July 15, 2024 • 45 mins
Well, Eggheads, do we have a deep topic to cover today. And, it barely matters since the events of the 13th. In the light of the Supreme Court's ruling on the former president's immunity, we decided we wanted to voice our thoughts and those of several impassioned writers on Medium! Which I will list now:
- The Discord Among Democrats Is Only Natural and Makes Me Proud to Vote Blue by Ben Ulansey
- This Country Is Screwed by TAM
- With fear for our democracy by Dan Canon*
- It’s Worse Than You Think by Robert W Ahrens*
- 21st Century Divine Right to Rule by Author, D. Denise Dianaty*
- SCOTUS Crowns Trump as King by Caren White*
- Ten Things Biden Can Do Now That He Has Immunity by Charles Bastille*
- House Democrats are Taking on the Supreme Court by Caren White
To watch the video version of this podcast, go to our Substack. For more about writing with vulnerability and information on articles discussed in the episodes, visit themonsteralley.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I'm Tam.
(00:01):
And I'm Eternally Mortal.
And this is the Hidden Egg Podcast,
where we talk about vulnerability.
And stuff and things.
And this week, we're on a voice channel
instead of the typical stage channel
so that we can have little sound bite things.
(00:22):
I didn't have that practiced in my head.
That's okay.
Something like this, which, you know,
I'll do this one because...
Yep, sound bit.
The other one is literally something you say.
So the first time I heard you use it,
I thought you were actually just saying...
I don't know.
But that's a sound bite.
That's awesome. I love it.
(00:44):
Yeah.
Was there more to the intro?
Or are we good with the intro?
I've been trying to remember to say
that you're listening to Season 5, Episode 4?
Is that the fourth one?
And today's theme is the Presidential Immunity ruling.
(01:06):
By the Supreme Court of the United States.
Nope, Ben's gonna be...
We'll check you when you get back.
We'll see you when you get back.
And then when you get back at some distant future,
we'll have a sound bite for you.
Yeah.
I feel bad for not uploading that already.
(01:26):
I feel like I should do that, but I'm not going to.
We'll get around to it.
We're taking our time and doing our thing.
And it's been going great.
But today, we're gonna get deep.
The Supreme Court of the United States
just recently made a ruling.
I think it was 6-3,
basically giving the President of the United States immunity
in criminal cases against him
(01:48):
when it has to do with presidential function.
So normally, we do shout-outs.
Oh, yeah, I was just basically saying what the episode was about.
I'm sorry.
But you can do shout-outs.
Yeah, let's do it.
So before we get into that,
so I wanted to shout out Len Vidson's article.
(02:09):
I know it's from May, but like it was really, really good.
Like really, really good.
So good that I had to like share it everywhere
because I don't think that anybody finds Len.
I think that Len has been criminally undervalued,
much like Sturge, but maybe even worse.
(02:33):
And I wasn't sure if I was allowed to say that,
but Sturge actually got Len's story boosted
so that it can be spread even further.
So I'm super happy with that.
Thank you.
And whoever at Medium that made the final decision,
because Sturge just dominates, right?
So somebody made the final decision on it,
(02:55):
and we appreciate them too.
Yeah, and I don't want to say what the story is about
because it kind of builds on everything that's been said.
But the name of the story is The Windseed,
subtitled The Key to the Whole Universe.
And it was just, it was a really amazing story
and left me feeling really good afterwards.
(03:16):
Yeah, it was delightful.
I really enjoyed it a lot.
It was so good.
And then we have My Chubby Little Legs
by Elena Tucker or Lena Tucker.
I'm not sure how her first name is read.
Could be either one.
Right.
And it's just how it sounds.
She's talking about her chubby little legs.
(03:36):
And it's a little piece of body positivity
that I felt like I needed to read,
because I'm in a similar boat with how I don't really
enjoy the rest of my body.
But there are some parts of my body that I do appreciate.
And it showed me, I don't know,
I just like watching other people find things
(03:57):
that they enjoy and love about their body parts,
even if they're not perfect.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that currently in our society,
it's really difficult for people to find self-love a lot of times.
And sometimes you've got to take self-love one step at a time
or one aspect at a time.
And celebrating any aspects of self-love, that's wonderful.
(04:19):
So the other two shout outs are a little bit more
on point with our theme.
The next one is, it was just published,
just hours ago by Ben Ulanci.
The discord among Democrats is only natural
and makes me proud to vote blue.
Subtitled, the division among Democrats
(04:39):
is a challenge to overcome, but speaks
to the persevering integrity of the political party.
Mouthful, but awesome.
Yes, I don't think I read this one.
No, it just came out.
You didn't have time to read it.
But one of the things that he says in there,
he actually brought up the same thing
that you and I talked about yesterday or maybe day
(05:01):
before, that debate from Gallup Panakis.
What was his name?
Wait, wait, wait.
The interview.
OK, you're talking about George Stephanopoulos?
Yes, George Stephanopoulos.
I am terrible with names.
Please forgive me.
And he had the same, he picked out that same part
(05:25):
that was like, if you don't win, how are you going to feel?
And the quote of, it's just about doing the best I can.
And that's what it's really about.
Ben had that same response that we did.
It was like, no, no, that's not what this is about.
That is not what any of this is about.
Yeah, it drove me nuts, honestly, to hear him say that.
(05:51):
I should have expected that Ben would be on the same page
about it, honestly.
Thank you, George.
We appreciate that.
And yeah, George Stephanopoulos.
Exactly.
Stephanopoulos, Stephanopoulos, either one, really.
But I mean, he goes into more than just that interview.
It's just all down the line, just pretty much everything
(06:14):
that we've said in one way or another just kind of condensed
into one place.
I just felt that it was a masterful way.
And so I just wanted to shout out to it.
It's not specifically on the topic
that we were going to discuss, but it's
kind of a tangential thing.
(06:35):
Because of the decision, the election
is now very, very forefront in a lot of people's minds.
And so they become very, very interconnectedly related.
Yeah, it's very heavily related.
I feel like I'm coming in a little bit late staying this,
but I don't know if anybody's watching the video,
but there's a lot of tabs up there.
And I just want to let everyone know
that we found a lot of people talking about what's going on.
(06:58):
And so I think public opinion about everything
that's happening is going to make a difference,
but we'll see.
Anyway, but yeah, we may not be able to spend
as much time on each article as we usually do.
Right.
So the last shout out is actually
my article that is about our topic.
And I'm not going to say much about it, just like this
(07:18):
is kind of what's spearheading this episode.
My article is called This Country Is Screwed.
Have fun.
Go read it.
I'm going to move on to the main part of the show,
because I don't want to reveal a lot about that,
because we're going to talk about it.
But shout out to the accidental monster, our friend and yours,
(07:42):
such a great writer.
Go check out the article.
I just had to.
I just had to, because you're awesome.
OK, let's get into it.
All right, so the very first one is by Dan Cannon, called
With Fear for Our Democracy.
Yeah, this was the one that was about the justice, was it
(08:06):
Sonia Sotomayor, something like that?
I don't know how to pronounce it exactly.
I don't remember.
I'm looking at it on a different screen, but I don't.
Yeah, Sotomayor.
Yeah, I don't exactly know.
I don't know if that's how it's called.
Sotomayor?
Sotomayor?
I don't know.
Sotomayor?
I don't know.
I don't know how to pronounce things.
(08:28):
Anyway, the point is this goes more into the dissent,
like basically her saying, no, this is wrong,
and her really pointing out from a democratic standpoint
why it's wrong and calling to the rest of people to act on it.
(08:50):
Right.
And it's such a huge deal that a justice officially decided,
I need to say this out loud publicly to everyone,
and went ahead and did it.
And it doesn't happen very often.
So it's a really good article.
It puts a lot of big spotlight on Sonia Sotomayor,
(09:13):
and I think it's great.
I don't really know a whole lot about this part
of our government.
I'm not well versed in all of the intricacies and everything
to know how important she is, or what she's done,
or any of that stuff.
But this article goes a long way to help me understand her
(09:36):
as a person and where she tends to stand as a platform.
But the reason why they titled it
with Fear for Our Democracy was because those were five words
that she specifically had said.
And the article points out how that's not something
that the people that are in our government in those higher
(10:00):
positions really ever say.
They don't usually even say that there's
a threat to our democracy, except in, I think,
he pointed out two different cases that that was mentioned.
So maybe it's just justices that have said that sort of thing.
(10:22):
So this kind of is a red flag situation.
And he kind of goes through of why this makes sense.
I don't know.
I don't know where I'm going with that.
Well, I just think it's great because I
can't super imagine what it was like to be her to decide
(10:44):
that I need to make a public statement like this.
But it takes a lot of courage to think
anybody is going to listen to anything anyone has to say.
Do you know what I mean?
And then when you come out and publicly say something
and someone else, even if that person doesn't get
an enormous amount of traction with it, says,
I'm so glad you said that.
You know what I mean?
(11:04):
Even that alone is great.
But this is just pointing out how powerful that statement was.
And I think it's great.
It's humans supporting humans, and that makes me happy.
Because I'll take anything right now, honestly.
Anyway.
Anyway.
Is that GIF of the Justice that you did, Sturg?
(11:27):
I'm just curious.
This last one.
Yeah, awesome.
Nice.
Cool.
Thank you, Sturg.
We have an image of her.
I didn't know what she looked like either.
So that's good.
No, I had no idea.
Yeah.
And that looks like that's a real quote.
So who knows if it really is or not, but we'll see.
That's great.
Thank you, Sturg.
Appreciate that addition.
(11:47):
Well, anyway, I'm ready to move on.
We have a lot of articles to get through today.
Yeah.
All right, so the next one is called It's Worse Than You
Think.
And again, it's not about Trump.
And this one.
This one.
And it's kind of crazy that we put this one at the beginning
kind of, because technically this article is, I believe,
(12:14):
written from a standpoint.
If he's not just barely right of center,
then he at least is so centrist that he understands both sides.
And so it's not a left leaning perspective.
Right.
In the article, it's a very long article,
and it's impassioned, and I love it.
And in it, he expresses that he at least knows several people
(12:39):
that are on the right.
And he cares about them, and they're part of his people.
Family members and close friends kind of know,
not like Joe down the street or the cashier that he talked with.
So these are people that he cares about their opinions
and doesn't want to argue excessively with them.
(12:59):
So he tries to meet them halfway.
That perspective is, I think right now,
it is hugely important.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the people that are trying to gain common ground
between the two parties right now, I think, are heroes.
Oh, that's good to know.
That is good to know, Ben.
(13:20):
Welcome back, Ben.
Thanks for checking in.
So Ben is tracking the current interview
that Biden is having.
It is an interview, right?
Or is it something else?
Is it a debate?
Did you say it was a State of the Union?
What is it?
Oh, it's a press conference.
Oh, it's a press conference.
OK.
And apparently, he's doing well right now.
(13:42):
So that's good to know, because he has not been necessarily
doing all that great.
He's been struggling.
And I don't want to get too heavily into it
too much in this episode, because this is about the Supreme
Court decision.
But as I kind of stated, I think already,
they're very closely interwoven right now.
Yeah.
So back to the article by Robert W. Ahrens.
(14:07):
I hope that's how it's pronounced.
One of the things that he says in here,
I'm going to say it verbatim.
He says, so let's be even more clear.
This isn't about Trump.
It isn't about Biden either.
It's about American democracy, which is clearly under threat.
And he goes into what that means from a centrist view,
(14:30):
not from the view of a lefty, not from the view of the right,
but from a very like, he does bring in both perspectives
and says, we can speak to this part of right thinking.
But also, there's a little bit of, I don't know.
(14:50):
I'm not super familiar with people that
are coming from this perspective.
And I think we need to see more of this kind of viewpoint,
I think.
Yeah, absolutely.
But I was really happy that he wrote it.
I thought it was a great article to read.
(15:11):
It had a lot of him in it.
He was very vulnerable through it.
He expressed how he felt about a lot of stuff in there.
And you could just tell he's just trying his best.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think he touched on something
that you and I have talked about in private, where we know,
we don't know a lot of them, but we
(15:31):
know that there are Republicans that have been watching this go
down for the past 10 years.
And they're just out of their minds with what to do.
Because they believe in the Republican beliefs.
Ideology.
The ideology.
But what's happening, what's been happening,
has not been the Republican ideology.
(15:54):
So where do they put their trust?
Where do they put their vote?
They have no idea.
So they just stay out of the race.
Because they have no idea where to actually go,
because they can't come to the left,
because that's not the ideology that they align with.
But the right has gone so far out there.
(16:14):
And I feel like Robert kind of digs
into that same perspective of, there are people out there.
And he was trying to reach those people to be like, look,
this isn't what we wanted.
And you know this.
Wake up.
Exactly.
(16:34):
I sort of have the feeling that the conservative party,
the Republican party, is going to split at some point.
And maybe they'll keep the Trumps.
The Trumps will keep the GOP, because I
think that they like initials.
And then maybe it will be like a new Republican party that
comes out with people that are a little more centrist.
(16:55):
Well, not far right.
Not like recreating fascism far right.
And I think Serge has it right.
The GOP is Trump or die at this point.
All the people that believe they were actually
(17:19):
firmly Republican maybe 30 years ago,
by the definition of Republican back then,
now they're considered centrist or even left leaning.
Because the idea of Republican that Trump has brought into it
has just gone so far out there.
And this divine, what was it called again?
(17:43):
The immunity, the presidential immunity has really,
it's the red flag.
It's not even a flag.
It's the smoking bomb.
Right.
Exactly.
That reveals that.
It's the irradiated crater.
Right.
Right.
(18:03):
Yep, absolutely.
Yeah, it was an impassioned article.
Go check it out.
So then we start getting into the meat.
And it's not like the other ones didn't
talk about the ruling itself.
They did.
But the reason why they appealed to us
was not necessarily the issue itself,
(18:26):
but their position, their perspective of the issue,
if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Whereas this one starts to really just get
into what we understand of and what we're
worried about the issue itself.
Yeah, is this the one that was angry?
(18:48):
Is this the angry one?
I think so.
This was the one that I found.
Oh, no, no, no.
OK, not the one I was thinking of then.
OK, well, I mean, she gets pretty angry,
but maybe not the one that gets really emotional into it.
Because she's kind of author Denise, D Denise Diant,
(19:12):
Dianne?
Dion, Dianne, Diannatti?
I don't know.
My mouth stopped working.
I don't know how to pronounce that.
Thanks, Sturge.
Diannatti, OK, thank you.
That could be correct.
And her article is called 21st Century Divine Right to Rule.
(19:33):
And she's comparing this ruling, rightfully so,
to the very monarchy that we were running away
from that founded this country.
And that it is absolutely ridiculous
to believe that there is any part of the Constitution that
would ever have allowed this sort of ruling.
(19:53):
Right.
And I think we're going to get into it a little bit more
with this and some of the other articles.
But the absolute gall of the Supreme Court,
I'm sorry, I'm getting into it.
Tell me to stop if you want to, to try and rule
on the abortion issue, saying that there
was no clear intent in the founding document
to be able to say that the founding fathers wanted
(20:16):
abortion to be a right granted to Americans,
to then say that it is OK for the president to have immunity,
that someone is above the law, so clearly goes
against that document in the writers.
If you could talk to them today and say it,
every single one of them, I'm sorry.
I just got really passionate.
(20:37):
Why are you sorry?
No, this is what it's about.
Like, that's, yeah.
And I had forgotten.
This is the one where she even goes into the founding fathers
perspectives in because they, you were right,
they had used the Constitution kind of thing against abortion.
(21:00):
But apparently, Benjamin Franklin
published a how to guide for at home abortions.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I didn't know that either.
Also, abortion used to be legal until the quickening,
which was the moment in the womb where the baby could
be felt moving.
(21:21):
That's what they called the quickening.
And so that would have been somewhere between 16
and 20 weeks.
So technically, the founding fathers
did actually believe in abortion being an American right.
Otherwise, they would have codified that
in the original document.
Yeah, they may not have seen it as a,
maybe it was a fringe thing at the time.
(21:41):
I have no idea.
But you know what they did codify
in the original document through a three, what
do they call it, a tripartite system,
was that no one should ever have absolute power and immunity.
That was absolutely a part, literally the foundation
of our entire government.
(22:03):
Right.
Checks and balances was the whole reason
they decided to write down for how things needed to work.
That's it.
Checks and balances, keeping a king from rising to power.
Because they were trying to escape a king at the time that
was oppressing them.
Yeah.
(22:24):
I mean, they were rich white folks with slaves.
So I don't know how oppressed they were at the time.
But still.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, this article is really good.
I really appreciated her perspective about this.
Yeah.
And the information.
I didn't know all that stuff.
That was some really useful information.
(22:48):
So then we have SCOTUS CROWNS TRUMP AS KING by Karen White.
Karen with a C, by the way.
Karen with a C. And the subtitle is,
but where in the Constitution does it
say that he has immunity?
And this is the one I was thinking
of when I was thinking about the A.
Yeah, this is the one that gets emotional.
Yeah, where there's actually a, I don't want to reveal it.
(23:10):
Never mind.
Get edged.
Anyway.
You don't want to say.
I mean, I have the part.
Go for it.
Yeah, it's so exciting.
It builds up to this.
And it goes even further afterwards.
But there's this one line that really shows
where we're going to.
And she says, show me where in the historical record
(23:32):
it says that the farmers or the framers of the Constitution
thought that a president should be above the law.
Show me.
Go for it.
Right.
Exactly.
That's the emotion.
Yeah.
That's so vulnerable to me.
That's someone really expressing what their emotion really is.
And I was blown away.
(23:53):
Wasn't this also the one?
Maybe I'm wrong.
But wasn't this also the one that
mentioned about the very tiny upside
at the very end of the article?
No, the upside.
We only have one upside.
Oh, no, that's right.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
There is a tiny little upside in this one.
There is a case that Judge Tanya Chutkin
(24:19):
is going to be trying where some charges that special counsel
Jack Smith is bringing that maybe
acts that are technically that could be considered
immune under this law.
However, they have to still be addressed in the court.
(24:42):
And therefore, all of his evidence
and all of his witnesses are still
going to be a part of that case.
Even if the new ruling says that the president is immune,
that doesn't mean that we are in the dark about it.
Right.
And we will be able to see all of Trump's treachery
(25:05):
laid out before us.
Right.
So that evidence has to come out.
And I hope that that's the case.
And I hope it does.
I hope everyone gets to see it.
Because I think a lot of people are
going to dismiss that as being something
that doesn't really matter too much because it's just
evidence of past crimes.
But I think when people see it, people will react.
Maybe not all people.
There are definitely going to be some people
(25:26):
that it doesn't matter.
He could do anything, and it wouldn't change their opinion.
However, I think there are still people
that don't understand the extent of Trump's treachery.
And when they start seeing all the things
that he's actually done, I think some of those loyal followers
(25:48):
will start to realize, oh, actually, he's
not that great of a person.
And maybe I made a mistake.
Right.
And I think it's important for us
to be open to people that do change their mind like that
and to be like, look, dude, I don't understand
how you liked him, but I understand feeling tricked.
(26:09):
I understand how easy it is for us all
to end up in a situation where we're tricked by somebody.
And it's OK.
It's OK to change your mind.
I'm going to think that they're freaking heroes because the way
the world is right now, everybody
feels like they have to double down and fight
(26:30):
to support their own opinion, even if they find out
it's wrong.
They still have to support it because they
can't be seen as being wrong.
They'll be embarrassed, look like a fool.
And we're not allowed to do that in this day and age.
And as someone that has been seen as a fool,
probably daily for decades, it ain't that bad, folks.
It's sometimes fun to be foolish and OK.
(26:53):
So if you do find the strength of will within you
to be able to change your mind and realize that maybe I
made a mistake, maybe the person that I thought he was
isn't accurate.
And now that I know who he is, I'm going to change my mind.
That's a hero.
Yeah, sure.
Welcome back, Ben.
(27:13):
Good to see you again, buddy.
Did I say AIDS?
I don't know.
I might have said AIDS.
It's possible.
I wasn't paying attention.
I don't have anything to say about AIDS, so probably not.
First thing I hear, mortal go AIDS.
Well, you know.
Well, it happens.
Yeah.
So then we go from all of those articles, which obviously they
(27:37):
go way more in depth about this ruling
than we're really going through in this episode.
Because I don't, we could go through a lot
of the nitty gritty, but trust me when I say
there's a lot to go through.
I just don't want to make the episode that long.
And truthfully, I feel drained talking about this already
(28:01):
as far as we have.
I don't want to stop or anything now.
We're probably barely 25 minutes into the episode,
but I think the topic is just heavy.
Yeah, it is.
And so we're only going to be able to talk about it
for as long as we can.
And I still think that everyone that's writing about it
out there, that's putting out their opinions
and saying what it is they think is amazing.
(28:23):
I might do a shout, not a real shout out,
but I might mention an article I read today at the end of this.
But let's go through our articles first.
Before we finish, go to the next slide,
I do want to build on that and say anybody who is considering
writing about this, do it.
Write about it.
Because I mean, maybe it doesn't do anything, sure.
(28:43):
But this might be the last moment
that we have freedom of speech for all we know.
Right.
So do it now and see if it does any good.
Because maybe it'll convince one person, maybe.
And everybody that can convince one person,
it could be enough.
(29:04):
That's all I'm saying.
All hands on deck.
Exactly.
All hands on deck.
Sorry.
All right, now.
Wait, wait, wait.
I can do it.
I can do better.
I can do better.
All hands on deck.
I was a little off timing.
OK, anyway.
Oh, Sturg is going to make a story titled,
(29:25):
I Will Become President So I Can Not Be For Disagreeing With Me.
I look forward to that humor piece.
I look forward to that also.
So the next one is actually a humor piece.
It's called 10 Things Biden Can Do Now That He Has Immunity.
The Supreme Court Opens a Pandora's Box by Charles Besteel.
(29:47):
And it doesn't actually technically present itself
as a humor piece.
But it does go into some pretty funny possibilities
that are also absurd, but also possible.
They're not too absurd as to be possible now
under this new ruling.
(30:08):
Yeah, and Sturg is apparently a fan of Charles
and says that it is humor, at least from his perspective.
So it's probably good that we found the humor in it.
But yeah, it's very interesting, very, very interesting.
Go ahead.
Well, one of the things that he does kind of point out
(30:30):
in his listicle, which he hates the fact that he did a listicle,
but he pointed out that a lot of the things that he's suggesting
are now possible, they don't technically kill people,
but they don't not kill people.
Oh, yeah.
(30:52):
And we didn't like every line on the list
we didn't necessarily resonate with.
Some of the stuff was kind of niched from my perspective.
But the first three points on that list were four points.
I don't remember.
The first three.
Were spot on.
And it's playing with the idea that as soon
(31:14):
as I was told, because I had to be told,
I didn't look this up on my own to find out about the Supreme
Court decision in the first place,
as soon as I was told about it, that the president has
ultimate immunity, I'm like, what idiot decided that?
Because that just allows the current president
to take advantage of it in the way
that the person you did that for would want to.
(31:36):
Like Biden could order SEAL Team 6 to Trump,
just like people have been talking about if Trump gets
this kind of power, he could have the power to order
Team 6 to his political rivals.
And I just don't get it.
It's like they don't follow logic.
Anyway.
So side note.
(31:57):
I know somebody who was a SEAL.
Oh, yeah.
You too.
Yeah.
And when I mentioned that and called it SEAL Team 6,
he got really comically heated about how that's not actually
what they're called.
They haven't been called that since the 80s.
I don't remember what the actual name is,
(32:20):
because he was saying it so fast.
And he was very passionate about SEAL Team 6
is not the right name.
And so if you're calling it that,
he's already stopped listening to you
because you don't know what you're talking about.
But I just thought it was hilarious to bring up here.
Yeah.
And I like Sturge's SEAL Team 6 that we got going on.
(32:43):
So yeah.
It's only three.
It's only three.
They're all powerful enough for two SEALs.
Now he's got four.
He's the best SEAL of all.
He's trying to find enough.
He's trying to find them.
He's gathering the team.
So yeah.
SEAL Team 6 is not a thing.
But people are saying it because it's colloquially a colloquial.
(33:05):
I can never say that word.
Colloquialism.
Colloquialism.
Colloquially a word is its phrase.
People understand what you mean when you say that.
OK.
So the last three SEALs are technically the same.
Well, this last one.
I guess the last, last one is a bit of a hybrid, at least.
(33:25):
It's a bit of a hybrid.
Come check us out live.
Definitely a splice clone.
Yeah.
All right.
So anyway, Charles Bastille had a great humor article
of what he calls the soft list of the things
that the president can now do.
(33:46):
And they're hilarious.
I don't agree with all of them.
But check them out because at least it's
a nice little giggle over the situation.
Right.
There's going to be people out there that say
you shouldn't have humor.
You shouldn't be able to make jokes about certain things.
And I still to this day, even though it offends some people,
I think that you have to be able to find humor in everything.
(34:08):
I think being able to laugh even in the most hopeless
of situations is key because otherwise it's
going to weigh too much on you.
And you will get too depressed to be
able to continue to work towards something changing.
And a lot of this situation has felt virtually hopeless
(34:30):
because there's not a lot that we the people can do.
But that's not, I mean, there isn't a lot
we can do except for maybe voting on things,
voting more.
But that doesn't mean that there's not hope.
And that is why we have one last article.
(34:52):
And that is House Democrats are taking on the Supreme Court
also by Karen White.
I didn't realize that two of your articles
were by the same person.
That's interesting.
I didn't either.
Oh, wow.
Look at that.
We read both of them and neither one of us
realized that they were the same author.
Wow.
(35:14):
That's interesting.
There's a whole evolution there that I wasn't even aware of.
But that's cool.
OK.
But yeah, this one was great too.
I just loved the fact that she was pointing out
what's going on here.
Go ahead, you're in to say something.
I just was going to explain the article.
Because it feels when we hear that the Supreme
(35:36):
Court made this ruling giving power to the president,
it's easy to feel like the whole system is just
upped.
It's just falling apart and is going to be just awful.
There's nothing we can do.
It's going to decay into madness.
But here's Karen White coming to us and being like, no,
we have a three part system and that third part nobody
(35:59):
ever thinks about because they don't do anything
are doing something.
In fact, it is their job to do this.
This is literally what the House is for.
Well, it's what the Congress is for, the Senate
and the House together.
And we currently have and it goes through the fact
(36:20):
that there is a bit of a conservative lean
at this particular moment in the House.
And so who knows what the success of this is going to be.
But once we get that evidence that was mentioned before laid
out in front of us to show us what's going on, maybe people
and people are going to give me shit for this.
But maybe people are going to do the right thing.
(36:41):
Maybe people will just do the right thing.
Yeah.
And so there are people right now
that are in the House of Representatives working
tirelessly to file impeachment charges to get some
of those Supreme Court justices taken off of their taking
(37:04):
their power away because they're single handed.
They're trying to disrupt the entire stability
of our government.
And there are also people that are
working to make a new amendment to prevent this ever
happening again.
It wasn't something anybody thought
we needed to do because it was so obvious that this is not
(37:26):
the way the Constitution reads.
But since we have to do it, we'll
make another amendment just to make sure to drive it home.
Yeah.
And honestly, I'm going to go a little bit of attention here.
This is like what the boomers always complain about.
There's no common sense anymore.
And it's like, yeah, people decide
to go against common sense and act in a stubborn manner
(37:48):
and go in a way that they feel like they
can do their own thing, get away with whoever they want.
And then we have to make rules to tell people
how it's supposed to be.
And that means we're going to tell that every common sense
thing that people should be able to know,
we've got to make it a rule.
Yep.
Because a few people just couldn't handle it.
(38:10):
And this one, if you don't read any of the other ones,
this one's probably the best one, I think,
to walk away from because it reminds us
that there's still hope.
Right, that there's still people trying.
And that even the forefathers of the country,
they had this in their mind.
(38:31):
This is why we have a three-part system.
So that even if two of them are on the same side,
that third one is the one that is
tasked with keeping everything in balance.
Right.
I mean, at this point, this is the Supreme Court, one branch.
(38:52):
This is the highest court of the judicial branch
of the government, allowing the highest
seat in the executive branch of the government,
unlimited power in a certain regard.
And so the third branch, our Congress, our lawmakers,
have no other choice but to step in and try and stop it.
(39:14):
And I'm glad that some of them are answering that call.
I hope that more of them step up and do so.
And honestly, I don't think that this will actually happen,
but it has reinvigorated my desire to potentially run
for public office.
Because what am I supposed to do?
There's so many quotes out there about, you know,
(39:39):
evil men do evil things, but the worst evil
is the good person that does nothing.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, from Boondock Saints.
Right, sure.
In many other places, I'm sure.
And I just don't know what else I could possibly
do to help out the situation, except for try and do
(40:00):
the best I can.
Because I know that I would want to do the right thing
the whole time.
There could be somebody that offers me $10 billion
to do whatever dumb bullshit that they
want to do that's illegal.
And I'm not going to care that they're offering me
that money, because it's not the right thing to do.
My self-hatred has prepared me uniquely
(40:22):
to actually do the right thing when it needs to happen.
And that's what we need.
And you're very good at denying yourself
any luxuries or benefits.
Yeah, because I don't give a fuck.
Like, it doesn't matter to me if I get taken advantage
of in certain ways.
Who cares?
I'll be fine.
I'll just keep going on and living my life
(40:42):
as I got to live my life.
This world sucks for a lot of people.
So there's no reason for me to just whine and fuck
about stuff, whatever.
But I don't need your money.
I just want to do the right thing.
And if no one else is going to, I
don't know what else to do but to step up and try myself.
So it's an idea that I've had.
I don't think it'll amount to anything.
(41:03):
I've had a billion ideas.
But one of my ideas I just recently started doing,
and I really liked it.
So maybe this will be another one that I do.
Well, I don't think enough people know who you are yet.
Whoops.
Do you want me to cut that out?
Nah, it's fine.
Whatever.
People don't really know who you are.
So they're not going to write you into the ballot.
But I think if you work hard to let people know who you are,
(41:28):
I think you might have a shot, just as much of a shot
as anybody else.
Maybe more, probably.
We'll see.
I don't know.
It's a lot of energy, a lot of social stuff.
I have anxiety issues.
So it's certainly like, I understand
if people don't have confidence in that sort of thing,
I certainly would be worried that I
might, in the wrong moment, worry
(41:48):
that I'm going to make everything terrible
and then shut down.
It's a possibility.
So wow, a little vulnerable.
Sorry, I didn't mean to get that deep.
Yeah.
Anyway, so yeah, check out our last article, also
by Karen White.
Got a little bit of hope in there.
Showing us that you can have a little bit of hope in humanity,
(42:09):
because some people will try and do the right thing.
Yep.
What an episode, Tam.
Yeah, it's a heavy discussion, a heavy topic.
It really is.
I'm glad we did it, though.
We don't usually do the political sphere.
But this seemed like one that, I don't know, man,
(42:30):
if there was a time for us to weigh in, this is it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we don't have a powerful platform.
There's nothing that we can do from anything
from our platform.
But since we have a platform at all,
I think it's important to speak about at least some
of the stuff that happens in the world.
Yeah.
Can't talk about all of it, because then we
wouldn't talk about anything else.
Right.
(42:50):
I really like finding and showcasing
some goodness writing and art that makes me happy.
Yeah, and when my grandpa was alive, one of the things
that I really respected about him
was that he only spoke on issues that mattered,
really, really mattered.
(43:11):
Not that the little things didn't matter at all,
but when he spoke, you knew that it really mattered.
And so I want to take that same feel, that same approach
here to where we don't talk about political stuff
on average so that when we do, people
know that that's the stuff that really matters.
(43:33):
You know what I mean?
Like kind of choosing our battles.
Yeah, matters to us at least.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we've worried everybody.
No, no, no, you mentioned grandpa.
I think that's where those two came from.
I don't get the blonde dude from the office reference, though.
(43:56):
Do I?
Yeah.
Because he's saying that's politics, baby.
Oh, I couldn't read that second word.
I literally thought it said police.
So I want to thank both Ben Ulanci and Gerald Sturgill.
I want to thank them both for being part of the live recording.
And you, dear listener, can be a part of the live action
by joining our Discord through themonsterally.com,
(44:19):
which also has links to our articles, Spotify and Stub Stack.
And special bonus, Stub Stack is the only place
to get the uncensored version.
I want to thank you.
I do.
It's just fun to say.
Anyway, thank you, dear listener, for coming along
and listening to us talk about this very deep and heavy issue.
(44:41):
I do want to personally ask anyone that's
listening to do their part, even if that's just voting in November,
if you're part of the American system.
If you're not part of the American system, then do whatever you want.
Write a blog about it.
But this is something to take action on.
It really does matter to, I think, the whole world.
And I've seen a lot of people all over the world saying it
(45:02):
matters to the whole world.
So anyway, thank you for coming along.
We really appreciate you.
I'm eternally mortal.
And I hope you find smiles this day.
And I'm the accidental monster.
You can find us on medium.com or through themonsterally.com.
That's T-H-E-M-O-N-S-T-E-R-A-L-L-E-Y.com.
And remember to follow yourself always.
Hi, I'm Tam.
(00:01):
And I'm Eternally Mortal.
And this is the Hidden Egg Podcast,
where we talk about vulnerability.
And stuff and things.
And this week, we're on a voice channel
instead of the typical stage channel
so that we can have little sound bite things.
(00:22):
I didn't have that practiced in my head.
That's okay.
Something like this, which, you know,
I'll do this one because...
Yep, sound bit.
The other one is literally something you say.
So the first time I heard you use it,
I thought you were actually just saying...
I don't know.
But that's a sound bite.
That's awesome. I love it.
(00:44):
Yeah.
Was there more to the intro?
Or are we good with the intro?
I've been trying to remember to say
that you're listening to Season 5, Episode 4?
Is that the fourth one?
And today's theme is the Presidential Immunity ruling.
(01:06):
By the Supreme Court of the United States.
Nope, Ben's gonna be...
We'll check you when you get back.
We'll see you when you get back.
And then when you get back at some distant future,
we'll have a sound bite for you.
Yeah.
I feel bad for not uploading that already.
(01:26):
I feel like I should do that, but I'm not going to.
We'll get around to it.
We're taking our time and doing our thing.
And it's been going great.
But today, we're gonna get deep.
The Supreme Court of the United States
just recently made a ruling.
I think it was 6-3,
basically giving the President of the United States immunity
in criminal cases against him
(01:48):
when it has to do with presidential function.
So normally, we do shout-outs.
Oh, yeah, I was just basically saying what the episode was about.
I'm sorry.
But you can do shout-outs.
Yeah, let's do it.
So before we get into that,
so I wanted to shout out Len Vidson's article.
(02:09):
I know it's from May, but like it was really, really good.
Like really, really good.
So good that I had to like share it everywhere
because I don't think that anybody finds Len.
I think that Len has been criminally undervalued,
much like Sturge, but maybe even worse.
(02:33):
And I wasn't sure if I was allowed to say that,
but Sturge actually got Len's story boosted
so that it can be spread even further.
So I'm super happy with that.
Thank you.
And whoever at Medium that made the final decision,
because Sturge just dominates, right?
So somebody made the final decision on it,
(02:55):
and we appreciate them too.
Yeah, and I don't want to say what the story is about
because it kind of builds on everything that's been said.
But the name of the story is The Windseed,
subtitled The Key to the Whole Universe.
And it was just, it was a really amazing story
and left me feeling really good afterwards.
(03:16):
Yeah, it was delightful.
I really enjoyed it a lot.
It was so good.
And then we have My Chubby Little Legs
by Elena Tucker or Lena Tucker.
I'm not sure how her first name is read.
Could be either one.
Right.
And it's just how it sounds.
She's talking about her chubby little legs.
(03:36):
And it's a little piece of body positivity
that I felt like I needed to read,
because I'm in a similar boat with how I don't really
enjoy the rest of my body.
But there are some parts of my body that I do appreciate.
And it showed me, I don't know,
I just like watching other people find things
(03:57):
that they enjoy and love about their body parts,
even if they're not perfect.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that currently in our society,
it's really difficult for people to find self-love a lot of times.
And sometimes you've got to take self-love one step at a time
or one aspect at a time.
And celebrating any aspects of self-love, that's wonderful.
(04:19):
So the other two shout outs are a little bit more
on point with our theme.
The next one is, it was just published,
just hours ago by Ben Ulanci.
The discord among Democrats is only natural
and makes me proud to vote blue.
Subtitled, the division among Democrats
(04:39):
is a challenge to overcome, but speaks
to the persevering integrity of the political party.
Mouthful, but awesome.
Yes, I don't think I read this one.
No, it just came out.
You didn't have time to read it.
But one of the things that he says in there,
he actually brought up the same thing
that you and I talked about yesterday or maybe day
(05:01):
before, that debate from Gallup Panakis.
What was his name?
Wait, wait, wait.
The interview.
OK, you're talking about George Stephanopoulos?
Yes, George Stephanopoulos.
I am terrible with names.
Please forgive me.
And he had the same, he picked out that same part
(05:25):
that was like, if you don't win, how are you going to feel?
And the quote of, it's just about doing the best I can.
And that's what it's really about.
Ben had that same response that we did.
It was like, no, no, that's not what this is about.
That is not what any of this is about.
Yeah, it drove me nuts, honestly, to hear him say that.
(05:51):
I should have expected that Ben would be on the same page
about it, honestly.
Thank you, George.
We appreciate that.
And yeah, George Stephanopoulos.
Exactly.
Stephanopoulos, Stephanopoulos, either one, really.
But I mean, he goes into more than just that interview.
It's just all down the line, just pretty much everything
(06:14):
that we've said in one way or another just kind of condensed
into one place.
I just felt that it was a masterful way.
And so I just wanted to shout out to it.
It's not specifically on the topic
that we were going to discuss, but it's
kind of a tangential thing.
(06:35):
Because of the decision, the election
is now very, very forefront in a lot of people's minds.
And so they become very, very interconnectedly related.
Yeah, it's very heavily related.
I feel like I'm coming in a little bit late staying this,
but I don't know if anybody's watching the video,
but there's a lot of tabs up there.
And I just want to let everyone know
that we found a lot of people talking about what's going on.
(06:58):
And so I think public opinion about everything
that's happening is going to make a difference,
but we'll see.
Anyway, but yeah, we may not be able to spend
as much time on each article as we usually do.
Right.
So the last shout out is actually
my article that is about our topic.
And I'm not going to say much about it, just like this
(07:18):
is kind of what's spearheading this episode.
My article is called This Country Is Screwed.
Have fun.
Go read it.
I'm going to move on to the main part of the show,
because I don't want to reveal a lot about that,
because we're going to talk about it.
But shout out to the accidental monster, our friend and yours,
(07:42):
such a great writer.
Go check out the article.
I just had to.
I just had to, because you're awesome.
OK, let's get into it.
All right, so the very first one is by Dan Cannon, called
With Fear for Our Democracy.
Yeah, this was the one that was about the justice, was it
(08:06):
Sonia Sotomayor, something like that?
I don't know how to pronounce it exactly.
I don't remember.
I'm looking at it on a different screen, but I don't.
Yeah, Sotomayor.
Yeah, I don't exactly know.
I don't know if that's how it's called.
Sotomayor?
Sotomayor?
I don't know.
Sotomayor?
I don't know.
I don't know how to pronounce things.
(08:28):
Anyway, the point is this goes more into the dissent,
like basically her saying, no, this is wrong,
and her really pointing out from a democratic standpoint
why it's wrong and calling to the rest of people to act on it.
(08:50):
Right.
And it's such a huge deal that a justice officially decided,
I need to say this out loud publicly to everyone,
and went ahead and did it.
And it doesn't happen very often.
So it's a really good article.
It puts a lot of big spotlight on Sonia Sotomayor,
(09:13):
and I think it's great.
I don't really know a whole lot about this part
of our government.
I'm not well versed in all of the intricacies and everything
to know how important she is, or what she's done,
or any of that stuff.
But this article goes a long way to help me understand her
(09:36):
as a person and where she tends to stand as a platform.
But the reason why they titled it
with Fear for Our Democracy was because those were five words
that she specifically had said.
And the article points out how that's not something
that the people that are in our government in those higher
(10:00):
positions really ever say.
They don't usually even say that there's
a threat to our democracy, except in, I think,
he pointed out two different cases that that was mentioned.
So maybe it's just justices that have said that sort of thing.
(10:22):
So this kind of is a red flag situation.
And he kind of goes through of why this makes sense.
I don't know.
I don't know where I'm going with that.
Well, I just think it's great because I
can't super imagine what it was like to be her to decide
(10:44):
that I need to make a public statement like this.
But it takes a lot of courage to think
anybody is going to listen to anything anyone has to say.
Do you know what I mean?
And then when you come out and publicly say something
and someone else, even if that person doesn't get
an enormous amount of traction with it, says,
I'm so glad you said that.
You know what I mean?
(11:04):
Even that alone is great.
But this is just pointing out how powerful that statement was.
And I think it's great.
It's humans supporting humans, and that makes me happy.
Because I'll take anything right now, honestly.
Anyway.
Anyway.
Is that GIF of the Justice that you did, Sturg?
(11:27):
I'm just curious.
This last one.
Yeah, awesome.
Nice.
Cool.
Thank you, Sturg.
We have an image of her.
I didn't know what she looked like either.
So that's good.
No, I had no idea.
Yeah.
And that looks like that's a real quote.
So who knows if it really is or not, but we'll see.
That's great.
Thank you, Sturg.
Appreciate that addition.
(11:47):
Well, anyway, I'm ready to move on.
We have a lot of articles to get through today.
Yeah.
All right, so the next one is called It's Worse Than You
Think.
And again, it's not about Trump.
And this one.
This one.
And it's kind of crazy that we put this one at the beginning
kind of, because technically this article is, I believe,
(12:14):
written from a standpoint.
If he's not just barely right of center,
then he at least is so centrist that he understands both sides.
And so it's not a left leaning perspective.
Right.
In the article, it's a very long article,
and it's impassioned, and I love it.
And in it, he expresses that he at least knows several people
(12:39):
that are on the right.
And he cares about them, and they're part of his people.
Family members and close friends kind of know,
not like Joe down the street or the cashier that he talked with.
So these are people that he cares about their opinions
and doesn't want to argue excessively with them.
(12:59):
So he tries to meet them halfway.
That perspective is, I think right now,
it is hugely important.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the people that are trying to gain common ground
between the two parties right now, I think, are heroes.
Oh, that's good to know.
That is good to know, Ben.
(13:20):
Welcome back, Ben.
Thanks for checking in.
So Ben is tracking the current interview
that Biden is having.
It is an interview, right?
Or is it something else?
Is it a debate?
Did you say it was a State of the Union?
What is it?
Oh, it's a press conference.
Oh, it's a press conference.
OK.
And apparently, he's doing well right now.
(13:42):
So that's good to know, because he has not been necessarily
doing all that great.
He's been struggling.
And I don't want to get too heavily into it
too much in this episode, because this is about the Supreme
Court decision.
But as I kind of stated, I think already,
they're very closely interwoven right now.
Yeah.
So back to the article by Robert W. Ahrens.
(14:07):
I hope that's how it's pronounced.
One of the things that he says in here,
I'm going to say it verbatim.
He says, so let's be even more clear.
This isn't about Trump.
It isn't about Biden either.
It's about American democracy, which is clearly under threat.
And he goes into what that means from a centrist view,
(14:30):
not from the view of a lefty, not from the view of the right,
but from a very like, he does bring in both perspectives
and says, we can speak to this part of right thinking.
But also, there's a little bit of, I don't know.
(14:50):
I'm not super familiar with people that
are coming from this perspective.
And I think we need to see more of this kind of viewpoint,
I think.
Yeah, absolutely.
But I was really happy that he wrote it.
I thought it was a great article to read.
(15:11):
It had a lot of him in it.
He was very vulnerable through it.
He expressed how he felt about a lot of stuff in there.
And you could just tell he's just trying his best.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think he touched on something
that you and I have talked about in private, where we know,
we don't know a lot of them, but we
(15:31):
know that there are Republicans that have been watching this go
down for the past 10 years.
And they're just out of their minds with what to do.
Because they believe in the Republican beliefs.
Ideology.
The ideology.
But what's happening, what's been happening,
has not been the Republican ideology.
(15:54):
So where do they put their trust?
Where do they put their vote?
They have no idea.
So they just stay out of the race.
Because they have no idea where to actually go,
because they can't come to the left,
because that's not the ideology that they align with.
But the right has gone so far out there.
(16:14):
And I feel like Robert kind of digs
into that same perspective of, there are people out there.
And he was trying to reach those people to be like, look,
this isn't what we wanted.
And you know this.
Wake up.
Exactly.
(16:34):
I sort of have the feeling that the conservative party,
the Republican party, is going to split at some point.
And maybe they'll keep the Trumps.
The Trumps will keep the GOP, because I
think that they like initials.
And then maybe it will be like a new Republican party that
comes out with people that are a little more centrist.
(16:55):
Well, not far right.
Not like recreating fascism far right.
And I think Serge has it right.
The GOP is Trump or die at this point.
All the people that believe they were actually
(17:19):
firmly Republican maybe 30 years ago,
by the definition of Republican back then,
now they're considered centrist or even left leaning.
Because the idea of Republican that Trump has brought into it
has just gone so far out there.
And this divine, what was it called again?
(17:43):
The immunity, the presidential immunity has really,
it's the red flag.
It's not even a flag.
It's the smoking bomb.
Right.
Exactly.
That reveals that.
It's the irradiated crater.
Right.
Right.
(18:03):
Yep, absolutely.
Yeah, it was an impassioned article.
Go check it out.
So then we start getting into the meat.
And it's not like the other ones didn't
talk about the ruling itself.
They did.
But the reason why they appealed to us
was not necessarily the issue itself,
(18:26):
but their position, their perspective of the issue,
if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Whereas this one starts to really just get
into what we understand of and what we're
worried about the issue itself.
Yeah, is this the one that was angry?
(18:48):
Is this the angry one?
I think so.
This was the one that I found.
Oh, no, no, no.
OK, not the one I was thinking of then.
OK, well, I mean, she gets pretty angry,
but maybe not the one that gets really emotional into it.
Because she's kind of author Denise, D Denise Diant,
(19:12):
Dianne?
Dion, Dianne, Diannatti?
I don't know.
My mouth stopped working.
I don't know how to pronounce that.
Thanks, Sturge.
Diannatti, OK, thank you.
That could be correct.
And her article is called 21st Century Divine Right to Rule.
(19:33):
And she's comparing this ruling, rightfully so,
to the very monarchy that we were running away
from that founded this country.
And that it is absolutely ridiculous
to believe that there is any part of the Constitution that
would ever have allowed this sort of ruling.
(19:53):
Right.
And I think we're going to get into it a little bit more
with this and some of the other articles.
But the absolute gall of the Supreme Court,
I'm sorry, I'm getting into it.
Tell me to stop if you want to, to try and rule
on the abortion issue, saying that there
was no clear intent in the founding document
to be able to say that the founding fathers wanted
(20:16):
abortion to be a right granted to Americans,
to then say that it is OK for the president to have immunity,
that someone is above the law, so clearly goes
against that document in the writers.
If you could talk to them today and say it,
every single one of them, I'm sorry.
I just got really passionate.
(20:37):
Why are you sorry?
No, this is what it's about.
Like, that's, yeah.
And I had forgotten.
This is the one where she even goes into the founding fathers
perspectives in because they, you were right,
they had used the Constitution kind of thing against abortion.
(21:00):
But apparently, Benjamin Franklin
published a how to guide for at home abortions.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I didn't know that either.
Also, abortion used to be legal until the quickening,
which was the moment in the womb where the baby could
be felt moving.
(21:21):
That's what they called the quickening.
And so that would have been somewhere between 16
and 20 weeks.
So technically, the founding fathers
did actually believe in abortion being an American right.
Otherwise, they would have codified that
in the original document.
Yeah, they may not have seen it as a,
maybe it was a fringe thing at the time.
(21:41):
I have no idea.
But you know what they did codify
in the original document through a three, what
do they call it, a tripartite system,
was that no one should ever have absolute power and immunity.
That was absolutely a part, literally the foundation
of our entire government.
(22:03):
Right.
Checks and balances was the whole reason
they decided to write down for how things needed to work.
That's it.
Checks and balances, keeping a king from rising to power.
Because they were trying to escape a king at the time that
was oppressing them.
Yeah.
(22:24):
I mean, they were rich white folks with slaves.
So I don't know how oppressed they were at the time.
But still.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, this article is really good.
I really appreciated her perspective about this.
Yeah.
And the information.
I didn't know all that stuff.
That was some really useful information.
(22:48):
So then we have SCOTUS CROWNS TRUMP AS KING by Karen White.
Karen with a C, by the way.
Karen with a C. And the subtitle is,
but where in the Constitution does it
say that he has immunity?
And this is the one I was thinking
of when I was thinking about the A.
Yeah, this is the one that gets emotional.
Yeah, where there's actually a, I don't want to reveal it.
(23:10):
Never mind.
Get edged.
Anyway.
You don't want to say.
I mean, I have the part.
Go for it.
Yeah, it's so exciting.
It builds up to this.
And it goes even further afterwards.
But there's this one line that really shows
where we're going to.
And she says, show me where in the historical record
(23:32):
it says that the farmers or the framers of the Constitution
thought that a president should be above the law.
Show me.
Go for it.
Right.
Exactly.
That's the emotion.
Yeah.
That's so vulnerable to me.
That's someone really expressing what their emotion really is.
And I was blown away.
(23:53):
Wasn't this also the one?
Maybe I'm wrong.
But wasn't this also the one that
mentioned about the very tiny upside
at the very end of the article?
No, the upside.
We only have one upside.
Oh, no, that's right.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
There is a tiny little upside in this one.
There is a case that Judge Tanya Chutkin
(24:19):
is going to be trying where some charges that special counsel
Jack Smith is bringing that maybe
acts that are technically that could be considered
immune under this law.
However, they have to still be addressed in the court.
(24:42):
And therefore, all of his evidence
and all of his witnesses are still
going to be a part of that case.
Even if the new ruling says that the president is immune,
that doesn't mean that we are in the dark about it.
Right.
And we will be able to see all of Trump's treachery
(25:05):
laid out before us.
Right.
So that evidence has to come out.
And I hope that that's the case.
And I hope it does.
I hope everyone gets to see it.
Because I think a lot of people are
going to dismiss that as being something
that doesn't really matter too much because it's just
evidence of past crimes.
But I think when people see it, people will react.
Maybe not all people.
There are definitely going to be some people
(25:26):
that it doesn't matter.
He could do anything, and it wouldn't change their opinion.
However, I think there are still people
that don't understand the extent of Trump's treachery.
And when they start seeing all the things
that he's actually done, I think some of those loyal followers
(25:48):
will start to realize, oh, actually, he's
not that great of a person.
And maybe I made a mistake.
Right.
And I think it's important for us
to be open to people that do change their mind like that
and to be like, look, dude, I don't understand
how you liked him, but I understand feeling tricked.
(26:09):
I understand how easy it is for us all
to end up in a situation where we're tricked by somebody.
And it's OK.
It's OK to change your mind.
I'm going to think that they're freaking heroes because the way
the world is right now, everybody
feels like they have to double down and fight
(26:30):
to support their own opinion, even if they find out
it's wrong.
They still have to support it because they
can't be seen as being wrong.
They'll be embarrassed, look like a fool.
And we're not allowed to do that in this day and age.
And as someone that has been seen as a fool,
probably daily for decades, it ain't that bad, folks.
It's sometimes fun to be foolish and OK.
(26:53):
So if you do find the strength of will within you
to be able to change your mind and realize that maybe I
made a mistake, maybe the person that I thought he was
isn't accurate.
And now that I know who he is, I'm going to change my mind.
That's a hero.
Yeah, sure.
Welcome back, Ben.
(27:13):
Good to see you again, buddy.
Did I say AIDS?
I don't know.
I might have said AIDS.
It's possible.
I wasn't paying attention.
I don't have anything to say about AIDS, so probably not.
First thing I hear, mortal go AIDS.
Well, you know.
Well, it happens.
Yeah.
So then we go from all of those articles, which obviously they
(27:37):
go way more in depth about this ruling
than we're really going through in this episode.
Because I don't, we could go through a lot
of the nitty gritty, but trust me when I say
there's a lot to go through.
I just don't want to make the episode that long.
And truthfully, I feel drained talking about this already
(28:01):
as far as we have.
I don't want to stop or anything now.
We're probably barely 25 minutes into the episode,
but I think the topic is just heavy.
Yeah, it is.
And so we're only going to be able to talk about it
for as long as we can.
And I still think that everyone that's writing about it
out there, that's putting out their opinions
and saying what it is they think is amazing.
(28:23):
I might do a shout, not a real shout out,
but I might mention an article I read today at the end of this.
But let's go through our articles first.
Before we finish, go to the next slide,
I do want to build on that and say anybody who is considering
writing about this, do it.
Write about it.
Because I mean, maybe it doesn't do anything, sure.
(28:43):
But this might be the last moment
that we have freedom of speech for all we know.
Right.
So do it now and see if it does any good.
Because maybe it'll convince one person, maybe.
And everybody that can convince one person,
it could be enough.
(29:04):
That's all I'm saying.
All hands on deck.
Exactly.
All hands on deck.
Sorry.
All right, now.
Wait, wait, wait.
I can do it.
I can do better.
I can do better.
All hands on deck.
I was a little off timing.
OK, anyway.
Oh, Sturg is going to make a story titled,
(29:25):
I Will Become President So I Can Not Be For Disagreeing With Me.
I look forward to that humor piece.
I look forward to that also.
So the next one is actually a humor piece.
It's called 10 Things Biden Can Do Now That He Has Immunity.
The Supreme Court Opens a Pandora's Box by Charles Besteel.
(29:47):
And it doesn't actually technically present itself
as a humor piece.
But it does go into some pretty funny possibilities
that are also absurd, but also possible.
They're not too absurd as to be possible now
under this new ruling.
(30:08):
Yeah, and Sturg is apparently a fan of Charles
and says that it is humor, at least from his perspective.
So it's probably good that we found the humor in it.
But yeah, it's very interesting, very, very interesting.
Go ahead.
Well, one of the things that he does kind of point out
(30:30):
in his listicle, which he hates the fact that he did a listicle,
but he pointed out that a lot of the things that he's suggesting
are now possible, they don't technically kill people,
but they don't not kill people.
Oh, yeah.
(30:52):
And we didn't like every line on the list
we didn't necessarily resonate with.
Some of the stuff was kind of niched from my perspective.
But the first three points on that list were four points.
I don't remember.
The first three.
Were spot on.
And it's playing with the idea that as soon
(31:14):
as I was told, because I had to be told,
I didn't look this up on my own to find out about the Supreme
Court decision in the first place,
as soon as I was told about it, that the president has
ultimate immunity, I'm like, what idiot decided that?
Because that just allows the current president
to take advantage of it in the way
that the person you did that for would want to.
(31:36):
Like Biden could order SEAL Team 6 to Trump,
just like people have been talking about if Trump gets
this kind of power, he could have the power to order
Team 6 to his political rivals.
And I just don't get it.
It's like they don't follow logic.
Anyway.
So side note.
(31:57):
I know somebody who was a SEAL.
Oh, yeah.
You too.
Yeah.
And when I mentioned that and called it SEAL Team 6,
he got really comically heated about how that's not actually
what they're called.
They haven't been called that since the 80s.
I don't remember what the actual name is,
(32:20):
because he was saying it so fast.
And he was very passionate about SEAL Team 6
is not the right name.
And so if you're calling it that,
he's already stopped listening to you
because you don't know what you're talking about.
But I just thought it was hilarious to bring up here.
Yeah.
And I like Sturge's SEAL Team 6 that we got going on.
(32:43):
So yeah.
It's only three.
It's only three.
They're all powerful enough for two SEALs.
Now he's got four.
He's the best SEAL of all.
He's trying to find enough.
He's trying to find them.
He's gathering the team.
So yeah.
SEAL Team 6 is not a thing.
But people are saying it because it's colloquially a colloquial.
(33:05):
I can never say that word.
Colloquialism.
Colloquialism.
Colloquially a word is its phrase.
People understand what you mean when you say that.
OK.
So the last three SEALs are technically the same.
Well, this last one.
I guess the last, last one is a bit of a hybrid, at least.
(33:25):
It's a bit of a hybrid.
Come check us out live.
Definitely a splice clone.
Yeah.
All right.
So anyway, Charles Bastille had a great humor article
of what he calls the soft list of the things
that the president can now do.
(33:46):
And they're hilarious.
I don't agree with all of them.
But check them out because at least it's
a nice little giggle over the situation.
Right.
There's going to be people out there that say
you shouldn't have humor.
You shouldn't be able to make jokes about certain things.
And I still to this day, even though it offends some people,
I think that you have to be able to find humor in everything.
(34:08):
I think being able to laugh even in the most hopeless
of situations is key because otherwise it's
going to weigh too much on you.
And you will get too depressed to be
able to continue to work towards something changing.
And a lot of this situation has felt virtually hopeless
(34:30):
because there's not a lot that we the people can do.
But that's not, I mean, there isn't a lot
we can do except for maybe voting on things,
voting more.
But that doesn't mean that there's not hope.
And that is why we have one last article.
(34:52):
And that is House Democrats are taking on the Supreme Court
also by Karen White.
I didn't realize that two of your articles
were by the same person.
That's interesting.
I didn't either.
Oh, wow.
Look at that.
We read both of them and neither one of us
realized that they were the same author.
Wow.
(35:14):
That's interesting.
There's a whole evolution there that I wasn't even aware of.
But that's cool.
OK.
But yeah, this one was great too.
I just loved the fact that she was pointing out
what's going on here.
Go ahead, you're in to say something.
I just was going to explain the article.
Because it feels when we hear that the Supreme
(35:36):
Court made this ruling giving power to the president,
it's easy to feel like the whole system is just
upped.
It's just falling apart and is going to be just awful.
There's nothing we can do.
It's going to decay into madness.
But here's Karen White coming to us and being like, no,
we have a three part system and that third part nobody
(35:59):
ever thinks about because they don't do anything
are doing something.
In fact, it is their job to do this.
This is literally what the House is for.
Well, it's what the Congress is for, the Senate
and the House together.
And we currently have and it goes through the fact
(36:20):
that there is a bit of a conservative lean
at this particular moment in the House.
And so who knows what the success of this is going to be.
But once we get that evidence that was mentioned before laid
out in front of us to show us what's going on, maybe people
and people are going to give me shit for this.
But maybe people are going to do the right thing.
(36:41):
Maybe people will just do the right thing.
Yeah.
And so there are people right now
that are in the House of Representatives working
tirelessly to file impeachment charges to get some
of those Supreme Court justices taken off of their taking
(37:04):
their power away because they're single handed.
They're trying to disrupt the entire stability
of our government.
And there are also people that are
working to make a new amendment to prevent this ever
happening again.
It wasn't something anybody thought
we needed to do because it was so obvious that this is not
(37:26):
the way the Constitution reads.
But since we have to do it, we'll
make another amendment just to make sure to drive it home.
Yeah.
And honestly, I'm going to go a little bit of attention here.
This is like what the boomers always complain about.
There's no common sense anymore.
And it's like, yeah, people decide
to go against common sense and act in a stubborn manner
(37:48):
and go in a way that they feel like they
can do their own thing, get away with whoever they want.
And then we have to make rules to tell people
how it's supposed to be.
And that means we're going to tell that every common sense
thing that people should be able to know,
we've got to make it a rule.
Yep.
Because a few people just couldn't handle it.
(38:10):
And this one, if you don't read any of the other ones,
this one's probably the best one, I think,
to walk away from because it reminds us
that there's still hope.
Right, that there's still people trying.
And that even the forefathers of the country,
they had this in their mind.
(38:31):
This is why we have a three-part system.
So that even if two of them are on the same side,
that third one is the one that is
tasked with keeping everything in balance.
Right.
I mean, at this point, this is the Supreme Court, one branch.
(38:52):
This is the highest court of the judicial branch
of the government, allowing the highest
seat in the executive branch of the government,
unlimited power in a certain regard.
And so the third branch, our Congress, our lawmakers,
have no other choice but to step in and try and stop it.
(39:14):
And I'm glad that some of them are answering that call.
I hope that more of them step up and do so.
And honestly, I don't think that this will actually happen,
but it has reinvigorated my desire to potentially run
for public office.
Because what am I supposed to do?
There's so many quotes out there about, you know,
(39:39):
evil men do evil things, but the worst evil
is the good person that does nothing.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, from Boondock Saints.
Right, sure.
In many other places, I'm sure.
And I just don't know what else I could possibly
do to help out the situation, except for try and do
(40:00):
the best I can.
Because I know that I would want to do the right thing
the whole time.
There could be somebody that offers me $10 billion
to do whatever dumb bullshit that they
want to do that's illegal.
And I'm not going to care that they're offering me
that money, because it's not the right thing to do.
My self-hatred has prepared me uniquely
(40:22):
to actually do the right thing when it needs to happen.
And that's what we need.
And you're very good at denying yourself
any luxuries or benefits.
Yeah, because I don't give a fuck.
Like, it doesn't matter to me if I get taken advantage
of in certain ways.
Who cares?
I'll be fine.
I'll just keep going on and living my life
(40:42):
as I got to live my life.
This world sucks for a lot of people.
So there's no reason for me to just whine and fuck
about stuff, whatever.
But I don't need your money.
I just want to do the right thing.
And if no one else is going to, I
don't know what else to do but to step up and try myself.
So it's an idea that I've had.
I don't think it'll amount to anything.
(41:03):
I've had a billion ideas.
But one of my ideas I just recently started doing,
and I really liked it.
So maybe this will be another one that I do.
Well, I don't think enough people know who you are yet.
Whoops.
Do you want me to cut that out?
Nah, it's fine.
Whatever.
People don't really know who you are.
So they're not going to write you into the ballot.
But I think if you work hard to let people know who you are,
(41:28):
I think you might have a shot, just as much of a shot
as anybody else.
Maybe more, probably.
We'll see.
I don't know.
It's a lot of energy, a lot of social stuff.
I have anxiety issues.
So it's certainly like, I understand
if people don't have confidence in that sort of thing,
I certainly would be worried that I
might, in the wrong moment, worry
(41:48):
that I'm going to make everything terrible
and then shut down.
It's a possibility.
So wow, a little vulnerable.
Sorry, I didn't mean to get that deep.
Yeah.
Anyway, so yeah, check out our last article, also
by Karen White.
Got a little bit of hope in there.
Showing us that you can have a little bit of hope in humanity,
(42:09):
because some people will try and do the right thing.
Yep.
What an episode, Tam.
Yeah, it's a heavy discussion, a heavy topic.
It really is.
I'm glad we did it, though.
We don't usually do the political sphere.
But this seemed like one that, I don't know, man,
(42:30):
if there was a time for us to weigh in, this is it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we don't have a powerful platform.
There's nothing that we can do from anything
from our platform.
But since we have a platform at all,
I think it's important to speak about at least some
of the stuff that happens in the world.
Yeah.
Can't talk about all of it, because then we
wouldn't talk about anything else.
Right.
(42:50):
I really like finding and showcasing
some goodness writing and art that makes me happy.
Yeah, and when my grandpa was alive, one of the things
that I really respected about him
was that he only spoke on issues that mattered,
really, really mattered.
(43:11):
Not that the little things didn't matter at all,
but when he spoke, you knew that it really mattered.
And so I want to take that same feel, that same approach
here to where we don't talk about political stuff
on average so that when we do, people
know that that's the stuff that really matters.
(43:33):
You know what I mean?
Like kind of choosing our battles.
Yeah, matters to us at least.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we've worried everybody.
No, no, no, you mentioned grandpa.
I think that's where those two came from.
I don't get the blonde dude from the office reference, though.
(43:56):
Do I?
Yeah.
Because he's saying that's politics, baby.
Oh, I couldn't read that second word.
I literally thought it said police.
So I want to thank both Ben Ulanci and Gerald Sturgill.
I want to thank them both for being part of the live recording.
And you, dear listener, can be a part of the live action
by joining our Discord through themonsterally.com,
(44:19):
which also has links to our articles, Spotify and Stub Stack.
And special bonus, Stub Stack is the only place
to get the uncensored version.
I want to thank you.
I do.
It's just fun to say.
Anyway, thank you, dear listener, for coming along
and listening to us talk about this very deep and heavy issue.
(44:41):
I do want to personally ask anyone that's
listening to do their part, even if that's just voting in November,
if you're part of the American system.
If you're not part of the American system, then do whatever you want.
Write a blog about it.
But this is something to take action on.
It really does matter to, I think, the whole world.
And I've seen a lot of people all over the world saying it
(45:02):
matters to the whole world.
So anyway, thank you for coming along.
We really appreciate you.
I'm eternally mortal.
And I hope you find smiles this day.
And I'm the accidental monster.
You can find us on medium.com or through themonsterally.com.
That's T-H-E-M-O-N-S-T-E-R-A-L-L-E-Y.com.
And remember to follow yourself always.
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