March 24, 2024 • 30 mins
This week, DJ, Greg and Kevin look at the ongoing tumult in the House of Representatives, the senate race in Greg's beloved state of Ohio, and Biden's untapped secret weapon. Finally, Greg and DJ give their reviews of two new movies "Roadhouse" and "Dune: Part Two."
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M hmmm. Welcome to the MorePerfect Union, the podcast that offers real
debate without the hate. I'm KevinCalton and I'm pleased to share the mic
(00:20):
with Greg Tusak. Oh. I'mso happy to be back. Thank you
guys for keeping my seat warm.Where the heck have you been? Oh
my goodness, it's it's it's hardto be good at several jobs and whatnot
and to be an in demand musician. And I'm going to stop stop being
good at what I do. Butas a common sense liberal from Cincinnati,
(00:45):
I'm here for you guys this week. And DJ MacGuire is with us.
That's straight. I am back,folks, and I'm pleased to see Greg
back. He skips the one weekhis state is important, but he's back
so we can hear from him aboutthe Ohio Center race. Look forward to
that. And Rebecca Kushmeider is ona well deserved vacation this week. I
(01:07):
believe she is in South Carolina.Is that correct? I think so,
one of those things to do withhorses, I believe, yeah, one
of those places. So Rebecca,we're thinking of you and missing you and
hope you're having a great time.So every week I ask my compatriots here
if there are any topics other thanpolitics that we can cover, because I
(01:29):
think the show is a little toopolitics heavy, and yet once again we
have more or less failed to reachthat lofty goal. Politics has infested us
like bedbugs once again. That's thelead story on our podcast, because the
House of Representatives has become the Houseof ours. DJ, why don't you
(01:49):
start by talking about the budget thatpassed. I understand nothing about what happened.
I don't know what passed, whopassed it, what's it, what's
not in it? Please enlighten me? Sure? The six cabinet departments that
were responsible for about seventy percent ofthe discretionary budget had not been fully funded
for the year until this weekend.That was finally done after a bet for
(02:12):
continuing the resolutions. The House quotefreedom unquote caucus wanted more bullshit than they
actually got, so they're all mad. Margie Taylor Green is so mad she
actually filed one of those motions tovacate that she is threatening to force the
House to look at after their backfrom their two week recess. But it
doesn't include anything particularly weird, unfortunately, nor does it include any funding for
(02:37):
Ukraine, which has me really mad. And I'm hoping that Democrats actually tell
the speaker, hey, look,if you want to avoid losing your job,
you have to put the Ukraine billon the floor and get it passed.
It almost makes me question and Iknow you guys are going to be
shocked Marjorie Taylor Greening's intelligence at thispoint. Let's talk about this Ukraine funding.
(03:02):
Are we any closer now than wewere let's say two weeks ago?
And is it to Johnson's strength orto his detriment that the Ukraine funding bill
has not been brought to the floor. It's because he doesn't want a split
in his party. Half his partywants at half his party. Doesn't that
looks bad for him now if he'sin a situation where he gets defenestrated.
(03:27):
And this is why I think thatthe Green resolution helps, the Green Motion
helps the Democrats, because the Democratscan have come in and say, hey,
look, you try to keep thisquiet, you try to keep this
in the family. It is nowblown out all over the place. You
can either lose your job, we'llall vote against you, or you can
do what we want. And here'sour list of things and Ukraine should be
(03:49):
at the top of the list becauseit is the most urgent one. Right
now, Well, let me askthis, Greg, do you think that
Johnson is avoiding bringing this to thefloor because he's trying to protect you,
speakership? What do you think he'sdoing it? And this is a leading
question. Now, I admit thatdo you think he's doing it because that's
what Trump wants and Mike Johnson wantsto be in power with Trump as president?
(04:13):
Yes to the second. Yeah,okay, I answer. I knew
you'd like that answer. I mean, we are just so lucky that he
hasn't cut his own nose off tospite his face, because he is that
guy. He is a hardliner.He doesn't believe in banks. For goodness
sake, he will go the distancefor Trump. He will go the distance
(04:34):
for his causes. He's a truebeliever, which should terrify everybody. And
even the threat of losing your job. That's awesome because he knows down the
road he will be rewarded either byhis God or his higher God Trump.
Either way, he's going to befine. Okay, Now, let's talk
(04:55):
about people who are showing some spine, some backbone and that's the the Republicans
who are part of the mass exodusfrom Congress or and I actually read this
on a Reddit sub thread. Isit a mass exodus or is it in
effect a mass purge, because whatI think is happening here is these GOP
(05:17):
Congress people are realizing that if theystay in Congress, they have to become
MAGA sycophants to the point where theywill have to do things that they do
not believe in, support bills,legislation, and support a president that they
cannot get behind. And the alternativeto that is getting primaried. So they
(05:39):
tender their resignation. But really they'rein a sense being forced out. I
think that they are afraid of eventhough there are placeguards and safeguards in place,
excuse me, that they are goingto make sure that there is not
a Republican majority come January sixth thisyear, and this is their way of
(06:00):
saving the Republican Party. Okay,first of all, that is utterly ludicrous.
I mean, these are people whofor the most part do not have
any spine to speak of whatsoever.They are not going to be thinking,
They're certainly not going to be thinking, oh, this is a double bank
shot to protect the Republican Party fromitself. They do not care about any
of those things. I think Kevinis closer to being correct. I think
(06:25):
it does a matter of they aremaking calculations and they're saying, Okay,
how much of a sick efan canI be? And the ones who can't
be one hundred percent sick of fansare stepping away. They're going to start
looking more, maybe at running forgovernor or things places where they think they
have a little more the way theydon't, as they'll figure out in twenty
(06:46):
twenty six, if God forbid,Trump wins. But it's not about making
sure there's no Republican majority in twentytwenty five. They're going to be no
Republicans who will act except for ListChainey, who will actively work against a
House Republican journey in twenty twenty five. The voters this year have to do
that. Were the ones who haveto take power away from the Republicans in
(07:09):
the House. Not whatever the hellGreg is not thinking I'm a little deep
state. Yeah, I'm a littledeep state. I think that that could
be a good country song exactly.You know. To add to that,
we saw local signs here for likestate reps and things like that. Where
five ten years ago it would sayRepublican approved or things like that, this
(07:33):
year many of the signs said Trumpapproved. Wow. The number of lawmakers
that are retiring, I just sawthis in an article this morning, stands
at excuse me, forty four alltogether who have announced their retirements so far,
which is actually not that high anumber compared to other midterm and four
(07:56):
year election cycles. It's twenty threeDemocrats who are abandoning seats and twenty one
Republicans. But my understanding is thatmost of the Republicans, of not all
of them, are in fairly safered districts where some of the Democratic seats
might be more competitive. Hence itmight actually be giving an advantage to the
Republicans in terms of maintaining control ofCongress. What it looks like indus very
(08:22):
briefly, is that a lot ofthe Democrats who are retiring are not actually
retiring. They're not retiring from politics. They're jump they're looking at another office.
Like a bunch of them are runningfor United States Senate. A few.
Abigail Spamberger is running for governor herein Virginia. Dean Phillips is actually
(08:46):
well. Dean Phillips was the quixoticpresidential candidate and Jeff Jackson for Attorney general.
The point is that it's not thatthe Democrats who are retiring are just
disillusioned with how terrible things are.They're looking to move up to other offices.
They're looking to move up to statewent offices. But the Republicans,
almost universally, are the ones whoare like, I can't handle this crap
(09:09):
anymore. I'm out of here.What Donald Trump is doing is he's literally
wiping out his own bench. AndI'm not sure whether that's a happy accident
or by design, but it doesn'tmatter because the results is the same.
There isn't going to be any realalternative to Donald Trump in the Republican Party
because they're all going to be They'reall saying, I don't want no part
of this. I'm heading for theexits. I'm going to retire to my
(09:31):
farm or to my order, whateverthe hell I'm doing, or a lobbyist
or yea or a lobbyist or whatever, or you know something on NBC.
But by next to Ronald McDaniel,I was going to bring that up.
I don't know what NBC is doingwith that one. You want sent to
right voices, But Ronal McDaniel isnot a sent This is a woman who
dropped her maiden name to keep DonaldTrump happy. This is a Trump psycho
(09:56):
fan. You need fewer of thoseon TV, not more of them.
She has known Nicole Wallace. Sheis no Michael Michael Steele, Michael Steele
and Michael Steel Steel. She isnot in that category. So let's talk
about the presidential campaign. Apparently itwas a good week for Biden. If
you look at some of the pollsthat came out, he seems to be
(10:18):
doing better in a few new polls. So DJ, can you sum up
for us where the changes seem tobe, if they're not mirages, where
the improvement seemed to be. Bidenseems to be doing better in some national
polls than we had seen previously.Usually with national polls, he was either
(10:39):
within the Martin of era or behind. Now for the most part, they're
all within the margin of era,and he is ahead in some and he's
behind in some. Okay, Sothe problem with Poles, and this is
not a Polish joke, but they'reinconsequential and they have actually always been inconsequential,
going back to nineteen forty eight whereHarry Truman famously defied the polls to
(11:01):
maintain the presidency. You know,polls, I think were originally devised for
campaigns for internal campaign use to determineone how to refine their messaging and two
how to use their resources to besteffect. And because of the media,
(11:22):
polls became a public consumption like junkfood. And we have to get away
from that, because I think everybodyunderstands now having seen two presidential cycles in
a row where in one the personwho got the most votes did not win,
and in the second the person whogot seven million more votes one by
(11:43):
a hair. The popular vote unfortunatelydoes not determine the presidency. I'm not
saying it's not important, and that'sa whole other topic. I go on
about that for twenty minutes, andI won't this week. But there are
only six states that really will determinethis presidency. They are Wisconsin, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia. Possibly throw in North Carolina,
(12:07):
although I think that's no pun intendedto Red Herod. Really, I think
it comes down to two states.Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and I wouldn't
count, I wouldn't trust the pollsin those states. It is a get
out the vote election, and weDemocrats. If you care about defeating Trump,
and we'll talk more about that anda little bit, you have to
(12:30):
get out your vote and get outother votes because that is the only thing
that counts. I do not disagreewith anything Kevin's then, I'm just adding
to it is that they will gettheir samples wrong. Trying to move from
registered voters to likely voters is whatwe'll start to see over the next six
months. Is the hardest part ofpolling in general, because then you have
(12:52):
to figure out who you think isEschhigan to vote, who you think isn't
going to vote, and work accordingly. If you get it wrong, as
famously Gallop did in nineteen forty eightbecause they did a telephone pole and they
could literally could not poll people whodid not have telephones, well you're going
to have a pro Republican nineteen fortiesbias in your poll. And that's exactly
(13:15):
what happened to Gallup. If,like the New York Times in Siena College,
you do a poll where thirty sixpercent of your sample is rural voters,
which hasn't been the case for fortyor fifty years. By the way,
you're going to get a pro Republicanpoll. And that's exactly what the
Times and Scena came up with.So what you if you want to trust
(13:37):
a poll, you want somebody whohas a good experience in sampling and can
read the changes in the political zekegiso that they can get the samples right.
Which is to say, there isreally no polster that you can one
hundred percent trust. How Gallups twentytwelve poll was so off it didn't do
It hasn't done presidential polls since thenbecause they had mitt Rom ahead in the
(14:00):
popular vote on election day morning.The UK twenty fifteen, the UK twenty
seventeen, twenty eighteen red wave midterms, and the twenty twenty two red wave
midterms. You're correct. So you'rereally in no position to have any idea
how well the polster is doing theirsampling. And if you don't know how
(14:22):
well the pulse are doing your sampling, you really can't trust the poll.
Here's a good sample. It's thenever again Trump contingent. I think we
might be of different minds on this. So first I'm going to list a
long string of names, and thenwe can discuss whether these people are as
DJ put it on our rundown forreal or not. Mike Pence, Bill
(14:45):
Barr, John Bolton, Mitt Romney, John Kelly, James Mattis, Mike
Esper, Mark Milly, Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Grisham, Chris Christy, Nikki
Helly, Liz Cheney, John Kasik. We could go on and on.
These are all people who have comeout in the media and said they cannot
and will not support Donald Trump.Now, whether that means they won't vote
(15:09):
for him, some of them havesaid those words, some of them have
only alluded to it. But Ithink what is one of the keys to
Biden's chances for winning election is toget some of those people to go one
step further and say, because aTrump presidency is so anathema to the future
(15:33):
of this country and the future ofthe planet, I will be voting for
Joe Biden, even though I donot agree with many of his policies.
They need a few of those peopleto make that leap so that it can
give permission to other gopers who areanti Trump to make the same leap.
(15:56):
Why should Democrats settle for one lessTrump vote when they can double the impact
by making it a Biden vote.So here's the problem. A lot of
the people on the list have losttheir credibility, not only with Democrats obviously,
but also with Republicans. Mike Pencedoes not get an award for saying
(16:18):
that he will not support or evenvote for Donald Trump in twenty twenty four
after what happened on January sixth,twenty twenty four. Years have passed,
Okay, and both sides do nottrust this man. Okay, Bill Barr,
same thing, Chris Christy. Alot of these people have been supporting
(16:40):
him until their futures maybe or theirpocketbooks don't work anymore. And with that
in mind, they don't have credibilitywith the general public. So I agree
there should be maybe one focused campaignand add like, these are the people
who Donald Trump hired, this ishis administration. They won't vote for him,
(17:00):
why should you? Okay, Sonow that we're all in violent agreement
on that, oh, let's goto what we've all been looking for talking
about Ohio with Greg It's round onthe ends and high in the middle.
Yeah, we had our primary thisweek, and for the most part,
it wasn't that exciting. We knewJoe Biden, uh and Donald Trump are
(17:26):
the already the the candidates. Weknew they were going to win. But
the big race was for Senate.On the Republican side, there were three
major candidates and Bernie Moreno, whowas a luxury car dealer who was born
in Columbia, and he won,but he was also the Trump point.
(17:52):
I don't know how you want tosay that he was dvid Trump's blessing.
Yes, he was touched by thehand of Trump. I mean in Ohio,
those ads were pretty pretty nasty,and it seems like Trump has a
pretty bad record as far as hispicks. I mean, if we think
about like doctor Oz, if wethink about Georgia, but Ohio is as
(18:18):
I hate to say that DJ's righthas been pretty red these past couple of
years. But he's going against anestablished incumbent Shared Brown has been in office
since two thousand and six. He'sa very progressive and this would be the
year he's the weakest. It alsodoesn't help Bernie Moreno that twenty percent of
the votes went to Nikki Haley andshe was already out of the race,
(18:42):
So this is probably going to bethe race to watch for the US Senate.
With Trump running the RNZ, nowhe's not, they're not going to
have as much support. And whenI say support, I mean money.
And with Biden having a giant warchest, I think Brown is going to
have a lot of money. AndI hate to think that it comes down
(19:03):
to money, but as we allknow, it comes down to money.
Greg, can you answer? Canyou answer two questions for me? For
Yeah, there are two professional footballteams in Ohio, the Bengels not my
question and the Buck's not a question. That's not my question. Funny,
but that's not my question. Bigone. First, because we you know,
(19:26):
the Democrats had probably their best candidatefor Ohio, at least we think
their best candidate for Ryo twenty twentytwo in Congressman Tim Ryan. Yes,
the Republicans put up JD Vance advancestill won by bet seven or eight points
one. Part one, what isthe difference between Moreno and JD Vance in
terms of in terms of appearance,in terms of perception? And Number two,
(19:48):
what advantages to share that Brown havethat Tim Ryan didn't have in twenty
twenty two. Are there reasons foroptimism because of it's Moreno versus Brown versus
Vance versus Ryan two years ago.I'm going to go in backwards order.
We've had two elections since then thathave gone swung pretty heavily. One was
(20:11):
the abortion voter initiative and that wasvery very I think that passed by sixty
five forty five. I mean itwas a very very blue thing. And
then there was another one I can'tremember it was, but it also went.
Oh it was locals. It waslike school boards and stuff, and
(20:33):
we voted out almost every Mom's forLiberty candidate. People are showing up.
Mike DeWine on Friday came out toendorse Bernie Marino, and he started his
speech by saying, Hey, Iwant to tell you what's wrong with kids
in school today. It's cell phones. We got to get cell phones out
(20:53):
of school, right, Like thisis the issue. And parents are like,
wait a second, but we needthem in case of emergencies, you
know, like active shooters. Willyou do something about that? He's like,
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoawhoa. Let's not go after gun.
That's crazy talk. It's not guns. It's it's cell phones, phones,
(21:15):
it's cell phones. And he goes, well, maybe this is a
little more complicated. He goes,oh, by the way, here's Bernie
Moreno. And although Dwine is arelatively popular person, Dwine put his face
on the abortion voter initiative and gotbrounced. And I think you're seeing more
activism, You're seeing more involvement inthe democratic prop the process in Ohio.
(21:40):
Bernie Moreno has a fight on hishands. I mean, he's it's not
going to be a layup for him. Jd Vance versus Tim Ryan. First
of all, Shared Brown is anincumbent. He's incumbent since two thousand and
six. He's someone we know.Tim Ryan ran a horrible campaign where he'd
be seen with all these auto workerguys wearing just like the worse shirts like
why yes I do fit in herein left three hundred dollars shirt and it
(22:04):
didn't work well. Jd Vance hadreally slick campaigns. Burnie Moreno does not.
It's not going to be as simple. So let's move on to Georgia,
where Fani Willis says the train iscoming, The midnight train to Georgia
(22:26):
is coming for Trump. She wasat some kind of an Easter egg hunt
or something like that, and shegave an interview off the cuff to a
CNN reporter and among the things thatshe said was Trump is trying to delay,
but her office has been actively pursuingthe case, filing motions, writing
(22:47):
responses to emotions every day during thiswhole kerfuffle about whether or not she's going
to stay on the case or not. And she said they may be trying
to delay it, but the trainis coming. The train is coming.
The line that she said that Iread, and I'm not going to get
this verbatim, was where she said, I have done nothing wrong. Yes,
(23:07):
I had a relationship with a man, and there was nothing illegal about
it, and I'm not embarrassed aboutit, and I'm not embarrassed about it.
And I think that's super important thatthis very highly respected woman, who
is in a position of authority andworked very hard all her life, has
been dragged through the mud by thenational media for having a relationship with a
(23:30):
man while she was trying to prosecutea man who has had multiple relationships,
including being charged and essentially found guiltyof rape. So the fact that they're
trying to make her sexuality some kindof a negative is just so insulting to
the intelligence of the American voter.So I've seen a lot of people in
(23:53):
social media and in the news mediasaying there's no way that that case can
be tried and come to a conclusionbefore the election, because it is such
a complicated case. I want toaddress that. It's probably true that if
she was to get a trial datethat started in mid to late August,
(24:14):
that might be too late for herto prosecute the entire case to bring it
to a jury for verdict. Butif she could start that case in August
or September, she could present theprosecutions the state's case before the election.
And let's remember, there are camerasin the courtrooms in Georgia. A lot
(24:36):
of that material is going to getout to the public. Plus they're going
to see photographs and drawings of DonaldTrump sitting behind a criminal defense table,
sitting helplessly with his dumb mug therebeing angry for two months during the general
election cycle. You know what,as much as I would like to have
a conviction before the election, Isettle for hearing the state's case and then
(25:03):
let the multitude of defense attorneys wrestlefor who gets to make what counter argument
at what point, because that's allgonna happen after the election. Yeah,
absent a really crushing cross examination,which I can't really expect from the idiots
that Donald Trump passes his attorneys.The prosecution presenting its case is going to
(25:25):
damage Donald Trump politically every single dayexactly how much. I mean. It's
not going to take anywhere from hisbase, but with swing voter's going to
be like, oh, someone sayshe did what, some saysid what someone
says he did what. It willremind everyone about all of those things,
And you're right, that has somevalue whether or not the jury gets the
case before election night. Okay,so let's finally get away from politics and
(25:52):
talk about the world of entertainment,where there are three remakes out there right
now. Roadhouse there's a new versionof that on Amazon, Showgun there's a
new version of that on Netflix.And Dune Part two is a sequel to
The Dune from twenty twenty one,also an adaptation of the novel by Frank
(26:15):
Herbert, and a remake of severalprior Dune flicks that came out in the
eighties and nineties. So with allthat said, guys, I wanted to
throw it to you and get yourimpressions. Have you seen any of these
and if so, did you likethem? We'll start with Roadhouse. I
just I think it just came outon Friday and I watched it, like
within minutes. I love the originalIt's awesome Patrick Swayzee Forever, but this
(26:38):
one stars Jake Gillenhall, stars UFCLegend, Connor McGregor. It is so
enjoyable and dumb, and halfway throughyou go this plot makes no sense whatsoever.
I was literally saying, what isgoing on? I have no idea.
All the problems are solved by punchingpeople, and I loved it.
(27:00):
I would watch this thing. Infact, I may rewatch it today now
that I'm not playing. Jake Chillenhallis one of the few actors who can
play serious, he can play comedy, he can sing. He is like
a quadruple threat. Highly recommended tenout of ten. Much better than the
Dune remakes. DJ any thoughts,I have not seen the remake. I
(27:21):
barely remember seeing the original. I'mjust gonna leave that to one side.
I have seen neither the original northe remake on Showgun. But I've seen
some reviews about Showgun, about theremake and about how it is the characters
are more three dimensional, they aremore complex. It appears to be more
of a Japanese perspective, which Ithink will be helpful. I have seen
(27:45):
I have not seen the second partof the of the twenty twenties Dune,
but it's got to be better thanthe nineteen eighties Dune. No one can
take that novel and shove it intotwo hours. No one should have tried,
and anyone who did try, Ishould recognize that it was going to
be a failure from the outset.Now it was a no I will give
(28:07):
it that. It was a noblefailure in ed Patrick Stewart, it had
Richard Jordan, it had bradd Reef, it had a very good cast stinging.
But you know, but you can'tcompress it into two hours. I'm
not even sure it can do wellcompressed into four or five hours. Frank
Herbert's novels are the kinds of thingsthat you do a ten seat a ten
(28:36):
episode series for Netflix, and hisentire entire work in that universe is something
that should be a six or sevenseason show on a Netflix or an Amazon
or something like that. The moretime you give Frank Herbert's novels, the
better it will be. I agree, five hours is better than two hours,
ten hours is better than five hours. Oh yeah, oh yeah,
(28:57):
there should be. There should beI agree one hundred percent a ten part
twelve part mini series with someone notTimothy Shallomey. Okay, And let's and
who could be a better Baron Hartcomment than Stelle scarsguard ellis Stell's guard is?
You're right? We will agree weshould end on that before our friendship
(29:18):
deteriorates overdue, which I've lost friendsover that book. I have lost friends
and I have told family members youare dead to me. Well, speaking
of noble failures, we want tofinch everybody for listening to a podcast that
(29:41):
work longer than you know producing aDune movie using every page of the book.
But if you enjoy what we dohere, please follow us on Instagram
at MPU fan Club, and don'tforget to share our link on your Facebook
timeline so your friends can discover usas well. And as always, we
are forever grateful to len Kini forour theme music with that in mind,
(30:08):
gentlemen, who will be making beautifulmusic and where this coming week. Not
me. I'm taking the week off. I'm going to Rereadune the way it
should be experienced in book form,with the only way it should be.
I do hope I will be ableto lay down some music tracks for Yesterday's
(30:29):
Future, the album that I amworking on. I was able to get
two down this week. I'm hopingto get a few more done this week.
Fantastic. Okay, that's a podcast.
M hmmm. Welcome to the MorePerfect Union, the podcast that offers real
debate without the hate. I'm KevinCalton and I'm pleased to share the mic
(00:20):
with Greg Tusak. Oh. I'mso happy to be back. Thank you
guys for keeping my seat warm.Where the heck have you been? Oh
my goodness, it's it's it's hardto be good at several jobs and whatnot
and to be an in demand musician. And I'm going to stop stop being
good at what I do. Butas a common sense liberal from Cincinnati,
(00:45):
I'm here for you guys this week. And DJ MacGuire is with us.
That's straight. I am back,folks, and I'm pleased to see Greg
back. He skips the one weekhis state is important, but he's back
so we can hear from him aboutthe Ohio Center race. Look forward to
that. And Rebecca Kushmeider is ona well deserved vacation this week. I
(01:07):
believe she is in South Carolina.Is that correct? I think so,
one of those things to do withhorses, I believe, yeah, one
of those places. So Rebecca,we're thinking of you and missing you and
hope you're having a great time.So every week I ask my compatriots here
if there are any topics other thanpolitics that we can cover, because I
(01:29):
think the show is a little toopolitics heavy, and yet once again we
have more or less failed to reachthat lofty goal. Politics has infested us
like bedbugs once again. That's thelead story on our podcast, because the
House of Representatives has become the Houseof ours. DJ, why don't you
(01:49):
start by talking about the budget thatpassed. I understand nothing about what happened.
I don't know what passed, whopassed it, what's it, what's
not in it? Please enlighten me? Sure? The six cabinet departments that
were responsible for about seventy percent ofthe discretionary budget had not been fully funded
for the year until this weekend.That was finally done after a bet for
(02:12):
continuing the resolutions. The House quotefreedom unquote caucus wanted more bullshit than they
actually got, so they're all mad. Margie Taylor Green is so mad she
actually filed one of those motions tovacate that she is threatening to force the
House to look at after their backfrom their two week recess. But it
doesn't include anything particularly weird, unfortunately, nor does it include any funding for
(02:37):
Ukraine, which has me really mad. And I'm hoping that Democrats actually tell
the speaker, hey, look,if you want to avoid losing your job,
you have to put the Ukraine billon the floor and get it passed.
It almost makes me question and Iknow you guys are going to be
shocked Marjorie Taylor Greening's intelligence at thispoint. Let's talk about this Ukraine funding.
(03:02):
Are we any closer now than wewere let's say two weeks ago?
And is it to Johnson's strength orto his detriment that the Ukraine funding bill
has not been brought to the floor. It's because he doesn't want a split
in his party. Half his partywants at half his party. Doesn't that
looks bad for him now if he'sin a situation where he gets defenestrated.
(03:27):
And this is why I think thatthe Green resolution helps, the Green Motion
helps the Democrats, because the Democratscan have come in and say, hey,
look, you try to keep thisquiet, you try to keep this
in the family. It is nowblown out all over the place. You
can either lose your job, we'llall vote against you, or you can
do what we want. And here'sour list of things and Ukraine should be
(03:49):
at the top of the list becauseit is the most urgent one. Right
now, Well, let me askthis, Greg, do you think that
Johnson is avoiding bringing this to thefloor because he's trying to protect you,
speakership? What do you think he'sdoing it? And this is a leading
question. Now, I admit thatdo you think he's doing it because that's
what Trump wants and Mike Johnson wantsto be in power with Trump as president?
(04:13):
Yes to the second. Yeah,okay, I answer. I knew
you'd like that answer. I mean, we are just so lucky that he
hasn't cut his own nose off tospite his face, because he is that
guy. He is a hardliner.He doesn't believe in banks. For goodness
sake, he will go the distancefor Trump. He will go the distance
(04:34):
for his causes. He's a truebeliever, which should terrify everybody. And
even the threat of losing your job. That's awesome because he knows down the
road he will be rewarded either byhis God or his higher God Trump.
Either way, he's going to befine. Okay, Now, let's talk
(04:55):
about people who are showing some spine, some backbone and that's the the Republicans
who are part of the mass exodusfrom Congress or and I actually read this
on a Reddit sub thread. Isit a mass exodus or is it in
effect a mass purge, because whatI think is happening here is these GOP
(05:17):
Congress people are realizing that if theystay in Congress, they have to become
MAGA sycophants to the point where theywill have to do things that they do
not believe in, support bills,legislation, and support a president that they
cannot get behind. And the alternativeto that is getting primaried. So they
(05:39):
tender their resignation. But really they'rein a sense being forced out. I
think that they are afraid of eventhough there are placeguards and safeguards in place,
excuse me, that they are goingto make sure that there is not
a Republican majority come January sixth thisyear, and this is their way of
(06:00):
saving the Republican Party. Okay,first of all, that is utterly ludicrous.
I mean, these are people whofor the most part do not have
any spine to speak of whatsoever.They are not going to be thinking,
They're certainly not going to be thinking, oh, this is a double bank
shot to protect the Republican Party fromitself. They do not care about any
of those things. I think Kevinis closer to being correct. I think
(06:25):
it does a matter of they aremaking calculations and they're saying, Okay,
how much of a sick efan canI be? And the ones who can't
be one hundred percent sick of fansare stepping away. They're going to start
looking more, maybe at running forgovernor or things places where they think they
have a little more the way theydon't, as they'll figure out in twenty
(06:46):
twenty six, if God forbid,Trump wins. But it's not about making
sure there's no Republican majority in twentytwenty five. They're going to be no
Republicans who will act except for ListChainey, who will actively work against a
House Republican journey in twenty twenty five. The voters this year have to do
that. Were the ones who haveto take power away from the Republicans in
(07:09):
the House. Not whatever the hellGreg is not thinking I'm a little deep
state. Yeah, I'm a littledeep state. I think that that could
be a good country song exactly.You know. To add to that,
we saw local signs here for likestate reps and things like that. Where
five ten years ago it would sayRepublican approved or things like that, this
(07:33):
year many of the signs said Trumpapproved. Wow. The number of lawmakers
that are retiring, I just sawthis in an article this morning, stands
at excuse me, forty four alltogether who have announced their retirements so far,
which is actually not that high anumber compared to other midterm and four
(07:56):
year election cycles. It's twenty threeDemocrats who are abandoning seats and twenty one
Republicans. But my understanding is thatmost of the Republicans, of not all
of them, are in fairly safered districts where some of the Democratic seats
might be more competitive. Hence itmight actually be giving an advantage to the
Republicans in terms of maintaining control ofCongress. What it looks like indus very
(08:22):
briefly, is that a lot ofthe Democrats who are retiring are not actually
retiring. They're not retiring from politics. They're jump they're looking at another office.
Like a bunch of them are runningfor United States Senate. A few.
Abigail Spamberger is running for governor herein Virginia. Dean Phillips is actually
(08:46):
well. Dean Phillips was the quixoticpresidential candidate and Jeff Jackson for Attorney general.
The point is that it's not thatthe Democrats who are retiring are just
disillusioned with how terrible things are.They're looking to move up to other offices.
They're looking to move up to statewent offices. But the Republicans,
almost universally, are the ones whoare like, I can't handle this crap
(09:09):
anymore. I'm out of here.What Donald Trump is doing is he's literally
wiping out his own bench. AndI'm not sure whether that's a happy accident
or by design, but it doesn'tmatter because the results is the same.
There isn't going to be any realalternative to Donald Trump in the Republican Party
because they're all going to be They'reall saying, I don't want no part
of this. I'm heading for theexits. I'm going to retire to my
(09:31):
farm or to my order, whateverthe hell I'm doing, or a lobbyist
or yea or a lobbyist or whatever, or you know something on NBC.
But by next to Ronald McDaniel,I was going to bring that up.
I don't know what NBC is doingwith that one. You want sent to
right voices, But Ronal McDaniel isnot a sent This is a woman who
dropped her maiden name to keep DonaldTrump happy. This is a Trump psycho
(09:56):
fan. You need fewer of thoseon TV, not more of them.
She has known Nicole Wallace. Sheis no Michael Michael Steele, Michael Steele
and Michael Steel Steel. She isnot in that category. So let's talk
about the presidential campaign. Apparently itwas a good week for Biden. If
you look at some of the pollsthat came out, he seems to be
(10:18):
doing better in a few new polls. So DJ, can you sum up
for us where the changes seem tobe, if they're not mirages, where
the improvement seemed to be. Bidenseems to be doing better in some national
polls than we had seen previously.Usually with national polls, he was either
(10:39):
within the Martin of era or behind. Now for the most part, they're
all within the margin of era,and he is ahead in some and he's
behind in some. Okay, Sothe problem with Poles, and this is
not a Polish joke, but they'reinconsequential and they have actually always been inconsequential,
going back to nineteen forty eight whereHarry Truman famously defied the polls to
(11:01):
maintain the presidency. You know,polls, I think were originally devised for
campaigns for internal campaign use to determineone how to refine their messaging and two
how to use their resources to besteffect. And because of the media,
(11:22):
polls became a public consumption like junkfood. And we have to get away
from that, because I think everybodyunderstands now having seen two presidential cycles in
a row where in one the personwho got the most votes did not win,
and in the second the person whogot seven million more votes one by
(11:43):
a hair. The popular vote unfortunatelydoes not determine the presidency. I'm not
saying it's not important, and that'sa whole other topic. I go on
about that for twenty minutes, andI won't this week. But there are
only six states that really will determinethis presidency. They are Wisconsin, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia. Possibly throw in North Carolina,
(12:07):
although I think that's no pun intendedto Red Herod. Really, I think
it comes down to two states.Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and I wouldn't
count, I wouldn't trust the pollsin those states. It is a get
out the vote election, and weDemocrats. If you care about defeating Trump,
and we'll talk more about that anda little bit, you have to
(12:30):
get out your vote and get outother votes because that is the only thing
that counts. I do not disagreewith anything Kevin's then, I'm just adding
to it is that they will gettheir samples wrong. Trying to move from
registered voters to likely voters is whatwe'll start to see over the next six
months. Is the hardest part ofpolling in general, because then you have
(12:52):
to figure out who you think isEschhigan to vote, who you think isn't
going to vote, and work accordingly. If you get it wrong, as
famously Gallop did in nineteen forty eightbecause they did a telephone pole and they
could literally could not poll people whodid not have telephones, well you're going
to have a pro Republican nineteen fortiesbias in your poll. And that's exactly
(13:15):
what happened to Gallup. If,like the New York Times in Siena College,
you do a poll where thirty sixpercent of your sample is rural voters,
which hasn't been the case for fortyor fifty years. By the way,
you're going to get a pro Republicanpoll. And that's exactly what the
Times and Scena came up with.So what you if you want to trust
(13:37):
a poll, you want somebody whohas a good experience in sampling and can
read the changes in the political zekegiso that they can get the samples right.
Which is to say, there isreally no polster that you can one
hundred percent trust. How Gallups twentytwelve poll was so off it didn't do
It hasn't done presidential polls since thenbecause they had mitt Rom ahead in the
(14:00):
popular vote on election day morning.The UK twenty fifteen, the UK twenty
seventeen, twenty eighteen red wave midterms, and the twenty twenty two red wave
midterms. You're correct. So you'rereally in no position to have any idea
how well the polster is doing theirsampling. And if you don't know how
(14:22):
well the pulse are doing your sampling, you really can't trust the poll.
Here's a good sample. It's thenever again Trump contingent. I think we
might be of different minds on this. So first I'm going to list a
long string of names, and thenwe can discuss whether these people are as
DJ put it on our rundown forreal or not. Mike Pence, Bill
(14:45):
Barr, John Bolton, Mitt Romney, John Kelly, James Mattis, Mike
Esper, Mark Milly, Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Grisham, Chris Christy, Nikki
Helly, Liz Cheney, John Kasik. We could go on and on.
These are all people who have comeout in the media and said they cannot
and will not support Donald Trump.Now, whether that means they won't vote
(15:09):
for him, some of them havesaid those words, some of them have
only alluded to it. But Ithink what is one of the keys to
Biden's chances for winning election is toget some of those people to go one
step further and say, because aTrump presidency is so anathema to the future
(15:33):
of this country and the future ofthe planet, I will be voting for
Joe Biden, even though I donot agree with many of his policies.
They need a few of those peopleto make that leap so that it can
give permission to other gopers who areanti Trump to make the same leap.
(15:56):
Why should Democrats settle for one lessTrump vote when they can double the impact
by making it a Biden vote.So here's the problem. A lot of
the people on the list have losttheir credibility, not only with Democrats obviously,
but also with Republicans. Mike Pencedoes not get an award for saying
(16:18):
that he will not support or evenvote for Donald Trump in twenty twenty four
after what happened on January sixth,twenty twenty four. Years have passed,
Okay, and both sides do nottrust this man. Okay, Bill Barr,
same thing, Chris Christy. Alot of these people have been supporting
(16:40):
him until their futures maybe or theirpocketbooks don't work anymore. And with that
in mind, they don't have credibilitywith the general public. So I agree
there should be maybe one focused campaignand add like, these are the people
who Donald Trump hired, this ishis administration. They won't vote for him,
(17:00):
why should you? Okay, Sonow that we're all in violent agreement
on that, oh, let's goto what we've all been looking for talking
about Ohio with Greg It's round onthe ends and high in the middle.
Yeah, we had our primary thisweek, and for the most part,
it wasn't that exciting. We knewJoe Biden, uh and Donald Trump are
(17:26):
the already the the candidates. Weknew they were going to win. But
the big race was for Senate.On the Republican side, there were three
major candidates and Bernie Moreno, whowas a luxury car dealer who was born
in Columbia, and he won,but he was also the Trump point.
(17:52):
I don't know how you want tosay that he was dvid Trump's blessing.
Yes, he was touched by thehand of Trump. I mean in Ohio,
those ads were pretty pretty nasty,and it seems like Trump has a
pretty bad record as far as hispicks. I mean, if we think
about like doctor Oz, if wethink about Georgia, but Ohio is as
(18:18):
I hate to say that DJ's righthas been pretty red these past couple of
years. But he's going against anestablished incumbent Shared Brown has been in office
since two thousand and six. He'sa very progressive and this would be the
year he's the weakest. It alsodoesn't help Bernie Moreno that twenty percent of
the votes went to Nikki Haley andshe was already out of the race,
(18:42):
So this is probably going to bethe race to watch for the US Senate.
With Trump running the RNZ, nowhe's not, they're not going to
have as much support. And whenI say support, I mean money.
And with Biden having a giant warchest, I think Brown is going to
have a lot of money. AndI hate to think that it comes down
(19:03):
to money, but as we allknow, it comes down to money.
Greg, can you answer? Canyou answer two questions for me? For
Yeah, there are two professional footballteams in Ohio, the Bengels not my
question and the Buck's not a question. That's not my question. Funny,
but that's not my question. Bigone. First, because we you know,
(19:26):
the Democrats had probably their best candidatefor Ohio, at least we think
their best candidate for Ryo twenty twentytwo in Congressman Tim Ryan. Yes,
the Republicans put up JD Vance advancestill won by bet seven or eight points
one. Part one, what isthe difference between Moreno and JD Vance in
terms of in terms of appearance,in terms of perception? And Number two,
(19:48):
what advantages to share that Brown havethat Tim Ryan didn't have in twenty
twenty two. Are there reasons foroptimism because of it's Moreno versus Brown versus
Vance versus Ryan two years ago.I'm going to go in backwards order.
We've had two elections since then thathave gone swung pretty heavily. One was
(20:11):
the abortion voter initiative and that wasvery very I think that passed by sixty
five forty five. I mean itwas a very very blue thing. And
then there was another one I can'tremember it was, but it also went.
Oh it was locals. It waslike school boards and stuff, and
(20:33):
we voted out almost every Mom's forLiberty candidate. People are showing up.
Mike DeWine on Friday came out toendorse Bernie Marino, and he started his
speech by saying, Hey, Iwant to tell you what's wrong with kids
in school today. It's cell phones. We got to get cell phones out
(20:53):
of school, right, Like thisis the issue. And parents are like,
wait a second, but we needthem in case of emergencies, you
know, like active shooters. Willyou do something about that? He's like,
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoawhoa. Let's not go after gun.
That's crazy talk. It's not guns. It's it's cell phones, phones,
(21:15):
it's cell phones. And he goes, well, maybe this is a
little more complicated. He goes,oh, by the way, here's Bernie
Moreno. And although Dwine is arelatively popular person, Dwine put his face
on the abortion voter initiative and gotbrounced. And I think you're seeing more
activism, You're seeing more involvement inthe democratic prop the process in Ohio.
(21:40):
Bernie Moreno has a fight on hishands. I mean, he's it's not
going to be a layup for him. Jd Vance versus Tim Ryan. First
of all, Shared Brown is anincumbent. He's incumbent since two thousand and
six. He's someone we know.Tim Ryan ran a horrible campaign where he'd
be seen with all these auto workerguys wearing just like the worse shirts like
why yes I do fit in herein left three hundred dollars shirt and it
(22:04):
didn't work well. Jd Vance hadreally slick campaigns. Burnie Moreno does not.
It's not going to be as simple. So let's move on to Georgia,
where Fani Willis says the train iscoming, The midnight train to Georgia
(22:26):
is coming for Trump. She wasat some kind of an Easter egg hunt
or something like that, and shegave an interview off the cuff to a
CNN reporter and among the things thatshe said was Trump is trying to delay,
but her office has been actively pursuingthe case, filing motions, writing
(22:47):
responses to emotions every day during thiswhole kerfuffle about whether or not she's going
to stay on the case or not. And she said they may be trying
to delay it, but the trainis coming. The train is coming.
The line that she said that Iread, and I'm not going to get
this verbatim, was where she said, I have done nothing wrong. Yes,
(23:07):
I had a relationship with a man, and there was nothing illegal about
it, and I'm not embarrassed aboutit, and I'm not embarrassed about it.
And I think that's super important thatthis very highly respected woman, who
is in a position of authority andworked very hard all her life, has
been dragged through the mud by thenational media for having a relationship with a
(23:30):
man while she was trying to prosecutea man who has had multiple relationships,
including being charged and essentially found guiltyof rape. So the fact that they're
trying to make her sexuality some kindof a negative is just so insulting to
the intelligence of the American voter.So I've seen a lot of people in
(23:53):
social media and in the news mediasaying there's no way that that case can
be tried and come to a conclusionbefore the election, because it is such
a complicated case. I want toaddress that. It's probably true that if
she was to get a trial datethat started in mid to late August,
(24:14):
that might be too late for herto prosecute the entire case to bring it
to a jury for verdict. Butif she could start that case in August
or September, she could present theprosecutions the state's case before the election.
And let's remember, there are camerasin the courtrooms in Georgia. A lot
(24:36):
of that material is going to getout to the public. Plus they're going
to see photographs and drawings of DonaldTrump sitting behind a criminal defense table,
sitting helplessly with his dumb mug therebeing angry for two months during the general
election cycle. You know what,as much as I would like to have
a conviction before the election, Isettle for hearing the state's case and then
(25:03):
let the multitude of defense attorneys wrestlefor who gets to make what counter argument
at what point, because that's allgonna happen after the election. Yeah,
absent a really crushing cross examination,which I can't really expect from the idiots
that Donald Trump passes his attorneys.The prosecution presenting its case is going to
(25:25):
damage Donald Trump politically every single dayexactly how much. I mean. It's
not going to take anywhere from hisbase, but with swing voter's going to
be like, oh, someone sayshe did what, some saysid what someone
says he did what. It willremind everyone about all of those things,
And you're right, that has somevalue whether or not the jury gets the
case before election night. Okay,so let's finally get away from politics and
(25:52):
talk about the world of entertainment,where there are three remakes out there right
now. Roadhouse there's a new versionof that on Amazon, Showgun there's a
new version of that on Netflix.And Dune Part two is a sequel to
The Dune from twenty twenty one,also an adaptation of the novel by Frank
(26:15):
Herbert, and a remake of severalprior Dune flicks that came out in the
eighties and nineties. So with allthat said, guys, I wanted to
throw it to you and get yourimpressions. Have you seen any of these
and if so, did you likethem? We'll start with Roadhouse. I
just I think it just came outon Friday and I watched it, like
within minutes. I love the originalIt's awesome Patrick Swayzee Forever, but this
(26:38):
one stars Jake Gillenhall, stars UFCLegend, Connor McGregor. It is so
enjoyable and dumb, and halfway throughyou go this plot makes no sense whatsoever.
I was literally saying, what isgoing on? I have no idea.
All the problems are solved by punchingpeople, and I loved it.
(27:00):
I would watch this thing. Infact, I may rewatch it today now
that I'm not playing. Jake Chillenhallis one of the few actors who can
play serious, he can play comedy, he can sing. He is like
a quadruple threat. Highly recommended tenout of ten. Much better than the
Dune remakes. DJ any thoughts,I have not seen the remake. I
(27:21):
barely remember seeing the original. I'mjust gonna leave that to one side.
I have seen neither the original northe remake on Showgun. But I've seen
some reviews about Showgun, about theremake and about how it is the characters
are more three dimensional, they aremore complex. It appears to be more
of a Japanese perspective, which Ithink will be helpful. I have seen
(27:45):
I have not seen the second partof the of the twenty twenties Dune,
but it's got to be better thanthe nineteen eighties Dune. No one can
take that novel and shove it intotwo hours. No one should have tried,
and anyone who did try, Ishould recognize that it was going to
be a failure from the outset.Now it was a no I will give
(28:07):
it that. It was a noblefailure in ed Patrick Stewart, it had
Richard Jordan, it had bradd Reef, it had a very good cast stinging.
But you know, but you can'tcompress it into two hours. I'm
not even sure it can do wellcompressed into four or five hours. Frank
Herbert's novels are the kinds of thingsthat you do a ten seat a ten
(28:36):
episode series for Netflix, and hisentire entire work in that universe is something
that should be a six or sevenseason show on a Netflix or an Amazon
or something like that. The moretime you give Frank Herbert's novels, the
better it will be. I agree, five hours is better than two hours,
ten hours is better than five hours. Oh yeah, oh yeah,
(28:57):
there should be. There should beI agree one hundred percent a ten part
twelve part mini series with someone notTimothy Shallomey. Okay, And let's and
who could be a better Baron Hartcomment than Stelle scarsguard ellis Stell's guard is?
You're right? We will agree weshould end on that before our friendship
(29:18):
deteriorates overdue, which I've lost friendsover that book. I have lost friends
and I have told family members youare dead to me. Well, speaking
of noble failures, we want tofinch everybody for listening to a podcast that
(29:41):
work longer than you know producing aDune movie using every page of the book.
But if you enjoy what we dohere, please follow us on Instagram
at MPU fan Club, and don'tforget to share our link on your Facebook
timeline so your friends can discover usas well. And as always, we
are forever grateful to len Kini forour theme music with that in mind,
(30:08):
gentlemen, who will be making beautifulmusic and where this coming week. Not
me. I'm taking the week off. I'm going to Rereadune the way it
should be experienced in book form,with the only way it should be.
I do hope I will be ableto lay down some music tracks for Yesterday's
(30:29):
Future, the album that I amworking on. I was able to get
two down this week. I'm hopingto get a few more done this week.
Fantastic. Okay, that's a podcast.
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