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00:02Thanks for joining us for Political Talk on another Politipod Live.
00:06Tonight we'll cover Orban's a Loser, the 25th Amendment, Creep's Gonna Creep, and a regular Trumpdom.
00:15We'll also have our segments Economy and GeoQuiz.
00:22I'm Tom Bickel.
00:23I'm Hannah Soldner.
00:25And I'm Matt Nissenhoff.
00:29Tonight we'll start with Orban's a Loser.
00:36Looks that way. Looks like the Hungarians have had their say.
00:41And even though it took 16 years, they indeed have finally said that this guy's gotta go.
00:47He lost the presidential vote to Pete Megyar.
00:53I believe I'm pronouncing that wrong.
00:55And that's the fella on top there.
01:00And, of course, some say what sealed his fate, what sealed Orban's fate, was that just before the election, J
01:08.D. Vance was sent over.
01:10Oh, the kiss of death.
01:13Joined a rally.
01:15And took care of that problem for us.
01:19So, I don't know.
01:19Maybe we owe J.D. Vance a vote of confidence.
01:26So, finally, I mentioned it took 16 years, but finally the fascists got screwed.
01:31And now we'll see what actually happens.
01:33Because I don't, I understand Orban conceded.
01:38So, that's a very positive step that he recognized that he lost and he recognized people's choice.
01:45And now we'll have to see exactly what form does that take?
01:51What form does his concession take?
01:53And what does he do next?
01:55He will probably wind up in the U.S. cabinet.
01:58I don't know.
01:59What do you guys think?
02:03You know, I do want to go back and note that J.D. Vance, I told my friend this recently,
02:09appears to be the typhoid Mary of losers right now.
02:13He's just sort of passing around loserdom.
02:17Though I will say I thought Orban was a loser far before he lost.
02:22No, I mean, I think it's good.
02:24He lost in a landslide.
02:25I think it's worth noting.
02:26And, you know, I think that in the past, I'm not going to put a year on this because it's
02:32too depressing the longer I think about it.
02:33But I feel like there's been growing energy of people being fatalistic about voting.
02:38You know, and they've been like, what, you know, does it really matter?
02:41And, you know, I do understand, you know, that when it's become kind of the only mantra that the sort
02:49of, you know, in our country's case, the Democrats kind of have in many ways, that it can feel a
02:54little bit like you got to have more than that.
02:56But it is also super important.
02:58I mean, to see somebody, you know, he might not have even conceded had it not been a landslide.
03:02And, you know, you see these, you know, autocrats or whatever, they make sure they're like falsified elections.
03:10They always win by some absurd landslide.
03:12So it still means something.
03:14It's not nothing.
03:16Yeah, and actually it's more important.
03:18Yeah, I agree with you 110% on that, that it is the thing that actually works.
03:23And it is frustrating because we have to wait for an election.
03:27And then you got to make certain that people remember that there's an election and remember to bother themselves to
03:33go vote without realizing that, without their realizing how important it is.
03:38And that it actually does, it's that, that's the, that's the place that we actually have a voice.
03:44And during the, in between those elections, politicians can, frankly, ignore you.
03:52They cannot, you know, they, they can just move right through and do their own thing.
03:56And there are some that do, there are some that are good and will be responsive, but they don't have
04:02to be.
04:04The thing that matters, the bottom line is, the thing that matters is when the election rolls around.
04:09And is there somebody there to actually vote?
04:14Because that's the, taking away their job seems to be the thing that catches their attention.
04:25So, yeah, I mean, I, I guess a lot of folks, I guess they had a nice high voter turnout,
04:30which has been this country's Achilles heel for so many years.
04:35We had more people, as I, I'm not sure, but as I recall, the people who didn't vote outvoted the
04:43people who did vote in our last election.
04:45And that's a trend we've seen just every year, it seems like fewer and fewer people vote.
04:51And then, so we, we look upwards and we plead to the heavens, you know, oh Lord, just send us
04:56more voters.
04:57Let's get people more involved.
04:58And then you have the Trumpers.
05:01And we went, wait, no, not like that.
05:04But that's how it is.
05:06When you pull more people in, you never know what you're going to get.
05:08But sometimes, well, that's true, but you've got to actually get them in.
05:12The bigger, I think your point is that the larger group, subgroup was people who didn't vote.
05:18And that is true all the time in the U.S.
05:21It's true.
05:22I think Hannah mentioned in a previous episode how there are places like Australia where voting is actually mandatory.
05:29You actually get a small, but you get, you get a fine if you don't actually vote.
05:36And that is another way to encourage participation.
05:41But it's, people don't always recognize how powerful it is and that it's, and they, and they, you know, they
05:51say, oh, it doesn't make a difference.
05:53The two parties aren't, you know, are the same and all that kind of nonsense that gets out, put out
05:58there to help dissuade people from voting.
06:01Absolutely.
06:02In this country, we are working to keep our citizens from voting.
06:05Really hard.
06:06Exactly.
06:07If it didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so desperately hard to restrict voting and to prevent people from voting
06:14tooth and nail.
06:17Yeah.
06:17And places have, you know, national holidays and all, you know, they also do, back to Australia, just because one
06:25of my best friends lives there.
06:26They have, they do like cookouts there.
06:30So it's like show up to vote and you'll get like a, like a sausage and like a soda and
06:34like whatever.
06:35And like, you know, that kind of stuff, like it works.
06:39And it's, you know, it's one of the reasons why some states here have banned like giving water to people
06:43online or whatever.
06:45You know, and especially like as a holiday, it might be a little bit different as a Sunday, but I
06:50feel like as a holiday, there is a certain like pressure to do the, whatever the holiday thing is.
06:56It's, you know, like, you know, just be like, yeah, it's the 4th of July.
07:01I have the day off, but I might as well, you know, whatever.
07:04Have a barbecue.
07:06Yeah.
07:08Yeah.
07:09And so I feel like, or, you know, if it's, you know, whatever, it doesn't matter.
07:15It doesn't matter.
07:15But yeah, so the idea is like, there's this, it's, it's made harder for all these like unnecessary reasons.
07:27I do want to, though, we can talk more about voting if we want, but I do want to talk
07:32with Orban.
07:34You know, I don't know what will happen with this, but it's not inconsequential that there's been a satellite CPAP
07:39in Hungary every year.
07:41CPAC, sorry.
07:42Hopefully CPAPs too.
07:43I have a CPAP.
07:44But a CPAC, you know, and so I don't know if the new chief executive will ban that or, or
07:53not.
07:53But I feel like even, you know, that idea of, you know, we're less like chummy chummy, especially because a
07:59lot of authoritarians kind of rely on being seen as normal and average.
08:05And it's pretty abnormal to have another country's, you know, there's obviously, of course, like local, you know.
08:14Right-wing people.
08:15Right-wing people as well, but like having another country's like festival or whatever, it seems a little weird.
08:21So hopefully like that, that will be stymied to some degree.
08:28We'll see.
08:29I mean, that is a thing.
08:31And I think actually it's been sort of part of what the planning all along, if you will, that, that
08:38they do that in that, that the conservatives focused on the Supreme Court for a long time to see what
08:45they could do about winning majority there.
08:47And that culminated in Mitch McConnell and twisting some of the seats into Republican conservatives' hands, just like they focused
08:57in, my opinion is, they focused in different states on different issues to see how they can work the issue.
09:06Like Virginia, for decades was a big thing about taxes and paying taxes and that was the conservative messaging and
09:16every Republican messaging in almost every election.
09:19So it was working with the population and trying to see what issues were soft enough.
09:29And I think they've just done that on the international.
09:31I think they did it with Israel.
09:32I think they did it with Hungary.
09:33I think that there are other, you know, from their point of view, opportunities where they can go to the
09:40international community and say, hey, look, we'll bring in consultants and we'll help you with your PR.
09:49And, you know, we're the mighty America and we can come in and we can help you out with organizing
09:55and help you with what you're doing to organize.
09:59And they've been effective in some places and Hungary is one of them, but there's a, there's a backlash.
10:07And in this case, it worked out so that it's in the hands of this Mr. Magyar.
10:15And we're going to have to see what he does and how he does it.
10:18We're going to have to watch him real carefully because the, depending on what he does, there could be a
10:24backlash to that.
10:25And right now the system is sort of geared to include conservatives.
10:30So that, that's, that's, he's got a, he's got a big job in front of him.
10:36Speaking of big jobs in front of us, I'm thinking we should move to our next issue.
10:43Was that smooth enough?
10:44Did that go nicely?
10:45Okay.
10:46Uh, the next issue on our, uh, agenda tonight is the, talking about the 25th amendment and looks like it's
10:57not just for conspiracy nuts anymore.
11:00There's, there's suggestions about the, using the 25th amendment, uh, have increased.
11:07And, uh, uh, and, and it's been noted that even conservatives are now getting on board with the idea and
11:15doesn't, it, it's not exactly clear where it's coming from.
11:18We'll, you know, in 30 years when we are able to access people's records, we'll find out a whole lot
11:23more, I think.
11:24And we'll see what, uh, what the truth of it was, but right now, all we can see is that
11:31there are conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene and, uh, Tucker Carlson and, um, some of the, uh, some other prominent
11:42conservative activists who are now saying, wow, we should, we, it's time to invoke the 25th amendment.
11:49And it seems to be what, um, what has triggered that was the meme of Trump, uh, putting himself in
12:01the image of Jesus, uh, I think it's Jesus of Nazareth.
12:06If you're looking at which Jesus and, uh, also the assault on the Pope, where he tweeted out about how
12:16the Pope is weak.
12:18And praise be to Allah, and all this, the sort of things that you wouldn't, uh, expect from somebody who
12:26is the president of the United States.
12:29Um, what do you think?
12:34Um, you know, it's interesting.
12:36We were talking a little bit, was it last week?
12:38We were talking a little bit about some similar invoking of some of this from like, uh, Alex Jones and
12:45people like that.
12:46Um, and so, you know, it is an interesting, um, growing little chorus of people, you know, and of course
12:54there's also a bunch of Democrats as well doing the same, um, unsurprisingly.
13:00Um, but, um, there's something you said that I was going to respond to directly, but I'm not recalling what
13:10it was.
13:10Um, but yeah, it does seem to be like, uh, um, there are some people on the conservative side that
13:23do seem to have some, are true believers in something, you know?
13:29So, and Green was having similar things about the Epstein list, you know, like her faith and her, uh, anti
13:37-pedophile beliefs, shouldn't be remarkable.
13:40Apparently they, they are real.
13:42She does believe those things.
13:44Um, you know, as opposed to J.D. Vance, who today or yesterday was telling the Pope that he has
13:50to be, should be more careful when he's like quoting theology or whatever.
13:53Um, Vance, who is a Catholic, by the way, um, so not just a Christian, but specifically a Catholic.
14:01Um, but yeah, I think that this, uh, this does seem to be a red line for some people.
14:10And I think that, you know, we've been through a lot of heartbreak and nothing burgers, um, over the past,
14:20uh, 10 years.
14:21But I do think, like, some of this does seem to be gaining a little steam.
14:29Or at least it, hopefully it makes it a little bit harder for Trump to say whatever he wants.
14:36I mean, I think he's taken back, taken down the, um, truth of him, uh, as Jesus.
14:43Uh, I think I heard that.
14:45And so, you know, there is some, some of the blowback does work.
14:49Yeah, what restraint.
14:51Wow.
14:52I know.
14:53Yeah, it's, yeah, there's, there's a lot to it.
14:57There is, as you mentioned, um, ranking member Jamie Raskin, um, is calling for the White House position to check
15:08out Trump and see if there's a way to invoke the 25th Amendment,
15:11amendment, which, of course, requires the Vice President and the Cabinet to invoke.
15:19So that may be why there's a call for, in Raskin's call, is saying, you know, put together some kind
15:27of a committee to look at this and have J.D. Vance lead the committee,
15:32because that's the, the requirement for invoking the 25th, as I understand it.
15:38Tom, anything on the 25th Amendment?
15:40I mean, yeah, a few things.
15:42Um, I have said it for years.
15:44When Trump goes crazy, how will we know?
15:47He, he's, he runs around like a head trauma victim from the word go.
15:52He doesn't make any sense.
15:54He doesn't know anything.
15:55He, even when he knows the right, when he knows the truth of something, he lies anyway, just for practice,
16:01I guess.
16:03He's antisocial.
16:04He doesn't, again, he's not tied to, not only is he uninformed, he's also stupid, and it just makes him
16:12profoundly untied to reality.
16:17Um, and so he's, he's not doing well, but when has he, when has he been or done well?
16:23Uh, at best, he, you know, you're lucky he's just not running around taking bites out of people and wiping
16:28boogers on the wall.
16:30In my opinion, that's the type of sociopathy that he's shown from the start.
16:36And so, yeah, now he's, he's always been jealous of the spotlight.
16:41Anybody that gets too close to the limelight, looks too good, sounds a little, comes off too well in the
16:46news, he kneecaps him.
16:47He, he was jealous of, uh, Fauci.
16:52Jealous of JD.
16:54He's using JD as his own personal mop.
16:57He's just rubbing him from one, rubbing him in one dirty pile of crap to another, just dirtying this guy
17:04up.
17:04Uh, I have no sympathy for him, but he's sending him on these kamikaze missions.
17:09And he, you know, he crashes and burns and he comes back and he does it again.
17:15Well, for JD, I mean, look, you kill one Pope.
17:19Right.
17:20And then people call you the Pope killer.
17:22It's really unfair.
17:22Uh, but yeah, there's, he's, he's leapfrogged from several lily pads over the last six months and just done left.
17:32Uh, some of it, you can't necessarily hang on him.
17:34The Pope wasn't looking too good anyway.
17:36But, uh, after a while they start to add up and Trump sends them into these nightmare scenarios.
17:42Again, because I think he's, uh, jealous of the spotlight and doesn't want anybody else to look off, come off
17:49looking too good.
17:49He knows he's swirling the drain and that, uh, JD Vance ready to take the baton from him.
17:55And he'd rather hit him across the snout with it than hand it off.
17:59That's what happens when you deal with snakes, you know, when you deal with vipers, you're going to get bit.
18:04And I don't feel I, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, either of them, but I, and I
18:11don't really understand.
18:11I've, we have all watched a gas, a God eyes wide open as this person has paraded cruelty up and
18:21down our national election system and just been the worst possible version of himself.
18:26And for years they have swallowed it, they've swallowed it whole, they don't chew, they just take it in and
18:33they love it because we're all just bleeding from the eyes and they go, ha ha, you're triggered.
18:39I don't know why now, why, what is the difference now?
18:43What is in the air and now that wasn't before?
18:47Is it the destruction of the country?
18:49We've seen it coming.
18:50We've watched it happen.
18:52Is it the abrogation of our rights?
18:54Again, nothing new.
18:55It's gotten worse, but they've slept through this, all this and more.
19:01They've slept through much louder problems.
19:04These deadhead Americans that are finally coming around, I guess the Joe Rogans of us, of it all.
19:11I don't understand what the trigger is.
19:15He's a lying, cheating, raping pedophile.
19:19And those are his good qualities.
19:21And now, now you're starting, well, a picture of God.
19:24I mean, that's too much.
19:27Well, right.
19:28That's the stupidest thing in the world.
19:30And it sounds like a lot of us here in this country, but he's already, he's already posted pictures of
19:35himself as the Pope.
19:36And, you know, other things descending from heaven just to jazz up.
19:41I don't know who he's trying to, who he's trying to irritate with that.
19:45He's already done these things.
19:47It's mixed.
19:48It's baked in, baby.
19:50It's in the batter.
19:51You're eating, you're soaking in it.
19:53Like Palmolive.
19:54I don't understand the change.
19:57I don't understand.
19:58It could be the conservatives just trying to show their support for J.D. Vance to move in to the,
20:04you know, to finally move somebody into the next slot.
20:07As you say, he usually is very competent at cutting him off at the knees whenever anybody else gets any
20:13sort of limelight.
20:14Or if he feels that they're getting enough so that it's, it could be one up on him, that his
20:20response is to kneecap him and to go after him.
20:23But this might be the big push by the conservatives to try to get J.D. Vance the nomination for
20:31the Republicans for the next presidential.
20:35This could be the start of that.
20:37And this is the way to, or they feel that this is the way to do it.
20:40But as you're saying, all it will take is for Trump to feel the slightest bit, you know, jealous or
20:49whatever it is that's his trigger.
20:51And he'll go after J.D. in a heartbeat.
20:54I mean, he'll, he'll just, he'll, he'll take that guy apart like, like he went after John McCain or like
21:01he went after Jeff Flake, I think was the other senator in Arizona.
21:07Everybody can get it.
21:09Everybody can get it.
21:11The only thing I can think of is that somehow, somewhere, something has shifted where they've, maybe they've redone the
21:17math and they know that he's too old to run for a third term.
21:22So we're already in lame duck territory.
21:26And the pesky little details like the Constitution.
21:29Sure.
21:30I mean, no, they gave up on that.
21:31That doesn't matter.
21:32That's just paper.
21:33The 14th Amendment.
21:35We've already been through that.
21:36The Constitution means whatever they say it means at the time they say it, no matter what they said three
21:41years ago, three months ago, three minutes ago.
21:43I don't think they're worried about the Constitution.
21:46I think that they're worried that they're going to get swamped in the midterms and not going to get anything
21:50more out of this guy.
21:53And he's not going to live free long enough for that third term.
21:59Again, Constitution be damned.
22:01If they could do it, they would.
22:02I think they calculated that they can't, they've gotten every, most of the blood they're going to squeeze out of
22:07this stone.
22:09And so they're gearing up to cut him loose and, you know, pretend that they never met him.
22:18And they're just as aghast as you and I are.
22:23I don't know if it's how that's going to work, but I've watched this country do more clueless things without
22:29breaking stride.
22:30So I mean, I think to put on my cynic hat, like that would be, that would be the ideal,
22:37right?
22:38For them.
22:39Because you can kick Trump out and be like, that guy was crazy and we've done this, but also we're
22:45going to keep all these people in the Supreme Court and all these laws passed and all this whatever.
22:50You know, the problem is, is if he goes too far, there could be some potential leeway for, you know,
22:57a liberal party to come back and be like, hey, we're just going to strike everything that was done under
23:02this guy.
23:03You know, we're going to strike him from the record books.
23:05This is our reason to impeach his judges.
23:07This is our reason to, you know, whatever, whatever.
23:12We should have a plan.
23:13We should have a plan to set everything right, shore up the traditions and institutions that are supposed to safeguard
23:21this frickin' country.
23:22And we should have a plan for revenge for everybody who helped bring us this low.
23:28We should definitely, there should be definitely legal consequences that affect people's lives.
23:33No more of this, oh, we don't prosecute presidents.
23:36Oh, it's too close to an election.
23:38We don't do that.
23:39No, we should do it all.
23:40We should do it with vigor.
23:43We should have a plan.
23:45I don't see anybody tallying up a plan of how to strengthen the Constitution and the institutions that have failed,
23:51how to bolster Congress.
23:55This Congress could change this at a moment's whim.
23:58Anytime they can yank on the leash on this guy, and they're not.
24:01We should have better thinking around that.
24:05By the time we get the whip hand is ours again, we should have a plan and hit it hard
24:12because the opportunity when that comes is going to be a limited time only thing.
24:18There's going to be a rush and a flush of euphoria that we've got some control back and some sanity.
24:24God willing, it comes to pass.
24:26But we should be prepared to take that opportunity because it's not going to last forever.
24:33We'll see.
24:33I mean, as you point out, sometimes the opposition is not actually opposition.
24:37And the Democrats did have a period where they were in control after the first Trump administration.
24:44And they kept a lot of this stuff in place.
24:47They squandered a lot of opposition.
24:49The Biden administration continued a number of things.
24:52The Trump administration started based on the argument of, no, we can't just go in and change things.
24:57That's too radical.
24:58And we've got to work with what we got.
25:01So that's a, I agree with you a hundred percent that the truth of the matter is we need to
25:08have something that we'll be willing to overturn and go after and correct what has happened.
25:15This is an opportunity for course correction on a wide ranging fundamental level and we'd be fools to squander it.
25:23Oh, I agree.
25:24I'm just saying if I was some sort of Republican strategist, my main strategy would be how do I drop
25:30all this in Trump's lap, push him out and be like, that guy did everything bad.
25:35Let's not ignore everything he actually did and just we'll be like, not that guy.
25:40So, I mean, that would be my main strategy is how do we carry on his work or let's not
25:46lose any ground by blaming everything on him or something, you know?
25:51So I imagine that that's a major thing that the GOP strategists are thinking right now.
25:55The Republicans have been doing that for decades.
25:59Yeah.
26:00And maybe that's part of why this turn.
26:02Why now?
26:02Yeah.
26:03Yeah, absolutely.
26:04Yeah, absolutely right.
26:05Maybe that's the, Tom, there's your answer as to why now, because they're gearing up for the regular change of
26:12changing of the guard.
26:13And they want to be able to distance themselves from all the things that they considered gains, but now want
26:22to distance themselves from for electoral reasons.
26:26And the way to do that is to dump it all on Trump and then say, you know, hey, that
26:30guy's gone.
26:31Here's us.
26:32We're we're the new conservatives.
26:33We're the new, you know, whatever.
26:37And then and try to reset things so that they're able to keep power.
26:42But that's why we have elections.
26:46Let's I'm going to ask that we move on from here, although this is clearly an issue that we should
26:51continue and also remember to bring up or that we will bring up in future episodes to revisit, because clearly
27:02it's something that we all we all have thoughts on and that we all have more to say.
27:07OK, but for now, we're going to move on to our next segment, which is called the GEO quiz, and
27:16it may not be a big, long time or not be may not be the biggest issue, but we do
27:23want to mention it at least.
27:25And that is with all that's going on at the Straits of Hormuz, with Trump having handed the power to
27:33the Iranians to use it as a choking point so that they can now charge a toll so that they
27:42can get money from ships that they weren't before.
27:45And with all the blocking of certain ships from leaving, the ones heading for China with Iranian oil seem to
27:54be going through quite well.
27:55Thank you very much.
27:56But there are others and they are getting backed up and it is causing an issue because of what happens
28:03when you all of a sudden have whatever, 500, 3000, whatever, how many, however many ships get backed up.
28:11How do you handle that? And how do you get everybody through?
28:16How do you, you know, what's the consequences of all that?
28:23And one of them is that there's another choke point and people haven't been talking about it.
28:30And that is the Straits of Hormuz are part of the Persian Gulf.
28:35And so the eastern side of Saudi Arabia, between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and then if ships are able to
28:44get through the Straits of Hormuz, then the question is, where do they go next?
28:47And the next point is on the western side of Saudi Arabia, down where the choking point is down where
28:55Djibouti in Africa is across from Saudi Arabia.
29:00And that's an area called Bab-Mandeb Straits.
29:08And there's talk about the Hutu being able to access that as a choke point.
29:16And now that they've seen that the Iranians have been able to use it to get money, that maybe they'll
29:24use it as a choke point as well.
29:26But then the question is, where does that access?
29:29And where it accesses is the Red Sea up to between where Africa and the Middle East are.
29:36So what we would call the Suez Canal between Egypt and it's all part of Egypt now.
29:46And the thing about the Suez Canal is that it's just a canal.
29:51So ships would have to, if there were ships that tried to use this access, then there would be a
29:57problem with their weight.
30:00They'd have to lose weight to be able to get through the Suez Canal compared to when they're weighed down
30:09with a full load of oil.
30:10So how does that affect trade?
30:14How does that slow things down?
30:15How does that, you know, how do you handle that as well?
30:19So there's a bunch more questions that come up.
30:22And part of that is, will Bab-Mandeb Straits be the next Straits of Hormuz?
30:37Yeah, it might help if you're watching this to look up a picture of what Africa and sort of the
30:42Middle East look like, South Asia look like.
30:46But yeah, like it's obviously like Africa is a massive country to go around another direct country.
30:52Oh my God, continents.
30:53It's 54 countries.
30:54It's a massive continent of 54 countries.
30:59Going around it is not some simple thing.
31:04And, you know, there's so much of this, so much infrastructure is built around this whole system of like where
31:15things go.
31:15And I would imagine, I don't really know, I didn't look this up, but I would imagine that unless you're
31:20just taking one thing to one country, like, you know, we're taking oil here.
31:23You know, there might be like, you come here and pick up this thing and take it here.
31:28And now the path might not make sense anymore.
31:30This stuff that's been refined over however many years or decades.
31:37So, and yeah, like there's, there's already been sort of this threatening of this street being closed previously.
31:54And, yeah, and so it's not some kind of, you know, and Matt, to your point, yeah, like if you
31:59have, if anything, we've kind of taught that we actually are not that good at pushing back on this kind
32:06of stuff.
32:06And if you just shut it down, then, you know, you can, you know, maybe get money out of us
32:14or out of whomever or work countries against each other or whatever, you know, and I feel like it ends
32:20up, it ends up making things worse.
32:25I actually, I saw somebody talking in an interview about somebody high up in the cabinet and they said, you
32:32know, they're asking them, what are the goals for the war?
32:35And they said, one of the primary goals is to open the Strait of Hormuz.
32:39And they were like, well, that is only a problem because of the war.
32:43You know, it's not like it's, you know, like it can't have been a goal of the war because it's
32:49only started because we did that.
32:51But yeah, so here's an example of where Djibouti is in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, I think.
33:00And this sort of like choke point right here in the sort of center of the map.
33:09It says, I think on this map, it says the word Asab, which is identifying part of the land, but
33:18it's actually just above what we're talking about, which is that little choke point that's created because of that land
33:26that's poking out from Yemen or from, well, just south of Saudi Arabia, as you were saying, Yemen.
33:34But that's that place where, because of it cutting down on the accesses, allows for a choke point, which is
33:47what we've just been talking about.
33:51And so the Red Sea is just off to the upper left of this map.
34:02Thank you for setting that all up, Tom.
34:05Thank you for getting that.
34:06Sure thing.
34:07Also, A plus button.
34:12Okay.
34:12So we're saying watch out for it.
34:15It hasn't happened yet, but it could be the next thing that becomes an issue because of the foolishness of
34:26Trump's folly, because of this whole thing that he started to try to distract from the Epstein files, that it's
34:36not only caused damage temporarily, it's caused damage that's going to last for a long time.
34:42And there'll be other issues that come up because of it.
34:48It's not just one thing where it's yes or no.
34:52It's not just the Straits of Hormuz and, you know, oh, we'll just reopen it and it will be great.
34:57And now he's using the U.S. Navy to force a blockade of the Straits of Hormuz himself.
35:07So that's only going to make things worse.
35:10And what do you have when you have, you know, it takes several, it takes a whole quarter of a
35:15day, quarter to a half of a day to get a ship to go through the Straits of Hormuz under
35:21the best conditions.
35:23And when you've blockaded several hundred or several thousand ships, what sort of a backlog does that create?
35:31And how much time does it take to straighten all that out?
35:34And frankly, we're going to find out because that's what's, that's where we are now.
35:39I also want to note, sometimes this is a little bit maybe heady to think about the geography.
35:46geography and you might not have thought about it since high school or something.
35:51And there's always that thing about like, you know, when will this ever become practical?
35:56Why do I have to learn it?
35:58And I just want to tell you, here comes my pessimistic thought.
36:01Take 30 minutes and learn about this waterways around South Asia and Africa,
36:06because they are going to probably become relevant every 10 years or so for the rest of your life.
36:14So just remember next time, hey, this is why we shouldn't do this.
36:18Apart from all the other reasons we shouldn't do this.
36:21Right.
36:22And as you pointed out earlier, to go under and around Africa, that's been known for two or three hundred
36:29years that that takes time.
36:31And that makes a lot of, that makes a lot of, it makes everything, that's the reason there is a
36:36Suez Canal.
36:37That's the reason why there's these other access points to move things north and south is because they figured out
36:44that having to go all the way down to go around takes time.
36:48That's why Columbus said sail.
36:55All right.
36:56Speaking of creeps, there, we're going to move on to our next issue, which is creeps going to creep.
37:04And this has come up because of recent information has come out about a number of different people.
37:10You see here, there's Kristi Noem, and we all know about her creeping in the plane with Corey Landowski.
37:19The guy in the middle there is Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez, who has finally filed to remove himself from, to
37:30resign from Congress.
37:31He was having an affair with one of his staff, and it, he became such a creep and such a
37:41constant stalker that the young lady actually committed suicide.
37:49And she was married to start with.
37:54And when she committed suicide and Gonzalez continued to deny that anything had happened, her husband got a hold of
38:04her texts and released them publicly.
38:06That's what kind of got his attention or got him to sort of consider what would happen next.
38:12And then even with Mike Johnson protecting him, he finally has had to resign because of what has come out.
38:19And then there's Eric Swalwell, Swalwell, Swalwell, Swalwell, Swalwell, yes, Swalwell.
38:28He's, he's a Democratic congressman, and he was in a run for governor in California.
38:36There's going to be a big election.
38:38The governor is going to change.
38:40And so it's a jungle primary there.
38:43So anyone who wants to run can run and they'll go through the, the first, first round of elections just
38:52to find two people who they can have then run against each other for the position.
38:56But he was very, he was running what seemed to be a very solid campaign.
39:02I mean, he was up there in the polls and looked like he had a real shot to move forward.
39:09And now that's stopped.
39:12He's stopped not only campaign, but resigned from Congress.
39:15Go ahead.
39:16This country does love its charismatic sociopaths.
39:22And elects them.
39:23I mean, it's, they kind of hone in on electing them.
39:26Do not let that person run for your local mayor anywhere in California.
39:31We just went through that here.
39:33Don't do it.
39:34Don't.
39:35I know you probably don't want to.
39:37We didn't want to anyway, either, but it might happen.
39:41You know, I read a, I read a pretty convincing account of analysis about what's going to happen to the
39:51California governor's race, because the way the primaries work, the top two vote getters go head to head.
39:58And if you take your best Democratic here to four best, best Democratic candidate out, the rest of the lineup
40:07from Democrats, they've had trouble finding a strong lead candidate.
40:14Everybody is sort of lost in the sauce of everyone else.
40:19So there's a weakness there.
40:21I guess, I guess we'll find out on June 2nd.
40:26Literally.
40:27Yeah.
40:27But it'd be a stone cold bummer to not have any Democrats running for the governor's office this year.
40:34I don't know if I could tolerate that.
40:36It certainly is a serious issue that it could wind up being two Republicans in the top two spots.
40:43And then that will be who the Californians have to choose from.
40:47But I also think that while that is, while that's a legitimate concern, I also think that in California, it
40:54might be a little, it might be a little easier to settle on a Democratic sort of front runner.
41:03And there's certainly time.
41:06In politics, a week is a long time.
41:09And you've got certainly more than a week till June 2nd.
41:13So I think that it might cause, there might be a bit of an infight, obviously, because everybody wants to
41:20be the one who winds up being the person, right?
41:23Right.
41:24But I think that in California, I think it's not difficult to believe that the Democrats will be able to
41:34figure something out.
41:38I must say, though, with that said, I can't name two other Democrats who were in the race.
41:44I mean, there was a congresswoman.
41:46Katie Porter.
41:47Katie Porter, right?
41:48She's in on it.
41:49I know that.
41:50And that's all I got.
41:53So it might be good.
41:54I'm not in California anymore.
41:56So if that excuses a little of my ignorance, so be it.
42:01Not every year, not in your face every day on the issue.
42:05We should, well, I don't know, maybe we should find a Californian and bring them in and see what they
42:10have to say for themselves.
42:13I'll work on that.
42:16All right.
42:17Well, and that's, but the serious issue is that this is, there's more of a loss of these people because
42:28of their own behavior and it catching up with them.
42:31And that's what it did with all three of these creeps.
42:37And so.
42:39And it's not partisan.
42:41Just don't be a creep anywhere on the political aisle.
42:44Right.
42:45Exactly.
42:46Also, not even outside of the political aisle.
42:48Just stop being creeps.
42:51It would be nice.
42:52It would be nice.
42:54So, and, and across the political spectrum and, and even across the gender spectrum, we've got a couple of creeps
42:59right there that prove it.
43:01Okay.
43:02We're going to, speaking of creeps, perhaps we should move on to our favorite creep.
43:08And that is moving on to our Trump dump.
43:16And there's so much.
43:17Now we'll look at only three or four of them, I think, but, yeah.
43:24It's always something.
43:24Yeah, exactly.
43:25As, as you mentioned earlier, Tom, there's, the, the, the case on this guy is every other day, something new.
43:34So, of course, we're talking about, we, we mentioned earlier, the, not only is there a blockade by the Iranians,
43:42but his response has been, well, if you're going to blockade, we're going to blockade.
43:46And he's now sent U.S. Navy ships to blockade three or four different ports.
43:52So that's, that is happening.
43:54That's not just something that he's talking about, like most times where he just blathers on about something, but he's
43:59actually done that.
44:02And what's going to happen with this and the results and what does that mean for other checkpoints?
44:08And then, and it is a fair point that, as I said earlier, with the ships in the Straits of
44:16Ramos, who is traveling through as the Chinese, the Chinese ships, the Iranians sell to China, sell oil to China.
44:25And that has not been blockaded.
44:27That has not been stopped.
44:29When is the first time that a U.S. Navy ship is going to try to muscle up on a,
44:33a Chinese bound oil ship?
44:36And what's going to happen with that?
44:38What, what, what result could come from getting China deeper into this whole war scenario?
44:47Yeah, I can call it now.
44:48Trump will drop a nuclear bomb on the U.S. mainland and declare victory in the war on China on
44:55the same day.
44:57Don't give him any ideas.
44:59Right.
45:02So, and also, as we all mentioned, he may be on his way out and he may have even figured
45:07that out, that he has to go.
45:09And, and, and, and he may be even, uh, resigning himself to that.
45:14And one sign of that, another sign of that, uh, other than the increased call for the 25th amendment.
45:20So they have something to blame it on, uh, is that apparently he has started to promise staff, uh, pardons
45:28in advance of leaving the administration because he knows that when he leaves, that there's going to have to be
45:34some accountability for things to happen.
45:36But he's starting to promise people, uh, presidential pardons, uh, in advance so that, uh, they will feel more comfortable
45:45leaving, which is, uh, just another outrage from him.
45:51Just another thing, uh, that is wrong.
45:56Also, the, his, uh, department of justice has a board that's looking at religious liberty and saying that Christians are
46:07being attacked by secular forces, whatever that means, uh, in the United States.
46:13Because if there's one, if there's one people who just don't have it good here, it's, uh, white, uh, Christians
46:23in America, uh, but apparently they're claiming that, uh, you know, the, the religion is under attack by the secular
46:31forces.
46:32Can you name a recent attack on someone's religious leader and who that was by?
46:40Uh, something does come to mind.
46:43It does sound familiar.
46:44It's ringing a bell for me.
46:46See if you can picture it.
46:50Try hard.
46:52Yeah.
46:52So the most recent attacks on religion has been Trump attacking the Pope is weak on crime.
46:57And not only is it ridiculous, but it is a solid talking point that he has used in, uh, in
47:05elections and he's had, uh, others use in their elections.
47:10So why not throw it at the Pope?
47:12See what if it sticks.
47:13But, uh, so the, the, the, the, the chiefest religious figure who's been attacked is the Pope by Donald Trump.
47:20And, uh, that just strikes me so odd.
47:23The Pope is weak on crime.
47:26It's like saying Braveheart didn't have enough car chases.
47:29It doesn't, it doesn't make any sense.
47:31I mean, it kind of like almost makes sense, but not.
47:35It's a weird schism of a thought.
47:39I don't know what he was trying to get at there.
47:40The Pope is not, none of, he's not a law enforcement figure.
47:45He's not even political.
47:47Supposed to be.
47:49Anyway, it just, it just strikes me so odd.
47:51Also of note, you literally can just walk into the Vatican.
47:56You don't have to apply for papers or whatever.
47:59You can just walk in while you're in Rome.
48:01You can just walk into the Vatican.
48:03As long as you're not wearing shorts and a tank top.
48:05Right.
48:06Um, I, when I went there, it was winter time.
48:09So I was not, um, but no, it's a ridiculous thing.
48:14And also like the, the, I'm not a Catholic, so I don't know, but as I understand it, what
48:21he says is the law.
48:23So I feel like he can't be soft on crime.
48:27Uh, he's like judge dread.
48:29Well, right.
48:29Right.
48:30I mean, I, I, as I say, I think that this is a political issue that you use in
48:35elections in America.
48:37So Trump is just reverting to a line that he knows is a good political attack.
48:42Uh, of course the, I, I would say I'm not a Catholic either, but I do think that there's,
48:49um, you know, the Pope is very much, um, especially being an international figure certainly
48:59has influence and certainly has, uh, some sort of, um, uh, uh, authority.
49:06So on all issues, he can be looked to for either a particular opinion, or he can be, uh,
49:15looked to as a leader who has an opinion.
49:19So he should have opinions on issues and he should make them clear and he should be out
49:24there saying, I mean, some will agree with him, some we won't.
49:27And that's okay too, because we're not Catholics.
49:31We don't think he's infallible, but, um, I think this is just such a stupid attack for
49:38no reason, especially when Trump won, uh, the Catholic vote and has a, uh, an entire voting
49:45block, uh, that is Catholic.
49:48Like, so why in the world he'd want to attack their religious leader, um, is doubly confusing
49:55or doubly weird.
49:57Let's say just weird, uh, because that's, that's Trump's wheelhouse is being weird.
50:02And, you know, you know, where there's, carry on.
50:08No, no, go ahead.
50:08That's, that's, that's the point.
50:10You know, where there's a bunch of Christians who are in danger is Palestine.
50:17A ton of Christian people live in Palestine.
50:21And, uh, I'm pretty sure Trump has not brought up anything about that.
50:26Interesting.
50:26Um, but yeah, like, where do you think, you know, Jesus, you know, of Jerusalem and, you
50:36know, Bethlehem and Nazareth, you know, where do you think those things are?
50:40They're still in Jerusalem now.
50:43Um, so, or in, yeah, right.
50:48And I, I think he's far more concerned about the Catholics in El Paso, Texas.
50:54I'm not a Catholic, but I am a fairly regular church attendee and I'm telling you, we're
50:59doing pretty fine.
51:02Yeah.
51:03I, I think it's a, I think it's a stretch to make the argument that the Christians are
51:07under attack in the United States.
51:09We've been doing excellently.
51:12Seems that way.
51:13There might even be a Christian president one day.
51:16Yeah.
51:17Um, so, and anything else on Trump, um, anyone got something on Melania and, uh, her, her
51:27press conference?
51:29You know, I'd like to point that out.
51:31She came out on, what was it?
51:33A Friday.
51:35And, uh, made her little statement that the people, the lies about her must stop.
51:40I don't even know what lies.
51:42I know what we all believe about her, but I don't know that anybody had been saying it.
51:47Publicly any more than any other time.
51:50And then, so, and that was a lot of people's first question is why, why is she saying that?
51:55And why now?
51:55Why conjure up the Epstein files, uh, as an issue any more than you have to.
52:02And then over the next 12 hours, it came out that somebody she used to pal around with on
52:07the Epstein Express was about to give an interview and was saying a bunch of dramatic stuff on
52:14X.
52:16And people said, oh, well, it, it seemed like there was something about to drop.
52:20Did that ever drop?
52:21Did anything?
52:22Because it was supposed to be the next day.
52:23It was a Saturday, uh, and it was going to be an interview and the lady was making a bunch
52:28of threats to say things online.
52:31Uh, and I don't know if anything ever came of it.
52:34Uh, I don't know if it got stifled or if she had her say and nobody gave a damn.
52:38What, that was, I mean, what a weird nothing burger.
52:42Maybe they successfully squashed it and we just don't know what happened.
52:45I don't know.
52:47Well, right.
52:48And after the success of the movie, perhaps for having this press conference was just
52:54enough to be able to sway the forces that the powers that be so that it didn't actually
52:59get, yeah, I don't remember anything coming out about the, uh, whatever it was she was
53:05pre-sponding to.
53:07And, um, so, uh, you're right about that.
53:10And so, I mean, apparently it worked, uh, but basically it is sort of, you're right.
53:15It's very weird once again, because the great defense is, uh, if you're saying things about
53:22how, uh, uh, I guess it was that, that Epstein had introduced her to Trump, um, and, and how
53:30false that was because a different person introduced her to Trump in those same circles, in the
53:36pedophile group circles, it was a different person who introduced her to Trump.
53:40Oh, well, that makes everything much better.
53:42That changes things, right.
53:43Yeah.
53:44And so I, you really gave the idea that there was something explosive to come out and I
53:49don't remember anything, anything explosive is it, it's very weird.
53:53I think in, in the fullness of time, should we live long enough, we'll find out that something,
53:59something happened or almost happened or something.
54:02And we just aren't privy to it because that's, uh, you know, behind the, uh, magician's Cape
54:08and we don't get to see that.
54:10Well, we'll find, yeah.
54:11I mean, so we'll find out what it effectively did stop because quite 50 years from now when
54:17they crack it open, like FBI files of JFK's assassination.
54:21Exactly.
54:22Exactly.
54:23Exactly.
54:23Um, that, and, and, uh, there might even be a version of it, uh, that's unredacted.
54:29Speaking of unredacted and speaking of files that need to be released, uh, we have a tradition
54:36here as we wrap things up, uh, having an Epstein count up and we are currently at day 3956 of
54:48the days since the unredacted Epstein list has not been released to the public.
54:53And, uh, we want to make certain that you're reminded of it every week until it happens.
54:59Thank you for joining us for Politipod live for political talk.
55:04You're welcome to join us every Wednesday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, right here
55:09for Politipod live.
55:11If you want political laughs, you can join us and a half dozen of our friends for our
55:15monthly political comedy podcast, Politipod.
55:18You'll find that at soundcloud.com slash Politipod.
55:23I'm Tom Bickel.
55:24I'm Hannah Soldner.
55:26And I'm Matt Nissenhoff saying goodbye.
55:34I'm Matt Nissenhoff.
55:34I'm Matt Nissenhoff.
55:36I'm Matt Nissenhoff.
55:37I'm Matt Nissenhoff.
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