WEBVTT - Rick Wilson & Katherine Ebright 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.160 Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.160 where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:12.440 today's best minds, and Trump nominated in an oil industry 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.800 executive as his pick for Energy secretary. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.120 We have such a great show for you today. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.720 The Lincoln Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to discuss 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.720 Trump's absolutely insane cabinet. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:27.120 Then we will talk. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.920 To the Brennan Centers Catherine Ebright about Trump's plans to 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:36.920 invoke the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety eight. 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:42.040 But first the news Somali, you want to talk the resistance. 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.240 I think I am resistant to ever wanting to talk about. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:47.879 Tell me make your case for me. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.519 Okay, So before we started recording, I was giving you 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.159 a hard time because I want to talk about the 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.880 resistance and you said resistance is cringe. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:56.400 I do. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.160 I said, it's a bad brand that we shouldn't continue using, 0:00:59.240 --> 0:00:59.680 is what I said. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:05.199 And I want to make the case for earnestness right now. Look, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.520 there is a thing that you and I both sometimes 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.520 do of wanting to be the cool kids. But we 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.600 are in a moment here and we're not there yet, 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.000 and we all have to sort of state ourselves. But 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.320 we're going to be in a moment where there's going 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.560 to be a lot of stuff that the government is. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.520 Going to do, or Donald Trump is going to do 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:25.919 to our government. 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.520 That we are going to have to be a bull 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:33.520 war against and resist. And I think that one of 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.560 the least helpful things we can do is to dismiss things, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.360 even like the idea of resistance. So there were a 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.440 lot of pieces this week written by some very smart 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.679 people about sort of what does it mean to be 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.440 resistant and should we even use that word? And I 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.600 just want to make a case here for earnestness. Part 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.200 of the ethos of trump Ism is this idea that 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:59.000 nothing matters, this kind of nihilistic we were talking about 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.040 it earlier, this black pilling, the idea that these things 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.640 are ironic, that nothing matters, that we shouldn't care what 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:09.000 happens to other people. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.320 I wouldn't characterize that as black pilled, because that's not 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:12.040 what black pilots is. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:13.960 Okay, explain to us what black pilled is. 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.600 That's when your ideology is so poisoned by so many 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.880 things on the Internet that no one could ever make 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.080 a clear distinction between whether you're left right, libertarian or whatever. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.320 It's just so all over the place that it cannot 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:26.800 be mapped. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.799 So great, but the idea is that I think it's 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.799 important for Democrats to be the opposite of black pilt, 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.320 to be four things. It's easy to reject everything. It's 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.520 hard to believe in things, especially right now. And I 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.679 believe in democracy. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.240 I believe. I know you're rolling your eyes, but I'm not. 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:51.520 I believe in all this. I'm with you right now. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.200 I think we're in a moment right now where a 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.720 lot of us are really in despair. And I want 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.080 to talk about this article because in it is a 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.760 bunch of really good news. And for those of you 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.839 who didn't read this Rebecca Tracter article in your magazine. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:11.040 She talks about how on Thursday, after Trump was re elected, Indivisible, 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.320 which is a really good organization, and the Working Families Party, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.560 did a call and they drew more than one hundred 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:23.600 and thirty seven thousand people. That call went on for hours. Okay, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:25.920 a woman who was part of it said she didn't 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.840 get to speak until ten PM, and people stayed on 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.680 and the attendance grew. People are not only seeking community, 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.120 but ways to engage okay, And then I want to 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.080 talk about Amanda Littman, a frequent guest on this podcast. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.560 She runs an organization called Run for Something, which is 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.720 an organization that supports young, progressive first time candidates running 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.480 for state and local office. As you know, as we 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.600 talk about on this podcast all the time, stay and 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:58.440 local office are really the keys to enacting policy, to 0:03:58.520 --> 0:03:59.400 protecting people. 0:03:59.600 --> 0:03:59.840 Okay. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.360 So she says that in the first Trump inauguration day, 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.560 she said she hoped that our organization would carry on 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.560 doing consequential work even without resistance two point zero, which 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.480 I did not expect to see. Seven days later, seven 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.760 thousand people had signed up with Run for Something, seven 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.480 times the number it had drawn the week it launched 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.520 on Trump's first inauguration day. Seven times okay, and that 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.280 was just after Trump was re elected. So I just 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.719 want to point out, like, this is a very dark 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.400 moment for a lot of us, but there are a 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.360 lot of green shoots right. People understand what another Trump 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:42.680 administration means, and we see women at the grassroots and 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.359 men trying to push back, and so I just want 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.000 to make the case for earnestness. I'm not even a 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.120 fan of earnestness. But I think at this moment we 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:52.960 have to care. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.480 Okay, did you die? Are you there? 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:56.960 I'm fined. I just don't. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.039 I just don't want to call it the resistance, That's 0:04:59.040 --> 0:04:59.800 all I'm saying. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.719 We could call it the case for caring. Okay. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.039 I think this is just the same way that the 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.880 word liberal became a bit of poisoning and we used 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.960 progressive instead of other things. I just think it's not 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:12.640 the best brand anyway. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:14.160 Speaking of brands. 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.920 Yes, So with Trump's lead into the manisphere, he went 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.720 to the manliest of sports UFC. You know, where men 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.640 hug each other for a long periods of time. Is 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.240 what I noticed whenever I see it on the TV. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:27.640 What'd you see here, Molly? 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.600 Yeah, So Trump went to the UFC fight. UFC has 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.760 been part of trump Ism. And I want to talk 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.000 about this idea that politics is downstream of culture. This 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:42.480 is an idea that we kind of got from Andrew Breitbart, 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.240 and it comes from sort of Obama era, where you 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.920 had a politician who was a meshed with the culture. 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.919 You had that to some degree with Harris, but you had. 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.040 This also with Trump, and I think because it didn't 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.720 happen in traditional media venues. A lot of us missed 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.520 it because it happened on podcasts and streaming and YouTube 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:09.880 and Twitch. But Trump has this relationship with these sports 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.040 and also with the kind of health and Wellness space 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:18.520 influencers which really did help him get elected. 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.000 And helped him win some women. 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.599 One of the ways in which Trump had this relationship 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.800 with health and Wellness space people is that he got 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:33.280 endorsed by RFK Junior. RFK Junior delivered him some voters, 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.360 many of whom want to be able to drink raw 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.479 milk and not get vaccinated anyway. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.200 Sort Of following up on this in. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:45.359 The Everything Trump Touches Dies genre, so photo of Trump 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:50.360 and his people on his plane eating McDonald's RFK Junior 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.640 drinking a coke, eating a quarter pounder on Trump Force 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.600 one discuss. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:00.760 A lot of people are saying saying that this is 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.880 Trump testing if OURK will bed the dee. I personally 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.160 just think this is just stupidity as usual. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:10.120 I mean, it is interesting though that this is something 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.040 where we know, like Ourk's brand is based on like 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.720 not doing things like this, so you know, eating organic 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.840 food and eat and raw milk and et cetera, et cetera. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.080 And this is a pretty star contrast. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.800 Doesn't get more organic than when you pick up roadkill 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:28.560 on the side of the road. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.160 That's all that's right, and numerous roadkill stories. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:37.360 So I am without words though it does seem it 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.000 does seem kind of hypocritical. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.840 So mommie, this Mannion Musk, that's the first buddy who's 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.600 coming around with Trump everywhere he goes his Tesla cars. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.680 Interesting story here where you see. 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.360 It's sort of interesting, right, Tesla vehicles. This is according 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.280 to a recent icy cars study that analyzed data from 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.840 the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which is called FARS 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.160 in case you were wondering, study conducted aunt Tesla's from 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.120 the twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two vehicles focused on 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:14.320 crashes between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty two that resulted 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.320 in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rating 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.720 of five point six billion miles driven. According to study, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.040 they are the most fatal car. It is Tesla's then, 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:26.920 kias than buicks. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.400 And I'm not very surprised. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.439 It's almost like this guy who rails against regulation isn't 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.520 very careful moves fast and breaks things as cars that break. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.280 I mean, it does not seem so surprising to me. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.000 But no, you know, as somebody whose wife every time 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.600 she sees me get near a tesla or we get ed, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.120 what she says, Oh, great, we're driving. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:51.360 It a bomb? 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.640 Why did she say that? Because the batteries explode. You've 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.360 experienced this yourself with an electric car battery. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.160 Yes, it did, but you didn't. We didn't die. We 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 were okay, yes, but it did explode. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.320 But they they do explode. It is bad. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.040 I mean, the good news is you don't die, but 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.800 the bad news is it is a little scary. And 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.400 also then you're stuck on the stuff by the side 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:18.120 of the road. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:19.880 Yeah. Not so. 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:24.520 Speaking of Elon, he's trying to save what Nick's treasury. Bit, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:25.520 what do you think about this? 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:31.240 So right now in Marlago, there's a lot of jockeying 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.760 between the first body that's Elon Musk or as Trump 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:39.719 calls him, Leon and the quote unquote more normal appointment. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:44.679 So Trump had to give RFK Health and Human Services 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.240 because the Kennedys are actually trying to assassinate us. I 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.480 stall that from the internet. Somebody made that joke, a 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.680 brilliant joke. But so the question is will it be 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.760 this Scott Asson, who is sort of a more normal pick, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.240 or will it be Howard Nick, who recently went on 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.880 television and said that Trump would not pick RFK Junior, 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.280 and then maybe vaccines weren't so great again. You know, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.720 we are so down the rabbit hole here, it's hard to. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.000 Imagine that any of this ends. Wow. 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:22.080 Speaking of which, doctor joh former Biden administrator in the 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.520 COVID nineteen and the dean of Brown University School of 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.760 Public Health. He talked about the RFK appointment and he 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.360 said RFK Junior has signaled that he doesn't intend to 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.560 follow the approach. Instead of relying on rigorous analysis and evidence, 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.520 he seems poised to prioritize his own views in decision making. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.200 Now all of us know that MAGA is all about 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.520 doing your own research on Facebook. Nothing wrong with that, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:57.680 except if you cause another pandemic. Rick Wilson is the 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.680 founder of the Lincoln Product and the host of the 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.280 Enemy Welcome back to Fast Politics. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.960 Rick Wilson, Hey, Mollie John Fast how are you on 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.040 this fine day? 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.440 Oh? Yeah, it's a great day, you know, I'm enjoying 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.880 the last gasps of the Roman Empire. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.079 How about you, Well, I mean it was the Roman Republic, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.800 but yeah, close enough. Yes, I mean you're you really 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.680 are looking at the dying civilization right now. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.319 But we don't want people to be depressed here, because 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.800 that is what because we want I know, I get. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.560 We don't want people to despair because I think that 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.520 Donald Trump is about to have a tent so big 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:40.880 that includes both anti Semites and Zionists, both anti vaxxers 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:47.120 and people who believe in modern medicine, Russian trolls and 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:52.040 America firsters every which way discuss h. 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:54.600 Yeah, I think that's largely where we're about to go. 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.559 We are going to have a very very very fed 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.480 up period of time in this country where the promises 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.080 Trump is made to his base to be awful to 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.079 the world will be fulfilled. But it will also be 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:09.720 so chaotic and so fucked up, and they will have 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.160 such There are already internal maga civil wars breaking out, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.120 which I love, and boy Elon seems to be at 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:17.320 the center of most of them. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.000 Which civil wars are you talking about? 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.680 The civil war in this case is the moment that 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:27.000 they're having with Treasury Secretary, where Howard Lutnik was supposed 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.400 to be the guy, and then Elon wade in and 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.280 wanted somebody else to be the guy. The thing about 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.000 this moment we're in to remember is while they are 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.880 evil and while they are powerful, they are also fucking stupid. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.880 They really are. These are not smart guys. These are 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.920 not a class thinkers. And that's one of our only 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.319 big advantages in this fight right now is that they 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.240 really are a bunch of fucking morons. 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.440 Well, what I would say is that it seems like 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.760 there is a feeling in which Trump and his people 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.200 are not like they have made promises. I just don't 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.560 know how you keep promises to people who want to 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.679 end government programs but still want to have So. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.160 Let's talk about government efficiency for a minute. 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.400 So one of the things that Elon and Vivic and 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.920 Silicon Valley, one of the reasons that Silicon Valley joined MAGA, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.840 besides tax cuts, is that they're very excited to cut 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.520 the federal government. But I think that one of the 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.080 places that Vivik wants to start is not a place 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.040 that Republicans love to cut discuss. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:33.839 He wants to cut the DoD and he wants to 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.960 also cut the VA. Let me tell you something, Republican 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.840 congressmen are a spineless, gutless, nutless, ballless set of human beings. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.839 But the minute you ask them to cut VA benefits 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.480 for people in their districts, I assure you that's one 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.920 of the red lines that they will actually say, vivek Donald, elon, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.080 go fuck yourself, because it is political poison. Same thing 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.520 with cutting social security political poison. One of the realities 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.920 of government contract is that when you decide you're going 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.640 to build a new fighter plane, Okay, let's take the 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.640 F thirty five for existance, the current hot fighter number. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.360 That plane may be assembled at a factory in Dallas 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.679 Fort Worth, but every part of it is built somewhere 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.880 in this country and in all fifty states and all 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.360 the territories. Everybody gets a bite, everybody gets a piece 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.200 of the pie, everybody gets a cut. So let's say 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.080 they go, okay, we're going to cut this program. Well, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.560 that program is being built in some senator's home state 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.120 and some congressman's home district. And the idea that that's 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:34.680 just going to go that these guys are going to go, 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.240 oh yeah, well, of course, in obedience to Trump, we're 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.000 going to fuck ourselves politically for all time. That's not 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.360 going to work out for you, goodloe boys. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:44.520 I mean, that's what we're sort of looking down the 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.040 barrel of very much so. 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.240 And the idea that you're going to end up with 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.080 less government spending is always commendable. Everybody wants to do that. Okay, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.600 everybody wants less government spending. Blah blah blah. Reality is, 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.720 though these tax dollars are allocated to the various states, 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.240 the spending in those states benefits, benefits individual people, and 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.720 it also benefits the members of Congress and the senators 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.400 who pass that legislation and get those things spent in 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.840 their states. And not all of it is you know, fraud, 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.360 waste and abuse. An awful lot of it is providing 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:21.120 services that Americans have paid taxes for, e g. Just 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.760 just just a little as a little for instance, veterans benefits. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.440 Wh's another place at Vivek Ramaswami has already promised he's 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.560 going to cut Oh okay, you know that is about 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.800 like saying I want to pass the National Herpes Distribution Plan. 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.120 It is not a popular idea. It will never be 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.880 a popular idea. No one's ever going to say that 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.800 is the greatest idea since prepared, mustered Vivek, you should 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.320 go ahead and do that. Let's get let's get on 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.600 with cutting VA benefits madness. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.960 One of the things that it feels like Vivak and 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.200 Musk don't totally understand is that a lot of our 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.200 national debt is actually interest payments. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.360 Yes. Yes, and here's a dirty little secret. Republicans are 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.440 really fucking good at spending money. Okay, let's not pretend 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.040 that all this money was just spent by Democrats doing 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.640 national mime and puppetry programs. These things were spent on 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.280 a lot of programs that went to Republican districts, and 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.440 a lot of these guys have made their political careers 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:27.160 off of having a very lavish federal spending program in 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.880 their states or their districts. This is not going to stop. 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:31.360 Nobody's going to stop doing. 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.280 This, including in red states. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.240 Right, even more so in red states. Red states have 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.440 a net and you know benefit they pay less in 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.280 taxes than the blue states do. This is not rocket science, 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:44.360 it's just a fact. 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.800 So explain to us what's gonna sort of what's going 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:48.280 to happen. 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:50.360 Now, they're going to say. Elon's going to say, we 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.600 have to cut the XYZ program in the Department of Energy, Okay, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.840 whatever it is, but he's going to find out that 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.160 that program is in statute, it is in federal law 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.119 where Congress has said this program is established under House 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.320 resolution or House Bill blah blah blah, signed by the Senate, 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.320 signed by the President. And you don't just get to 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:15.159 randomly cut those things. That's not how any of this works. 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:16.760 Right, So how does it work? 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.600 Explain they're going to have If you want to get 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:21.280 rid of some of these programs, you have to have 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.439 votes on the floor of the House to get rid 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.320 of them. You have to have votes in the Senate 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:26.240 to get rid of them. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.280 And the House has right now, I think it's like 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.040 a three seat majority, right, correct, Republicans. 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.119 It's not all the California votes are encountered yet, but 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.000 it looks like it's going to be a very small majority. 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.000 Yeah, this will not be a sweeping Republican hoarde. The 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.480 Senate and the House both are going to end up 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:47.959 feeling very tight, very constrained. 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:52.000 The Senate is a little better for Republicans, right, Yeah. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.120 But again, it's not the It will not be easy going. Now. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.600 This is going to be like a walkover where they 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:02.119 have just so much ladder to play fuck around that 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.640 they're going to be able to come out and pass 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.119 anything they want or cut anything they want. I've been 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:09.679 around the block on these things. I was around when 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:11.600 we did something back in the nineties called the Base 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.680 Closure and Realignment Commission, which was what and whether they 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:19.720 were at the time the most liberal anti war, anti 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:24.040 military blah blah cliche whatever, or the hardest core Republican, 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.600 they all wanted us to do base closures after the 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.760 end of the Cold War. And guess what, none of 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.879 them wanted the base closures to be in their districts Ah, weird, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:33.399 weird how that works. 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.919 But also Vivig and Elon don't it's not part of 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.080 the government. They're not being appointed to the cabinet, right. 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.760 No, this thing is a quasi governmental office. It has 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.840 no statutory authority whatsoever. You know. I know it has 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.800 no statutory authority because it never existed until today, right, 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:52.399 That's how I know. 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.960 So they're going to make recommendations and then the government 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.720 is going to just not be able to implement them. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.320 They're gonna make recommendations and it doesn't matter what they 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.280 say because it's not in the budget. We don't pass 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:11.560 budgets anymore in this country. We stopped doing budgets years 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.080 ago for a lot of bad reasons. We should do budgets, Honestly, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.320 we should pass budgets. That'd be a good, responsible, grown 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.560 up American thing to do, but we don't. And because 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.960 of that, we're going to end up with these people thinking, oh, well, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.600 we can do whatever we choose, we can cut these 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.680 things and they'll just go away because Trump doesn't want 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.399 them there and Elon doesn't like them. Nope, not how 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.600 it works. And again you're going to find out some 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.960 maga member of Congress is going to say he's going 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.679 to get on the phone to Elon. I go, well, listen, buddy, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.520 I'll tell you one thing. I'm on the NASA Procurement Committee, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.560 and I'm going to tell you some your fucking rockets 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.800 aren't going anywhere unless you stop this bullshit. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.600 Right. That is the sort of interesting thing about the 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.720 situation is like Elon has more money than anyone else 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:01.000 in the entire world, so he can fund primary challenges. 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.520 But these people have control over the space stuff he 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:06.320 wants to do. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:06.879 Right. 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.919 Yeah, these people have also been around the entire history 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.480 of Washington. They know what they're doing. This is not 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.280 an easy skate for Elon. This is not some magical 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.399 wave of magic wand and the world does what Elon wants. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:23.800 It just doesn't work that way. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.280 So what do you think happens now? I mean, like, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.280 just sort of talk us through what's going to happen. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.919 In a few days. They're going to start more in 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.600 earnest saying, oh, how do we do this? What do 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.840 we do? They won't get a good answer. They'll get 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.680 lawyers who tell them, oh, well the president will pass 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.400 this because or the president will push people and they'll 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.920 do it because the president, when you are taking money 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.479 from people in their districts, you are going to get fucked. 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.960 This is just I mean, this is one oh one Washington, 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.760 d C. And people who don't understand this, they don't 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.880 understand it for a reason because they're they're magas. They 0:20:57.920 --> 0:20:59.960 come from a world where they've never had a dear 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.879 with an actual issue with government. They've just ignored it 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.760 or pretend that it didn't exist, and they're going to. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:08.800 Get fucked I think it's interesting. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.240 This is meant to be the Trump term where he 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:17.600 gets serious and finally dismantles the physit over men. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:19.000