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00:00:01
the one after chuck sold us out (ep. 11)
5 Plays1 year ago
how we can save ourselves
https://youtu.be/9SpgBSV0ECg?si=xZwsZpnwCNcEDgS2
ben and jerrys ice cream silenced by parent company, fires ceo
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/19/food/ben-and-jerrys-ceo-lawsuit/index.html
fake ceasefire
elon and doge shutdown of usaid unconstitutional
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-finds-doges-usaid-shutdown-likely-unconstitutional/
cuck the schmuck formerly chuck schumer pulling an uncle tom like an absolute fleshlight
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/us/politics/chuck-schumer-senate-budget-vote-backlash.html
petition for chuck to step down
deportations
https://time.com/7270418/venezuela-deported-reyes-barrios/
republicans vs judges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HPnzmKsjTU&pp=ygUUbXNudmMgaW1wZWFjaCBqdWRnZXM%3D
kara swisher on elon musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xXLycFv5Gc&t=5s&ab_channel=TheEzraKleinShow
Jame Carville on trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYWNxN4J1hg&t=37s&ab_channel=Politicon
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Host Frustrations
00:00:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, no intro music because it's still sad piano music and the mood is not sad.
00:00:03
James
oh
00:00:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I am the most pissed I've been in. I don't even know how long. Welcome to Oh Brother News. I'm Gabe.
00:00:16
James
I'm James.
00:00:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And we are brothers and I am fucking furious. Like last week I was like, okay, I'm going to try. I'm going to try to use the least amount of fucks possible going forward. And then this week happened and there's just no way to just 50% of the things I say are going to be fuck this episode.
Current Events Overview: Ukraine, Schumer, and Musk
00:00:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um Here are some of the things we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the fake as fuck ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia that that lasted two minutes before Russia launched a massive attack.
00:00:46
James
Yeah. Never.
00:00:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We're going to talk about this motherfucking piece of shit carpet Cock the Schmuck, formerly known as Chuck Schumer, pulling an Uncle Tom like an absolute fucking fleshlight.
00:01:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We're going to talk about ah illegal deportations, which will segue us right into Republicans versus judges. We're talk about a really interesting, insightful video from Kara Swisher, where she was discussing Elon Musk, who she's known for a long time and kind of Silicon Valley ah tech leaders in general.
00:01:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
She had a lot of interesting insights. We'll link that video.
00:01:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah And I'm not sure. maybe Maybe some of the things we have still have all of the, you know, Instagram and, you know, watch and comment. And there's some more of those we might get to. So we'll see what we'll see where where the ah the day takes us. Where where do you want to start?
Critique of Chuck Schumer and Democratic Strategy
00:01:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You said you had two things actually before we started.
00:01:55
James
yeah you start
00:01:57
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So what was your other thing?
00:02:01
James
Deportations, Ukraine, and the well, the judges really, you know, the, the, it doesn't matter.
00:02:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, there's other two.
00:02:10
James
Chuck Schumer thing is, is fine. That's a, that's a good way.
00:02:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yes. Let's talk about cock the schmuck. So, oh my God.
00:02:16
James
Hmm.
00:02:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So the, the Democrats had a point of leverage. Because the Republicans needed to pass either budget or continuing resolution that's like, well, we're not going to pass a budget because, lol, why the fuck would we do that? We're just a government who needs responsibility.
00:02:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But let's just, like, you know, kick that can down the road a little bit and just let all the shit we're already doing be cool.
00:02:43
James
Oh shit.
00:02:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Is that cool? Would that be fine with everyone? And in order to pass this continuing resolution, excuse me, excuse me ah they needed 60 votes because that's what you need to get to have a ah ah majority that can't be filibustered.
00:03:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So they needed 60 votes. But the problem was there's only 53 Republicans and one and and luckily only one J.D. Vance, just luckily for all the couches out there.
00:03:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So, you know, they were at an impasse and they couldn't do it without Democrats. So the Democrats could say, hey, You can um shut the government down, I guess, you know, end Medicaid payments.
00:03:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You know, kids are going to die because they're trying to go to the hospital on Medicaid for their cancer treatments and they just won't be able to. So the kit children will die and won't have any social security payments. So bunch old people will have bad stuff happen.
00:03:45
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Everyone will be super upset with you, but you'll have accomplished your mission of of closing down the government. that That was the The gun that the Democrats were holding to the head of Trump and the Republican Party.
00:03:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And Chuck Schumer traded it away for LOL fucking nothing because he's a cock bitch, piece of shit, who can't negotiate his way out of a fucking paper bag.
00:04:09
James
right
00:04:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He's completely fucking worthless. just Just a dead zombie ah being propped up by... cockery and donald trump's anger i suppose i don't know i i'm just i'm i'm too i'm too angry to be to be eloquent but it was like it was such a betrayal it was just a full-on let's take our singular our singular bargaining chip and give it away for fuck all like i don't care what the fuck else he does i don't care if chuck schumer
00:04:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It causes the Democrats to win 100 percent of all the next elections for the next 10 years. Fuck him.
Government Shutdown: Risks and Political Leverage
00:04:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Get him out of office. He's he is. He's not. and So it wasn't just Chuck Schumer, by the way.
00:05:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They needed seven.
00:05:01
James
Thank you.
00:05:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They needed seven votes from Democrats. They got 10, including my senator, Dick Durbin. Everybody on this list is fucking dead to me. They all need to go. Every motherfucking one of them.
00:05:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And everybody else who was saying, oh, this was a good idea. was all this was ta four dimensional chess. No, no, it was one dimensional sucking Donald Trump's cock.
00:05:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
OK, I'm going to stop screaming for a few minutes and you can tell me your thoughts.
00:05:31
James
I think rightly so. And my first reaction was not too different than yours. You know, like, what the fuck? But when you really think about it and you put down the anger and you think about what would have happened if it didn't, if they did block it and it went to shut down, which.
00:05:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I want all of it to happen.
00:05:53
James
let's think about that. All right.
00:05:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, let's talk about it.
00:05:55
James
So let's think about it. All right. Government shuts down. Now, every one of those agencies, right. That Trump and them are trying strong arm and get things out and close them all down and dragging it around and people going to court and they're kind of doing things, you know, i mean, they're doing a lot of damage, but you know, it's not all at once.
00:06:15
James
Right. People in the university event or the, excuse me, the Institute of Peace that literally barricaded themselves in their offices. And those people came there with, you know, their, their little paramilitary force, you know what mean? um You know, it's, it, it's happening slowly, right? And it's making news and things are happening. And as they're ham-handedly, you know, they're ham-handedly, you know, shutting stuff down and pissing people off his approval is going down and everything else. Right. And they're hurting people, you know, that's all happening.
00:06:48
James
Not immediately. Now Democrats say, okay, Hey, No, I don't like this. You're cutting all this stuff. You're cutting all this stuff. You made this this ah CR that's going to cut all these departments and cut all these the spending for all these places, right?
00:07:03
James
And yes, Democrats weren't consulted on any it. They just did the deal themselves amongst themselves, Republicans, and then said, hey, vote for it or we shut it down. Republicans wanted to shut it down. They always want to shut it down because they don't like federal government.
00:07:15
James
And if the Democrats would have said, they it's it's almost like calling a bluff. It's almost like calling a bluff, right? It's like, shit. Alright, if we shut it down, all agencies stop.
00:07:26
James
All military stops being paid. Everybody stops being paid, and Democrats get blamed for it because they're the ones, you know, blocking it.
00:07:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, the Democrats would not get blamed for it.
00:07:37
James
Well...
00:07:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Absolutely not. Trump is in power. You're telling me that that that that if the government shuts down less than less than two months after Trump takes office, that they would blame the Democrats?
00:07:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
do The Democrats aren't in charge of shit. The Democrats don't have – they have no power.
00:07:53
James
Hey, you're the one.
00:07:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
There's no way they would get blamed for it.
00:07:56
James
You. Well, you're the one also always talk about how the messaging. Who is all over the podcast? Who has the stuff on the Internet? Who has all the radio? Who's on the. I mean, you know, it's Republicans usually own the messaging.
00:08:09
James
Right. they They win the messaging war usually. Right. As far as, you know. Out and about media places, everything else. Right. And who has the White House? Who can sit there and scream and talk about the Democrats shutting everything down?
00:08:22
James
We have a majority. The Republicans have a majority. We have a majority, but the Democrats are filibustering because they want everything shut down.
00:08:31
James
Right?
00:08:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but James, here's the thing.
00:08:32
James
Now, hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:08:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay.
00:08:33
James
But let's think about this now. yeah ah The government shuts down. right And Democrats would have to say, yeah, even though they have a majority and they have the votes to pass it, we're not letting it pass because he wants to do all these things and do even worse cuts.
00:08:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay.
00:08:45
James
Okay, so now, boom, everything's shut down. Military's not being paid. Everything's being shut down. And all of these other agencies where the people are, They're all shuttered overnight. Everything they want to get rid of all the stuff they want to cut all the federal funding from every one of these places. They want to fire tens and thousands of people.
00:09:03
James
They're cool. They all just leave. They all have to go home because the government shut down. They all have to go home. And then what happens? Trump just goes in there and locks the doors, change the locks. Boom. They're done. Take all the signs off.
00:09:15
James
We don't have to do anything to close them down.
00:09:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, here here are the here are the the two options, okay?
00:09:16
James
It's already closed down.
00:09:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
here's the Here's the way these two options actually work.
00:09:22
James
And remember, it's six months. And remember, it's six months. It's a six-month thing to remember. All right.
00:09:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Here's the way these two options actually work, okay? Option one, they slowly they slowly ah choke the life out of government in a way that hurts a few people and a few more people and a few more people and a few more people and a few more people and a few more people.
00:09:39
James
Mm-hmm.
00:09:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And there's this wave of outrage, you know, a couple of people get pissed and then, oh, okay, but now we're onto the next.
00:09:46
James
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:09:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And a couple of the people get pissed. Oh, and then we're onto the next.
00:09:53
James
And now you have midterms.
00:09:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And a couple of the people get pissed. Oh, we're onto the next. And what that is, that is, That is ah the American people, America, the country itself, being a frog in a pot of water where the temperature is slowly rising.
00:10:04
James
Yeah.
00:10:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And so they don't jump out. They don't run into the streets and go, what the fuck? Nobody gets pissed. Everyone just sort of slowly accepts as it gets worse. Slowly. But if the Democrats hadn't said said, you know what, you want to shut it all down?
00:10:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Do it. Shut it all the fuck down. Let's see how that goes. Everyone would have been fucking furious simultaneously. And people would have been in the streets and they would have been complaining and they would have been saying, what in the fuck are you doing?
00:10:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We're coming for your fucking necks. Fix it now. Everyone furious at the same time. That is the thing that we need, because um here's here's the truth.
00:10:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. Trump isn't going to leave office. He's going to stay. And Trump isn't going to not dismantle government because, because we didn't allow the shutdown. He's going to shut it down anyway.
00:10:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He just signed the fucking executive order to shut down the department of education. He's just going to do it more slowly and nobody's going to get pissed. And he's going to have six more months to, to slowly choke it to death before there's even another chance to do the thing that we could have done today.
00:11:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
or that we could have done it a few days ago and said, do it, do it, burn it all the fuck down. Let's see how that goes.
00:11:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They're going to, they're going to kill it either way. The difference is not, oh, they kill it or they don't kill it. The difference is they kill it slowly and not enough people pay attention because not enough people suffer because of it. Or they, they, turn they turn it off immediately and everyone is fucking furious at the same time now.
00:11:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You just gave him six more months to fucking choke us to death slowly. That's all he accomplished.
00:11:47
James
Yeah, but you forget six months from now, that will be one year before midterms, right? And that's about the time when everybody starts running for office.
00:11:57
James
And about that time, you have about another two months of actual legislation and then nothing happens because it's all people running for office. You only have about one year. One year is your timeline in politics to do stuff.
00:12:08
James
You have a year.
00:12:10
James
Then everybody has to then everybodys a run for office, they run for reelection or run for, you know, the House seats, the entire House up for votes.
00:12:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I'm going to send it get six years.
00:12:16
James
yeah senators do, but the House doesn't. Every single member of House every two years.
00:12:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Every two years, yeah.
00:12:23
James
And that's what they're looking at. They're thinking, hey, and then Chuck Schumer, if there's like James Carville talked about that the other day on the podcast, guess and he's like, yeah, Democrats, you know, and they smell blood and everything else, but you know ultimately he probably did the right thing because it was bad either way. It's either immediately turn everything off and then Trump can just go ahead and dismantle everything and do whatever they want to do and you know And then the Democrats get blamed for not paying the military and all these other people.
00:12:49
James
And and right now, Trump's numbers, the Republican's numbers keep plummeting, plummeting. The stock market's plummeting. you know It's looking like... I mean, if things keep at this path...
00:13:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Can you imagine what the stock market would have done if the entire government shut down?
00:13:01
James
It
00:13:04
James
would nosedive. Oh yeah, nosedive.
00:13:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Exactly.
00:13:07
James
It would nosedive.
00:13:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
This is the thing that we need, James. Like, this is exactly and exclusively the thing that we need.
00:13:12
James
It's all already...
00:13:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We need the most pain to the most people because it's coming for you. It's coming one way or another. Like, whether you realize it or not,
Democratic Strategy and Authoritarianism
00:13:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
the leopards that eat faces are coming to eat your face.
00:13:28
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Whether you think you're safe because you're special, you voted for Donald Trump, you know, you've got all the MAGA hats. Like, it doesn't matter. They're still coming to eat your face.
00:13:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So we should put that we should have the leopard start eating the faces now.
00:13:40
James
Yeah, but there're but right now, yes. Yes, but here's the thing, though. Right now, as they're doing it slowly and what they're targeting, like Jin Saki did a great thing on this the other day when she was talking about it.
00:13:52
James
She's like, he thinks he's owning the libs. What they're he's really doing is owning his own fans. Because most of the things that they're doing and all the things they're going after and all the things they're slow walking doing...
00:14:05
James
overwhelmingly is hurting the red states it's hurting his voters it's actually overwhelmingly hurting red voters and like the whole infrastructure like the the inflation reduction act stuff you know that they're they're rolling back is like 80 percent of all the funding went to red red districts rural district red districts he's i mean it's 80 percent of that is he is targeting his own people you know all the the other things to talk about when they're talking about going and dipping into Medicaid and they're talking about these, it's overwhelmingly hurting his own people.
00:14:36
James
So everybody's getting mad, you know, and then his numbers are already dropping and they're thinking, Hey, this is the way we can save it. Let's get it. Keep on hurting people. He's hurting, but let's not hurt everybody in the country all in one fell swoop because it doesn't really what, and here's other thing.
00:14:52
James
What would you said? You said they had all the leverage Democrats had all the leverage. What leverage? What's a leverage?
00:15:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The leverage it.
00:15:02
James
What were they going to get out of it? What would they have gotten out of it? Other than having a government shutdown, which Trump and Elon really wanted.
00:15:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, no, no. Here's the, here's the thing. Here's the thing. They should, hear the the only thing. Okay. In order to play a long game, you have to have a lot enough time for a long game to pay off.
00:15:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. And now in a normal political situation, when they're not dismantling the government and, and he has, he said before the election,
00:15:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Go vote this one last time and then we'll fix it and you'll never have to vote again.
00:15:31
James
I know.
00:15:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He wasn't fucking joking.
00:15:33
James
I know.
00:15:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It wasn't it wasn't a ha-ha funny times. There's not going to be a fucking midterm, James.
00:15:38
James
I agree with that. um Well, um I think there will be...
00:15:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
there's not goingnna There's not going to be a midterm.
00:15:41
James
Well.
00:15:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And if there is going to be, it's not going to be real. There's going to be some, you know, emergency powers, executives, hibbity-bibbity, challenged by the courts. and The courts are going to be like, no. And he's going to be like, okay, you and what army? And we're going to, that's going to be fucking it.
00:15:56
James
It might be, but here's the thing, though.
00:15:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. and And the only way, the only way you stop that.
00:15:58
James
We're all...
00:16:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. ah There's, I can't remember. I got a, I got a, I got video going to find that I'm going to attach. It's like a short one. It's like a five minute video, but it's somebody talking about, what it takes to to stop a fascist coup.
00:16:12
James
Yeah, you said 2.5%.
00:16:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And yes, yes, you have to have an extended...
00:16:14
James
2.5% of people. Yeah, it said 2.5% of the population. Yeah, i was watching that too.
00:16:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I sent it to you. You have to have an extended... i think it was three and a half, but whatever, two and a half to three and a half.
00:16:24
James
was Chris Hayes who talking about it.
00:16:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You have to have an extended protest, okay?
00:16:26
James
Mm-hmm.
00:16:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You need three and a half percent of the population in the streets. That means...
00:16:32
James
Mm-hmm.
00:16:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
How many was it? Ten million people? So that means you need ten million people in the streets continuously until, until we get what we want. Okay.
00:16:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And that's the thing that the, that the Democrats need. They don't need to think about what the fuck is going to happen with an election. Six months from now, the gun is at your head now. mother Like you don't know that you're goingnna have a fucking face to that. It won't have been shot with a fucking gun.
00:16:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Six months from now, you don't get to think about six months from now. You have to worry about the gun point. Your fucking face right now today. It's trying to kill you now, not later.
00:17:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like the time the time that we need 10 million people in the streets protesting continuously, doing a work strike, tanking the fucking stock market, putting pressure everywhere, putting pain everywhere is is yesterday.
00:17:08
James
Yeah, well. no
00:17:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay? it's It's two months ago. So, no, six months from now, who the fuck knows if it'll even matter then?
00:17:31
James
But here's the thing, though. this is another thing that James Carroll was talking about. All right. And here's why Democrats didn't do that. And here's why they're betting on we're not quite to that point yet. And it's not a horrible.
00:17:41
James
It's not horrible. If you think about it, actually kind of smart. The election. Think of the Kamala Harris, Donald Trump. Final stretch. What were Democrats hammering home the most?
00:17:52
James
What was like what messages were being hammered home the most? Authoritarian. He's trying to do, you i mean? Right? He's authoritarian. He's doing this. wants to be a dictator. He said it, up blah, blah, blah, blah. And do you know what that that did?
00:18:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Nothing.
00:18:05
James
It not only did nothing, it actually turned votes towards Trump.
00:18:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Right. And Trump, what Trump did was he said, I'm going to fix the economy.
00:18:09
James
Right? but
00:18:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I'm going to fix the economy.
00:18:12
James
But here's the thing.
00:18:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So if you, if you destroy the economy,
00:18:13
James
Yeah, but here's the thing. Yeah. But here's the thing. People didn't like that message. They didn't quite believe it, right? And so the Democrats are like, all right, beating down the, he's being an authoritarian playbook.
00:18:26
James
didn't win, didn't win any votes. And in fact, it just turned people away because it's like a negative message and turned people away, right? So they're going to, hey, the Medicare, Medicaid, the things that everybody agrees with that polls well for Democrats and actually does get them votes, right?
00:18:39
James
And then they're like, all right, just so far, courts are ruling against them. Everything else, he hasn't had to defy the Supreme Court. Now we're but he's about to go in contempt for this other thing here, probably, the deportation want to talk about. But That's why he's like, he's not quite there yet.
00:18:54
James
They haven't like defied the Supreme Court. They're not quite there yet. Let them keep hanging themselves slowly. And if they start to go there, then, hey, you know people can come out in the streets and we can start demonstrating, getting everybody out there whipping up demonstrations and protests like that.
00:19:08
James
But until it becomes obvious to everybody, not just me and you and some people who are watching, right? Until it becomes obvious to everybody, it's not a message that sells.
00:19:20
James
And so they don't want to do something that will kill themselves politically when if they like, hey, we just let them keep hanging themselves a little bit. know I mean? Let's not get the blame for this.
00:19:31
James
It's already going to shit. We can hang out. We can hold on a little bit longer. It's like that he he he ah the analogy he used was like the Ukrainians, right? It's like, hey, you know, or or like Valley Forge, you know, against the British, right?
00:19:45
James
if you know If they would have came up there said hey the British are coming here. They have all this big armada coming in here. If Washington would have sat there and said, we're going to fight them right now. There's no turning back. have to get them right now and fought at the beach. Then the revolution would have been over as quick as it started.
00:19:58
James
Instead, they bought their time. They retreated. They ret retreated. They went to Valley Forge, where, by the way, they set up mandatory vaccines. Then, you know, he they waited it out, right?
00:20:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
this is This is nothing like a revolutionary war era battle.
00:20:09
James
It kind of is. will Well, what you're talking about is, and it kind of is.
00:20:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
This is this is nothing like that
00:20:16
James
You have an authoritarian.
00:20:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
no that.
00:20:18
James
America's founded up.
00:20:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The idea that that they're that the Republicans can have the presidency, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, all at the same time,
00:20:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
talking about the biggest win ever, talking about it's a mandate, four months, okay? And then try to say, oh the reason you're suffering right now is because of Obama.
00:20:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
so Like,
00:20:48
James
without saying that but
00:20:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but like this, I'm saying, I'm i' illustrating the point because he does say that yeah when the economy goes, oh, this is the, this is the Obama economy. This is the Joe Biden economy. That's why it's tanking. I know that like it didn't start tanking until two months after I was in, but like, this is actually like Joe Biden that did this, just he did it before he left. And now I just have to like eat it.
00:21:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's not all these wild ass decisions I'm making.
00:21:11
James
He's still out there. Actually, he's not even saying that right now because he's still... the He's still... He was trying to say that the eggs prices were coming down because the wholesale prices went down.
00:21:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like there is,
00:21:19
James
You know?
00:21:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
There's no way there's no way to sell to to sell this problem as being the fault of the Democrats when you are in control of fucking everything.
00:21:25
James
Oh, look.
00:21:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Unless people are not really hurt by it.
Biden's Approach and Democratic Strategy Critique
00:21:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
If you're like, oh, so I hear about someone over there is suffering. That sure sounds bad, but I'm fine.
00:21:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Nothing's wrong here with me. Everything's cool and fine and dandy for me. Then you can be like, oh, I guess it must be just Joe Biden. It's so weird. Joe Biden goes to Joe Biden, the worst president ever, still just fucking us from beyond the grave.
00:21:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What a horrible guy.
00:21:58
James
yeah
00:21:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I You know, you can you can you can you can be that disconnected from reality when your house isn't on fire. But your house being on fire has this amazing effect where suddenly you you don't go like, nope, I don't think it's on fire. Definitely not. Must be somebody else's.
00:22:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Maybe it's those darn Mexicans. you don't have the luxury of bullshit when your house is on fire. You have to recognize that it's on fire and start putting water on it or you fucking die immediately.
00:22:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You don't have any extra time. That is the thing that they need to do. That's the only thing they should have done. They shouldn't have given him anything. There should have been no condition under which that he he could have got them to vote for the continuing resolution. They should have said, hey, guess what? The government's going to shut down no matter what the fuck you offer us.
00:22:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And we're going to go on TV and say that you wouldn't give us anything. You offered us go fuck ourselves. And we just said, hey, what if we just keep Medicare and Social Security because people people need those things?
00:22:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We're going to say that, but there's literally nothing you could offer us. And we're just going to lie. We're just going to lie and say, oh, we just, we just wanted something totally reasonable and small. And you just wouldn't give it to us. And every single Democrat is going to say that all 300 of us on all the podcasts and all the TV shows and all the press conferences, we're going to say the same thing.
00:23:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And you can go out there and try to sell the fact that you're fucking killing everyone that you've lit the entire country on fire and tank the stock market and turned off the whole fucking government. and Children are dying. You can go out there and try to sell that as being our fault.
00:23:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But everyone knows you have a mandate and you have the biggest win of all time and you're all in charge. Good fucking luck. Give him that problem.
00:23:33
James
Hmm.
00:23:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Or, you know, pull a Schumer and suck his dick instead.
00:23:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, there's there's nothing more obvious that you as a Democrat have fucked up than when Donald Trump Name drops you in a truth social post to say that you did something brave.
00:23:49
James
and That's how great you are. Yeah.
00:23:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. That there is no clear indication that you have fucked up like egregiously and bigly than Donald Trump giving you a by name shout out on truth social.
00:24:00
James
Yeah.
00:24:06
James
no Yeah, well. Yeah.
00:24:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I hope AOC primaries him. I seriously do. and i hope I hope everyone who thinks this was a good idea fucking dies a swift political death. I'd love for them to all live and be happily and healthy, but just get the fuck out of politics because you are not at all what the fuck we need.
00:24:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And like the idea that like that that this is like the smart strategy, these are the smart strategy people who brought us Biden. Biden, I'm going to, you know, just be one term transitional. And then Biden, like, actually, i want to still be in charge. Biden, who was like, what if instead of a primary, i just like looked so terrible that we waited till the last minute and then we threw up Kamala Harris, who has no possible chance of distancing herself from me because the same the same people who brought us Joe Biden
Legal Challenges and Government Actions
00:24:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
fucks the entire process are going to give us Kamala Harris doesn't distance herself from Joe Biden, who's incredibly unpopular for his whole fucking presidency.
00:25:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, no, no, the the four dimensional chess people all need to shut the fuck up and go home. They're the reason we're fucked in this exact way. Because you know what what Joe Biden could have done? Joe Biden could have fucking said, hey, I'm going to raise the minimum wage and just do all that and just bang that drum. Only thing I want to do, you know what I want to do I want everyone to get 30 bucks an hour. That's what I want.
00:25:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You little guy. That's right. Vote for me. 30 bucks an hour minimum wage. It's the only thing I care about. That's it. just Just that. Just you. He could have said it.
00:25:32
James
yeah
00:25:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, these fucking strategists are completely full of shit. but Like, they're not even full of shit. They're, like, obviously complicit. This is not a two-team thing.
00:25:44
James
wow Well, we'll see there's encouraging news though. Like, ah you know, talk about how he's been slashing everything and cutting everything and there been destroying agencies left and right.
00:25:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i did see, I saw a lot of that.
00:25:58
James
Well, did you see, you saw the news, how they had to bring back 25,000 and the USAID has to be fully restored and they have to rehire everybody that they let go and they have to have them all back in the buildings and Elon Musk is no longer allowed to be, and you know, running Doge and they have to suspend all that stuff. You didn't see all that news?
00:26:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I did not see that, but that's a lot of good news.
00:26:18
James
Yeah.
00:26:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Tell me more.
00:26:19
James
So in light of that, you know, Schumer's thing may have been the better move if the courts can hold. You know what I mean?
00:26:30
James
Yeah, if you look...
00:26:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
but they're talking about, but so that's let's talk about the courts holding because now what are, what are all the Republicans saying?
00:26:31
James
ah
00:26:35
James
Yeah.
00:26:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What are they saying, James?
00:26:39
James
Oh, they're saying that they need to impeach those judges. And, you know, they're saying that they need to go. And they're just some. and And actually, the Department of Justice. In the other case, I want to talk about the, you know, rounding up a bunch of innocent people and sending them into slavery in El Salvador.
00:26:56
James
They actually put in the Department Justice. he they They filed a motion in they're in their brief to the court. They said that there is two branches of government, the executive branch and the legislative branch.
00:27:08
James
And some federal judge doesn't have any say in what happens in the government.
00:27:14
James
Yes. Two branches of government, you know. um Yeah. that and That's what the Department of Justice actually presented in federal court. That's what they're saying. They're saying that the courts don't matter and they can do whatever the hell they want.
00:27:26
James
But...
00:27:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, and I saw the Stephen Miller tweets where he's just like, judges can't challenge the the president.
00:27:27
James
and
00:27:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He's stealing time, the most precious resource from a president who only has a short four years to accomplish the raping of the entire country.
00:27:41
James
o
00:27:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
How's he going to kill all the non-whites in only four years if the judges keep opposing him?
00:27:49
James
Yeah. Hmm.
00:27:54
James
Yeah, so they ruled that all the terminations were illegal. um they also ruled that since, what was about Elon Musk? They said since Elon Musk, oh what was it? They're basically saying that he cannot be in charge of Doge. And even though in court, they're trying to say he doesn't, then they said the reality is so much more obvious than what they're basically saying they're lying on the court because they're trying to say Elon Musk doesn't run it.
00:28:15
James
He's just an advisor to the president, but he doesn't actually run this government agency. he you know And they're like, yeah, that's obviously not true. He can have no you know no part in it They to reinstate everybody. And it's not just USAID. They said the USAID had to be fully restored, but it was also like, what is it, 18 agencies?
00:28:33
James
That's why they're bringing back so many people and everything else. I'm trying to find the full story. ah Yeah, it's a bit...
00:28:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
it's like ah It's like retards trying to pull the Jedi mind trick on these judges. And the judges are like, if you think I'm stupid enough to do that, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.
00:28:48
James
Yeah, so they said the filings and also be filed by 19 states and D.C. provided the most detailed accounting to date of the administration's mass layoffs. All right. Notably, they excluded workers of Department Defense and the Office of Personnel Management and National Archives and Records Administration, which is funny because Maryland federal judge said they haven't produced evidence for that one yet.
00:29:06
James
But whatever. they They went on and on and on. And they said... ah all and All employees offered reinstatement into full due status have to be onboarded again, including filling out human resources paperwork, obtaining new security badges, re-enrolling in benefits and payroll, reinstituting applicable six security clearance, receiving government-furnished equipment for all the stuff they got rid of, other requisite administrative actions, such as auditing personnel requests to ensure that any actions would have been otherwise taken during their period of separation are completed.
00:29:36
James
Additionally, an appellate ruling could reverse the district's court um shortly after terminated employees have been reinstated. um yes, as in short, you know, employees could be subjected to multiple changes in their employment status on matter of weeks, but for right now, they all have to come back, they had to reopen the buildings, and bring everybody back in, you know, so, and they, and they started doing it, they comply, they're complying with that one right now, you know, that's why they're rehiring all the people, and bring them back in there, and even though they were shredding everybody's documents, everything else, that's kind of why they had to
00:30:07
James
obtain all new stuff, all paperwork, make them go through all the pain of doing it all over again because the government was trying to shred everything and burn everything and hide the evidence of who it was. I you know, they have to bring them all back, you know?
00:30:19
James
So there's that win, you know, and if they can get held off and the courts can hold them in check for a little bit, you know, and six months, we, I mean, shit, look at Trump's legal shit first, you know, he was still going through court all the way up until the moment he got elected, you know what I mean?
00:30:37
James
Right.
00:30:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:30:38
James
been eight years courts aren't that quick so he may not the six months could everything can hold for six months if the court system can drag its feet like it did for trump you know i mean so there's hope you know there's hope that shit can stay there but if we did a shut a government shutdown i mean fuck man everything would just get tanked boom everything's closed you know It'd be bad, be a lot of pain right off the bat. And then they would be able to just go through and lock all the doors and shutter everything they don't want. And yes, it's like they said, it's the acceleration argument.
00:31:14
James
you're You're arguing that we should let them do it. We should let them fuck everybody in the country over all at once real quick, because then it's going to hurt everybody in the country.
00:31:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We should force it.
00:31:24
James
We'll fall apart and you're taking the risk. it They're not going to blame the Democrats. They will just blame Trump. even if the Democrats, know mean? So it's a risky argument. It's one that could really bite you in the ass. And if people start protesting, like, you know, those quote, illegal protests from those Democrats, hey, you shit, maybe they start using the military, who's already mad that they're not getting paid and everything else, and they start rounding people up and saying they're terrorists.
00:31:49
James
And now we're all in el Salvador.
00:31:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but play it play it out, bro. Play it out. What are you going to do? Are you going to arrest your entire population? you know what happens to your to all of your all of your treasure?
00:31:58
James
think that's it.
00:32:03
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
it immediately all evaporates.
00:32:06
James
Oh, no, no, no, no. That's the El Salvador deal. You know, it's very cheap. That's why that's why they said, like, and we sold those people into slavery.
00:32:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, no, no, dude.
00:32:16
James
It's very profitable to them to other countries.
00:32:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, you if you first of all, OK.
00:32:21
James
They're trying to name Act Blue a terrorist organization.
00:32:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
First of all, if you have 10 million people in the streets, that means you have to arrest and jail 10 million people. As we have talked about before on the topic of deportation, we don't have the capacity to to jail that many people.
00:32:32
James
Well...
00:32:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's that's thing number one. OK, thing number two is. If you have 10 million people who aren't going to do their jobs and who are in the streets, you're going to massively disrupt the ability of the other 300 million people or 290 million people to go to work and do their jobs effectively.
00:32:54
James
You're also taking a big gamble that you're going to be 10 million people in the streets.
00:32:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay?
00:32:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Dude, if you you shut down the entire government
00:33:01
James
It didn't happen last. A few times it happened. This has happened many times since, you know, shit, since I've been in high school until now.
00:33:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but it happened under conditions where everyone was trying to keep the party going.
00:33:13
James
No.
00:33:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Everyone had the same objective of to keep the government's lights on.
00:33:17
James
No, it did not.
00:33:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yes, it did. The Republicans were never trying to end government completely before.
00:33:20
James
who
00:33:25
James
Well, this this government, the Trump administration is not trying to end government. They're trying to end all of the programs of the government that Republicans have always wanted to get rid of.
00:33:36
James
They want to get rid of the Department of Education. They want to get rid of the EPA. They want to get rid of OSHA and workers' safeties. They want to get rid of anything helps consumers.
00:33:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, does the epa does the EPA matter when the head of it is a fucking oil lobbyist who just rolled back, was it 50 or 100 different laws?
00:33:47
James
Hmm.
00:33:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like, if we can, we can, you know, we can cut down, they closed like the 10 offices and like the the belt of disease where there's like all the chemical plants and like the, you know, mineral processing plants and this like, this like
00:33:55
James
but
00:34:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
belt of like a couple hundred miles stretch and they like there were some epa offices around there that were regulating those industries and they like closed all of those epa offices because again the head of the epa is like a like a oil lobbyist so he's just getting rid of regulations that you know that were choking america's ability to you know do industry we weren't we weren't doing industry before because there were too many regulations like The idea that like we're saving anything is so nonsensical as they are gutting the the EPA, they're gutting the USDA, they they're getting rid of the fucking national parks, for Christ's sake.
00:34:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
head of the the The head of the the like national forest, kind what is i can't remember what it is, like the like land Bureau of Land Management.
00:34:58
James
Yeah.
00:34:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The head of that guy is like a forest.
00:35:02
James
a longer yeah Like Yeah, a logger.
00:35:03
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, he's a fucking logger.
00:35:03
James
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:35:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He's a fucking logger. Like the foxes, the foxes are not in the hen house.
00:35:06
James
yeah
00:35:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. The foxes are in the fucking farmhouse. Okay. And they're eating chickens for breakfast, lunch and fucking dinner. So the idea that we're going to like protect some fucking chickens by waiting till later, like, no, they're just all going to be fucking dead. Are you stupid?
00:35:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Not you, the Royal you.
00:35:25
James
i was name But at the same time, there's a reason for, like, here's the thing.
00:35:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
not stupid.
00:35:30
James
And this is why they always say deep state, right? Let's say, all right, think about it. All right. ah EPA, right? EPA is not just the administrative people in Washington, D.C.
00:35:40
James
They run it. You ask the EPA, and a lot of it does funding to other things, right? And they have different branches. They have different offices. And they have different people who check on things like that, right? And this is why they say the deep state.
00:35:54
James
here, we work in a software company, right? And the person at the top of the software company chain might say, we need to do this right now, right? Then it goes down the pipeline of everybody else. It goes to the managers and it goes from the managers to the leads and the leads to the developers and people in support and everybody else down the road, right?
00:36:14
James
And the people at the bottom who just do their job are, you know, going like, okay, well, I know what they're saying. all right. We can't do exactly that, but this is the, we're keeping with the spirit of things, right?
00:36:32
James
Or you do something and you present it and you, hey, we can do this. We can do this. We can do this. Then, you know, you kind of do your job and then it works its way back up the chain. Oh, here we do this. You know what mean? and if you have, it's a bureaucracy, right?
00:36:45
James
Hopefully the the horrible edicts from the top by the time they filter their way through to the average Joes who are doing their job and actually give a shit about the environment because that's why they wanted to be a job in the EPA. They've been there for 20 years and buth blah, blah, blah.
00:36:57
James
You know, maybe like, all right, whatever, but they're not good.
00:37:02
James
There can be good people in there making sure that, you know, everything doesn't go to shit.
00:37:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
let's talk about this idea of trickle down morality. Okay. Let's talk about it in the context of the Nazis. So the Nazis started in Germany, that's where they were.
00:37:12
James
Hmm. yeah It's a horrible analogy, first of all.
00:37:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And then they said, and then they started going from country to country. Okay.
00:37:19
James
Horrible analogy.
00:37:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And like,
00:37:20
James
Not even relevant. Not even a relevant analogy, by the way. Okay. But, sure.
00:37:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
okay, sure. So the the the Nazis went from country to country and they took over the countries. And then they said, Hey, you guys in this country, help us find your Jews. Help us kill your Jews.
00:37:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Most of the people who killed Jews on behalf of the Nazis in World War II were not Germans and they weren't Nazis.
00:37:39
James
Hmm.
00:37:44
James
and Jesus.
00:37:45
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, so this idea that like the like the the buck will stop at the lowest common denominator, no, no, that's not that's not how that's going to work. And first, for one, like that's not how it's worked historically, as I'm pointing out with the Nazis, but also
00:37:58
James
Okay, so so to you to your point and your analogy, i'm just just real point, I just want to smack this analogy down real fast.
00:38:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yes. Okay, sure.
00:38:04
James
Alright, so Robert F.
00:38:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Mm-hmm.
00:38:05
James
Kennedy is now the head of yeah Health and Human Services. Right? And he says, I'm directing Health and Human Services to say that All vaccines are the devil. Right?
00:38:17
James
All right. Cool. That comes from the top. Are you saying that every fucking hospital and every doctor and everybody else is going to be going out to their patients and now saying, I'm sorry, sir, but the health of the head of the help in the human services told me that I have to tell you that vaccines
Immigration and Deportation Policies
00:38:31
James
are the devil.
00:38:31
James
So um I can't be giving you these vaccines. No.
00:38:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, but what they will do is they'll just cut their funding, which is what they did.
00:38:37
James
or Yes. And yes. And they've always done that. And Republicans have do this shit all the time. And they do that shit all the time.
00:38:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, they don't. They don't take $800 million dollars away from John Hopkins every time. They don't do that all the time.
00:38:48
James
No, but they did to the EPA. They do it to other things. they did i mean shit i mean They did it to the consumer financial. They do it to everything. they They do this shit all the time, dude.
00:38:58
James
I mean they do the shit all the time to like i think under George W. Bush, the epa the EPA had no money except for the fucking pay for all the dictations and trip.
00:39:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
they don't They don't fire 50,000 federal workers in two months all the time, James.
00:39:07
James
and
00:39:11
James
No. No, they don't.
00:39:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
they don't They don't project 2025, mandate for leadership, we're going to get rid of Title V and fucking gut the entire federal government.
00:39:13
James
But luckily, they've been
00:39:19
James
Correct. They didn't.
00:39:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They don't do that. They've never literally never done it before.
00:39:24
James
Correct. And actually, that's a good reason why theyll they're having to, that's why they're losing in court. And a lot of them are, they're all coming back now.
00:39:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But like ah losing here's like here's like the assumption. OK, the.
00:39:34
James
They're pushing the boundaries of what they think they can do. And.
00:39:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like like that's one assumption, OK, one assumption is like they're just like trying to see what they can get away with. They're just like they're like a dog who just wants to eat and is like, well, will you let me eat this off your plate?
00:39:43
James
Oh, yeah.
00:39:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yes or no. OK, like that.
00:39:48
James
If they say yes, they're going to bite you. They're going to eat you. I know. I get it.
00:39:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Right. Like that's that's that's one interpretation of that.
00:39:52
James
That's what they're going to That's their plan.
00:39:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But I don't think that's what it is. OK, they have a very specific plan. First, it is get the courts to go against you. Then it is go against the courts. Then just take away the power of the courts. Then then you're no longer impeded by the courts.
00:40:06
James
Correct. I don't even doubt.
00:40:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
This is the plan.
00:40:08
James
I don't doubt that either. but That's why I'm saying, you know what? If you're going to have that million, if that's the plan, that'll bring out millions too.
00:40:17
James
If you want your millions in the streets marching, that would do it.
00:40:21
James
You can get your mass protest.
00:40:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I think the only thing that's going to get millions people in the street is when, yes, you cut off Social Security, Medicare, medicaid when everyone's grandpa or child, 70% of childbirths are are covered by Medicare.
00:40:25
James
They cut off Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, a bunch of old people.
00:40:30
James
yeah
00:40:33
James
They know don't do that, though. They're never going to do that. Yeah, but they're never going to do it for the old people. they always did Every single time the Republicans plan like put forth their plans to slash Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security,
00:40:45
James
They always, and they always have done the same thing. It will only apply to people who are under 55. Yep.
00:40:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, now they're just going to say, oh, it's just it's just fraud. Oh, it's fraud. Just like it's, oh, they're criminals. like it' like It's the thing they do with the immigrants. who actually
00:41:02
James
but
00:41:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
to Maybe we can switch into your talk about deportations. But like the thing with immigrants is they go, oh, we're only going to come after the criminals. Then what they do is they say, oh, everyone who had a legal status, now that status is illegal.
00:41:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like being an immigrant is the crime. All of them are criminals. See, we're only going after criminals. We just criminalized existing.
00:41:24
James
Yeah, they've criminalized.
00:41:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Huh.
00:41:25
James
They've they've criminalized asking for asylum. You know, they have criminalized them. Yeah. And yeah, there's dozens of them in and they handcuffed them all. It took them out there and they have completely disappeared. Now they're disappeared from the tracking system. They have a U.S. detainee tracking system.
00:41:45
James
So we always knew where all these people were anyway. Right. We knew any given moment basically where they were. All right. And, yeah, the 200 people who they flew out there, we we sold them to the work one of the probably the second worst prison in the world, Seacott down there in El Salvador.
00:42:09
James
We paid their government $6 million dollars for them to do whatever the fuck they want to do to these people for the rest of their life. Without a court, without due process, without anything. In fact, scooping them up and flying them out of the country, sometimes hours before they had their court appearances to make sure they couldn't get due process.
00:42:30
James
And that's it. They're gone. They have disappeared from the U.S. detainee tracking system. So we will never again know what happens to any of them. their never Their names have been removed from the ICE system. These people had no criminal records.
00:42:42
James
They just said, Trump said, they're trained out, trained at Agua, whatever, right? the The gang of Venezuela, right?
00:42:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Mm-hmm.
00:42:49
James
Just said it, said they're gang members. There was like a 14, 15 year old gay kid who's a little artist who was seeking asylum for, you know, the rest of his life and, you know, where the gangs are down there in Venezuela and being a 14, 15 year old gay kid isn't too popular there.
00:43:06
James
Yeah, we just swept them all up and sent them all in down there. courts ruled no they had they couldn't do it they had to turn the plane around blah blah blah and the the circular argument the court's trying to give now this is ridiculous you know but for the government
00:43:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, the government. Yeah. So the government said like, well, we put them on the plane under the authority where the Illegal Aliens Act, yeah the Alien Aliens Act, which let's lets the president deport people if they're from an enemy nation at in a time of war.
00:43:24
James
alien yeah the alien enemies act the alien enemies act of 1798 which is only for a time of war
00:43:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So if we're at war with, say, Japan, ah like in World War II, and we want to round up all of the Japanese people and because we're in a war with Japan or all the German people as we're in a war with Germany,
00:43:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
then we can round them up and we can put them in camps and we can deport them. That's the alien enemies act is.
00:43:51
James
yeah
00:43:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And Trump, the government was arguing that, that the gang is basically, ah has so much control over the country that they're tantamount to the government of the country.
00:44:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And so we can say we're at war with the gang. And then, then I can do this thing. And the court said, Absolutely fucking not. You can't do that. And so then they said, well, OK, well, the planes are already in the air and now they're over international waters and over international waters.
00:44:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
the The justification for why we can continue taking them changes to like, well, we're in international waters.
00:44:27
James
Which complete bullshit, although.
00:44:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So once we've started flying there and we're now we're out of the United States, now we're in some other jurisdiction and we can just have them land. you know, we can have them complete the voyage under a different power that you didn't just say was complete bullshit.
00:44:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, so they completely defied the courts and now they're talking about impeaching justices.
00:44:52
James
yeah
00:44:54
James
It's so sad when you read more and more of the stories of the people that were swept up in that and claimed to be in a gang, man, it's infuriating. You know, there's a 20 something year old, uh, or here, sorry, this one guy's 46 years old, right?
00:45:11
James
Um, oh, sorry. The 46 was his mom, right? He's a 20 something. Whoever is he? He looked like he's in his twenties, a 20 something year old married guy, you know, wife here in the United States, right? They've been going to hearings and trying to get her, you know, immigration status, you know, done for a couple of years, right?
00:45:29
James
um They married early 2024. They have a child. He got a clock. He got a tattoo of a clock with the time on the clock of his child's birth. Government says that tattoo is proof that he's in a gang.
00:45:41
James
He has a clock tattoo. that That must be a gang sign, right? He has no criminal record. They said the proof that he's in the gang is because he has no criminal record.
00:45:52
James
They said the the lack of information about this guy highlights that he poses such a risk.
00:45:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Amazing.
00:45:59
James
be Yes, they said the the lack of a criminal record does not indicate that they pose a limited threat.
00:46:03
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh.
00:46:04
James
The lack of specific information about him actually highlights the fact that he poses a risk because he has no criminal record. He's been attending to all of his little hearings and everything else. You know, they just snatched him up and now he's gone.
00:46:16
James
you know, in Venezuela, of course, you know, they in El Salvador hate each other. They have horrible relations, you know, um, I don' don't think they have any relations, you know?
00:46:28
James
Um, yeah.
00:46:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
<unk> Let me hit you with another one.
00:46:32
James
Yeah.
00:46:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Here's another fun. it not a personal story. This is a policy thing. So my wife brought this to my attention. So there's, and I wish I had fresh in my brain the numbers, but there's a specific type of petition that you can make, um like an immigration petition.
00:46:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
okay And normally what happens is if if there's something like
00:46:57
James
Oh, yeah.
00:47:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
typo or you didn't include all of the right information or the information wasn't included in the right format. Okay. Things of those nature where like, you know, it's not like you're lying.
00:47:11
James
Yeah. they
00:47:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's just like, ah, you didn't, you didn't fill the form out the right way. Any variation of that. Okay.
00:47:17
James
yeah Yep.
00:47:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Usually what they do is they send it back and they say, Hey, you didn't fill this out the right way, fill it out again and submit it.
00:47:24
James
Correct.
00:47:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And they changed it. So now instead of doing that, as they did they made two changes. First change. They changed the requirements for the document. So if you submitted the document under the old standard, now they changed it, you're automatically going to fail because you submitted it under the old standard.
00:47:35
James
Mm-hmm.
00:47:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You can't possibly pass the new standard because they changed the rules after you submitted. Okay. Now they delayed because all the government filing shutdowns of firing people and all the other bullshit, they've delayed the processing of these things.
00:47:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. So all these people are sitting there waiting for their there papers to be filed. They change the rules. And then they change the rule. Second thing, they change the rule so that instead of the, hey, you know, you did you didn't cross your I's and dot your T's, try again.
00:48:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Now you get a um
00:48:16
James
Notice to appear. A notice to appear.
00:48:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yes, a notice to appear, which basically means come to come on down to the getting deported office so we can put you in jail until we are ready to deport you.
00:48:20
James
You're going to get deported. And we're going to...
00:48:26
James
Yeah. To somewhere.
00:48:28
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, to somewhere, to wherever the fuck we feel like.
00:48:29
James
with Without any hearings, without any due process about it. Yeah.
00:48:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yep. Yeah.
00:48:35
James
Which is what they did to all those people, the Venezuelans.
00:48:39
James
Hmm.
00:48:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:48:43
James
Yeah.
00:48:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and like And then Pam Bondi goes on on television and says they're illegal or whatever the fuck the chick's name is.
00:48:50
James
and Yeah. Yeah,
00:48:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah Fat Fuck Me Barbie who, you know, Levitt, I think is her name, just like, just like a fascist lying Barbie um who goes out there and says, Caroline, leave it.
00:49:05
James
ah Caroline Levitt. Levitt or whatever. Levitt. Oh, it's a fucking... Yeah, I hate her.
00:49:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, just an absolute, um just an absolute like monster of a human um saying,
00:49:09
James
That old sucky bitch. Yeah.
00:49:16
James
yeah
00:49:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
saying that like no being an immigrant is the crime like all of them all immigrants are illegal by definition like that's that's the position of the government yeah
00:49:25
James
oh If you're asking, if you come in here and say, please, can I have some asylum? You are a criminal. Because, man, can you believe somebody asking for asylum?
00:49:38
James
The Gaul.
00:49:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and so like really like the crime of these people is that they like you know they took you at your word that this was the system and this was the way to do things and they did those things to the best of their ability.
00:49:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And, but here's like the thing. So like, this isn't, it's not sustainable.
00:50:01
James
We can't wait.
00:50:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like it is ultimately, it's ultimately not sustainable.
00:50:01
James
It's not sustainable.
00:50:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like you can't, if the plan is just to destroy everything, like you can't sustain ah destroy everything.
Military Loyalty and Government Policy
00:50:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like how how does the.
00:50:16
James
don't know, man. Tell that's North Korea.
00:50:20
James
Tell that's Russia. It's a fucking Afghanistan, on the Taliban. I mean, shit. There's plenty of governments who stay in power for a really long time and they destroy the fuck out of their own countries.
00:50:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:50:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's very true.
00:50:34
James
And, you know, if you have a loyal military, that's all you need.
00:50:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't I don't know that we do. I don't I guess maybe that's my hope is that like the military isn't going to be like.
00:50:48
James
The
00:50:51
James
military is pretty Republican, man.
00:50:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I know you've destroyed the country, but I'll will be the boot on the neck of the remaining parts of it that are unmolested.
00:51:01
James
I don't think... i mean, I... God, man, I don't know. It'd be rough, man. It'd be rough. It's a future I hope we don't see, because it would not be pretty.
00:51:13
James
Because there's plenty of Ruby red Republicans in the military run military. There's a lot of them who aren't obviously. And there's a lot of people who, even if they do, I, there's a lot of them who just, I don't think could bring themselves to actually be pulling up, pulling, drawing arms against people protesting and drawing arms against just normal Americans in the cities of America.
00:51:36
James
You know what mean?
00:51:40
James
Yeah. I mean,
00:51:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, I mean, you you can't deploy... i don't think you can deploy troops ah against Americans.
00:51:45
James
well
00:51:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
like you can't I don't think you can deploy the American military domestically.
00:51:53
James
Well, not legally.
00:51:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Not legally. Well, I mean, I that is why like they they did fire a whole bunch of generals, didn't they?
00:52:00
James
but what if they're terrorists? ah But what if they're terrorists, Gabe?
00:52:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And then they
00:52:03
James
What if there was, don't know, say 4 million terrorists in the streets of, you know, big cities in America? Are you saying that the military can't defend the streets of America against terrorists?
00:52:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's what National Guard's for.
00:52:17
James
No.
00:52:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that is that That is what I'm saying. Because they're not terrorists.
00:52:19
James
Okay.
00:52:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They're fucking protesters.
00:52:21
James
But what if they invaded us? They invaded the country. You see what saying?
00:52:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, well, if they invaded us, then there would have to be like a large military presence, wouldn't there?
00:52:26
James
You know where I'm going with this.
00:52:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah if If they invaded us, you'd have to explain to me how they got past the many layers of defense that the United States has and got troops on the ground.
00:52:32
James
Large.
00:52:35
James
Define. Hey. Hey, it's the Alien Enemies Act, man. it was ah It was a caravan of women and children, man. They're invading us.
00:52:45
James
Yeah.
00:52:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I feel like there's a difference between some shit that like plays on the news and like what happens in reality.
00:52:55
James
yeah I don't know.
00:52:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like I hope,
00:52:59
James
i Either way, I'm just hoping that the courts can slow down their worst impulses for a while.
Midterm Elections and Democratic Strategy
00:53:05
James
People... use their brains and eyes um excuse and sees what's really going on in time for midterms and democrats come in in a fucking huge wave because economy is going to shit everything else is going to shit people see what's going on they don't like the whole authoritarian thing and you know there we go then if they can take back house and senate
00:53:34
James
Then, you know, there you go. Then it's cool. We can stop the worst of this shit and, you know, and then it's just ride it out for a couple more years and then he's out.
00:53:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
let me let me Let me frame this as a different as a different question.
00:53:44
James
You know what
00:53:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
okay Let me frame it this way. yeah if the If the argument is that Chuck Schumer is forcing us to take our medicine because he's playing the long game, okay and you think like giving away our only bargaining chip to let them pillage for six more months was the best possible decision at, at, at what point.
00:54:13
James
than pillaging it all quickly.
00:54:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. Would you say, okay, Chuck Schumer is just like literally a traitor. He's just completely complicit. And like, and to that end is, would this be the point? Would this scenario be the point? So if they wanted to impeach a judge, a federal judge, they would need not. So Elon Musk was like, Oh, you'd need 60 votes in the Senate. It's not 60, first of all.
00:54:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's, um I can't remember which one it is. It's not a majority. It's a plurality.
00:54:47
James
67. You need 67 to impeach.
00:54:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So it's two-thirds.
00:54:49
James
You need 67 to impeach. Which, by the way, Elon doesn't know.
00:54:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
see
00:54:51
James
he said 60 to tweet. This is pretty funny.
00:54:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah Yes, he said 60, and he said the Senate, but actually it would be the House, because the House brings articles of impeachment, and the Senate convicts.
00:54:58
James
But impeachment and then the Senate convicts. Yeah.
00:55:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And you wouldn't need 60 senators. You'd need 67 to convict, and you would need similarly a two-thirds majority in the House to impeach. So, If it gets to that point where they're like trying to impeach a judge and Chuck Schumer says, oh, I'll rustle up 15, 20 Democrats to impeach this judge because fuck it, I'm complicit, obviously, um in exchange for, i don't know, come on my face, daddy.
00:55:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah Then would you say that like the Chuck Schumer is a traitor throw in the game or would he have to like, you know, i don't know, literally kill babies before you would say that?
00:55:42
James
Okay. The choice he asks for a deal to have come on his face or he kills babies. Okay. um Well, alright.
00:55:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
if if he ah If he helped them impeach a judge.
00:55:52
James
If he kills babies, if he kills babies,
00:55:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You don't think they're...
00:55:58
James
it depends, man. I mean, is it a...
00:56:03
James
just Whatever, man. Okay.
00:56:11
James
I don't see that happening. I mean, first of all, that's not realistic, man.
00:56:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
oh
00:56:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you don't think they're
00:56:16
James
I mean, that's not a realistic scenario.
00:56:18
James
I don't
00:56:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You don't think they're going to try to impeach a judge? You don't think that's coming soon?
00:56:21
James
who'll give a shit. I don't give a shit if they do try. They're not going to get anywhere in the Senate. No, they're not going to go along with that to impeach judges. No, especially without judge who's holding them at bay. Of course not. Of course not.
00:56:32
James
That's just...
00:56:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, so so if Chuck Schumer rustled up the votes to impeach a judge who is holding the Trump administration back, then you would agree that he is complicit.
00:56:34
James
Oh, God.
00:56:43
James
Sure.
00:56:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, let's watch.
00:56:45
James
I don't think that's going to happen, but, oh man.
00:56:45
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Let's wait and see.
00:56:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I think it's the same kind of complicity, same flavor.
00:56:51
James
Yeah.
00:56:54
James
I don't see that happening.
00:56:56
James
Well,
00:56:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
to Did you see the the government shutdown being averted for literally nothing happening? like Would you have predicted that?
00:57:04
James
well
00:57:07
James
I can, yes, I can predict that. I can see that easily. Yes.
00:57:11
James
I could easily see that. Yes.
00:57:13
James
Government shutdowns never really work out for anybody.
00:57:19
James
Never has. Every time it's happened, it's never been a good thing. It's never accomplished what the person who was holding up the government, like Phil Rester, like when the Republicans did it every other time.
00:57:30
James
It never got them what they wanted.
00:57:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Mm-hmm.
00:57:32
James
it always just pisses everybody off who's holding everything up. You know? It's never... It's never been a win. All it ever does is hurt the economy. It's always first for a couple weeks because everybody gets started getting outraged, you know, and then the the party, which has always been Republicans, who's holding everything up, caves because they're like, oh, fuck, man, we can't keep this up.
00:57:54
James
So then imagine. So here's the thing. Let's say it happens like every other government shutdown there has been. Right. They hold everything up. Yeah, we're holding up because they want to be. Because they don't want to return the spending levels to 2020 levels.
00:58:11
James
I mean, that's really what they're talking about, right? Yes, it's cuts. And yes, it's big cuts. But I mean, it's it's not, I mean,
00:58:21
James
it's a lot of cuts, but it's not, you know, the Earth is crashing cuts either, you know? i mean, it sounds good. They want to cut this. They want to cut this. I'm really giving a clean. to Yeah, sure. You know,
00:58:34
James
yeah You know, $20 billion dollars in cuts is ah is a lot, you know, $20 billion to the IRS and this billion to this. It's a lot of cuts, but it's not exactly, you know, the average American would never fucking notice the difference on the cuts for what's in the CR.
00:58:50
James
You know, so yeah, so I have the Democrats hold everything up and have the whole government get outraged for what's the Republicans. They just, they're just taxing, spending little bit. They just want what we're trying to save Americans money. And they don't like the fact that we're going to fund it at the 2020 levels. You know, that was COVID. to do It was before COVID. We don't need all this extra spending.
00:59:07
James
We're trying to clean the economy up. And these Democrats and what would end up happening a couple of weeks later, nobody gets her paychecks. Everybody who's not getting a paycheck, who lives in a democratic place, I mean, just,
00:59:18
James
I want my paycheck. I want my paycheck. And then they cave. And then what do they do? They fuck everything over for nothing. Really nothing. They piss people off in the meantime, the people we need to win over for midterms that are, you know, a year down the road, you know, or they start running for office in a year down the road.
00:59:35
James
And then we still get nothing. And then you fuck everything up and then you really do get blamed for it. And it's not really a win. I mean, what are you going to do? What are they going to cave? What would the Democrats get? What would be the leverage?
00:59:48
James
What would be the negotiating standpoint? To argue for a couple more, $20 billion dollars more in funding? To keep it at the same levels it's been at 2024? mean... i mean What is the big win? What is the big thing that you're going to get out of it to negotiate for that government shutdown, to avoid the government shutdown that they want to do anyway?
01:00:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's a great question I don't have the answer to.
01:00:10
James
So, I mean, we all say, that oh, we had the leverage, we had this. we What were we going to fight for? but were we What were we going to demand? What was going to be the demand? Because they were totally cool with shutting down the government, man. Republicans, shit, they champion it every fucking time there's a debt ceiling vote.
01:00:28
James
And I mean, God, if if nothing of the last 10, 15 years has proven anything, it's that they don't give a shit about paying our bills. They just want to cut shit. And if it has to shut the government down, they don't really give a fuck.
01:00:40
James
Democrats are always the ones who are like, okay, we can't tank the economy in the country. okay, let's do this. and even Mitch McConnell and Boehner and everybody before him and Kevin McCarthy, every single one of the, quote, responsible, well, not even, normally you would never say they're responsible, but everybody who's in the power of ah House Speaker, the position of power, and majority leader, or the minority leader on the Republican side, they always knew, hey you you gotta fucking keep the country going.
01:01:06
James
It's a good political thing. It's good to argue about, but when it comes down to it, nobody wins with the government shutdown. I think so Schumer realized that. And what were they going to argue for? and don't even know what they would argue for.
01:01:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, this goes back to like last week's episode about what is it that the Democrats want and the fact that it is like a laundry list of things that is so long.
01:01:26
James
Yeah.
01:01:33
James
Yeah.
01:01:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Right. So like, what are we bargaining for?
01:01:39
James
On that.
01:01:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Some collection, some collection of the many things we want.
01:01:43
James
Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:46
James
this is the government funding bill, this is the continuing resolution, you know, the bill, this is the budget.
01:01:55
James
What are we going to get in that? I mean, what are we going to argue? Like, okay, you guys can cut $20 billion dollars from this and you can eliminate this if we get know what I mean?
01:02:07
James
It's not clear what they're going to argue for in that. Basically, i think what Democrats want i do is, hey, let's just kind of keep everything going. Let's keep and just kind of... Because usually these are Republicans don't usually want to do anything. the The reason why Republicans don't pass a lot of laws is because they don't give a fuck.
01:02:22
James
They don't want to pass any laws. they don't They want to shut down stuff in the government. They want to cut stuff.
Concluding Reflections and Call to Action
01:02:26
James
They don't want to pass laws. they don't want to do anything unless it's something like, let's stop trans people from you know living. Let's stop gay people from getting married. Let's stop...
01:02:35
James
you know
01:02:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But all all those things boil down to let's say that the problem is anything except what the problem is, when the problem is that the rich people are are squeezing the poor ever tighter.
01:02:49
James
Yeah, that's all they want to do. And that's all they're doing to shut down all these things. that's It'd be a gift to them. Hey, shut down all the government. Let's just go to a bare bones government. Shut everything down. We'll close everything we don't like.
01:03:01
James
Hey, Democrats get blamed for everything. Eventually they're going to cave. We'll make it even worse. We'll just shutter all these agencies now that everybody's already had to leave the building. We're not going to reopen these ones. Let them fight us in court for those ones.
01:03:13
James
And then they say they they don't pay all that money and there's their money to give more money to rich people quicker. don't know. I don't think it'd be it would be a very big win for the Democrats had they shut it down. I see the anger with it.
01:03:24
James
I don't like giving anything to them. But it was kind of a lose-lose. It kind of lose-lose, man, either way. you know That's why i don't i don't I was pissed at first. I like, holy shit, what a fucking bitch move. i mean that's the first thing I was thinking, too.
01:03:38
James
was like, what a bitch. And I was like, what the fuck is this?
01:03:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, honestly, like I don't, but I don't, I don't want them to, I don't want them to horse trade. That's the thing is like, ultimately I ultimately, don't want them to horse trade. What I want is for, is for everyone to have their pants on fire.
01:03:50
James
So.
01:03:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So they run outside and throw a fit about it.
01:03:56
James
Yeah.
01:03:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's the thing that I want. I want 20 million people in the street until i don't know, Trump is no longer president.
01:04:00
James
All right. in Then you know what? Here's the thing I think most Democrats, me and Schumer and everybody else pretty much agree with that.
01:04:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That,
01:04:08
James
But do you want 20 million people on the streets because they're pissed off at the Democrats?
01:04:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
the idea of like The idea that they're going to say that it's the Democrats is, again, it's just it's just so ludicrous.
01:04:15
James
good
01:04:22
James
would say They would say, we have 53 Republican senators, and we pass this in the House. We have 53 Republican senators, and we want to fund the government, keep it open. And these minority party, obstructionist party, is keeping the you from getting paid.
01:04:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah so You have to do w w m m d Okay, what would Mitch McConnell do?
01:04:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And I'll tell you what Mitch McConnell would do ma Mitch McConnell would say, you will give me something or you will watch the world burn. Those are your options, pick.
01:05:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And then at least they could say, well, I know we were like ineffective at contesting his speech and we're We're ineffectively opposing him on social media and we're ineffective in every other way.
01:05:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But hey, we got this win.
01:05:20
James
well
01:05:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We got this one. We got we got something. We got we got anything. Ask for something. They could have asked for something like if the point was to just be like, hey, we negotiated and we got a win. Like if they had gotten literally anything, if they had been like, I'll tell you what, like, we'll give it, we'll give you 10 votes, but you got to give me literally anything, a token, something be like, oh yeah, you there's like, we got like $1 billion dollars less in cuts to across the board and all these different, we save 10,000 jobs over 15 years, a completely meaningless, fucking pithy, nothing.
01:05:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Right.
01:05:57
James
well Well, do you know what?
01:05:57
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Then you can at least say you got something that you had a spine that you negotiated.
01:06:01
James
Well, if you say, what would Mitch McConnell do? All you have to do is look at 2014.
01:06:08
James
When Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, they led at the time was the longest government shutdown US history. 16 days. It was 16 days because they didn't want the Affordable Care Act to go into ah into effect. And remember all the ads about that? It was so unpopular. Affordable Care Act, you know, right?
01:06:26
James
And now, now, but at the time it wasn't, which is why the Democrats lost their ass in the House and Senate it and everything after that passed.
01:06:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, Affordable Care Act very popular. Obamacare, very unpopular.
01:06:36
James
It was super unpopular for a few years until things started kicking in later. Right. But do you know what Mitch McConnell got for that 16 shutdown?
01:06:45
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What did get?
01:06:46
James
You got 81% of Americans who disapproved of him. 86% said it damaged United States image in the world. And 53% of the country held Republicans in Congress accountable for the shutdown, even though they were the minority party.
01:06:59
James
And know what he ended up getting for it out of the legislation? Absolutely nothing.
01:07:03
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What?
01:07:05
James
They ended up just, okay, fine, pass it, sign it, done. They got nothing.
01:07:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, let me ask you this.
01:07:11
James
They got nothing for it. They got blame. They got nothing for it.
01:07:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Cool, okay, let me ask you this. Who won the the presidential election in 2016?
01:07:21
James
Well, in 2016, it was, yeah, it was Obama against Romney.
01:07:25
James
But who won the House and Senate?
01:07:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, no, no. That's 2012.
01:07:28
James
Oh, sorry, 2016. Shit. sorry. 2012. Yeah, 2008, 2012, 2016. Trump. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, but who won in 2014 in the House and Senate?
01:07:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
twenty sixteen 2016. It it was was donald Donald trump Trump.
01:07:32
James
i'm yes okay
01:07:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Donald Trump.
01:07:35
James
yeah
01:07:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, the Republicans got blamed so hard that they got ah fucking moron elected.
01:07:43
James
yeah but who won in twenty fourteen and the house and so
01:07:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
where i don't know.
01:07:51
James
Republicans in a fucking landslide fucking mop the floor with the Democrats.
01:07:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Was that before or after the shutdown?
01:07:58
James
That was after. That's
01:08:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It was after. Okay, so see, the Republicans were so admonished by having the largest ah government shutdown in history that they had a landslide win in the midterms and then won the fucking presidency the next time.
01:08:09
James
that's true
01:08:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh no, I would hate for the Democrats to have a similar outcome.
01:08:19
James
ah sir Actually, let me look at it. let me look at that Let me look at it real fast, okay? Because they had one big 2014 elections. Let me look at it real fast. just want to make sure. 2014 elections. Let's see.
01:08:31
James
Oh, yeah yeah. They did fucking win. They won nine Senate seats. The largest gain for any party since 1980. What about the House?
01:08:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
say your be set you're You are making my point for me.
01:08:40
James
All right.
01:08:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
they They came out and they said, hey, guess what?
01:08:42
James
So they were blamed for it.
01:08:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you know they said They said, hey, guess what? You want to dance? We're going to fuck.
01:08:47
James
Yeah.
01:08:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
like
01:08:49
James
God, what's wrong with Americans?
01:08:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you You want to fight?
01:08:50
James
know What's wrong with Americans?
01:08:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You
01:08:51
James
We all blame you for this, and you did this, and you tanked the economy, and you hurt us, and yeah, we then voted for the Republicans because we were mad about the economy.
01:08:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
because they because they Because they look strong, bro.
01:08:59
James
was so bad. Jesus. Yeah.
01:09:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Because they look like they are a united front that has a mission and and a plan and they're going to fight for it and they will die on that hill for you.
01:09:06
James
Yeah. Oh, wow.
01:09:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's all we care about, bro. This is why this is the at the heart of why everyone is so pissed at Schumer because he, more than like giving ah it away for nothing, he showed an unwillingness to fight.
01:09:14
James
Oh, wow. oh
01:09:19
James
Actually, no Here's why they won.
01:09:25
James
No, that's also not why they won either. God, do you know what turnout was that that year? 33.9%. God.
01:09:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Low.
01:09:30
James
Wow. Okay.
01:09:34
James
got she
01:09:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, people were not excited about about the about Obama.
01:09:41
James
oh wow
01:09:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I didn't like honestly, I didn't vote for Obama the second time. First Obama won. That was the first time I ever got to vote in an election. Jesus, that doesn't seem like it was that long ago. Man, that was a while ago.
01:09:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
was the first time I ever got to vote in an election was for Obama the first time. And I was so, I was so proud to vote for him. Then the, the way that he, he came in with a mandate.
01:10:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like he came in, he had the court, he had the white house, he had the house, he had the Senate and he didn't do shit with it, honestly. And I was so disappointed by like the, the, the hope and change sales pitch, not matching the business as usual delivery.
01:10:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that I was like, fuck, out like I can't, I'm not going to vote for a Republican, but I'm not voting for you either. Like, good luck. You're on your own. Fuck off. And I didn't vote in those midterms either in 2014 for the same reason.
01:10:37
James
Yeah.
01:10:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
guess that one's my fault though. You know, I should have, I should have,
01:10:43
James
Yeah.
01:10:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you know, I'm, I'm very, I have been very naive because you remember, I thought that Trump winning the first time would wake the country up and teach us that like would rattle the Democratic Party into, you know, a party that delivers change, like meaningful change, revolutionary change, like sort of stuff that Bernie advocates for AOC advocates for or Elizabeth Warren advocates for.
01:10:53
James
Yeah. I don't know.
01:11:11
James
People don't pay attention enough, man.
01:11:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I thought that that wing of the party would come in and
01:11:13
James
so Nope.
01:11:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
raise the minimum wage and give us free healthcare care and make it so there's a public option for schools and just like really flip the game and transfer a bunch of wealth back into the middle class and raise the floor on poverty.
01:11:20
James
Yeah.
01:11:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And the exact opposite happened.
01:11:31
James
yeah
01:11:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
so So I don't have any more naivete now. Like I don't, I have none. I have no have no illusions about Chuck Schumer saving us. I think the only thing that saves us It was like that video that I sent you that I'll link in the thing is like 3.5 people, 3.5% of people in the streets, a sustained protest with all of the infrastructure that it takes to keep 10 million people paying their rent and staying in the streets and demanding change. That's that's the thing that saves us.
01:12:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't think America has a taste for it. I think we're too fat and happy and lazy and there we're too, oh, I'm just going to vote and tweet about it and that'll be enough because it has been.
01:12:16
James
so
01:12:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that that is That belief is why i want everyone's feet to be on fire because I don't think that there's anything else that's going to get them out there. I don't think that anything short of them all being out there is going to save us because it's not a slow moving coup this time. It's a fast moving coup.
01:12:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's like one of the the fastest coups of all time.
01:12:40
James
Would be a hell of a lot faster if they did shut down and Apparently, that's one of the, like, some of the Republican senators were talking to Chuck Schumer before, you know, and they were kind of laughing about it, you know, because they kind of had the Democrats in the bind.
01:12:51
James
That's what he said. said, well, the Republican senators told him, you know, if we go to shutdown, we're going to be in this thing for six, nine months until we destroy everything we want, you know, because they were okay with that because in the event of a shutdown, you know, the executive can now choose what they do, how they spend all the money, who they keep open, whatever.
01:13:12
James
You know, I know it could have the acceleration argument is what you're saying. The acceleration argument. You were hoping that they would do it and just fucking usher in the Bernie wave of outrage because they would just go so far so fast so quick and just everything. And then that would do it. But I mean, shit, didn't do it the first time people came out and a lot of people protested with the kids in cages.
01:13:36
James
And that was about the biggest demonstration. do You had the fucking pussy hats that didn't do shit, but you know and made it pissed off Trump early on with those stupid pink hats. You know what I mean?
01:13:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
There was a massive women's march.
Protests and Societal Change
01:13:46
James
That's The pink... That's what I'm saying. The pussy hats. The pink hats. Remember the Women's March? That was right off the bat. That was right off the bat.
01:13:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:13:52
James
And here's the thing, though. That before they even had a chance to do anything.
01:13:57
James
They hadn't even done anything yet. He'd been in office for like fucking... What? Not even a week. Four days. and They hadn't done shit yet. And all of a oh, it's a big, huge march. Okay, well, yeah. Looks good. People are outraged. People are mad. shows It showed him that we're going to protest. We're going to march. You know, we're going to stuff.
01:14:13
James
But it wasn't for anything. Didn't do anything. It wasn't even for anything.
01:14:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
but People kept protesting, man. Then it was BLM all through the summer and there was, you know, mass protests and riots like.
01:14:19
James
Yeah.
01:14:24
James
Yeah, but that was that wasn't exactly against Trump. That was against police brutality. That was a targeted thing. be Black Lives Matter, police shooting people. That wasn't an anti-Trump thing.
01:14:35
James
That was more of a...
01:14:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's true. They did have a they did have a very specific mission. This is very true.
01:14:39
James
Yeah. So, i mean, but like against, I'm saying demonstrations against the executive, against Trump. big ones were for the kids in cages. And that did bring people out, and they got them to stop stuff, and they kind of walked it back a little bit. mean, they didn't totally stop, but they walked back some of the things they were doing, you know?
01:14:55
James
And that was pretty much it, you know?
01:14:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but to my point on BLM, okay, when everyone saw that officer put his knee on, they they saw Devin Chauvin put his knee on ah Derek Chauvin.
01:15:01
James
Yeah.
01:15:10
James
Yeah.
01:15:13
James
Derek Chauvin. Chauvin.
01:15:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
God, I'm so sorry.
01:15:16
James
yeah
01:15:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I'm forgetting the name of the man he killed.
01:15:17
James
I
01:15:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What was his name?
01:15:21
James
can't breathe. Hold on. Jesus.
01:15:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hold on. We can't continue until we look it up.
01:15:25
James
there's There were a lot of ones there, you know but it was ah yeah George Floyd. That was the George Floyd one.
01:15:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
George Floyd.
01:15:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I'm so sorry. George Floyd.
01:15:30
James
There was a lot of things.
01:15:31
James
i mean there was Jesus.
01:15:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Right.
01:15:33
James
There was a lot of things.
01:15:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, there was ah there was a whole there was a whole series of them. But like when people saw nine-minute video of Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd's neck, they saw themselves under that knee.
01:15:44
James
Hmm. Hmm.
01:15:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And that's why they came out into the streets.
01:15:49
James
Mm-hmm.
01:15:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Everyone saw it. every Everyone felt the pain of it. And so everyone came out to say, fuck this shit. And that's the, that is the sort of pain that you would cause in a government shutdown.
01:16:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Because like, here's the other thing that's going to happen. Like it's happening slowly. You know, i would even say it's probably happening faster than like, you know, slowly raising the water to a boil.
01:16:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like it's, it's faster than that, but you know, everyone's is lost to
01:16:28
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you know like Elon Musk has lost like 30% of his net worth, you know, by dollar count, like all the gains from the whole market across all the, you know, the, all the tech CEOs who came to the inauguration, they've all lost all the the gains.
01:16:43
James
by near
01:16:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They got like the bump in, in net worth. They all got right after the election. Like it's all evaporated. So like,
01:16:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That would have just accelerated.
01:17:02
James
That's a dangerous game to play. Hey, let's purposely fuck over the entire country.
01:17:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i think for like...
01:17:08
James
Something that we say that they're going to you know, And they probably will do given the authority that, you know, if but but given the the power we'll give him if we do the shutdown immediately. And let's purposely fuck over the whole country so that they do do what we think they will do.
01:17:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Who's the ah who's the like CEO or the president of Project 2025? What was that guy's name? Kevin something, I think. You know what I'm talking about?
01:17:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, but he was like the the head.
01:17:37
James
there's a lot of people.
01:17:38
James
Yeah. You talk about the Heritage Foundation guy. The guy of the Heritage Foundation? Yeah. He's the guy from the Heritage Foundation.
01:17:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I thought he was, maybe.
01:17:45
James
yeah
01:17:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The guy who said who said the the the right is the right is enacting a coup that will remain bloodless if the left...
01:17:46
James
like thats go foundation i know what you're talking about. um On the street, there'd blood. There'd be coup-less. It'd be like coup-less. The coup would be bloodless if the left allows it. Yeah.
01:17:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
If the left allows it, that guy.
01:17:57
James
Kevin Roberts.
01:17:57
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay.
01:17:57
James
Yeah, Kevin Roberts. Yeah.
01:17:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Kevin Roberts. Right.
01:18:00
James
Yep.
01:18:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
the This coup will remain bloodless if the left allows it. So don't allow it to remain bloodless.
01:18:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, can you name a single revolution that wasn't bloodless? Like this, this opposition to rising fascism is fucking pathetic.
01:18:20
James
Actually, there's been many. ah
01:18:24
James
There's been lots of bloodless revolutions, by the way.
01:18:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
were were they Were they bloodless anti-fascist revolutions?
01:18:29
James
Think of.
01:18:33
James
about bloodless anti-communist?
01:18:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Where?
01:18:36
James
Russia?
01:18:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Where was there? Huh?
01:18:39
James
Russia?
01:18:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Anti-communist?
01:18:41
James
Yes.
01:18:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Russia ended communism without bloodshed.
01:18:47
James
Yeah. I mean,
01:18:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't think I've... That just on its face seems like a nonsense statement.
01:18:52
James
what are you talking about, dude?
01:18:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
they didn't They didn't kill anyone?
01:18:56
James
Didn't you see when all the tanks were out there, the government had all the tanks in there and people didn't, they and they wouldn't shoot anybody and they were all out there, man. They're all around the Kremlin and nobody was firing shots, man. You know what They weren't firing shots. And then, you know, he went back in there into power. Then a couple weeks later, it's like, yeah, we're dissolving the Soviet Union, man.
01:19:15
James
and let out And all the countries just started dropping off and leaving. It wasn't... It was a bloodless... It was a bloodless revolution. There's been a lot of other ones, too, man. um There's been a lot of nonviolent and some bloodless ones, you know?
01:19:30
James
so
01:19:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't know. I'm thinking about the Maidan.
01:19:33
James
Bulgaria, Bulgaria, the Velvet Revolution, Bloodless Revolution in Czechoslovakia. They brought down the communist government there. They called it the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany. That's what they called it.
01:19:44
James
It was 1989, the Peaceful Revolution. 1987, the Singing Revolution. Estonia led to Latvia.
01:19:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, but...
01:19:51
James
I mean, this, I mean, this.
01:19:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, okay, but the... the yeah So many people died it
01:19:57
James
I know during the.
01:19:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
in Germany yeah like it wasn't bloodless at all like yeah like there wasn't like a big like armies clashing on the field or just like you know killing a thousand protesters with tanks ah incident but it doesn't mean that no one died during before and after like
01:19:59
James
Yeah. Well, yeah, but I'm talking about the actual, hey, revolution, we're leaving, we're out, we're done with this shit. That one.
01:20:15
James
Yeah.
01:20:21
James
Yeah.
01:20:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't know I don't think that I don't think we have a chance here at having a... I think it's just like you said. the this They're executing a coup and it will remain bloodless if we let it.
01:20:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
If we don't stand up and fight then and we just let them take over and we roll over every time you know we would have to get some blood on our hands to
Wealth, Taxes, and Economic Inequality
01:20:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
continue fighting, then sure, it'll be bloodless and they'll get to take over without us doing anything to fight back.
01:20:54
James
Yeah. oh
01:20:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, let's switch topics.
01:21:00
James
That's good.
01:21:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um um' a Yes, it's a it's ah it's a downward spiral. Okay, we don't think it's going good. Onto something else before the episode ends. So I saw this um this video.
01:21:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um It was a YouTube channel I really like. It's called like LBC. It's a like a British call-in radio show.
01:21:23
James
oh Not long beach country.
01:21:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They talk about politics.
01:21:26
James
OK. OK.
01:21:28
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, and they the topic they wanted people to call in was about was about paying taxes. And there was a guy who called in. He's like, hey, like, I'm I'm really wealthy and like I paid over a million pounds in tax last year and like I'm happy to pay taxes.
01:21:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But like, where does it end? Like it's like, you know, if you have somebody who's like, you know, a salary employee, they're getting a million pounds. Like, sure, you know, you're, you know, you want someone to to pay taxes on their earnings.
01:21:58
James
Thank you.
01:22:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's one thing. but But in my case, like, I'm a business owner. So like, when I pay a million pounds in tax, like, it's not like money that I was going to put in my pocket, it was money that I was going to use to spin up some new arm of some business.
01:22:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, it's people who I can't hire, and it's deals that I can't make because I paid this tax. So like, for someone in this position, where's the incentive for me to continue?
01:22:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and so I thought about this and I had an answer. And I wrote this comment. I'm just going kind of read from it. um With your tax, you buy the things that money cannot buy.
01:22:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
what Such as walking down a city street and having no one beg. Walking through a park and seeing no tents. Your wife or daughter or mother feeling safe to ride the subway alone at night and walk home.
01:22:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You buy a world where there are no bad neighborhoods, where people do not get sick as often because they're healthy and thus they do not get you sick so often. You get a world where businesses compete for everyone's dollar instead of annoying and monopolizing us into dissatisfied submission.
01:23:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You get millions of additional educated people working to solve the problems in your life, travel, discomfort, death, danger, traffic, connection. You also get to avoid war, visit preserved nature,
01:23:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You get more free time, a longer life, a healthier life, roads to drive on. You literally cannot buy these things on your own. The only way to buy them is to buy government that works.
01:23:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Is another million in the bank more valuable than a world worth living in Put it another way, what has always happened in history is wealth inequality grows to a point that people would rather kill than continue to die slowly.
01:23:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And there is a violent revolution and some changes are made. And we start the clock on the whole thing repeating. Do you want to be the one saying, let them eat cake when the masses reach their breaking point and come for you?
01:23:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I bet not.
01:24:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And like the thing that the thing I didn't mention there that I was thinking of as I was writing this was about how like in San Francisco, where you have the, ah the tech monopoly,
01:24:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um And you have like such a massive concentration of wealth that the people you need to like run the city, like the ah garbage men, the teachers, the police officers, the firefighters, the people who work in the restaurants
01:24:29
James
Yeah.
Elon Musk's Influence and Tech Industry Critique
01:24:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that you want to eat at, cannot afford to live in the city.
01:24:31
James
Yeah.
01:24:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So they all have to buy property like an hour away and then commute in to work at McDonald's in the city because the cost of living there is so expensive because so many people have this like massive amounts of tech money.
01:24:45
James
yeah
01:24:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And At the same time as they have this massive wealth,
01:24:51
James
yeah
01:24:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
excuse me, ah they have like one of the worst homeless problems in the world.
01:24:58
James
well
01:24:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You know, like you can't walk down, you can't walk down the street in San Francisco without smelling shit and piss because they just shit on the sidewalk everywhere because there's so many homeless.
01:25:08
James
well
01:25:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like that's what you buy with your, with paying more tax you buy a world where you can live in a city and and have people who live there who who work there live there like because they can afford to live there you get a world where you can walk down the street and not have to smell shit and piss because there are no homeless people
01:25:35
James
Yeah, but that's assuming that you care about there being homeless people.
01:25:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
well
01:25:39
James
and you know
01:25:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
helicopters are cheaper.
01:25:44
James
i mean, here, if you live in a nice mansion and a really ritzy you know subdivision and gated community and you have a driver take you to all the nice places that are away from that, do you care?
01:26:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you just you just by your You just buy your way above the fray, basically.
01:26:06
James
Yeah, that's what they want. That's what they do. They don't see it. Do you think Donald Trump sees the homeless people everywhere? Do you think he sees them?
01:26:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I think Donald Trump didn't understand the concept of groceries until like six months ago.
01:26:23
James
There you go.
01:26:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Cause like, he's like, he's like, you guys heard of this thing called groceries?
01:26:25
James
Yeah.
01:26:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like what a word groceries. and i know I've started using the word lately. Cause people like, when I say it, I don't really know what it means.
01:26:34
James
I like the way they do the word encroachments.
01:26:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Cause like, I just like pay my chef to like produce food for me and then I eat it or I go to McDonald's when I'm slumming it.
01:26:40
James
Yeah.
01:26:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like, i don wonder are I don't even know what a grocery is, but like, what a word.
01:26:45
James
He doesn't even pick up his own McDonald's. ah Whatever. Yeah, I mean, exactly. They don't give a shit about homeless people. a And here's the thing.
01:26:56
James
Stop paying the taxes for all that stuff and just lock up those people. Just get them there. I mean, there's cops. I mean, here they did do in Texas and and other places. you know, they just... um They literally just go through there, like in in other places too, they've done this where they're just like, they take all the homeless people's stuff. If they have a shopping cart and like, you know, a bag with some stuff in there, you know, like a blanket, and maybe something else, a couple of things that they've gotten, maybe a, maybe another jacket and something else in a backpack.
01:27:22
James
Right.
01:27:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Uh-huh.
01:27:23
James
They just take it they throw it away and then they lock them up they don't let them keep their belongings.
01:27:28
James
because they're homeless. And then they just move them. They lock them up. Take them away. Oh, you can't have a tent. You can't have this. can't just take it away. Throw it away. Burn it. Get rid of it. Take their property. What little thing they have. The little things that they just have on them.
01:27:39
James
On their person, you know. Take away. Get rid of it. Then they go put them in a squad car. And there you That was all littering. And then just get rid of them. Take them somewhere else. Take them and put them in jail. Who cares? Whatever. Just get them out of here.
01:27:50
James
i don't want to see them. Maybe they die. Hey, cool. Win. If they all die, that's a win for them. They don't care. They just don't want. They just don't care. called not having any empathy whatsoever, any human compassion whatsoever, and just not wanting to deal with the problem.
01:28:06
James
Just don't want to see it. That's their...
01:28:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
but Mr. What? Sorry, go ahead.
01:28:13
James
That's their MO. They always do. They don't want to spend money on mental health. Most of the people who are homeless are mentally... There's a reason, you know? They don't want to spend the money on that.
01:28:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:28:24
James
They don't want to, you know, they want to do anything. They don't want to have any kind of like, food stamps or nutrition assistance or, you know, living assistance or energy assistance. They don't want to do that stuff. It just encourages laziness.
01:28:36
James
They just want to cut them off and hopefully they die. That is their plan.........................
01:28:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, on the one hand, I want to say like, you know, you can't make everybody homeless at once, you know, because then you don't have people to work for your companies and buy the goods that you make and like the economy grinds to a halt.
01:28:55
James
Mm-hmm.
01:28:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But to your point, like in this, I'm going to link this video, but it's a Kara Swisher, like a longtime Silicon Valley reporter who was really close to Elon Musk talking about Elon Musk for like an hour and like, like how he was radicalized and like what his motivations are. And like a big part of why, of what radicalized him was when Biden didn't invite him to the electric vehicle summit.
01:29:26
James
Yeah.
01:29:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And he was like, cause he was very anti-union and, you know, Biden was very pro-union so they didn't invite him, but like they were, he was so offended by that, that he got Donald Trump elected.
01:29:28
James
Yeah.
01:29:38
James
yeah
01:29:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You know, and then and he has this like complex of like like, like a lot of these guys do where they like they they pretend to be masculine because they're not like they're not tough guys.
01:29:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And, you know, they pay lip service to, you know, inclusivity and empathy and liberal ideals. But like, it's not really ah important to them.
01:30:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um And what they and like, some of them you know, care about the money, but most of them don't even really care about the money. They just care about being to being the one who gets to make the decisions. Like they just want to decide. That's the thing that they actually care about.
01:30:17
James
Mm-hmm.
01:30:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And Elon Musk has this has the same thing where he just wants to make all the decisions. And the thing that they do, you know, they think about the way that they talk, like move fast and break things. And like they always want to break everything, but they don't have a plan for what to replace it with.
01:30:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They just want to like break it and get the current thing out of the way. They had a much more interesting conversation about how maybe what Elon Musk was doing, his the way he's putting his thumb on the scale of government, is like breaking all of this like broken bureaucracy that like you know sits and doesn't do anything, doesn't accomplish anything for such long periods of time. But it's just like, we got to break it before we can put something new in because this ain't working.
01:31:05
James
Well, so far they're not breaking... So far they're not they're not ah they're not doing anything that's broken. They're just breaking things that were working well and ah causing hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world in the meantime, too, especially with USAID.
01:31:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:31:21
James
Hundreds of thousands of deaths at the hands of the U.S. Not directly, but through inaction, through through revoked promises...
01:31:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, let's move into um
01:31:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
predictions and what could go right.
01:31:44
James
What could go right? I'll start with there.
01:31:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, yes, please.
01:31:46
James
What could go right?
01:31:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I need some.
01:31:48
James
What could go right?
01:31:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Give me some hope.
01:31:51
James
Schumer's gamble pays off. Government reopen. Well, the government stays open. Courts keep finding that, hey, you cannot shut these agencies down. Only Congress can do that.
01:32:07
James
And you are not Congress, executive branch. And hey, the Institute of Peace, that is a non-executive branch institution that you had DOGE go into with guns. You can't close them down. They're not a part of the executive branch. You had no authority. Everything has to get reopened.
01:32:21
James
Supreme Court doesn't want to piss off Donald Trump, but they don't want to say this is OK. They just declined to hear the case and they leave lower court rulings or they just keep it bouncing around forever until they don't have to worry about
Political Balance and Future Speculations
01:32:36
James
dealing with it.
01:32:36
James
You know what
01:32:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hmm.
01:32:38
James
And that and then normalcy is returned a little bit, you know, and it really slows it back. Things keep going bad slowly and Schumer's gamble pays off.
01:32:49
James
Republicans pay a huge price in the midterms because I don't think they could get rid of elections that quick. I think we'll still have midterm elections, you know. And if we get midterms, Democrats retake House and Senate.
01:32:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah
01:33:01
James
I don't think they would be able to pull off a coup in a big nationwide election, you know, especially if they're held in the Senate, you know. um That's what could go right.
01:33:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Man, I hope.
01:33:14
James
but
01:33:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i i I want to be wrong so, so badly. Like, you know, nothing would make me happier than to just be
01:33:28
James
Yeah.
01:33:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um ah
01:33:32
James
Pleasantly surprised with
01:33:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and an anxious alarmist, just like, you know,
01:33:37
James
the worst.
01:33:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
screaming at the clouds and everything is okay. And the the adults in the room have everything under control and it all works out in the end. And, you know, the long and arm of time bends toward justice.
01:33:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Nothing would make me happier, but I,
01:33:53
James
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:33:58
James
I think that's what could go right. I mean,
01:34:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that's what could go right.
01:34:03
James
it's still at ah at best 50-50. I mean, that's at best. That's being generous. So, think what could go right.
01:34:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
could go right. I want to like
01:34:13
James
i I don't expect that to happen. I expect them to say, fuck you, judges. i expect him to I expect them to do what thomas yeah with ah you know what his favorite Andrew Jackson did.
01:34:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
it's just
01:34:25
James
Oh, the Supreme Court said I couldn't do that? Well, I'd like to see them enforce it and just do whatever the fuck they want to do That's what I expect them to do.
01:34:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I guess like my I'm tempted to use my what could go right to like totally detour and go talk about the ceasefire which we didn't get to.
01:34:38
James
Oh, yeah.
01:34:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
which maybe we can come back to it, but I'll do my, ah I'll more genuinely do my what could go right. And if you've got a couple more minutes to talk about that, we can talk about that. Here's my, my, what could go right. Okay. It's similar to yours.
01:34:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The, but we could thread the needle, you know, we could, ah you know, we could get just enough people just mad enough because of just enough,
01:35:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
destruction that we just barely turn the tide and, you know, don't go all the way over the cliff into fascism and autocracy.
01:35:21
James
and
01:35:23
James
That's what I'm hoping for.
01:35:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So I guess it's, I guess maybe it's cheating because I'm kind of just using the same what could go right. But I mean, there's anything to hope for, I guess it's just that we're not fucked. So that's, that's my what could go right.
01:35:32
James
Yeah. That's all we can hope for right now.
01:35:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay.
01:35:37
James
And what else can go right?
01:35:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So to go,
01:35:38
James
one else can go right?
01:35:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What?
01:35:40
James
And it's already on that trajectory. By the end of the year, Tesla could have to fucking just shut down and close up shop.
01:35:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, that would be good. That's a good one.
01:35:51
James
It could happen. They've dropped over half half their value, half the value in a month.
01:35:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And nobody wants to buy their cars anymore.
01:35:57
James
Oh, surprisingly. yeah Yeah, like they were talking about this on the Bulwark podcast, right?
01:36:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Except Trump.
01:36:01
James
And he's like he's like, go figure.
01:36:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:36:02
James
you know the The population, the overwhelming majority of people who wanted to buy these cars because they kind of wanted lower carbon emissions, they just think it's a cool car and everything. Those people, Elon Musk, the CEO, did what Michael Jordan never did.
01:36:16
James
He always said, They said, why don't you get into politics? He's like, well, because Republicans wear shoes too.
01:36:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yep. Yep. Yep.
01:36:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah
01:36:21
James
And Elon Musk said, I hate you people who are buying my cars.
01:36:27
James
I hate you. You are horrible people. I don't like you at all. need to deserve it. You need to be in jail. You need to rot in hell and start doing Nazi salutes.
01:36:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
honest
01:36:36
James
And so everybody who wanted to buy a Tesla, is vilified by the guy who runs Tesla. And then now they're only saving grace is to try to convince all these Republicans who've been for years, you know, saying that anybody who drives a Tesla is a fucking cuck and a little weenie And Joe, you find your little electric vehicle, right?
01:36:57
James
Now you have to convince them that that's the sign of masculinity. If you want to ride with the real mag of people, you're going to ride a Tesla. You're not going to drive a big old truck. You know what mean?
01:37:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:37:08
James
Unless you get the ugliest cyber truck that doesn't function as truck. You know, thats it's just a smooth stainless steel canvas, which is perfect for spray paint, you know? So you got to convince all these people that you don't want a big truck.
01:37:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yep. Yep. Yeah,
01:37:19
James
You want a Tesla. You want an EV, you know? And plus, not only that, like the ah the rival electric cars, they're not even the best electric car anymore. every
01:37:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah they're not.
01:37:30
James
Almost every other electric vehicle now is killing them, you know?
01:37:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They haven't they haven't like done anything new.
01:37:36
James
They haven't innovated anything.
01:37:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They're still selling the same like you know goofy ah goofy looking designs from 15 years ago.
01:37:37
James
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So, so yeah, a year from now, I mean, the only thing that's going to save them is what the Trump administration is trying to do ordering, you know, hundreds of thousands of Tesla cyber trucks for the military now, you know,
01:37:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i don't think that's even I don't think that's going to be enough. like they have to They have to turn something around.
01:37:57
James
well, no, that's save the whole thing. It could keep a, but his, the only thing that's ever kept Elon Musk making money is government subsidies.
01:38:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, and selling um selling the the credits, right?
01:38:07
James
Shit. It's just government. Yeah.
01:38:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
For the...
01:38:10
James
Yeah, it's government subsidies.
01:38:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah,
01:38:11
James
Yeah, that's contracts with SpaceX and this everything, the government subsidies, the carbon tax. It's all government welfare.
01:38:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah carbon credits. That's what i'm thinking of.
01:38:18
James
It's just just corporate welfare. Corporate welfare is his only source of real income for all of his businesses.
01:38:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, I mean, China can just seize his factories. We know, like, Europe isn't buying his cars. America's not buying his cars. But, like, the main thing...
01:38:32
James
yeah man and you ninety Germany, where they make the cars in Germany, right they have the Gigafactory in Berlin.
01:38:40
James
97% of Germans said they would never buy a Tesla now because of his Nazi salute and everything else.
01:38:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:38:45
James
The Roman salute. Yeah, he's a fucking Nazi.
01:38:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and the
01:38:48
James
And so, yeah plummeted.
01:38:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And the resale value is like plummeted. Yeah. plummeted
01:38:52
James
It's nothing. and They can't even give him away now. So yeah, Tesla.
01:38:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah
01:38:56
James
I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla goes away in a year and then the richest man in the world hoof his company's gone.
Podcast Conclusion and Summary
01:39:04
James
And then all he has is whatever he can suck off the tit of American government because he won't even have a product to have an inflated stock price.
01:39:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That would be nice.
01:39:14
James
Yeah.
01:39:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
All right. I think we're out time. result
01:39:19
James
Yeah.
01:39:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:39:20
James
We are definitely out of time.
01:39:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay.
01:39:24
James
so alright. Let's hope for...
01:39:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
closing Closing thoughts? or Tesla is your closing thoughts?
01:39:28
James
Let's hope for the pleasant spots. yeahp Yep, yep. No, that's good. um
01:39:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's good closing and thought.
01:39:33
James
I'm really sorry that we didn't have time to talk about Ukraine and Russia. and But it doesn't really matter There's nothing really to talk about. Here, I can sum it up in five seconds before we say goodbye.
01:39:40
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
All right.
01:39:41
James
Don't read the paper and say, oh, wow, there's a ceasefire. There's no ceasefire. There never was a ceasefire. They just wanted to announce the word Putin and Zelensky, ceasefire. And two seconds later, Russia launched a whole bunch of attacks, and there is no ceasefire.
01:39:56
James
And the Russians are still committing war crimes left right. There you
01:39:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You nailed it. Nailed And good luck.
01:40:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
very very
01:40:00
James
Sum it up pretty good.
01:40:01
James
All right.
01:40:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you nailed it
01:40:03
James
There we go.
01:40:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
nailed it
01:40:06
James
All right. Good night, everybody. Good night, Gabe.
01:40:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and good luck
01:40:10
James
Yep. All right.