Alex Wagner: An Unlawful Administration

0:00If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi. Background Play. So you can lock your phone and it still plays, baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free. Yes, I said it ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. How eligibility varies? Terms apply. Cancel anytime. Every legal professional wants to put their clients first, but billing and case management get in the way. 8 a.m. is the trusted business platform that automates the work of running your practice, so you complete your clients first. Visit 8a.m.com. Hello and welcome to the Bauer Daily. I'm your host Tim Miller.

1:00Excited to welcome back to the show host of the podcast Run Away Country, cooking media. She writes on Substack at How the Hell, dot, dot, dot with Alex Wagner. She's the author of a brand new book, The Steel, Four Right Wing Hardliners, Wonder Polkan Presidency, and The Raid on America's Core to Alex Wagner. Oh, buddy. It's great to see you. Welcome back. Thank you for doing this. We're doing this on Thursday evening, which I appreciate Alex doing because I'm flying very early tomorrow to Ohio for our Benefit Fundraise for the Haitian community. Amazing. If you guys cannot go and you want to support them, we'll put the link in the show, the annotation community help in support center. I saw a number today on How Much We've Raised. It kind of blew me away, actually. We appreciate the Bauer community very much. That's so awesome. You guys are an awesome community. You have awesome hosts, and that is the right thing to be doing right now. We'll have a number for you all next week, but I think we'll be proud of us, but important work. I've got a lot of rants to do. I've been building up on my rants for the show on Friday night, so you've got to carry me on the show on the rants.

2:01I love it. I'm ready. I'm ready. He ain't heavy. He's my old work. I got it. I got a couple of rants just to be clear, but just not as many. I want to start with the war vote. I kind of like a niche, a thing that maybe I'm only interested in when it comes to the war vote, or maybe it's you. Because it was 50 to 49. I'm definitely. In a situation where the war vote is 1549, every vote is really the deciding vote. Obviously, it was 50 against the war power's resolution that would have taken the war powers back to Congress where they exist. It's kind of unclear why that's needed, but whatever. It's either here or no there. Just all the Republicans voted against it, still fully inside areas, Trump. But one of the deciding votes was for a majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and I want to show a real video of him going to vote to keep the war going today. A real video. A real video. Not a. Senator McConnell, can you say anything to us? Or any word, any comment for the press. Even just the hello, sir. President Trump spent millions of dollars to remove Thomas Massey from Congress.

3:03Please think silent about you. Senator, any word for us. Have a good day, Senator. He says something, Senator, about a news conference. You have one. He said it, Senator. He said it, Senator. He said it, Senator McConnell. He said it, Senator McConnell. For the listeners there, he does not move. His mouth stays open the whole time. Yeah. But no words come out. The soul is slowly escaping to the great end. That weekend, Mitch McConnell, he casts today, whatever that is, human, quasi-human figure, cast a deciding vote to keep us on the Iran War today. I, okay. So I have thoughts on this. Okay, great. I mean, I think everybody in Kentucky should be super outraged. Thomas Massey should be most outraged of all. This person is a hollow vessel. But here's the thing, Tim. They all are. It doesn't matter if Mitch McConnell is a zucchini, like they're all zucchinis. They're all squash, as far as I'm concerned.

4:04The idea that Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn and for that matter, Dan Sullivan and John Who Stead, but really the yolo, the yolo caucus of the Republican conference that like has nothing left to lose here is still voting in support of a disastrous war that is likely to cost their party control of Congress is like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you are functionally brain dead or not. Like nobody's using whatever they got in their noggins at this point. Like what's the point? Who cares? Yeah, what we're doing, vegetables. Bill Cassidy, I guess would be, is a husk of a man. Yeah. Because he was the last one to vote because he stalled because he hemmed in haunders. He's been doing human sitting, Bill Cassidy's a deciding vote. Like I said, everyone was a deciding vote really, so that includes Mitch. And there didn't need to be kind of a stall for deliberation with Mitch because who whoever is doing the voting for him just kind of just went up there and did it. I take it. I don't know. We couldn't say anything to the reporter. So could he say, I unclear? Yeah. I guess the bell. I keep going back to the bell like breaking bad, you know, he does the bell for when he

5:08wants to yes or two bells for now. I don't know. Anyway, back to Cassidy, my senator. It's the same fucking thing is the bus is like several times this year where they've needed him where he kind of went back and forth. And then in the end, at the last second, John Barrasso talks to John Barrasso, I'm actually a very compelling figure from with my own thing. And Bill can't just be votes to give the president, you know, continued, you know, unending powers for the stupid, pointless wars. They don't have a plan to get out of. And then, you know, then it doesn't take questions after it doesn't do anything when he's asked, he's like, I gotta go catch a plane. It's like, what do you do? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? John Corning with literally castrated by this president. Yeah. And back in Texas is having fundraisers for everybody except Ken Paxton, the man who replaced him on the ticket. Because he's still so angry about it. And yet the architect of that becucking Donald Trump, he cannot bring himself to curtail his power in leading the party off the cliff. It like there is, I really do think there's a special place in hell for people who know

6:11better. And by and in this situation, have the power to do something about it with almost no blowback. Like, this is an issue that these guys once they have their like lucrative lobbying gigs after they leave the Senate are not going to be punished for. Like, this is, this is why they're doing it for awards, right? Like Cassidy wants to be able to call John Thin and John Brassa again next year when he's good, he's, you know, but I mean, I don't, I think if they, if they did a favor to the party in Congress and helped show the Republicans have a backbone, they wouldn't be punished for it on the back end after they leave. I just, just the fear is so powerful, I guess that's the only thing that you can imagine. Can I also just say, please, I know every vote is a tie-breaking voter, whatever, but the fact that John Fetterman is the only Democrat to vote with the Republicans on this makes me extraordinarily worried about a very narrow Senate majority that keeps John Fetterman in the cat bird seat, speaking of someone who is, I do not think all there. Well, I don't know if it's got to win five. We're gonna get down to the Senate map in a second. Oh, well, that's kind of related.

7:11We'll do, let's write it. The Michigan Center race is one of the key ones. And I was struck by an ad that my Rogers did this week about the war. And I did a whole other video in the text because this thing, I rage me so much, if they want the long verge of being able to do that, where I went through all of these guys who are running now and coming up with different ways to try to tiptoe away from the war. But the Rogers ad, I found the most interesting for a couple of reasons which we'll talk about. Let's watch it again. Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. The groceries cost too much. You have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end and quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet. But Michigan families can't afford to wait for that to happen. We need to do something now. We need to do something now. What? What? You know what that is? What is that thing that, Mike, are you doing a big reveal or do we get to say that? No, we don't know. That's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, we have to do something. It's a swell, yeah. So spend diesel experts.

8:11What? What would we, what is this something? Mike Rogers, he used to want, and he's like, we got to do it kind of quickly. Mike Rogers is the biggest cheerleader for this war. You know, I mean, Rogers was a huge, he's a huge around hawk. He was, he was on Trump side and all of this. I'm back in May. He was talking about how, oh boy, they might keep the straight of hormones. And that would be a disaster. And so we've got that, he wanted to escalate in May. This is the time to take him out. Now the ad is, it needs to end and end quickly when it does energy costful moment. Was that true? Even doing it? How? How? In fact, first of all, first of all, like the oil infrastructure has been so badly damaged. We won't go into the Saudi Arabian East West pipeline, which was like the only like alternative to the straight of hormones. I'm not a petrochemical engineer, but the destruction of that pipeline could be seen from space. It's going to take a minute. The refineries have been offline. I mean, we're just talking about elevated gas prices through 2027. If the war is even over by then, I mean, we're now at the point this, this may be a

9:132028 presidential election issue. Like that's how bad it's going. Yeah. We need to do something now, like, my country's going to stand in first of all, you can almost see me like, well, how does this work? I walk in here and the food is available for free. Or do I pay for it? They put him in like a brand new vest because that I guess speaks grocery store sheet. Yeah. He's never gone grocery shopping in his life. He's like, do I look at? How do I do? How do I decide how firm the produce is? What is it? Tomato. He looks very uncomfortable. And I just I love it though. I think they should put it on a bumper sticker. Like, I mean, it's just so deep. It's so Jonah. It's kind of like Jonas campaign slogan. We need to do something now. Something. What? TBD. TBD. Does my caroders want us to end the blockade? He wants us to spend diesel exports. I have no, he nobody has a solution. Right. Nobody has a solution because the only solution is one, I mean, whatever. I don't want to bigfoot you in geopolitics, but like, please, take foot. She didn't ping is the key to maybe winding down the Iran war.

10:15And Donald Trump says that says that's off the table. We're not talking about that. No, no, no. No, we're too busy. We had some other things to talk to she about today. So they're walking around. As I mentioned, we're taping this early evening. So they have the state dinner tonight, not in the ballroom. Ballroom isn't ready yet. That's sad. So we'll see how that goes. I mean, and if something really crazy happens, like Trump takes out his little penis or something like my fights early, but I will get up early enough to do like a little five minute topper on this. If something really crazy happens. But what's happened so far at the time of this tape thing, Trump showed the auto pen picture of Biden that he has in the hall of presidents or whatever they created. And he was really kind of given a little jocular punch on the shoulder and she kind of pretended to laugh at that. And then this was a big one. This is from Eric Dordey, who's one of the big Trump propagandists right now out there. He writes this. It kind of a poor report of his own from today. Just in President Trump reveals president, she is a huge fan of his new helipad because

11:17it's made of granite. He has a great interest in granite. He likes granite. He's an expert on stones, Trump said. And he loves a good granite. This might be Trump's favorite part of the entire visit as he loves nothing more than presenting his construction projects to important people. It's beautiful. The White House needed this. The White House needed the big granite win in this debate. I mean, not access for soybean farmers, not new rules around AI, SI, excuse me, not tariff relief, not not not not going after she, but the fact that he helped her on kill three American soldiers. None of that. The big win was the granite. It really does feel like maybe calculated sabotage at this point, right? To literally have the Chinese premiere there. At a moment when the essential issue is addressing what's happening in Iran, China is literally helping Iran target Americans and kill them. It's the major buyer of Iranian oil. They are helping the Iranians launder money from their oil sales. They are helping build chemical precursors for ballistic missiles that Iran is using.

12:19They're giving them drone parts. I mean, Iran is a client state of China at this point. And not only is the president not addressing that, but he's going back to the fucking hella pad. Like what an embarrassment. Also they're wearing weirdly matching outfits in that whole little moment, which makes the whole thing even more sort of twin peaks. Like how could this surreality actually be playing out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I mean, it's really, I just mind-boggling that this is happening. There's this old tweet from 2012 that Trump sent. Obviously there's always a tweet about Obama and they had bugles, I guess, or something for she. And it's like this is Trump was complaining about the bugles. But it's like the troops are on their knees as it comes down the plane. Again, Chairman Chi has been responsible for the deaths of our troops. They're prostrate in front of the red carpet. Trump's just showing off the making fun of buy and showing off the granite and like saying that AI, they're AI stuff's cool. Don't worry about it. I mean, it's just full prostrate giving into she and all Trump wants is like to feel like

13:24a fancy boy. I mean, I think it's almost treasonous, right? Like this? Well, Terry said he accused the media of treason during the trip. Right. So the media, you and me, we're treasonous. The Tommy leader, great actually. Good bro. Like love the Tommy dictator that's helping kill our troops. The media covering what's happening treason. I don't know where do you want to call it, but it's not. It's certainly not pro-America. Can you imagine any other moment when literally the United States president is meeting with the head of a foreign country and the press of the foreign country can get into the White House, but not the American press. And the president is cow-towing, both literally and figuratively waiting for him at the bottom of the steps of his plane as he arrives, like an eager beagle. And then giving him quarter and celebrating him as he is helping architect the deaths of American service people abroad. I mean, like, I can't think of any parallel. And if that's not treasonous, I don't know what is.

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15:28Taste and yummy. If you're looking for an easy way to enjoy bakery quality food at home, I recommend giving Wildgrain a try. The fan favorite apple cider doughnuts aforementioned and other false seasonal products are back for limited time. Make sure you order them before they sell out. Visit wildgrain.com slash the board to get 30 bucks off your first box plus free quesons for life. Again, that's wildgrain.com slash the board for 30 bucks off your first box and free quesons for life or use promo code to the bowl work at checkout. I saw a funny chart. It was a Wall Street Journal checking this out like what people in our business talking about, political podcasts. When other people analyze you, what's better than that? You know, you love it when to hear people talking about it. Yeah. I love the whole flower, isn't it? Or is this what is it? Who was it? Who was it? Was it Malcolm Gladwell? I think it was Malcolm Gladwell. It was like someone mentioned your name across the room at a party. Like, as humans, like we're trained to catch that sound in a way that we would not be able to lock in on their conversation otherwise. Really? Yeah.

16:29Anyway, this is like that. Wall Street Journal was tracking 70,000 hours of podcast, liberal podcast and conservative. That's total mentions of Trump per hour. And by like the inauguration, for example, or the election, it was even. They're both the same. It was about 40 an hour during the election and then about 25 an hour by the inauguration. Okay. Then as it goes on, liberal, a little bit more conservative, a little bit less. The Iran war starts. Now the conservative podcasts are mentioning him like never. And we're keeping steady over here. I assume I'm being counted in the liberal side. Sometimes I get miss miss. Sometimes people are you know, diagnosed. Yeah. Looking at the 2015 census when deciding where to put me. I think you're dead name. Exactly. But I mean, I think that is like very telling. I do. If I'm running a conservative podcast today, like what do I even put on my rundown about the She Trump meeting? Like there's not there's nothing. I guess if you're in the total cult, you can do the granite.

17:29Right? But if you're one step over from the cult, if you're Ben Shapiro, like you wish you're in a cult, but you have a little bit of policy ideologies are still thought of. What do you even talk about? Not you know, you talk about the WNBA or what? You talk about Lindsey Clancy. I mean, that's like the other thing they tracked are like the engines of men's Lindsey Clancy, which is not like traditional manosphere fodder is getting more clicks than Donald Trump. To me, this tells me they're tuned out and turned off and they may not show up with the polls. This doesn't mean that they're all like suddenly, you know, Kamala Harris stands or whatever or all soft stands, I guess, more to the point. They are, they just want to pretend he doesn't exist anymore. And like that's a very bad look for a bunch of Republicans who are on the ticket in November. It's a long way to go. I mean, I guess eventually you can start talking about 2028, but Trump's going to delay that as long as possible. Yes. It's a long slog of writing, of doing podcasting if you're not wanting to talk about the president

18:32of the United States and you have a politics podcast. Yeah. Well, then you sort of try and find other men in the orbit that you can rail against like James Tolerico, who's like now catnip for right way manosphere podcasts. Let's talk about that race. I always hate to cheat on Sarah by talking about other focus groups, but it was a delicious New York Times, so I could script that asked these are Trump voters who were, I guess, are undecided or independent or something. They're Trump voters from 2024. Let's get into the specific candidates. When you hear the name Ken Pax, it what comes to mind. Crook, crook, crook, it bad, amoral, disgusting, morally corrupt, disgusting, corrupt bathrooms. There's one, there was one lady that and that was, that was a good one for him because there was one lady that associated with him with protecting girls bathrooms. Right. So that's the best interpretation of that. That was the best. Yeah. Yeah, she followed up. I checked. But when you're saying disgusting, gross bathrooms, I don't think that that's a positive

19:34guy. I was wondering that. So I went, I went further and went over to the smarter take is you know what it's about or follow up the answer. So I have, you know, very Tolerico Hopian pilled. There's upsets in a poll earlier this week. A little birdie told me that the, that there's a super PAC coming in with huge money for him to soon. Maybe next week. I think that the gap between crews in 18 and Paxton is the key thing. I don't tell you, it might be marginally better than bad out. The environment, I think, is marginally better. Yeah. But, but pretty similar at the candidate. The gap between crews and Paxton, I think, is wider than people, particularly I've laughed progressive people who like look at them and they're like, you're both gross and disgusting. Yeah. But it's like, I do think that that is, that potentially might be the death now. Yeah. Ken Paxton, I mean, if you've ever heard him open his mouth, he's like the least compelling speaker and he doesn't even read Texas. Like that's the thing I don't get. Like it's one thing if someone's intensely charismatic and really can, you know, move

20:38the crowd and has an aw shock's attitude that really plays well. He has no res at all whatsoever. Ken also happens to be wildly corrupt and is known in the state of Texas for his corruption. So yeah, like I think he's a much weaker candidate than Greg Abbott or Ted Cruz or any prominent sort of Texan who has some baggage. Ken Paxton is the war and has nothing to offer either. I mean, like he's trying to make a late play on, you know, tracking the water usage of AI data centers, but the whole Republican 180 in Texas in particular on the issue of AI data centers, which is alarming people in that state and really animating them. I mean, I, for my podcast, I talked to a former Paxton staffer who's now dealing with the data center issue down there and is like, you don't even understand. Like this is, first of all, there's huge bipartisan support, real grassroots activism on it from the right and like kept Paxton and Abbott have been so on the wrong side of it

21:40and they're not assisted by the president who day after day continues to double down on his support of it. Like the Republican party in Texas is coded pro AI and that's a problem. The other thing that's interesting to play is Paxton want to bait him. Tell Rico and like just before we started got on, tell Rico is on stage somewhere in Texas and said that he is now challenging. He's a tripist. Yeah, he's a tripist. I think so. It says Texas Tribune in the background. Yeah, shout out Evan. And he says, I wanted to bait him on Fox. He wanted to bait me anywhere else. I'll prove him. I'll go there. I love this play and I thought it was the one thing that I really that I think is underrated as a mistake of the Harris campaign strategy. People talk about the Rogan stuff and all that but I was like, she should have accepted the Fox debate. There's something about it. It toughens you up just by going totally. And it's really important for Tell Rico, I think to do it too in specific and as it would have been important for Harris because they've been the victims of like undo sort of shaming around how tough they are and in Tell Rico's case, like what kind of man is he? So to say I'm going into the lion's den and come meet me there bitch is good.

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23:46Choose PayPal check bill points or cash out with gift cards eligible American Express card members can choose to earn membership rewards points instead of cash back terms and conditions of high. So go ahead take a trip fill a cart order dessert Rakuten is a world of rewards join today for free go to Rakuten.com or get the app that's r a k u t e n. At the other story I had Mary Peltola on the podcast yesterday which was interesting timing is interesting you know sometimes podcast magic and the timing you know sometimes the fates work for you and timing and other times like that quite as much anyway you've seen the near time story of cares your thoughts because you are you went a little bit separate from some of your pod cohort over there on Platner he a little harder on him than they were I don't want to compare Platner's behavior to Peltola's at all. No, yeah I just kept to call I was I understood the appeal of Platner and I just always was

24:47like there's just something that rubs me maybe the wrong way about this guy and then turns out that that was maybe the correct line of thinking when I came you are alone on that instinct to just you happen to be on you had it was a female instinct mostly yeah entirely but a lot the Peltola thing obviously different I think you hear some people in the discourse being like every boss is terrible on DC you only hear this about Amy Klobuchar you only hear this about women and there's a sexist element to it that's some of that you know there's some people like these me included which is like some of these whoever leaked the screenshot of the text where she said retard or whatever and then I know I'm knowing it was the scrubs lines on the system scrubs reference I nothing you I nothing you and then the staffer hurt it and then leaked it I'm like sorry you can't you can't hurt the text and then leave it you're a sign and then be in dignity okay love it what anyway what was your overall take on I don't like the story Tim you know I do not like the story I mean I like I do agree we judge women harshly and from sometimes asymmetrically in terms of like how they deal with their

25:52time and power compared to men but I don't know like using the f-word not fuck the other one to to slur gay people saying like fuck these bitches and I hope that woman dies from a botched abortion like those are soul corroding statements those that's not that cool that is not I mean that's I don't know and like getting physical with your staff even if nobody gets hurt it's just I have you know we work with people I had people that watch the producer you know push the producer on the circus not do absolutely not not what not I mean now watch someone's gonna be like that it's push me no you can't and listen I got up in Rick Grinnell's grill during the circus where there was very nearly a gay push those very nearly a gay push yeah it's one thing if you are having a debate with someone but the power dynamic is such that these are staffers that are literally cowering in fear some of them are like they're talking about the strain the other part

26:52that disturbs me is it's it's not one or two it's multiple waves of staffers are trying to leave the office I just I don't I don't I don't like this story yeah I don't I think it does not reflect well on her you know it's a real shame that this is how she conducts herself in private like it's it's yeah it's not good okay that's my attitude it's not good I don't know I'm not gonna push over code it like I genuinely believe that women get a rough ride and a wrong ride a lot of times but this is just alarming behavior and you you can't say this stuff I appreciate that you can't do this stuff I don't disagree I don't like the timing I don't know there's something about that I don't like the timing is sus I don't like the timing at all it feels very very op-o research like nice try like September 23rd or whenever this went to file but like no that part is very questionable that part is max of you know the Sullivan campaign yeah I hate dance all been so much is also part of my blinding you know it's kind of the family feud element of it like he was one of my kind of

27:56republicans back then in the old census dead named him you know like my friends consulted for him like I don't I don't want to pretend like we were pals or whatever but like that was my you know he was a national security you know kind of conservative social issues wasn't really his thing kind of Republican you know and it's like and now you're just sitting there quietly while Donald Trump gets down against the chain against the Iran or authorization yeah and like you're your guy your president it's like getting on his knees for the Chinese Communist you don't say anything you don't distance yourself anyway and that this is how the brains work and this is what rationalization is right so I appreciate that you shouldn't sugarcoat it well but I will say you know I guess people are bringing up the specter of Amy Klobuchar and the salad with the comb the yeah that did not diminish her political career no and she rode her toughness right the fuck back maybe into the governor's seat come November yeah I think this probably helps in Alaska too because the other thing is Alaska you know just the makeup and all that and so many states if you're

28:59Democrat you know there's the balance right you're trying to win over spring voters you're all trying to to galvanize your base it's not like there's huge college campuses or whatever or people are gonna be a fed you know what I mean in Alaska right fishermen yeah I think they've got bigger problems people paying 26 82 for gas or whatever she said they're paying and some bigger fish to fry quite literally there we go that's what I was like for him you flagged for me a story that I've not covered I've had it texted a couple times and it's it's only since from just like it's hard to read a follow exactly what's happening but the Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco he's also a key as a candidate for governor in California right wing guy a court forced him to return 650,000 ballots he had seized 650,000 I don't like that sentence ballots he had seized from election officials as part of an investigation investigation and a voter fraud that had no basis in fact going to other officials what's happening here he was gonna have hit his deputies count the ballots because

30:03his tinfoil-hatted election conspiracist allies in the state were like they counted more votes than were actually registered now apparently there may have been a discrepancy of up to a hundred votes we're talking about the first round of the governor's race or are we going back sorry this is for a measure to do the blue gerrymander of the California congressional districts it was to redraw the states congressional maps to give Democrats a five-seat advantage or to capture five more seats and it passed in Riverside County I think by 56% it passed statewide in California by 64% and that really pissed off conservatives in Riverside County including and especially chef Brad Chad sorry Chad. Brad and Chad whatever. It's it really tomato tomato exactly and what's alarming to me about this is like I am worried genuinely about the chain of custody after the midterm election ballots are cast I'm worried about the chicana

31:06inside the machinery of government around the counting and the certification I just worry about that and the fact that this you know jabroni and Riverside County on a whim on his unilaterally decided he was gonna seize up you know three quarters of a million ballots to have his deputies go over and and and got them like seize the ballots like I just I worry that we're gonna be on November 5th being like oh shit remember when they showed us what they were gonna do when we didn't pay attention it is I am less worried about violence at the polls and like direct voter intimidation and way more worried about the fact that there are Trump election deniers at every level of the government including and especially the Department of Homeland Security and that they're gonna be able to manipulate the system or cry foul even obviously when there isn't any to undermine confidence in the results and throw certification into question like I just that's the part of all of this that I worry about and this story to me gives it gives me chills I mean he's been ordered to return the ballots but like you know this is of a suite with the FBI

32:11seizing the 2020 ballots in Georgia and the data in Arizona and them interviewing of election officials in Wisconsin I mean the like winged monkeys have been flapping all over this country and there's some strategizing a foot and didn't work so I have always have two minds about all this stuff right so like they they keep failing so I just I think that's important to say that doesn't mean that we're not worried about it or are monitoring on the other side of that coin this story flags something that I do worry about that I don't think I talk about very much so I just think it's worth sort of hashing over a little bit which is a lot of times the discussions of the threats of this top down Trump administration nefarious ice at the ballot box etc but like it's been since 2020 now this is the third election cycle and there's just been a lot of turnover in in random ass jobs like election official jobs county leadership in particularly red states red places sheriffs yes and if you look at the playing field for these center races are just like

33:15Texas like think I think about how many counties are in Texas think about any fucking lunatic magas sheriffs and election officials there are in random counties in in east Texas like between you know Houston and Louisiana border obviously west Texas like a lot a lot and a lot of votes there it's not dense but if you added all up it's a lot of territory a lot of votes and that is something like trouble making kind of bottom up it's something that doesn't get quite as much attention and I think this is a good example I know that Mark Lyson all these guys are looking at all that but I do think that's a concern and that's something everybody can do in their community particularly if you're in a red community it's like as being a poll watcher keeping an eye taken interest also taken interest in who is running the elections who the sheriff is you know these it's important to know who these actors are you know Texas is going to be a close race really close that's the thing that where I just keep coming back to it like if the senate hinges on tellerica's 21 2000 vote when

34:17that's a real dicey scenario today's episode is brought to you by apple ads ads on apple maps are changing the way local businesses get discovered reach customers when it counts right when they turn I'm looking into I'm going there in decision making mode actively searching for businesses like yours and deciding where to go customers can easily call you visit and more from the same place they're viewing your ad and all of this happens on apple maps a privacy first environment that respects customers and helps them discover new places get started with ads on apple maps today and for a limited time receive 15% credit back on your monthly ads spend for a year up to $1,000 per month term supply head to ads dot apple dot com slash maps to get started try business like never before with ads on apple maps

35:20this episode sponsored by marathon sports runners know the feeling that moment when the shoe disappears your stride feel smooth your breathing settles in and the run just clicks that's what marathon sports has been helping runners find for over 50 years at marathon sports their expert team uses the right fit process to match you with shoes and gear built for the way your body actually moves no guesswork no generic recommendations just real guidance from people who live and breathe running whether you're training for your next marathon getting back into running or chasing a better everyday run marathon sports helps you find what works for you visit marathon sports dot com or stop into a marathon sports store today and experience the difference the right fit can make i'm talking about the courts don't talk about what's happening right now the courts and we'll get to your book and go backwards in time uh... that too uh... alito time singes interesting i saw our mutual pal christ haze tweeted that he would be not surprised if one of them retired at at the democrats do get the fifty two big enough senate majority i've been saying this

36:24i think i told christ that okay yes he stole that take from you yes i've been talking about this in sezunday for the last two and a half weeks he has a take the he really is ed wheelin i've a couple things but ed wheelin feel don't know him he's interesting character he's like a courts conservative courts policy guy he's he swims in the federal less circle uh a federal society excuse me world at very conservative guy but i guess had taken so few principled stands on a few things when you know right is going crazy so i do i watch his feet is kind of as like uh this guy is way more right than i am on court stuff but that general generally a fair broker and and it was interesting that he responded to christ saying i he would be surprised he doesn't think that they're gonna retire and so i who knows um but i just thought that was interesting because you like might be in a position to hear i do wonder if the hubris of tavis and alito is greater you know the ego and the hubris is greater than like the practical judgment well it would appear yes right it's just

37:26kind of such an outrageous possibility that in a season of outrage we have to entertain it i mean it's hard for me to imagine that a 76 year old man who's really close to retirement is just gonna bet on father time not coming and waving his siphon his direction in the next 10 years i mean because that's truly like a possibility if democrats win the senate and then there is a democratic president for two terms which is totally within the realm of possibility wow okay well i'm just saying if you're sure literally making the calculation they're like we're just trying to get through tomorrow baby you think that democrats are gonna have it if you're a lifetime appointee if you're a part of the council of elders that's steering this country off the cliff then like you do have to consider this also with the example of Ruth Bader Ginsburg it's like yeah they that that has to echo in the back of their increasingly hollow minds and i just think alito has become such a partisan and such an operator in service of a deeply conservative agenda it's just hard for me to imagine

38:30he's not considering it having said that it would be such a catastrophic blow to norms at i think it would really upend business in the senate if john thune and the lackeys on the judiciary committee move forward with the supreme court nomination process in the lame duck session of congress like hello dc statehood hello portoriko statehood goodbye filibuster like it's all on the table because there will be retribution when the senate goes into democratic hands i mean i just think it's an interesting thought exercise to imagine what the consequences of that action would be and by the way democrats should start saying it just to dissuade these justices from retiring because they do absolutely pay attention to politics i agree don't get to start saying it's interesting to think of it now i don't know which i'm rooting for you want you want you want them to go ahead i like the payback i like the idea of the payback but also i like the idea of democratic president and these guys starting to have regrets as they start to age about the choice that they made and who and who their replacement

39:37you know whose hands are a placement would be in it's interesting it's interesting exercise i don't know elitos wife is a total lunatic yes both of their wives jenny tomas oh my god i mean jenny tonne should be in jail yeah so i guess i should throw that out there and jenny tomnis was actively plotting to overturn the democracy of the country it's pretty strange that current time is on the supreme court as one of my rants for a while i don't ever talk about this anymore but thank you for letting me bring it back up it's like i could talk about a while they talk about at the dinner table i mean she was planning a coup and one of the nine supreme court justices was sleeping in the same bed with her maybe they've elucid in desi situation i don't know but like they had a lot of face time i assume the coup she was plotting was you know came up from time to time just like the giant insurrection it's flagged that was being flown over the beach house at the elito house like he did not notice that these guys as i talk about in my new book tim are died in the wool partisan warriors like they have been hiding behind originalism but they don't even try and do that anymore they're just out they're out there in those streets trying to move the

40:39country ever rightward the other thing wheeling said i'm not going to go back to the rest of the book stuff is this sure hope that senate ours are making plans to confirm all remating judicial dominise during put host election lame duck period the prospect the domes will in control of the senate seems increasingly likely it might not happen but best to be prepared if it does i think that's a that's a just a good place but i think we're at this point now we're like the democrats aren't going to confirm anybody right or do you think that that they're still we're still in old 2018 mode where we're going to cut a deal we're going to cut a grand bargain with john thune and blah blah blah blah i don't think so i mean i think there are two data points it's i mean i don't know yeah is chuck shumer still going to be majority leader if they win the senate i don't know but like the fact that they were willing to shut down the government over ice killings and obama care subsidy is expiring to me says they have some fight in them and they're going to have to get their shit together if they want to win the presidency in 2028 and show that they have

41:41some gumption so like if to elita or tomas retirees or dies or someone dies they should keep that seat open right and it can be a five three majority obviously yeah but i want to know like so same right no they shouldn't confirm i mean listen i i'm someone that thinks that like after they started slaughtering americans in the streets and the fact that they're trying to destroy black and brown lives across the country is reading it reason enough to hold all funding up like the sins being done in our name are like far exceed whatever the sort of normal parliamentary procedure for federal funding is so yeah i mean i take a more i think radical view on all of this but yeah i mean this is an unlawful administration that has no business appointing anyone who's supposed to oversee the judicial branch i'm not yet i i i i think that that's what they're going to be we'll it'll be something we'll monitor closely today's episode is brought to you by apple ads ads on

42:42apple maps are changing the way local businesses get discovered reach customers when it counts right when they turn i'm looking into i'm going there in decision making mode actively searching for businesses like yours and deciding where to go customers can easily call you visit and more from the same place they're viewing your ad and all of this happens on apple maps a privacy first environment that respects customers and helps them discover new places get started with ads on apple maps today and for a limited time receive 15% credit back on your monthly ads been for a year up to $1,000 per month terms apply head to ads dot apple dot com slash maps to get started try business like never before with ads on apple maps this episode sponsored by marathon sports runners know the feeling that moment when the

43:43shoe disappears your stride feels smooth your breathing settles in and the run just clicks that's what marathon sports has been helping runners find for over 50 years at marathon sports their expert team uses the right fit process to match you with shoes and gear built for the way your body actually moves no guesswork no generic recommendations just real guidance from people who live and breathe running whether you're training for your next marathon getting back into running or chasing a better everyday run marathon sports helps you find what works for you visit marathon sports dot com or stop into a marathon sports store today and experience the difference the right fit can make gives the elevator pitch for the block then i've got a couple of things I want to challenge you know so i am in sense obviously by the injustice of the judicial branch and i wanted to get at the sort of origin story of how it became such a partisan battlefield and specifically how the right launched a heist to take the supreme court that we are now you know a

44:48stolen court that we are now living in i say stolen because it's so at odds with american public opinion and the direction i think most americans want the country to go in and they're unanswered they answered to no one i get shit from this for my former public it i not anymore but like i i i because i was saying this a couple years ago when i was you know still you know i had like the normal republicans would quote tweet me and dunk on me and go try to go back and they've all i'm the lost caused everybody now so they don't nobody notices their carousel and i say show like this but i they literally stole a seat yeah like if you look at garland versus ginsburg and like it was the same situation it was actually a worse situation i was like much closer to the election yes ginsburg died they they replaced one they didn't replace the other like it should be fire it just should be five four like that's period and can i just say who did Obama nominate to fill Scalia see their garland maric garland a member of the federalist society and a republican as a hat tip yeah right to fucking republicans so like don't at me that

45:53this is a dual like you know bastardization of the independence of the judicial branch like conservatives have been much more cutthroat about making ensuring their justice is passed a conservative litmus test so the book really traces the origin of these essential organizations who help shape this moment and this court including the birth of the federalist society the birth of the moral majority the birth of the heritage foundation and it tells that story through the the plot of four henchmen of the apocalypse a robberbork edmys paul wirak and joe corps who together function as a kind of cracker jack squad that launches a strategy to make the court in conservative image and to launch a legal theory by which they can unwind decades of social and civil rights progress with the deep pockets of joe corps and others who make it all possible it's really a heist story Tim i like heist movies it's a new york times bestseller can you guys really do it someone told me it's like a beach read for politics like it's a readable story it's not you'll

46:58you'll laugh you'll cry it's prepulsive wait i do like i do like emotional i'm not being on an emotional journey when thinking about the downfall of our republic because i grew up in republican circles i know quite a bit about me sin wirik and bork those who don't should purchase the book and they can learn more i want to talk a little bit more about joe corps because he's fellow collar rodden i've drank their beer a few times peat cores is that nef in eff you son he is the i believe the nephew of joe joe jeff so i got to know him a little bit he ran a horrific campaign for senate god 20 years ago now probably there are other cores kind of doubtting around but i i just couldn't pull from my memory like exactly what joe's role in all this was so why don't you just impart a little bit of knowledge on us on that joe and bill cores are both about racists paranoid conspiracists who believe zip codes are an insidious government plot they are so racist i'm intrigued by that theory well i i mean it's the only thing he was right on

48:00but they enclosed literature from the racist john birch society along with cores employee paychecks in the 1960s they are very anti civil rights they say explicitly if the civil rights act passes we're going to have to fire a bunch of you and hire blacks in your place like explicitly racist courses radicalized in the 60s by both civil rights progress and by what he sees happening in neighboring california with student protests and sit-ins and burglary and he thinks academia has become liberal his liberalism run him up something needs to be done to stop these professors and their long-haired students from destroying the american legacy um and so he takes the money that he's made from cores beer and he starts funneling it into conservative causes and one of the causes he funnels it into is a nascent organization created by paul wirak who is not a household name but is really really should be and he's a brilliant mastermind of the right he's starting he wants to start a think tank that will answer the think tanks on the left and help holds squish conservatives

49:03into to account once they get elected and he comes up with the name for this organization and it's called the heritage foundation and heritage not hate yeah you know and so she's the money man behind me and he funds other organizations but he's a key player to in getting these things off the ground and why rick and course work in tandem a lot and together help you know create the modern day arch conservative movement within the republican party all right so you went back and learned all this you learned all the dirty tricks it took a long time i know and you know it's kind of like an ocean 13 type things we should go should go read it and it will be made into a movie jesse isenberg i mean people say that's i'm manifesting i think it should be you could who listen or he thinks jesse isenberg could play paul wirak paul rick is so ugly paul rick looks like he's doing it's more beautiful everyone's more beautiful on screen than they are in place okay paul jiamati to play paul jiamati could play i don't think no ed me needs to be

50:13played by philipsy morhoffman russin piece all right he forget what ed me looks like oh yeah that's right i'm gonna be mr. potato head blonde from oakland but with a real punitive streak yeah ed me says kind of a he's still a lot of a face is he? yes in fact he was one of the signers to the amicus brief filed with aileen canon that said that the special counsel jack smith had no business taking trump to court for the marilago documents scandal which she listened to and dismissed the case still messing with our lives love that love that he's still around ed mees our reports dead sorry still messing with our lives rob i'm talking we'll keep it in ed mees bob borx dead to thousand four is also still mess he's also a really hit at paul jiamati could definitely play

51:14bold y rick and he can play paul jiamati could play yeah come like when ed he plays like multiple like the nadi professor when he plays like multiple characters for marten short like doesn't marten short yeah different characters okay here's a big question that you got though which is like all right democrats now what all right so they got behind the ball there's going to be a lot of proposals out there a lot of this stuff is a little bit of we're in dream land but like what is realistic like what dream i guess what it's a realistic dream dream with me but don't be crazy dream on the and the vis-a-vis the courts or just general before i thought yeah spring court i think they got a really look i mean i am old enough it's hard to for it to not be in law i'll land but do you remember when rick parry was in favor of supreme court like term limits do you remember that you probably don't i remember it was like the one good idea rick parry ever had i don't remember that i was like a john huntsman idea that a rick parry idea a rick parry idea pretty positive was a rick parry idea i like it the idea that the course

52:18of american history is being dictated by the planking routine of some octogenarians is not with the founding fathers imagined right this is my this was my problem with rbg hey geography like we should not be worried about the health of old i mean we should be worried about the health of our elders period but like the aging process should not have a direct impact on the course of this country and that is who it is the worst kind of gerontocracy ever something needs to be done i think that they should really look at court expansion i mean they stole a seat so take two more what's good for the goose is good for the gander kind of two geese i don't know i mean i just think we're living in desperate times like they're doing things that are at odds with like wildly at odds with both the health and safety and desires of the american public yeah i don't know i sound one of my buddies today is like little non-political and um i understand this feeling right the feeling that people for people who don't like listen to our podcasts and aren't like

53:19fully consumed in all the details and the back and forth and and don't know the history of unfit foul play right there's like it i think that there's a tiredness now from some people and this is what Biden tapped into in 2020 right those is tiredness so it was like hey yeah let's restore this all the american right and and i think that i get that i get why people want that but it's just like that's just not what we are like there has to be recompense like there is does like i just don't i don't i don't see any other way the the worry then is that it's an endless cycle and that we know we're just kind of punching each other as we decline the american republic and this is a nice way to end the friday podcast or the bullwork but you have any do you have any thoughts on that yeah i was i would just say if it's just for partisan gain then yeah i will be in on it and some of it will be partisan punchback but some of it should just be shoring up the institutions to make their stront them strong enough so that it's not just norm and protocol and tradition that determine whether our democracy survives just the light times on this friday do anything else

54:24we're going to talk about our sex podcast that we're going to launch in uh January of 2027 nine seven sex podcast yeah i guess email the email the email list i want to see what kind of questions is that like a doctor drew thing or is that are we what are we doing is that okay how many times do i have to pitch this to you we are looking at american life through the lens of sex which is very it is the thing that animates i mean it animates arguably the entire like manosphere it argue it it animates like what's happening down in texas both taxed and anteloreco it animates what's happening in in alaska with marie peltola gender is a you know gender and sex are forever comengal like it is like i would argue the animating force in american life right now and that's so it's not like and then you know whatever no nobody has to talk about like reverse cowgirl if they don't want to oh i mean people do want that well maybe there will be time for that but it doesn't have to be an ex-rated podcast it's just gonna be a different way in a portal in to all

55:28the stuff that's happening i think it your husband will be fine with it you know i know but if i want it to be good you know and for to be good well it can be juicy too can it be good that i forget to get people to want to listen we can talk about Lindsey clancy as well i don't know anything about that what i just every once in a while don't you see a new thing that comes by that you're just like i'm checking out of this one and i just like a mom that killed their kids it was too depressing it's very depressing and i read like one tweet about it and then i just i i do have an ability i learned when trouble in the first time i went and got a yoga practice going in oakland yoga law this does not track trina i did and one of the things might might whatever you call it yoga teacher uh jimila on the weekends one thing she taught me was kind of the ability you know kind of an extra layer of compartmentalization of the of your site in the air that's not what yoga teaches are supposed to teach you okay well this was it was a little it's a little bit of a little yoga class and um and i got very good at blocking out certain sounds like should we

56:31like we would do the breathing the exercises but it was like don't listen you know stop hearing the air conditioner or the bird or the taunting and so i learned how to do that and i and i've incorporated it into my news consumption life where everyone's like i'll see a word like clancy and my brain just does it i afraid just shuts it off it's just like i see nothing on this and i just keep on moving so i really i don't even know what happened the kids died and she got off it's all i guess well it's yeah it was a bit declared a mistrial but it just raises there's deep gender divide over whether or not a woman would do this because she had severe postpartum depression or whether she's a murderous villain yeah yeah i'm i'm sitting now and out yeah i think uh i think maybe i mean i don't know that lindsay clancy fits in with sex but gender is part of it but also you know we could also just talk about ken pakson's wife divorcing him on biblical grounds and what that really might mean ken pakson and and blend in with the side piece i'm just saying there's stuff to talk about what's happening why is why is balkyrie mullen roaming with uh jason wants his name from

57:32al-khoma has obviously i mean i mean like someone who posted john awhsuff and asked if he had bde and he was like what my brother and some of the khaosha john a josh holly and asked him about karlas the busboy so let's talk about okay we'll talk about it we'll think about it we'll learn more we're brain storming we're brain storming jvl would be very jealous if we did it together i guess the one thing so we might have to have a rotating center house the jvl's wife might okay whatever my we're ending the show now what i see i told you i told you this podcast is gonna get me into trouble okay that's Alex Wagner everybody have a great weekend as great as possible i'm gonna be in a high let's out come say hey if you're in date and and that we'll see all back on monday thanks Alex everybody thanks dendra oh

58:34the bullwork dailies brought to you thanks to the work of lead producer kady kuper associate producer ansley skipper and with video editing by dante de cico and audio engineering and editing by jason bros taps was built for finance teams managing complex b2b revenue if your month end still depends on spreadsheets manual billing adjustments or disconnected tools you are not alone taps automates billing revenue recognition and collections in one a i powered platform built for accuracy and control so finance can spend less time reconciling revenue and more time driving the business forward visit taps dot com to learn more yes is angus marksamus this partner has one part of a pound of hot choosing cook to honor angus feet it's more faith in a quarter pounder the battle of clows and for only five ninety nine even regular juice can afford it like that guy give me that big old burger yeah the whole angus marks on us only five ninety nine is

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