Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to the newest episode of Aggressive.
I'm coming here under not my favorite circumstances because
the United States is facing a constitutional crisis.
Unless you've been living under a rock lately, the Trump
administration has taken some of, well, some of the most
questionably legal, if completely illegal and
completely unconstitutional behaviors and actions in
deporting Kilmar Obrigo Garcia Caso.
(00:21):
What was the status? Asylum seeker, like in 2019, he
was granted asylum by like a federal court because they
determined that if he went back to El Salvador, he's in El
Salvadorian National, he would basically be killed by the local
gang. I forgot what the exact gang is.
I know it's not Ms. 13 that's the one he's accused of being.
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I think it's like something 18 Barrio 18 or something.
Yeah. Anyway, so the point is they
deported him even though the Supreme and the Supreme Court is
basically saying bring him back and now we're.
Questionably in a constitutionalcrisis of what happens when the
president's presidency, presidency decides, hey, you
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know what, I don't have to answer the Supreme Court even
though it's a nine O ruling. And despite his protected
status, they still deported him.They took him in March 2025 from
it was what they pulled him overwith his son in the car and his
wife in Maryland. No, he's just his.
Son, I think he was taking his son to school or something.
And I think they said they called the wife and said get
here within 15 minutes or we're like sending the kid to custody.
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And worst part is that they put him in the what is it, Seccot?
I'm saying that by CECOT, the terrorism confinement center in
El Salvador. Which is horrific.
And basically there's this like kind of us idea that you don't
leave that place unless it's a coffin.
Wasn't it the? And The thing is like the basic
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sensitive. So the basically the problem is
that I was kind of laying this out in the thread when I was
still in private. I went back in public.
Now basically what happened is that B Kelly, who's the
president of El Salvador, doesn't want to let this guy go.
And since he's in El SalvadorianNational, he technically has
jurisdiction over him when he's in El Salvador.
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And then if the Supreme Court orders Trump has ordered Trump,
hey, bring this guy back or he'sgoing to be in huge danger.
Like the Trump admin can basically like produce
affidavits or whatever saying they've done this.
But are they actually legitimately going to try?
Like if the Trump had been goingto pressure but Kelly and then
is but Kelly going to say yes, it's just like you need.
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The thing is, I would love for him to come back and be with his
like wife and kids and just likehave a normal life, be able to
get their pathway citizenship because like, but The thing is,
you need the consent of Trump. Basically.
He needs to get out of El Salvador.
He needs to do Keller's permission to get into the
United States. He needs Trump's permission.
And you guys know as well as I do that's going to be a little
difficult to get for all these reasons.
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And that's aside from the fact the White House is propagating a
bunch of stuff. What about how he's like a
criminal and a wife beater? And I don't know what's true or
not. Like I'm a pretty like you and I
and you guys are like multiple people.
We understand the process of like, hey, regardless of this
guy is like has done the stuff, he still deserves due process.
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He should have been like been able to go through the courts,
but I don't really know. Like I don't know what the truth
is like. Yeah.
Well, so I know they've they've claimed that like O2 courts
found him as being a member of MS13 or something, but that is
like very dishonest because it was 2 courts under the reason to
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believe standard, which is like even less than beyond a
reasonable, far less than beyonda reasonable doubt, even more so
than probable cause for an arrest.
It's an even lower standard. It's like 10 to 1510 to 20%.
Like confidence is required for that.
And that was all they found. So they basically said like it's
a reasonable accusation that like to move forward with this,
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with this case and not immediately dismiss it.
But then of course when the the court granted him the stay from
any sort of deportation because of the risk if he returned, that
was them essentially reversing the prior decision because one
of the requirements to one of the requirements to meet the
like stay from the deportation that he was granted is to not be
a member of any criminal organization.
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So when they granted him that stay, they were essentially
saying we do not find any like convincing evidence that he is a
member of one of these gangs. Yeah, I don't know about the
domestic violence accusation because his wife, like they
asked his wife about that on TV,on the news, and she was like,
it was just a like a domestic conflict.
And she just kind of like she said she overreacted.
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And I don't know what the truth is there.
But I also know that if he committed domestic violence in
the United States as a legal resident, he should be
prosecuted for that in the United States.
He should not be deported to gulag in El Salvador, which is
like he's not allowed to be there just because like the
problem is like then Holland, who's the senator from Maryland
went down to El Salvador and wastrying to figure out what's
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going on. And people like right up to like
Bernie Sanders and all these other centers like bring him
back. And it's like, I just I'm
wondering what Democrats and like liberals and like everybody
online in the comments commentary is going to do when
they can't bring him back. Because it's not even because of
what Van Holland is doing. It's because you need permission
from you, Kelly and Trump to bring them back.
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And it's like, I don't know how,like I'm just.
In theory if it got toxic enough.
Like I mean it does seem impossible, but also it's as
easy as I do feel like if Trump decided he wanted that done, he
could get it done. Exactly.
I mean, obviously. I absolutely agree.
I absolutely agree that Trump could do it.
I guess my point is that like, that's why they're trying to
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poison the well basically. That's why they're trying to put
out all this like criminal info that's like mysteriously sourced
and stuff, 'cause like I said, I'm very much of the mind that I
don't really care what he did. I don't think he should be
disappeared to a gulag with thischild in the back seat like.
And the thing even what he's alleged to do, I was just
looking. So in 2021, his wife fired filed
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for a temporary protective orderagainst them, but the case was
dismissed in June 2021 when she didn't get the final hearing.
And then she later explained that she sought the order out of
caution influenced previous abusive relationship and that
that situation didn't escalate further.
And she said they resolved the issues privately, attending
counseling and that their marriage strengthened in the in
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the years. And The thing is, like, that's
the other thing that I'm kind ofjust like, I don't really think
that even on the off chance she's like being manipulated, I
mean, there's like actually A cause for like arrest for
domestic violence. Like, I don't think there is.
But if there is, that has to be handled where he's legally a
resident of because I double checked like multiple times.
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So I was like, OK, is he an illegal like resident?
Like, no, he's not. The federal court or the
District, wherever in 2019 basically very clearly said
you've got protected status because if we send you to El
Salvador, this gang, we'll try to murder you.
Like that is the definition of like legal asylum.
But this kind of goes into what I was saying.
Like a lot of these, like a lot of the anti immigrant types who
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are like voting on single issue curtailing immigration.
They don't want stuff like TPS to be illegal.
That's what the Haitians were. They're like temporary protected
status in Springfield that, you know, he's eating, they're
eating the cats and dogs stuff. And it's like, and I think
that's what like, I think a lot of people kind of missed it like
during the time because I saw a lot of like online liberals and
like, I think even elected Democrats going, but they're
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legal immigrants. Why do you care?
It's like that's not the real source of opposition to
immigration. Like they don't want them there.
They don't care if they're legalor illegal.
And like that's why if you notice, the Biden admin granted
TPS to like 300,000 Venezuelans and Haitians.
And in August of 2024, they basically said it.
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So it was going to expire in March and it already expired in
March of this year. And The thing is, I thought it
was very interesting then because they were like, they let
it expire because they didn't want Biden to have to re
reauthorize it because they knewthat would hurt Kamala in the
November election. And they were just like, if
Kamala wants you to reauthorize it in March, March, it would be
fine. Obviously the Trump admin wasn't
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going to do that. So now these people are like, I
don't know where they are. Either they've self deported
back to Venezuela and hate Haiti, not hate shit and or
they're just undocumented right now because they've got no
protected status because Trump admin.
I don't authorize them. And that's like the whole
essence of this issue that I waskind of getting out.
It's like they don't want them to be here legally or illegally,
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and it's like I don't know how to get around that.
Also, I guess what you're sayingis like the crux, the issue is
not temporary protection status,not not any of that stuff.
It's not DACA, it's not dreams, it's not the quality of what or
whatever, or you asylum seekers,none of that.
It comes down to and we don't want you here.
Yes of it. And The thing is like it's just
I don't know, like I taught, like I was telling my dad I was
like carry your passport becauseI'm like I'm just a little
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paranoid because obviously my parents and I are citizens.
We've been citizens from ever but like for like over a decade
now. And it's like, OK, I would
rather just not be detained for no reason when we're traveling
because, like, even American citizens are getting detained
for two days. I was going to hear about the, I
want to say it was it was 2 professors traveling like to and
from China that were detained. Yeah, the random Japanese guy
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who has like, who's a Mormon andhe was doing research and he got
detained. And it's like, what are you guys
doing here? Are you just detaining anybody
that's like visibly not white? It's interesting because it's
like you're kind of watching this, like I was like a purity
test, but it's not like it's being done in like a smart or
methodical way. You just making it up as you go
along. And all of it kind of boils down
to like people who aren't like white, which is it's like, how
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are we going to rollback this authority of like, oh, well,
actually TPS doesn't even matter.
It's like, hold on, wait a minute.
You can't, you can't just get todecide on a whim who's a
citizen, who's not based on somerandom attribute up there
walking down the street in the color of their skin.
Like that's, that's, that's not.Actually, the president does
have that authority to an extentbecause he decides who gets TPS.
The problem right now is that Biden just kicked it down the
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road because he obviously didn'twant to reauthorize it for
hundreds of thousands of people right before the election.
And I get it. Like, I think he's, I think
everybody assumed that, hey, when if Kamala wins, she's just
going to reauthorize it. It's going to be fine.
But now these people are in limbo and they're like in
trouble. And it's like, I don't know,
like, I guess my point is that it's a lot more complicated
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problem during the a lot of likethe backlash is kind of out of
Biden's hands or out of Democrats hands because
obviously more migrants are going to come when Trump is not
in office. Like they're going to be
deterred by the fact they're terrified Trump will just like
brutalize them and their children.
And it's like, I get it. And obviously more going to come
and bite into office because they just kind of like are like,
oh, Democrats are going to be nicer to us And like, I
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understand why. Yeah.
You guys know about. What do you guys think about the
whole idea of, like, the asylum gaming, so to speak?
Like what do you think of that? Explain gaming a little bit, so
from the political perspective or from the people seeking
asylum. Well, OK, so basically the
argument is that you have to apply for asylum in a third
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country. I don't really know exactly how.
I think some lawyer, some law firms pro bono and stuff that
basically you can, if you're a migrant and you want to come
into the United States like an economic migrant, you come to
the United States border, say you're seeking asylum and they
by law, they have to give you a trial for asylum and that can
take years. So and they will let you into
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the country and you're kind of in a limbo phase because you
don't have work visa. So you're working under the
table, which screws you over in terms of bargaining and stuff.
So they can pay you less, but also you're in the country.
And then when you have Greg Abbott busing all these migrants
at the border up to New York andChicago and Denver, and you
basically create a lot of discontent within the people
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there. And it's like, they aren't going
to Park Slope. They aren't going to Chelsea,
they're going to the Bronx and parts of Brooklyn with a lot of
minorities, which is, I mean, that's one major reason
minorities in big city shifted so hard, right?
Because they didn't want the migrants there.
Are you, I guess are you gettingthat there might be like a
causal link between the places where they bust lots of migrants
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and the biggest shifts? Yeah, look at what happened in
the Bronx. Look what happened in Queens.
Like look at the shift there from like 2020 to 2024.
Like you can talk about turn outand stuff like Democratic turn
out went down. But something I LinkedIn is that
like there was basically like itwas a it was like a town meeting
in like the South side of Chicago about like building a
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migrant shelter. People are really furious.
This idea, this is like the South side of Chicago.
It's predominantly black. It's very like very low income
and it's these people don't wantthem here.
And it's I think this is politically speaking, there's
this idea that that the emergingDemocratic minority of majority,
sorry, Democratic majority of all these people of color
banding together and you know, voting Democrat.
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And obviously the part that people miss about this is that
you need to keep Obama's marginsof non college white voters,
which obviously don't happen. But basically what happened is
all these voters are going rightwords and we don't really have a
fix for them. So.
Well, I mean, it wouldn't a lot of this also be downstream of
not a mix, not just the increasein migrants, right?
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Population, yeah. But also downstream of a lot of
these cultures are inherently culturally conservative.
I mean, you know, is very Catholic.
I mean, a lot of these cultures are not this Uber progressive.
I've been using this word a lot.It kind of makes me feel weird,
really. Woke stuff or not, they're not
cool with that. It's not.
So it's like, The thing is, it'sironically Hispanic Catholics
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are actually less conservative than Hispanic evangelicals.
And the ones that like in the Panhandle of Texas, if you
notice, that's deep red because a lot of Hispanic evangelicals
have settled down there anyway. But the point is they're the
ones that are really conservative.
They're the ones that are like dug in, basically.
But tracks intuitively to me, like what?
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Like canvassing in the summer, like leading up to the last
election, there were so many like big Democratic hacks that
were really fun who I'd knock onthe door.
And it's like all Catholicism stuff all around the door.
And it always surprises me when they're like, of course, blew
all, all down the ticket. So there's definitely quite a
few. My friend's mom, this is like
the middle-aged or she's, I guess she's older now, this
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Latina woman who's like staunchly anti abortion, but
she's like, I love Kamala, I love Hillary.
And because I think it's like she's not actually like, she's
not really that conservative, even though she's been here for
40 years and she's still like very Catholic.
She goes to church twice a week.And it's like, but the ones that
like, but obviously you guys have seen the, the shifts on the
border, right? The entire border goes hard,
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right? Like and Imperial County in
California, Trump won it. Right.
Well, everything, I mean it's it's the places that were
affected the most like the placebecause I was I remember what it
was reading where it's in aggregate effects, right of
immigration. Everyone always talks about oh,
economic effects, right in aggregate, it boosts the
economy. It's good for yeah of.
Course. But when we talk about the
localized effects of like, let'ssay we dump 70,000 new people
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into a localized area that strains local resources, we
can't have that all in one go. And I think that's kind of what
we're touching on here. But also the crux of the
argument, right, is Oh well, immigration in aggregate, it
works. It's good thing, it's good for
the economy grows. We need Google, but you also
can't dump like 70,000 people into one local area.
There's not without warning. Yeah.
Because like, this goes back to the whole like me, me argument.
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It's like when there's not enough housing, there's enough
affordable housing. You're cramming 910 people into
a 2 bedroom apartment and it's like, what are you gonna do?
Everything is abundance. Yeah, no, me and Armand had this
like dialogue in like 22 or 2023because like he was saying like,
oh, it's just if you build more housing and give them work
permits, there won't be any issues.
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And I kept on saying like, no, this is like a combination of
that. Like it'll help with the
margins. Absolutely.
But I feel like a lot of people are just not like willing to
acknowledge that there's a big cultural like disconnect between
people like me who are like, OK,whatever, more immigrants in the
area. It's like fine, as long as
they're like assimilated and like not doing crime.
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Like I don't really like care ifit's like AI don't like have
like this idea. But there's a lot of people that
like place a lot of value on theexisting culture of a country.
And that's a little more like, and obviously here's the other
thing, like you, like you guys both know this, like people who
are less well off tend to be more culturally conservative
because they're trying to conserve what they actually
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have, which is the existing culture.
It's like, it's like a very the twisted cycle.
Like I get it. But I guess the point is like,
it's very hard for me to like kind of square all this in my
head because, well, I understand.
Like what doesn't bother me bothers a lot of people who are
not me so. Right well and I was gonna say
the the other core component that I want to get is like the
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culture part. I I think a lot about the word
like assimilation, right and I think about multicultures and a
lot of these words that are kindof buzzwords from like the 90s,
right yeah. I have a lot of professors that
are very old school civil rightsera like activists.
You yeah or from I used to but besides the .1 of them ran with
Jill Stein. So if that lets you know
anything but whatever anyways, they're all like, Nope, like you
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do not assimilate. You do not know multiple prism.
Like no, we get to maintain our own separate almost with
separate, they're more or less just saying separate but equal
type thing. And I'm like, OK, weird.
But with a lot of these, especially when people come
citizens that come in, they're very patriotic.
They're very proud of being American.
Again, anecdotal, but in my experience, people that are not
born in the United States are the ones that are the most proud
of the United States. Like I it's, it's one of the
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weird things of like people who are second generation, third
generation or generation, right,kind of take it for granted.
But these people who got their citizenships, they have an
American flag on the wall. They love this country.
They, you know, they start standfor the start to come out.
Like they tear up. Like it's really I.
Mean I was born in India. I get it like.
I don't sound like it, but I getit.
Like, yeah, no, it's like something else.
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I've noticed. It's like, think I said this
before, like, and I got like, I think Gen.
Z might be more like racially segregated than like
millennials. Like I'm a young millennial, I'm
30s. What I've noticed is that, like,
I don't think it's intentional or anything, but I think like
Indian Americans who are like even a couple years younger than
me, I've looked at their weddings.
They're like very, very Indian, like all their bridesmaids are
Indian. And I'm like, OK, but I don't
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think it's a good or bad thing. Like it's whatever suits you and
whatever floats your boat. But like, I guess The thing is,
it's kind of interesting to me. Like their friend groups are
less like racially diverse. They're like, and they went to
like similar colleges as me and like had like similar
upbringings. And it's like, interesting to
me. It's like, like, why is that the
case? And I don't think there's a
(18:34):
solid answer here. Well, I'm curious, Max, like the
dynamic you're talking about of kind of like the shifting
messaging from the liberal side about like what immigration is
and should be like. I'm wondering if that has
anything to do with the political shifts we've seen
making it more unpopular. Like do you think like some of
the left wing advocacy types shifting from like focusing on
like, oh, the patriotism of it, like they're going to come here
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and assimilate and make our country stronger.
Like they want to come here and be part of the culture versus
kind of shifting it like the left wing advocacy perspective
to more of like their culture isgoing to be brought here.
Like they a shift away from kindof the old school like
assimilation message. Do you feel like that?
Like. You know, that's a good
question, Abbered. Politically.
You know, I mean, I'm of two minds where like, no, I don't
(19:17):
yes, it yes, it does. Like I and I can't tell if
someone again, it's not statistically supported or
strongly supported, But I don't know that people are that upset
of like people coming here and bringing new things because it's
like, yes, it's scary up front, but at first, but when you try a
new restaurant, new foods like Iagain, it works out in the
longer term. And same thing of like
immigrants will come here and become very patriotic, very
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proud of America, like love thiscountry to death.
I mean, I love this country too,like, but it's that patriotism
and I don't, I don't think that was the crux of the argument.
I think a lot of it came down toOh, you know, with the refugees
and we have to take care of them.
And it's and it was like kind ofgetting at this thing and back
to what Drewini was saying of like, they're conserving what
they have. And when you're saying, Hey, we
need to share and you're like, well, but I barely have
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anything. And of course that like that, I
think a lot of it comes from thefrom the right of like, Oh,
they're coming, they're taking your jobs, they're taking knees,
they're taking. You always hear the same like
they're taking your Social Security benefits, they're
taking your job, your food. And it's like.
No, they're not. And we know that like as
educated elites do like, but it's hard to make that argument
of like, no, they're not. Or like, oh, they're going to
displace jobs of like, you know,low skilled labor and then
(20:20):
you'll move up in the chain and they're like, what does that
even mean? And I'm like, well, I don't know
how to explain that. I don't, I don't know is the
answer. And well.
Maybe it's then it's more of a messaging shift from like here
are the benefits these immigrants will provide to the
country and therefore you versuslike, here's how we're going to
help them because they need help.
Well, exactly, like I, I mean, Iknow, again, being in college,
like everyone loves to go. I hate Ronald Reagan, like, you
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know, typical leftist stuff, butI think a lot about his speech
about like, you know, anyone cango to Japan, but you can't
become Japanese. Anyone can go to Germany and you
won't become German, but anyone from any corner of the earth can
become an American. And like, I think that's
something beautiful. Because again, we don't have an
established race and ethnic group or whatever.
Like these abstract things mean.Like we, you can come from
anywhere, any corner of the globe, be any type of religion,
(21:02):
race, like sex, identity, what none of it.
I doesn't none of it matters. You can become an American.
Like I really wish we had prioritized that of the
American. Isn't this stagnant idea of, oh,
this white person who lives in awhite picket fence with two dogs
and, you know, a blonde wife. Like America is a melting pot.
America is its best, its worst. It's, it's all of it.
And like I, I am very sad that like that's not what we're
(21:23):
prioritizing of just America is,is, is strong and beautiful and
made better by its, I mean, it'skind of like the diversity of
our strength thing, but a littleless corny, I think.
I think there's this like long term, like I think that
underlying something I also I'venoticed is that I think the idea
of immigrants is a burden, like the way or like a punishment
really rubs me the wrong way. It's like, or the idea like I've
(21:45):
noticed like kind of like a leftwing mentality.
It's like, Oh, we colonize theircountries, so they're here to
punish us. It's like, no, I don't think
they're I don't think human beings in this area are
punishment. I think they're just like
everybody else trying to make a better life for themselves and
their families. And I think it's a little bit, I
don't know, my whole thing that I'm kind of just like going back
(22:06):
to is that like, I think the Trump admin is like capitalizing
on a lot of these like latent fears of like being displaced.
And like, and they're just not doing it in any sort of like
they're doing it in a way that'slike, as you said, kind of just
like bringing about a constitutional crisis because
they're ignoring the rule of law.
And but then you have Cam Bondi,who's the attorney general and
(22:27):
like Christy Noam, who's like the DHS secretary.
And I don't know what they're doing.
They're just. Apparently working as an ICE
agent pretending to be at least.And they're like cosplay gear.
Yeah, Oh my God, the like, did you see what she was wearing?
Like, I don't mean to be like a woman.
I don't need to be like girl outof like, that's not what you
wear to like do your job. She's going.
I don't. Did she even go to a prison?
(22:49):
Like I don't know if she even went to that prison, but I know
she was like. Something looked weird about it
because it was like all like thepeople.
I thought it was like an AI thing and it was like just
horrific and dehumanizing and it's like.
Canyon Valley. Like it just didn't look real.
Like something was kind of funky, you know, funky and off.
All I have to say is I'm keepingmy dog away from her.
Like far away. Like, I don't know.
And The thing is, you've got PamBondi, who's like, why isn't
(23:10):
John Fetterman vote for that woman?
Like I get she's like the she was AG of Florida or whatever,
but like this woman, you're not voting.
On a cycle, there's. There's not voting on her.
You're not voting on her plasticsurgery, which is like, OK,
excellent, but like you're voting on the fact she's going,
whether she's qualified for the job and whether she's going to
do a good job. And clearly, given she's like
(23:32):
justifying disappearing random legal residents to like, you
know, logs, I would hope he regrets his vote.
You would hope if you can remember it, but you were
mentioning that, like, liberals kind of will maybe get bogged
down by like, the specifics of it and be like, oh, these were
actually like, what? Like about the Haitian migrants,
(23:54):
Like they're actually legal, butthat in reality, like the voters
were upset by it, don't really care if they're legal or not.
Like they just were upset about their presence.
So I'm curious, do you feel likeis there a limit to this, I
mean, kind of getting more broadly to the political
implications of all this? Like, is there a limit to where
he could get so insane and so like obviously scary gulag stuff
that like those types of voters,or at least enough of them to
(24:17):
swing an election, like start to.
Yeah, he's going a little far onthe immigration stuff.
Or you just feel like it's like they gave him a, they gave him a
mandate to be pretty extreme on it and aren't too upset.
Well, my whole thing is that like, there's just like, I don't
think kids in cages and like during the first down being like
popular, I don't think people liked it.
They didn't like the images of it.
They didn't like anything about it.
But then Republicans won the Senate.
(24:39):
They flipped multiple seats And like, I don't know, maybe it
doesn't have anything to do withlike, I think Kavanaugh helped.
OK, that was right before you guys were pretty young then.
But like, I was paying attentionand I was like horrified because
I was like a 20 young, 20 something woman who was just
like, what is going on here? And The thing is like, I saw the
Kavanaugh thing and I was like, shit, they're going to win the
(24:59):
Senate because this isn't going to help them.
And nobody believes me. But of course, they won the
Senate and like, OK, it was. It was pretty brutal.
Senate math. No, I mean, I, I was
unfortunately pretty tuned in inhigh school there.
But I, I because I know we, we did great in the House, OK.
It was pretty brutal. The math is just bad.
But like, Sherrod Brown won, JonTester won, Joe Manchin won, but
(25:21):
Don Nelson, you know, didn't runSpanish ads.
And I honestly think that Donnelly and McCaskill should
probably voted for Kavanaugh because I think it might have
helped them. But the point is, if you guys
remember, Joe Manchin voted for Kavanaugh.
But you know what he did? He basically went to Susan
Collins. Him and Susan Collins are in
their little black powwow session.
He's like, OK, I will say her vote if she does, but she has to
(25:43):
go 1st and she has to decide whether he's in or he's out.
And she voted for him and she gave her a little speech and he
was in no matter what. Joe Manchin comes out an hour
later, he's like, okay, I'll vote for him, whatever.
He's like, he didn't want to vote for the guy, but he had to
vote for the guy and he won reelection barely.
So like, right. And it's just one of those
(26:04):
things, it's like, I want to know, like Ben was asking, like,
I don't know. I would hope there's a limit.
But my cynical self, which unfortunately is right more than
I want it to be, It's like, I think they're going to vote on
the tariffs and the economy, butwe can't just not talk about it
when it's a top three issue. And it's like on the news
constantly. Democrats can't just, like,
avoid the conversation. Right.
(26:26):
Well. That's impossible.
It comes down to the economy, stupid.
You know, I was reading JonathanAllen and I remember the second
authors was it fights. It was like the whole.
Yeah, yeah, I have that one. Yeah, I mean, it was, I'm not
going to say it was the best oneI've ever read, but it was good.
And one of the things I talked about was I talked about was the
hierarchy of needs that Trump just kind of laser focused on
(26:46):
where it was like food, energy, gas, housing, just the same cost
of living through the basics. Right.
And I do wonder, you've seen that chart of, you know,
immigration right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's. Inflation and immigration and he
managed to tie that all together.
And like the stupid data I'm at,it's like he tied together
immigration, crime, trans issuesand managed to be like, Paula
(27:07):
doesn't care about your problems.
She cares about this like she cares about illegal immigrants
getting transgender surgery in prison.
And it's like liberal crazy overspending and waste of
government money. Like it's also thrown in there
too. It's every single unpopular
Democratic framing in one. Yeah.
And also on that book there was this whole passage about the day
that mad. It was like it was Bill Clinton.
(27:29):
He was basically saying like, yeah, it's the economy, stupid,
but they're not going to listen to you about the economy unless
they think you care about them. Right.
No, it was going down and he kept hearing The thing is she
really for they them's and all that kind of stuff.
She can spend all that money on that well.
And that's what I was saying, that it there is an economic
element to it too, not even justlike a mental like, oh, they're
on my side. Like, oh, this is what she's
spending money on if she's in power versus like on me.
(27:51):
Yeah, OK, go ahead. Just.
Wanted. To like kind of touch on like
back to our original topic aboutthe due process stuff.
What do you think Democrats should do to, like, address the
fact they are breaking the law and ignoring courts?
Like, what do you think they should do?
Because, like, I don't know. That's why I was so hesitant to
say much about it, because I waslike, I don't know.
I think they should frame it as these are legal residents and
(28:13):
therefore you 2 are at risk. And I think I've seen some of
these memes of like when you after leaving a one star Tesla
review during the Trump administration, that's like
you're like in some El Salvador prison.
Like I feel like stretching people's understanding of what
legal resident means in the sameway that the Trump
administration would do the opposite.
I think would make sense to kindof be like, oh, if they can send
(28:34):
a legal resident to some like slave camp in, in El Salvador,
they could do the same to you. And kind of like trying to
connect it to like everyone's atrisk, even if it's maybe a
little bit stretching the truth like that hysteria, I think
would be effective. And honestly, like, like we've
seen, like the amount of people coming into the US, like just
visiting from other countries has gone down dramatically.
(28:55):
For the economy. Very bad for the economy, but
also I just think that mass hysteria is real and justified.
And like even this like an anecdote, but a knife rat.
A couple weeks ago at the end ofa party, a girl slipped on like
a puddle and she ended up dislocating her knee.
And I was like sobering the party.
So I'd like help her and everything.
And we're going to call an ambulance and have her go.
But she is on a visa from another country and probably she
(29:18):
would have been fine, but I understood why she refused to
let us call 911 because she was worried that like they were
going to like take away her visaor something and and then she
was going to get in trouble if the cops came.
So like we ended up having to Uber her to the emergency room.
And it was entirely based on like her fears around like this
Elon stuff. So I think, like, obviously she
has an actual visa, but I do feel like that could trickle
(29:39):
down where like, I wouldn't be surprised if some of my random
friends who maybe aren't that tuned in are like, I don't know,
like, I don't want to do this thing.
What if he sends me to an El Salvador prison?
And I think that could be like effective framing.
Well, yeah, and I was just. Like sorry.
No, no, I would say I just want to build an accent.
The mean part actually is the subtle genius of it because, you
know, we can keep doing the thing of ringing the alarm bells
of oh, it's a dictatorship, it'sKing Trump, it's King and the
(30:01):
young ring the alarm bells all you want, but it means nothing
when it falls on deaf ears, right?
People are tired of the, you know, oh, you guys have to worry
about it. And they're like you just.
Boy, you cried wolf. Yeah, they're like, we're still
crying wolf, but like. I still get it from my family.
They're like, you just have Trump Derangement Syndrome and
I'm like, OK, your business is gonna get noobs.
It's kind of like how I was talking about framing
immigration, where framing it aslike we're worried about these
(30:23):
other outsider people who are suffering, we need to protect
them versus like, oh, here's howit's going to benefit and
personally affect you selfishly.I think it's the same framing
here where it shouldn't be like,oh, all these other people are
at risk. It's like, no, you are too under
this. Like they could do the same
thing to you and voters are selfish.
So I think that could work well.And I don't even know if it's
considered selfish. I would just say, like, I would
(30:44):
lean into the King Trump part. I would call him in one.
Yeah, yeah, I would call him. I would call him King Trump.
And the idea of he gets to decide who's a citizen, who's
not. And like again, TPS status, even
if he's under his purview, the idea of he gets to go now, you
don't get due process by King Trump.
Yeah. They can't do that.
And also if they're not deporting you to El Salvador.
Well, yeah. Why are you detaining me?
(31:04):
Like there's this whole thing where I once got detained in DC
for like crying in public at 5:00 PM.
They like kept me for 20 minutes.
The police kept me for 20 minutes and I was like dude let
me go because I they like accused me of being on drugs or
whatever. I was not.
It was like I was just sad aboutsomething and like I like
threaten them with my non existent lawyer.
But the point is like that should not have happened.
They were wasting their time andenergy and their money harassing
(31:28):
a random 25 year old for no reason and like.
That's. What they're doing right now,
basically, they're just trying to like torture random people
for the sake of it. And honestly, they're not like
handling actual issues, like actual crime.
Like you guys don't want to talkabout migrant crime.
Why didn't they catch the peoplethat are like raping and killing
Lake and Riley? Like what were they doing there
(31:48):
and said they're like harassing random dads who are just driving
their kids to school. I was going to say, if you want
to tie it in, it's like you can do all the means of, oh, like,
sent out on Salvador prison because I accidentally said I
want my 401K to work. I'd be good.
Like. And Tennessee, it's like you
were the one make the good cocaine argument.
Like instead of focusing on your401K that's tanking, that the
economy is going belly up, that manufacturing is on decline, or
(32:09):
instead of focusing on fixing the economy, Trump's too busy
hunting down dad with a son on the spectrum and a wife.
Yeah. And I like sometimes it's, it
feels silly when we talk about like the means of it all.
But I do think in today's world that's kind of a stand in for
like a very salient, easy to talk about issue.
Like if something can breakthrough to mean form, I do
think that translates even to like offline stuff where it's
(32:31):
something that like is easily recognizable from just a few
words. They dumb thing like that's
exactly like a yeah, like no oneeven knows what that's about,
but I know yeah, everyone remembers almost for they then
Trump is for you because it's like.
Right. Well, it's it's.
Not even true, I don't. Know, I just wonder who in that
ACLU thought that was a good idea to ask her that question.
(32:53):
I just, I just got to throw thatout there.
That was like a. That's the problem.
Like is The thing is like these orgs are not really tied to the
Democratic Party in the sense like they're not really like
determined for the Democratic Party to succeed, but they're
associated with the Democratic Party regardless.
Right. The scary lingering thing is
that I'm pretty sure Pete Buttigieg filled out that exact
same questionnaire and gave the same answer, if I recall.
(33:14):
So that's if it's still silly. That's the.
Thing exactly. He can talk his way out of it.
People just like be like, no, I don't know what you're talking
about. And people believe him.
Like I like Pete. He's a very nice man.
But like, funny thing is, he'll just like tell you that he's
like, no. And like, he'll just move on
from it and talk about somethingelse.
And no, I could so see him beinglike, no, of course I don't
support something like that. That would be crazy and just
(33:36):
like moving on. Yeah, but the problem is like, I
feel, I feel like The thing is they didn't reply to it or the
Harris campaign just did not engage with it because like Jen
O'Malley, Dylan was like, oh, you don't have to engage with
it. And I was like saying no, saying
like no, I don't believe that. And having people not believe
you're still better than saying nothing.
Right. I was gonna say didn't bother to
respond to it and it was just you're just losing on it.
And of course, I was saying Oakland was he was seeing
(33:57):
anecdotally. You can't just let that out
there. I mean, you can't leave that
there. And I, I guess I wonder, like
they kept calling her JOD and O'Malley Dylan, I guess what
would you think? Cuz I'm sure you remember
reading that same passage about how she was.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I do.
Cuz like, I remember the whole past started off with Bill
Clinton going, dude, everyone inNorth Carolina and Georgia is
asking about the stupid ads. And I have my own crackpot
(34:18):
theory that Jen O'Malley, Dylan's Biden, Biden guy, gender
neutral basically. And it's like, and the whole
like, no distance, no, but like daylight, sorry.
And it's like, I was like, why didn't you respond?
All she had to do was say like, no, I don't believe that.
I don't support that. Let's talk about how Trump's
going to tank the economy. Like it's just like you have to
reassure voters. Like, first of all, like I
(34:39):
didn't need it. You didn't need it because we
both are like, no, there's no way.
That's like going to be like a big thing.
But then when if you watch like college football or whatever,
like I'm not a big college football person and I'd like
have it on that ad was on every single commercial break.
And I was like, oh shit. Yeah, it was gonna be.
I mean, it's gonna be bad because it's playing college
football. It's like it's easy, it's
simple, it makes sense. And it's the same thing.
I was gonna say I'm. I don't know if you ever saw
(35:01):
this, but there was a lot of memes going around where it was
like clips of. You ever heard of the video game
Battlefield where it's the guys run around, they're shooting.
It's just a generic shooter run around, but yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It was clips of that.
It was me in 2020, sick, going to war with whatever country
because Taylor Swift told like my generation to vote for
Connell or something like that. I was like, wow, OK, this is
what we're. This is what's like getting like
10 million views like this is insane.
(35:21):
Yeah. Like Swifties are Swifties are
like an army in the sense like Iwould not want to get on the
wrong side of them, but there's not like I don't even know she
can get Phil Bredersen or whatever.
I left him in 2018. He did better than he probably
should have. Like he lost by like 6 or 7 in
Tennessee. If Taylor Swift could like
switch, like who could make elections like work the way she
(35:42):
wanted to, like Kamala would have won.
Phil Bredersen would have won. I don't apply one by more.
And The thing is like like I don't blame her for going under
the radar given like when she endorsed Kamala, Elon tweeted
something about how he should have like he basically implied
that he should impregnate her against her will.
And I was like, I forgot exactlywhat he said, but he said
something about like you should have children or something.
And I'm like. He's weird.
(36:02):
I always wondered. Like, I mean, you read his
biography, right? By Walter Isaacson, right?
A while ago, yeah. Yeah, I just finished it
recently because I was kind of thinking it's 2023 and he's
missing some stuff, but I'd kindof like to know the key of it.
But something that never makes sense to me is for the guy who
did all these things. Keep doing that.
Why you have all? This crisis.
But I guess, but I'm like, you could be going to space.
You could be doing all of these things and instead you're like
(36:23):
spending all your time on Twitter arguing with a guy named
Catchard. Really like.
Well, I think the other thing isthat like, I think you just got
radicalized by COVID and just like his was like a shut in
during COVID like everybody else.
And instead of like addressing these issues by going outside,
he just kind of like leaned intoit.
And then like it just got worse.And it's like, I don't even know
(36:45):
what he's doing. And it's like, and it's really
stupid because he's making everybody elses life harder
because he's so powerful. And I'm like, just handle your
midlife crisis and therapy. Don't like try to like blow up
the economy. But to be fair, I will give him
this. He was trying to talk Trump out
of the tariffs. Oh.
Yeah, well, because he's gonna get hurt by him.
I mean, like I was going to say.Of course, like that's why he
(37:07):
was taking team H1B, because he's like, wait, who's going to
run SpaceX and Tesla? I need people that know what
they're doing, right? What is it?
I'll I'll give him that. Much like Did you listen to
Space with Trump in 2024? Was it the one this was after
the DeSantis and the what was the other guy, Dean Phillips
like that? I I I don't think I was there
for that, but or no. Basically, the TLDR is like the
(37:27):
early, like when they were talking about immigration, they
both were like, yeah, we both the smartest people in this
country. So like, that's why it was
fascinating to me because I remember going like, huh, did
you really? Trump was for expanded H1 BS but
he got the wrong BS and he's like the H2 BS.
They work in my owner. No, this was like before the
election. This was like he had it was like
right after the shooting basically.
Like it was basically saying that like Elon and Trump were
(37:50):
both like really agreeing they have to bring the smartest
people into the country. They're like, Oh yeah, it's bad
for criminals to come. And he still, this wasn't when
Trump pretty much thinks that, like, asylum seekers are like
people from mental institutions.Like that was the whole like,
thing. He was like, oh, yeah, they're
very crazy and they're very deranged.
And I was like, OK, you don't know what an asylum seeker is.
I'm just gonna let you think that.
(38:12):
No, they literally had like a 5 or like 5-10 minute talk about
how, like, all these great immigrants are coming to the
country and bringing us more money and like, helping our
businesses. And I was like, oh, are you
actually in government? Like.
This and the answer's no. I mean, the answer was no.
It's it's embarrassing because like I was, I was thinking the
other day too, not to get completely off top, but I mean,
we might as well, right? Good.
Remember when he first came in office they signed like that,
(38:32):
like unleashing American like energy thing the like NEPA and
review. Yeah.
I do. But anyways, Long story short I
was falling down the hole. I hate NEPA sequa California
coastal Commission thing just like maybe is California.
Yeah, and it's just like, I don't know, third of the city.
I was born and just got burned to a crisp and I was like, okay,
this we gotta fix something. But anyway, Long story short,
Trump time, that whole executiveorder of only she American
(38:54):
energy and I was like, and therewas getting some ground like
this could be a good thing. They're gonna redo the council
on Environmental Quality, not gonna do all these input things
and all these little paperwork. They're going to hold everything
up. I was like, oh, there's a chance
that this may be the only like good thing that comes out of
this administration. And yet somehow they still
managed to fuck it up. Like it just they finally
finalized the rules and may actually be worse.
And I was like, wow, that's impressive.
(39:16):
Like you have actually managed to fuck up everything that I
thought you would and then some.Like, it's actually kind of
embarrassing. So one thing I thought was
interesting is like they, you know, like kind of going back to
what I say about the legal immigration thing, they were
talking about that like they make legal immigration a lot
harder. Like they screw up the H1B
lines, they screw up the green card lines, they make everything
worse. And it's like the last time the
(39:36):
H1B quota was increased is 19, is 2000, right before Bill
Clinton left office. And he raised it from, I think,
60,000 to 150,000 or something like something like that.
He actually doubled it and it was expiring.
It expired five years later and Bush was in office and they
never brought it up again. And that's when my parents and I
(39:56):
came to this country because we got in with that quota, which is
why I'm like. That's another reason why I like
Indian Americans love the Clintons, like because Bill
Clinton was the first one who's like, no, we're going to
likethat.com boom. We're going to let all these
people in and like really improve our economy.
Sorry to my NAFTA haters, but like it's not just about NAFTA.
(40:18):
It's very much like the people. They're always like super anti
NAFTA. Sometimes I'm like, oh, So what
do you think about like immigrants?
Like what do you think about like the areas that shifted
allegedly because of NAFTA are also the areas that really hate
immigrants. Like what do you think about
like my parents and me? Like, do you think we should not
be in this country because we benefited from like economic
booms the 90s and 2000? And like you never, they never
(40:38):
answer the question of like, hey, what does immigration have
to do with like your hatred of NAFTA?
Like NAFTA was signed in 94 or something like.
Well, and a lot of this stuff comes downstream and again, I
want to talk on this one becausethis is something that I've been
thinking about for a long time and.
Just yeah. I think a lot of like leftism in
the control, like universities comes from like civil rights era
people that learned what worked back then of like Nimbyism and
(40:58):
like we got to stop the federal government.
Everything's bad. And they've been teaching it
that way forever. And so they're still doing that
at that line of thought. And like these people are the
like, free trade is actually badbecause look at this one like
island nation that it destroyed.And it's like, or look at this
economy that doesn't really workin the Pacific because of free
trade. It's like, hold on, wait a
minute. Like, are you saying we should
reverse it? What is your alternative?
And for example, with NAFTA, right?
Oh, these places that got deindustrialized, I'm sure
(41:20):
you've seen those new papers that are coming outwards.
Actually, the deindustrialized areas shifted towards service
jobs that were higher. We can revitalize these areas
through different manners, but simply just going, oh, free
trade is bad is that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
We're not just going to go back to mercantilism and everything's
to be made in our country because it has to be.
That's so that's a dumb. I mean, that's just, that's
going to undo living standards by 100 years.
(41:40):
So the other thing is like, how are you going to undo NAFTA?
How are you going to like bring back manufacturing?
Like, are you just going to likefire a bunch of people?
Like are you going to like? One, it's like also like, are we
going to be like actually in thefact like, is this what you want
or do you want automation? Because we can have good
factories, but you need automation, you need robots that
can make these things even faster.
And like another one of those things with the tariffs on China
is I see people, they're like, oh, it's good.
(42:01):
We're going to stop them. We're stop China.
It's like, hold on, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a
minute. You know that these tariffs are
not going to work the way you think they will, right?
It's not like the businesses arejust going to go, hey, we're
going to reassure everything if it's going to get undone in a
week. Right now, actually, numbers are
just completely stagnated. They're not putting out new
orders. Nobody knows what to do because
of the uncertainty. You can't just restore an
economy overnight. Like that's not how that works.
(42:22):
Even if you think we got a raw deal because you don't
understand how trade works, likethat's not how that works.
I'm not like an econ expert, buteven I know what it means when
the markets crash. Yeah, if you see your 401K go
this way, you're like, oh, it's supposed to go this way.
Yeah, I just haven't looked at mine.
I'm just gonna not look at mine for a while because I'm.
Yeah, my, it's just kind of really, it's like, what are
(42:45):
they? What are they doing?
They're trying to like they're going to really piss off the
people that elected them, I guess.
And that's why I don't really like the idea that, like
Democrats should be cheering on an economic meltdown, though,
because like, who's going to suffer?
Like I just, I don't know, maybeI'm too like much of A bleeding
or liberal, but I don't actuallywant people to suffer for
Democrats to win. Like I wish there was just like
(43:06):
a way that we could like show that we're just better from the
country. They're like organic means, but
I don't think it's gonna work. To set doing Republican
president comes in when things are good destroys the economy
and then who knows if this one bad enough it'll be the next FDR
great Democratic president 2 butit's awful because I understand
that impulse. It's the economy meltdown.
We're win all these elections like okay, well that again,
(43:26):
you're skipping over the part where the economy melts down and
millions of people are now losing their jobs, their homes,
their livelihood. You don't cheer for that.
That's awful. Remember people, they're human
beings. Like get off, get off.
Remember, these are like your parents, these are your aunt and
uncle, these are like your neighbors.
These are like, you know, your nice like football coach from
high school. It's like, do you really want
these people to suffer? Like I think the other thing
(43:47):
that I kind of like think about is that Bill Clinton was the
first two term Democratic presidents since FDR and then
you're at Obama. And then like, like, I guess The
thing is like, I don't mean to be like a dumor about it, but
like, what are we going to do? Like I this goes back to what we
were saying earlier about the Garcia.
There is not like a very easy fix for this.
And I wish there was like, I wish we could just yell at Van
Holland and yell at Chuck Schumer and just like get this
(44:09):
guy back and like get them to stop the like, harassing random
U.S. citizens and like trying todetain like my mother.
Like my, my mother is not like my mom is an American citizen.
But like, I'm just saying like Iwould wish, like I wish we could
do that. Like I wish I could just, yeah,
I could just like write a nice e-mail to Susan Del Bene and be
like, hey, can you like make sure this doesn't happen?
(44:29):
But she can't do that. Congress can't do that.
Like, yeah, that sounds like really depressing way to end,
but yeah, I. Mean it's something that I guess
I would like to leave our listeners with is what do we do
it's about where's going where do we go forward when you have
no power in Congress, in the Senate, in the White House, the.
Presidency, even if you did havepower, Republicans are not doing
(44:52):
anything because they're trying not to do like, I don't even
know what they're doing. Well, they're because they're
afraid. I mean, from what I've heard,
it's like because Elon will threaten to primary you and I'm
sure you remember with the budget blueprint in the House
when Trump called and threatened, was it Victoria
Sports and a couple other members when they weren't going
to vote for his budget. And it's like we're in that
situation where we there's no power to stop him.
It's really kind in my view. It's coming mostly down to the
(45:12):
courts. The the last fashion of.
They're we're trying to rely on them to save us.
Yeah, and the courts that were made to be notoriously slow and
thoughtical like it's and it is scary.
That's why the Supreme Court wasputting out an opinion at one.
AMI was just trying. Like, I will give them that.
And I'm glad it was a 70. Like I wish it was 90, but at
least it was 7. Like I'm glad all of Trump's
(45:32):
justices did that at least. But like.
I wonder if the ones that broke with us, I'm guessing it was
Tony Barrett and Kavanaugh. No, it was the only ones that,
like, voted, like against it were like, yeah.
Well, I can say those are the, those are the 2.
That's like they're kind of going along with everything.
Is it really guys say come on. Yeah, that like ACB and like
(45:54):
Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were just like, no, we're not doing this.
When I wonder like do they see their place like in history as
like if we're going to be the justices that bucked the trend
or like I don't, I don't know. No, I think they're just
constitutionalists generally. I think they're just like they.
I don't think they're thinking about their overarching, like,
sorry, my husband's back. I don't think they're thinking
about like the overarching symbol of history or whatever.
(46:15):
I think they're just trying to like, you know, I think Roberts
cares about the reputation of the court.
I think the other ones just likegoing along being like, no, we
don't want like they're just being textualist.
KBJ is off at Broadway doing herher show.
Well, she can't do much. Yeah, it was like when you're in
the minority, but I guess it's agood point to lead it off.
Like what do you do when you're in the minority?
(46:36):
Right, It's the time we. Do when the the president of the
United States is just like goingI can't do anything I don't want
to talk to B Kelly when the. President of the United States
said no, you guys are criminals.Bye bye.
I don't want to see you anymore like.
And do we know they're criminals?
I don't know. They didn't bother to check, but
anyways, I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up there.
Joining. Joining.
(46:57):
Us Thank you so much for having me.