This is a preview of the Patron-only Weekender episode. To gain full access to these episodes, as well as special post-event and live recordings, and to keep the show editorially independent and ad-free, head over to Patreon and become a subscriber today.
Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman vent their frustration at Senator minority leader Chuck Schumer for rolling over and helping the Republicans pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the government. Meanwhile Donald Trump does his Crazy Eddie imitation to sell Tesla's on the fucking White House lawn while Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, and Rahm Emmanuel begin positioning themselves for a presidential run.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to the Weekender Edition of the McCrick Podcast.
I'm Jared A. Sexton.
Here's my good friend, co-host Nick Housman.
Hi, Nick.
Hi, Jared.
I'm keeping busy.
Oh, you didn't ask me, but I'm keeping busy in case you're wondering.
You jumped the gun.
You were ready to go.
I'm sorry.
It was on my mind.
But yes, we were before the show started recording.
What is the secret to maybe getting through a lot of this?
And I think keeping active, keeping busy, getting things done, getting a list going.
It seems to help the day go by.
I mean, I live and die by my to-do list.
Do you really?
I used to make lists and I just realized I never finished them and then I just stopped making them.
Oh, you have no idea how much of my life is dictated by sticking to my to-do list.
It's a mantra.
It's a philosophy of mine.
To-do list.
Well, make sure you have some grace for yourself as well if you don't quite finish those lists.
No!
You have to complete the list.
There's no grace to be had.
Anyway, we are here with a Weekender edition of the Muckrake Podcast.
A couple of notes.
First thing.
Head over to patreon.com slash muckraigpodcast.
Become a patron in order to listen to the entire show.
You listen to the preview.
We have so much stuff to go over, and we do, especially during this administration.
Keeps this show growing.
Keeps us editorially independent.
We appreciate your support.
Also, just a quick little note for people who listen to the show.
I just did an interview with Parker Malloy over on my substack, Dispatches from a Collapsing State.
I think that was a good interview.
Go check it out when you get a chance.
Nick, we got so much stuff to talk about.
There is a looming government funding crisis.
When people are listening to this on Friday, we could very well be on the way toward a government shutdown that is at midnight between Friday and Saturday.
The GOP is pushing an absolutely ridiculous stopgap funding bill that has gotten through the House.
Uh, it would fund the government through September 30th.
Right now, in order to get this budget passed, the Republican Party needs eight Democrats to go ahead with the plan and to vote with it.
Chuck Schumer has said that they are not going to help.
Many Democrats have been on the record saying that.
But at the same time, Nick, could you believe it?
Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are talking behind the scenes about possibly going ahead and helping the Republicans pass this bill and keep the government funded.
Um, this is a mess.
And, And this is one of the few moments where the Democratic Party actually has a little bit of leverage.
And yeah, the rumors that I've been hearing and the sources I've been talking to, it sounds like the Democratic Party wants really, really badly to go ahead and get this thing passed.
I mean, this is weird because this is sort of a business-as-usual kind of thing that we've gone through for the last 10 years, at least, with the CR. And you need to have 60 votes.
This is one of those weird things where the filibuster still applies somehow, where they've nuked pretty much every other vote.
And it kind of reminds me of Dawn of the Dead when they go to the mall and all these zombies are just kind of marching through the mall, just like they did in real life, you know, kind of aimlessly looking and shopping.
They do that.
It's the same thing with what these, you know, in our political climate now, like, nothing works like it did before, but they're going through the motions again of, like, a CR, and now you have, yeah, Chuck Strumer having to wring his hands over this whole thing.
I do like the little chef's kiss of Congress leaving after they've done their part, as if they're not going to change anything about that, forcing the Senate to have to agree.
I mean, if modern history tells us anything, they'll find a way to get a stopgap going, and then they'll agree on some sort of a compromise that will go forward.
I mean, honestly...
Based on the conversations I've had, the main motivator in this is the Democratic Party finds itself in the position where they want to help pass this stopgap measure.
Their biggest concern, Nick, is pissing off their voters and supporters.
Because rightfully, the people who want the Democratic Party to be a resistance opposition party are melting down the phone lines.
They're telling Democrats every which way, we want you to do something, and in this case, we are dealing with an authoritarian, oligarchical coup.
You need to make your presence known.
So what are the conversations about?
It's about how to manage the political fallout from this.
It's how to keep people from being mad at them.
And this brings us to the main critical problem with the Democrats.
Besides a lack of principles and or fight, they're reacting.
Everything with this party is about reacting.
It's never in any way, shape, or form is there any sort of direction.
Is there any sort of an appetite for the conflict that we actually need to happen?
So, like you said...
I wouldn't be shocked if in the dead of night, you know, probably, I don't know, 9.30 or 10 p.m.
on Friday, there will be some sort of an agreement that is made.
They'll go through the rank and file of the Democratic Party and find out which senators won't be hurt by voting for it because of the states that they represent.
And then they'll move forward.
I mean, we've seen this song and dance before.
It just so happens that...
You know, you brought up the dawn of the dead.
We're dealing with an apocalyptic scenario now.
Like, it's actually time to have some of that fight, but I think you're right.
I think decorum and, like, the old sort of way is going to win out again.
Well, is it safe to say that government services and government employees have just disappeared over the last several months?
I mean, in record numbers, in frightening, unsettling numbers, yes.
Let me ask you this, Jared.
What difference would it make if there's a shutdown?
Because it's already, in fact, whatever the word is, shutdown, right, in some respects, where they've already slashed and cut so many services as it is, there might not be much difference, and yet they're still so scared about all this and scared about making some sort of stand.
It would be easy, in effect, to do that because they're not going to be worried about people getting hurt because they're already being hurt from all the sources they're not getting.
So I don't understand why they want to capitulate and allow the...
It's not a win, but why they allow them to get their agenda through.
You know, there's a long history of people.
Collaborators, capitulators, enablers, you name it.
Nick, it's the equivalent of being a member of, I don't know, a church that is abusing people or being, you know, involved in some sort of an organization that is hurting people.
And you have to make some sort of a choice, which is, am I going to put my foot down and am I going to, like, make an actual stand based on ethical and moral choices?
Or is the appearance of validity what's important?
And in this case, we have a coup that's being carried out.
We have an authoritarian government that's in control.
The time to put your foot down is now.
And the whole fear of whether or not it's a shutdown or I hear whispers where they're like, well, a government shutdown could lead to more employees being let go, you know, as essential services take over.
Maybe they won't turn the spigot on.
That is a bunch of just hand-wringing.
And you'll notice one thing that keeps happening, Nick.
When they're judging what risk they should take, they always end up on one side of the risk.
The risk is always towards institutional...
You know, defense.
Like, not wanting to change anything, not wanting to actually take any sort of risks that could make things better.
It's always about defending the status quo, or even pretending that something that isn't normal is normal.
Like, we need to come to terms.
This party doesn't have it, and the people who are in charge of it do not have it.
And we'll talk more about that later in the program, but this is just a bright and shining example of that problem.
Oh, I agree.
I mean, you know, Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate, you know, he's old.
I hate to say it.
I mean, I'm closer to his age than probably a lot of people listening to this pod right now.
But, you know, and I don't have a lot of energy anymore.
I can only imagine what it's like to get to be that age.
And you don't have the same kind of gumption.
You just want everyone to be nice to each other and figure this thing out.
And let's go back the way we were.
And that's a problem.
I think that's one of the issues.
And we've been saying this for, I mean, how long have, I remember demanding that Chuck Schumer step down and not be the leader of the party, along with Pelosi, five years at least, I think.
Nick, I imagine our first episode was calling for Schumer and Pelosi to leave.
Yeah, yeah.
So, it is time.
The problem is, it's like, okay, who is that going to be?
But at some point, you need to let that person be who they are.
And we'll find out who it's going to be versus just sort of hanging around.
And it's like at the buffet, putting the food in your pockets to take home for later.
Whatever it is, this ain't it.
This ain't it.
This ain't it.
Nick, and this is another situation that all of these are interlocking and all of them affect one another.
The economy.
Continues to absolutely plummet.
This is due in part to a whole bunch of reasons, including an absolute cratering of consumer confidence.
People are not spending money.
And in fact, if you take a look at the numbers, it's mostly the upper middle class and especially the wealth class are the people who are actually spending money in this economy.
We have a massive supply and demand problem that is asserting itself.
And on top of that, we have an absolute batshit out of his mind president who has no idea why he's doing the things that he's doing at any given time.
And the bad news, Nick, is that nobody else does either.
In the past couple of days, we've had more tariffs.
That have been upped.
He's been threatening 200% tariffs on Europe, on steel and aluminum, which last time I checked, you need if you're going to build and produce things.
There is no method to this madness whatsoever, and as a result, the economy is absolutely falling apart.
And Nick, I'm sorry to do this, and I'm sorry to do this to the listeners, but...
I have to call balls and strikes where I see them, and this clip that we're getting ready to listen to of Jim Cramer kind of is right, and Jim Cramer is kind of making a salient point.
To the banks, now 10% below the 50-day.
That is an unusual number.
It's time for them to make a stand.
I think a lot of them have come down too much, but if we have a recession, banks are the worst stocks.
I don't think we'll have a recession.
Like I said, it's manufacturing.
It's manufacturing.
Well, that doesn't mean there won't be.
I'm not sure I understand.
Oh, no.
Manufacture can easily cause a recession.
Absolutely.
I'm not saying that manufacturing means it's not going to happen.
I'm saying manufacturing is that you can make it happen.
And when you get angry and when you kind of lose your temper and you get mad instead of like the way shine bombs handle it in Mexico, it gets people nervous and upset.
They want the president to be a little happier.
They let you know, there's nothing about being happy.
Yeah.
And what he's saying here in terms of a manufactured recession, Nick, the whole thing about the economy and the stock market, they don't want it to go into recession.
They don't want there to be an economic downturn.
But right now in the environment that Donald Trump and the people around him have created, it's forcing the issue.
And we have CEOs, they went and met with Donald Trump on Thursday.
The people that I know who have any sort of an insight into this...
Donald Trump didn't reassure them.
All he told them is, I will make you very rich and we are going to be very rich and very happy.
No explanation of what's going on.
No roadmap going forward.
And basically, there's no way to look at any of this right now without thinking, one, this man is not well and he doesn't know what he's doing.
And two, things are being pushed in this direction on purpose.
Oh, well, the typical response by a president would be like, don't worry, we're not going to have a recession.
We're going to do everything in our power to control whatever we can.
That would be a normal presidential thing.
Yeah.
Whether or not that would happen, we've had recessions, even though they've said that.
So they do happen, but it certainly calms some people when you know that people are trying to do this.
But he's already acknowledged, yes, the things that I'm doing could absolutely cause a recession.
It's basically what he said.
Now, the other problem we have here is that there seems to be some reasons why he would want a recession.
I've talked about this in the sense that he'd want it to lower interest rates.
You think he's trying to get out of his loans here.
That's the way you look at it.
Well, that could be.
I mean, there's always something that's a personal gain.
I assume that the people who are advising him have said something along those lines to him at some point, because it's always about trying to feed information to make him do what you want him to do.
Right.
So somebody out there, and he's willing to go with it, wants lower interest rates.
I actually found that.
Can I read something I saw online?
Because it kind of speaks to what I'm thinking might happen, even though I have no idea if this is credible or not.
now, but here's a here's a potential idea of what's going on where it's Trump is trying to crash the stock market at least 20% causing a flight into treasuries.
This will cause the Fed to slash interest rates so we can refinance the debt to near 0% and cause a deflationary spiral which will lower the cost of everything.
Now the person who wrote that I think is trying to do a positive spin on what Trump is doing where he's trying to crash it to force prices down and to force a huge demand and the lower interest rates.
What's that equivalent of?
Playing with fire isn't the right term because it's not enough to describe the peril that he's putting everybody in.
No, that's an absolutely batshit insane theory that has no grounding whatsoever in economic theory and or reality.
I mean, he might believe that.
And one of the things that we've been seeing, he's mentioned the Fed lowering interest rates.
He's talked about that, basically turning the spigot back on.
And I think there's a bunch of interlocking things that are happening here as well.
The people around him, including the oligarchs, Nick, the reason why they have the wealth they have is not just government investing.
It's the fact that they operated at near zero interest rates for years.
It's the equivalent of playing a video game on beginner level, right?
Like, you can't lose at that point.
It's just free money going around all over the place.
The other problem here, and I think that one of the larger goals, and Donald Trump doesn't know this.
He doesn't get it.
The people around him are the ones who understand it.
I've been yelling about this for years, which is, as globalism gets deconstructed, when you start having terror wars with Canada and Mexico, and you start alienating your allies who are all part of the giant global economic machine, and as you're trying to change the nature of capitalism, I've been saying they're going to re-industrialize the United States of America.
You've been listening to the free part of this episode.
If you'd like to hear the rest of this great conversation, head over to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast and subscribe for lots more additional content, including a Discord server and live shows.
We'd really appreciate it if you could give it a try.
