Red, White & Bruised: My Rights Aren't Debatable (and other news)

Day 39 of the longest government shutdown in history. This isn't dysfunction...it's weaponized cruelty.

I just got married. Now the Supreme Court is considering whether to erase marriage equality. The Trump administration hijacked federal employees' emails for partisan propaganda. They manufactured a crisis to justify deploying troops to Portland. 40 million Americans didn't receive SNAP benefits for the first time ever. But here's what matters: Tuesday's elections showed the largest anti-Trump margins in 20 years. The resistance isn't burning out. It's growing. 

In this episode, Robin breaks down compelled speech, authoritarian boundary-testing, Marjorie Taylor Greene's 2028 strategy, and why "stop being so divisive" is what white people say about dead Black children.

Politics stays on this feed. True crime and politics were never separate. If you can handle murder stories, you can handle this.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sunny spaces, smiling faces, happy places. But every sunny space
holds a shadow. Behind every smile, our sharp teeth, and
every happy place has something sinister lurking just below the surface.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to We Saw the Devil, the podcast diving deep
into the chilling realms of true crime. Join your host
Robin as she unravels mysteries that have left investigators baffled
and armchair sleuth's obsessed. Be forewarned, Dear listener, We Saw
the Devil is not for the faint of heart. Our
unflinching exploration will take you to the darkest corners of

(00:41):
the psyche, and through the unimaginable depths of human darkness,
to unearthed stark secrets, to the harsh light of day.
Nothing will be left untouched. Are you ready?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Are you sure?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
We Saw the Devil?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Everyone you are listening to We Saw the Devil? This
is Robyn and I am squeaking in this episode, Last
day of the week. And before we get into anything
at all, I just want to address something because I
know some of you are probably wondering why the hell
is there another political episode on a true crime podcast feed,
So let me answer that for you. Here's the deal.

(01:23):
I thought long and hard about this. I've thought long
and hard about this, and I have decided to keep
political content on the We Saw the Devil feed. And
all I have to say about that is that if
you don't like it, I do not give one single
Kentucky Fried fuck about what anyone thinks. Let me be
explicitly clear about that right now. I wanted to start

(01:44):
doing political commentary because I mean, have you looked outside lately.
You know the world's on fire, and I have thoughts
about that, a lot of thoughts about that. So I
launched a new feed called Red, White and Bruce for
political content. I wanted to keep them up. But here's
the thing. It is too much goddamn work to maintain

(02:04):
two completely separate podcasts. I'm already researching cases, writing scripts,
editing audio, and now I'm supposed to double that for
two different feeds. I'm good. So Red Whitton Bruce is
saying right here on We Saw the Devil and if
you're only here for true crime and you can't handle
political commentary, that's completely fine. We all have our interest.

(02:26):
Skip those episodes, go listen to something else. I promise
that your podcast app has a skip button if you
want no part of these episodes. But I am not
going to split my energy across two feeds just to
not piss people off. And as I was thinking about
this decision and kind of rolling it back and forth
in my head about whether to keep things separate quit

(02:48):
we saw the Devil altogether, I was going through it right,
kind of centering around the concept of I really don't
want to make anyone uncomfortable. And that actually reminded me
of something that happened a couple of years years ago
when we Saw the Devil was at its peak. I
guess when it was a full time, full time thing.
I don't know if some of you remember, because it

(03:08):
kind of was a big thing. On the Facebook page
I posted about the and I'm gonna say the actual
name of it before someone tries to clip me. I
posted that story about the Arkansas Negro Boys' Industrial School
fire of nineteen fifty nine. In that fire, twenty one
black boys burned to death and unlocked dormitory. The doors

(03:28):
were locked from the outside, the windows were covered with
heavy gage wire mesh. Forty eight of the children managed
to escape, but twenty one couldn't. And the part that
gets me is that families of the deceased said that
authorities told them that fourteen of the dead boys were
wrapped in newspapers and deposited into an unmarked grave, wrapped

(03:49):
in newspapers like garbage. And I posted this because it's
part of American history. I posted it on the anniversary
date of that case of when that happened. It's part
of the pattern of violence and neglect against black children
that this country has never ever reckoned with. You know,
it's the kind of story that should make you uncomfortable,

(04:11):
because it is uncomfortable. And I don't know how many
of you recall this happening. But an older white woman commented, please,
we don't need any more division in this country on
my post about children who burned to death because white
authorities locked them in a building and covered the windows
so that they could escape. And her response was that

(04:32):
talking about it was divisive. Let me translate what she
was actually saying, because I think of this interaction actually
every so often. This is a woman who came onto
my post and said, don't tell stories about terrible things
that happen to black people, because it makes me feel bad,
and I can't default when I feel bad to one
of my you know, to go to settings which are

(04:55):
white guilt or white savior. So instead, I'm going to
make this all about how you, Robin are dividing us
by bringing up uncomfortable history. This is what actual researchers
call white victimhood, and it's not new. It's been a
political force for decades and we're going to get into
all of that later too, but it's gotten significantly worse.

(05:16):
According to research from Harvard and Tuffs, white Americans, especially
white Republicans, increasingly see themselves as victims of discrimination. A
twenty twenty one Pew survey found that twenty six percent
of Republicans said there's a lot of discrimination against white people.
That's higher than the seventeen percent of them who said

(05:37):
there's a lot of discrimination against black people. What the
fuck is wrong with you? Listen to that again, White
Republicans think white people face more discrimination than black people
in America in twenty twenty five. And none of this
is based in reality. It's based on perceived threat. Remember

(05:58):
when Barack was elected. When was elected, white Americans didn't
see that as progress for the country. They saw it
as a loss of their own status. When Kamala Harris
became vice president, when Kintanji Brown Jackson was nominated to
the subrecame court, when protests erupted after George Floyd's murder.
You know, each of these was interpreted not as steps

(06:20):
towards equality, but as attacks on whiteness itself. The research
actually calls this know your place aggression. Basically, when people
of color succeed, some white people feel victimized by it.
And that's the same psychology behind that woman's comment on
my post. You know, she didn't see twenty one dead
black children as a tragedy. She saw my post about

(06:42):
it as an attack on her comfort because in her worldview,
racial progress is a zero sum game. Any acknowledgment of
historical racism against black people must mean I'm discriminating against
white people or trying to divide. And here's the thing,
And I think why it popped into my head is
because I realized that this kind of attitude is being

(07:03):
weaponized politically. It has for since the dawn of time probably.
But you know, Fox News spent months fear mongering about
critical race theory. Remember that where critical CRT was the
hot topic. They did this to mobilize white voters who
feel threatened by honest conversations about racism. Republican politicians have

(07:24):
made whole ass careers out of playing victim while simultaneously
stripping rights from marginalized communities. So when I think about
all of this and consider it all about whether to
keep political content on this feed or split it off
to avoid pissing people off, I think about this woman's
comment on my post. I think about that woman who
saw a story about dead black children and made it

(07:47):
about her discomfort with divisiveness, and I immediately think, fuck that.
I am not going to separate my content to make
other white people comfortable. I'm not going to apologize for
talking about politics when politics determines whether people eat, whether

(08:07):
marriages are recognized, whether protesters get tear gassed, or troops
get deployed against you, me, and everyone around us. If
you can listen to stories about murder and torture and
human depravity every week, which is what we saw the
devil has done except when it was off, you can
handle me talking about government shutdowns and Supreme Court cases.

(08:31):
And if you can't, there's the proverbial door. Because I
have no fucks left who give and if you know,
you know. Because the truth is true. Crime and politics
are not separate. They never have been. Every case I
cover exists in a political context. Criminal justice is political,
policing is political. Who gets investigated, who gets charged, who

(08:52):
gets believed? All of it is shaped by political decisions.
So in short, Red, White, and Bruised stays here on
the speed, where it belongs and where I want it
to be. Okay, okay, good talk before we get into it.
Let's get the housekeeping out of the way again. You
are listening to We Saw the Devil. I am your host, Robin.

(09:13):
If you are enjoying the show, whether it's The Bread,
White and Bruised or We Saw the Devil the True
crime aspect, you can follow the show at Weesawthedevil dot com.
We Saw the Devil podcast on Instagram, which is where
I am most active. We Saw the Devil on Twitter
and Facebook. If you are interested in me, my life
when I eat the animals that I have, the people
that know shows that I go to, you can follow

(09:35):
me at Robin Underscore WSTD on Instagram. And let's go
ahead and get into it, guys, And the first thing
that I want to talk about is the upcoming Supreme
Court decision as to whether they are going to take
another look at gay marriage. And let me tell you
what it feels like to watch the Supreme Court consider

(09:55):
whether your marriage should even exist. I just got married
long ago, fairytale situation, long lost love, love of my life.
And now the Supreme Court is meeting behind closed doors
to consider Kim and Davis's appeal. Do y'all remember Kim Davis.
She's that infamous Kentucky clerk who refused to sign marriage
licenses to same sex couples, and she is now asking

(10:18):
the Supreme Court to overturn Oberschfell v. Hodges. You remember
Kim Davis, right, She had a job as a county clerk,
which literally involves issuing government documents. She decided to use
that platform the perfect platform for her personal religious crusade.
She's the one who wouldn't issue marriage licenses to same

(10:40):
sex couples that had been married four times herself because
apparently whatever God she's supporting, apparently, according to her, it's
the god uppercaseg You know, he's super concerned about the gaze.
He hates the gays, but he's just gonna go ahead
and give a couple mulligans on the till death Douist
part piece in her you know, straight marriage. The theological

(11:02):
consistency is just I can't remember, but like back when
she first hit the scene, someone took the picture of
her and it's like, Okay, her hair is up, her
hair isn't covered, she's wearing this kind of fabric and
they broke it down and it's just such bullshit. And
now this woman who looks like she smells of leather
and moldy parmesan cheese, who couldn't even do the basic

(11:24):
functions of the fucking job she was elected to do,
wants the Supreme Court to validate her discrimination by overturning
the decision that gave me the right to marry. Most
legal experts say that this is a long shot. Justice
Amy Cony Barrett has talked about concrete reliance interests. Nearly
six hundred thousand same sex couples have been married since

(11:46):
twenty fifteen. You guys, people have built lives, adopted children,
and made financial decisions based on this actual right existing.
Even Justice Alito, who, even Justice Alito, who dissented in Obersfell,
said recently he's not suggesting it should be overturned. But
here's what makes me worry. They said the same, similar shit.

(12:10):
They said similar shit about Roe v. Wade, and I
think we all know how that ended. The Court is
different now, more conservative. Justice Kennedy who wrote Justice Kennedy,
who wrote Obersfell, is gone, replaced by Brett Fratt, boy
Kavanaugh Ginsburg is gone, replaced by Amy Cony Barrett, and

(12:31):
Justice Clarence Thomas has explicitly called for the Court to
reconsider same sex marriage. So when James Obersfell, you know,
the namesake of the decision that gave me the right
to marry, says, at this point, I do not trust
the Supreme Court. I understand exactly what he means. So
when James Obersfell, himself, the namesake of the decision that

(12:53):
gave me the right to the right to marry, says
at this point, I don't trust the Supreme Court. I
am understand exactly what he means, because I don't either.
And let me get personal for a moment, and I
usually don't do this a great deal generally on Patreon
if I do. But when my wife and I got married,
we weren't thinking about Supreme Court cases, or Kim Davis's

(13:16):
fourth fucking marriage or any of this bullshit. We were
thinking about how much we love each other. We were
thinking about building a life together, buying a house together,
becoming the Brady Bunch with our pets, about who would
make medical decisions if one of us was incapacitated. You know,
I have a parent. His name is zero. He's gonna
outlive me by probably sixty years. So like I need,

(13:40):
you know, I need a legacy plan in place. Right,
We were thinking about all of these other things, tax benefits, inheritance,
like a lot of these things in legal protections that
straight couples take for granted. And now I have to
consider what happens if oberschfellfalls. We'll already be living, you know,
we'll be living in a state that protects our marriage.

(14:03):
This isn't abstract constitutional theory for me, guys. This is
whether my spouse can visit me in the hospital, whether
we can file joint tax returns, whether our marriage is
recognized if we travel to certain states, Like what if
I go back to Tennessee to visit a friend or
family or someone. Right, And what's terrifying isn't just this

(14:25):
case and then Matthew Staver, Davis's lawyer came out and
said explicitly, if not this case, it's going to be
another case. In my view, it's not a matter of if,
but when it will be overturned. They are playing the
long game, you guys. They're not expecting to win this battle.
They're just laying the groundwork for the next one. And

(14:46):
that's just like they did with Roe. Chip away, test
the boundaries, build the legal infrastructure, wait for the right case,
and then strike. And not only that, but did you
guys know that a lot of states have the trigger
life in place where if this actually happened, similar to Roe, again,
if same sex marriage is overturned, they already have literal

(15:08):
bands on the books to go into effect. And let's
talk about how this is working legally. You know, the
court doesn't usually overturn recent precedent without a compelling reason.
It's supposed to provide stability. But conservative legal scholars have
been building arguments for why Obersfell was wrongly decided for
more than a decade, and they argue it wasn't rooted

(15:29):
in constitutional text or history, that it was judicial activism.
That's what they keep saying that it should be returned
to the States. And if that argument sounds familiar, it's
the exact same fucking argument they use to overturn Row.
And you know what the bitter irony of all of
this is, Obersfell was decided on due process and equal

(15:50):
protection grounds, the same constitutional provisions that protected interracial marriage
in Loving v Virginia. If Obersfell's reasoning that case is
so flawed, so is Lovings, and that means justice. Clarence
Thomas is married to a white woman and he knows this,
and he's made clear he thinks do processtoris Prudence is wrong.

(16:12):
So when they say that they are only targeting same
sex marriage, I don't believe them. This is about rolling
back fundamental rights across the board. Marriage equality is just
the most politically viable target right now. And here's what
pisces me off. I have to live my life in
this uncertainty. I have to plan a future with my

(16:32):
spouse while knowing that there are organized, well funded sources
working methodically at all hours of the day to erase
the legal basis of my marriage. That's not paranoia, y'all,
that's reality. And they're telling us their intentions openly here.
All of that being said, Congress did pass the Respect
for Marriage Act in twenty twenty two with bipartisan support.

(16:55):
It doesn't require states to perform same sex marriages, but
it does require them to recognize maria from other states.
So that being said, there are protections, but they're not
enough if the Court decides marriage equality isn't constitutionally protected.
Because here's what the Respect for Marriage Act doesn't do.
It doesn't prevent states from refusing to issue marriage licenses

(17:16):
to same sex couples. It doesn't protect against state constitutional
amendments banning same sex marriage. It just says, if you
got married in Massachusetts, Texas has to recognize it. That's
all it does. That's not a quality. That's a patchwork
of rights that depend on where you live and whether
you can afford to travel to a state that will

(17:36):
marry you. And does that sound familiar, because that also
sounds just like Roev fucking Wade. Mary Bnado, who argued Obersfel,
said quote, you can never really rest on your laurels
because other forces just don't give up. And she's right,
the fight for rights is never finished, especially with Republicans
trying to take them away at every single turn. Every

(17:58):
generation has to defend what the previous generation one. I guess,
So what do we do in the meantime? We support
organizations on the front lines, I guess. I mean that's
pretty much all we can do. Glad law, aclu lambed illegal.
We call our representatives and senators. We vote in every
election because these judges were appointed by presidents we elected,

(18:19):
and these laws are passed by legislators we chose. And
we refuse to accept that our marriages, our families, our
lives are negotiable because they're not. My marriage isn't a
political opinion. It's my life, and I'll be damned if
I'm going to be polite about defending it. Fuck that noise.

(18:41):
And while we're at it here, let me say something
directly to Trump supporters. Fuck you. I know some people
like to say, hey, Robin, we can still be friends
even if we disagree on politics. Those people have privilege.
I know that. Immediately the second the word privilege is said,
a Republican angel gets wings somewhere. I don't know why

(19:03):
that word is so triggering, but it is absolutely privileged.
They are the ones whose basic human rights aren't up
for debate every four years. They're the ones who don't
have to fear for their lives based on who's in office.
These are the people that are usually white, straight, cis gender, rich,
and able bodied. These are people whose everyday lives won't

(19:24):
be affected directly or greatly by who sits in the
oval office. I don't have that luxury. My identity is political.
My marriage is political. Whether I can visit my wife
in the hospital is political, Whether we can file taxes,
whether my marriage is recognized when I travel. All of

(19:45):
that is political, you guys, And it is nowhere close
to even being just about me. It's about everyone whose
existence has been politicized by this administration. Insulin prices have
skyrocketed and people with diabetes have to ration medication. That's political.
When a quarter million Americans died needless debts due to
Trump's negligence during the Pania during the pandemic, that was political.

(20:08):
When immigrants are separated from their children and lucked in cages,
that's political. When people of color are disproportionately brutalized by police,
that's political. When access to safe abortions is stripped away,
that's political. And when people with disabilities lose health care protections.
That's also political. And I'm going to say this with

(20:29):
my whole chest. You supporting Trump doesn't necessarily mean that
you yourself that you are personally a white supremacist, a transphobe, homophobe, xenophobe, ablest, whatever,
OBEs or ists. But it absolutely does mean that these
qualities don't deter you from supporting a candidate. And you

(20:53):
know what, that's what I will not and cannot tolerate.
You looked at his campaign built on white supremacy, when
he came down that elevator and said making America great again.
And and by the way, in case you may, I
mean a lot of people are catching on now finally.
But when he said make America great again, he meant
that for the privileged few. But you thought, yeah, that's fine.

(21:16):
That all the racism, the bigotry, the homophobia like all that,
Oh that's great. It means that you saw him mock
disabled reporters, brag about sexual assault, separate families at the border,
call immigrants rapists, criminals, bad ombres, and you decided that
none of that was a deal breaker. I'm seeing people
proud to support that and thinks it's great think it's great.

(21:39):
It's like when people say love the sinner, hate the sin, Nah, bitch,
you can't actually love me if you hate a significant
aspect of who I am, that is not love. And
if you've been around the podcast long enough, ninety percent
of people don't even know that I'm gay because I
don't talk about it all the time. I will just
mention it in casual conversation. My queerness isn't separate from me.

(22:00):
It's fundamental to who I am. You cannot pretend to
be my friend while supporting politicians who want to erase
my marriage, and the same boundary in line for me
goes for every single marginalized group. You can't claim to
care about your black friends while supporting politicians and policies
who embolden white supremacists. You can't claim to care about

(22:23):
your immigrant neighbors at church or wherever while supporting family
separation policies. And you can't claim to care about women
while supporting politicians who want to control their bodies. So
when you tell me we should be able to disagree
on politics and still be friends, what you are really
saying is your rights are debatable to me. Your marriage

(22:44):
is debatable.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
To me.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Your family is debatable to me. Whether people of color
deserve justice is debatable to me, Whether immigrants deserve human
dignity is debatable to me. Whether women should have bodily
autonomy is debatable to me. But sure, let's not let
that get in the way of our friendship. You don't
get to vote for people who want to strip away
my rights in then act confused when I don't want

(23:06):
to go grab a latte with you. You don't get to
support policies that threaten me, my family, my friends, policies
that kill people through pandemic negligence, that cage children, that
embolden white supremacy, and then complain that I am the
one making everything political. I didn't make this political. You

(23:26):
fucking did when you voted for it. Every single American
is supposed to be entitled to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Under Trump's leadership, the vast majority of
Americans who aren't just like him, who aren't white, straight, cisgender, wealthy,
able bodied, have had those basic rights threatened or stripped away,
and you voted for that twice some of you. So no,

(23:51):
we can't be friends, because friendship requires a foundation of respect,
and you can't respect me while supporting people and politicians
who want to erase my marriage, deny my health care,
strip my rights, and tell me that my existence as
in two different realms as a gay woman is up

(24:11):
for debate. But here's what a lot of that side
doesn't understand. We are all watching this court decision, every
ally who has LGBTQ family members, every person who believes
in equality, we are paying attention. If they want to
make this a long game of fine, we will play
the long game. But we are not going to be
quiet about it. And that's all that I have to

(24:32):
say about that. Oh well, I guess other than that,
believe Monday or Tuesday, we will know if Oversfell is
going to be taken by the Supreme Court. So stay tuned.
There can't wait. Next up, let's talk about compelled speech.
And this was actually crazy to hear about on the news.
Here's what happened. The Department of Education employees who were
furloughed set up standard out of office messages in their inboxes,

(24:56):
right in their email. Then the department went into their account.
Wilson edited the messages to blame Democrat senators for blocking
a clean continuing resolution. This is compelled speech. The government
forced rank and file civil servants, you know, people who
are supposed to be non partisan, to become unwilling mouthpieces
for the Trump administration for their talking points. And this

(25:20):
isn't just unethical, it's unconstitutional, like straight up authoritarian bullshit.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that this violated the
First Amendment. Thank God, and his language on this is
worth noting. He said, non partisanship is the bedrock of
the federal civil service. It ensures that career government employees

(25:42):
serve the public, not the politicians. But by commandeering its
employees' email accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the department chisels
away at that foundation. Chisels away at that foundation. He
continued on to say, political officials are free to blame
whoever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use
rank and file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The

(26:03):
First Amendment stands in their way. He permanently barred this
practice for the Department of Education workers. There were over
two thousand of them in this lawsuit. But think about
the precedent that they were trying to set Okay, if
you can compel federal employees to parrot partisan talking points
during a shutdown, what stops you from doing it during
any emergency. Once you establish the principle, you know that

(26:27):
the government can force public servants to be propaganda vehicles.
You've eliminated basically the most crucial firewall between governance, democratic governance,
and authoritarianism. This is part of a systematic effort to
politicize civil service. Merit based civil service was designed to

(26:48):
ensure continuity of expertise, right to guarantee that career professionals
could continue their career and give honest feedback, research, whatever,
without fear of political retaliation. And what the Trump administration
is trying to do is reverse that. They want a
bureaucracy that serves Trump, not the American people. And every

(27:12):
single authoritarian playbook out there includes the capture of bureaucracy,
every single one. Because you cannot consolidate power if independent
institutions can constrain you. So how do you circumvent that.
You test boundaries, You see what you can get away with,
and when the courts pushed back, you appeal, you delay,

(27:34):
You just try the next thing and go through the
book it's not necessarily always coups and war and all
of that. It usually starts incrementally, and we've seen it
since the very beginning. You know, Trump called Portland war
ravage with fires all over the place, that justified deploying
the National Guard. The facts a couple dozen people protesting

(27:56):
nightly at an ice building. So in response to that,
Portland sued US District Court Judge Karen Immergut, a Trump appointee,
issued a one hundred and six page opinion absolutely eviscerating
the deployment of the National Guard. Federal law requires you
to establish either a rebellion or inability to enforce law

(28:18):
with regular forces. The Trump administration proved neither. Judge Immigant wrote,
the trial record showed that although protests outside the Portland
Ice Building occurred nightly between June and October twenty twenty five,
ever since a few particularly disruptive days of mid June,
protests have remained peaceful, with only isolated and sporadic instances

(28:38):
of violence. She called Trump's descriptions simply untethered to the facts.
I'm side note entirely. I'm going to steal that whenever
I think someone's full of shit. I'm just going to
tell them you are simply untethered to the facts. For
those who cannot see through the nuance there, Judge Immergut
is basically saying you are a lying your ass off,
and here's what's insane. During the trial, Feral Protective Service

(29:01):
official testified under his initials, obviously for safety reasons, but
those initials are URC. You can read the court transcripts online.
RC was described as one of the most knowledgeable DHS
officials about Portland ice security at that facility. Right when
asked about troop deployment, he said it would help with staffing,
but under cross examination he admitted he never requested troops,

(29:24):
that he wasn't consulted by DHS Secretary christynom or Trump,
and was surprised by the deployment and explicitly disagreed with
statements about Portland burning down. So to recap, the most
expert federal official on the ground in Portland did not
ask for military intervention, wasn't consulted about it, and thought
that the justifications were complete horseshit. Yet Trump kept screaming

(29:48):
about Portland burning and this, that and the other. What
Trump was attempting to do was he was trying to
establish precedent for deploying federal troops to cities with the
Democratic leadership, regardless of actual necessity. Portland was the test case.
If they'd succeed there, Chicago would be next, they stated
it out loud, and then any city with protests the

(30:11):
administration doesn't like that would be next. This is the
playbook of authoritarian power consolidation. You create this crisis narrative,
you deploy force to solve it, You establish a precedent,
and then expand it everywhere, all across the map. But
when Judge Immerget blocked Oregon National Guard deployment, Trump tried
to send California troops instead. Then she issued a second

(30:34):
order blocking any state's national Guard. The Ninth Circuit also
ordered no deployment pending appeal. This is just absolutely insane
an Orgon Attorney General Dan Rayfield got it right in
his commentary on this. He said, the courts are holding
this administration accountable to the truth and the rule of law.
From the beginning, this case has been about making sure

(30:55):
that facts, not political whims, guide how the law is applied. Y'all,
facts not political whims. I mean that used to be
the baseline, not the aspiration. I mean, let's be honest here, right.
The government lies to us all the time. Every single day.
We are inundated with lies right when we wake up,

(31:16):
turn on the TV, check our social media. Whether it's
the false personas that of everything so wonderful in life
is great and I'm shitting rainbows and sunshine and kittens.
How it is custom and engineered for every single one
of us marketing efforts. The news like were lied to constantly.
Craziest part about it to me, right, is that Trump

(31:38):
can literally come out and say the most heinous, off
the wall abstract shit I've ever fucking heard. Okay, have
you guys seen on TikTok, Instagram or whatever. It's an
audio that people put on really old, ugly animals, right,
and it's like, well, I don't really gave a shit anyway. Well,
I don't really give a shit. I'm gonna die anyway,
So I remember, like that's the voiceover for it. People

(32:00):
are using videos, right, That's how Trump sounds. That is
quite literally how Trump sounds. He can say the most
offul wall shit that makes absolutely no sense, and his
supporters excuse it, Oh, that's not what he meant. Oh,
he's just saying that to get you know, a reaction.
Who wants a president that does that. Remember when the

(32:21):
office of the presidency or being an elected official in
any regard an element of respect to it. Now it's
like the most off the wall, unhinged shit is being
said all the time, And I'm just I would like
to go back to facts on both sides and Democrats,
I'm talking to y'all two. We need to go back
to facts, not just soundbites for news and social media.

(32:44):
This is impacting all of us. But let's talk about
some good news, because this weekend not all is bad,
not allways bad. Let's talk about Tuesday's elections because the
data here and what transpired over the last week actually
is giving me hope. If you look, there are a
series of elections. In Virginia, thirty eight percent of voters
said their vote was to oppost Trump, only sixteen percent

(33:08):
to support him. That's a twenty two point gap. In
New Jersey, forty one percent opposition to Trump thirteen support
twenty eight point gap. And these gaps are larger than
back in twenty seventeen, which was Trump's worst polling year.
During his first term. A CNN poll before the election

(33:28):
showed forty one percent of registered voters nationally would vote
to opposet Trump versus twenty one percent to support him.
That's the largest opposition to support gap in CNN polling
in two decades, well almost two decades, not seen since
two thousand and six with George W.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Bush.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Right before Republicans got absolutely demolished in the midterms, Trump
tried to distance himself hard on Virginia. He said, I
watched that election, which I was not much involved in.
But the thing about it, guys, is that these elections
were referendums on him, and the verdict was clear on that.
And what's more interesting is that the pro Trump vote

(34:08):
is weak. Only one in five voters said they'd vote
to support him. These aren't the numbers of a dominant
political force. This tells us something crucial about what's going
on in American politics right now. The anti Trump movement
is no longer just Democrats. There was a very small
subsection of Republicans, but largely most of the party got

(34:29):
on board. In the first term. There were still a
lot of anti Trump Republicans, but now we are a
lot more Republicans plus all of the independents who are
exhausted by this bullshit. You have a lot of Republicans
who still believe in institutions, and then you also have
the people who don't really follow politics closely but can

(34:50):
see their lives getting materially worse. And I think where
we are right now, that's just going to continue. And
I think what's amazing is that even Marjorie Taylor Green
admitted that Tuesday's results showed disenfranchised twenty twenty four voters.
Far right. Oh my god, it's like everyone at this point. Right,
it's the far far, far, far far, scary far right.

(35:13):
You have moderate Republicans who are tired of it. You
have former Trump supporters who are a lot of people
are finally seeing through the bullshit. Whether it's a white
man whose Mexican immigrant wife was plucked out of their
home with their child, whether it's a federal worker not
able to eat, whether it's one of the handful of

(35:33):
air traffic controllers, who did you guys know that we're
already seeing suicides from the air traffic controllers because of
all of this and the stress that they're going through.
I mean, it's absolutely insane, and this is what gives
me hope. The anti Trump vote isn't just showing up,
it's actively growing, and that's the foundation for something good

(35:54):
if that energy continues. And I was gonna talk about Zoron,
but you know what, I think we all know the
insane racist rhetoric that is being screamed at by the
right right now, and it's honestly not even worth my time.
In short, excited to see what happens in New York.
It's definitely going to be a big test. And we

(36:15):
will talk more about Zoron later, but I would like
to go to someone who is really fascinating in terms
of a character in human study, but is absolutely also
bad shit, and that is Marjorie Taylor Green. She is
executing an interesting political maneuver right now. Y'all kind of
a little obsessed with it, honestly. I mean we're talking

(36:36):
about miss Jewish space Lasers herself, Marjorie Taylor Green. I mean,
this woman is absolute ape shit. I found myself agreeing
with her a lot lately, and a lot of liberals
are posting her right now being like wow, Marjorie gets it,
and like whatever, like it obviously doesn't make up for anything,
and it shouldn't. I read a statement by MSNBC's Susan Glasser.

(36:58):
She said, she's out MAGA ying the head of MAGA,
and it's actually kind of bold because I feel like
she's positioning herself as more loyal to MAGA principles than
Trump is being And that's a pretty bold fucking play.
She's pushing Senate Republicans to use the nuclear option to
kill the filibuster. You know, that same filibuster Republican spent

(37:23):
years defending as being essential. She's actively criticizing Speaker Johnson
for keeping the House in recess during the shutdown, which
is very much a legitimate critique. He is actively keeping
the House in recess so he doesn't have to swear
in the new Democratic representative, so that they don't have
to vote and release the Epstein files. That's actually what

(37:44):
is fucking happening. Ninety nine point nine percent of people
agree on this, and she and Marjorie Taylor Green is
saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking.
The optics of this optics parable. But she's also being strategic,
she told Fox News. She told the v I still
support President Trump, and I very much want to see
his administration be successful. But at the same time, I

(38:07):
will call out things that I see are going wrong,
and right now I see things going wrong. When you
get on this level of politics, every single word that
comes out of your mouth, for the most part, especially
in an interview setting, there is a purpose for it.
They are read in, they have speech writers, they are
read in, they have notes. It is all strategy to
get messaging across. She's positioning. She's building a brand as

(38:30):
the maga purist who will hold even Trump accountable to
mega principles. She's claiming the mantle of populist. I care
about regular people even when leadership doesn't. And I have
to give her credit. She's identifying real issues, even though
I don't actually think she's being genuine in her care
sudden newfound caring concern. She is identifying real issues. Her

(38:53):
constituents in Georgia are hurting. ACA premiums are skyrocketing because
enhanced subsidies are expired. People are struggling with the shutdown,
and so she's criticizing Republicans for not having solutions. And
let's talk about what she's doing with health care, because
it's actually pretty revealing in this I think at least,
you know, she's pushing hard on the ACA subsidy issue.

(39:16):
Millions of Americans are seeing massive premium increases during open enrollment.
I've heard stories where people's insurance ACA premiums literally went
up like twelve hundred percent. And she's right that Republicans
don't have an answer for this. They've spent years saying
they'd repeal and replace Obamacare, but they've never developed a replacement.

(39:38):
Now the subsidies that made it affordable are expiring, and
they're caught flat footed because they haven't done a single thing.
Marjorie is positioning herself, in my opinion, as the populist
who actually cares. Right. She said her office is flooded
with phone calls from constituents struggling with health care costs.
She's making this personal, immediate, visceral. I have seen her

(40:01):
on multiple talk shows recently. She's putting out videos interviews.
You know, Republican leadership's talking about free markets and limited government,
and she's talking about people in rural Georgia who can't
afford insulin. And that is going to click. And part
of the reason why a major in political science is
that it's a big game to me. It really is

(40:23):
right when you have the right the left, because we
are a country basically founded on a two party system
more or less, and it's a game speeches and this,
that and the other. I love it. It's like chess
to me. And I feel like this is kind of
her big move right now, and considering how bat shit
insane she is, I'm all here for it. The speculation

(40:43):
is that she's positioning for a twenty twenty eight presidential run.
And look, I mean that strategy makes sense if Trump
becomes increasingly unpopular, which is the trend right now. She's
the candidate who was loyal but honest, you know, the
true believer in Maga. We'll do it correctly. I mean,
I do find that hilarious because Maga would never vote

(41:04):
in a female president ever, So I mean, good luck
to her there. It is worth watching, I think, because
it reveals something about Maga's evolution. It's not just a
cult of personality around Trump anymore. It's developing its own
internal structure. Green is betting that she can embody these
standards better than Trump can deliver on them. And she

(41:26):
has a point. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but
his entire administration is just full of billionaires and corporate interests,
frat guys, people with no fucking experience on anything. They
just happen to be rich in supporters of his He
promised economic populism, but then he delivered tax cuts for
the wealthy alone. He promised to fight for working people,

(41:48):
but is presiding over a shutdown that's starving them and
causing some people to kill themselves. I think that Green
is going to position herself as a candidate who will
deliver on these promises. You know, whether it's genuine or
performance doesn't actually matter, because I think we all know
that it's performance, right, But what matters is whether the
base buys it. Whether this works depends on how the

(42:10):
next few years unfold. She's reading the room correctly, y' all.
And I don't know what to do with that, because
I'm completely flabbergasted and shocked by it. Trump's base is
what's so fucking ironic is that Trump's base is the
one that suffers the most from his policies. They want
results from him, and they are not going to get

(42:30):
results from him. They are going to starve and lose
their jobs and they are going to be open to
someone who promises to deliver MAGA ideals more effectively. So
the question for Democrats that I have then would be
what do we offer working people in Georgia M. Marjorie's
districts whose premiums are skyrocketing and whose snap benefits are

(42:51):
getting cut? Because if our answer is though for us,
because we're not Trump, while Green is saying I will
fight for your health care and food security, we are
going to lose. And something that has disgusted and disappointed
me about Democrats for many years now is that they
are not actually modernizing like the Republican Party has. Like

(43:12):
don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about ideals like
Republican Party is like sixteen hundreds level of ideals, like
let's go back to the fucking witch trials. Right, Republican
ideology is let's go back before the Civil Rights Act
was in place, you know, I mean, Charlie Kirk certainly
didn't think it was a good idea. I feel like
the Democrats were handed a massive opportunity here, and I
think that the party heads do not have their fingers

(43:35):
on the pulse of what the actual full party needs.
And I feel like we're still trying to force in old,
old white men or people that aren't good choices into
these positions, but we have a lot of times, so
I guess we'll see. It appears that they're trying to
trot out Gavin Newsom, which I don't see that as working.
I don't know how that would. I don't know how

(43:57):
that's gonna work, but they're gonna have to figure some out.
In most news, right now, everything's going back to the shutdown.
So let's talk about the actual shutdown and what it
actually is, and we need to be super crystal clear
about what's going on here. The FAA ordered a four
percent reduction in domestic flights. There were over one thousand

(44:17):
cancellations on Friday alone across forty major airports, not because
of weather, not because of mechanical failures, because air traffic controllers,
like I mentioned earlier, who are legally required to show
up to work, haven't been paid in over a month.
Think about that. You must work, you must do one

(44:38):
of the absolute most stressful jobs known to man on
long shifts, but we're not going to compensate you. I
think we all know how that's going to impact people. Directly.
Most people in America, the overwhelming majority is paycheck to paycheck.
When you reduce flights by four percent, you're not just
inconveniencing travelers. You're disrupting supply chains, You're delaying cargo, forcing

(45:02):
businesses to adjust. You are creating ripple effects through every
sector that depends on those types of logistics. It is
economic sabotage on a massive, massive scale. And this is
why it's abhorrent that Johnson is letting people stay in recess.
This is translating directly into human suffering. And Congress again

(45:25):
been in recess in September nineteenth. They went home during
the longest shutdown in American history. You know, the American
people are being told to tighten their belts. Federal workers
aren't getting paid, critical services are being disrupted, and the
people whose literal job is to solve this problem gave

(45:45):
themselves a vacation. That's just not bad politics, y'all. That's
contempt for the voters. And let's talk about the topic
of the hour snap benefits, because this is where the
cruelty becomes most transparent. More than forty million Americans, that's children, elderly, disabled,

(46:05):
working poor. They didn't receive their food stamps on November first,
first time in US history. The Trump administration decided to
do partial payments, and then a federal judge had to
explain that starving people constitutes needless suffering and I'm going
to say that again. A federal judge had to clarify
that government induced starvation is harm. Then the Supreme Court

(46:29):
sepped in and paused the order to pay full benefits.
So we are back to uncertainty. People don't know if
they're going to eat tonight. In America in twenty twenty five,
this is fucking obscene. We are a country with the
largest GDP in the world. We're not talking about scarcity,

(46:50):
We're talking about the political choice to inflict deprivation. And
it's not just individuals. The Center for American Progress identified
twenty seven thousand retailers, mostly in rural areas, that depend
on Snap for up to half their sales. So we
are simultaneously starving families and then economically mecapping small businesses

(47:13):
generally and most heavily in the communities that voted for Trump. Again,
most of the rural areas overwhelmingly went for Trump. They
voted for economic populism, and what they're getting back is
their local grocery store chains closing down, people not being
able to work, snap benefits, dried up. Republican politicians love

(47:35):
their performative outrage. Most federal workers are still showing up
and still doing their jobs. They haven't been paid. I
read an interview with a nurse in a military base
in Alpaso, Texas. She can't afford her car payment, her utilities,
or her groceries, and she may have to actually quit
because Congress won't do its job. As a nurse, she
may have to quit at the military base. And these

(47:58):
workers can't even file for unam employment because they are
technically employed. Listen to that again. The workers can't file
for unemployment because technically they are employed. They are just
being withheld, like their pay is just being withheld. Republicans
need sixty Senate votes to pass funding. Democrats offered a
deal extend the ACA subsidies for one year. I mean,

(48:21):
that's reasonable in my opinion, right, like literally that being
the only thing on the table. Okay, cool deal, Let's
extend ACA subsidies for one year. I mean again, millions
are about to see their premiums go up. To twelve
hundred percent, if not more. Republicans refused. So now we're
on day thirty eight and Republicans are lying out of
their assholes and saying, well, the Democrats want to give

(48:42):
illegal immigrants health insurance, and that's why that's not it.
That is a lie ACA for American citizens. That is
all that the Democrats tried to do is extend the
subsidies for one year. The Republicans said no, and so
here we are. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, the
wheels came on, and compromise talks, the wheels came off.

(49:03):
That's the metaphor, not that negotiations got difficult, that the
entire mechanism of governance collapse because these people are paid,
We're elected and paid to fucking have discussions and pass
bills for the country that impact us directly. My point being, guys,
the cruelty is the point here. This isn't about fiscal
policy that we're talking about. This is about demonstrating that

(49:25):
they can inflict pain and force capitulation. Every day this continues,
the message becomes clearer either comply or suffer. Could you know,
comply with everything that we're trying to push through or suffer.
So that's where we are, you guys, Day thirty eight
of the shutdown. People going hungry, Federal employees are going unpaid.

(49:46):
The administration keeps repeatedly violating the First Amendment. We've had
illegal troop deployments. We now have the Supreme Court considering
whether to entertain challenges to marriage equality. But on the
bright side, in the middle of it, there does appear
to be an anti Trump coalition that is growing stronger,
not weaker. We are currently in the stress test, y'all.

(50:07):
Every institution, every norm, every single righte that we have,
they are all being tested simultaneously to see what breaks first.
And I don't know about y'all, but it's exhausting as hell.
The midterms are going to make me very happy if
this same momentum as we saw this last week continues.
Federal officials are now testifying honestly despite repeated intimidation from

(50:32):
this administration. Furthermore, millions of people you me, everyday citizens
are refusing to accept this as normal. This should not
be our new normal. I've studied authoritarian movements, and I
love watching speeches by specialists and historians and people who
specialize in authoritarian regimes. They depend on demoralization. They want

(50:56):
you to think that resistance is futile, that the instut
is solidly behind the authoritarian, that your vote doesn't matter,
that organizing is pointless. But Tuesday's elections prove otherwise. The
legal challenges and Trump policies that are being held up
in court, that all proves otherwise. The federal officials that

(51:19):
are now testifying honestly prove otherwise. Every single act of resistance,
whether large or small, matters. But it is very clear,
as things are getting more grim that people are uniting
in a coalition to fight it, and that is making
me very very very very happy to see. But that
is it for today. Guys, Again you've been listening to Red,

(51:40):
White and Bruise. This is Robin and again I yes,
this is on. We saw the Double podcast. It is
going to happily coexist here and if you don't like it, sorry, sorry,
not sorry. The next episode will be true crime focused.
There's some rumblings in the Brian Coburger case. I honestly,
I can't even remember the last time that I have

(52:01):
hated someone, like, genuinely actually hated someone. And Brian Coburger's
continued behavior while he's been in prison with appeals and
all this other stuff or judge rulings in terms of
for the family and restitution. How does someone the audacity
of the caucacity. I guess I don't know, but it is.

(52:22):
We have a lot to talk about on the true
crime front as well. That being said, I hope you
guys are having a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I will
talk to you all again soon