Biblemania (Episode 379)

This week, the MPU gang looks at Trump Bibles, the campaign cash race, NBC's Ronna McDaniel kerfuffle, the Gaza War, the Supreme Court hearing on mifepristone, and what Greg and DJ left out of last week's discussion about "Dune" remakes.

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Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Welcome to the More Perfect Union,the podcast that offers real debate without the
Hay. I'm Rebecca Cushmeiter, wishingyou a happy Easter to those who observe
on this lovely final Sunday in May. And I am pleased to be joined
on the mic by Kevin Kelton.And I'm proud to announce that I will
be selling Tores fifty nine dollars andninety five cents, so it's four cents

(00:42):
less than Trump's Bible, which Ithink makes it a steal. Yeah,
especially since the Tora is longer thanthe Bible. And DJ maguire, good,
good evening. This is DJA fromHampton, Ros, Virginia, wishing
everybody a happy transvisibility Day and especiallycongratulations to the Blue Oh wait, never
mind and Greg mctuzak. Okay,seeing as I actually did buy the Trump

(01:07):
Bible because I figure I have to, I'm going to talk about it as
much as I can and go readpassages because I need to get my sixty
dollars worth out of it as often, So do not be surprised if it
comes up repeatedly today because I haveto get my money's worth otherwise. It's
also if I use it for workhere, it's a tax right off,

(01:27):
which is how I think Trump andGod wanted the Bible to be well,
I would I would like to buildon what DJ said about Transvisibility Day.
It is observed on March thirty first, has been every year since two thousand
and nine. But I would liketo propose a second holiday called trans Invisibility
Day, where all trans people aregranted the power of invisibility and they can

(01:49):
break into people's houses and steal theirstuff. Anyone down for that? Do
we really want Caitlin Jenner to beable to help Donald Trump even the fun
raising battle? Do you even want? Do even want Caitlyn Jenner to help
Donald Trump redecorate? I mean,you know what, it couldn't be worse
than the ballrooms I've seen at marA Lago and Badminster. How do you

(02:13):
improve on cold toilets? I meanand and and read solid steel Christmas trees?
I mean, honestly, I thinkhe's got it. I think he's
Malania's perfected it, you know,yes, she just squints and suddenly it
all comes together, all right?Well, speaking of evening the fundraising battle,
Joe Biden is raking it in.He had an event this weekend with

(02:38):
Obama and Clinton and raised about twentyfive million dollars on that single event.
I believe Stephen Colbert was hosting it, so you know it's good. And
Trump didn't do that at all.He is way behind on fundraising. The
r and C is behind on fundraising, and I believe, if I
remember the graphic correctly, Nikki Haileymore cash on hand than the RNC at

(03:01):
the moment. Gret, how doyou think Trump comes back from that once
he sells out all the Bibles?Well, first of all, I don't
mean to correct you, but it'sactually twenty six million they made, okay,
so let's let's let's be exactly.I threw it an extra million.
I was so impressed. You werelike, that's Stephen Colbert. He knows

(03:27):
how this thing is. He sureis funny, he is. He's a
laugh right, he was. Hewas better than when he did the Bush
correspondence dinner. But the other thingis they've already announced that this money has
been earmarked, and it's already andcommercials have already been made to try to
persuade Nicky Hayley voters to biden DJDo you have anything to build on that.

(03:52):
You know, you you were partof the Republican machinery at one point.
You know, do you think LauraTrump is going to be the cash
cow that they hope she'll be?Not to call her a cow, but
you know what I'm saying, I'mjust a laugh track tonight, Rebecca.
I believe the question you're asking iswill she be able to tip the cash

(04:12):
cow for the Republicans? And theanswer is, I'm not sure. And
here's why. For one thing,the RNC is now using as a litmus
test, do you believe the twentytwenty election was stolen? And we can
laugh at that, or we canroll our eyes, or we can get
angry. We should probably do allthree. Well, what it also means
is that they are going to tapinto the vein, the unfortunately very rich

(04:34):
vein of election deniers and the electiongaslighted who will hand over five, ten,
fifteen dollars, maybe do it everysingle month because they have been because
they didn't read the fine print,and the website sets them up to donate
monthel if they like it or not. There may be that, but also

(04:54):
they're all in on the big lie. So I don't know how how well
a fundraising operation that is solely dedicatedto big law adherents. I don't know
how that will go because that hasnever really been tried. So I'm glad
the Bidens have an advantage. Idon't know if they can keep that advantage,
because the RNC is basically going tobe scaring the hell out of about

(05:18):
one hundred million people and convincing themthat if Joe Biden gets elected, the
world will come to an end.Oh, they're already convinced of that.
Yeah, but you know, we'vealready seen major mega donoris, the one
hundred million, the large like theKoch brothers. They've backed off on Trump

(05:40):
and if it's if election deniability,and I have friends and family who won't
come straight out and say the electionwas stolen, but they still use phrases
like I kind of have my suspicionsand I'm not sure, and they say
that probably to appease me, andmaybe when I'm not around, they'll be
a little bit more like, oh, yeah, I was stolen. But

(06:00):
still twenty five to thirty percent peoplestill believe there was something wrong with that
election. The mega donors, theone hundred million, the ten million of
the twenty They're not going to comeout in mass if that's their only message
is did you see how we gotscrewed last time? Vote for us again?
You know? I think that thecountry is getting all kind of bogged

(06:21):
down in this oh the Trump voters. Sixty seven percent of the believe that
the election was stolen. I thinkpart of the problem is is that is
that is such a large umbrella.I think we should have to we have
to redefine the question and ask doyou believe Donald Trump got more votes in
Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan.That should be the question. And if

(06:46):
sixty seven percent of the Americans sayyes to that, well, then we
have an even greater stems problem thanwe thought we had this country. How
is one different from the other becausethe election was stolen, it means the
raw, it means the wrong guywas awarded the Viking. No DJ I
can answer that. A lot ofpeople when they feel the election was stolen,
they feel it was stolen because Democratschange voting laws to allow more absentee

(07:12):
ballots and melon ballots. They believethat there were nefarious things done with votes.
I think purely asking do you thinkDonald Trump got more votes is a
much more specific question to ask,and I think that you'd get very different
numbers if that was the question beingasked. I'm not so sure, but

(07:32):
some poles or we'll get to that, I suppose, not only if they're
listening to me, which what arethe odds of that, Well, they
might be listening to you. There'sbeen some polling, and apparently the rust
belt state polls are starting to showBiden pulling even with Trump, which is
actually a good sign because the pollinghas been dismal in the national pulse.

(07:54):
I don't read polling because it's badfor my blood pressure. So if any
of you would like to comment furtheron that, I'm happy to hear it.
Yeah. Well, first of all, you're correct, Biden is doing
a little bit better and pulling evento Trump in several state poles and one
or two national polls. Also,his approval rating is now up in the

(08:15):
forties, not the high forties,but it's at forty forty one, maybe
even forty two percent in a coupleof poles. Not a big swing,
but taken together, I think itshows a trend that is optimistic. I
wouldn't bet the farm on it,but it's better than going in the wrong
direction. Yeah, I tend toagree, and I think the trends are

(08:35):
what we need to start looking atas opposed to the individual data points.
And the other thing to remember isBiden effectively kicked off his campaign with the
State of the Union. So thepoles that happened before that were essentially pre
campaign polls where he was still hidingout in his office not taking anybody's calls.
Now he's on the trail, he'srunning ads, he's spending money,

(08:56):
and that does change things. Visibilitymatters, it does, And I think
what we're also seeing is there wasmovement in the Roust Belt pulling that Bloomberg
had, but there's not a lotof movement in the Sun Belt pulling,
not on the movement in Georgia orArizona. There was some movement in Nevada,
and I think that's because of thenature of the campaign. Of the
campaign that Biden is running, it'smore left wing on economic policy. There

(09:22):
is a greater focus on the thingsthat Biden would have agreed to on the
border that Donald Trump blew up.That's something that has, strangely enough,
has greater impact in places further awayfrom the Mexican border, with the exception
of Arizona. So I think we'reseeing Biden essentially looking to use the old

(09:45):
Blue Wall to get himself re elected. And in fact, if he wins
those three Blue Wall states and keepsevery other state he won in twenty twenty,
he could lose Georgia, Nevada,and Arizona and still scrape across with
two hundred and seve any electoral votes. I'm not going to say he's going
to do that per se. Ithink especially opportunity in North Carolina with some
of the idiots that were nominated downballot. But if he keeps those three

(10:09):
the Ross Belt three Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, if he keeps those,
then he will be the favorite forre election, not the underdog. And
he it's looking less and less likelythat he will have a really viable third
party opponent. Chris Christie has turneddown No Labels and Joe Lieberman died,
leaving No Labels without one of itsmajor leaders. Are we going to be

(10:33):
seeing no No Labels in the nearfuture? Who does No Labels have left?
I mean, if I was sittingat the No labels headquarters, which
is hard to find because they knowno labels, but no sign no signage,
noel GPS, no business cards.They're very very underground group, no

(10:56):
labels, no leaders, no locations. Right, that's the Yeah, that's
that's a song DJ right that.But if I was sitting at their at
their headquarters, I would be saying, who could we get? And really,
besides, like Nicky Haley who saidshe's sitting out and the only thing
she could do she couldn't even ruinthe Republican primary, she's not going to

(11:16):
win the general. She'd just bein it to spoil who else is out
there. RFK. But I don'tthink No Labels wants a rs oh.
They don't want to touch him becausehe's not actually bipartisan. He's r f
KTI is in right, like he'shis own thing. Right. But besides
that, there's no one at thispoint who can't. So it's at this

(11:37):
point just a question of lack ofbodies they've run out of. I think
that they should just nominate a vicepresidential running mate and at the top of
the ticket just put none of theabove. That did very well for Nicky
Haley. So yeah, that's okay, no labels made. The Saints is

(11:58):
making this same mistake that vague centristforces or vague centrist leaders always make,
and that they assume voters who arebetween the Republicans and the Democrats all think
the same thing and we'll all goto the same candidate. And that's just
not the case. You will havepeople who are who are more communitarian,

(12:20):
who will focus more on the socialissues pull them to the Republicans. The
fiscal isitious, pulling to the Democrats. You folks are more libertarian, small
l The economic issues push them tothe Republicans. The social issues push them
to the Democrats. Good luck findingany candidates who can pull in both of
those voters at the same time.It just isn't feasible. Well, speaking
of high profile people who are endorsingand not endorsing, as we mentioned at

(12:43):
the top of the show, Bidenwas partying with Obama and Bill Clinton in
New York this weekend. There isanother living Republican former president out there who
is apparently locked in his painting studio, never to come out. And it's
been fascinating to me that w hasnever that I know of, said a
word about Trump except to not invitehim to his dad's funeral. And I'm

(13:11):
curious if anyone thinks he is goingto change that trend this year, particularly
with the Cheney's coming out. Well, first of all, I did a
little googling before, and I couldbe wrong. It was a very quick
search. But I don't think Cheneyhas come out against Trump recently. He
came out against Trump when Trump wasbad mouthing Liz in her reelection campaign,

(13:35):
but since then, I don't thinkDick Cheney is on record as saying I'm
not voting for Donald Trump. Butgoing back to w well, hold on
before you go there, remember GeorgeW. Bush skipped the twenty twelve convention.
Also, I mean, this isn'tthe first time he hasn't been part

(13:56):
of the process. Yeah, Idon't think he's going to be a doubult.
I don't think he wants to havehis image sullied. I don't think
he wants to be involved in anyof it. I mean, he was
never on the campaign for McCain.He was never on the campaign that was
he was not exactly very popular intwo thousand and eight or twenty twelve.
Well, I don't really think Idon't think McCain or Romney were rather upset

(14:18):
that than cooked himself. The otherthing we have to remember is w still
has a nephew who is in theTexas Republican Party. George P. Bush
is still out there somewhere, sothere are still family pressures on him that
say Liz Cheney does not necessarily have. And I think the other thing is

(14:39):
a lot of these folks are lookingat what No Labels doesn't or doesn't do.
And I think for this reason,if you look at all of the
other quote unquote third party options,they're all basically from the same sort of
cloth, very flaky, very leftwing in their appearance and their presentation,

(15:03):
very much pro Russia in their actualpoints of view. If No Labels basically
puns and says, Okay, forgetit, we're not having anybody, then
there are a lot of people whocan look and say look, and then
say, there's only one candidate outthere who will defend the NATO Alliance,
who will defend the current international order, and who will defend our allies,

(15:24):
and that guy is Joe Biden.If No Labels actually throws up somebody,
that's not unnecessarily an easy that's amore difficult argument to make. Then you
got to talk about possibility of winningthis, that and the other. But
if No Labels doesn't do anything,they can skip all of that and just
say, look, if you wantto defend NATO, if you want to
defend democracy, if you want todefend our allies, if you want American

(15:46):
leadership to mean something besides besides beinganother laughing stock, and if you don't
want Ukrainians to die, there's onlyJoe Biden. Everybody else wants Russia to
win. And I think at leastI hope I should say that they're waiting
to see if No Labels actually doespass on this election, because then you

(16:07):
know, we don't need to talkabout viability or spoiler vote or any of
that kind of stuff. These kindsof voters that are being represented by a
w or the Cheney's or the Mattisesor the McMasters could just look at the
candidates who are running, can sayit's Joe Biden and four morons. In
fact, there's one idiot out therewho changed his name. This is true.

(16:33):
He went into court and changed hisname, his legal name to literally
anybody else, and he's going torun for president and try to get on
ballots using that name literally anybody else. The joke being that people can go
in and vote for literally anybody else, and they think that they're going to
send some message. And what reallybothers me is that Alison Cameradio on CNN

(16:56):
this morning gave this guy ten minutesof airtime on CNN. She thinks it's
amusing. He's wasting everybody's time,and all he's going to do is be
a gimmick candidate that people can,you know, go in and laugh and
vote for anybody else, literally anybodyelse, And all they're really doing is
handing the presidency to Donald fucking Trump. Rant over, Did that sound too

(17:21):
bitter? Moving on along to peoplewho are talking and not talking. We've
got ron Or Romney McDaniel, formerRNC chair, fired by the RNC,
or forced out of the RNC andthen hired by NBC, but forced out

(17:44):
of NBC by the staff of NBC. It's really not that unusual for former
political people like that to take jobson television. Claire mccastal comes to mind.
Megan McCain works and network the samejob. Yeah, Michael still at
the same job. Why is ronadifferent. Do you think, Greg,

(18:07):
what's your take on why the NBCand MSNBC staff reacted so strongly against so
he held the position of RNC chairduring a very I hate to use the
word toxic but let's use the wordtoxic presidency. And she defended it,
and she was part of it,and she ran with it. She knew

(18:30):
there were times that people were blatantlylying, and she was like, that's
how this game is played. Andthen when her own party had enough of
her, and even though she changedher own last name for them and they
threw her out, she was like, well, that's okay, I'll go
play for the other team. Theother team didn't want her. Yeah,
So you think you think her performanceof the role of RNC chair crossed a

(18:53):
line that maybe other political figures havenot. Oh sure. And the other
thing is, you know, shealso was very hostile to reporters across the
board when they were questioning Donald Trump'sattempt to cast out on the twenty twenty
election. It wasn't just that shesupported Trump's stolen election. She threw some

(19:18):
elbows at a lot of reporters veryunfairly, and the fact that she thought
that she could resurrect her brand.In one interview with Kristin Welker where she
was asked about the twenty twenty election, and she said, well, Joe
Biden is the legitimate president. Hewas sworn in. But I still think

(19:40):
that there were some issues with thetwenty twenty elections that wasn't going to do
it when Chuck Todd, the onlytime Chuck Todd has really shown a spine
in my opinion, when he cameon Meet the Press moments after the end
of her interview and just lamb bastedher. Lamb based at NBC for what
they did in a very way.She was sunk right then. Since then,

(20:03):
I've seen a lot of people blamingJoe Scarborough, blaming Rachel Maddow.
I think that she was done inbefore those people even waited. And I
applaud the NBC staff for basically creatingthis line in the sand, because it
wasn't there until they said, no, we should not be hiring anybody who
had anything to do with the attemptto overturn the election. That everyone involved

(20:29):
should be persona on Grada. Thatwas a line that the NBC staff drew.
NBC said, Okay, fine,we'll respect that line. If that
line holds, then our democracy willbe much healthier over the next nine months
because we will know that a bunchof election deniers who are hoping to get

(20:49):
on TV won't be able to geton TV. All right, So moving
along to things that are actual facts, we are still having a war in
Gaza. It is at a bitof a not exactly a pause, but
they're not progressing with the next stagesof the operation now, and the rhetoric
is heating up. We have hadState Department officials quitting over what they feel

(21:14):
is egregious civilian casualties in Gaza.We have Reb Wahlberg of Michigan feeling that
there should be more casualties in Gaza. I believe he suggested that it should
look like Kiroshima or Nagasaki by thetime we're done with it. But as
I say, the war is treadingwater a little bit, and we were
talking about this in our group chatearlier this week. In DJ you made
the comment that Rafa would be burningwere it not for the Biden administration.

(21:37):
I'd like you to elaborate on that, if you would please. Sure,
I think the Biden administration has madeit very clear, quietly and publicly that
they do not want to see inRafa a repeat of what they saw what
they have seen in the rest ofGaza. The Biden administration genuinely believes that
Hamas can be rooted out of Rafain a way that does not involve so

(22:00):
many civilian casualties, and so farthe Israeli government is to some extent listening
to them, or else they wouldhave gone into Rafa by now. So
I don't really think the administration isgetting a lot of credit for that.
I think there are a lot ofpeople who'd rather the administration throw a temper
tantrum or do something performative, becauseit seems to be all that we pay

(22:22):
attention to. But Biden is doingthe difficult and the quiet and the necessary
work of actually talking to other governments, actually making it clear, yes,
you are our friends, but wedon't want friends to self sabotage, and
we think this could be a selfsabotage if you are not careful. That
is the difference between actual diplomacy andperformative nonsense. If we had just had

(22:49):
a bunch of performative nonsense, Rafawould be in ashes because Biden is willing
to say difficult things to Israel whilereminding the rest of the world that Israel
is our friend and our ally andthey will continue to be. They can
actually get concrete things done, likehopefully a military operation in Rafa that eliminates

(23:14):
someas from that area as it should, while minimizing civilian casualties, minimizing them
far more than we've seen over thelast six months. Here's my take on
this, and I think I mentionedthis in a thread between shows. I
hear a lot of people who thinkthat Biden isn't doing enough, that Biden
somehow can flip a switch and hehas this power over Israel, this power

(23:40):
over net and Yahoo that they willbend to his will. Joe Biden can't
even get Greg Abbott in the stateof Texas to do what he wants.
The idea that he can somehow tellthe state of Israel Israel is not some
little satellite nation that needs the UnitedStates for its own survival. Israel is

(24:03):
a complete nation. Now, yes, they want more of our weapons,
but they are a self determining,self identifying nation. And the idea that
any president, whether it's Joe Biden, whether it's Vladimir Putin, whether it's
any leader in the world could tellIsrael what to do. Israel's going to

(24:25):
do what it wants to do.Yes, public opinion might sway them a
little bit, but you can't tellthem what to do. And the idea
that Biden isn't pulling the switch andsaying do this, or the United States
will not be your friend anymore,and therefore your country is in dire situation,
it's nonsense. The only time anyonehas actually been able to tell the

(24:48):
Israelies to stop doing something was innineteen fifty six. It was Dwight Eisenhower,
and he didn't threaten the Israellies.He threatened the British. He said,
you stop supporting the Israelis or we'regoing to completely devalue your currency and
knock and knock your economy in recession. And even then the Israelis were like,
well, we're going to hold out. We want x y ZPDQ,

(25:11):
and they got it to end thewar of nineteen fifty six. They are
allies. They are not our puppets. They are not plans on a chessboard
that we can move around wherever theyare. And to the people who keep
insisting that they that they are.And I don't mean the folks who are
marching. I mean the idiots withPhDs who have made careers out of insisting

(25:32):
that's how the world works. Theworld doesn't work that way. Shut the
hell up. You're here while you'reon a rant. Let's let's keep the
momentum going. What were you sayingabout net and Yahoo's government potentially being on
a shaky ground. I've read someheadlines about this pertaining to mandatory military service
for the ultra Orthodox, which maybe maybe coming up for a vote right

(25:56):
now. How does that affect thatin Yahoo? So we are recording this
Sunday evening. It is already Mondaymorning in Israel. It is already April
first, and April first was thedeadline for the Israeli government to end the
draft exemption for ultra Orthodox Yeshiva students, in particular, to pull the subsidies

(26:18):
that allow them to continue to beYeshiva's students and therefore avoid military service.
This is something. This is likean eighty twenty issue in Israel. Eighty
percent of the population thinks that thisultra Orthodox exception is ridiculous, that it
shouldn't it should be ended. Soyou're saying that the yeshiva students get a
subsidy to continue being at yeshiva,so that that is like a deferment or

(26:41):
a complete exemption on the draft.It's not that if you are a member
of a certain shool you get exempted. It's that you are continuing your studies
within a yeshiva. So they wantto pull the subsidies for yeshiva attendance after
a certain point in your education.Something like that. That basically says no
you. And as a result,they would now have they would now would

(27:02):
be available to be drafted into theIsraeli Army, which is the case for
every other Israeli Jew and every IsraeliArab. I mean, there are now
more there. There are more Arabsin the Israeli defense forces than there are
ultra Orthodox Jews. And like Isaid, eighty percent of the population thinks
that thinks that this is a ridiculousexemption. But within the twenty percent are

(27:27):
parties that are key parts of Netanyahu'scoalition, And the question is can be
be actually hold that coalition together orwell, the more secular parts of his
coalition simply throw up their hands andsay no, we want no part of
this anymore. We're out, inwhich case you would have a shattering and
you'd and you would have elections.If BB can't find a way to get

(27:52):
the exemption back, then the religiousparties in his coalition, in particular SHOs.
So what I've talked about said,hey, throw a bunch of money
at shots again which sides. Thisis the kind of thing that would that
would lead Shaws to say, youknow what, we're out, We're out
of this coalition, and then Israelgoes to elections. And so moving back
to domestic affairs, you know,we circle back a lot to reproductive rights,

(28:15):
reproductive justice, because we have tocircle back to this because the right
flank of our country won't stop.The Supreme Court this week heard a case
pertaining to access to mephipristone, whichis one of a two drug cocktail that
will end a pregnancy if taken priorto kimeraver it's fourteen or sixteen weeks.

(28:37):
Anyways, the basis of the matterwas that during the pandemic, ease of
access was increased. It was thepills were available via telemedicine. You could
take them at home instead of havingto take them in a doctor's office.
And there was a coalition of antichoice doctors and dentists who sued saying that

(29:00):
this a initially saying that that mefhipistone never should have been approved in the
first place twenty years ago, andthat the de restricting access puts them at
a position of having to deal withpotential complications of a methhi pristone induced abortion,
even though it is against their principlesto perform or complete an incomplete abortion.

(29:26):
So the Supreme Court did not refuseto address the idea that it was
wrongfully approved, which thank goodness,because if we've got ideologues able to go
in and say, actually, Idon't think the experts should have approved this
two decades ago and get judges torubber stamp that we essentially have no administrative
state in this country, and thatwould be a bad thing. And what

(29:49):
the argument came down to was,all right, you are saying that you
might be in the position that someonewould come into the emergency room needing a
DNC to complete a termination that hadstarted but not completed properly from this medication
cocktail, and you don't want tohave to do that? How often does
that happen? And the doctors staredat these women like they had grown additional

(30:14):
heads because it doesn't happen. Andthen the women pointed out that some of
them are dentists, and at nopoint in the history of ever has a
woman with uterine bleeding called their dentistfor assistance. And Greg seems to have
strong feelings about this team might actuallybe about to wet himself laughing, but
I'm going to let him weigh in. So I love Wait, did you

(30:37):
call a dentist for an abortion once? Is that what you're ating? No?
I I just love the fact thatthe two main points are the men
might be bothered like and the womenget it. The women get the fact
that the men's issue is, Hey, you know what, this possibly could
bother me. I'm not saying itis. It's not an issue now,
but this has potential to be areal pain in my ass. These women

(31:02):
could potentially, So let's cut theshit out now. Two these dentists are
like, hey, women be women, and they never know which hole they're
bleeding out of, whether it's theirmouth or other things. I mean,
hey, women, Am I right? What's the deal with women, and

(31:22):
and the women on the court werelike, what is the deal with us?
Do tell me? Do tell mewhat my deal is? Please explain
this more, explain this more.And I just I just love that.
Even Amy Comibert was like, ohmy gosh, what have I sold my
soul for? Yeah, she's sittingthere, She's like, I've had babies
and there was never a dentist present. I'm sure Clarence Thomas was like,

(31:45):
well, this all sounds very reasonable. When can I get to my motor
coach? This is this is,this is all above board. I just
find the whole women thing kind ofoogie. So, yeah, this is
a this sounds a right. Yeah. Have you guys heard Beyonce's cover of

(32:09):
Blackbird? Yeah? Do you allknow the backstory of that song? What
inspired Paul McCartney to write Blackbird?Had not until I read story that this
morning in the Wallop. Yeah,it's a civil rights song. It was
him talking about women, young youngwomen who were desegregating schools, and the

(32:30):
song Blackbird is about, you know, bird was a was a term for
a woman, and he was encouragingthem. You've been only waiting, you
know, take take these these brokenwings and learn to fly. Take these
eyes and learn to see. Thisis your moment. You've been waiting for
this moment to arise. So forBeyonce too, so faithfully and beautifully cover

(32:50):
this song, you know, withthe guitar and everything, it's like,
you know, she's taking a handoff from previous generations. I was just
I got chills when I heard it, you know, knowing that story about
Paul McCartney. So super cool.Love that love Beyonce, That young lady
is going places, she is going, got a future, Got a future.
I need to hear the rest ofthe album too, because apparently she's

(33:14):
she's done some really great so she'sjust very talented and very creative. All
right, Well, I think thatpretty much does it for this week.
We have covered all the news that'sfit to cover and uh and some that
that really isn't I got some listenerresponse stuff this week. Oh yeah,
yeah, I know, and itwasn't usual hate mail about my jokes.

(33:36):
One of our listeners listened to DJand i's discussion about the New Dean series.
Then they had mentioned that we hadforgotten to talk about the two thousand
Dune mini series, but I coveredI covered, and I told them the
truth was that our actual conversation wasover ten minutes long, and it got

(33:58):
actually pretty intense, and there wasit was the much more and it will
probably be in a future episode minusthe cursing and the swearing. But I
do have to say I can't believeI forgot that. Also, William Hurt
was the big star, and itwent all the way through the first three
books on sci fi in two thousandand all the way through two thousand and
three. I think was the secondone, but the first one was really

(34:22):
good as far as like getting allaspects. We're having to shelve those books
when I worked in a library inhigh school and they were enormous. There
were some of the longest books inthe library. No, they're longer than
Dickens. I'm looking this up.I am going to the machine. Are
you saying that we're in a Dickensmeasuring contest? Is that what you're saying?

(34:44):
Oh, for the love of allright, Oliver Twist here six hundred
and fifty eight pages in the deluxehardcover edition. Okay, deluxe hardcover.
So Rebecca, are you saying sizedoes matter? All right? And on
that note, I think we havetaken this a little farther than we ever

(35:07):
needed to. My apologies to thenon sci fi people among us, including
myself who's never read or seen Dounejust shelfed it. So thank you all
for listening, and apologies to thosewho need apologies. If you enjoy what
we do here, please follow uson Instagram at MPU fan Club, and

(35:28):
don't forget to share our podcast linkon your social media timeline so your friends
can discover us as well. Asalways thanks to Alan Keeney for our theme
music. And as we head intothe first week of April, Greg,
do you have any good pranks plannedfor tomorrow April Fool's Day. I'm not
allowed to do pranks anymore. Mydaughter one time was like, okay,

(35:50):
it's you versus me. It started. She woke up and there was all
sorts of writing on her face thatsaid dad is Then for one, there
were explosive firecrackers in her room andI set her alarm for five different times.
There was a serrand raped toilet.Oh. I got yelled at that
so bad by my wife, whoI'm lucky she's still my wife got one