of this that opened the door for all of this yes we're going to need some kind of truth and reconciliation committee and some sort of robespierre like revolutionary court as well to to process

Yeah.

Yeah.

When you show someone like any of these horrible stories of people who did fucking nothing and they go, good, it's our turn.

They're not going to stop because of the goodness of their heart, because they ran into three Christmas goats.

The only thing that will stop them is fear.

Yeah.

That is the only thing.

Oh, wait, Chris, you want to give us a scene report?

Because like, I know we've been talking about the Bernie AOC rally, but producer Chris attended the one in Los Angeles.

And I think for journalists and integrity, we should get a first-party, first-person perspective on the proceedings.

Yeah.

So I had some friends from San Diego drive up because they were planning on attending.

A friend who's a veteran and his girlfriend who has a job who is unionized under the Teamsters.

So they wanted to come up for it and asked to stay at our place.

So I figured, what the hell?

I'm not doing anything on a Saturday morning.

I'll go down and check it out.

Ran into some other friends there.

I mean, it's nice.

It's very nice to see everybody out.

We've seen these for a decade now.

Huge, diverse, intergenerational, interracial

crowd.

I mean, at one point, I was standing in between a group of what I could describe as Zoomer metalheads and middle-aged Chicano longshoremen's union guys.

And can we say Chicano anymore?

They had pins that said Chicano labor on it.

Who has said that you can't say that?

I don't know.

I don't know if that's the right thing.

How many articles are you reading a week, Chris?

But yeah, it was a lot of like everything from

people

in Ruth Bader Ginsburg hype shirts and Harris Waltz hats.

Wow, I thought that phenotype was extinct.

Well, they're still out at the Bernie Rally, too.

I did see, I did clock a couple Zapata offshore hats there.

Nice.

Yeah.

Greatest selling hat in history.

Yes, exactly.

So, I mean, made in America, by the way.

That's basically it.

I was not able to say

I was not able to actually say for AOC and Bernie, but, you know,

had some hotel workers speak before, had some local politicians speak.

Everybody was on message.

I was pleased that even between the local politicians and, oh, they had that guy, Max Frost, the Zoomer congressman.

Oh, right.

Oh, the Kingdom Hearts fucker.

Yeah, exactly.

Did he have a Keyblade with him?

No, he didn't.

He was very competent, very on message, very Bernie Krat in his speech.

Not a lot of, from what I saw, like straight Orange Man bad stuff, but a lot of, you know, we have to deal with Medicare for all got a number of mentions that's still in the combo there

housing healthcare climate you know it's it's the same message but everybody's very on point mostly forward thinking I did talk to my friends who stayed the entire time their report was mostly AOC did the diagnosis of what's wrong now Bernie did the roadmap for the future.

I asked if the word Gaza was said at all.

They said there were some mentions of Palestine, but no Gaza specifically.

Yeah, I mean, I second everything you guys said in the analysis thing, but we'll just concur that the energy is nice.

And it is, if anything, to just keep that core alive does, I agree, does have some value.

And to see the diversity and enthusiasm and passion there in real life is always a powerful reminder that this is something that exists in the real world,

even if we still don't know what the fuck to do with it.

Anyways, that's it.

I think that's very worth saying.

And

this has been a very, you know, a downer, some would say.

But we've referenced the Bush administration a lot this episode and a lot in reference to this current Trump administration.

I will say, like, the most hopeless anything felt was not, it wasn't, it's not now.

Sure shit, it's not now.

It was a time like 2003

where things like this were happening and we were gearing up for another war and there was some opposition, but for the most part, it seemed like they, the Bush administration would not even have to go to these lengths because they're just no one like gave a shit at that time.

It wasn't like 2007, like things get collapsed in people's memories and they just refer to this broad Bush era.

But it took a long time to get to get to the point where it was even openly okay to talk about like the failings of the administration.

We're not there.

We're not at some point where like it is some taboo topic just out of out of social ostracization that like they don't even have to go to these lengths.

It's cold comfort, but the fact that

they are basically openly telegraphing their plan to revoke American citizenship in defense of israel is proof of a tenuous position i would say yeah how that ends what goes with it i don't know i none of us know and even if we did you don't get anything for for predicting the future i told i told you so yeah yeah exactly exactly yeah but as my lungs fill with gas yeah but but

all things being equal better to be here than to be in a position where no one fucking gives a shit at all.

And you're just screaming through the glass trying to get people to notice.

I will also say that I was entertained by the small but very noticeable Avakianite presence outside.

Now we have an annotation.

Now we have finally had an answer.

I was like, that's a policy.

Outside the rally, effectively protesting the rally, and the message that they were going on and had

flyered around the perimeter was: no, Bernie, it's not the one percent it's the 50 of fascist americans

i mean honestly uh facts yeah i mean i was like

like i mean i can i really disagree with chairman bob there like after everything i've just said on this show

of the like of utterly irredeemable uh swine uh portion of this country

i yeah i mean everything you reported about the rally uh it was very reassuring to to hear but knowing that the bob people are still doing that that was like, that's like a warm hug.

Yeah.

I think no matter what, they're going to be like, if like there's nuclear war and we live through threads and we have like,

you know, early, early agrarian elections with like councils with elders, there will still be pebbles in a bucket.

Yeah, there will still be chairman Bob guys that are like, Gug the Magnificent is a social factor.

Fuck everyone who's able to domesticate cross.

And while I'm on here, I'm glad that you brought up the

thing about what would prevent the next guy theoretically from just using this administration's policies to,

it keeps feeling like a very based lib fantasy of mine, but it is exactly what you said.

Like, what prevents the next guy from coming in and just declaring MAGA a terrorist movement, which they, anyone could do, any executive could do, and rendering all the leadership into foreign custody under, say, Cuba or maybe the ANC.

Yeah.

And just see what they do with the MAGA leadership for a few months while we sort it out in court.

I wouldn't want to do that to Cuba.

They certainly don't deserve it.

It's a fantasy that I've been in for a little bit.

Well, I mean, like, the point is, like,

elections are not going to make these people go away.

I mean, I'm not saying like, oh, we need to kill half of the country or anything like that.

But, like, the point is, like, the power of

reactionary force, when I say, like, cannot be defeated through elections.

Like, they can, like, they're their progress in turning this country into Fortress America can only be impeded temporarily.

Oh, you do kind of need to win elections in order to wield political power.

Yeah, but then you need to wield power.

But then you need to actually wield it against your enemies.

Unfortunately, you do need to win elections in order to wield the power.

And the Democratic Party is semi-interested in winning elections, but is certainly demonstratively not interested in wielding political power against its its friends or enemies.

They should start like imposing new curriculum codes on universities where it's just like, Harvard has to be anti-Semitic now.

Yeah.

I would love to be the anti-anti-Semitist.

Oh, the Felix Biederman endowed chair of anti-Semitism created at Harvard University.

Oh, wow.

No, make these

fucking law firms defend Palestinian cities.

You could create the White Noise Department of Nazi Studies.

The Department of Hitler.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah, the Department of Hitler Studies is God.

The Department of Anti-Semitic Studies.

All right.

Let's leave it there for today.

We managed to end on a less downer note.

We're talking about anti-Semitism.

Actually, we're going to end the show on a much lighter note with a little important announcement for you.

We talked about the movie Ephesus that we helped produce and that I play a very small role in.

Well, people have been always asking, you know, oh, I can't see it.

I don't live in New York or LA.

And it's just like, well, that's your fault.

But thankfully, thankfully, starting tomorrow, April 15th, Ephesus will be available everywhere fine movies are bought or rented.

What?

Yeah, you will be able to watch Ephesus on Amazon, Apple TV, Dango at Home, Google Play, and YouTube.

All this information and associated links will be available on ephusfilm.com on the morning of release tomorrow, as well as the Music Box Films website.

And there is also a merch store will go live on Tuesday.

And if you definitely, you can get some Ephes baseball hats.

But for any of you who have not had the opportunity to see Ephesus yet, it is coming to your home television or laptop movie watching device.

It's a special film.

It made me care about baseball, which is a monumental task.

Yeah, it's a beautiful film.

And

I'm really glad it's now available.

It's going to be available to rent everywhere.

So, everyone, please go out and rent and watch Ephesus coming to Homes tomorrow.

Coming to VOD.

Yes.

All right.

That does it for us today.

Thank you, Catherine, for joining us once again.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

Till next time, everybody.

See ya.

Bye.

Bye.

I wish there was something you could do or say

to try and make me change my mind and stay.

We never did too much talking anyway.

Don't think twice, it's alright.

Well, I'm walking down a long, lonesome road, babe.

Where I'm bound,

I can't tell.

But goodbye is too good word, babe.

So I'll just say, I'll just say

farewell.