August 4, 2025 • 24 mins
On part 1 of today's podcast, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward discuss the latest news involving the Smithsonian Museum and documents related to Trump's impeachment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you're about to hear from is one of the
finest DJs I've ever heard on the turntables.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes
by the name of q Ward, the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Man you just heard who makes it a habit to
lie to people like I don't even know how y'all
still like him. His name is Ramsey's Jaw. He can
be found at Ramsey's Jaw on everything. Go tell that
man to tell the truth. Stop lying to these people.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Man, you're funny, folks.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I was a DJ, yes, but everything he just said
absolutely not the truth.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Man. He was fantastic and he still is whenever he
actually gets on. But anyway, we want you to stick
around because we had a good long weekend and a
lot of stuff happened, which typically happens over the weekend
under this administration, and we're going to talk about it.
So a little later in the show, we're going to
talk We're going to be talking about how Trump fired
(00:58):
the head of Bureau Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor statistics
after receiving let's say, some bad news on job growth
numbers and the implications of that and how that makes
things very you know, Soviet Russian, very scary, How that
(01:26):
helped that furthers that further erodes our confidence in our institutions.
But there's a lot to unpack there, So stay tunes.
We're gonna be talking about that. We're also gonna be
talking about Donald Trump's impeachment being removed from the Smithsonian
and their response to the online backlash to that. And
(01:48):
we're gonna make heads or tails of both of those factors.
And we're also gonna be talking about another big story,
Sidney Sweeney. Does she actually have great genes? This has
been something that has been talked about quite a bit
on the left and the right. But first, as always,
we're going to start off with a feel good feature.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In today's feel.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Good feature comes from NBC. We're shouting out Buster and Rhymes.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What's it going to be?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, A star studded ceremony
for hip hop artist Buster Rhymes. Rhymes was joined by
Chris rock, Ello, Cool J, and Chuck d at the
Friday ceremony in front of the East Town apartments at
sixty two one one Hollywood Boulevard. Radio show host Big
Boy was the MC. Quote, when I think about Buster
and Rhymes on inspiring power, commitment to his craft, commitment
to excellence as an artist and performer unquote. Rapper Ello
(02:33):
cool J said, Rhymes, a twelve time Grammy Awards nominee,
thanked his mom, calling her his greatest superhero. He also
talked about what the star represents. Quote, I really worked
so hard and I never asked for a shortcut unquote,
he said to the stars unveiling. It goes on to say,
I think this is like one of the first tangible
examples outside of what I worked so hard to be
(02:55):
every single day, and that is a symbol of timeless greatness.
And that's what this means to me, first and foremost.
The ceremony comes the same day as the release of
the film comedy The Naked Gun, in which Rhymes portrays
a bank robber. The star is the twenty eight and
eighteenth since the completion of the Walk of Fame in
nineteen sixty one, with the initial one thousand, five hundred.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And fifty eight stars. So shout out to Bust rhymes.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Man, he's one of the goats.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I love that guy. Anything from you, Q.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I've been Buster, been around him a couple of times.
He's really kind to me. So I hope nobody else
has an opposite opinion of that, because I think Bust
is dope.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I've never been around him.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
See see that's why you're such a good DJ. J
oh But yeah, Buster rhymes, well deserved. Been listening to
a bust of rhymes since wuha got you all in check?
Or since you know Lords of the Underground or was
it Leaders of the New School? So glad to see
(03:58):
he's getting his flowers all right? Moving on, Does Sidney
Sweeney actually have great genes? Okay, so if you're like me,
which I don't suspect you are, but if you are,
you have no idea who Sidney Sweeney is. That name
doesn't mean anything to you, and it is just the
name of a person. But over the weekend, we kept
(04:21):
getting sent these videos of people's reaction to a genes ad.
So you may have heard it, because you know how
information blows on your phones. But we're just getting to
talk about it right now. So I'm going to play
you know what I'll play a commercial and then I'll
(04:45):
play another commercial. The first commercial is it'll prime you,
and the second one will kind of explain what we're
going to talk about a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
So let'sknock out the first one first. Here we go.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle Chance,
and I definitely won't say that they're the most comfortable
Chance I've ever worn, or that they make your butt
look amazing. Why wouldn't need to do that. But if
you said that you want to buy the jeans, I'm
not gonna stop you. But as we're clear, this is
(05:18):
not me telling you to buy American Egalle Chance.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Sidney's Sweeney has very keen You see what I did there, right.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So really at the end of that that was Sidney Sweeney,
of course her voice, and at the end of it
it says Sidney Sweeney has great gens, right, And of
course obviously that's a double entendre. In the ad if
you weren't able to see it, she's kind of walking around.
She's she's a very I wouldn't say she's a voluptuous,
(05:51):
curvaceous person, but maybe she has a larger cup size. Maybe,
but she thinks that these genes are doing her curves
some favors, right, and then she's kind of walking around
in the ad as though that's the reality.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I suspect it is for her.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it's not until the end where you see the Sydney,
Oh my god, Sidney Sweeney has great genes that you
start to get like, oh, okay, this is a celebration
of her genetics, right because of the double entendre. Okay,
now I'm gonna play the second ad, and this is
where things sort of get ratcheted up a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So here we go.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining
traits like her color, personality, and even eye color. My
genes are blue.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Sydney Sweeney has great genes.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Now we're really leaning into the idea of genetics. And
if you see the ad, she's sort of laying on
her back and she's like zipping up her genes very slowly,
and she's speaking with that low, sort of sultry type
of voice, and the cameras panning slowly along the side
of her body as she's like zipping up her jeans
and rolling to the camera, almost trying to seduce the
(07:12):
viewer while wearing these clothes. So I'm gonna share an
article from CNN that helps made this picture, and immediately
we're gonna throw to Q because you actually kind of
know this person a little bit more than I do.
All right again from CNN. The Great Ongoing American Conversation
escalated into a Great American bar fight this summer, as
long as a long and increasingly unhinged national back and
(07:35):
forth about race, politics, sexuality, the nature of both the
Trump administration and fame itself was triggered by a genes
app What happened? American Eagle released a campaign starring the
exceedingly charismatic actress Sidney Sweeney and one ad. She has
seen clad in a revealing version of the Canadian tuxedo,
veritably busting out of a not really buttoned up jean jacket.
(07:58):
But though the mere fact of her physical existence have
ignited multiple national debates previously, in this case, the reason
people are talking and talking is that the ads script
had her making puns about genes with the LETTERG like
genetics and genes like the clothes you wear. Some viewers
immediately connected the genetics commentary to her brilliant blue eyes
(08:21):
and blonde, fine hair. After all, it was just last
October that Donald Trump was identifying bad genes as a
cause invented or real crime, as a cause of I'm sorry,
invented or real crime committed by immigrants, and he felt
that the ad was playing into this dark, not very
concealed conversation about genetics in America. Okay, so that's the debate. Q,
(08:47):
I don't know you kind of this came to your
attention before it came to mind.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Talk to me a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It's tough to talk about things like this because I
don't like to be blind or tone deaf to acts
of covert or overt racism. It's a genes ad. So
the Jens pun is right there, and Sidney Sweeney's entire
celebrity is based on her genes. It might be that
(09:20):
she's blond and blue eyed. Actually, we live in America,
so it's absolutely absolutely that because she's blond and blue eyed. However,
also because of what you pointed out, the kind of
tenor of the commercial of the ad is this kind
of overplayed sexual tone, which isn't normal for you know,
(09:41):
the all American Canadian tuxedo partner contradictory puns there, gene advertisement.
You know, Calvin Klein would go with scantly clad and
just underwear or just jeans with no top, but with
their back to us, So it wasn't so avert Sydney
Swings persona is overt sexuality, like that's the whole game
(10:05):
with her. So I'd be inclined to think when they
say genes meaning genetics, that they're talking about the body
that her genes gave her, not her skin and eye color.
But it is an American company, American red, white and
blue flag, American eagle, and the United States of America,
(10:26):
right as the administration has leaned so heavily into bad
quote unquote genes. So even if that wasn't the intent,
and I'm willing to hear the argument that it wasn't
because again it's Sidney Sweeney. Like I think the whole
reason we went with the Jens jeans here is so
she can have her jean jacket unbuttoned in all of
(10:47):
her you know, be the star of the commercial. But
don't be so tone death that it's the same thing
I never want to be as to ignore the current
temperature of the country, and you can put something out
like this and make a mistake, but nobody makes mistakes anymore.
(11:10):
You put something out like this, you're called on on
how it could be perceived away, and you double down
and defend your free speech as long as your free
speech aligns with those who are in power. So the
contradictoring I might've just made that word up, but the
contradictory nature is conversation following where I've seen Fox News
(11:31):
host go after Sydney Sweeney for her overt sexuality and
her you know, being tempting to young man and her
flaunting her assets. Are now celebrating her for those same
things because they think they can own the Libs, and
owning the Libs is the whole game now, even if
(11:51):
it means destroying your country.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So, if I.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
May, the reason that the Libs might take exception to
this ad is because I think the term is eugenics
and and like kind of the uh the chatter around
(12:16):
that is that an all time high where people are
obsessed with the purity of the white race as though
that's a thing, and they don't look at whiteness as
a series of mutations, but indeed they look at it
(12:41):
as the highest achievement of humanity thus far. And you know,
the darker your skin is somehow that you're a less
evolved homo sapien sapien. I think the sun would have
would like to have a few words and that conversation.
But there's people who really have this sort of baseless
(13:04):
foundation on how.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They view the world.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And those people are up right now because of Donald
Trump's administration. Right, so everybody that voted for Donald Trump,
you also voted to kind of create a reality where
these people feel emboldened, right, these eugenics folks, if that
is the termin I'm thinking, you know, And so as
this woman is in this ad talking about how genes
are passed down from parents to offspring, my body's composition
(13:27):
is determined by my genes, and of course, you know
she's blonde hair, blue eyed.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
It's just really knocking on a door that would be
very upsetting because it's too close to the eugenics conversation,
and it's it almost supports them and gives them fodder
to use, and it kind of removes the rest of
us who are not looked, don't look like her, from
the conversation, and that feels little little weird. So so yeah,
(14:00):
but that's why people are talking.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So moving on.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Uh, Donald Trump's impeachment removed from the Smithsonian.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Okay, So Q sent me this story.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
He sends me a lot of stories, phone full of them.
And I watched this story when you when you first
sent this over, Q, you said something like like America
is over, something like really dramatic, and I was like,
oh my god. Uh, And I was like, okay, let
(14:38):
me look at it. And before I could sit down
somewhere quiet and actually like open the store and look
at it, someone else had sent it to me.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And I looked at.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
This and I was like wow, because wow, right, for
those who don't know the Smithsonian, I guess the word
was that Trump wanted the Smithsonian to remove the fact
that he was impeached twice from there. I guess their
impeachment exhibit. And the initial article I looked at had
(15:13):
everything there. And you know, knowing what we know about
Donald Trump reshaping this country to suit his tastes and
his desires rather than the truth.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
That feels like.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
A reality that we would have never expected to live in,
let me read this article and kind of bring us
back because I found another article where the Smithsonian kind
of stepped forward and said, hey, you know, it's a
little bit more complicated than that. But then Q said
something brief and it made us decide we should definitely
(15:55):
talk about this still. So let me read this and
bring us up to speed, all right. From MSNBC, The
smith Sonian's National Museum of American History wants us to
believe that there's been a misunderstanding and that it's not
the latest major institution to waive a white flag before
President Donald Trump, in a move that critics worried could
be an attempt to do to better align itself with
(16:15):
Trump's vision. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, removed mention
of President Donald Trump's impeachments from one of its main exhibits,
the American Presidency a Glorious Burden. Congress leveled impeachment charges
against Trump twice, and Trump called the House of Representatives
twenty nineteen vote to impeach him an embarrassment to the country.
(16:38):
But following accusations from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Friday
that Trump was attempting to rewrite history, the museum said
in statements Saturday that information about Trump's impeachment trials will
be returned to the exhibit soon, and that the placard
mentioning those impeachments quote did not meet the Museum's standards
in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation. The statement also
(17:01):
said that the museum had not been quote asked by
any administration or other government official to remove content from
the exhibit. If you find that explanation hard to believe,
that's probably because the Smithsonian has been a preoccupation of
Trump's and his selectively backward looking mega political movement. This year,
Trump issued an executive order called Sorry Restored Truth and
(17:25):
Sanity to American History that blasted the Smithsonian's acclaimed National
Museum of African American History and Culture as promoting diverse,
race centered ideology. Shortly thereafter, Trump accused Kim Saget, the
director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, of being a
highly partisan persy and a supporter sorry, highly partisan person
(17:47):
and a supporter of DEI, and called for her removal.
She eventually resigned. In that initial Thursday report, the Washington Posts,
Janey Kingsbury noted that the NMAH edited the limits of
Presidential Power section of his exhibition by turning back the
clock and removing information about Trump's impeachments that had been
on display since September twenty twenty one. In a statement
to the newspaper for Thursday story, Smithsonian spokesperson Philip Zimmermann said, quote,
(18:12):
the section of this exhibition covers Congress, the Supreme Court, impeachment,
and public opinion. Because the other topics in this section
had not been updated since two thousand and eight, the
decision was made to restore the impeachment case back to
its two thousand and eight appearance. Quote. The timing has
understandably raised eyebrows. Okay, so that's uh the gist of
(18:33):
the story and really the Smithsonian's response to it. And
I think that the bigger issue was that this is
so on brand for Donald Trump, that he pushes back
against things that he finds unflattering, that it is indeed
(18:54):
plausible that this could have come from the White House,
and that.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
They would have targeted this.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Specific exhibit because Trump's name is mentioned in it as
being twice impeached. But now we live in a country
where it's hard to really know what the truth is
because Trump has followed Project twenty twenty five more closely
than we would have expected, and has replaced everyone in
(19:28):
the federal government with MAGA supporters and loyalists, and so
the information that we get doesn't always feel like it's accurate.
And also we haven't seen the conclusion of this, so
this could be one of those stories that we forget about,
(19:48):
and when the exhibit shows back up, it's written in
a different way, or somehow whitewashes and sanitizes history. And
this was your concern, right.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You owing Project twenty twenty five more closely than who expected.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Or I guess what I was trying to say was
more quickly than we expected.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I was about to say I expected him to do everything,
and that you're right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I was thinking more in terms of time, but he
replaced everybody immediately, So anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I first want to point out I wasn't being dramatic,
like the pre compliance by all politicians and all corporations
and everybody that matters, that the idea that checks and
balances don't exist anymore, the idea that the guy ignores
court orders and nothing happens. I wasn't being dramatic. The
idea of America that we have is over, that's past tense.
(20:43):
Not it will be over, Not that that's coming. It
happened already. The guy defies the courts, ignores checks and balances,
breaks the law, steps on the Constitution, and nothing happens.
And then if anybody says that out loud, they're in
trouble or penalized or souon fode. And then people who
have all moral and legal high ground bend the knee
(21:04):
and pre comply and give him money anyway. Uh so, yeah,
why would we think that this is any different? Yeah,
this federal museum that takes federal funding is getting rid
of things that are unflattering to a president who is
making it illegal to disagree with or criticize him or
(21:27):
paint him in any light that doesn't say he's a
superhero his head on Superman's or Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, where
he's handsome and strong and powerful. Anything other than that
is wrong and fake, woke and DEI. Yeah, so yeah,
why would I believe that this change has nothing to
(21:48):
do with that? You're going to put it back to
two thousand and eight, So let's go back to pre
Barack Obama. That's ironic too, that just so happened to
be the case too. All the years to pass since
then now is the time world. This thing is out
of date. So let's roll it back four presidents, four
(22:08):
presidential terms, rather like, come on, man, five presidential terms.
I'm sorry almost so, you know, slap me in my
face and tell me it didn't happen. You know, I
was gonna say something else and tell me it's raining,
but I didn't want to be graphic. Kids might be listening. Yeah, right, man,
Like I'll believe that you aren't bending the knee like
(22:33):
everyone else when this is restored and he's still in
office and it says something about him being impeached until then,
you're pre complying and bending the knee like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. And like I said, you know this thing is.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So we're we're friendly, I should say, with the National
Museum of African American History and Culture. We've been invited
guests there. We you know, we try every time we're
in DC to pop in and say hi. And obviously
we've been there. We know the importance of that museum.
If we haven't shared stories of that our visits on
(23:14):
this show, we've certainly shared them a number of times
on our other show.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Civic cipher and.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Initially when Trump, you know, got back into the White House,
the attack on the National Museum of African American History,
which indeed is the Smithsonian. We're just like soul crushing
and heartbreaking because if nothing else, that served as as
a beacon of truth and a reminder of where we
(23:43):
came from. And you know, the sacrifice is made. But
to know how his presidency has affected that branch of
the Smithsonian, it's very easy to see his presidency affecting
this branch as well.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So two
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you're about to hear from is one of the
finest DJs I've ever heard on the turntables.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes
by the name of q Ward, the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Man you just heard who makes it a habit to
lie to people like I don't even know how y'all
still like him. His name is Ramsey's Jaw. He can
be found at Ramsey's Jaw on everything. Go tell that
man to tell the truth. Stop lying to these people.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Man, you're funny, folks.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I was a DJ, yes, but everything he just said
absolutely not the truth.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Man. He was fantastic and he still is whenever he
actually gets on. But anyway, we want you to stick
around because we had a good long weekend and a
lot of stuff happened, which typically happens over the weekend
under this administration, and we're going to talk about it.
So a little later in the show, we're going to
talk We're going to be talking about how Trump fired
(00:58):
the head of Bureau Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor statistics
after receiving let's say, some bad news on job growth
numbers and the implications of that and how that makes
things very you know, Soviet Russian, very scary, How that
(01:26):
helped that furthers that further erodes our confidence in our institutions.
But there's a lot to unpack there, So stay tunes.
We're gonna be talking about that. We're also gonna be
talking about Donald Trump's impeachment being removed from the Smithsonian
and their response to the online backlash to that. And
(01:48):
we're gonna make heads or tails of both of those factors.
And we're also gonna be talking about another big story,
Sidney Sweeney. Does she actually have great genes? This has
been something that has been talked about quite a bit
on the left and the right. But first, as always,
we're going to start off with a feel good feature.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In today's feel.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Good feature comes from NBC. We're shouting out Buster and Rhymes.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What's it going to be?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, A star studded ceremony
for hip hop artist Buster Rhymes. Rhymes was joined by
Chris rock, Ello, Cool J, and Chuck d at the
Friday ceremony in front of the East Town apartments at
sixty two one one Hollywood Boulevard. Radio show host Big
Boy was the MC. Quote, when I think about Buster
and Rhymes on inspiring power, commitment to his craft, commitment
to excellence as an artist and performer unquote. Rapper Ello
(02:33):
cool J said, Rhymes, a twelve time Grammy Awards nominee,
thanked his mom, calling her his greatest superhero. He also
talked about what the star represents. Quote, I really worked
so hard and I never asked for a shortcut unquote,
he said to the stars unveiling. It goes on to say,
I think this is like one of the first tangible
examples outside of what I worked so hard to be
(02:55):
every single day, and that is a symbol of timeless greatness.
And that's what this means to me, first and foremost.
The ceremony comes the same day as the release of
the film comedy The Naked Gun, in which Rhymes portrays
a bank robber. The star is the twenty eight and
eighteenth since the completion of the Walk of Fame in
nineteen sixty one, with the initial one thousand, five hundred.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And fifty eight stars. So shout out to Bust rhymes.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Man, he's one of the goats.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I love that guy. Anything from you, Q.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I've been Buster, been around him a couple of times.
He's really kind to me. So I hope nobody else
has an opposite opinion of that, because I think Bust
is dope.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I've never been around him.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
See see that's why you're such a good DJ. J
oh But yeah, Buster rhymes, well deserved. Been listening to
a bust of rhymes since wuha got you all in check?
Or since you know Lords of the Underground or was
it Leaders of the New School? So glad to see
(03:58):
he's getting his flowers all right? Moving on, Does Sidney
Sweeney actually have great genes? Okay, so if you're like me,
which I don't suspect you are, but if you are,
you have no idea who Sidney Sweeney is. That name
doesn't mean anything to you, and it is just the
name of a person. But over the weekend, we kept
(04:21):
getting sent these videos of people's reaction to a genes ad.
So you may have heard it, because you know how
information blows on your phones. But we're just getting to
talk about it right now. So I'm going to play
you know what I'll play a commercial and then I'll
(04:45):
play another commercial. The first commercial is it'll prime you,
and the second one will kind of explain what we're
going to talk about a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
So let'sknock out the first one first. Here we go.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle Chance,
and I definitely won't say that they're the most comfortable
Chance I've ever worn, or that they make your butt
look amazing. Why wouldn't need to do that. But if
you said that you want to buy the jeans, I'm
not gonna stop you. But as we're clear, this is
(05:18):
not me telling you to buy American Egalle Chance.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Sidney's Sweeney has very keen You see what I did there, right.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So really at the end of that that was Sidney Sweeney,
of course her voice, and at the end of it
it says Sidney Sweeney has great gens, right, And of
course obviously that's a double entendre. In the ad if
you weren't able to see it, she's kind of walking around.
She's she's a very I wouldn't say she's a voluptuous,
(05:51):
curvaceous person, but maybe she has a larger cup size. Maybe,
but she thinks that these genes are doing her curves
some favors, right, and then she's kind of walking around
in the ad as though that's the reality.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I suspect it is for her.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it's not until the end where you see the Sydney,
Oh my god, Sidney Sweeney has great genes that you
start to get like, oh, okay, this is a celebration
of her genetics, right because of the double entendre. Okay,
now I'm gonna play the second ad, and this is
where things sort of get ratcheted up a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So here we go.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining
traits like her color, personality, and even eye color. My
genes are blue.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Sydney Sweeney has great genes.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Now we're really leaning into the idea of genetics. And
if you see the ad, she's sort of laying on
her back and she's like zipping up her genes very slowly,
and she's speaking with that low, sort of sultry type
of voice, and the cameras panning slowly along the side
of her body as she's like zipping up her jeans
and rolling to the camera, almost trying to seduce the
(07:12):
viewer while wearing these clothes. So I'm gonna share an
article from CNN that helps made this picture, and immediately
we're gonna throw to Q because you actually kind of
know this person a little bit more than I do.
All right again from CNN. The Great Ongoing American Conversation
escalated into a Great American bar fight this summer, as
long as a long and increasingly unhinged national back and
(07:35):
forth about race, politics, sexuality, the nature of both the
Trump administration and fame itself was triggered by a genes
app What happened? American Eagle released a campaign starring the
exceedingly charismatic actress Sidney Sweeney and one ad. She has
seen clad in a revealing version of the Canadian tuxedo,
veritably busting out of a not really buttoned up jean jacket.
(07:58):
But though the mere fact of her physical existence have
ignited multiple national debates previously, in this case, the reason
people are talking and talking is that the ads script
had her making puns about genes with the LETTERG like
genetics and genes like the clothes you wear. Some viewers
immediately connected the genetics commentary to her brilliant blue eyes
(08:21):
and blonde, fine hair. After all, it was just last
October that Donald Trump was identifying bad genes as a
cause invented or real crime, as a cause of I'm sorry,
invented or real crime committed by immigrants, and he felt
that the ad was playing into this dark, not very
concealed conversation about genetics in America. Okay, so that's the debate. Q,
(08:47):
I don't know you kind of this came to your
attention before it came to mind.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Talk to me a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It's tough to talk about things like this because I
don't like to be blind or tone deaf to acts
of covert or overt racism. It's a genes ad. So
the Jens pun is right there, and Sidney Sweeney's entire
celebrity is based on her genes. It might be that
(09:20):
she's blond and blue eyed. Actually, we live in America,
so it's absolutely absolutely that because she's blond and blue eyed. However,
also because of what you pointed out, the kind of
tenor of the commercial of the ad is this kind
of overplayed sexual tone, which isn't normal for you know,
(09:41):
the all American Canadian tuxedo partner contradictory puns there, gene advertisement.
You know, Calvin Klein would go with scantly clad and
just underwear or just jeans with no top, but with
their back to us, So it wasn't so avert Sydney
Swings persona is overt sexuality, like that's the whole game
(10:05):
with her. So I'd be inclined to think when they
say genes meaning genetics, that they're talking about the body
that her genes gave her, not her skin and eye color.
But it is an American company, American red, white and
blue flag, American eagle, and the United States of America,
(10:26):
right as the administration has leaned so heavily into bad
quote unquote genes. So even if that wasn't the intent,
and I'm willing to hear the argument that it wasn't
because again it's Sidney Sweeney. Like I think the whole
reason we went with the Jens jeans here is so
she can have her jean jacket unbuttoned in all of
(10:47):
her you know, be the star of the commercial. But
don't be so tone death that it's the same thing
I never want to be as to ignore the current
temperature of the country, and you can put something out
like this and make a mistake, but nobody makes mistakes anymore.
(11:10):
You put something out like this, you're called on on
how it could be perceived away, and you double down
and defend your free speech as long as your free
speech aligns with those who are in power. So the
contradictoring I might've just made that word up, but the
contradictory nature is conversation following where I've seen Fox News
(11:31):
host go after Sydney Sweeney for her overt sexuality and
her you know, being tempting to young man and her
flaunting her assets. Are now celebrating her for those same
things because they think they can own the Libs, and
owning the Libs is the whole game now, even if
(11:51):
it means destroying your country.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So, if I.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
May, the reason that the Libs might take exception to
this ad is because I think the term is eugenics
and and like kind of the uh the chatter around
(12:16):
that is that an all time high where people are
obsessed with the purity of the white race as though
that's a thing, and they don't look at whiteness as
a series of mutations, but indeed they look at it
(12:41):
as the highest achievement of humanity thus far. And you know,
the darker your skin is somehow that you're a less
evolved homo sapien sapien. I think the sun would have
would like to have a few words and that conversation.
But there's people who really have this sort of baseless
(13:04):
foundation on how.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They view the world.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And those people are up right now because of Donald
Trump's administration. Right, so everybody that voted for Donald Trump,
you also voted to kind of create a reality where
these people feel emboldened, right, these eugenics folks, if that
is the termin I'm thinking, you know, And so as
this woman is in this ad talking about how genes
are passed down from parents to offspring, my body's composition
(13:27):
is determined by my genes, and of course, you know
she's blonde hair, blue eyed.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
It's just really knocking on a door that would be
very upsetting because it's too close to the eugenics conversation,
and it's it almost supports them and gives them fodder
to use, and it kind of removes the rest of
us who are not looked, don't look like her, from
the conversation, and that feels little little weird. So so yeah,
(14:00):
but that's why people are talking.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So moving on.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Uh, Donald Trump's impeachment removed from the Smithsonian.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Okay, So Q sent me this story.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
He sends me a lot of stories, phone full of them.
And I watched this story when you when you first
sent this over, Q, you said something like like America
is over, something like really dramatic, and I was like,
oh my god. Uh, And I was like, okay, let
(14:38):
me look at it. And before I could sit down
somewhere quiet and actually like open the store and look
at it, someone else had sent it to me.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And I looked at.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
This and I was like wow, because wow, right, for
those who don't know the Smithsonian, I guess the word
was that Trump wanted the Smithsonian to remove the fact
that he was impeached twice from there. I guess their
impeachment exhibit. And the initial article I looked at had
(15:13):
everything there. And you know, knowing what we know about
Donald Trump reshaping this country to suit his tastes and
his desires rather than the truth.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
That feels like.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
A reality that we would have never expected to live in,
let me read this article and kind of bring us
back because I found another article where the Smithsonian kind
of stepped forward and said, hey, you know, it's a
little bit more complicated than that. But then Q said
something brief and it made us decide we should definitely
(15:55):
talk about this still. So let me read this and
bring us up to speed, all right. From MSNBC, The
smith Sonian's National Museum of American History wants us to
believe that there's been a misunderstanding and that it's not
the latest major institution to waive a white flag before
President Donald Trump, in a move that critics worried could
be an attempt to do to better align itself with
(16:15):
Trump's vision. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, removed mention
of President Donald Trump's impeachments from one of its main exhibits,
the American Presidency a Glorious Burden. Congress leveled impeachment charges
against Trump twice, and Trump called the House of Representatives
twenty nineteen vote to impeach him an embarrassment to the country.
(16:38):
But following accusations from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Friday
that Trump was attempting to rewrite history, the museum said
in statements Saturday that information about Trump's impeachment trials will
be returned to the exhibit soon, and that the placard
mentioning those impeachments quote did not meet the Museum's standards
in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation. The statement also
(17:01):
said that the museum had not been quote asked by
any administration or other government official to remove content from
the exhibit. If you find that explanation hard to believe,
that's probably because the Smithsonian has been a preoccupation of
Trump's and his selectively backward looking mega political movement. This year,
Trump issued an executive order called Sorry Restored Truth and
(17:25):
Sanity to American History that blasted the Smithsonian's acclaimed National
Museum of African American History and Culture as promoting diverse,
race centered ideology. Shortly thereafter, Trump accused Kim Saget, the
director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, of being a
highly partisan persy and a supporter sorry, highly partisan person
(17:47):
and a supporter of DEI, and called for her removal.
She eventually resigned. In that initial Thursday report, the Washington Posts,
Janey Kingsbury noted that the NMAH edited the limits of
Presidential Power section of his exhibition by turning back the
clock and removing information about Trump's impeachments that had been
on display since September twenty twenty one. In a statement
to the newspaper for Thursday story, Smithsonian spokesperson Philip Zimmermann said, quote,
(18:12):
the section of this exhibition covers Congress, the Supreme Court, impeachment,
and public opinion. Because the other topics in this section
had not been updated since two thousand and eight, the
decision was made to restore the impeachment case back to
its two thousand and eight appearance. Quote. The timing has
understandably raised eyebrows. Okay, so that's uh the gist of
(18:33):
the story and really the Smithsonian's response to it. And
I think that the bigger issue was that this is
so on brand for Donald Trump, that he pushes back
against things that he finds unflattering, that it is indeed
(18:54):
plausible that this could have come from the White House,
and that.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
They would have targeted this.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Specific exhibit because Trump's name is mentioned in it as
being twice impeached. But now we live in a country
where it's hard to really know what the truth is
because Trump has followed Project twenty twenty five more closely
than we would have expected, and has replaced everyone in
(19:28):
the federal government with MAGA supporters and loyalists, and so
the information that we get doesn't always feel like it's accurate.
And also we haven't seen the conclusion of this, so
this could be one of those stories that we forget about,
(19:48):
and when the exhibit shows back up, it's written in
a different way, or somehow whitewashes and sanitizes history. And
this was your concern, right.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You owing Project twenty twenty five more closely than who expected.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Or I guess what I was trying to say was
more quickly than we expected.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I was about to say I expected him to do everything,
and that you're right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I was thinking more in terms of time, but he
replaced everybody immediately, So anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I first want to point out I wasn't being dramatic,
like the pre compliance by all politicians and all corporations
and everybody that matters, that the idea that checks and
balances don't exist anymore, the idea that the guy ignores
court orders and nothing happens. I wasn't being dramatic. The
idea of America that we have is over, that's past tense.
(20:43):
Not it will be over, Not that that's coming. It
happened already. The guy defies the courts, ignores checks and balances,
breaks the law, steps on the Constitution, and nothing happens.
And then if anybody says that out loud, they're in
trouble or penalized or souon fode. And then people who
have all moral and legal high ground bend the knee
(21:04):
and pre comply and give him money anyway. Uh so, yeah,
why would we think that this is any different? Yeah,
this federal museum that takes federal funding is getting rid
of things that are unflattering to a president who is
making it illegal to disagree with or criticize him or
(21:27):
paint him in any light that doesn't say he's a
superhero his head on Superman's or Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, where
he's handsome and strong and powerful. Anything other than that
is wrong and fake, woke and DEI. Yeah, so yeah,
why would I believe that this change has nothing to
(21:48):
do with that? You're going to put it back to
two thousand and eight, So let's go back to pre
Barack Obama. That's ironic too, that just so happened to
be the case too. All the years to pass since
then now is the time world. This thing is out
of date. So let's roll it back four presidents, four
(22:08):
presidential terms, rather like, come on, man, five presidential terms.
I'm sorry almost so, you know, slap me in my
face and tell me it didn't happen. You know, I
was gonna say something else and tell me it's raining,
but I didn't want to be graphic. Kids might be listening. Yeah, right, man,
Like I'll believe that you aren't bending the knee like
(22:33):
everyone else when this is restored and he's still in
office and it says something about him being impeached until then,
you're pre complying and bending the knee like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. And like I said, you know this thing is.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So we're we're friendly, I should say, with the National
Museum of African American History and Culture. We've been invited
guests there. We you know, we try every time we're
in DC to pop in and say hi. And obviously
we've been there. We know the importance of that museum.
If we haven't shared stories of that our visits on
(23:14):
this show, we've certainly shared them a number of times
on our other show.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Civic cipher and.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Initially when Trump, you know, got back into the White House,
the attack on the National Museum of African American History,
which indeed is the Smithsonian. We're just like soul crushing
and heartbreaking because if nothing else, that served as as
a beacon of truth and a reminder of where we
(23:43):
came from. And you know, the sacrifice is made. But
to know how his presidency has affected that branch of
the Smithsonian, it's very easy to see his presidency affecting
this branch as well.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So two
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