Normally, this is a preview of our full Weekender episode on Patreon - but today, you can hear the entire episode right here. If you like it, consider supporting us by signing up at http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast
Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss the absolute mess of a campaign that Donald Trump is currently running against Kamala Harris. From his rambling interview with Elon to JD Vance's continued weirdness, the Harris/Walz ticket has ridden a wave that should continue into the Democratic National Convention next week.
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I've missed hanging out with you and talking about politics.
So much has been going on.
I can't wait to catch up on it.
I know, but you know, it's always, it's not always bad to have a little break and relax and get yourself centered.
Distance makes the heart And the good news, everybody.
So, first of all, first piece of good news.
Nick and I have decided that we're going to make this Weekender Edition free to everybody.
We haven't done this in a while.
We want to open it up.
There's a lot of important stuff to talk about.
A lot of important stuff to get to.
But next week, Nick, you and I, we're going to be hanging out in your hometown.
That's right.
Chi-town.
The Windy City.
The Totterland Town.
I'm sorry?
The toddle-in town.
Chicago, Chicago, that toddle-in town.
Come on.
No, what?
Toddling?
I've never... What's toddling mean?
On Great Street that... No, what's it mean?
What's toddling mean?
Toddling, you know, it's the city that never sleeps.
I guess that's New York.
That's not what it means.
You don't know what toddling means.
When you're toddling, you're out on the town having a great time all the time.
You know what?
Before we begin this, because you just brought up an important thing.
Frank Sinatra sang about every town.
It's almost like Huey Lewis and the News, like New York, Chicago, LA, Cleveland, Fort Knox.
I have a definition from Google.
Give the people the definition.
Toddle is informally walk or go somewhere in a casual or leisurely way.
And if that doesn't describe how you move in Chicago, I don't know what does.
You get, you get you a deep dish and then you're wanting some sausage and you're walking around.
So I actually, now that we're talking about it, I can't wait to get some deep dish.
Oh, Italian beef.
I'm going to get my Italian beef.
Oh, Italian beef.
I'm very excited.
But that's right.
Nick Housman and I are going to the Democratic National Convention.
My boy Nick got credentialed, y'all.
He's going into the Democratic National Convention.
They won't talk to me.
I'm persona non grata, except for when they want me on strategy calls.
When they want help with strategy, they'll talk to me, but they don't want me around the people.
They would much rather have you rubbing elbows.
Yeah, but you know I'm gonna be like texting you at some point and be like, hey, where are you?
Let's go hang out.
And you're gonna be like, yeah, I'm tired.
And it turns out you're probably hanging out with...
Walls and Harris at some point.
They'll talk to me off the record, and basically I'm going to be talking to the revolutionaries out in the street.
But Nick and I, we're going to have very, very special coverage for you next week.
The regular Muckrake edition on Tuesday is going to be reacting to the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
Then every night after that, We are going to be getting together, theoretically, in person.
If all this works out, we are going to be giving you the man in the arena and the man in the street reactions to what takes place.
Go over to patreon.com slash my Craig podcast.
Nick, I'm very excited.
Oh, for sure.
I mean, I can't wait.
I'm going to have, you know, when I'm walking around the United Center, if anybody walks by that wants an interview, I can grab them and grab them.
We will have and we'll probably put some of it up, you know, on the Patreon side, maybe only so if you you know, you want to get involved on the Patreon now, so it's all queued up ready to go.
So we have some exclusive content with some you know, who knows is going to walk by and talk to me for Senator Fetterman, Nick Haussmann from the McCraig Podcast.
What's wrong with you?
Right.
Or maybe I'm a constituent of Adam Schiff.
Perhaps I can talk to him or somebody.
Or Elizabeth Warren might walk by.
You never know.
We don't know what's going to happen, but you need to go to patreon.com slash mccraigpodcast.
As you all know, you're going to get analysis.
You're going to get takes that you're not getting anywhere else.
I know you've been missing the patreon.com slash mccraigpodcast.
Nick, I've been gone.
For the past 10 or so days, and since I left, the presidential race has shifted so much.
We're going to be talking in a little bit.
I got a hold of some internal polls as well.
I've had some people from the Trump campaign reaching out to me, so I'm going to be letting people know what's been clouding up my inbox, but we have to start big.
With the fact that the Donald Trump and JD Vance campaign is in absolute dire straits, and we're not talking about the popular band of the 1980s.
It is rough out there.
We are in a sinking ship type situation.
This has led to a ton of infighting within the Trump campaign.
I've had multiple people, and Nick, They used to reach out to me back in 2016, back whenever the horse race was a little weird and they would just backbite like you wouldn't believe and give me insider information about the Trump campaign.
They're doing it again, if you need to understand where this thing is.
There have been rumors that Trump is going to drop out.
I don't think that's going to happen.
Rumors he's going to dump J.D.
Vance.
I don't think that's going to happen.
Even so much that Gabriel Sherman over at the Vanity Fair has been told by insiders that they believe that Donald Trump is purposely sabotaging his campaign.
Do you have thoughts on what is going on over there?
Because it is an absolute disaster.
I certainly have my thoughts.
I mean, couldn't happen to a nicer set of people.
Just a great group of people.
You couldn't ask for a better group.
For sure.
And I mean, if you heard the last pod we had when I had Nick Carmody on who talked a little about the psychological makeup of MAGA and Trump, you know, to me, it just sort of sounds like things aren't going well.
They have to blame somebody.
Right.
Someone has to be blamed.
It's got to be someone else's fault that this is happening versus the fact that the reality is he's a terrible candidate and he's turned off so many people.
Like a national politician shouldn't engender this much ill will across so many facets of this society.
Right.
I know he's got the cult, but how many people are really, really don't like him?
You're talking about a hundred million in the country, maybe?
Uh, maybe.
If you're being generous, I guess.
I mean, how many people are holding their nose and voting for him, you know?
Yeah.
So when you get over like 15 million people who are really angry at you, it's like, it's not a good thing.
You're not a good candidate.
So that's probably the answer versus anything that he's doing intentionally, because I don't think Trump's doing anything intentionally.
He's just id.
Yeah, I'll go ahead and start off with saying this, and it's very funny whenever I get Trump insiders reaching out to me.
Like, I hope you're listening to the podcast.
I hope it just makes your ears bleed if you are actually engaging in any way.
I just laugh when I get these things.
But I want to say, first of all, I don't think he's intentionally sabotaging his campaign.
I think it's really important to remember something.
Donald Trump is a uniquely terrible campaigner and politician.
And one of the things that we're learning right now, he won in 2016, Nick, for a variety of reasons.
One of them was that Hillary Clinton had over 30 years of public exposure.
She had a link to a presidency, Bill Clinton's presidency, that hurt a number of states that ended up playing a vital role in terms of battleground states, including Michigan.
that blamed him for NAFTA and what happened with neoliberal globalism.
Also, she was absolutely hated, and they didn't think that they needed to campaign in battleground states.
And Donald Trump was a largely unknown political property.
He made something new, and as a result, you had an election that came together to put him in a place.
Nick, am I wrong when I say that Donald Trump as president was lazy?
How do I answer that?
No.
He was lazy.
He was absolutely lazy as president.
He didn't want to do the job.
He wanted to come out to hail the chief and have people adore him.
That was it.
Meanwhile, back in 2020, which was a weird black swan election year, take yourself back in your mental time machine, Nick.
How was his campaign in 2020?
It was just as bad, if not worse.
It was just as bad, if not worse, right?
Because he wasn't even actually interested in defending his record because he doesn't want to.
He wants to go out and blab on and on and on.
He doesn't care.
Donald Trump is a lazy, bad campaigner and politician.
So what's happened?
We now are in our third election cycle with Donald Trump.
What is coming forward is the fact that he's a terrible campaigner.
He's actually a terrible politician.
2016 was a fluke for a variety of reasons.
There's a lot of stuff that happened there.
It's just bad.
And what are people trying to do at this point, Nick, by saying he's sabotaging it or the campaign is failing him?
No.
This is how bad things happen.
And what do they want to do, Nick?
They want to go ahead and create a narrative.
He won the presidency once.
He has to be talented.
No, he was really good at catching a certain moment in history.
And what we're seeing now, they have nothing.
They have no communication strategies.
They have no attack on Harris or Waltz that is actually going to work.
It is an absolute rat's nest biting each other and cannibalizing each other.
And what we're seeing out in front is what it has always been.
I will clarify, I think in 2020 he was a little bit more motivated in the campaign, but what was he motivated by?
Not going to prison.
So that was a big reason why he was out.
However, do you think he had any sense of what was going to happen in the judicial I think there's two things to say there.
First of all, I disagreed with a lot of what Nick Carmody said in your interview, and I thought you gave a really good interview.
Because the perilousness that he thought he was going to be under if he lost has not materialized, kind of, almost not, maybe New York a little.
But you know what I mean?
Do you think he would have realized that Cannon would have been as effective and the Supreme Court would have been as effective in squashing these things?
I think there's two things to say there.
First of all, I disagreed with a lot of what Nick Carmody said in your interview, and I thought you gave a really good interview.
First of all, I don't think he's scared of going to prison.
Nothing's going to happen to him.
We've already seen how this stuff works.
He's not going to go to prison.
And in fact, I've even said that the judicial system basically went after him because he kept running for president.
If he loses again, I think they're probably going to leave him alone.
I think the way that Trump works is the same way a lot of these people work.
They don't think they're ever going to face any kind of consequences because they've never really faced consequences.
But no, I don't think he is motivated at this point by any legal peril whatsoever.
I actually think what's happening right now, to be frank, and Nick, I don't know if you've ever experienced this.
For me, when I was a kid, it was like I would be playing like Mortal Kombat with somebody or like Street Fighter with somebody and I'd be, listen, I would be kicking their ass because I was good at those games.
And do you remember, and I'm sure you've played basketball with these people, the people who lose and the more that they lose, they're like, I don't even want to play this game anyway.
Like, Donald Trump is losing, and Donald Trump doesn't lose, he quits things before he loses.
And so what's happening right now, he's already creating the case, they're going to steal this election, we know what's going to happen, and so as a result, he's sort of checking out.
And everyone around him is freaking out.
And why, Nick?
Because they have an actual political project that they want to carry out.
Donald Trump doesn't care about political projects!
He'll do them if you give him money, like Elon Musk, who we'll talk about in a second.
But, like, he's not really invested in this thing, and he's come up against a juggernaut, and he can't do anything about it.
I'm asking for a friend.
What kind of person is it who will throw the controller in the midst of losing?
Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the type of person who will throw the controller in the middle of losing a game.
I am I am seen, unfortunately, but OK, so but I won't put in the basketball court, but I certainly would throw the controller across the room, even in my my age now, if that happens.
So I really actually that is true.
I totally understand that.
But as I'm wrapping my head around it, you're right.
He isn't afraid to go into prison.
I suppose because it's been so long where it never really was going to happen.
He just sort of maybe knew that.
But again, the circumstances that we never really even delved into that much with these specific cases has been so egregiously corrupt that it was hard to imagine you could have predicted that.
But, you know, maybe not so hard.
Well, listen, I'm just back.
I don't want to strain myself, pat myself on the back.
I said America does not have a very good record of holding rich, white, powerful men accountable.
And why?
Because they are the bedrock of the American economy and political system.
So as a result, like it was always going to get a little weird and a little wonky and somehow or another, you know, he had the entire system on his side.
But he's not motivated by that.
At this point, he has come across something where he doesn't have an answer, and he's not particularly interested in trying anything.
Like, there's not even any juice there.
He's just unmotivated because it really doesn't matter anymore.
That's true.
And you know, I want to say, speaking of other rich white guys who are never held accountable... Speaking of rich white guys, for those who don't know, Elon Musk, who is absolutely reprehensive, he held a Twitter space that, Nick, did you know that they had a massive denial of service attack?
Oh my God, they couldn't even get this thing running.
It's weird how that always happens.
Like, they're obviously getting hacked.
But once this thing eventually started getting going, Nick, Trump slurred and sounded terrible during the entire thing, had no real answers about anything.
All he can do is talk about immigrants and call his opponents stupid.
That's all he's got.
But Elon Musk, he got into this thing and he threw a couple of interesting little ideas around.
If we could take a little listen.
Sure enough.
I agree with you.
Well, I mean, I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers hard-earned money, is spent in a good way.
And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission.
I'd love it.
Well, you, you're the greatest cutter.
I mean, I look at what you do.
You walk in and you just say, you want to They go on strike.
I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's OK, you're all gone.
You know, we got to talk about that, too.
But yes, so I think I understand where you wanted these, some of these clips, because it sounds like this was done on Musk's end because he's angling for some things.
Oh, he is most certainly angling for some things.
So I listened to this, unfortunately, all the way through.
First of all, Trump sounded so disengaged and just out of it.
What did Elon, and by the way, we need to remind people, Nick, how much money is Elon Musk giving a Trump super PAC every month?
Well, I thought he went, he turned that down.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
He didn't.
He lied about it and said, I'm not giving money to Donald Trump, which is technically true.
Ah, yeah.
So it's $45 million a month, right?
So he's giving a Trump super PAC $45 million a month.
God knows what Peter Thiel and Palantir is giving it and that whole tech fascist group.
He's giving him all of that money and he's trying to boost his campaign and give it a goose, which this did not help.
Nick, on this talk between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Musk proposed an efficiency committee, which basically would go through and create further austerity and give him control over the federal budget.
And on top of that, continue to try and plant the idea in Trump's mind that a Trump presidency should have its main goals of, ready for this list, creating tunnels in the ground for transportation, getting us to Mars, and creating a moon base.
Nick, of those three topics, how many of them would Musk be invested in?
All of them.
All of them.
Well, he's not invested in them.
He wants the government to give him the money to do it.
He wants the government to give him the money for the future of his projects, which, by the way, is the only reason Elon Musk is one of the most rich people in the world, not because he's talented.
He literally wants Donald Trump to be the president and rubber stamp everything for him that would basically allow him the co-option of the federal government, which, by the way, ding, ding, ding, is what we've been telling people for the past month That is why J.D.
Vance got bought onto the ticket, why Musk and Teal have been pushing this, but what are they trying to do?
They're trying to get their boy in so that they can have control over the federal government without having to get elected themselves.
For sure.
I mean, how much do you think you'd pay to get somebody on a platform that you own thinking that you'd get a lot more traction and more money?
Would you pay?
That's what it was, right?
$45 million a month for this was to get Trump to get back on Twitter.
Which, it worked, right?
Trump is now tweeting again.
It's weird, isn't it?
It's weird that he's back on Twitter after Musk started giving him $45 million a month.
So basically what you have now is Musk and Teal and all these people who are investing in this stuff, and more on this in a few minutes, they have literally, they're like, hey, old man, Run for fucking president.
Do it and win.
We need you in there.
And that's what this whole thing was.
And by the way, Musk couldn't even hide it.
He got in the room with Trump and basically pushed his entire agenda and told everybody what he wants, which is a piece of the federal government.
A large, large piece of it.
And I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I will give the benefit of the doubt to Trump in terms of the slurring, because what I hear is the compression of using a phone over the internet on a space, less so than the actual thing.
I hear a man with dentures, is what I hear.
I don't know, because they had the local footage of it, filming Trump sitting with his huge shoulder pads sticking up.
It didn't sound as bad, but either way, we don't need to dissect whether or not he speaks eloquently or is cognizant.
But let me kind of hit the last little bit of this, because it wasn't necessarily part of the sound bite, but this is how bad this conversation was.
It's so bad.
Yeah, so let's listen to the end of this thing.
You want to quit?
They go on strike.
I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's okay, you're all gone.
You're all gone.
So every one of you is gone and you are the greatest.
You would be very good.
Oh, you would love it.
So if you couldn't figure that out, he's talking about how Elon Musk fired people who were threatening to go on strike, which is intimidation.
And there's a lawsuit being filed by, is it UAW?
One of the big unions wants to file a lawsuit for intimidation against them.
It's probably for show, but the point still stands.
Here are these guys patting themselves on the back and celebrating the notion of removing workers' rights.
I just want to say, I just want very, very quickly, because you nailed it and there's not much else that needs to be said except for this, Nick.
This is literally two billionaires yucking it up and talking about how much they enjoy firing people before they organize.
It is not a populist movement in any way, shape, or form.
It is the wealth class trying to take over the government in totality, which is what we've been warning about for forever.
Exactly.
And it's gross.
It's really gross in a way that it will resonate negatively, it should, through a lot of the people that the Trump campaign are counting on to vote for them, you know, in those margins.
It's going to be that close for some of these things, that they need to get more votes.
And all they're doing, as you referenced before how bad the campaign is, Every day, Trump is alienating more and more voters.
It's the opposite.
It's truly remarkable to the point where, yeah, maybe he doesn't really want to win at this point because he certainly feels like winning doesn't... To me, I was so afraid of him winning because he'll get rid of all these lawsuits and he won't be held accountable.
But you know what?
Maybe that won't matter anyway.
They may go away as it is.
I think he wants to win without doing the work, which is what he did in 2016 and what he tried to do again in 2020.
And can we hear what his plans are if he doesn't?
Oh, this is this is really incredible what he says here.
And again, I told you that crime rates all over the world are going way down, which makes sense.
In fact, the next time what we'll do is if something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we'll meet the next time in Venezuela because it'll be a far safer place to meet than our country.
OK, so we'll go you and I will go and we'll have a meeting and dinner in Venezuela because that's what's happening.
That's what you want to hear from a potential president of the United States of America.
Like, let's go hang out in Venezuela.
Also, by the way, we need to fact check this, Nick.
Crime in America is way down.
Way, way, way down.
And why is Trump excited about Venezuela and other countries like that?
Because they use brutal dictatorial means in order to go after other criminals.
It's two billionaires who are interested in authoritarian situations.
Talking about how much more they would like a dictatorial thing.
Also, by the way, we don't even have a clip of this.
Two more weird things from this, Nick, that were in here that nobody's talking about.
One, Trump weirdly talking about the Time Magazine cover of Kamala Harris, saying her moment, and saying she looked beautiful, but it was a fake thing that made her look like Melania.
And second of all, something no one's talking about, which is him saying he went to North Korea He saw how much the people obeyed Kim Jong-un and he said, and this is a rough quote, I saw things that you don't want to hear about but let me tell you he has control over that country.
Which is Donald Trump saying that he saw authoritarian violence in person in North Korea and respected it.
Oh yeah, by the way, I think the Venezuela thing is because they don't have extradition.
That's also part of it.
Hey, let me get out of the country before they really, maybe he still is concerned about these.
Get out of here.
We do have the clip, if you want, of him talking about Time Magazine because... Oh God, did you get that?
Yeah, might as well let people hear it.
Let's see what this sounds like here.
And actually, she looks very much like a great first lady, Melania.
She looks She didn't look like Camilla, that's right.
But of course, she's a beautiful woman, so we'll leave it at that, right?
I mean, you know, it's a painting, right?
A rendering of Kamala Harris on Time Magazine.
But yeah, he literally did say that it looked like Melania, who, you know, looks interesting these days herself.
I don't know.
We don't have to talk about her looks, but it's work well done.
I also want to point out, and I can't remember, I've been gone for so long, I can't remember if I said this on the podcast or in a different conversation, Nick, I also think part of it is he resents having to campaign against a woman of color.
He absolutely doesn't think that he needs to.
He doesn't respect her.
He doesn't address her in any type of way that treats her like a rival.
And so as a result, he's not even going to lower himself to it.
He's just going to like basically make fun of her and disrespect her.
Right, he won't pronounce her name properly.
What was that one?
Camilla?
Well, yeah, that's not like Camilla.
He's been spelling it Kamabla.
Yeah, I saw that.
Something like that.
You know, and it's just gross.
It's like, and by the way, Musk did the same thing.
Musk calls Trump President Trump, and he calls Kamala Kamala.
He won't even call her Vice President Harris or anything like that, only give her the proper respect.
If there's one thing I hate more about Musk than his politics and who he is now, it's his speech pattern.
It's so horrible to try and listen to.
I would not be able to work for him.
I could not be in those kind of meetings where you're trying to wait for him to get through a thought and get there.
It was so frustrating to hear, even the minutes at a time.
You actually endured the entire thing straight?
Fortunately.
He's an idiot.
That's actually, it's incredible.
He's done more to show us that billionaires in this environment were more made by the environment than their own work.
It's incredible.
Speaking of people who do not deserve anything and are disgusting and repulsive, we need to talk about these attacks on Tim Walz, particularly through JD Vance.
And I love that they think that Vance, and everybody knows how much I hate JD Vance, People need to also understand that watching Vance crash and burn has been incredible for me, watching it take place.
As people listen to this clip, Nick, I want to point out Dana Bash.
And by the way, I just got her name right for the first time.
Dana Bash.
Would you agree, Nick, that Dana Bash is not a hard interview?
Huh.
Let me think.
Is she not a hard interview?
Well, she does not push back that much.
She kind of furrows her brow, right?
Well, but what happens at the end of this answer in which J.D.
Vance is asked about Tim Walz and the weird thing, by the way, and I want to talk about that in a second.
I want people to hear this.
She cannot hide her antipathy and disgust for J.D.
Vance in this interview.
It's actually pretty incredible, but this is him trying to attack Tim Walz.
I had just been announced as a VP nominee.
I gave my big speech and I saw my wife and I gave her a big hug and a kiss because I love my wife and I think that's what a normal person does.
You're saying Tim Walz doesn't have affection for his wife?
our Midwestern handshake and then try to sort of awkwardly correct for it.
So I think that what it is, is two people, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who aren't comfortable in their own skin because they aren't comfortable with their policy positions for the American people.
And so their name calling instead of actually telling the American people how they're going to make their lives better.
I think that's weird, Dana, but like they can call me whatever they want to.
You're saying Tim Walz doesn't have affection for his wife.
I don't even understand that.
I said that he acted weird, which he did on a national stage in front of his wife and in front of millions of Americans.
I know you are, but what am I?
That is the Dana Bash!
Are you saying that Tim Walz doesn't have affection for his wife?
I don't even understand it.
Like, the J.D.
Vance soul-curdling disgustedness, like, she can't even hide it, you know what I mean?
And by the way, one of the things that I've enjoyed since I've been gone is catching up on the fact They can't lay a glove on them.
They can't even get a criticism of Harris or Waltz.
And by the way, Waltz, and we'll talk about him in a second, I've been blown away by how perfect of a pick this has been.
But there are things that you can say about Tim Waltz.
Like, this is a guy, Nick, he has like a near DUI arrest.
Like, this Iraq stuff that they're trying to push, that he left his troops, it's not landing.
None of it lands whatsoever.
And J.D.
Vance, by the way, if you think he's going to be the one to prosecute your opponents, like, it is so impossible for this guy to say anything that anybody around him isn't like, ugh!
It gets worse, Jared, and you know it's funny because I don't, like, I would never have served in the military.
I don't feel, I don't know, I, like, for instance, do I, I'm not even sure I hold it against Donald Trump that he got out of Vietnam.
I swear to God, I almost don't.
I hold it against him how he talks about it, not that he got out of it.
Fair enough.
Okay.
So, um, but they're using the stolen valor.
They're trying to accuse Walsh of stolen valor.
That, in my mind, is the equivalent of the N-word or any of the worst scopes for anybody.
Because here's a guy that went four years beyond the service required, or what he did for the National Guard.
He knew, um, when he filed to retire, it was months before they knew they were going to Iraq.
This was not a thing then, and everyone agreed.
You can't really run for Congress and be in the National Guard like this.
It's too hard to do both.
So, this is how desperate they are, and we keep saying, what's the big mantra?
It will always get worse, right?
Real fast, Nick.
Do you know what J.D.
Vance did during the war on terror?
You know, I saw Full Metal Jacket.
I mean, oh, sorry.
That was not a great thing.
The reason why I mentioned that is because, yeah, he was like a journalist, right?
He was writing about the experiences.
Let's put heavy scare quotes around journalists.
He pushed a pencil.
And if that asshole wants to degrade a person who served for two decades, In the National Guard with honor.
And by the way, went over to Europe in order to protect military bases during the War on Terror.
Like, he can go straight to hell.
And all of these theatrics he's done, everything from this to trying to confront Harrison Waltz on a tarmac and saying, that's going to be my plane someday to Air Force Two.
Like, none of this works.
It doesn't work.
And they don't have any solutions.
They don't have any ideas because they're uncreative, reactionary assholes.
That's it.
And if you want to go after a service, go after a service, but you don't need a pencil pusher to do it.
For sure.
And you know, what's funny is like I was talking about this in the last show, you know, I'm actually excited for the first time in a while.
I have a sort of a built-in positive energy out of this whole thing.
It could be the prednisone for my back, but I think it's also partly Kamala and Wallace.
But like, I think the fever is not quite, you can't say it's broken, right?
They haven't broken the fever.
But I do think that there's fatigue with this type of campaigning that perhaps in any situation, no matter where you are in history, it just dissipates enough.
My dad, of all people, was in Chicago talking to some buddies who are Trumpy.
And I'm like, what are they saying now?
And they were attacking Stolen Valor for Waltz.
That's what they're down to now.
Nothing about Trump and how they want to celebrate that.
And I'm like, how can you possibly have an issue with Waltz service and what he did there, but still support a guy like Trump?
Who got out of his service right?
But their answer was, well, it's because they have vans.
We have to compare apples to apples.
So it has to be the vice presidential candidates have to be compared like that.
And they can separate that in their adult minds.
They'll figure out whatever they need.
That's what we've learned.
The cognitive dissonance, they'll get rid of it however they need to do.
And when it comes, the stolen valor thing, it's so repulsive to even talk about it.
It doesn't work.
So I'm always trying to figure out, what are they going to do now?
Because it's fair to say the stolen dollar is not going to get traction.
So what are they going to do next?
Oh, that's the question, Nick.
And the answer is this.
When they run out of ideas, they'll make up things.
Right.
That's it.
They'll make up something that they can attack them with.
They're already calling.
I mean, I'm sorry.
Tim Walz, who, by the way, I support as the VP candidate.
I'm very, very happy.
By the way, thumbs up.
We have a ticket that is not Ivy League.
Like, we have people who, I mean, he went to Mankato, Nick.
He went to Mankato, okay?
Where did she go?
I don't even know.
Anyway, well, I know what they're going to do next.
What they're going to make up.
They're going to photoshop Walt's face over a clinger from MASH.
Well, they'll do something like that.
They've already, they're already putting all kinds of things.
He's a common, he's a progressive.
That's what he is.
He's not a socialist.
He's not a communist.
He's a progressive, which by the way, is such a relief.
That, that tells you where our political situation is, that a progressive is like, oh my God, this is a crazy leftist.
But, like, they can't they can't lay a glove on these people.
The only question at this point, Nick, and this is what concerns me, is will a big thing happen?
So right now, of course, Ukraine has started invading Russia, which is wild.
The Middle East is a tinderbox.
God knows what's going to happen there.
Who knows if there will be some sort of a major event, a terrorist attack in America?
Who even knows?
But my question now, like, if it doesn't move, if something doesn't change, the Republican attacks on Harris and Waltz are not going to work.
It would have to take some kind of major event that would change things.
Yeah, great point.
And forgive me, Kamala went to Howard.
I went to Howard, which is an honorary Ivy because it should be.
Okay.
And also, you know, flies in the face of the narrative that he really tried to dip his toe into about that she doesn't claim that she's black, which we haven't talked about when he went in front of the National Association of Black Journalists.
I talked about it because it was literally, it's an old school white supremacist tactic.
Yeah.
And you know what?
I'll leave it there, but it was shocking.
I couldn't believe what he was saying and what happened there, what he decided to make work.
And I couldn't believe that there were people on that side who were trying to paint it like it was a good appearance.
Well, we need to get to the Harris campaign and the waltz pick and some of these internal polls and also how the media is reacting because it's repulsive.
I just want to say very quickly, Nick, one of the things that is taking place during the sinking ship phase, you are seeing the far right, including people like Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist, the people who really enjoy what you just brought up, talking about who's black, who's Indian and all of that shit.
They're turning against MAGA.
And a large reason that they're turning against MAGA is because they hate the Elon Musks.
They hate the Peter Thiels.
They see the tech fascists are taking this thing over.
They'll make kind and they'll make partnerships with the tech fascists if it helps them, but they don't want MAGA to be taken over by tech fascists.
Why, Nick?
Because the white supremacist neo-Nazis want to take it over.
They are the ones who want control over it.
So at this point, they're going to go to war with them, which is what Nick Fuentes and other gripers like him are currently doing.
Right.
And I think, are they part of the fuel about like, you know, when you're hearing people say that it's the people running Trump's campaign that are intentionally torpedoing it?
Oh, Nick, absolutely.
It's the same.
Jared Kushner put big, big parentheses around globalist, right?
They did the exact same thing in 2016 and 2020.
I mean, they, they want to use Trump for the same reason that the tech fascists want to use Trump.
Right, and it's funny because for every person that the Trump campaign can dredge up using hate and fear to vote, they're going to lose like 1.2 voters the other way.
It's not like 2 to 1 or 3 to 1, but they're going to turn off enough of the voters that they need.
That's why we feel like we've gotten to this sort of intersection or inflection point where It's whatever you want to call it, if it's fatigue, if the fever's broken, whatever, where the desperation is going to ramp up exponentially because they realize that the polling is simply not in their favor.
It's not.
And speaking of polling, Nick, I was handed some internal polls by the Democratic Party in a strategist sense.
You know, even the most conservative public polls right now have her up five points.
They have her at 50%.
The ones that I've taken a look at, depending upon who you're talking to, have her up as many as eight points.
She is currently favored not just in every traditional swing state, but we're talking about Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and I mean substantially.
The Arizona thing is actually shocking that this was able to be done.
And I told everybody, like, you don't have to worry about getting Mark Kelly on there to try and win Arizona.
Like, it is, like, things have changed.
Right now, the estimates have Harris possibly going over 300 electoral votes.
Like, they are very, very large.
We haven't had a chance to talk.
The last time we sort of talked, the Harris campaign was sort of taking off.
We haven't had a chance to talk about the Tim Walz edition together.
My opinion, and I'll get more of it in a second after we get yours, I think she has grown into this position in an incredible way.
I think there's a fatigue, what you brought up.
People are tired of Donald Trump.
They're tired of all this.
I don't think a fever is breaking because Like, even if she wins and she gets a mandate, we're not talking about this thing going away.
It will take new shapes and new forms.
Don't worry about that.
But what are your thoughts so far about the Waltz edition and where the Harris campaign is so far?
I mean, I love it.
The only thing I said about Waltz initially was I kind of wish maybe he was a little bit younger, but he's one year older than her.
Right, right.
I mean, you know, remember you had kind of, uh, posited this notion, you know, you can pick someone who's 45, 48, and then you can run the table for 16 years, but Waltz would still be 67 or whatever, if he runs.
Maybe he won't even run at that point after, you know, if Kamala can win twice.
But I gotta tell you, it's not even the fact that she's up by a point or two or three or here and there.
It's the net difference from the day before Biden stopped campaigning or quit to now.
We've never seen a radical shift like that in the middle of a campaign before.
So that momentum is even more powerful than whatever the lead is that she has.
So even if she's down a point in some of the swing states, she's come back, like the Democrats, you know, generally as a presidential candidate, has come back from eight or nine points down in like two weeks, you know what I mean?
Like that's unheard of.
And she's done it perfectly with her, with the rollout, and him too.
They timed it really well.
Remember, I was kind of wringing my hands.
We don't have enough time to do all this stuff.
They timed it pretty well, where Biden steps down, she takes over.
Walz comes in a couple weeks later.
Now we have the Democratic convention coming up, and then we're going to roll into the debate and into the thing.
This has actually been timed almost perfectly, right, to ride this wave and not have any kind of dips with that get back in that horse race notion that we hate so much.
Yeah, so when we were talking about it as it started to take off, I said there were three momentum points that needed to be nailed, right?
The VP pick was perfect.
Also, by the way, a little bit of insider reporting, Josh Shapiro didn't want to be VP.
Like, that ended up being the thing.
And by the way, they're very lucky in that regard that he didn't really want the job.
Like, Waltz was the perfect pick.
I am delighted.
And I'm a midwestern white dude.
And I have to tell you, there are good midwestern white dudes.
We are currently seeing one of them as the vice presidential candidate.
And by the way, the narrative of it, Nick, I teared up, I'm not going to lie, when I heard about him being not just the football coach but starting the Gay-Straight Alliance.
That's courage.
That doesn't just change a high school.
That changes a town.
Do you know what I mean?
And he did that in the 90s.
Late 90s.
That is courage.
That shows what you're supposed to do.
He's dynamite giving speeches.
He's overjoyed being out there with her.
They make a really formidable ticket.
I do not think it has been perfect so far.
I will give her props where I will.
She gives an incredible speech.
She has grown into the role.
We talked about how she was sort of put on the back burner with the Biden administration, given terrible jobs.
They don't have an agenda yet.
At all.
And I'm saying that as somebody who's on a lot of these strategist calls and as an organizer who's working with people to try and create an agenda for the future to break the back of neoliberalism.
She doesn't have an agenda yet.
All they have is an opponent.
And by the way, they are spanking Donald Trump and J.D.
Vance at every single stop.
They have a shop at this point that isn't held back by Biden and his insider circle.
They know what they're saying.
They know how to attack them.
When they get the agenda, it will be almost perfect, depending upon what shape it takes.
The next thing about it, she's not handling the Gaza thing very well, which I wouldn't be shocked if that circles back around.
That needs to be addressed.
By the way, today, Thursday, there was a supposed ceasefire meeting between Israel and Hamas.
It doesn't sound like that's going to go anywhere.
Also, by the way, Joe Biden is the lamest lame duck that I have ever seen.
Like, it's incredible.
He is just out of the picture completely.
Do we know if he's gonna, he's not gonna speak at the DNC, correct?
Well, Trump was trying to make it sound like he wouldn't, but there's no way he's not gonna speak, right?
I don't, I don't know that he'll speak.
Wow.
I can't, I mean, I just can't believe that.
If I had to guess, if I had to guess Nick, what will happen is they will tape a statement from him.
Oh, right.
Okay.
I mean, that's my guess, but that's not going to get taken care of.
That's not going to be solved.
They need to figure out a way to talk about this thing, but I will say, Nick, they have nailed it.
And by the way, while we're talking about this, I want to make a point.
There have been lock-him-up chants at these rallies.
She has dispelled them.
And she has had the perfect thing, which is, let's let the courts take care of it.
As we've said, the courts aren't going to take care of it.
We don't need people chanting, lock him up.
We don't need authoritarian tactics.
I think she's handled that well.
I think she has grown into the position.
I think it's been pretty impressive so far.
You know, that's a good point, especially because I saw earlier today on Twitter, and I tweeted this out, Biden was speaking, and he said, you know, let me tell you what our Project 2025 is.
And when he mentioned theirs, everyone booed.
It was good.
He basically beat the hell out of them, was the quote at the end.
I don't even think beat the hell out of them is the right way to go either on this.
I mean, not that we want if they go low, we go high kind of stuff, but like, I feel like now is the time to really go high, you know, really aspire and lift and do the things that are really everyone's channeling into anyway.
And I don't necessarily need to know, hear him or using the rhetoric of that kind of stuff against them.
Because it just, you know, it doesn't, it's not ringing as true as it needs to be.
So that'd be the one thing I'd be wary of.
And I think Harris and Wallace have been terrific at that.
In fact, Wallace has been, you know, complimentary of J.D.
Vance's service, as he should.
Like, they've been very respectful of that.
So I think that they should continue to do that and then continue to hammer them on the policy stuff.
Yeah, I agree.
And here's the thing.
I actually do think that you do need to be aggressive when you're facing down authoritarianism.
I have absolutely no problem with them making fun of Donald Trump and J.D.
Vance.
Like, I'm sorry.
The couch fucker thing is perfect.
And I've said it before.
Why?
Because J.D.
Vance looks like a guy who fucks a couch.
And he is strange and he is dangerous.
You need to undercut him as opposed to giving him power.
On top of that, the press releases, the speeches, they have been perfect in terms of neutralizing these people and taking away some of their power.
Like, you can do that.
It's like taking on a bully.
Like, if you tell a bully to their face, you're a bully, you're pathetic, like, it takes away some of their power because that's why they do what they do is because they are pathetic.
They're projecting how they feel and all this stuff.
They've nailed this.
They've absolutely nailed this thing to the wall so far.
For sure.
Now, except the Israel thing is an interesting point.
I want to bring up two points.
One, I would bet my savings that Donald Trump talked to Netanyahu and said... He already did.
It's already come out.
He did talk to Netanyahu.
Well, we already talked to Netanyahu.
I think what they said in that meeting was, you better not have a ceasefire before... Oh, no!
Let me paraphrase it, Nick.
Listen, hold on.
I'm getting the exact readout of this call.
Okay.
Do not release the hostages in Iran until the day of my inauguration.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That was something from the... Wait, hold on.
We don't need a peace deal in Saigon.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
That's so weird.
I don't know where all this stuff is coming out.
Yes, it's absolutely sabotaging all of these things.
And Netanyahu is absolutely here for it.
It helps him.
It helps his bottom line.
It's treason.
And then the last part of it, and I've said this before with Biden too, as they started to dip their toe into this, he's like, she should simply just say, and again, this could be a purely cynical political move.
But that's what we're here for.
She should say, I will, I will pledge on day one to not send one armament to Israel.
I don't think she can.
She doesn't.
She can go back on it.
I agree.
But here's the problem is the Democratic Party is so intractably in this cycle of foreign policy.
Like I've said it before, and I want to make it very, very clear.
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are a duopoly in agreement about foreign policy.
The only thing that changes at this point is Ukraine, and that's because the Republican Party is absolutely in love with Vladimir Putin and the worldwide international authoritarian movement.
In this case, the Democratic Party has a choice, and they need to make that choice, which is, are we going to move away from Bidenism?
Are we going to move away from the old Democratic Party?
And are we going to stick up for what's right?
And by the way, just to give a preview, Like, when we are in Chicago, we're going to see the rage of the people who are saying, this needs to stop, this needs to end, the Democratic Party needs to change.
What shape that takes, what effect that has, that remains to be seen.
And on that flip side, I have a feeling that they've gone through the numbers and realized that however many people who are going to be upset with the Israeli policy in Michigan, for instance, will not change the election.
Right now, according to internal polls, that is true, which is one of the reasons why we're seeing the perspective on it that we are.
Right, so they could be a little bit more cavalier with their support of Israel and still feel like they're going to get Michigan.
Now Michigan is one of those states, I just think if you're looking at the one as I was studying the map last night, I think it's Pennsylvania.
I think it's the 19 electoral college votes they need to get there and then they can kind of have a firewall across there with Pennsylvania being the center versus anything else.
Do you have a feeling for that?
I think Pennsylvania right now is in the back.
I think Pennsylvania is in the bag for the Democratic Party.
Also, by the way, going back to the old school VP pick, I said this before Waltz was picked, which is one of the reasons why I thought he was the right pick.
Also, on top of that, it's just like he's more progressive and I really enjoy that.
He seems like a decent dude.
I think you get the upper Midwest.
And I think that pretty much takes care of it.
I think Michigan right now is going to go for the Democrats.
I do think it's going to be a lot closer than it needs to be.
She needs to have a break in policy.
The only thing that's changed a little bit is how the rhetoric is delivered.
It's the same rhetoric.
You know, it's just delivered a little bit better when it's not Biden, it's somebody else.
People in Florida, by the way, are kind of thinking that there's a movement We saw the, um, what's the place?
The Oaks, not the Oaks, the whatever the villages, the villages.
I wouldn't be putting any money on Florida going blue.
All right.
I mean, they are so cooked, man.
That state is as cooked as any state.
Like Arizona looks at Florida and they're like, I don't know.
I'm just looking at Florida on five 38.
Can I get a handle?
I mean, yeah.
Trump plus two plus three plus three plus three.
So, uh, you know, Oh, actually, never mind.
Oh, no, one of them is plus eight.
But, yeah, I don't think so either.
I think there's too many people who are Trumpy in the panhandle and all sorts of things in Florida that would make it too difficult.
But, you know, and whatever happened to Texas?
Wasn't Texas supposed to flip blue at some point as the I mean, like, they've been like, you know, they've had their voting rights impinged on and all types of things.
I will also say, by the way, while we're having this conversation, Nick, I think one of the most telling things that has occurred, besides the fact that Tim Walz was the perfect VP pick, and by the way, I put my cards on the table.
I thought Andy Beshear, Gretchen Whitmer were going to be the best picks, but Tim Walz, I think, has been an inspired pick.
The media is miserable with this.
They can't even, like, give it where it's due.
We've seen the New York Times, the Washington Post.
We've seen all of the major liberal institutions.
They're all coming out and basically saying, we're a little concerned about Waltz being too left.
Also, by the way, Nick, Harris isn't talking to them enough.
Like, they will tweet 35 to 40 tweets in a thread.
Like, we just think she should be talking to the media more.
We think it's a real problem.
What we are seeing is the liberal media is really revealing itself to not just be centrist, but aggressively centrist.
And they're made incredibly uncomfortable by this, which I think needs to be a wake-up call for people of exactly what the institutions in this country, what they're about, and what they prioritize.
I mean, listen, they're prioritizing the bottom line.
They need more... The bottom line.
Now, that said, you know, and then she, and Kamala has said this as well, that she needs to do the Barbara Walters, whatever, she needs to do an interview.
I don't know if Barbara Walters is available to give that interview.
Wait, did she pass away?
I'm, yeah, she passed away.
Well, okay, whoever that is now, Leslie Stahl, whoever is still around.
So she needs to do one, right?
I think we can both agree that, you know, there needs to be some major... Well, she will, after the convention.
I'm sure there will be a love parade for her in the media after the convention.
Yeah, and I think she'll do well in that setting, too.
I mean, I agree, she's kind of turned the corner on that.
I mean, I did see a little troubling answer about the economy at some point a week ago that kind of reminded me of some stuff, but I think that she's rolled this out as well as she can, as she could have, as a candidate.
There isn't many.
This is the outcome.
You couldn't have expected a much better outcome than this.
Amidst all this tumultuousness, for sure.
Yeah, no, I do think and by the way, like, listen, the Democratic Party has a long, long history of like shooting themselves in the foot and just like shooting the other foot and then shooting the first foot and then maybe going back and shooting the other foot.
This is in spite of the Democratic Party.
Back to what we've talked about, which is there's a generational shift.
You have a lot of different people who are coming forward right now, as opposed to the old hands.
The old hands were conservatives.
They are more or less just conservative and right-leaning at this point.
And what we're seeing is basically a tug-of-war over what the Democratic Party will be.
Will that translate into policy and an agenda?
We don't know yet!
This is, and I'm saying this and you know it's true and our listeners know it's true, every successful political campaign is in essence a cult of personality.
It's you get excited about an individual, right?
An Obama, a Harris, you name it.
Even Trump, I mean, Trump kept the cult of personality, right?
In this case, we have a candidate who's exciting people.
We now have a ticket that's exciting people.
The presentation is fresh.
The way they're communicating is fresh.
Time will tell whether or not that will shift over to the agenda.
I certainly know that myself and others are working on shifting it over into that situation, but we don't know yet.
We don't have a clue where this thing is going, but in terms of a very, very abbreviated, accelerated presidential campaign, this thing is running on full steam.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I can't, you know, nothing else for me to add to that one.
Well, all right.
Well, before we go, Nick, what have you been watching?
Tell the people.
Well, I happened to go to a play last night.
You went to a play?
You went to the theater?
The theater.
Yes, I did.
I went to the theater and it was actually an important or a sort of a seminal show in my life growing up because it was the show Company.
Oh, Company is a hoot and a holler.
One of the best.
You've seen it?
Yes, I've seen Company two or three times.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Cause you know, I'm obviously in my household growing up, we had certain luminaries that we were, you know, we're almost had shrines in our house.
And we were like, John Madden was one of those interestingly enough in the way he broke down football.
But Stephen Sondheim was the other, you know, one of the other brilliant.
I, and by the way, Nick, for the record, I know and love many people.
That for them, Company and Sondheim are on the Mount Rushmore.
They are the most important things.
What an incredible thing!
You saw Company.
Yeah, and so here's what's interesting is I knew all the music growing up because it was always being played.
Bobby baby!
Bobby booby!
Robert darling but we haven't I never saw it I had never actually seen this show so I had the whole thing in my head and I kind of was you know figuring out I sort of assumed how it would go so to actually see it now you have to remember in the last couple years they radically changed it so Bobby is now a woman And if you don't know the story, it's about a 35-year-old who hadn't committed, he was a bachelor, and all of his friends were married, and they're kind of trying to convince him to, you know, join us, be married, don't be alone.
And, you know, it was also a time when it came out in 1970, where, you know, for decades and decades, you were expected to, you know, get married at 23, have your kids, the whole thing.
And then people started to get divorced, right?
Late 60s, early 70s, it was right around that time.
So it had a lot, it was fraught with a lot of cultural angst, I suppose, at the time.
And certainly my parents were, they had been there, not newlyweds, basically, but they were a younger married couple when it came out.
So this doesn't really resonate as well now.
Like a 35-year-old woman having pressure to get married doesn't really have the impact like it probably had then, or it certainly doesn't have it now.
And so that was one thing.
And then Elaine Stritch, who originated one of the roles and was my mom's favorite.
And just, you know, whenever she appeared in a TV show, she'd always, you know, just love it and would sing some of the company songs.
You know, it's hard to fill those shoes.
Those shoes were not filled last night in close.
But then to hear Being Alive, which is the, you know, the climax of the show.
The showstopper, yeah.
You got to be able to bring it.
She didn't bring it.
It was the understudy, first of all, so that was one thing I wanted to say.
And I also wonder, in the context, from my perspective as a male, I just wonder, and I think I've talked about this before, women in my mind, the way I've been raised, women are not people who would shun other people.
Women are not people who don't... In my mind, women are people who know how to have relationships and they know how to connect.
Well, I mean, it depends on, you know, the individual, but...
Yeah, so for me, it was really hard.
To me, when I see the man doing that, and the man doing all those shitty personality things, and they can't find the connection, and they don't find love, and they reject what they know is good in front of them, that resonates with me more.
But also, Dean Jones, who did the finale, or did the show, His performance is so amazing and the emotion that comes out when he's singing it can make me really emotional when I'm listening to it.
I didn't get there and I'm frustrated.
I haven't seen the gender-reversed version of Company.
It's a very important musical to me.
I think it's lovely.
Were there moments?
There were definitely moments.
And the funny thing is, I'm Not Getting Married Today, which was done by, if you remember the show, Alice Vera, the funny other waitress.
She originated the role on Broadway.
And it's a fast-talking, and she's manic, and the whole thing.
It's hilarious.
It's great.
They did it with a gay couple this time.
And it was equally good and amazing which tells you that the writing is so good it almost doesn't matter like who the character is because it's all there for them to perform.
So that was a highlight and then there's a really cool scene that the song Tick Tock where she kind of sees her life in fast forward going on while she's lying on the bed and moving around.
Visually stunning.
And by the way, the visuals, the stage design was incredible too.
So it was good, but it just didn't quite get me there.
And I also don't know if the book of the show doesn't necessarily match the amazing songs.
Like, that was the thing.
When I finally put out the actual storyline with the songs that I knew so well, That didn't quite fit with me, and that could be a whole other conversation.
So the actual show itself might be a little bit head-scratching to me when I finally actually got to put it together and see it.
I'm happy you got to the theater.
Yes.
Well, what are you watching?
First of all, you seem so much more cultured.
Like, we logged on here, I was like, Nick got him some culture.
You know, it's funny, because I went to go see another show like this, and someone had ran into me and was shocked that I was there, Hollywood Bowl, seeing something that was really good.
And I'm like, no, listen, I was raised on music.
I love a good musical.
I love a good play.
I love a good opera.
It's so good.
You might not know this, but I was actually in my university's theater production of A Chorus Line.
That is going to be a topic that we are going to plumb for some content at some point.
That's fantastic.
That was a legit real deal.
Like I'm talking like Hollywood, I mean Broadway choreography and the whole thing.
So anyway, so yeah, I have that in, you know, I'm not just like, you know, he's not just a pretty face people.
That's right.
Well, again, enough about me.
What are you, what were you?
Well, so I was, I was in an undisclosed location for 10 days and, uh, I have so much stuff that I consume that it's hard to get into.
I read five books, um, which was fantastic.
Um, one thing that I, I read and I haven't talked to you about this.
I talked about this on my sub stack.
I'll go ahead and put it on here because it's our community.
I've recently discovered that I'm autistic.
And so it turns out that my obsessions with things like, I don't know, right-wing authoritarianism and conspiracy theories, like, these are special topics that really interest me and so I can research them for hours and weeks and months and years.
So I read a book, Unmasking Autism, which was a really good book to learn that, you know, I'm what they would call high-functioning autistic and it turns out I can mask really well and I can, like, have Conversations and do all these things and like, you know, do whatever.
So that was a good book.
I read a bunch of other books.
I also read the first book of the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger.
Oh, wow.
I had never read it.
Are you okay?
Is that a cry for help?
300 pages that went down fast.
Wow, okay.
I'll tell you what, Stephen King goes down fast.
Um, I also watched, uh, four or five movies.
I can't remember.
Um, Sweet Home Alabama, which is truly awful.
Well, no, you know this.
Sometimes you go a place where there are limited options.
Okay.
And you end up watching something that you wouldn't watch otherwise.
Like DVD?
Like how would you watch that?
We don't have to get into it.
I saw Source Code.
I've read the source code.
You don't like it?
I did too!
Oh, great.
I did too.
Adam Sandler's Grown Ups, which was not as good.
I'm not sure.
M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit.
Oh, Nick, it is truly, truly disturbing.
So I consumed a lot of different things, have thought about them a lot.
Also, just one weird thing, speaking of my special interest of right-wing authoritarianism, the politics of cultural despair.
Which is about the ideologues and philosophers who preceded National Socialism.
And Nick, would you believe that they thought that liberalism was out of control, that women had moved out of their proper place, that educators were evil and destructive, they needed to be taken care of, and what did they need?
They needed a Caesar-like Fuhrer to put things to right.
Weird!
It just sounds very, uh, very relatable.
So, the theory was that because of all those things happening, we were all becoming depressed?
Well, no, that it was taking advantage of those things.
That those are the people who gave the reasons for it.
So basically, these things took place in the 19th century, in the early 20th century, and that's where the Nazis got their idea and their momentum, which, by the way, is what happened in America as well, and what has been happening now.
Wow.
Well, that's heavy stuff, and I'm glad that you could, you know, maybe find a little self-reflection, self-discovery.
That's always good.
I feel, I don't feel cultured.
I do feel like I've gotten a little bit of... Well, let me ask you this.
Do you really think it has to be masking?
Does masking have to be the term that you say you were doing?
Or is it just something that you learn to do and who you are?
I wonder about that.
Those are different things.
Masking is how you learn to sort of hide a little bit and how to fit in a little bit.
Like, I had to create just to... We don't have total time to get into this.
I had to create a version of myself to go into classrooms and lecture.
I had to create a version of myself that went on TV and does things like podcasts.
And over time, it became me.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, you sort of learn that, and as you learn it, you sort of grow into it.
So, what I'm doing now is figuring out, like, where does that character end?
Where do I begin?
And the truth is that they're pretty intertwined.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's interesting.
And I think we're going to continue to evolve how this is viewed and looked at and stuff like that.
So it is fascinating to see how that plays out.
Well, I mean, we're in a moment where you have to have self-reflection.
Right.
You need to understand who you are and why you do the things you do.
And that's how we all interact.
Like, you know, it's a dance to figure out, okay, what personality are you?
What personality am I?
And the better you get at that, the quicker you can get to, okay, I'm going to be friends with that person, or I am not going to get anywhere near that person.
Right?
And that's what we, that's what life is anyway.
That's a little bit, I will say, and I don't want to blow your mind a little bit, Nick, you're at the end of The Weekender, but like, That sounds really familiar.
You might look into it.
Um, like that, that isn't exactly how everybody works.
So I do think this is, I think this is one of the, and one of the reasons I think that we are friends is I think that we approach it in a similar way.
We, we gain a very quick insight.
There, there have been times, and I don't want to pull the curtain back too much.
There have been times where you and I have talked to somebody and we've walked away from it and we have the exact same perspective on it.
Yeah.
And we were like, no, I figured that out pretty quick.
And so not everybody does that.
It turns out that some people go through life and they don't think about that shit all the time.
Fair enough.
I actually developed it also out of coaching.
Oh yeah, for sure.
The quicker I can figure that out and slot that in, the quicker I can then communicate in a way where they can excel.
Again, Nick, not to blow your mind, but I think that one of your special interests is basketball and improving basketball.
One of the reasons you were able to come up for, and we don't have to get into the totality, you came up with a new defense that nobody had thought of before.
It's possible because you have a different perspective than what a lot of other people have.
That is undisputable.
I will agree with that.
And that is one of the reasons why this podcast rolls on and why we are friends and why we have this community.
We are so grateful for you.
Reminder, people listening to this free preview of The Weekender, you can listen to this every Friday.
Like every Friday as you're going to work, as you're at the gym, as you're going home, you can listen to it on the weekend.
I mow the yard list in the podcast.
You probably mow the yard list in the podcast.
Like, just go ahead.
Go to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
On top of that, you're going to want the exclusive coverage and analysis from the Muckrake Podcast at the DNC.
That will start taking place starting on Tuesday after we react to Monday's First Night.
In the meantime, everybody, you can find Nick at CanYouHearMe?
