January 23, 2025 • 41 mins
Robert and Gare sit down with D.C. resident, Bridget Todd to discuss her experiences at the inauguration, the return of the Proud Boys, and what it all means for everyone in and out of the District.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh, welcome back to It Could Happen Here, a show
where it's now happening here, A thing that we've said
in a joking way a number of times, but now
it just is this is, you know, a podcast. We're
having a good time. I'm Robert Garrison Davis, my co
host colleague, and today we're talking about Trump's inauguration with
(00:27):
a good friend of ours who was present at the
thing itself, Bridget Todd. Bridget, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
It's actually my first time on It Could Happen Here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm like a little like nervous. I hope it goes well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you're an og guest over on Bastard, so it's
about time we had you on here. How are you feeling, Bridget,
Just in general before we get into the specifics, how
are you doing in the first full day of this
new era?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Not great, Bob, not great, not great, not great?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, bad.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Like we were talking off Mike, like I need to
figure out a self care plan. And part of this
is on me that I feel like I am one
of those people that has kind of checked out a
little bit, and I'm like ough hoo, I'm I gotta
take a step back from this, and now that I'm
taking a step back in, I'm like, I need a
plan for how I'm going to pace myself and not
lose my fucking shit every fucking day.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, it's probably not for the best that. Like, right
at the same time as this has all happened, the
people who make gas station drugs have figured out how
to take the chemicals and kretom, which you know in
leaf forms is generally safe drug, and hyper concentrate them
into basically fucking heroin. So I'm just working on staying
away from that shit too much of the news, you know,
(01:39):
that's the way you gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I'm also doing dry January and trying to eat healthy.
I'm not doing that so I have no outlets. I
can't drink, I'm not I don't do drugs. I'm fucking
eating lentil soup every night. I got nothing. There's nothing
I can.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Do to cope.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'm keeping myself, okay, I by just eating venison every
single day.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yeah, I'm carrying on our Vegas tradition and I've
moved into gambling.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Hie.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh you're gambling now, huh.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Not actually, but instead of doing something stupid for inauguration day,
me and my friends got together and all played anarchist poker,
so that was that was fun. I lost about ten
dollars to my friends, so that's it.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
How often did you say I hardly know it?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Like about about four times?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, that's that's the right amount of fat.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But we also got quite drunk by the time we
started our second game. I was also dressed like Data
from the next generation, complete with silver face paint the
entire time and a poker visor. So that was that
was how I spent yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm glad you got to experience the hell that that
actor experience. Bridget Let's talk about the inauguration. Let's do
it all right, So I kind of coming in firsthand.
When did you sort of lock down your plans to
actually be there?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So initially my plan was to get at a town
total I'm gonna go out to Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I'm gonna hide on the mountains with a rifle like that.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You're joking, but like almost no, no, no, I'm not joking,
And I mean I was in So I live in
d C. Lived in DC most of my life.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I was in DC in my apartment when January sixth happened,
and I remember being so scared there was a curfew
in DC, like.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It just shit got really real really quickly.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I remember I was on a all staff like the
beginning of the year, planning work call, and somebody just
on the zoom was like, hey, something's happening, and everybody
who lives in DC should maybe check the TV, and
then the line went dead.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That's what I remember the most.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I was planning on getting out of town, and
then I thought, fuck it, why should these people drive
me out of my own city. I want to be
out on the streets. I want to be out in
my community. I want to be connected. And so yeah,
I went out to the People's March protest. I went
out as far as I could to Inauguration downtown just
to get a sense of what the vibes were.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, all right, well let's let's get into the vibes.
How were they?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Weird as hell?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
This is something that I think people might not really
think about a lot. So like being from DC living
here most of my life, people really obviously think of
it as like a seat of national power, and they
sometimes forget that there are over six hundred thousand DC
residents who just like live here, work here, have their
lives here, and so this stuff all plays out like
practically in our backyards. While arguably we have less electoral
(04:37):
political power and less agency in some ways because DC
is not a state. Yeah yeah, yeah, our congressional representative
Eleanor Holmes Norton, she can like vote in committees and
introduce legislation and stuff like that, but she can't vote,
and so all of this matters for It's dude, don't
even get me started.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Like I could talk about statehood all day long.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That's like such a funny shit the compromise, like you
can you could be there and like talk, but you
can't do anything like you I'm sorry, that's just so
fucked up it is.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And it's like a I mean, like, there are so
many reasons why it sucks that DC's not a state,
but ultimately it's like we deserve to have political power.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We deserve to have a say.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Why Yoming Estate? Have you ever fucking been to y good? God?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Like, And I mean I could talk all day when
Republican lawmakers get on TV, and I remember they would
shit on DC by saying things like there's not even
laggers who live there. It's not even a real place,
like as if the only way to actually meaningfully exist
in the United States, it's like you have to have
laggers who live there, Like it's so infuriating.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And none of those motherfuckers know a lagger I know.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So all of this background really matters to Trump's kind
of tense relationship with DC, like the district. Trump, as
y'all might remember, spent quite a lot of time just
talking straight shit about the district and announcing these like
big plans to take over DC. The background is a
little bit complicated, but the quick and dirty version is
(06:13):
that DC has what's called home rule. So that's like
the ability for DC to govern, like for our local
government and leaders to like make decisions about what happens
to the district. And on the campaign trail, Trump was
saying he wants to change this, that DC's home rule
would be revoked and that the federal government basically him
would dictate how DC is run as a city. Because
(06:34):
DC is not a state, technically, any president could have
that authority to interfere with how DC is run, so right, yeah,
any president could like take over the police Department and
take over the powers are Mayor Muriel Bowser currently has
over the city.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, so I guess, first off, like of your friends,
how many folks kind of made the same call, Like
what was the general decision? Because I'm looking at like
footage of Proud Boys marching through fucking DC again for
the first time in almost half a decade, and like, yeah,
where are the people you know on this kind of stuff?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I mean this in the most literal sense, nobody zero.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I was out there flying solo and I had multiple
friends and be like, you're crazy to go down there,
like like everybody. Yeah, And I guess that's something else
that I wanted to talk a bit about, which is that,
you know, the first time around, during Trump's inauguration, I
was like out on the streets, I was like, it
sounds so silly now.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
But like, ugh, I almost only want to get into it.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But the idea of like resist that had not yet
become a cliche to me, and in the you know,
aftermath of Trump's first election, I was really clinging to
that for like whatever hope or power. I didn't know
it was going to turn out to be like a
bunch of grifters. And like people saying like hashtag resist
and like meeting nothing yea. At the time, I really
(07:52):
clung to that this time around total night and day difference,
like yeah, and I think the mood on the street
I think reflected that I think that DC is exhausted.
The people that generally I know who are like radicals
who would be out on the street, A lot of
those people were like, we're sitting this one out. Yep. Yeah,
(08:12):
that was like a refrain I hear from a lot
of black and brown organizing folks here in DC, like
this is not our fight. We are sitting this one out.
And I don't blame anybody, right, Like it's a lot.
We've all been through a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, And that's I guess if I could get across
something and people listen, it would be like, don't just
show up because they are right now. They have the cops,
they have the courts. If they want you to show
up in the street, the best thing to do. Sometimes
I'm not going to say this is going to be
consistently the case, but is like, don't give them what
(08:46):
they want, don't be where they want you to be,
don't make it simple for them, you know, Again, I
keep trying to say, and I'm not saying this, and
like I'm so smart, I know what everyone needs to
be doing. I don't. But it's like, not what we
did last time, because that that just didn't didn't do
it exactly, didn't do it all, didn't not get out
of the park won the home run.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
The last time Trump was in office, y'all remember like
the Women's March and pussy hats and all of that.
I actually staffed the Women's March that time around. I
was one of the digital street team folks. So I
was like very invested. This time around, they changed the name,
they rebranded to the People's March, and they only had
a couple of thousand people out there, And so, you know,
(09:30):
I think it really goes back to what you were saying, Robert.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Personally, I have a hard time.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
With the idea that what we did then is what
we should be doing now that that that that playbook
is still.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Going to work.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
And frankly, like sixty nine percent of white women voted
for Trump, right, and so like the idea that I
would feel safe and feel solidarity with a bunch of
women out on the streets, like being like Boo Trump,
it just like it's I understand why the turnout was
so low. I feel like folid ality march on the
street is clearly not where we're at, So that is
(10:04):
not how we should be meeting this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, and even last Jay twenty there was like a large,
large radical contingent, and those people are similarly sitting out.
And when you're looking towards the next few months, looking
at like what kind of ice rates are going to happen,
looking at what's going to happen for like reproductive healthcare,
transgender healthcare, people are making the calculation that it does
not make sense to like needlessly throw yourself against the
(10:29):
walls of the state when we can stick together and
see and see what happens and prepare for all of
those other things that are going to actually impact you
and people that you know, like seriously. And it sucks
to be stuck in that reactive position, and there's things
you can do proactively, but going outside and yelling in
front of a fence probably isn't going to do any
(10:51):
of those things. It's probably not going to help the
people who are going to need help in the next
few weeks. Yeah, and people are understanding that and it's
leading to people reacting quite differently than than what they did,
you know eight years ago.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
I agree, Yeah, I mean Garrison, you really said it.
And in this moment personally, I am really wondering, like
what my role is, Like where could I fit in.
There was a time where you know, just being out
on the street yelling, like being so frustrated I have
to take to the streets and scream in impotent rage.
That would feel like something. And I just think in
(11:26):
twenty twenty five, I have to figure out like what
it is I can contribute and contribute that. And I
don't know that it's protest as it used to be,
Like I used to be somebody who like protest was
my thing, Like you know, I really got my start
in the anti war movement when I was in college,
and like that felt like something. I don't think that
that's what it is for me anymore. Maybe it's just
age too, you age out of it or something.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure, I think some of it is that, like the
only meaningful definition of intelligence really is the ability to
adapt to changing circumstances. And when the circum stances change
in the way that they have and you're like, well,
time to do exactly what we tried in twenty seventeen.
That is not intelligent, right, Like I'm not trying to
(12:08):
be mean. And again I'm not saying I know what
the smart thing is, but it is we gotta be pivoting.
We gotta pivot in a lot of different directions right now.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So yes, and I don't know that I see some
of the institutional powers that be, even people who are
like ostensibly like on our side, doing that pivot. Right,
Like I'm now very much in this sort of like
nonprofit industrial complex. All the organizations who were like, oh, well,
where should we be put in our money and this
and that the first time around, I just see them
(12:38):
doing the same old thing.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And it's like, I don't know that that is what's
gonna save us.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And like, don't get me started on how useless the
Democrats are, because they'll go all day. But like when
Trump announced that he was moving the inauguration inside, they
printed little joky shirts that said snowflake.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I'm just so sick of that, Like that sort of like.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Sneering, dunking, useless that doesn't translate to meaningful action.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm just so sick of it. I wanted to gouge
my eyes out.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, yeah, I mean that's what's in part what lost
of the election is that is that general attitude and
that conception of them throughout the country. And yeah, getting
your little like snide remarks during Haig's EST's confirmation hearing
might make you feel good and might generate a good
clip for social media, but is that actually going to
stop him from getting into the cabinet position.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I've had so many arguments about this with people over
the last few days who still insist that, like what
the fascists can't stand you making fun of them. That's
what they hate is you laughing at them. And like,
I think there was a stage at which that was
a valid tactic, and you know, there may be elements
of that in the future, but like, no, they don't care.
They're winning. I'm not saying, like, don't fucking make jokes
(13:47):
with your friends to like keep your sell self sane.
I'm saying, don't mistake dunking on them on social media
for doing anything that matters, because it doesn't Well.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Okay, I'm not even sure, Like I have so much
to say about this, so I have been saying this
for a.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Very long time.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
And you know, we were all at the Democratic National Convention.
I have did admit that I was there as an influencer.
But the thing that annoyed me so much was like
that exact sentiment, and that exact sentiment fucking lost. The
thing that the thing that pisses me off now is
the complete unwillingness to be like, where did we go wrong?
(14:26):
Maybe the memes and the jokes and the calling them
weird and then this and that that. Maybe it felt
good in the moment, but it actually didn't translate what happened.
Unwilling to do that, completely unwilling you know.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You see, I would almost argue that, like the weird stuff,
I think if they'd stuck with it, there was something there.
I think the I think the the emphasizing how outside
of like the American norm these guys were and like
what we want to accept in our communities, Like there
was something there, but they didn't stick to it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
The next big time we saw Tim Walls, he was
talking about how how he wanted to be friends with JD.
Vance on the fucking debates. Yes, yeah, you know, but
also I think that's a little different than just like
calling him fucking Orange, Mussolini or whatever the fuck. Like,
I think there's a point in a messaging tactic. It's
like Trump gets mileage out of the names he uses
(15:15):
and the way in which that's part of how he
got where he is. So I'm not saying that aspects
of these tactics can't be used. Well, I'm talking about
the way in which people liberals and folks on the
left are continuing to do the fucking like drump shit
that's not getting us anywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I could not agree more. And yeah, I mean I agree.
I think the weird stuff could have like had legs.
I think that they were kind of like scattershot at
that point, and they were like, let's tell people seem
to like this, let's lean into this, oh, this new thing,
let's lean into that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
The thing that I remember very clearly was when Tim
Walls was talking about how, oh, we have a saying
in Minnesota it's mind your own damn business. Yes, yes, yeah,
so like my partner is from Minnesota, and he was like, oh,
that is like absolutely a Minnesotan thing, your own damn business.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, you can sell that.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, So I agree, But yeah, the like calling Elon
Elmo like all these little cutesy things might feel good
and like get to a hit of dopamine and get
you a few you know, likes on whatever, but it
just it's not gonna save us.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And I'm so sick of it.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I feel like, in some ways it's all anyone has
to offer right now, and I'm sick of it.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
One of the interesting things when like looking back at
the last version of Trump's Jay twenties, you did have
you know, these large, large militant groups, you know what
would later probably be dubbed antifa by the media, but
there was there was a presence in the street. And
this time around, really the only sizeable militant presence in
the street was like the first return of the Proud Voice.
(16:57):
Did you stumble across a gaggle of of black and
yellow clad militants in the street.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Not a gaggle, I saw one, lone one. I'm sure.
It was like I've lost my group, like.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
A little duck. I had to help a baby duck
get back to its mom. Last year, it was just
like that, right down to the IQ.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I have some friends right now who are in the
DC airport and it is chud Central over there.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
It sounds quite bad.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I I saw a friend posted about like all of
the Trump merchant they were sitting next to two individuals
debating race science in the airport terminal. So that is
the vibes of the DC airport as of as of Tuesday,
the day after the inauguration. But yeah, like the return
of the Proud Boys is like one one of the
(17:47):
big things that I think we're gonna we're gonna see
these next few weeks is the amount of all right
militias or these you know, more like street gang type
groups who've been so emboldened by by Trump essentially giving
them permission to do whatever they want to now now
that they know that they're not going to face any
kind of like real legal repercussions for you know, carrying
out whatever actions they want to against the people of color,
(18:09):
queer people, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And that's going to be interesting to see. Like this
is certainly a sign that suggests some embrace, But I'm
kind of wondering if we're looking back to the Nazis
the ogs. What the Nazis did was marginalize and actually
purge a lot of these guys fairly quickly. Because the
folks that were the best at like rabble rousing and
fighting in the streets, were also kind of like the
(18:32):
least reliable at helping to keep a stable system in
the city. Right Like after the Nazis took power, one
of the big issues they had is like, we still
have a lot of people who are kind of like
in the middle, including most of the military, and one
of the things that keeps scaring them is all these
fucking goons running about. And we still want what the
goons are doing, which is like certain people beaten and
(18:54):
thrown in camps, but we don't want the goons doing it.
We want the cops doing it. And I guess kind
of we're all waiting to see how different or similar
what comes next looks to that.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
And I mean, what do you make of Like, I
guess I knew it was coming, but when all those
J six booms got pardoned, and so like you have
like the leader of the Oath Keepers, the leader of
the Proud Boys getting released from DC jail, Like, what
do you make of that?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
There's two things. Number One, this is something that he
had campaigned on. It's something that there was a lot
of support from his base for, you know, like the
fact that in order to kind of protect himself, he
had to really heavily embrace the idea that nothing bad
happened on January sixth. Then if it did, it was
the fault of you know, the mean old Biden cops,
(19:43):
and so he kind of had to do it. The
degree to which he shows up and is close or
actually directly embraces proud boys and guys like Tario is
going to tell us a lot. And I think we'll
be seeing that very soon. If they are kept at
arm's length and kind of letting them out is all
they do, then I don't know how much we're going
(20:04):
to see of these guys. If there's a real embrace
and an attempt to use them as a way to
kind of extra legally deal with his enemies, then I
think we start seeing them really make inroads and pushes
in places like Portland, trying to get people out so
that they can do violence to them and then you know,
get pardoned or just have the violence ignored and the
(20:25):
other people get thrown into prison. And I don't really
know which way I think that the state is landing
right now, which is not to say, like I think
one is clearly less violent than the other because his
other option is he's going to be having his FEDS
do that kind of shit.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I think that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from,
the not knowing of like it could go this way
or that way. Both are bad, but what flavor are
we going to get? Like That's the thing that is
really getting to me right now.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, do you want to talk about what the probaboys
were actually like up to on Monday?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Yeah, So, as you said, this was the first time
that they in mass came to DC since January said,
and they marched through the streets of DC holding a
banner that said congratulations President Trump, and they chanted who
streets our streets? Which, by the way, that is such
like again as someone who kind of like came up
on like street protest.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, y'all are doing the chant all late. Like I
hate that.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, the situation is continued to be proven correct.
The levels of recuperation for even like you're like diametrically
opposed like militant enemy side is just fucking crazy.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yes, And I saw this, I mean, speaking of J
six rioters who were all, you know, pardoned, I saw
this video that really kind of broke my heart. It
was a video that some maga dipshit took outside of
the jail where all those people were being held. And
so there's a black DC elder who clearly is just
like mining her business, walking down the street in her
(21:51):
city and she gets baited into an on video screaming
match outside of the DC jail where this maga guy
yells like like like, oh, we didn't do anything wrong,
no crime was committed, and she's like, you all killed
a cop.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
No cops got killed, which is not true. Like the
it goes back to what you were saying.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Robert about how there is this need to quickly have
it be like something that wasn't that big of a deal.
And one, to see that in person in this video
was was wild to me. But two, seeing like a
DC elder like take the bait broke my heart because
I wish I could have could have been in that
moment to be like, honey, you don't need to be screaming.
(22:30):
This guy wants you to be screaming at him. He
wants this video of you screaming at him on the street.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
This is like exactly what he wants.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, I entirely agree.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
You know, The biggest takeaway from being out was just
how sparse it was. Like, you know, the first time around,
I probably had four different people staying with me, two
of whom got arrested during the big anti Trump protests.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
This time around, I didn't have anybody. I didn't know
anybody who was there.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
And I do think that reflects kind of where people
are at. I think people are exhausted, people have been
through a lot. People are maybe pacing themselves and sort
of like don't want to blow their rage wad on
the first week, which I totally understand, but I think
it really remains to be seen, like whether or not
this vibe is going to take us through the next
four years.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Are people just tuning out? Are we checked out?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Are we so exhausted and overstimulated already that we're not
going to really be paying attention? And in some ways,
like I feel like that's exactly what authoritarians want.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yes, that's where it's difficult, or that's one of the
many things that is difficult, is that like checking out
is not the answer, but you simply can't react to
everything that happens showing up and burning yourself out in
the street. It's like the cops continue to do bad things.
If every time a cop is a bad thing, you
(23:51):
and your friends throw yourselves at a police station until
you all get arrested, then you won't be able to
do anything else because you'll be in jail. You know,
like and like, these are hard realities, which is why
it necessitates new kinds of thinking, creativity, you know, to
some extent unsatisfying. And I guess part of what I
(24:11):
would say is if people are giving you answers to
what we need to do that sound very clear and satisfying,
you should maybe not trust that totally. Yeah, because the
responsible answer, in my opinion, is that, like, it's very
unclear how to get out of this or what the
right things to do here are. We just know that
(24:32):
what we've been doing hasn't been working, and the first
step to wisdom is accepting that.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Oof.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I love that something I know that isn't working. Is
I'm glad that we're not doing.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I thought you were going to pivot to ads. Actually,
let's pivot to ads.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
You're so good at ads, like you could teach a
class on it.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh yeah, well I waited twenty eight minutes this time
to do it. But at least we have the second
one out there. We're back, Bridget Sorry, where were you going.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Something that I'm glad we are not doing this time
around is remember during the first Trump administration, how the
Washington Post changed their tagline to democracy dies in Darkness
and everybody gave them a shit ton of money because
it was like, yeah, we need like good investigative journalism,
traditional media, that's gonna save us. I'm glad that this
time around we've all cut the shit and it's like, no,
(25:35):
they're part of it.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
They're not going to do a goddamn thing.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Absolutely not. Yes, they don't give a fuck. Fucking Jake
Tapper couldn't roll over fast enough and.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Like so even I mean, I'm sure y'all have talked
about this to death and I have been thinking about
it nonstuff. But Elon's seeing how the traditional press reported
on his salute.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It's like, like, oh, what did he do?
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Like, like, the way they will contort themselves to not
just come out and say it is astonishing to me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Uh yeah, that's I mean, that's one of like the
scariest things is the degree to which they're trying to
memory all stuff happening as it happened, and at the
same time, Okay, yeah, he did a Nazi salute. He's
a Nazi. This is not the first thing that's made
that clear. We need to move on knowing he's a Nazi,
but we need to move on, you know, like that
that's right. I don't know. I don't know what to
(26:27):
do other than you know, maybe there's some utility and
spreading clips of him next to the fucking guy from
American History X, but I don't know. I don't know
how that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
The fact that he is in this position where he
can do something like that on stage and it actually
doesn't matter is like so much more frightening to me
than like than like Elon Musk like doing like a
very like low mortar control like version of the salute
when he's like wrapped up in some like excitement that
he's trying to like meme to like his like fans
on fourtune. The fact that like he's even just allowed
(26:59):
to do that it doesn't actually matter, like this will
not affect him in any way is more what's interesting
to me, because yes, we've all known that he's been
a Nazi for quite a while. He's like shared things
that are like essentially like Nazi race science on Twitter
before he is he has engaged with like extremely anti
Semitic conspiracy theories before and you know, the largest anti
(27:20):
semitism org in the country has completely capitulated to these people,
so like they've hollowed out everything that's like supposed to be,
like you know, the institutional blockages, whether that's you know,
places like the Washington Post where that's literally all of
the tech companies, the degree to which like everyone has
cozied up to Trump, which is also like very different
from twenty sixteen. Exactly everyone was like fairly like united
(27:43):
institutionally was united against Trump, and you know the same
way we like we don't see you know, people out
in the streets, you know, writing or even doing like
large protests. The actual you know, institutional powers have have
decided to instead of actually trying to fight this guy,
they're gonna trying to like how friendly they can be,
Like how much can they get out of this. There's
this like resignation, and I don't know how long that'll last,
(28:07):
Like I'm not sure if like, you know, once Trump
becomes the establishment figure that he's been like deriding for
the past few years, Like once he falls back into
that zone, if we're going to see more resistance to
him from like institutional levels, but you can't like count
on it. And the degree to which it's it is
like different from twenty sixteen is like worth remembering. Like
(28:27):
a phrase me and Robert talk about sometimes is like
the forever twenty sixteen, Like the fact that it feels
like we've never really left twenty sixteen. Everyone kind of
acts like we're still in twenty sixteen, like this such
load bearing year on our entire cultural consciousness. But the
fact is we aren't in twenty sixteen anymore, and you
can't act like we are. You actually have to move
(28:48):
on from that, and we're starting to see more of
that in certain corners. You see some of that among
some of the radicals, some of the anarchists as well
as you know, the tech companies and the CEOs and
the media company they're just you know, changing the degree
to which they're moving away from their twenty sixteen mode.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
You actually just gave me.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
A little bit of a silver lining that I had
not realized, which is like it kind of is useful
to see so clearly where these institutions and power holders stand.
And it's like when like I remember watching tech companies
like change their logos to Black Lives Matter or post
the Black Square, it's kind of freeing to be like,
(29:27):
we don't have to do that shit anymore, y'all will
have to pretend, And we don't have to pretend either.
We know where you stand. You've made it very clear.
You could not make it. You could not have made
it clear where your alliance is. And let's go from there.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Like it almost it almost is sort of like trimming
the fat a little bit.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
We no longer have to take these these institutions as
serious as allies or something.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah, there's going to be a degree to which, like
people's masks come off more than usual. I mean, I
think certainly this next Pride month will be interesting to
see how people change Pride months twenty twenty two or
even you know, Pride was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, I was at Pride in San Francisco in twenty
twenty and it was very big, very happy, but there
was like a rind to it, you know, there was
like an edge to it of are we going to
be able to keep doing this? You know, there's a dispensary.
(30:24):
You know, I don't smoke, but a friend of mine
who I stay with when I'm at San Francisco does,
And so I was with them at this dispensary and
it had like a sign talking about its history, which
is that the person who found it it's a very
nice one. It's like an apple store inside, and the
person who like started it and ran it did so
because when they were younger, their partner had AIDS HIV
(30:46):
in the AIDS and marijuana reduced some of their symptoms,
and they had to go buy it in the nearby park,
which was a lot uglier of a place and a
lot like it was. It was sketchy, like they got
robbed a couple of times. There's a lot more violent
crime and just kind of there are even in a
place like San Francisco, which is so like gentrified in
such a way. Like when you're when you're talking with like,
(31:07):
especially the older members of the queer community, they're not
just like rich, out of touch tech people. They are old,
battle scarred queers who went through some of the ugliest
moments of this nation's history and we're kind of bracing
themselves forward again. So yeah, I'm very interested to see
what it's what it's like this year.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
You know, But even that, I feel like there's a
I mean, it's grim shit, but there's a kind of
hope in it that like we've been people have been
here before, right, Like, yeah, you know, there have always
been queer people, trans people, black and brown people, immigrants,
like we are America, and like we've always been here, baby,
We're always gonna be here and like making our way
and like holding on and bracing ourselves and doing what
(31:48):
we got to do and enduring like that is what
we fucking do. And so in some ways, as grim
as that is, it's kind of hopeful question mark.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Also, Yep, I'm just on the edge of my seat.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
H Yeah, I mean certainly, you know, lots of people
who I surround myself with are you know, looking towards
ways to take control of like their own bodies and
stop relying like wholly on any kind of government government
like agency or model for that, as well as doing
a lot of a lot of reading on the old
like anti deportation, anti ice resistance from like years and
(32:22):
years ago, not just from like the Trump era, but
from from the stuff like like way before if we're
not going to be out in the streets doing you know,
slightly mindless protest where your marching in circles. You can
use that time to instead, like educate yourself and build
connections with people, and you know, read about these things
that may become more and more important to know at
(32:42):
least so you have an understanding of history as the
next four years to start happening quite quickly.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
That's so insightful.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, I think when things feel hopeless, reading about how folks,
you know, our elders, the folks that came before our ancestors,
how they dealt with stuff like this, has been really hopeful,
and it's like, yeah, I guess I just try to
tell myself, you've been here before and people found a
way to make it through, and you know, it feels
(33:10):
uniquely tragic, but in some ways it is not. And
as scary as that is, it can also be sort
of like grounding.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah, and like the same things won't work, but you
also need to understand the things that didn't work last time,
and it's good to know, and it's good to know
the things that did. Like it's it's it's important to
have the understanding so you don't feel like you're having
to reinvent the wheel every single time. And like that
type of like generational knowledge sometimes is really tricky to
pass down in these sorts of spaces and it you know,
(33:38):
it doesn't and it sometimes it requires a degree of
initiative to like actually like seek out the information on
your own.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
The internet's great, h and.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Terrible, but it has it has a it has a
it has a vast catalog of history.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I want to talk a bit about the speech that
that bishop gave at the Trump's first church service as
president the second time around, because that is of all
of like the fucking media people getting clapped at for
making fun of you know whichever, you know, heg Seth
or whoever. Yep, that I think actually did matter a
(34:11):
little at least it was the there was the courage
of saying it to their faces in a way where
their reactions were had to be filmed.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It's also not trying to dunk, it's not trying to
create like a viral moment. It's like genuinely upsetting to
them to get like reminded of like what it means
to be human. Yeah, and like maybe that's more important
than trying to get your like Katie Porter top ten
funniest moments in Congress, like a compilation exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, And to be very clear, if you didn't catch this,
the right Reverend Maryanne bud b DD was the Episcopal
Bishop of Washington. During a church service where Trump and
Vance and basically everybody in the new government was sitting,
made a direct plea quote from this from an NBC
Washington article, referencing Trump's belief that he was saying by
(35:00):
God from assassination, but said, you have felt the providential
hand of a loving God, and the name of our God.
I asked you to have mercy upon the people in
our country who are scared now. And then she referenced
specifically transgender people, queer people, people in democratic families, independent
families who were frightened right now about what the new
administration means, as well as migrants, and she made a
point of saying, like the vast majority of whom are
(35:22):
not in any way criminals, and.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Yeah, like regardless of whether or not they have the
right paperwork.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah. There was rage on Vance's face, which is part
of why I'm like, that's an act of actual courage.
There's been one Republican representative who said that she needed
to be deported, but she's born in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So deported back to New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, Representative Mike Collins of Georgia. So one of your guys, gare.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Oh, thanks, then there are you from Georgia? Well, no,
but I live in Georgia. I'd live there now, And
as someone who lives in Georgia, the only people that
I think should be deported back to New Jersey are
the costco guy and his kid.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
Get them out, send them back now.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I do think I do think we should be deporting
large numbers of people to New Jersey just because my
old boss and friend Daniel O'Brien lives there and I
want to fuck with them a little bit, make the
traffic worse, Like see how you deal with that, Danny boy.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
No, it was like, I think the most useful thing
i've like I've seen yet.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Yeah, it's still like largely symbolic, but like.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
At least someone took a big public risk, you know, yeah, yeah, courage. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I think it's the writer Sarah Candozer who has this
line that I always think of, if you can't be brave,
be kind. I think that like people who you see
doing acts of big acts of bravery right now, Like
that's I mean, it's just there are so few of them.
And I think, especially when I look at like the
tech leaders, they.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Have so much fucking money.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Somebody said on tlue Sky, what is the point of
having fuck you money if you never say fuck you
to anybody?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Like the way that these people turned out to be
such yellow bellied cowards is wild to me. And so
people actually having conviction and actually speaking power, I think
we should be lifting that up wherever it happens.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I can think of like one tech guy with
a lot of money who's turned out to have any
kind of a backbone, And it's the guy who made
that fire watching app that everyone in California's using right now,
watch Duty, who's basically had said stuff along the lines
of like, I don't know, I see all these other
guys who got rich in tech talking about going to Mars,
and I think it's much more useful to try to
help people survive on Earth something along those lines. And
(37:25):
his like novel made a critical like it is a
critical life saving piece of technology that actually is what
we should hope for from tech. You know, anyway, bridget
what else did you want to kind of make sure
we got into today.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Well this is going to sound a bit random, but
I have to just make sure that this gets in there,
because you know, I'm talking about the impact of Trump's
inauguration and what the next four years will look like
for you know, not just for people nationally, but folks
right here in DC where this is happening in our backyard.
And I have to give it up for the service
industry folks of DC the last couple of days because they, oh,
(38:01):
I like have heard horror stories and I just I
guess that's what I mean is that don't forget that
there are real people who have to like put up
with these people's bullshit and do it with a smile
or they might get fired. And you know, in Adam's Morgan,
which is like pretty close to where I live, a
woman at an Irish bar had to be removed by
(38:23):
a staffer because she was screaming white power at the bar. Like,
these people do not get paid enough to deal with this,
and they are like the backbone of our city. So
I just wanted to shout them out, especially since you know,
Trump switched up the inaugurations because of the cold question mark,
and so a lot more of these people were just
sort of wandering around the district on inauguration who otherwise
(38:44):
would have been confined to like a very specific neighborhood downtown,
And so they were going into our bars, going into
our restaurants, and yeah, I just really feel for my
industry folks who had to deal with this. You know,
they're not paid enough, but they really are the backbone
of our city. Hell yeah, you know, I started this
conversation talking about all the horrible things that Trump has
(39:04):
said about DC and how he's going to take it
over federally, and like, you know, he has said, like
we will take over the horribly run capital of our
nation and Washington clean up and rebuild the capitol, so
there's it's no longer a nightmare of murder and crime,
but rather, hell, I know, this like hell hole where
like people live and raise their families and go to
parks and ride bikes and have great times. Yeah, you know,
(39:27):
I had a chance to talk to the mayor about this,
and I will say our mayor Muriel Bowser is not
convinced that any of this will happen. She is saying, like,
you know, I think that Trump says a lot of things.
I think at the end of the day, he is
probably not going to mess with DC's home rule. And
so I just wanted to say that if you're in
DC and you're listening, and you're thinking, like, what does
(39:47):
Trump you know mean for DC? Are all these big
threats that he has made going to come true? All
I can tell you is that our mayor does not
think it is likely. So if that is useful to you,
I hope it brings you some comfort.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oddly enough, one thing that's given me comfort is like
Trump has twice in the last day, both when talking
about Gaza and when talking about North Korea, weirdly enough,
gone onto diggressions about how good that it is a
place to build condos, and the degree to which he's
still focused on like real estate feels as opposed to
the broader fascist project is hopeful, just because like he
(40:23):
is a bottleneck through which a lot of this has
to cover, and he is clearly not as personally obsessed
with every aspect of this as guys like Stephen Miller, right,
Like he even makes fun of Miller a little bit
for that kind of stuff. So there's a degree to which,
like well, his own personal eccentricities, there's aspects of this.
It might slow down.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
This motherfucker is not out here trying to genuinely govern,
like come on, I know.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
So in some ways that is heartening of like, oh, well, he's.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Gonna like do his scams, the whatever, whatever, Like if
he weren't to actually take over DC, that's an incredible
amount of work and labor, and I don't think he's
got it in them. So maybe in some way some
of these threats will like fly under the radar.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I don't know. Yeah, guess we'll see.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Guess we'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Bridget, Where could people find you?
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Well, you can listen to my podcast. There are no
girls on the internet about the intersection of identity and tech,
And you can follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie
and DC.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
All right, find Bridget, follow Bridget and uh follow somebody smart.
I don't know who they are. Figure that out, Good luck, godspeed,
fuck them. If they can't take a joke.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
It could happen.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You can now find sources for it could happen here,
listed directly in episode descriptions.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Thanks for listening.
Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh, welcome back to It Could Happen Here, a show
where it's now happening here, A thing that we've said
in a joking way a number of times, but now
it just is this is, you know, a podcast. We're
having a good time. I'm Robert Garrison Davis, my co
host colleague, and today we're talking about Trump's inauguration with
(00:27):
a good friend of ours who was present at the
thing itself, Bridget Todd. Bridget, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
It's actually my first time on It Could Happen Here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm like a little like nervous. I hope it goes well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you're an og guest over on Bastard, so it's
about time we had you on here. How are you feeling, Bridget,
Just in general before we get into the specifics, how
are you doing in the first full day of this
new era?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Not great, Bob, not great, not great, not great?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, bad.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Like we were talking off Mike, like I need to
figure out a self care plan. And part of this
is on me that I feel like I am one
of those people that has kind of checked out a
little bit, and I'm like ough hoo, I'm I gotta
take a step back from this, and now that I'm
taking a step back in, I'm like, I need a
plan for how I'm going to pace myself and not
lose my fucking shit every fucking day.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, it's probably not for the best that. Like, right
at the same time as this has all happened, the
people who make gas station drugs have figured out how
to take the chemicals and kretom, which you know in
leaf forms is generally safe drug, and hyper concentrate them
into basically fucking heroin. So I'm just working on staying
away from that shit too much of the news, you know,
(01:39):
that's the way you gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I'm also doing dry January and trying to eat healthy.
I'm not doing that so I have no outlets. I
can't drink, I'm not I don't do drugs. I'm fucking
eating lentil soup every night. I got nothing. There's nothing
I can.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Do to cope.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'm keeping myself, okay, I by just eating venison every
single day.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yeah, I'm carrying on our Vegas tradition and I've
moved into gambling.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Hie.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh you're gambling now, huh.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Not actually, but instead of doing something stupid for inauguration day,
me and my friends got together and all played anarchist poker,
so that was that was fun. I lost about ten
dollars to my friends, so that's it.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
How often did you say I hardly know it?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Like about about four times?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, that's that's the right amount of fat.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But we also got quite drunk by the time we
started our second game. I was also dressed like Data
from the next generation, complete with silver face paint the
entire time and a poker visor. So that was that
was how I spent yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm glad you got to experience the hell that that
actor experience. Bridget Let's talk about the inauguration. Let's do
it all right, So I kind of coming in firsthand.
When did you sort of lock down your plans to
actually be there?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So initially my plan was to get at a town
total I'm gonna go out to Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I'm gonna hide on the mountains with a rifle like that.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You're joking, but like almost no, no, no, I'm not joking,
And I mean I was in So I live in
d C. Lived in DC most of my life.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I was in DC in my apartment when January sixth happened,
and I remember being so scared there was a curfew
in DC, like.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It just shit got really real really quickly.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I remember I was on a all staff like the
beginning of the year, planning work call, and somebody just
on the zoom was like, hey, something's happening, and everybody
who lives in DC should maybe check the TV, and
then the line went dead.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That's what I remember the most.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I was planning on getting out of town, and
then I thought, fuck it, why should these people drive
me out of my own city. I want to be
out on the streets. I want to be out in
my community. I want to be connected. And so yeah,
I went out to the People's March protest. I went
out as far as I could to Inauguration downtown just
to get a sense of what the vibes were.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, all right, well let's let's get into the vibes.
How were they?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Weird as hell?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
This is something that I think people might not really
think about a lot. So like being from DC living
here most of my life, people really obviously think of
it as like a seat of national power, and they
sometimes forget that there are over six hundred thousand DC
residents who just like live here, work here, have their
lives here, and so this stuff all plays out like
practically in our backyards. While arguably we have less electoral
(04:37):
political power and less agency in some ways because DC
is not a state. Yeah yeah, yeah, our congressional representative
Eleanor Holmes Norton, she can like vote in committees and
introduce legislation and stuff like that, but she can't vote,
and so all of this matters for It's dude, don't
even get me started.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Like I could talk about statehood all day long.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That's like such a funny shit the compromise, like you
can you could be there and like talk, but you
can't do anything like you I'm sorry, that's just so
fucked up it is.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And it's like a I mean, like, there are so
many reasons why it sucks that DC's not a state,
but ultimately it's like we deserve to have political power.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We deserve to have a say.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Why Yoming Estate? Have you ever fucking been to y good? God?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Like, And I mean I could talk all day when
Republican lawmakers get on TV, and I remember they would
shit on DC by saying things like there's not even
laggers who live there. It's not even a real place,
like as if the only way to actually meaningfully exist
in the United States, it's like you have to have
laggers who live there, Like it's so infuriating.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And none of those motherfuckers know a lagger I know.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So all of this background really matters to Trump's kind
of tense relationship with DC, like the district. Trump, as
y'all might remember, spent quite a lot of time just
talking straight shit about the district and announcing these like
big plans to take over DC. The background is a
little bit complicated, but the quick and dirty version is
(06:13):
that DC has what's called home rule. So that's like
the ability for DC to govern, like for our local
government and leaders to like make decisions about what happens
to the district. And on the campaign trail, Trump was
saying he wants to change this, that DC's home rule
would be revoked and that the federal government basically him
would dictate how DC is run as a city. Because
(06:34):
DC is not a state, technically, any president could have
that authority to interfere with how DC is run, so right, yeah,
any president could like take over the police Department and
take over the powers are Mayor Muriel Bowser currently has
over the city.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, so I guess, first off, like of your friends,
how many folks kind of made the same call, Like
what was the general decision? Because I'm looking at like
footage of Proud Boys marching through fucking DC again for
the first time in almost half a decade, and like, yeah,
where are the people you know on this kind of stuff?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I mean this in the most literal sense, nobody zero.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I was out there flying solo and I had multiple
friends and be like, you're crazy to go down there,
like like everybody. Yeah, And I guess that's something else
that I wanted to talk a bit about, which is that,
you know, the first time around, during Trump's inauguration, I
was like out on the streets, I was like, it
sounds so silly now.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
But like, ugh, I almost only want to get into it.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But the idea of like resist that had not yet
become a cliche to me, and in the you know,
aftermath of Trump's first election, I was really clinging to
that for like whatever hope or power. I didn't know
it was going to turn out to be like a
bunch of grifters. And like people saying like hashtag resist
and like meeting nothing yea. At the time, I really
(07:52):
clung to that this time around total night and day difference,
like yeah, and I think the mood on the street
I think reflected that I think that DC is exhausted.
The people that generally I know who are like radicals
who would be out on the street, A lot of
those people were like, we're sitting this one out. Yep. Yeah,
(08:12):
that was like a refrain I hear from a lot
of black and brown organizing folks here in DC, like
this is not our fight. We are sitting this one out.
And I don't blame anybody, right, Like it's a lot.
We've all been through a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, And that's I guess if I could get across
something and people listen, it would be like, don't just
show up because they are right now. They have the cops,
they have the courts. If they want you to show
up in the street, the best thing to do. Sometimes
I'm not going to say this is going to be
consistently the case, but is like, don't give them what
(08:46):
they want, don't be where they want you to be,
don't make it simple for them, you know, Again, I
keep trying to say, and I'm not saying this, and
like I'm so smart, I know what everyone needs to
be doing. I don't. But it's like, not what we
did last time, because that that just didn't didn't do
it exactly, didn't do it all, didn't not get out
of the park won the home run.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
The last time Trump was in office, y'all remember like
the Women's March and pussy hats and all of that.
I actually staffed the Women's March that time around. I
was one of the digital street team folks. So I
was like very invested. This time around, they changed the name,
they rebranded to the People's March, and they only had
a couple of thousand people out there, And so, you know,
(09:30):
I think it really goes back to what you were saying, Robert.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Personally, I have a hard time.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
With the idea that what we did then is what
we should be doing now that that that that playbook
is still.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Going to work.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
And frankly, like sixty nine percent of white women voted
for Trump, right, and so like the idea that I
would feel safe and feel solidarity with a bunch of
women out on the streets, like being like Boo Trump,
it just like it's I understand why the turnout was
so low. I feel like folid ality march on the
street is clearly not where we're at, So that is
(10:04):
not how we should be meeting this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, and even last Jay twenty there was like a large,
large radical contingent, and those people are similarly sitting out.
And when you're looking towards the next few months, looking
at like what kind of ice rates are going to happen,
looking at what's going to happen for like reproductive healthcare,
transgender healthcare, people are making the calculation that it does
not make sense to like needlessly throw yourself against the
(10:29):
walls of the state when we can stick together and
see and see what happens and prepare for all of
those other things that are going to actually impact you
and people that you know, like seriously. And it sucks
to be stuck in that reactive position, and there's things
you can do proactively, but going outside and yelling in
front of a fence probably isn't going to do any
(10:51):
of those things. It's probably not going to help the
people who are going to need help in the next
few weeks. Yeah, and people are understanding that and it's
leading to people reacting quite differently than than what they did,
you know eight years ago.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
I agree, Yeah, I mean Garrison, you really said it.
And in this moment personally, I am really wondering, like
what my role is, Like where could I fit in.
There was a time where you know, just being out
on the street yelling, like being so frustrated I have
to take to the streets and scream in impotent rage.
That would feel like something. And I just think in
(11:26):
twenty twenty five, I have to figure out like what
it is I can contribute and contribute that. And I
don't know that it's protest as it used to be,
Like I used to be somebody who like protest was
my thing, Like you know, I really got my start
in the anti war movement when I was in college,
and like that felt like something. I don't think that
that's what it is for me anymore. Maybe it's just
age too, you age out of it or something.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure, I think some of it is that, like the
only meaningful definition of intelligence really is the ability to
adapt to changing circumstances. And when the circum stances change
in the way that they have and you're like, well,
time to do exactly what we tried in twenty seventeen.
That is not intelligent, right, Like I'm not trying to
(12:08):
be mean. And again I'm not saying I know what
the smart thing is, but it is we gotta be pivoting.
We gotta pivot in a lot of different directions right now.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So yes, and I don't know that I see some
of the institutional powers that be, even people who are
like ostensibly like on our side, doing that pivot. Right,
Like I'm now very much in this sort of like
nonprofit industrial complex. All the organizations who were like, oh, well,
where should we be put in our money and this
and that the first time around, I just see them
(12:38):
doing the same old thing.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And it's like, I don't know that that is what's
gonna save us.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And like, don't get me started on how useless the
Democrats are, because they'll go all day. But like when
Trump announced that he was moving the inauguration inside, they
printed little joky shirts that said snowflake.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I'm just so sick of that, Like that sort of like.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Sneering, dunking, useless that doesn't translate to meaningful action.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm just so sick of it. I wanted to gouge
my eyes out.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, yeah, I mean that's what's in part what lost
of the election is that is that general attitude and
that conception of them throughout the country. And yeah, getting
your little like snide remarks during Haig's EST's confirmation hearing
might make you feel good and might generate a good
clip for social media, but is that actually going to
stop him from getting into the cabinet position.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I've had so many arguments about this with people over
the last few days who still insist that, like what
the fascists can't stand you making fun of them. That's
what they hate is you laughing at them. And like,
I think there was a stage at which that was
a valid tactic, and you know, there may be elements
of that in the future, but like, no, they don't care.
They're winning. I'm not saying, like, don't fucking make jokes
(13:47):
with your friends to like keep your sell self sane.
I'm saying, don't mistake dunking on them on social media
for doing anything that matters, because it doesn't Well.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Okay, I'm not even sure, Like I have so much
to say about this, so I have been saying this
for a.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Very long time.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
And you know, we were all at the Democratic National Convention.
I have did admit that I was there as an influencer.
But the thing that annoyed me so much was like
that exact sentiment, and that exact sentiment fucking lost. The
thing that the thing that pisses me off now is
the complete unwillingness to be like, where did we go wrong?
(14:26):
Maybe the memes and the jokes and the calling them
weird and then this and that that. Maybe it felt
good in the moment, but it actually didn't translate what happened.
Unwilling to do that, completely unwilling you know.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You see, I would almost argue that, like the weird stuff,
I think if they'd stuck with it, there was something there.
I think the I think the the emphasizing how outside
of like the American norm these guys were and like
what we want to accept in our communities, Like there
was something there, but they didn't stick to it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
The next big time we saw Tim Walls, he was
talking about how how he wanted to be friends with JD.
Vance on the fucking debates. Yes, yeah, you know, but
also I think that's a little different than just like
calling him fucking Orange, Mussolini or whatever the fuck. Like,
I think there's a point in a messaging tactic. It's
like Trump gets mileage out of the names he uses
(15:15):
and the way in which that's part of how he
got where he is. So I'm not saying that aspects
of these tactics can't be used. Well, I'm talking about
the way in which people liberals and folks on the
left are continuing to do the fucking like drump shit
that's not getting us anywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I could not agree more. And yeah, I mean I agree.
I think the weird stuff could have like had legs.
I think that they were kind of like scattershot at
that point, and they were like, let's tell people seem
to like this, let's lean into this, oh, this new thing,
let's lean into that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
The thing that I remember very clearly was when Tim
Walls was talking about how, oh, we have a saying
in Minnesota it's mind your own damn business. Yes, yes, yeah,
so like my partner is from Minnesota, and he was like, oh,
that is like absolutely a Minnesotan thing, your own damn business.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, you can sell that.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, So I agree, But yeah, the like calling Elon
Elmo like all these little cutesy things might feel good
and like get to a hit of dopamine and get
you a few you know, likes on whatever, but it
just it's not gonna save us.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And I'm so sick of it.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I feel like, in some ways it's all anyone has
to offer right now, and I'm sick of it.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
One of the interesting things when like looking back at
the last version of Trump's Jay twenties, you did have
you know, these large, large militant groups, you know what
would later probably be dubbed antifa by the media, but
there was there was a presence in the street. And
this time around, really the only sizeable militant presence in
the street was like the first return of the Proud Voice.
(16:57):
Did you stumble across a gaggle of of black and
yellow clad militants in the street.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Not a gaggle, I saw one, lone one. I'm sure.
It was like I've lost my group, like.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
A little duck. I had to help a baby duck
get back to its mom. Last year, it was just
like that, right down to the IQ.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I have some friends right now who are in the
DC airport and it is chud Central over there.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
It sounds quite bad.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I I saw a friend posted about like all of
the Trump merchant they were sitting next to two individuals
debating race science in the airport terminal. So that is
the vibes of the DC airport as of as of Tuesday,
the day after the inauguration. But yeah, like the return
of the Proud Boys is like one one of the
(17:47):
big things that I think we're gonna we're gonna see
these next few weeks is the amount of all right
militias or these you know, more like street gang type
groups who've been so emboldened by by Trump essentially giving
them permission to do whatever they want to now now
that they know that they're not going to face any
kind of like real legal repercussions for you know, carrying
out whatever actions they want to against the people of color,
(18:09):
queer people, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And that's going to be interesting to see. Like this
is certainly a sign that suggests some embrace, But I'm
kind of wondering if we're looking back to the Nazis
the ogs. What the Nazis did was marginalize and actually
purge a lot of these guys fairly quickly. Because the
folks that were the best at like rabble rousing and
fighting in the streets, were also kind of like the
(18:32):
least reliable at helping to keep a stable system in
the city. Right Like after the Nazis took power, one
of the big issues they had is like, we still
have a lot of people who are kind of like
in the middle, including most of the military, and one
of the things that keeps scaring them is all these
fucking goons running about. And we still want what the
goons are doing, which is like certain people beaten and
(18:54):
thrown in camps, but we don't want the goons doing it.
We want the cops doing it. And I guess kind
of we're all waiting to see how different or similar
what comes next looks to that.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
And I mean, what do you make of Like, I
guess I knew it was coming, but when all those
J six booms got pardoned, and so like you have
like the leader of the Oath Keepers, the leader of
the Proud Boys getting released from DC jail, Like, what
do you make of that?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
There's two things. Number One, this is something that he
had campaigned on. It's something that there was a lot
of support from his base for, you know, like the
fact that in order to kind of protect himself, he
had to really heavily embrace the idea that nothing bad
happened on January sixth. Then if it did, it was
the fault of you know, the mean old Biden cops,
(19:43):
and so he kind of had to do it. The
degree to which he shows up and is close or
actually directly embraces proud boys and guys like Tario is
going to tell us a lot. And I think we'll
be seeing that very soon. If they are kept at
arm's length and kind of letting them out is all
they do, then I don't know how much we're going
(20:04):
to see of these guys. If there's a real embrace
and an attempt to use them as a way to
kind of extra legally deal with his enemies, then I
think we start seeing them really make inroads and pushes
in places like Portland, trying to get people out so
that they can do violence to them and then you know,
get pardoned or just have the violence ignored and the
(20:25):
other people get thrown into prison. And I don't really
know which way I think that the state is landing
right now, which is not to say, like I think
one is clearly less violent than the other because his
other option is he's going to be having his FEDS
do that kind of shit.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I think that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from,
the not knowing of like it could go this way
or that way. Both are bad, but what flavor are
we going to get? Like That's the thing that is
really getting to me right now.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, do you want to talk about what the probaboys
were actually like up to on Monday?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Yeah, So, as you said, this was the first time
that they in mass came to DC since January said,
and they marched through the streets of DC holding a
banner that said congratulations President Trump, and they chanted who
streets our streets? Which, by the way, that is such
like again as someone who kind of like came up
on like street protest.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, y'all are doing the chant all late. Like I
hate that.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, the situation is continued to be proven correct.
The levels of recuperation for even like you're like diametrically
opposed like militant enemy side is just fucking crazy.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yes, And I saw this, I mean, speaking of J
six rioters who were all, you know, pardoned, I saw
this video that really kind of broke my heart. It
was a video that some maga dipshit took outside of
the jail where all those people were being held. And
so there's a black DC elder who clearly is just
like mining her business, walking down the street in her
(21:51):
city and she gets baited into an on video screaming
match outside of the DC jail where this maga guy
yells like like like, oh, we didn't do anything wrong,
no crime was committed, and she's like, you all killed
a cop.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
No cops got killed, which is not true. Like the
it goes back to what you were saying.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Robert about how there is this need to quickly have
it be like something that wasn't that big of a deal.
And one, to see that in person in this video
was was wild to me. But two, seeing like a
DC elder like take the bait broke my heart because
I wish I could have could have been in that
moment to be like, honey, you don't need to be screaming.
(22:30):
This guy wants you to be screaming at him. He
wants this video of you screaming at him on the street.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
This is like exactly what he wants.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, I entirely agree.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
You know, The biggest takeaway from being out was just
how sparse it was. Like, you know, the first time around,
I probably had four different people staying with me, two
of whom got arrested during the big anti Trump protests.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
This time around, I didn't have anybody. I didn't know
anybody who was there.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
And I do think that reflects kind of where people
are at. I think people are exhausted, people have been
through a lot. People are maybe pacing themselves and sort
of like don't want to blow their rage wad on
the first week, which I totally understand, but I think
it really remains to be seen, like whether or not
this vibe is going to take us through the next
four years.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Are people just tuning out? Are we checked out?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Are we so exhausted and overstimulated already that we're not
going to really be paying attention? And in some ways,
like I feel like that's exactly what authoritarians want.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yes, that's where it's difficult, or that's one of the
many things that is difficult, is that like checking out
is not the answer, but you simply can't react to
everything that happens showing up and burning yourself out in
the street. It's like the cops continue to do bad things.
If every time a cop is a bad thing, you
(23:51):
and your friends throw yourselves at a police station until
you all get arrested, then you won't be able to
do anything else because you'll be in jail. You know,
like and like, these are hard realities, which is why
it necessitates new kinds of thinking, creativity, you know, to
some extent unsatisfying. And I guess part of what I
(24:11):
would say is if people are giving you answers to
what we need to do that sound very clear and satisfying,
you should maybe not trust that totally. Yeah, because the
responsible answer, in my opinion, is that, like, it's very
unclear how to get out of this or what the
right things to do here are. We just know that
(24:32):
what we've been doing hasn't been working, and the first
step to wisdom is accepting that.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Oof.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I love that something I know that isn't working. Is
I'm glad that we're not doing.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I thought you were going to pivot to ads. Actually,
let's pivot to ads.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
You're so good at ads, like you could teach a
class on it.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh yeah, well I waited twenty eight minutes this time
to do it. But at least we have the second
one out there. We're back, Bridget Sorry, where were you going.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Something that I'm glad we are not doing this time
around is remember during the first Trump administration, how the
Washington Post changed their tagline to democracy dies in Darkness
and everybody gave them a shit ton of money because
it was like, yeah, we need like good investigative journalism,
traditional media, that's gonna save us. I'm glad that this
time around we've all cut the shit and it's like, no,
(25:35):
they're part of it.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
They're not going to do a goddamn thing.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Absolutely not. Yes, they don't give a fuck. Fucking Jake
Tapper couldn't roll over fast enough and.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Like so even I mean, I'm sure y'all have talked
about this to death and I have been thinking about
it nonstuff. But Elon's seeing how the traditional press reported
on his salute.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It's like, like, oh, what did he do?
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Like, like, the way they will contort themselves to not
just come out and say it is astonishing to me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Uh yeah, that's I mean, that's one of like the
scariest things is the degree to which they're trying to
memory all stuff happening as it happened, and at the
same time, Okay, yeah, he did a Nazi salute. He's
a Nazi. This is not the first thing that's made
that clear. We need to move on knowing he's a Nazi,
but we need to move on, you know, like that
that's right. I don't know. I don't know what to
(26:27):
do other than you know, maybe there's some utility and
spreading clips of him next to the fucking guy from
American History X, but I don't know. I don't know
how that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
The fact that he is in this position where he
can do something like that on stage and it actually
doesn't matter is like so much more frightening to me
than like than like Elon Musk like doing like a
very like low mortar control like version of the salute
when he's like wrapped up in some like excitement that
he's trying to like meme to like his like fans
on fourtune. The fact that like he's even just allowed
(26:59):
to do that it doesn't actually matter, like this will
not affect him in any way is more what's interesting
to me, because yes, we've all known that he's been
a Nazi for quite a while. He's like shared things
that are like essentially like Nazi race science on Twitter
before he is he has engaged with like extremely anti
Semitic conspiracy theories before and you know, the largest anti
(27:20):
semitism org in the country has completely capitulated to these people,
so like they've hollowed out everything that's like supposed to be,
like you know, the institutional blockages, whether that's you know,
places like the Washington Post where that's literally all of
the tech companies, the degree to which like everyone has
cozied up to Trump, which is also like very different
from twenty sixteen. Exactly everyone was like fairly like united
(27:43):
institutionally was united against Trump, and you know the same
way we like we don't see you know, people out
in the streets, you know, writing or even doing like
large protests. The actual you know, institutional powers have have
decided to instead of actually trying to fight this guy,
they're gonna trying to like how friendly they can be,
Like how much can they get out of this. There's
this like resignation, and I don't know how long that'll last,
(28:07):
Like I'm not sure if like, you know, once Trump
becomes the establishment figure that he's been like deriding for
the past few years, Like once he falls back into
that zone, if we're going to see more resistance to
him from like institutional levels, but you can't like count
on it. And the degree to which it's it is
like different from twenty sixteen is like worth remembering. Like
(28:27):
a phrase me and Robert talk about sometimes is like
the forever twenty sixteen, Like the fact that it feels
like we've never really left twenty sixteen. Everyone kind of
acts like we're still in twenty sixteen, like this such
load bearing year on our entire cultural consciousness. But the
fact is we aren't in twenty sixteen anymore, and you
can't act like we are. You actually have to move
(28:48):
on from that, and we're starting to see more of
that in certain corners. You see some of that among
some of the radicals, some of the anarchists as well
as you know, the tech companies and the CEOs and
the media company they're just you know, changing the degree
to which they're moving away from their twenty sixteen mode.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
You actually just gave me.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
A little bit of a silver lining that I had
not realized, which is like it kind of is useful
to see so clearly where these institutions and power holders stand.
And it's like when like I remember watching tech companies
like change their logos to Black Lives Matter or post
the Black Square, it's kind of freeing to be like,
(29:27):
we don't have to do that shit anymore, y'all will
have to pretend, And we don't have to pretend either.
We know where you stand. You've made it very clear.
You could not make it. You could not have made
it clear where your alliance is. And let's go from there.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Like it almost it almost is sort of like trimming
the fat a little bit.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
We no longer have to take these these institutions as
serious as allies or something.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah, there's going to be a degree to which, like
people's masks come off more than usual. I mean, I
think certainly this next Pride month will be interesting to
see how people change Pride months twenty twenty two or
even you know, Pride was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, I was at Pride in San Francisco in twenty
twenty and it was very big, very happy, but there
was like a rind to it, you know, there was
like an edge to it of are we going to
be able to keep doing this? You know, there's a dispensary.
(30:24):
You know, I don't smoke, but a friend of mine
who I stay with when I'm at San Francisco does,
And so I was with them at this dispensary and
it had like a sign talking about its history, which
is that the person who found it it's a very
nice one. It's like an apple store inside, and the
person who like started it and ran it did so
because when they were younger, their partner had AIDS HIV
(30:46):
in the AIDS and marijuana reduced some of their symptoms,
and they had to go buy it in the nearby park,
which was a lot uglier of a place and a
lot like it was. It was sketchy, like they got
robbed a couple of times. There's a lot more violent
crime and just kind of there are even in a
place like San Francisco, which is so like gentrified in
such a way. Like when you're when you're talking with like,
(31:07):
especially the older members of the queer community, they're not
just like rich, out of touch tech people. They are old,
battle scarred queers who went through some of the ugliest
moments of this nation's history and we're kind of bracing
themselves forward again. So yeah, I'm very interested to see
what it's what it's like this year.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
You know, But even that, I feel like there's a
I mean, it's grim shit, but there's a kind of
hope in it that like we've been people have been
here before, right, Like, yeah, you know, there have always
been queer people, trans people, black and brown people, immigrants,
like we are America, and like we've always been here, baby,
We're always gonna be here and like making our way
and like holding on and bracing ourselves and doing what
(31:48):
we got to do and enduring like that is what
we fucking do. And so in some ways, as grim
as that is, it's kind of hopeful question mark.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Also, Yep, I'm just on the edge of my seat.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
H Yeah, I mean certainly, you know, lots of people
who I surround myself with are you know, looking towards
ways to take control of like their own bodies and
stop relying like wholly on any kind of government government
like agency or model for that, as well as doing
a lot of a lot of reading on the old
like anti deportation, anti ice resistance from like years and
(32:22):
years ago, not just from like the Trump era, but
from from the stuff like like way before if we're
not going to be out in the streets doing you know,
slightly mindless protest where your marching in circles. You can
use that time to instead, like educate yourself and build
connections with people, and you know, read about these things
that may become more and more important to know at
(32:42):
least so you have an understanding of history as the
next four years to start happening quite quickly.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
That's so insightful.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, I think when things feel hopeless, reading about how folks,
you know, our elders, the folks that came before our ancestors,
how they dealt with stuff like this, has been really hopeful,
and it's like, yeah, I guess I just try to
tell myself, you've been here before and people found a
way to make it through, and you know, it feels
(33:10):
uniquely tragic, but in some ways it is not. And
as scary as that is, it can also be sort
of like grounding.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah, and like the same things won't work, but you
also need to understand the things that didn't work last time,
and it's good to know, and it's good to know
the things that did. Like it's it's it's important to
have the understanding so you don't feel like you're having
to reinvent the wheel every single time. And like that
type of like generational knowledge sometimes is really tricky to
pass down in these sorts of spaces and it you know,
(33:38):
it doesn't and it sometimes it requires a degree of
initiative to like actually like seek out the information on
your own.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
The internet's great, h and.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Terrible, but it has it has a it has a
it has a vast catalog of history.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I want to talk a bit about the speech that
that bishop gave at the Trump's first church service as
president the second time around, because that is of all
of like the fucking media people getting clapped at for
making fun of you know whichever, you know, heg Seth
or whoever. Yep, that I think actually did matter a
(34:11):
little at least it was the there was the courage
of saying it to their faces in a way where
their reactions were had to be filmed.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It's also not trying to dunk, it's not trying to
create like a viral moment. It's like genuinely upsetting to
them to get like reminded of like what it means
to be human. Yeah, and like maybe that's more important
than trying to get your like Katie Porter top ten
funniest moments in Congress, like a compilation exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, And to be very clear, if you didn't catch this,
the right Reverend Maryanne bud b DD was the Episcopal
Bishop of Washington. During a church service where Trump and
Vance and basically everybody in the new government was sitting,
made a direct plea quote from this from an NBC
Washington article, referencing Trump's belief that he was saying by
(35:00):
God from assassination, but said, you have felt the providential
hand of a loving God, and the name of our God.
I asked you to have mercy upon the people in
our country who are scared now. And then she referenced
specifically transgender people, queer people, people in democratic families, independent
families who were frightened right now about what the new
administration means, as well as migrants, and she made a
point of saying, like the vast majority of whom are
(35:22):
not in any way criminals, and.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Yeah, like regardless of whether or not they have the
right paperwork.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah. There was rage on Vance's face, which is part
of why I'm like, that's an act of actual courage.
There's been one Republican representative who said that she needed
to be deported, but she's born in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So deported back to New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, Representative Mike Collins of Georgia. So one of your guys, gare.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Oh, thanks, then there are you from Georgia? Well, no,
but I live in Georgia. I'd live there now, And
as someone who lives in Georgia, the only people that
I think should be deported back to New Jersey are
the costco guy and his kid.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
Get them out, send them back now.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I do think I do think we should be deporting
large numbers of people to New Jersey just because my
old boss and friend Daniel O'Brien lives there and I
want to fuck with them a little bit, make the
traffic worse, Like see how you deal with that, Danny boy.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
No, it was like, I think the most useful thing
i've like I've seen yet.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Yeah, it's still like largely symbolic, but like.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
At least someone took a big public risk, you know, yeah, yeah, courage. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I think it's the writer Sarah Candozer who has this
line that I always think of, if you can't be brave,
be kind. I think that like people who you see
doing acts of big acts of bravery right now, Like
that's I mean, it's just there are so few of them.
And I think, especially when I look at like the
tech leaders, they.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Have so much fucking money.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Somebody said on tlue Sky, what is the point of
having fuck you money if you never say fuck you
to anybody?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Like the way that these people turned out to be
such yellow bellied cowards is wild to me. And so
people actually having conviction and actually speaking power, I think
we should be lifting that up wherever it happens.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I can think of like one tech guy with
a lot of money who's turned out to have any
kind of a backbone, And it's the guy who made
that fire watching app that everyone in California's using right now,
watch Duty, who's basically had said stuff along the lines
of like, I don't know, I see all these other
guys who got rich in tech talking about going to Mars,
and I think it's much more useful to try to
help people survive on Earth something along those lines. And
(37:25):
his like novel made a critical like it is a
critical life saving piece of technology that actually is what
we should hope for from tech. You know, anyway, bridget
what else did you want to kind of make sure
we got into today.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Well this is going to sound a bit random, but
I have to just make sure that this gets in there,
because you know, I'm talking about the impact of Trump's
inauguration and what the next four years will look like
for you know, not just for people nationally, but folks
right here in DC where this is happening in our backyard.
And I have to give it up for the service
industry folks of DC the last couple of days because they, oh,
(38:01):
I like have heard horror stories and I just I
guess that's what I mean is that don't forget that
there are real people who have to like put up
with these people's bullshit and do it with a smile
or they might get fired. And you know, in Adam's Morgan,
which is like pretty close to where I live, a
woman at an Irish bar had to be removed by
(38:23):
a staffer because she was screaming white power at the bar. Like,
these people do not get paid enough to deal with this,
and they are like the backbone of our city. So
I just wanted to shout them out, especially since you know,
Trump switched up the inaugurations because of the cold question mark,
and so a lot more of these people were just
sort of wandering around the district on inauguration who otherwise
(38:44):
would have been confined to like a very specific neighborhood downtown,
And so they were going into our bars, going into
our restaurants, and yeah, I just really feel for my
industry folks who had to deal with this. You know,
they're not paid enough, but they really are the backbone
of our city. Hell yeah, you know, I started this
conversation talking about all the horrible things that Trump has
(39:04):
said about DC and how he's going to take it
over federally, and like, you know, he has said, like
we will take over the horribly run capital of our
nation and Washington clean up and rebuild the capitol, so
there's it's no longer a nightmare of murder and crime,
but rather, hell, I know, this like hell hole where
like people live and raise their families and go to
parks and ride bikes and have great times. Yeah, you know,
(39:27):
I had a chance to talk to the mayor about this,
and I will say our mayor Muriel Bowser is not
convinced that any of this will happen. She is saying, like,
you know, I think that Trump says a lot of things.
I think at the end of the day, he is
probably not going to mess with DC's home rule. And
so I just wanted to say that if you're in
DC and you're listening, and you're thinking, like, what does
(39:47):
Trump you know mean for DC? Are all these big
threats that he has made going to come true? All
I can tell you is that our mayor does not
think it is likely. So if that is useful to you,
I hope it brings you some comfort.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oddly enough, one thing that's given me comfort is like
Trump has twice in the last day, both when talking
about Gaza and when talking about North Korea, weirdly enough,
gone onto diggressions about how good that it is a
place to build condos, and the degree to which he's
still focused on like real estate feels as opposed to
the broader fascist project is hopeful, just because like he
(40:23):
is a bottleneck through which a lot of this has
to cover, and he is clearly not as personally obsessed
with every aspect of this as guys like Stephen Miller, right,
Like he even makes fun of Miller a little bit
for that kind of stuff. So there's a degree to which,
like well, his own personal eccentricities, there's aspects of this.
It might slow down.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
This motherfucker is not out here trying to genuinely govern,
like come on, I know.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
So in some ways that is heartening of like, oh, well, he's.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Gonna like do his scams, the whatever, whatever, Like if
he weren't to actually take over DC, that's an incredible
amount of work and labor, and I don't think he's
got it in them. So maybe in some way some
of these threats will like fly under the radar.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I don't know. Yeah, guess we'll see.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Guess we'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Bridget, Where could people find you?
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Well, you can listen to my podcast. There are no
girls on the internet about the intersection of identity and tech,
And you can follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie
and DC.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
All right, find Bridget, follow Bridget and uh follow somebody smart.
I don't know who they are. Figure that out, Good luck, godspeed,
fuck them. If they can't take a joke.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
It could happen.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You can now find sources for it could happen here,
listed directly in episode descriptions.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
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Garrison Davis
James Stout
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