July 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Michael Holmes returns to the Superhero Politics Podcast with a powerful examination of America's political landscape in 2025, drawing fascinating parallels between current events and comic book narratives that feel eerily prophetic.
The episode dissects Trump's return to power after winning both the popular vote and Electoral College in 2024, despite Kamala Harris's valiant campaign. Holmes doesn't hold back in his analysis, noting how the assassination attempt on Trump seemed to galvanize his supporters who viewed it as an omen of his destined comeback.
Comic readers will appreciate the sharp comparisons between today's political climate and storylines like DC's "Absolute Power" and "Daredevil Reborn," where Amanda Waller controls metahumans and Wilson Fisk becomes mayor of New York – both mirroring the authoritarian tendencies emerging in American politics. "When I think about who he is," Holmes reflects, "I think about Lex Luthor as president and Wilson Fisk as mayor, but I also think about the Purple Man and how he's able to sway people's minds against their better judgment."
The episode explores what Holmes dubs the "billionaire civil war" between Trump and Elon Musk (sarcastically nicknamed "Phony Stark"). After spending $235 million to help elect Trump, Musk's Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) spectacularly failed, shifting from promises of saving $2 trillion to ultimately costing taxpayers money. Now threatening to form his own political party, Musk represents another comic book trope – the billionaire whose ego drives political ambition.
Perhaps most alarming is the discussion of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which Holmes warns contains Medicaid cuts strategically delayed until after the 2026 midterms. The immigration crackdown targeting even those pursuing legal channels draws direct comparisons to dystopian comic scenarios where organizations like HYDRA-infiltrated SHIELD target vulnerable populations.
Whether you're a political junkie, comic enthusiast, or concerned citizen, this episode offers a unique framework for understanding America's current challenges. As Holmes reminds us in his powerful closing: "You are not powerless – you don't have to be a superhuman to be a super human."
Subscribe, follow us on TikTok and YouTube, and join our community as we continue navigating the intersection of politics and superhero narratives in these unprecedented times.
http://www.youtube.com/@superheropoliticspodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back to Superhero Politics Podcast.
This is your host, michaelHolmes, and I know it's been a
minute, and so we're backrecapping all the things that
happened in 2024 and going intowhat's happening in the new year
.
I know I say this every time Itake a long break I'm back again
(00:24):
and refreshed, and all thatother stuff.
I know, I know, I know, I know,I know I say this every time I
take a long break I'm back againand refreshed, and all that
other stuff.
I know, I know, I know, I know,I know, but I'm back.
Right, I know October 2024 wasthe last time that we were
together and a lot has happenedsince then.
I think I said the last time wewere on that we were going to
(00:45):
either have the first femalepresident of the United States
or we're going to both thepopular vote and also the
Electoral College, winning everyswing state.
Now, that is not to say KamalaHarris, who, um mounted a
(01:28):
valiant campaign with 108 daysto to to do that, and so it was
a pretty valiant campaign, uhthat she, she mounted, uh, she
was able to raise like almost abillion dollars, um billion and
a half dollars in that period oftime, but there was just too
much hangover and lag from theBiden campaign and everything
(01:50):
that had happened.
Plus, you had an assassinationattempt on Donald Trump's life,
which I think a lot of peoplesaw as kind of a omen or a sign
that he was destined to returnto power.
And so it was just a lot thathappened in that.
And so here we are, you know,fast forward to 2025.
(02:16):
And it, needless to say, gotoff with a, you know, incredible
start.
And so, you know it, it's takenthe country, um, in a lot of
different ways.
And so, you know, I'm just hereas your friendly neighborhood
host, councilman, consultant,comic, nerd and, um,
(02:37):
unapologetically um politicalpodcaster, just to kind of bring
you up to speed and welcome youguys back to superhero politics
.
And so, you know, 2024, man,last time we were together it
was a pressure cooker, and youknow Biden had taken on the
debate and it didn't go well atall.
(02:58):
It was messy, he lookedterrible, and the party began to
say, hey, you got to step down,and at that time there wasn't
really a plan for that Right.
And so Kamala Harris, the heirapparent, stepped in, and it
(03:18):
wasn't without controversy,because there was not really a
primary.
That happened, and you know,she was able to step out, you
know, as the vice president, andtake over the nomination.
And some people thought, well,you know, she's not ready, she
hasn't won any votes, nobodyvoted for her, and there was a
lot of consternation back andforth, but on the other side, it
(03:40):
was complete and utterunanimity, right, it was
Republicans behind Trump, 10toes down.
I mean, they had a primary, butRon DeSantis dropped out, a lot
of the other ones dropped out,nikki Haley stayed in for a
little while, but they all endedup bending the knee right, and
so they all dropped out.
And so, despite January 6th,despite 91 felony indictments
(04:05):
and 34 felony convictions,donald Trump was nominated again
by the Republican Party.
Complete and utter allegianceto him, complete and utter
unanimity behind him, and hebecame president of the United
States again.
And so you know, there it is.
(04:25):
I mean there it is.
I mean the comic world had alot of stuff going on too.
I mean we've got absolute power.
That happened, which showedAmanda Waller being, you know,
the arbiter of all things, metaRight, and she kind of
(04:48):
paralleled what fascism lookslike and taking down the, those
with the metagene stealing thepowers, using the Amazo robots
and the Brainiac Queen to stealpowers and corral and capture
all the metahumans in theAbsolute Power series.
And that's kind of what wealways think of when we think
(05:11):
about the parallels betweenwhat's happening in comics and
happening now, because, you know, fast forward to 2025, we've
got Donald Trump, who came backto power essentially promising
retribution.
He didn't come back with thisunifying speech.
He didn't even try.
If you guys remember the firstterm when he came to power, he
essentially recreated the speechBane gave in the Dark Knight
(05:36):
Rises and this time he didn'teven provide any pretense.
He was like all those who cameafter me, all those who
impeached me, all those whoinvestigated me, I'm going to
get you, I'm going to take youdown, and that's essentially
what he has been trying to do.
(05:59):
Guys have been watchingDaredevil Reborn.
This is extremely reminiscentof the way Wilson Fisk Kingpin
took over New York and becamemayor.
It's almost eerie, right, andyou guys can probably see my
hoodie that I have on and youcan find this at my online store
(06:22):
.
The notes will be.
You can find this at my onlinestore.
The notes will be in the shownotes.
But this has got Trump and Lexwhen Lex became president.
But Donald Trump hasn'tgoverned as president the way
Lex Luthor has governed.
He didn't try to solve anyproblems.
He didn't try to do anything.
(06:43):
He hasn't tried to really solvethe world's problems.
Lex's ego wanted him to be ableto not only mess with Superman,
which I think to some degree.
Trump is a troll, right, andhe's trying to needle the Obamas
and the Bushes and all thepolitical folks.
(07:04):
He's trying to needle them.
But you know, to the end healso wants to be seen as a great
leader, as a world-changingfigure, and he keeps failing
miserably, like the Fox Newspoll that came out the other day
and it rated Biden ahead ofTrump.
It rated Obama in the top sevenof presidents all time and and
(07:31):
rated Trump dead last.
Like dead last, like the worstpresident in history, like last.
Like there's some pretty badpresidents out there that we've
had, but they rated Trump deadlast.
So you know it was.
It's been an interesting time.
We've had, obviously, the warin Gaza.
(07:52):
That has yet to be resolved.
Trump promised to do that onday one.
He hasn't.
You have now the war withIsrael in Iran and you know no
Israel and Iran and no reallyresolution for that, and Iran is
back enriching nuclear material.
(08:13):
You've got the war in Ukraine.
That continues to go.
You start to see this rift inbetween Putin and Trump, even
though Trump pretty much hasdone the bidding of Russia
during his tenure in politics.
And then, on the other front,what happened after the election
(08:34):
was that you had the rise ofwho I like to call Phony Stark,
which is Elon Musk.
Elon Musk spent $235 millionelecting Donald Trump in 2024.
And he was given the directiveto form what is called DOGE,
(08:58):
which is the Department ofGovernmental Efficiency, and it
was a spectacular failure.
It blew up like one of thespacex rockets that he tries to
launch.
So he brought in all theseso-called whiz kids who were ai
you know, ai programmers andthey were going to find and
modernize government and theywere going to make it more
(09:19):
efficient, and all they did wasjust come in and cut people's
jobs.
They didn't even reallyunderstand what those people did
like.
They fired the people whohandle the nuclear codes because
they didn't really understandthe job, and then they had to
hire everybody back and airtraffic controllers got fired
and there were planes droppingout of the sky.
And then, and when you went backand tallied all the things that
(09:40):
doge actually saved.
They actually cost us money.
I mean, the original goal wasthat doge actually saved.
They actually cost us money.
I mean the original goal wasthat Doge was going to sell, not
sell.
Well, freudian, slip there thatDoge was going to save $2
trillion, and then it ended upnot saving anything.
(10:03):
It was like, okay, so let'smove the goalposts a little bit.
It goes from $2 trillion downto $1 trillion.
And then it was like, well,maybe that's a little rosy,
let's go from $1 trillion downto $120 billion.
And then they were like, hey,look, we're not even going to be
able to get that.
So ultimately, if you look atwhat Doge actually saved versus
(10:23):
what it cost America, it was aspectacular failure.
So he slinked out of thegovernment, having cost the
valuation of Tesla upon hundredsof billions of dollars.
The year-over-year sales forTesla is in the tank.
There's absolutely no market inEurope for it, people have
(10:43):
abandoned it, and even here inAmerica sales are slow, and so
he actually damaged a lot ofTesla's reputation, and so his
exit gave him the opportunity tobe able to say to the world hey
, you know, trump and I are notnecessarily joined at the hip,
(11:07):
we're not fused, you know, it'snot like Vegito or Goku or
anything like that.
It's not like Superbat whenBatman and Superman fuse
together.
We're two separate people andwe differ.
So when it came time for Trumpto pass his signature piece of
legislation, which is called theBig Beautiful Bill, which just
passed and was signed into lawon Independence Day, july 4th
(11:30):
Happy 4th of July, by the wayand so all those things happened
up until this point, right?
And so Musk threatenedRepublicans the same Republicans
he had helped get in office byspending hundreds of millions of
dollars.
He threatened them to formeither to primary them or he was
going to form an entirely newparty aimed at taking down
(11:55):
anybody who voted for Trump'slegislation.
So it was, it's been a reallykind of chaotic time in the
world of politics.
I mean, we've got, you know,tick, tock, deep face.
Really kind of chaotic time inthe world of politics.
I mean, we've got, you knowTick, tock, deep Face.
We've got AI bots, fox Newsrunning propaganda, you know the
(12:15):
same old things that we have.
We have trade wars, with theentire world and China attacking
us via trade and supply chains,and so it's been really wild in
the last six or seven monthssince we were together.
(12:37):
You know, we have Marvel in DC,we have some new movies that are
out, thunderbolts came out onthe Marvel side and we had a
couple of series on Disney+.
We had the Spider-Man animatedseries, which was okay, you know
.
We also had Daredevil Reborn,which came out, which is really,
(13:02):
really a good return tointegrate Daredevil and Kingpin
into the new MCU, phase five,and so it was an interesting
series because it was trying toreform the idea of Wilson Fisk
(13:23):
Kingpin.
But he couldn't escape hisnature, and this is kind of the
same debate that we had aboutTrump.
Right, we thought, well, maybeafter the assassination attempt
he's going to turn over a newleaf, maybe he learned from the
first term and he's going togovern for America.
(13:43):
Nope, didn't happen.
So when you, you know, look atsome of the legislation, the
crackdown on immigration, youlook at all those things, it is
a retribution tour.
And so, uh, at least inDaredevil Reborn, wilson Fisk
gave it a good try, like hereally tried to walk the
straight and narrow, he reallytried to be a change man and
(14:07):
govern, um, uh, as a, as astatesman, as a leader, but he
couldn't escape his nature.
And this is why, when everytime we talk about, um, heroes
and villains, um, it's, it's,it's a clear, it's a clear split
, right, it's clear, you know, ahero's going hero and a
(14:29):
villain's going villain, right.
And so the question that wehave now in society is who is
the hero and who is the villain,right?
Some people think that Trump isa savior, like he's, you know,
he's their Messiah.
You got folks who are actuallyout here saying, you know, up
under, up under God, there'sTrump, and that's crazy to me,
(14:52):
but that's it.
I mean, we're thinking abouthow Kamala Khan now is kind of
the mutant messiah in Marvel,right.
And you think about HopeSummers, who was the mutant
messiah, and, you know, in X-Men.
You think about all of thesethings and how people will
elevate an individual up to bekind of that presence, that
(15:15):
messianic type presence, to bekind of that presence, that
messianic type presence.
And Trump has benefited fromthat because he has been able to
convince people that, no matterwhat he does, he's right.
Even when it turns out wrong,it's somebody else's fault.
Even when it's directlysomething that he does somehow
or another, he's not responsiblefor it.
(15:35):
And so when I think about whohe is, obviously, you know, I
think about Lex Luthor aspresident and I think about
Wilson Fisk as mayor, but I alsothink about the purple man.
Right, I also think about thepurple man and Jessica Jones and
how, somehow or another, hejust is able to sway the minds
(15:58):
of people, to be against theirbetter nature and act against
their judgment.
And so right now, we're in thethroes of this debate with the
big, beautiful bill that justpassed Congress.
(16:23):
Congress.
There were many, manyRepublican electeds who know
this bill is bad and it wasgoing to brutalize the people
that are in their districts.
Yet, somehow or another, theywere not able to stand up
against the offensive the threator charm offensive, depending
on where you stand of DonaldTrump.
He just was able to get them tobend the knee, and so, with the
(16:43):
majorities in the House and theSenate being so narrow, he
couldn't afford to lose but afew votes here or there.
And then he ended up losingthree votes in the Senate, with
Susan Collins and Tom Tillis,who is one of our senators here
in the state of North Carolina,who then summarily announced
that he was not going to run forre-election because he knew
(17:06):
that he could not win with thealbatross of this bill around
his neck.
And then you had Rand Paul fromKentucky, who is just a fiscal
hawk, and he thought the billraised the deficit too much, in
which it does add, you know,several trillion dollars to the
debt over the next 10 years,while cutting a trillion dollars
(17:28):
out of Medicaid, which is the,which is the safety net for
lower income Americans.
And so it was a really terriblebill, but Trump needed it to
get the tax cuts that he wantedfor corporations and for high
earning individuals.
And so, even though these folksknow that it is going to be a
(17:52):
bloodletting in 2026, it isgoing to be a bloodletting Now,
they knew it.
So the structure of the billcomes through and they say, well
, we're going to delay the worstparts of the bill until after
the election.
We're going to delay the cutsto Medicaid until 2027, which
(18:12):
gets you beyond the midterms.
And so they can say, well, look, you know, nobody's been hurt
yet.
Nobody's been hurt yet.
See, vote for us, keep us inpower, nobody's going to be hurt
.
As a matter of fact, if you keepus in power, we could possibly
fix some of these things so thatthey don't go into effect.
I know we passed them, like Iknow we did, like I know we
passed them not thinking abouthow it's going to harm you, but
(18:36):
give us a chance, we'll fix itbefore it comes due right.
Um, and also some of theprovisions that people thought
were good, like no tax onovertime and no tax on tips and
no tax um on um, social securitynone of those things are really
there and if they are there,they expire by 2028, just in
(18:59):
time for the next election, nextpresidential election.
So imagine that.
So there was a lot of badthings in that bill and so many
of the Republicans who had achance to be heroic and stop the
bill, they just couldn't getpast their villainous nature and
(19:20):
they voted for the bill and soit passed very narrowly and
you've got a lot of differentRepublicans and a lot of
different Democrats who arealready out trying to sell this
bill.
But you know, you look at, youknow where we are now in the
(19:40):
comic space and we've got in afew days.
Five days from now, james Gunnis releasing Superman, the
reboot, right, and this is thenew DCU.
It used to be the DCEU, dcExtended Universe, and now it's
just the DCU, kind of in linewith the MCU, and so there's
(20:05):
been a lot of back and forthabout the movie, about the
costume, about David Cornswet,about Nicholas Holt, who comes
over from Marvel.
You know, he played Beast inthe X-Men series.
He comes over from Marvel toplay Lex Luthor, and there's
been a lot of back and forthabout, you know, does Corn Sweat
(20:27):
?
Is it more comic accurate?
Is the suit more comic accurate?
Is his portrayal of Clark Kentmore comic accurate?
And so a lot of back and forthabout it.
But I think what's happening isyou're starting to see like a
little bit of buzz.
I mean, I think people were, um, really disappointed at the end
of the last phase of DC.
(20:48):
I mean, you didn't haveanything that that did well,
right.
You didn't have anything thatdid well.
Blue beetle tankeded, I think,obviously, wonder Woman 84, the
Flash, all underwhelmed at thebox office, right, or at least
were not critically receivedwell, right.
(21:10):
And so this is the fresh start,and it's apropos that this is a
fresh start, because supermanis a flagship character, right,
a lot of people loved henrycavill as superman.
I did personally, um, but Imean, nothing is forever, and so
what we have now is we've justgot these new, um, these new
(21:33):
actors coming in.
It's been confirmed that thatGal Gadot is out and maybe Adria
Adjoina is going to be the newWonder Woman.
There are other actresses thatare Aiza Gonzalez, other
actresses who are in the mix forthat, and so they're rebooting
(21:57):
the entire DCU.
One of the holdovers, though,from the previous DCEU is Jason
Momoa is coming back as Lobo,and I think everybody's pretty
happy about that.
I think when he became Aquaman,I think it was cool, I think
(22:17):
people liked it in the, the kindof the gruff, gritty take on
aquaman, but, um, it was reallyjust uh, never really the type
of fit.
Everybody immediately saw himwith the long hair and the in
the gravelly voice and the andthe facial hair and said, yo,
that's lobo, he's got to Loboand so now he's going to be Lobo
(22:38):
, and so it's been a pretty goodrun.
Marvel has hit some speed bumps, but they've got a new series
up, ironheart, and if we'regoing to be political about it,
the boys is doing what the boysalways do in the comment
(22:59):
sections.
Here we are, and immediately,because we have demonized DEI
and affirmative action.
We've demonized those things.
Trump did that in his firstexecutive order when he signed
to eliminate DEI and all of thegovernment.
Now, anytime that you see ablack person, a woman, a gay
(23:21):
person, anybody who happens tobe on the screen, they're
immediately labeled as DEI, asaffirmative action.
And we've got Ironheart, who weall saw on Wakanda Forever.
Riri Williams, who is gettingher own series Haven't started
watching it yet, about to do it,probably later on this week but
(23:46):
they're always saying that thisis affirmative action, this is
a DEI.
We have Captain America, braveNew World, where, you know,
people were glazing Batman fornot having powers but slamming
Sam Wilson for not having powers.
You know, slamming Tony Starkdidn't have powers but somehow
or another, sam Wilson shouldhave taken the super soldier
(24:09):
serum Right.
And so there's always thisbattle.
There's always this battle andit seems to have been heightened
(24:33):
over the last decade becausenow that you see more and more
heroes of color, not just andthey don't want to have that
representation which mirrorswhat's happening in the country.
Like right now we're activelyhunting down minorities and
Hispanics, like we're huntingthem down in this immigration
push.
Now we're being very selectiveabout it, obviously because we
(24:58):
know where they are, but theyalso populate industries that no
American is going to do.
No American is going to dothese jobs, and so we're just
kind of faking the funk andlooking over like, oh no, we
don't see them, but we knowwhere they are and it's kind of
(25:19):
selective.
And so, in order to hit thenumbers, we're grabbing random
people off the street, peoplewho don't have criminal records,
people who have been here for40 years, who came here as
children, people who areactively going through the
naturalization process.
We're snagging people At theimmigration offices, people who
are going in for their, fortheir appointments to go through
(25:45):
the immigration process.
A mask agents of ice is pullingup on them and grabbing them.
Right, it's like.
It's like, if you know, youknow you had SHIELD, who had
been infiltrated by Hydrapulling up and grabbing, uh,
mutants and metahumans off thestreet and it's.
(26:07):
It's really indicative of whereAmerica is right now that we
can't agree on a single spacewhere collaboration, unity,
diversity fits right.
We can't agree on a singlespace, right.
We know that in our economy andI say this as an elected
(26:29):
official, I say this as adegreed economist, I say this as
someone who works every singleday to build policy, build
policy and infrastructure thatcan benefit the lives of
everybody that is either in mycity or in my state or anywhere
(26:49):
around the world.
And so when you see that we aredestabilizing the ability to
collaborate, it is dangerous.
It's dangerous to our future,because now, in order to set
things back to a reasonable,moderate center, we've swung so
(27:14):
far right.
Now we're going to have toswing back so far left just to
get back to the middle, and sowe're going to be constantly in
this state of flux.
And you know, if you guys havewatched the multiverse saga, if
you guys watched, you know, theFlashpoint saga, it is a
(27:36):
delicate balance on how we keepour society from imploding, but
we're just doing things now thatdon't really make a lot of
sense when it comes to how do wekeep people enlightened?
Like we're banning books.
Like we're you know, all overthe country, now we've gotten
(27:57):
this idea that if you have anytype of dissent about America,
that you know you're, you're theenemy Right, and so now we're
banning books.
We're, you know, couchingeverything under DEI and we're
removing the contributions ofgreat black Americans and
Hispanic Americans and LGBTQAmericans and women from
(28:21):
everything.
We're actually actively pushingto rename our military bases
after Confederate soldiers theConfederacy.
My God, like we're actuallywe're actively like glazing the
Confederacy, we're bringing itback, glazing the Confederacy,
(28:43):
we're bringing it back.
I mean you're starting, you seenow that people are riding
around all over the city, allover the state country with
three flags.
They're riding around with theAmerican flag, the Confederate
flag and the Trump flag.
If you see those things,they're all together, they're
always together.
You see the American flag andsometimes in the, you know, the
flag code is hate to see themcoming, because sometimes you've
(29:04):
got the Trump flag over theAmerican flag and the
Confederate flag over theAmerican flag.
And it's crazy, because youknow, we're in this space and
time where we are on the cusp oflike great advancement.
I mean great advancement.
(29:26):
And so, um, ai is taking off,like the productivity of ai is
huge, like all these things, man, and you would think that we
are getting to a point to where,uh, americans have, hey, look,
we've got all this advancementthat is possible for us.
How are we going to manage it?
What are we going to do?
(29:46):
Right, but we're still justtrotting along, going backwards.
And so you know, when you thinkabout what's happening, you know
(30:15):
when you think about what'shappening, you know with the
so-called you know PatriotPurity Act and giving the you
know Homeland Security expandedpowers.
And you know Florida mandatingloyalty oaths for schools, and
you know, you've got you knowred states putting Bibles back
in the classroom.
But taking out Tony Morrison, Imean you would think that it
would be met with someresistance and it absolutely has
.
Like, so, all over the countrywe've had the no kings protest,
(30:36):
and so I say that because thetitle of this episode is no
Kings or Conquerors, it's kindof a play on King the Conqueror
Right.
And so we've got this entireresistance where millions of
people showed up to march andprotest about the moves of what
(30:59):
seems to be an onset of afascist regime here in the
States.
On June 14th it was Flag Day.
Trump's birthday also was onJune 14th and he threw himself
this kind of gaudy Kim Jong-unstyle parade and nobody showed
(31:23):
up.
Imagine you spend $45 millionon a birthday party and nobody
comes Right.
And so obviously the spin waswas pretty amazing.
It was like, yeah, this was thelargest attended you know
parade in American history.
And obviously we saw thepictures and it wasn't.
And it was kind of weirdbecause you could see the
protests coming from inside ofthe parade, like you had
(31:47):
soldiers who were just kind ofout there skipping and marching.
They weren't even in unison,they wasn't even marching in
cadence and you could see likenobody wanted to be there.
But it's these type smallresistance that are happening
right now in the country becauseof where we are.
I mean, you know we've got youknow, a lot of celebrities and
(32:13):
people who are pulling up there.
Mark Ruffalo was at some of theevents, you know the Hulk was
there.
But you know we've got examplesof this like that run into the
comic space, right, the, youknow independent creators you
know, like Kill your Darlingsand Image, and they tackle the
(32:33):
weaponization of childhoodinnocence.
Splicers, explore control andconformity in dystopian
environments.
You know you got the Berserkerpoetry of madness leaned into
military trauma andindoctrination, and then
Bitterroot came back with, youknow, a Harlem resistance and
(32:53):
magical realism, and so you'vegot a lot of things that are
parallel in the comic books,that are parallel in what's
happening here, you know, insociety and that are parallel in
what's happening here, um, youknow in in society, uh, and
that's what we aim to bring.
I know a lot of folks will lookat this and say, man, that's,
that's a kind of a stretch, butit's really not.
It's really not.
If you think about what comicshave done over the last um, you
(33:17):
know, century, century and a ahalf, comics has been what has
told the tale.
Comics has been what has reallybeen the bell ringer of popular
culture.
You've got a lot of folks outthere who are resisting.
You've got a lot of cities,black mayors all over the
(33:40):
country.
I know black mayors all overthe country.
I know black mayors all overthe country said, hey, look,
we're going to have to take ourpeople, we're gonna have to
protect our people.
So now, with this onslaughtcoming on from the federal
government, local and municipaland state governments have to
buck up, right, um, and so youknow it's, it's, this is where
it, it meets the.
(34:01):
You know the the rubber meetsthe road.
This is where, like, theimmovable object meets the
irresistible force, and A lot ofpeople are going to be caught
in the collateral damage.
Right, it's kind of like whenyou know, superman and Zod have
this battle above Metropolis,like they're trying to subdue
(34:24):
each other, but everybody elsegets hurt in the process.
They're invulnerable, right,they punch each other through
buildings and all this otherstuff, but it's the guy on the
ground who ends up gettingkilled because a building falls
on them.
And you know, the way this hascome about is we, as municipal
(34:46):
leaders and state leaders, haveto be able to limit the
collateral damage of thisseemingly amped up, empowered
federal government.
Now, the irony of all this isthat this is supposed to be a
conservative government.
Right, this is supposed to be agovernment.
(35:06):
That is small government.
It's what you hear all the timesmall government, small
government.
We're going to return all thepower back to the states and
actually what it's doing is itis limiting the state.
Right here in north carolina, uh, democrats had a resounding
victory in no in november in theelection, sweeping the council
(35:27):
of state.
They won everything.
Right, they won the governor,the, the lieutenant governor,
the secretary of education,attorney general, um secretary
of state, like all.
They want, all the, the majoroffices here in the state of
north carolina.
But unfortunately, because youhave a super majority in the in
the general assembly, senate andmajorities in the house,
(35:50):
they're able to strip away theinherent powers, the
constitutionally granted powersof the council of state members
here and hand them over to aelected um council of state
member who happens to be arepublican the only one.
So it's like you take thepowers of it's like an absolute.
(36:13):
It's like what happens inabsolute power.
Right, you took all the powerout of the metahumans and
transferred them into an amazorrobot.
So you've got this one guy whowas a state auditor, who now has
powers that are normallyreserved for the governor and
lieutenant governor and thesecretary of state and the
attorney general and secretaryof education.
Like you, you've got this oneguy who now finds himself with
(36:37):
an infinity gauntlet and hedoesn't know what to do, but
he's being controlled by anotherpowerful force.
And so when you get to acertain degree, uh, in politics
it gets comical.
It gets comical like it getssuper villain-esque, like it
(36:59):
gets comical.
And this is where we are now,because you know, you think
about some of these things thatyou would never, ever thought
you'd see in American politics.
It looks like what you wouldsee in a comic book, right, you
see these, you know these rich,desperate billionaires who are
(37:19):
attempting to take over theworld and they're forming their
own party.
Elon musk now is falling outwith trump and he says well, you
know, the republicans aren'tgoing to do what I demand from
them.
I want to form my own party,the america party.
Okay, good luck with that.
You know, third party politicshasn't necessarily been a winner
(37:40):
In America.
It has been a spoiler.
Now let's get that right.
It has been a spoiler, but ithasn't been a winner.
And so if Elon Musk, who hasall the money in the world
literally richest man on theplanet, worth something like
$450 or $60 billion if he wantsto launch his third party vanity
(38:03):
project, let him go on.
But there is going to becarnage because if he can amass
enough support, then he can playspoiler in future elections,
sowing chaos, and so that's alot to take in.
I know you guys are like, damn,that's a lot to take in, but
(38:28):
it's a lot to take in becausethere's a lot happening.
But you all have the power, youas listeners, you as voters,
you all have the, the power.
Like you know, we're notpowerless now, I know sometimes
it feels like that, but we'renot powerless.
I mean, we certainly are not.
I mean, and you know, we'regoing to get caught up sometimes
(38:50):
in these.
You know these attacks ascollateral damage between these
two titans, this billionaire onbillionaire civil war.
We're going to get caught upbetween, you know, lex Luthor
and Phony Stark.
We're going to get caught upbetween, you know, lex luther
and phony stark.
We're gonna get caught up inthose things, but we're not
powerless.
The only way we can lose ourpower is not.
(39:12):
It can't be taken from us, like, you know, amanda waller did
with, uh, the amazor robots inabsolute power.
It can't be taken from us, butwe can surrender it.
You know, if we decide thatwe're not going to show up, uh,
to elections, if we're not goingto show up, uh, to city hall,
if we're not going to show up,uh and vote, if we're not going
to stand up for our neighbors,uh, who we've known our whole
(39:35):
lives, uh, who just happen to beundocumented, if we're not
going to show up, if we're notgoing to be up, if we're not
going to be heroes, then we giveup our power, we surrender our
powers, and that's what theywant.
The reason why they're soterrified of implementing the
big, beautiful bullshit bill isbecause they know what's going
to happen.
They know people are going toget hurt and they know those
(39:57):
people are going to reclaimtheir power.
And so we have to make surethat we continue to educate
everyone, because a lot ofpeople did not know that the
health care that they arereceiving is Medicare Medicaid.
They didn't.
They didn't know that why?
Because it was called somethingelse.
If you think about what'swhat's happening with our health
(40:18):
care system and the AffordableCare Act, think about what's
happening with our healthcaresystem and the Affordable Care
Act.
A lot of people didn't evenrealize that Obamacare, which
they hate, is the AffordableCare Act, which they love, and
so being able to obscure andhide the information from people
has caused them to vote againsttheir interests.
(40:38):
And we see that everywhere.
We see that in this entiredebate that we have going on,
because you have a mastermanipulator and a very, very
motivated group of villains whoare coming for the freedoms that
(41:00):
you hold dear, and it's like,oh well, don't be hyperbolic.
No, no, no, no.
This is not being hyperbolic,this is being realistic, like
you tell the truth about whatyou're facing, and so you know.
Just wanted to welcome you guysback and just catch you up on
(41:23):
everything that's been happeningsince we last were together in
October.
What am I reading right now?
Let's transition as we getready to close this episode out.
I talked about Era ofApocalypse, marvel's X-Men.
We've got, uh, trinity specialthey're still the blood hunt, uh
(41:47):
.
We've got the absolute universe.
Uh, that's happening right now.
Uh, if you guys are not uhreading, uh, the superman comic
right now.
You've got doomsday back.
You got a couple of versions ofdoomsday.
One, uh, is the king of helldoomsday, the other is time
trapper doomsday back.
You got a couple of versions ofDoomsday.
One is the King of HellDoomsday, the other is Time
Trapper Doomsday.
And you're about to have thismajor crossover between the
Absolute Universe and you guysshould really be reading
(42:09):
Absolute Superman, absoluteBatman, absolute Wonder Woman,
absolute Flash you should bereading all those.
But they're about to have acrossover with the main universe
in DC and it's going to bepretty epic.
Also, like I said, you've gotIronheart that's on Disney plus,
(42:31):
and you've got Superman, who isabout to drop in a couple of
days with the reboot of the DCU,and James Gunn.
So a lot of stuff going on.
But I wanted to just get back toyou guys and try to get a
regular cadence back.
You guys know how busy I am,but you also know how much I
(42:52):
love you.
You know how much I love what Ido here at Superhero Politics
Podcast.
So subscribe you can find usanywhere, obviously, you know.
But also go check us out ontiktok man.
We're we're trying to do thiswhole tiktok thing, uh, and
youtube thing and we reallywould appreciate you guys, uh,
(43:13):
subscribing and following usthere, trying to get our
community larger and so, um,it's going to be a lot more
content posted there.
There's going to be a lot morelives.
You know, we went live onTikTok the other day.
We had a thousand people on andso really want you guys to be
part of the journey.
And I know sometimes it'll seemlike fits and starts and
(43:36):
sometimes I'll be here and I'llbe away.
Guys, I'm really out hereworking in these streets to try
to make a better world for thepeople of High Point, but also
make a better world for thepeople of America, and so you
know, I'm on a federal advocacyboard.
I have a chance to travel overthe country and talk about some
(43:57):
of the things that I'm doing interms of policy.
Talk about some of the thingsthat I'm doing in terms of
policy.
I'm leading a federal workforceprogram that is trying to get
folks into the clean energyworkforce, which is part of a
major announcement here in NorthCarolina of the largest job
(44:17):
creation vehicle in the historyof the state of North Carolina,
which is also a new form oftravel with a single wing, very
energy efficient um airplanethat's going to be manufactured
here by jet zero.
So I've got a lot of things onthe on the burner.
My company's growing well, youknow, my kids are about to go
(44:38):
off to college and about to beempty nester.
So, guys, please forgive me ifI'm not as regular in podcasting
as I want to be, but I'm goingto dedicate my time.
Hopefully I can carve outSundays to be able to upload the
new episodes and so you'll beable to find them on YouTube.
(45:00):
You'll be able to stream themeverywhere.
But, guys, thanks for lockingin with me.
I appreciate you, but there arepeople out there who need you
and you are not powerless.
Know that you are not powerless, but if you think you can't,
just remember what we say hereat superhero politics you don't
(45:23):
have to be a superhuman to be asuper human.
Until next time.
This is michael holmessuperhero politics.
We back.
Welcome back to Superhero Politics Podcast.
This is your host, michaelHolmes, and I know it's been a
minute, and so we're backrecapping all the things that
happened in 2024 and going intowhat's happening in the new year
.
I know I say this every time Itake a long break I'm back again
(00:24):
and refreshed, and all thatother stuff.
I know, I know, I know, I know,I know I say this every time I
take a long break I'm back againand refreshed, and all that
other stuff.
I know, I know, I know, I know,I know, but I'm back.
Right, I know October 2024 wasthe last time that we were
together and a lot has happenedsince then.
I think I said the last time wewere on that we were going to
(00:45):
either have the first femalepresident of the United States
or we're going to both thepopular vote and also the
Electoral College, winning everyswing state.
Now, that is not to say KamalaHarris, who, um mounted a
(01:28):
valiant campaign with 108 daysto to to do that, and so it was
a pretty valiant campaign, uhthat she, she mounted, uh, she
was able to raise like almost abillion dollars, um billion and
a half dollars in that period oftime, but there was just too
much hangover and lag from theBiden campaign and everything
(01:50):
that had happened.
Plus, you had an assassinationattempt on Donald Trump's life,
which I think a lot of peoplesaw as kind of a omen or a sign
that he was destined to returnto power.
And so it was just a lot thathappened in that.
And so here we are, you know,fast forward to 2025.
(02:16):
And it, needless to say, gotoff with a, you know, incredible
start.
And so, you know it, it's takenthe country, um, in a lot of
different ways.
And so, you know, I'm just hereas your friendly neighborhood
host, councilman, consultant,comic, nerd and, um,
(02:37):
unapologetically um politicalpodcaster, just to kind of bring
you up to speed and welcome youguys back to superhero politics
.
And so, you know, 2024, man,last time we were together it
was a pressure cooker, and youknow Biden had taken on the
debate and it didn't go well atall.
(02:58):
It was messy, he lookedterrible, and the party began to
say, hey, you got to step down,and at that time there wasn't
really a plan for that Right.
And so Kamala Harris, the heirapparent, stepped in, and it
(03:18):
wasn't without controversy,because there was not really a
primary.
That happened, and you know,she was able to step out, you
know, as the vice president, andtake over the nomination.
And some people thought, well,you know, she's not ready, she
hasn't won any votes, nobodyvoted for her, and there was a
lot of consternation back andforth, but on the other side, it
(03:40):
was complete and utterunanimity, right, it was
Republicans behind Trump, 10toes down.
I mean, they had a primary, butRon DeSantis dropped out, a lot
of the other ones dropped out,nikki Haley stayed in for a
little while, but they all endedup bending the knee right, and
so they all dropped out.
And so, despite January 6th,despite 91 felony indictments
(04:05):
and 34 felony convictions,donald Trump was nominated again
by the Republican Party.
Complete and utter allegianceto him, complete and utter
unanimity behind him, and hebecame president of the United
States again.
And so you know, there it is.
(04:25):
I mean there it is.
I mean the comic world had alot of stuff going on too.
I mean we've got absolute power.
That happened, which showedAmanda Waller being, you know,
the arbiter of all things, metaRight, and she kind of
(04:48):
paralleled what fascism lookslike and taking down the, those
with the metagene stealing thepowers, using the Amazo robots
and the Brainiac Queen to stealpowers and corral and capture
all the metahumans in theAbsolute Power series.
And that's kind of what wealways think of when we think
(05:11):
about the parallels betweenwhat's happening in comics and
happening now, because, you know, fast forward to 2025, we've
got Donald Trump, who came backto power essentially promising
retribution.
He didn't come back with thisunifying speech.
He didn't even try.
If you guys remember the firstterm when he came to power, he
essentially recreated the speechBane gave in the Dark Knight
(05:36):
Rises and this time he didn'teven provide any pretense.
He was like all those who cameafter me, all those who
impeached me, all those whoinvestigated me, I'm going to
get you, I'm going to take youdown, and that's essentially
what he has been trying to do.
(05:59):
Guys have been watchingDaredevil Reborn.
This is extremely reminiscentof the way Wilson Fisk Kingpin
took over New York and becamemayor.
It's almost eerie, right, andyou guys can probably see my
hoodie that I have on and youcan find this at my online store
(06:22):
.
The notes will be.
You can find this at my onlinestore.
The notes will be in the shownotes.
But this has got Trump and Lexwhen Lex became president.
But Donald Trump hasn'tgoverned as president the way
Lex Luthor has governed.
He didn't try to solve anyproblems.
He didn't try to do anything.
(06:43):
He hasn't tried to really solvethe world's problems.
Lex's ego wanted him to be ableto not only mess with Superman,
which I think to some degree.
Trump is a troll, right, andhe's trying to needle the Obamas
and the Bushes and all thepolitical folks.
(07:04):
He's trying to needle them.
But you know, to the end healso wants to be seen as a great
leader, as a world-changingfigure, and he keeps failing
miserably, like the Fox Newspoll that came out the other day
and it rated Biden ahead ofTrump.
It rated Obama in the top sevenof presidents all time and and
(07:31):
rated Trump dead last.
Like dead last, like the worstpresident in history, like last.
Like there's some pretty badpresidents out there that we've
had, but they rated Trump deadlast.
So you know it was.
It's been an interesting time.
We've had, obviously, the warin Gaza.
(07:52):
That has yet to be resolved.
Trump promised to do that onday one.
He hasn't.
You have now the war withIsrael in Iran and you know no
Israel and Iran and no reallyresolution for that, and Iran is
back enriching nuclear material.
(08:13):
You've got the war in Ukraine.
That continues to go.
You start to see this rift inbetween Putin and Trump, even
though Trump pretty much hasdone the bidding of Russia
during his tenure in politics.
And then, on the other front,what happened after the election
(08:34):
was that you had the rise ofwho I like to call Phony Stark,
which is Elon Musk.
Elon Musk spent $235 millionelecting Donald Trump in 2024.
And he was given the directiveto form what is called DOGE,
(08:58):
which is the Department ofGovernmental Efficiency, and it
was a spectacular failure.
It blew up like one of thespacex rockets that he tries to
launch.
So he brought in all theseso-called whiz kids who were ai
you know, ai programmers andthey were going to find and
modernize government and theywere going to make it more
(09:19):
efficient, and all they did wasjust come in and cut people's
jobs.
They didn't even reallyunderstand what those people did
like.
They fired the people whohandle the nuclear codes because
they didn't really understandthe job, and then they had to
hire everybody back and airtraffic controllers got fired
and there were planes droppingout of the sky.
And then, and when you went backand tallied all the things that
(09:40):
doge actually saved.
They actually cost us money.
I mean, the original goal wasthat doge actually saved.
They actually cost us money.
I mean the original goal wasthat Doge was going to sell, not
sell.
Well, freudian, slip there thatDoge was going to save $2
trillion, and then it ended upnot saving anything.
(10:03):
It was like, okay, so let'smove the goalposts a little bit.
It goes from $2 trillion downto $1 trillion.
And then it was like, well,maybe that's a little rosy,
let's go from $1 trillion downto $120 billion.
And then they were like, hey,look, we're not even going to be
able to get that.
So ultimately, if you look atwhat Doge actually saved versus
(10:23):
what it cost America, it was aspectacular failure.
So he slinked out of thegovernment, having cost the
valuation of Tesla upon hundredsof billions of dollars.
The year-over-year sales forTesla is in the tank.
There's absolutely no market inEurope for it, people have
(10:43):
abandoned it, and even here inAmerica sales are slow, and so
he actually damaged a lot ofTesla's reputation, and so his
exit gave him the opportunity tobe able to say to the world hey
, you know, trump and I are notnecessarily joined at the hip,
(11:07):
we're not fused, you know, it'snot like Vegito or Goku or
anything like that.
It's not like Superbat whenBatman and Superman fuse
together.
We're two separate people andwe differ.
So when it came time for Trumpto pass his signature piece of
legislation, which is called theBig Beautiful Bill, which just
passed and was signed into lawon Independence Day, july 4th
(11:30):
Happy 4th of July, by the wayand so all those things happened
up until this point, right?
And so Musk threatenedRepublicans the same Republicans
he had helped get in office byspending hundreds of millions of
dollars.
He threatened them to formeither to primary them or he was
going to form an entirely newparty aimed at taking down
(11:55):
anybody who voted for Trump'slegislation.
So it was, it's been a reallykind of chaotic time in the
world of politics.
I mean, we've got, you know,tick, tock, deep face.
Really kind of chaotic time inthe world of politics.
I mean, we've got, you knowTick, tock, deep Face.
We've got AI bots, fox Newsrunning propaganda, you know the
(12:15):
same old things that we have.
We have trade wars, with theentire world and China attacking
us via trade and supply chains,and so it's been really wild in
the last six or seven monthssince we were together.
(12:37):
You know, we have Marvel in DC,we have some new movies that are
out, thunderbolts came out onthe Marvel side and we had a
couple of series on Disney+.
We had the Spider-Man animatedseries, which was okay, you know
.
We also had Daredevil Reborn,which came out, which is really,
(13:02):
really a good return tointegrate Daredevil and Kingpin
into the new MCU, phase five,and so it was an interesting
series because it was trying toreform the idea of Wilson Fisk
(13:23):
Kingpin.
But he couldn't escape hisnature, and this is kind of the
same debate that we had aboutTrump.
Right, we thought, well, maybeafter the assassination attempt
he's going to turn over a newleaf, maybe he learned from the
first term and he's going togovern for America.
(13:43):
Nope, didn't happen.
So when you, you know, look atsome of the legislation, the
crackdown on immigration, youlook at all those things, it is
a retribution tour.
And so, uh, at least inDaredevil Reborn, wilson Fisk
gave it a good try, like hereally tried to walk the
straight and narrow, he reallytried to be a change man and
(14:07):
govern, um, uh, as a, as astatesman, as a leader, but he
couldn't escape his nature.
And this is why, when everytime we talk about, um, heroes
and villains, um, it's, it's,it's a clear, it's a clear split
, right, it's clear, you know, ahero's going hero and a
(14:29):
villain's going villain, right.
And so the question that wehave now in society is who is
the hero and who is the villain,right?
Some people think that Trump isa savior, like he's, you know,
he's their Messiah.
You got folks who are actuallyout here saying, you know, up
under, up under God, there'sTrump, and that's crazy to me,
(14:52):
but that's it.
I mean, we're thinking abouthow Kamala Khan now is kind of
the mutant messiah in Marvel,right.
And you think about HopeSummers, who was the mutant
messiah, and, you know, in X-Men.
You think about all of thesethings and how people will
elevate an individual up to bekind of that presence, that
(15:15):
messianic type presence, to bekind of that presence, that
messianic type presence.
And Trump has benefited fromthat because he has been able to
convince people that, no matterwhat he does, he's right.
Even when it turns out wrong,it's somebody else's fault.
Even when it's directlysomething that he does somehow
or another, he's not responsiblefor it.
(15:35):
And so when I think about whohe is, obviously, you know, I
think about Lex Luthor aspresident and I think about
Wilson Fisk as mayor, but I alsothink about the purple man.
Right, I also think about thepurple man and Jessica Jones and
how, somehow or another, hejust is able to sway the minds
(15:58):
of people, to be against theirbetter nature and act against
their judgment.
And so right now, we're in thethroes of this debate with the
big, beautiful bill that justpassed Congress.
(16:23):
Congress.
There were many, manyRepublican electeds who know
this bill is bad and it wasgoing to brutalize the people
that are in their districts.
Yet, somehow or another, theywere not able to stand up
against the offensive the threator charm offensive, depending
on where you stand of DonaldTrump.
He just was able to get them tobend the knee, and so, with the
(16:43):
majorities in the House and theSenate being so narrow, he
couldn't afford to lose but afew votes here or there.
And then he ended up losingthree votes in the Senate, with
Susan Collins and Tom Tillis,who is one of our senators here
in the state of North Carolina,who then summarily announced
that he was not going to run forre-election because he knew
(17:06):
that he could not win with thealbatross of this bill around
his neck.
And then you had Rand Paul fromKentucky, who is just a fiscal
hawk, and he thought the billraised the deficit too much, in
which it does add, you know,several trillion dollars to the
debt over the next 10 years,while cutting a trillion dollars
(17:28):
out of Medicaid, which is the,which is the safety net for
lower income Americans.
And so it was a really terriblebill, but Trump needed it to
get the tax cuts that he wantedfor corporations and for high
earning individuals.
And so, even though these folksknow that it is going to be a
(17:52):
bloodletting in 2026, it isgoing to be a bloodletting Now,
they knew it.
So the structure of the billcomes through and they say, well
, we're going to delay the worstparts of the bill until after
the election.
We're going to delay the cutsto Medicaid until 2027, which
(18:12):
gets you beyond the midterms.
And so they can say, well, look, you know, nobody's been hurt
yet.
Nobody's been hurt yet.
See, vote for us, keep us inpower, nobody's going to be hurt
.
As a matter of fact, if you keepus in power, we could possibly
fix some of these things so thatthey don't go into effect.
I know we passed them, like Iknow we did, like I know we
passed them not thinking abouthow it's going to harm you, but
(18:36):
give us a chance, we'll fix itbefore it comes due right.
Um, and also some of theprovisions that people thought
were good, like no tax onovertime and no tax on tips and
no tax um on um, social securitynone of those things are really
there and if they are there,they expire by 2028, just in
(18:59):
time for the next election, nextpresidential election.
So imagine that.
So there was a lot of badthings in that bill and so many
of the Republicans who had achance to be heroic and stop the
bill, they just couldn't getpast their villainous nature and
(19:20):
they voted for the bill and soit passed very narrowly and
you've got a lot of differentRepublicans and a lot of
different Democrats who arealready out trying to sell this
bill.
But you know, you look at, youknow where we are now in the
(19:40):
comic space and we've got in afew days.
Five days from now, james Gunnis releasing Superman, the
reboot, right, and this is thenew DCU.
It used to be the DCEU, dcExtended Universe, and now it's
just the DCU, kind of in linewith the MCU, and so there's
(20:05):
been a lot of back and forthabout the movie, about the
costume, about David Cornswet,about Nicholas Holt, who comes
over from Marvel.
You know, he played Beast inthe X-Men series.
He comes over from Marvel toplay Lex Luthor, and there's
been a lot of back and forthabout, you know, does Corn Sweat
(20:27):
?
Is it more comic accurate?
Is the suit more comic accurate?
Is his portrayal of Clark Kentmore comic accurate?
And so a lot of back and forthabout it.
But I think what's happening isyou're starting to see like a
little bit of buzz.
I mean, I think people were, um, really disappointed at the end
of the last phase of DC.
(20:48):
I mean, you didn't haveanything that that did well,
right.
You didn't have anything thatdid well.
Blue beetle tankeded, I think,obviously, wonder Woman 84, the
Flash, all underwhelmed at thebox office, right, or at least
were not critically receivedwell, right.
(21:10):
And so this is the fresh start,and it's apropos that this is a
fresh start, because supermanis a flagship character, right,
a lot of people loved henrycavill as superman.
I did personally, um, but Imean, nothing is forever, and so
what we have now is we've justgot these new, um, these new
(21:33):
actors coming in.
It's been confirmed that thatGal Gadot is out and maybe Adria
Adjoina is going to be the newWonder Woman.
There are other actresses thatare Aiza Gonzalez, other
actresses who are in the mix forthat, and so they're rebooting
(21:57):
the entire DCU.
One of the holdovers, though,from the previous DCEU is Jason
Momoa is coming back as Lobo,and I think everybody's pretty
happy about that.
I think when he became Aquaman,I think it was cool, I think
(22:17):
people liked it in the, the kindof the gruff, gritty take on
aquaman, but, um, it was reallyjust uh, never really the type
of fit.
Everybody immediately saw himwith the long hair and the in
the gravelly voice and the andthe facial hair and said, yo,
that's lobo, he's got to Loboand so now he's going to be Lobo
(22:38):
, and so it's been a pretty goodrun.
Marvel has hit some speed bumps, but they've got a new series
up, ironheart, and if we'regoing to be political about it,
the boys is doing what the boysalways do in the comment
(22:59):
sections.
Here we are, and immediately,because we have demonized DEI
and affirmative action.
We've demonized those things.
Trump did that in his firstexecutive order when he signed
to eliminate DEI and all of thegovernment.
Now, anytime that you see ablack person, a woman, a gay
(23:21):
person, anybody who happens tobe on the screen, they're
immediately labeled as DEI, asaffirmative action.
And we've got Ironheart, who weall saw on Wakanda Forever.
Riri Williams, who is gettingher own series Haven't started
watching it yet, about to do it,probably later on this week but
(23:46):
they're always saying that thisis affirmative action, this is
a DEI.
We have Captain America, braveNew World, where, you know,
people were glazing Batman fornot having powers but slamming
Sam Wilson for not having powers.
You know, slamming Tony Starkdidn't have powers but somehow
or another, sam Wilson shouldhave taken the super soldier
(24:09):
serum Right.
And so there's always thisbattle.
There's always this battle andit seems to have been heightened
(24:33):
over the last decade becausenow that you see more and more
heroes of color, not just andthey don't want to have that
representation which mirrorswhat's happening in the country.
Like right now we're activelyhunting down minorities and
Hispanics, like we're huntingthem down in this immigration
push.
Now we're being very selectiveabout it, obviously because we
(24:58):
know where they are, but theyalso populate industries that no
American is going to do.
No American is going to dothese jobs, and so we're just
kind of faking the funk andlooking over like, oh no, we
don't see them, but we knowwhere they are and it's kind of
(25:19):
selective.
And so, in order to hit thenumbers, we're grabbing random
people off the street, peoplewho don't have criminal records,
people who have been here for40 years, who came here as
children, people who areactively going through the
naturalization process.
We're snagging people At theimmigration offices, people who
are going in for their, fortheir appointments to go through
(25:45):
the immigration process.
A mask agents of ice is pullingup on them and grabbing them.
Right, it's like.
It's like, if you know, youknow you had SHIELD, who had
been infiltrated by Hydrapulling up and grabbing, uh,
mutants and metahumans off thestreet and it's.
(26:07):
It's really indicative of whereAmerica is right now that we
can't agree on a single spacewhere collaboration, unity,
diversity fits right.
We can't agree on a singlespace, right.
We know that in our economy andI say this as an elected
(26:29):
official, I say this as adegreed economist, I say this as
someone who works every singleday to build policy, build
policy and infrastructure thatcan benefit the lives of
everybody that is either in mycity or in my state or anywhere
(26:49):
around the world.
And so when you see that we aredestabilizing the ability to
collaborate, it is dangerous.
It's dangerous to our future,because now, in order to set
things back to a reasonable,moderate center, we've swung so
(27:14):
far right.
Now we're going to have toswing back so far left just to
get back to the middle, and sowe're going to be constantly in
this state of flux.
And you know, if you guys havewatched the multiverse saga, if
you guys watched, you know, theFlashpoint saga, it is a
(27:36):
delicate balance on how we keepour society from imploding, but
we're just doing things now thatdon't really make a lot of
sense when it comes to how do wekeep people enlightened?
Like we're banning books.
Like we're you know, all overthe country, now we've gotten
(27:57):
this idea that if you have anytype of dissent about America,
that you know you're, you're theenemy Right, and so now we're
banning books.
We're, you know, couchingeverything under DEI and we're
removing the contributions ofgreat black Americans and
Hispanic Americans and LGBTQAmericans and women from
(28:21):
everything.
We're actually actively pushingto rename our military bases
after Confederate soldiers theConfederacy.
My God, like we're actuallywe're actively like glazing the
Confederacy, we're bringing itback, glazing the Confederacy,
(28:43):
we're bringing it back.
I mean you're starting, you seenow that people are riding
around all over the city, allover the state country with
three flags.
They're riding around with theAmerican flag, the Confederate
flag and the Trump flag.
If you see those things,they're all together, they're
always together.
You see the American flag andsometimes in the, you know, the
flag code is hate to see themcoming, because sometimes you've
(29:04):
got the Trump flag over theAmerican flag and the
Confederate flag over theAmerican flag.
And it's crazy, because youknow, we're in this space and
time where we are on the cusp oflike great advancement.
I mean great advancement.
(29:26):
And so, um, ai is taking off,like the productivity of ai is
huge, like all these things, man, and you would think that we
are getting to a point to where,uh, americans have, hey, look,
we've got all this advancementthat is possible for us.
How are we going to manage it?
What are we going to do?
(29:46):
Right, but we're still justtrotting along, going backwards.
And so you know, when you thinkabout what's happening, you know
(30:15):
when you think about what'shappening, you know with the
so-called you know PatriotPurity Act and giving the you
know Homeland Security expandedpowers.
And you know Florida mandatingloyalty oaths for schools, and
you know, you've got you knowred states putting Bibles back
in the classroom.
But taking out Tony Morrison, Imean you would think that it
would be met with someresistance and it absolutely has
.
Like, so, all over the countrywe've had the no kings protest,
(30:36):
and so I say that because thetitle of this episode is no
Kings or Conquerors, it's kindof a play on King the Conqueror
Right.
And so we've got this entireresistance where millions of
people showed up to march andprotest about the moves of what
(30:59):
seems to be an onset of afascist regime here in the
States.
On June 14th it was Flag Day.
Trump's birthday also was onJune 14th and he threw himself
this kind of gaudy Kim Jong-unstyle parade and nobody showed
(31:23):
up.
Imagine you spend $45 millionon a birthday party and nobody
comes Right.
And so obviously the spin waswas pretty amazing.
It was like, yeah, this was thelargest attended you know
parade in American history.
And obviously we saw thepictures and it wasn't.
And it was kind of weirdbecause you could see the
protests coming from inside ofthe parade, like you had
(31:47):
soldiers who were just kind ofout there skipping and marching.
They weren't even in unison,they wasn't even marching in
cadence and you could see likenobody wanted to be there.
But it's these type smallresistance that are happening
right now in the country becauseof where we are.
I mean, you know we've got youknow, a lot of celebrities and
(32:13):
people who are pulling up there.
Mark Ruffalo was at some of theevents, you know the Hulk was
there.
But you know we've got examplesof this like that run into the
comic space, right, the, youknow independent creators you
know, like Kill your Darlingsand Image, and they tackle the
(32:33):
weaponization of childhoodinnocence.
Splicers, explore control andconformity in dystopian
environments.
You know you got the Berserkerpoetry of madness leaned into
military trauma andindoctrination, and then
Bitterroot came back with, youknow, a Harlem resistance and
(32:53):
magical realism, and so you'vegot a lot of things that are
parallel in the comic books,that are parallel in what's
happening here, you know, insociety and that are parallel in
what's happening here, um, youknow in in society, uh, and
that's what we aim to bring.
I know a lot of folks will lookat this and say, man, that's,
that's a kind of a stretch, butit's really not.
It's really not.
If you think about what comicshave done over the last um, you
(33:17):
know, century, century and a ahalf, comics has been what has
told the tale.
Comics has been what has reallybeen the bell ringer of popular
culture.
You've got a lot of folks outthere who are resisting.
You've got a lot of cities,black mayors all over the
(33:40):
country.
I know black mayors all overthe country.
I know black mayors all overthe country said, hey, look,
we're going to have to take ourpeople, we're gonna have to
protect our people.
So now, with this onslaughtcoming on from the federal
government, local and municipaland state governments have to
buck up, right, um, and so youknow it's, it's, this is where
it, it meets the.
(34:01):
You know the the rubber meetsthe road.
This is where, like, theimmovable object meets the
irresistible force, and A lot ofpeople are going to be caught
in the collateral damage.
Right, it's kind of like whenyou know, superman and Zod have
this battle above Metropolis,like they're trying to subdue
(34:24):
each other, but everybody elsegets hurt in the process.
They're invulnerable, right,they punch each other through
buildings and all this otherstuff, but it's the guy on the
ground who ends up gettingkilled because a building falls
on them.
And you know, the way this hascome about is we, as municipal
(34:46):
leaders and state leaders, haveto be able to limit the
collateral damage of thisseemingly amped up, empowered
federal government.
Now, the irony of all this isthat this is supposed to be a
conservative government.
Right, this is supposed to be agovernment.
(35:06):
That is small government.
It's what you hear all the timesmall government, small
government.
We're going to return all thepower back to the states and
actually what it's doing is itis limiting the state.
Right here in north carolina, uh, democrats had a resounding
victory in no in november in theelection, sweeping the council
(35:27):
of state.
They won everything.
Right, they won the governor,the, the lieutenant governor,
the secretary of education,attorney general, um secretary
of state, like all.
They want, all the, the majoroffices here in the state of
north carolina.
But unfortunately, because youhave a super majority in the in
the general assembly, senate andmajorities in the house,
(35:50):
they're able to strip away theinherent powers, the
constitutionally granted powersof the council of state members
here and hand them over to aelected um council of state
member who happens to be arepublican the only one.
So it's like you take thepowers of it's like an absolute.
(36:13):
It's like what happens inabsolute power.
Right, you took all the powerout of the metahumans and
transferred them into an amazorrobot.
So you've got this one guy whowas a state auditor, who now has
powers that are normallyreserved for the governor and
lieutenant governor and thesecretary of state and the
attorney general and secretaryof education.
Like you, you've got this oneguy who now finds himself with
(36:37):
an infinity gauntlet and hedoesn't know what to do, but
he's being controlled by anotherpowerful force.
And so when you get to acertain degree, uh, in politics
it gets comical.
It gets comical like it getssuper villain-esque, like it
(36:59):
gets comical.
And this is where we are now,because you know, you think
about some of these things thatyou would never, ever thought
you'd see in American politics.
It looks like what you wouldsee in a comic book, right, you
see these, you know these rich,desperate billionaires who are
(37:19):
attempting to take over theworld and they're forming their
own party.
Elon musk now is falling outwith trump and he says well, you
know, the republicans aren'tgoing to do what I demand from
them.
I want to form my own party,the america party.
Okay, good luck with that.
You know, third party politicshasn't necessarily been a winner
(37:40):
In America.
It has been a spoiler.
Now let's get that right.
It has been a spoiler, but ithasn't been a winner.
And so if Elon Musk, who hasall the money in the world
literally richest man on theplanet, worth something like
$450 or $60 billion if he wantsto launch his third party vanity
(38:03):
project, let him go on.
But there is going to becarnage because if he can amass
enough support, then he can playspoiler in future elections,
sowing chaos, and so that's alot to take in.
I know you guys are like, damn,that's a lot to take in, but
(38:28):
it's a lot to take in becausethere's a lot happening.
But you all have the power, youas listeners, you as voters,
you all have the, the power.
Like you know, we're notpowerless now, I know sometimes
it feels like that, but we'renot powerless.
I mean, we certainly are not.
I mean, and you know, we'regoing to get caught up sometimes
(38:50):
in these.
You know these attacks ascollateral damage between these
two titans, this billionaire onbillionaire civil war.
We're going to get caught upbetween, you know, lex Luthor
and Phony Stark.
We're going to get caught upbetween, you know, lex luther
and phony stark.
We're gonna get caught up inthose things, but we're not
powerless.
The only way we can lose ourpower is not.
(39:12):
It can't be taken from us, like, you know, amanda waller did
with, uh, the amazor robots inabsolute power.
It can't be taken from us, butwe can surrender it.
You know, if we decide thatwe're not going to show up, uh,
to elections, if we're not goingto show up, uh, to city hall,
if we're not going to show up,uh and vote, if we're not going
to stand up for our neighbors,uh, who we've known our whole
(39:35):
lives, uh, who just happen to beundocumented, if we're not
going to show up, if we're notgoing to be up, if we're not
going to be heroes, then we giveup our power, we surrender our
powers, and that's what theywant.
The reason why they're soterrified of implementing the
big, beautiful bullshit bill isbecause they know what's going
to happen.
They know people are going toget hurt and they know those
(39:57):
people are going to reclaimtheir power.
And so we have to make surethat we continue to educate
everyone, because a lot ofpeople did not know that the
health care that they arereceiving is Medicare Medicaid.
They didn't.
They didn't know that why?
Because it was called somethingelse.
If you think about what'swhat's happening with our health
(40:18):
care system and the AffordableCare Act, think about what's
happening with our healthcaresystem and the Affordable Care
Act.
A lot of people didn't evenrealize that Obamacare, which
they hate, is the AffordableCare Act, which they love, and
so being able to obscure andhide the information from people
has caused them to vote againsttheir interests.
(40:38):
And we see that everywhere.
We see that in this entiredebate that we have going on,
because you have a mastermanipulator and a very, very
motivated group of villains whoare coming for the freedoms that
(41:00):
you hold dear, and it's like,oh well, don't be hyperbolic.
No, no, no, no.
This is not being hyperbolic,this is being realistic, like
you tell the truth about whatyou're facing, and so you know.
Just wanted to welcome you guysback and just catch you up on
(41:23):
everything that's been happeningsince we last were together in
October.
What am I reading right now?
Let's transition as we getready to close this episode out.
I talked about Era ofApocalypse, marvel's X-Men.
We've got, uh, trinity specialthey're still the blood hunt, uh
(41:47):
.
We've got the absolute universe.
Uh, that's happening right now.
Uh, if you guys are not uhreading, uh, the superman comic
right now.
You've got doomsday back.
You got a couple of versions ofdoomsday.
One, uh, is the king of helldoomsday, the other is time
trapper doomsday back.
You got a couple of versions ofDoomsday.
One is the King of HellDoomsday, the other is Time
Trapper Doomsday.
And you're about to have thismajor crossover between the
Absolute Universe and you guysshould really be reading
(42:09):
Absolute Superman, absoluteBatman, absolute Wonder Woman,
absolute Flash you should bereading all those.
But they're about to have acrossover with the main universe
in DC and it's going to bepretty epic.
Also, like I said, you've gotIronheart that's on Disney plus,
(42:31):
and you've got Superman, who isabout to drop in a couple of
days with the reboot of the DCU,and James Gunn.
So a lot of stuff going on.
But I wanted to just get back toyou guys and try to get a
regular cadence back.
You guys know how busy I am,but you also know how much I
(42:52):
love you.
You know how much I love what Ido here at Superhero Politics
Podcast.
So subscribe you can find usanywhere, obviously, you know.
But also go check us out ontiktok man.
We're we're trying to do thiswhole tiktok thing, uh, and
youtube thing and we reallywould appreciate you guys, uh,
(43:13):
subscribing and following usthere, trying to get our
community larger and so, um,it's going to be a lot more
content posted there.
There's going to be a lot morelives.
You know, we went live onTikTok the other day.
We had a thousand people on andso really want you guys to be
part of the journey.
And I know sometimes it'll seemlike fits and starts and
(43:36):
sometimes I'll be here and I'llbe away.
Guys, I'm really out hereworking in these streets to try
to make a better world for thepeople of High Point, but also
make a better world for thepeople of America, and so you
know, I'm on a federal advocacyboard.
I have a chance to travel overthe country and talk about some
(43:57):
of the things that I'm doing interms of policy.
Talk about some of the thingsthat I'm doing in terms of
policy.
I'm leading a federal workforceprogram that is trying to get
folks into the clean energyworkforce, which is part of a
major announcement here in NorthCarolina of the largest job
(44:17):
creation vehicle in the historyof the state of North Carolina,
which is also a new form oftravel with a single wing, very
energy efficient um airplanethat's going to be manufactured
here by jet zero.
So I've got a lot of things onthe on the burner.
My company's growing well, youknow, my kids are about to go
(44:38):
off to college and about to beempty nester.
So, guys, please forgive me ifI'm not as regular in podcasting
as I want to be, but I'm goingto dedicate my time.
Hopefully I can carve outSundays to be able to upload the
new episodes and so you'll beable to find them on YouTube.
(45:00):
You'll be able to stream themeverywhere.
But, guys, thanks for lockingin with me.
I appreciate you, but there arepeople out there who need you
and you are not powerless.
Know that you are not powerless, but if you think you can't,
just remember what we say hereat superhero politics you don't
(45:23):
have to be a superhuman to be asuper human.
Until next time.
This is michael holmessuperhero politics.
We back.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.