August 6, 2024 • 39 mins
This week, the MPU gang looks at the rollout of Kamala Harris's chosen running mate, Governor Tim Walz, and the state of the presidential race. Then the discussion turns to the Olympics for their take on the alleged transgender boxer controversy that wasn't.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to the More Perfect Union in the podcast that
offers real debate without Hey, I'm Cavin Calton and as always,
joined by Rebecca Cushmeiter.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, I am Rebecca Cushmeier coming to you live from Kensington, Maryland,
where I have been loving Snoop Doggs coverage of the Olympics.
But I am deeply upset by one still photo I
saw where he was wearing half chaps wrong while watching
Massage with Martha Stewart, and I need to file an objection.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And d J. Maguire is here, Yes, fresh off my
work writing a parody of good Luck Babe from the
prospection of Katie Vance's couch.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And joining us again Karl Wolfson.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Hey, Carl here from poor in Oregon. And you know
there's one thousand security people at the Olympics looking for
suspicious packages and they didn't tell the French pole vaulter
about his.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Oh no, the package, the package. Yes, yes, yes, poor guy.
But also.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Is he single best online dating profile.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Ever honestly lost the pole vault because of the poll.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
That's easy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, we'll talk about the Olympics a little bit more
towards the second half of our podcast, but we want
to start with the world of politics, which is on
fire this week. The last time we spoke, Kamala Harris
had just been anointed the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
Now she is indeed the nominee of the Democratic Party,
and earlier today announced her choice for a running mate,
(01:54):
Tim Waltz DJ I'll throw to you first, whatever thoughts
you have on the appointment, whether you thought it was
the best choice not the best choice, and where you
see things going from here.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I think Waltz is a diamond in the rough for
reasons nobody else thinks about. Because I'm weird, but not
that kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Weird but in the.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Right, in the good way. But the only thing that
was notable about Waltz outside of his persona, which is
fantastic and his fairly left of center record, was just
about a month or two after Russia invaded Ukraine for
the second time, he not only canceled all state contrasts
(02:41):
with Russian entities, he got the legislature to pass a
law mandating that the state government disinvest in Russia and
its puppet state Belarus. That's abuff and beyond for a governor.
Governors really can't do much regards for foreign policy issues.
That is a tool that they have, and he picked
(03:02):
it up as soon as he could. One. I liked
that just on principle, and two, I think the best
and really the only option that Harris has had in
order to win, to win over Republicans and Conservatives who
are not trumpefied, is to lean on the Ukraine issue.
(03:22):
She's never going to go center enough or center right
enough to get them on domestic policy stuff. But those voters,
if they're not voting for Donald Trump, Ukraine is one
of their biggest reasons. And if she leans in on that,
then she can get the maximum she can out of
that group while doing whatever she needs to do on
(03:45):
domestic policy to shore up the left wing and the base.
So Waltz didn't may not at first look like an
opportunity to help her go across the center, but it
actually does because the one issue that I think is
most effective he actually has street cred on.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Pretty cool, Pretty cool, Rebecca, What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, I mean, just just scratching the surface of Walt's
great Personas DJ mentioned, you know, affable guy. You could
definitely have a beer with him, only he doesn't drink,
not anymore. He got in trouble for it once, and
you know, and he's a well Stone Democrat. He's a
Minnesota Democrat, and it's it's the kind of Democrat that
(04:29):
he's like, I'm gonna I'm going to expand school lunch programs.
And it's not because he's trying to like gain progressive cred.
He's doing it because it's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
He's he's very much bottom up on getting stuff done
and you know, getting into the area where I am weird,
but in a good way. I don't know if I've
ever explicitly mentioned this. My husband worked in the House
of Representatives for about a decade and the end of
his time on the Hill was spent working for the
House Agriculture Committee, starting when when MS one of the
(05:00):
majority in the six elections. So he worked under Chairman
Colin Peterson, another Minnesotan, and that was just as Tim
Waltz got elected and was serving on the Egg Committee.
And the EG Committee does not sound sexy. It does not.
It sounds very niche. It sounds like you're thinking about
ethanol a lot, and it's but it's actually far more
than that, and I was really interested to see what
subcommittees Walts and And first of all, my husband said,
(05:22):
Walts is actually that affable and NICA guy. But he
sat on the subcommittee for Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and
Rural Development, and that actually is a base of knowledge
that's going to It's really really important because commodity markets,
we're still fighting a trade war that Donald Trump started
(05:46):
largely about commodity prices and tariffs on imports of commodities
that we don't produce as much of at home. It
also gets into issues of intellectual properties and record keeping
and things like that, and rural development. You know, this
(06:08):
is your discussion about rural voters, do you jay. You know,
they have to some degree been left behind by policies
that affect urban voters. And you know, and the other
thing about the committee is because it deals in trade markets,
it also deals and in the rural development, urban development,
all of that. It touches on hunger reduction programs in
(06:29):
a very real way because USDA oversees wick, it oversees
free and reduced meals and schools, and it oversees food stamps.
So he comes into the position with some really great
domestic policy portfolio issues that I think Kamila Harris will
do well to use on his behower have him use
(06:51):
for the administration's behalf.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And Carl, I know that, like me, you were not
sure that Tim Wallis was your first choice. Do you
want to speak a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I woke up this morning and Tim Walls was the pick,
and I thought, oh, you know, I really wanted Josh Shapiro.
I started getting texts from people who were also Shapiro
people a little down. By the end of the day.
After lapping up every delicious second of that rollout in Philadelphia,
(07:22):
which was the best vice presidential rollout I have ever
seen in my life, I ended the day thinking, how
could she not have picked Tim Walls? You know, smartly?
Josh Shapiro opened the rally and he was very good.
He was on target, he was passionate, and by the way,
(07:45):
Kamala Harris hit every point she needed to hit. I
don't know who is writing her speeches, but I turned
to my husband and I said, this is exactly what
I would have wanted our nominee to hit down the line,
not just Trump critiques, which were easy, but what we
need to win this campaign. When Tim falls spoke, I mean,
(08:10):
he was pro but he hit a home run. Let
me just say Chuck Todd, whom I don't listen too
much anymore, he said today that Tim Walls doesn't speak Washington,
he speaks American. And when I heard Tim Walls not
just critiquing Donald Trump, and some of the best lines
(08:32):
I've heard, like he froze during COVID. That is a
great verb for Trump. Freezing during COVID drove the economy
over a cliff. Violent crime was up during Trump and
that's not even counting the crimes he committed. I mean,
these were killer lines. When he talked about that's mind
your own damn business, about getting in people's bedroom uteruses,
(08:57):
that is something Americans and he said this is how
we feel in Minnesota. That can relate to He's talking
the way Americans I think want to hear. The best part,
the most touching part, was talking about IVF that he
and his wife wanted to have a child and couldn't
and couldn't, and because of in vitro fertilization they could
(09:19):
and they named her Hope. I thought that was fantastic.
When he he was so good against Vance saying, you know,
if he can get off the couch to debate me.
I mean, I was like, that was so good.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And think about the coach.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
That's not real.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, I know, either is anything Donald Trump talks about. Okay,
that's true. The point is I want people to talk
like this. I want and we do have Trump and
the Republicans now on the defense. We are on the offense.
And as far as the political part about this, I mean,
I want someone like Walls. And first of all, Jos
(10:02):
Shapiro is going to go to every corner of Pennsylvania.
He will, and he wants to deliver that state. And
I wish the meme would be out there, the idea
that he's going to be the next attorney general. Whether
that's true or not, I think would be a good
thing to have people have in their minds. But look, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
and Wisconsin. I keep saying it, we have I think
(10:24):
with Kamala Harris, huge urban tone turnout. Now, you didn't
need to see the Philly rally today which was ten
thousand amazing people to know that we're going to get
the best turnout ever in Philly, in Pittsburgh and Madison
in Milwaukee and Detroit. The suburbs are so excited now,
especially the women vote. And they hit everyone today from
IVF to reproductive rights, to gun rights to gay rights.
(10:49):
They hit everyone what we need and DJ, you may
be right that they're not that many world voters who
are movable, but I don't know about that, because in
a tight election in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, a few
oral voters coming to our side who relate to this
(11:09):
vice presidential choice can make the difference. And one last thing,
this guy is offering stability. He is the voice of
you know, someone who is a coach, who is a
teacher and by the way, getting the teachers' unions and
public sector unions very excited. He is normal, quote unquote America.
If you're going to call Vance and Trump weird, he
(11:30):
is the obvious normal. We need a sense of normalcy
again in this country, and I think.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
He offers it, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And this this was something I was thinking about today
when Tim Waltz, I think, was one of the first
actually to call Trump weird or refer to Trump as weird,
and Doug Mhoff said something along lines of like, wouldn't
it feel good to just put all of the Trump
stuff behind us, to just be done with this line
of things. And I think this week actually solidified the
(12:01):
end of the Trump dominance in the media. You have
this joyful couple of weeks with the Olympics and with
Kamala and now with Tim Wells, and people are really
feeling good about that. And we have sort of just
stopped participating in Trump's grudge match against Biden. And Trump
is floundering. If you look at his posts right now,
(12:22):
he's a mess. All he can say is well, Biden
should come back and be the nominee, he should debate me.
This is you know, Gamala and Waltzy, and he's just
a mess. And it's because he was looking for that rematch.
He wanted to live out whatever fantasy of beating Joe
Biden he's had these past four years.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
By far, that gets under his skin.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
He gets under his skin, and the Democratic Party has
just sort of stopped having that conversation with him. We've
moved forward, we are looking forward, and he's now just
this footnote in the race.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I agree. I want to add one great line from Walls.
He said Donald Trump knows nothing about public service, and
he's talking about I was a teacher, My parents were,
two of my sisters were, and my kids urged me
to run for Congress in two thousand and six because
they wanted me to enact what I was teaching them
about public service. And he said, Donald Trump knows nothing
(13:16):
about public service. He's too busy serving himself. That's a
short line. And you know, his critique was kind of joyful.
It wasn't really mean, it wasn't tack dog stuff you
usually see out of vice presidential ticket mates. It was joyful,
I thought, just because.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, it was. He's a man who's been doing what
he does and doing it well for all these years,
and this is his next opportunity to do it. He's
not picking a fight with Donald Trump. He is campaigning
to do a job, and Kamala Harris is campaigning to
do a job.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
I hope the people in middle of America want their
healthcare more secure, they want better benefits, they want the
kids to be free from violence in public schools, including
gun vinees. I think that's what they want. And I
think you're absolutely right, Rebecca. They're saying this is the
they contrast the visions of the future, this dark Trump,
(14:12):
that's going to take us back to a terrible place
or our future, which is more normal and more America.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So I want to stop for a second and talk
about how they probably came to this choice. Obviously, none
of us has real insight into how the decision was
made to go with one running made versus another. But
I did hear on the news that Shapiro might have
been a little bit more assertive in terms of talking
(14:40):
about how he wanted to formulate the office of the
vice president if he was to be that role. I
think he was saying he wanted a larger portfolio, he
wanted more of a partnership with Kamala Harris, and I
think that might have been a little off putting to
her and to her team. And I also think she
(15:00):
might have been saying to herself, Listen, she's known Jos
Shapiro a long time. They're probably fairly good friends for
two politicians. But she also had to on some level
be thinking, is in the back of this guy's mind,
in some dark crevice of his mind, might he ever
be thinking, if I'm the vice presidential nominee and this
ticket doesn't win on the first in line for twenty
(15:24):
twenty eight and whether he actually would think that and
it might affect his performance, or whether she was just
concerned about that that might have also impacted the choice.
But regardless of how they got there, and I do
not second guess the people who made this choice, because
they have so much more information than we do, including
(15:46):
internal polling and an idea of how they want to
prosecute the campaign and who best could help them prosecute that. So, yes,
we don't have the very very popular governor of Pennsylvania
to help us, may be sure up that state. But
I think that they are making the calculation that this
is going to be a base turnout election, that there
(16:09):
aren't enough persuadables in the middle to go after and
make a difference. And so I think it was an
odd to the progressive wing of the party to say, look,
we're giving you what you want. You've got two progressive
candidates running. It's different than what you've perceived to have
in twenty twenty, it's different from what you perceived to
(16:31):
have in twenty sixteen. This is your best progressive ticket since,
you know, probably since Johnson Humphrey and come home. And
I think that they're going to I think it's going
to be very successful.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I think it was. I think there was one issue
that sung Shapiro. It's not the issue everyone thinks it
is because it sort of rumbled under the surface, but
it was something that people in the know knew. In
twenty twenty two, Josh Shapiro campaign as a supporter of
school choice what you would all call vouchers, and I
suspect when Bush came to shove the various public sector
(17:10):
unions that that Carl talked about so put up a finger, said, uh,
can we talk about this for a minute here, And
I think definitely was an issue.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, it was an issue.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, I think it was. I think that was the difference.
Whatever one thinks of that issue, no one is actually
going to switch over. No one is actually going to
switch over because of it. That's not going to particularly
vice presidential nominee. So again, you know, for I've said
it forestat again for the Harris campaign, the best and
really the only way for them to get crossover voters,
(17:43):
to get persuadables, and I do think they're out there,
is to lean in on Ukraine. Don't worry about anything domestic.
That will be the issue that get that gets them
over so yeah, given given that, and given Shapiro's heterodox
on that issue, I think that's what actually sank him
(18:03):
and led them to go with Waltz.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Well, there's also the question of whether or not he
helped with the cover up of a harassment scandal within
his cabinet, and that is just that's too easy a
target to put on to have on a candidate. You know,
you're basically begging the Republicans to say, well, look what
your guy did, and nobody needs that. I mean, Walts
is apparently squeaky cle the guy that do you why
in the nineties and has done nothing wrong since then.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I think they're looking at Michigan as well. And there
was the Jewish question, and you know, I'm half Jewish
and I had no problem with Josh Shapiro, as I
said last time on this podcast, But look at Michigan.
I mean, they've got a bett Michigan now, and Michigan
is is absolutely needed. And you know, Kevin I I
pushed back a little bit on its progress as the
(18:49):
very progressive ticket. Of course, that's what Trump is saying,
and that's what he's saying. He's saying that this is
a Bernie Sanders Guy and Advance said he was a
San Francisco liberal. Nancy Pelosi was on Morning Joe this
morning saying he is right down the middle, and he
looks down the middle, and I know he is progressive
on some policies, he's more moderate on others. But I
(19:10):
think they may have a hard time. Well, you know,
they said Barack Obama was the most liberal senate. Nice.
I want to mention one thing about down ballot, and
this is another reason I love Tim Walls. We have
their three Democrats in seats congressional seats that Donald Trump
won in twenty twenty, won the district Marie Gusel camp
(19:34):
Perez CD three across the river from me, Jared Golden
and Maine CD two, and Mary Peltola up in Alaska. Yeah,
this is going to help them big time. It's going
to help them. And in Oregon, just so you know,
our delegation now is four Democrats two Republicans. It's going
to be five to one after this because we lost
(19:55):
CD five. Kirch Trader was a blue dog on popularly
got primary mind him is going to win and and
she it's what we's gonna be five one here in Oregon.
And this is exactly the kind of Canadate Tim Walls
who can come into these districts, go to the rural
areas as Marie gusel Camp losing camp Perez did and
(20:15):
say I'm a public school product. I own guns, but
I don't want gun vinyls. He is the perfect profile
for flipping some of these down ballot districts for us.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And we'll be back right after this. So with that,
I want to move on to other topics. The Olympics
are wrapping up, and we want to talk a little
bit about the controversy of the two boxers uh one
(20:47):
who quit mid fight and the the hubbub over the
question of gender of the boxer that won that that fights.
So I'm gonna go to DJ first. I know you
have some strong opinions on this.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
That I do. So there have been a lot of
people talking about talking about the rights of trans women
in athletics, which I generally support, and this would be
no exception if it were relevant, which it is not.
It is not those who were talking about us. You
know about CIS women who have the who have the
(21:24):
X Y, and I would support them uh being in
athletics if that were the situation here, which I am
certain it is not, because what I want to talk
about is the fact that we have all gone, We've
all wrapped ourselves around the axle because the because the
(21:46):
Kremlin got control of the International Boxing Association. Umar Kremlev
is a friend of Vladimir Putin, who has used Kremlev
in the IBA to go after the International Olympic Committee
and a bunch of things. They disqualified Emaine Khalif and
the Taiwanese boxer whose name unfortunately cannot remember.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Last name is Lynn Lynn.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
They disqualified. They disqualified them three days after Khalif defeated
a Russian boxer at the World's Championships in twenty twenty three.
They have never revealed what test they gave them. They
just said it is an it is it is a
respectable and certified test, whatever the hell that means. There
(22:34):
is no actual evidence that these two boxers are even
CIS women with X Y, and if they were, they
should be allowed tonticipate anyway. But there's no evidence of that.
We just have the word of a Russian painted boxing
organization that is so thoroughly corrupt that the Olympic Committee
(22:56):
has not only refused to let the IBA manage boxing
in this Olympics. They won't even put boxing as a
sport in the Los Angeles Olympics in twenty twenty eight
because they're so sick of this crew. And yesterday morning
they held a press conference the IBA crew to defend themselves.
And I invite all of you to go look at
(23:20):
reports of that. It was, as the Brits would say,
and omni shambles. It was a beautiful disaster. And once
again they presented assertions and anger, but they presented no evidence.
This is the Kremlin using a culture war, playing the
(23:41):
culture war card again, using disinformation again to spin us
all up again. And what bothers me the most is
that it worked again. Or I'll need to learn from this
so it stop squorking.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Well said, did you say, Carl Kevin? You know I
agree with everything that DJ said. And first of all,
the Boston Globe also had to apologize they had a
headline a transgender boxer, not transgender. In twenty twenty two,
the midterms, I would go to all websites of senatorial
(24:26):
and many congressional candidates, Democrat and Republican. And the one thing,
two things you could count on for every Republican candidate
we go to their website, they got guns, they're holding
a gun, or someone with them has a gun, an
anti LGBTQ. They run on those issues. And one of
(24:46):
the reasons we all know they love Vladimir Putin on
the far right is the hates the same people they hate.
Vladimir Putin is seen as the white Christian savior of civilization,
like Victor Orbon in Hungary. And these people that Donald
Trump clings to because they're autocrats and they play to
(25:08):
his political base. So yes, this is all part of,
you know, in Putin's mind, destabilizing the West, trying to
stoke the culture wars, just like he intervened in the
twenty sixteen election and will try again in the twenty
twenty four election. And you know, my husband said to
(25:29):
me a couple of weeks ago, why do these people
not let kids or people be who they are? What
threat is it? What threat? It isn't a threat, It
isn't a threat to our society, It isn't a threat
to our culture. It just isn't. We should be going
to the doctors, the parents, the people are kids themselves
(25:53):
and practice best medical practice and psychological practice and biological
practice for those kids. And as Tim Wall said today,
I repeat, mind your own damn business.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I agree, Rebecca.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean this is it's boxing, which, like I don't
even like boxing as a sport. You know, a sport
where you're the goal is to punch people out is
not my favorite. And it's also boxing, and boxing is
governed by weight class, so crubosomes don't waigh much, so
(26:29):
they that's not what's you know, deciding size and skill
level in that ring. Regardless of what's going on, Both
of the boxers appeared to have the same sort of
muscular structure in their arms and shoulders, so if one
is punching harder than the other, it's probably a matter
of training, not a matter of gender or anything. What
(26:51):
it sounds like to me is this wasn't a controversy
at all, except that some people didn't like one the
way one boxer looked. And you know, she punched the
Italian boxer really hard in the nose, and that hurts.
And I understand the Italian boxer not wanting to keep going, and.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I'm going to build on that. I agree with everything
that's been said. I agree obviously it was a non issue.
It was a controversy without any controversy. But beyond that,
if you look at the actual footage of the fight. Now,
I've never done any boxing. I don't know whether anybody
else here has. I'm assuming Rebecca you haven't, but.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I have done.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I have done martial arts, and you do have to
learn some boxing skills in the martial arts. And I
was watching that fight after the whole controversy flared up,
and what I saw was the Italian boxer and I
apologize for not remembering her name or the name of
her opponent, but the Italian boxer, basically, it was not
(27:49):
protecting her face. She had her fists down and spread apart,
and she just gave that person an opportunity to punch
them straight in the nose.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And oh, so she was a bad boxer, and that's
why she's bad boxer.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
And so she got she got a straight right right
into the nose. And believe me, when you get your
nose broken, it feels like the hardest punch ever took.
And she quit. And I got to say that I
think that the uh, the result of that match was
not about gender, It was not about chromosomes. It was
not about Putin. It was about one boxer had better
(28:28):
skills than the others.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's what I gathered too. And and you know, and
they said she collapsed in floods of tears before surrendering
because of the woke mind virus. I'm like, I think
she was crying because her nose hurt.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, and she quit, Like I think I think she
was crying.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And was entirely about pain and disappointment.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Like that's she said as much.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, I quit because my nose hurt.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Quick, because my nose hurt. I was crying because I
had to quit. It was nothing about about about Miss Cleief.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
She was supportive of Miss Kalief and everything else. But
that didn't stop the IBA from awarding her olympical money anyway,
as a way of just saying f you to the
rest of the world.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You know, Ron de Santus started his campaign for the
Republican nomination with Woke, Woke, Woke. It was an website,
all his literature, all his buttons. It didn't work, it
didn't test well, and he dropped it. It works well.
You know, all the in Republican far right primaries, but
Trump has those locked up. Anyway, I don't think woke
(29:29):
works well for Middle America, who cares about their kids
being safe in school and being able to pay the
bills at the end of the day and have a
thrivable wage. So I mean, this is part of the
culture wars, and it's one of the emotional reasons I
again say, why people like Ronda Santis and Marjorie Taylor
Green and Donald Trump are in love with Vladimir Putin,
(29:53):
Well don't.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I don't know if you guys followed. This was a
week and a half or so ago where Elon Musk
did a ridiculous interview with Jordan Peterson, which is why
it was ridiculous, talking about how one of his children
is trans and he says, I was tricked into signing
these papers to allow puberty blockers, and my son is
basically dead of the wokemand virus. Now and his daughter,
(30:16):
who has since petitioned the court to change her name
to her mother's maiden name because she went and does
not speak to her father, has bigically said he wasn't tricked.
It was me sitting down with him with the paperwork
and explaining what it was that my mom and my
doctors had agreed to he knew what was happening. It
wasn't the wokemand virus. It was that I'm trans. And
(30:39):
also he was never around, so I don't know how
he knows anything about me. Was we basically don't have
a relationship, and we never have. So you know, we've
got Elon Musk who his heart on for Putin's slightly different,
only slightly though, DJ you know, trying to perpetuate these
(31:01):
woke mind virus culture were things, and throwing his own
children under the bus, and fortunately his child appeared to
be able to take the wheel. It was like speed
where the bus just ran over Elon, and it's it's dumb.
It's dumb. You're right, Carl, it's mind your own business.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
He also moved the SpaceX headquarters from California to Texas
because he said it was because of California's trans policy.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I mean, all right, no, okay, we actually wanted to
talk about this, like when that first dropped, Gavin Newsom
signed into law. Basically it's that California schools do not
need to tell parents if a student is presenting as
transit school but not doing so at home. We have
that same law here in my county, and actually a
group of parents tried to sue to block it and
they were kicked out due to lack of standing because
(31:49):
none of their kids were trans and had a trans
plan at school. And the misinformation campaigns around these policies
are like schools or transitioning children and without their parents consent,
like no schools are making a note of what kids
want to be called and not calling home to confirm
it if the student says, I don't want you to
tell my mom. Yet, it's not nearly as nefarious as
(32:12):
people think, but it is allowing kids with unsupportive parents
to have a safe space within their public school at
which they are mandated to be for X number of
hours per week, that no one's handing out meds, no
one's performing surgery.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Macro views very quickly that I have of the current
iteration of the Republican Party, the right wing that's evangelical
and so authoritarian. There was a governor of Georgia named
Eugene Talmadge, father of Hermann Talmage, but this was a
segregationist governor of Georgia. Eugene Talmage in the thirties, and
(32:49):
he said in nineteen thirty five here's a quote. We
are the true friends of the Negroes, always have been
and always will be, so long as they stay in
the definite place we have provided for them. This is
of people like Trump. They want LGBTQ Americans to be
in the place they provide for us, the Vice presidency,
(33:10):
women to stay.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I was going to say that's a joke about fanc
being a closet case.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Sorry, but they want to That's their make America great
again is to put people back in their place where
they assume whatever it is the patriarchy or the racist
hierarchy that they want. And that's why Desantus tries to
take away African American history, why he tries to make
(33:35):
LGBTQ parents invisible in schools. They want to take us
back to a time when they were in charge and
made us keep our place. And Kamala's message today along
with him Wilson, we're not going back. You heard that
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I love the resonance on that because that is well
before Dobbs, that was the chant at reproduct of justice events.
We are not going back.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
So I would say I would say two things. Uh.
First of all, I'm quite certain that JD. Vance is heterosectional.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Say now.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
For that joke to work, go with us Senate seats
from South Carolina, much better shot of than actually working there.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
That's very a lot about the Ottoman Empire as well.
Let's just ding ding leaning.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
For those of you who for those of you listening,
which is all of you, because you can't see Rebecca
trying to keep down the wine she just followed after
car'l drop that line.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
The puns are just they keep coming. Uh, This kid JD.
Vans like who did grow up in poverty and did
claw his way to a scholarship at Yale, and now
he's the couch humping guy.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And well, you know, I like the energy that Tim
Walls and Kamala Harris had today because they were saying
the elections in your hands, and Walls ended with we
have ninety one days, we sleep when we're dead. I mean,
they are telling us that they are going all out
twenty four to seven. Come along with us because it's
(35:16):
this important. I just thought everything, as I said, I
lapped up every second of that rally. And whoever's writing
the speeches, they got two great candidates to deliver it
and make the case I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And if you guys haven't seen yet, djay you had
a thought, I want to give you the chance to
finish your thought.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Okay. So the other thing is I this, this whole
thing started in twenty twenty one when Glenn Youngkin got
elected governor here in Virginia, and everyone sort of turned
their heads and tried to figure out why. They skipped
over the part that Terry McAuliffe is not really a
very good candidate, right, They skipped over the part that Biden,
(35:58):
that Biden's popularity had sunk a lot because of the
Afghanistan withdrawal. They focused on the issues that young Cain used,
and Youngkin was a culture Youngkin was a culture warrior
in those last few weeks. It was enough to get
him to win. And everybody and all the Republicans are, Okay,
that's what we have to do. That's why DeSantis followed
(36:19):
that trail. That's why everyone else went down the critical
race theory. De ei woke nonsense that everything they did
they never took into account that it was just a
fluke for a bunch of other reasons. I mean, Youngin
didn't win by a landslide. He went by like two points.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
And a lot of Youngkin's policies were dead on arrival,
like he lost his legislature and hasn't been able to
get his signature stuff through.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Okay, exactly in twenty twenty three, Virginia said, well, no, no,
we actually don't want that.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
That's all, okay. So what I'd like to do is
bring this home with something that Rebecca wrote on her
social media pages earlier today that I just love so Rebecca,
I help you know what I'm talking about, and I'd
like to hear you say out loud what I read
in your own words today.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
What I said was, y'all take a moment at look
at what people are leaning into this summer. First we
have Kamela smiling and laughing and dancing. Next, we get
the barrage of stories out of the Olympics that are
all about the support and fun and love athletes are sharing.
Now we have Tim Waltz going to the fair with
his daughter and talking about positive policies he delivered for Minnesota.
(37:29):
The coverage of all that positivity has eclipsed Trump's ugly
name calling. America is starving for joy. We're ready to
lap up every drop of news about the best facets
of humanity. Hate and fear are exhausting. Let's be our
best selves as individuals and as a nation.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And as a podcast and as a podcast. I want
to thank everybody for listening. If you like what we
do here, please share our link on your Facebook timeline
so your friends can discover us as well.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
And that.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Any last books.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
I just thought, you know, I did not read what
you posted, Rebecca, but I loved it here. And I
just note that I started this podcast saying I lapped
up every second. I don't know how often I use
the verbal app but I sure look hid up every
second and I said it was joyous.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So yeah, No, Tim Waltz his first line in his speeches,
thank you Kamila for bringing the joy back. And I've
been hearing a lot of that, and I think part
of it is the Olympics. It has been a love
fest and a joy fest. Those the girls on the
podium last night, bowing to the gold medal winner and explaining, no,
I'm over're giving her flowers. She's queen. This is it?
Speaker 4 (38:44):
So yeah, they competed, they didn't claim bone spurts. Good
for them.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Correct, Correct, They weren't on the couch or in the
couch
Speaker 4 (39:02):
N
Welcome to the More Perfect Union in the podcast that
offers real debate without Hey, I'm Cavin Calton and as always,
joined by Rebecca Cushmeiter.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, I am Rebecca Cushmeier coming to you live from Kensington, Maryland,
where I have been loving Snoop Doggs coverage of the Olympics.
But I am deeply upset by one still photo I
saw where he was wearing half chaps wrong while watching
Massage with Martha Stewart, and I need to file an objection.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And d J. Maguire is here, Yes, fresh off my
work writing a parody of good Luck Babe from the
prospection of Katie Vance's couch.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And joining us again Karl Wolfson.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Hey, Carl here from poor in Oregon. And you know
there's one thousand security people at the Olympics looking for
suspicious packages and they didn't tell the French pole vaulter
about his.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Oh no, the package, the package. Yes, yes, yes, poor guy.
But also.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Is he single best online dating profile.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Ever honestly lost the pole vault because of the poll.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
That's easy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, we'll talk about the Olympics a little bit more
towards the second half of our podcast, but we want
to start with the world of politics, which is on
fire this week. The last time we spoke, Kamala Harris
had just been anointed the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
Now she is indeed the nominee of the Democratic Party,
and earlier today announced her choice for a running mate,
(01:54):
Tim Waltz DJ I'll throw to you first, whatever thoughts
you have on the appointment, whether you thought it was
the best choice not the best choice, and where you
see things going from here.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I think Waltz is a diamond in the rough for
reasons nobody else thinks about. Because I'm weird, but not
that kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Weird but in the.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Right, in the good way. But the only thing that
was notable about Waltz outside of his persona, which is
fantastic and his fairly left of center record, was just
about a month or two after Russia invaded Ukraine for
the second time, he not only canceled all state contrasts
(02:41):
with Russian entities, he got the legislature to pass a
law mandating that the state government disinvest in Russia and
its puppet state Belarus. That's abuff and beyond for a governor.
Governors really can't do much regards for foreign policy issues.
That is a tool that they have, and he picked
(03:02):
it up as soon as he could. One. I liked
that just on principle, and two, I think the best
and really the only option that Harris has had in
order to win, to win over Republicans and Conservatives who
are not trumpefied, is to lean on the Ukraine issue.
(03:22):
She's never going to go center enough or center right
enough to get them on domestic policy stuff. But those voters,
if they're not voting for Donald Trump, Ukraine is one
of their biggest reasons. And if she leans in on that,
then she can get the maximum she can out of
that group while doing whatever she needs to do on
(03:45):
domestic policy to shore up the left wing and the base.
So Waltz didn't may not at first look like an
opportunity to help her go across the center, but it
actually does because the one issue that I think is
most effective he actually has street cred on.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Pretty cool, Pretty cool, Rebecca, What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, I mean, just just scratching the surface of Walt's
great Personas DJ mentioned, you know, affable guy. You could
definitely have a beer with him, only he doesn't drink,
not anymore. He got in trouble for it once, and
you know, and he's a well Stone Democrat. He's a
Minnesota Democrat, and it's it's the kind of Democrat that
(04:29):
he's like, I'm gonna I'm going to expand school lunch programs.
And it's not because he's trying to like gain progressive cred.
He's doing it because it's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
He's he's very much bottom up on getting stuff done
and you know, getting into the area where I am weird,
but in a good way. I don't know if I've
ever explicitly mentioned this. My husband worked in the House
of Representatives for about a decade and the end of
his time on the Hill was spent working for the
House Agriculture Committee, starting when when MS one of the
(05:00):
majority in the six elections. So he worked under Chairman
Colin Peterson, another Minnesotan, and that was just as Tim
Waltz got elected and was serving on the Egg Committee.
And the EG Committee does not sound sexy. It does not.
It sounds very niche. It sounds like you're thinking about
ethanol a lot, and it's but it's actually far more
than that, and I was really interested to see what
subcommittees Walts and And first of all, my husband said,
(05:22):
Walts is actually that affable and NICA guy. But he
sat on the subcommittee for Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and
Rural Development, and that actually is a base of knowledge
that's going to It's really really important because commodity markets,
we're still fighting a trade war that Donald Trump started
(05:46):
largely about commodity prices and tariffs on imports of commodities
that we don't produce as much of at home. It
also gets into issues of intellectual properties and record keeping
and things like that, and rural development. You know, this
(06:08):
is your discussion about rural voters, do you jay. You know,
they have to some degree been left behind by policies
that affect urban voters. And you know, and the other
thing about the committee is because it deals in trade markets,
it also deals and in the rural development, urban development,
all of that. It touches on hunger reduction programs in
(06:29):
a very real way because USDA oversees wick, it oversees
free and reduced meals and schools, and it oversees food stamps.
So he comes into the position with some really great
domestic policy portfolio issues that I think Kamila Harris will
do well to use on his behower have him use
(06:51):
for the administration's behalf.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And Carl, I know that, like me, you were not
sure that Tim Wallis was your first choice. Do you
want to speak a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I woke up this morning and Tim Walls was the pick,
and I thought, oh, you know, I really wanted Josh Shapiro.
I started getting texts from people who were also Shapiro
people a little down. By the end of the day.
After lapping up every delicious second of that rollout in Philadelphia,
(07:22):
which was the best vice presidential rollout I have ever
seen in my life, I ended the day thinking, how
could she not have picked Tim Walls? You know, smartly?
Josh Shapiro opened the rally and he was very good.
He was on target, he was passionate, and by the way,
(07:45):
Kamala Harris hit every point she needed to hit. I
don't know who is writing her speeches, but I turned
to my husband and I said, this is exactly what
I would have wanted our nominee to hit down the line,
not just Trump critiques, which were easy, but what we
need to win this campaign. When Tim falls spoke, I mean,
(08:10):
he was pro but he hit a home run. Let
me just say Chuck Todd, whom I don't listen too
much anymore, he said today that Tim Walls doesn't speak Washington,
he speaks American. And when I heard Tim Walls not
just critiquing Donald Trump, and some of the best lines
(08:32):
I've heard, like he froze during COVID. That is a
great verb for Trump. Freezing during COVID drove the economy
over a cliff. Violent crime was up during Trump and
that's not even counting the crimes he committed. I mean,
these were killer lines. When he talked about that's mind
your own damn business, about getting in people's bedroom uteruses,
(08:57):
that is something Americans and he said this is how
we feel in Minnesota. That can relate to He's talking
the way Americans I think want to hear. The best part,
the most touching part, was talking about IVF that he
and his wife wanted to have a child and couldn't
and couldn't, and because of in vitro fertilization they could
(09:19):
and they named her Hope. I thought that was fantastic.
When he he was so good against Vance saying, you know,
if he can get off the couch to debate me.
I mean, I was like, that was so good.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And think about the coach.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
That's not real.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, I know, either is anything Donald Trump talks about. Okay,
that's true. The point is I want people to talk
like this. I want and we do have Trump and
the Republicans now on the defense. We are on the offense.
And as far as the political part about this, I mean,
I want someone like Walls. And first of all, Jos
(10:02):
Shapiro is going to go to every corner of Pennsylvania.
He will, and he wants to deliver that state. And
I wish the meme would be out there, the idea
that he's going to be the next attorney general. Whether
that's true or not, I think would be a good
thing to have people have in their minds. But look, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
and Wisconsin. I keep saying it, we have I think
(10:24):
with Kamala Harris, huge urban tone turnout. Now, you didn't
need to see the Philly rally today which was ten
thousand amazing people to know that we're going to get
the best turnout ever in Philly, in Pittsburgh and Madison
in Milwaukee and Detroit. The suburbs are so excited now,
especially the women vote. And they hit everyone today from
IVF to reproductive rights, to gun rights to gay rights.
(10:49):
They hit everyone what we need and DJ, you may
be right that they're not that many world voters who
are movable, but I don't know about that, because in
a tight election in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, a few
oral voters coming to our side who relate to this
(11:09):
vice presidential choice can make the difference. And one last thing,
this guy is offering stability. He is the voice of
you know, someone who is a coach, who is a
teacher and by the way, getting the teachers' unions and
public sector unions very excited. He is normal, quote unquote America.
If you're going to call Vance and Trump weird, he
(11:30):
is the obvious normal. We need a sense of normalcy
again in this country, and I think.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
He offers it, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And this this was something I was thinking about today
when Tim Waltz, I think, was one of the first
actually to call Trump weird or refer to Trump as weird,
and Doug Mhoff said something along lines of like, wouldn't
it feel good to just put all of the Trump
stuff behind us, to just be done with this line
of things. And I think this week actually solidified the
(12:01):
end of the Trump dominance in the media. You have
this joyful couple of weeks with the Olympics and with
Kamala and now with Tim Wells, and people are really
feeling good about that. And we have sort of just
stopped participating in Trump's grudge match against Biden. And Trump
is floundering. If you look at his posts right now,
(12:22):
he's a mess. All he can say is well, Biden
should come back and be the nominee, he should debate me.
This is you know, Gamala and Waltzy, and he's just
a mess. And it's because he was looking for that rematch.
He wanted to live out whatever fantasy of beating Joe
Biden he's had these past four years.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
By far, that gets under his skin.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
He gets under his skin, and the Democratic Party has
just sort of stopped having that conversation with him. We've
moved forward, we are looking forward, and he's now just
this footnote in the race.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I agree. I want to add one great line from Walls.
He said Donald Trump knows nothing about public service, and
he's talking about I was a teacher, My parents were,
two of my sisters were, and my kids urged me
to run for Congress in two thousand and six because
they wanted me to enact what I was teaching them
about public service. And he said, Donald Trump knows nothing
(13:16):
about public service. He's too busy serving himself. That's a
short line. And you know, his critique was kind of joyful.
It wasn't really mean, it wasn't tack dog stuff you
usually see out of vice presidential ticket mates. It was joyful,
I thought, just because.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, it was. He's a man who's been doing what
he does and doing it well for all these years,
and this is his next opportunity to do it. He's
not picking a fight with Donald Trump. He is campaigning
to do a job, and Kamala Harris is campaigning to
do a job.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
I hope the people in middle of America want their
healthcare more secure, they want better benefits, they want the
kids to be free from violence in public schools, including
gun vinees. I think that's what they want. And I
think you're absolutely right, Rebecca. They're saying this is the
they contrast the visions of the future, this dark Trump,
(14:12):
that's going to take us back to a terrible place
or our future, which is more normal and more America.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So I want to stop for a second and talk
about how they probably came to this choice. Obviously, none
of us has real insight into how the decision was
made to go with one running made versus another. But
I did hear on the news that Shapiro might have
been a little bit more assertive in terms of talking
(14:40):
about how he wanted to formulate the office of the
vice president if he was to be that role. I
think he was saying he wanted a larger portfolio, he
wanted more of a partnership with Kamala Harris, and I
think that might have been a little off putting to
her and to her team. And I also think she
(15:00):
might have been saying to herself, Listen, she's known Jos
Shapiro a long time. They're probably fairly good friends for
two politicians. But she also had to on some level
be thinking, is in the back of this guy's mind,
in some dark crevice of his mind, might he ever
be thinking, if I'm the vice presidential nominee and this
ticket doesn't win on the first in line for twenty
(15:24):
twenty eight and whether he actually would think that and
it might affect his performance, or whether she was just
concerned about that that might have also impacted the choice.
But regardless of how they got there, and I do
not second guess the people who made this choice, because
they have so much more information than we do, including
(15:46):
internal polling and an idea of how they want to
prosecute the campaign and who best could help them prosecute that. So, yes,
we don't have the very very popular governor of Pennsylvania
to help us, may be sure up that state. But
I think that they are making the calculation that this
is going to be a base turnout election, that there
(16:09):
aren't enough persuadables in the middle to go after and
make a difference. And so I think it was an
odd to the progressive wing of the party to say, look,
we're giving you what you want. You've got two progressive
candidates running. It's different than what you've perceived to have
in twenty twenty, it's different from what you perceived to
(16:31):
have in twenty sixteen. This is your best progressive ticket since,
you know, probably since Johnson Humphrey and come home. And
I think that they're going to I think it's going
to be very successful.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I think it was. I think there was one issue
that sung Shapiro. It's not the issue everyone thinks it
is because it sort of rumbled under the surface, but
it was something that people in the know knew. In
twenty twenty two, Josh Shapiro campaign as a supporter of
school choice what you would all call vouchers, and I
suspect when Bush came to shove the various public sector
(17:10):
unions that that Carl talked about so put up a finger, said, uh,
can we talk about this for a minute here, And
I think definitely was an issue.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, it was an issue.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, I think it was. I think that was the difference.
Whatever one thinks of that issue, no one is actually
going to switch over. No one is actually going to
switch over because of it. That's not going to particularly
vice presidential nominee. So again, you know, for I've said
it forestat again for the Harris campaign, the best and
really the only way for them to get crossover voters,
(17:43):
to get persuadables, and I do think they're out there,
is to lean in on Ukraine. Don't worry about anything domestic.
That will be the issue that get that gets them
over so yeah, given given that, and given Shapiro's heterodox
on that issue, I think that's what actually sank him
(18:03):
and led them to go with Waltz.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Well, there's also the question of whether or not he
helped with the cover up of a harassment scandal within
his cabinet, and that is just that's too easy a
target to put on to have on a candidate. You know,
you're basically begging the Republicans to say, well, look what
your guy did, and nobody needs that. I mean, Walts
is apparently squeaky cle the guy that do you why
in the nineties and has done nothing wrong since then.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I think they're looking at Michigan as well. And there
was the Jewish question, and you know, I'm half Jewish
and I had no problem with Josh Shapiro, as I
said last time on this podcast, But look at Michigan.
I mean, they've got a bett Michigan now, and Michigan
is is absolutely needed. And you know, Kevin I I
pushed back a little bit on its progress as the
(18:49):
very progressive ticket. Of course, that's what Trump is saying,
and that's what he's saying. He's saying that this is
a Bernie Sanders Guy and Advance said he was a
San Francisco liberal. Nancy Pelosi was on Morning Joe this
morning saying he is right down the middle, and he
looks down the middle, and I know he is progressive
on some policies, he's more moderate on others. But I
(19:10):
think they may have a hard time. Well, you know,
they said Barack Obama was the most liberal senate. Nice.
I want to mention one thing about down ballot, and
this is another reason I love Tim Walls. We have
their three Democrats in seats congressional seats that Donald Trump
won in twenty twenty, won the district Marie Gusel camp
(19:34):
Perez CD three across the river from me, Jared Golden
and Maine CD two, and Mary Peltola up in Alaska. Yeah,
this is going to help them big time. It's going
to help them. And in Oregon, just so you know,
our delegation now is four Democrats two Republicans. It's going
to be five to one after this because we lost
(19:55):
CD five. Kirch Trader was a blue dog on popularly
got primary mind him is going to win and and
she it's what we's gonna be five one here in Oregon.
And this is exactly the kind of Canadate Tim Walls
who can come into these districts, go to the rural
areas as Marie gusel Camp losing camp Perez did and
(20:15):
say I'm a public school product. I own guns, but
I don't want gun vinyls. He is the perfect profile
for flipping some of these down ballot districts for us.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And we'll be back right after this. So with that,
I want to move on to other topics. The Olympics
are wrapping up, and we want to talk a little
bit about the controversy of the two boxers uh one
(20:47):
who quit mid fight and the the hubbub over the
question of gender of the boxer that won that that fights.
So I'm gonna go to DJ first. I know you
have some strong opinions on this.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
That I do. So there have been a lot of
people talking about talking about the rights of trans women
in athletics, which I generally support, and this would be
no exception if it were relevant, which it is not.
It is not those who were talking about us. You
know about CIS women who have the who have the
(21:24):
X Y, and I would support them uh being in
athletics if that were the situation here, which I am
certain it is not, because what I want to talk
about is the fact that we have all gone, We've
all wrapped ourselves around the axle because the because the
(21:46):
Kremlin got control of the International Boxing Association. Umar Kremlev
is a friend of Vladimir Putin, who has used Kremlev
in the IBA to go after the International Olympic Committee
and a bunch of things. They disqualified Emaine Khalif and
the Taiwanese boxer whose name unfortunately cannot remember.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Last name is Lynn Lynn.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
They disqualified. They disqualified them three days after Khalif defeated
a Russian boxer at the World's Championships in twenty twenty three.
They have never revealed what test they gave them. They
just said it is an it is it is a
respectable and certified test, whatever the hell that means. There
(22:34):
is no actual evidence that these two boxers are even
CIS women with X Y, and if they were, they
should be allowed tonticipate anyway. But there's no evidence of that.
We just have the word of a Russian painted boxing
organization that is so thoroughly corrupt that the Olympic Committee
(22:56):
has not only refused to let the IBA manage boxing
in this Olympics. They won't even put boxing as a
sport in the Los Angeles Olympics in twenty twenty eight
because they're so sick of this crew. And yesterday morning
they held a press conference the IBA crew to defend themselves.
And I invite all of you to go look at
(23:20):
reports of that. It was, as the Brits would say,
and omni shambles. It was a beautiful disaster. And once
again they presented assertions and anger, but they presented no evidence.
This is the Kremlin using a culture war, playing the
(23:41):
culture war card again, using disinformation again to spin us
all up again. And what bothers me the most is
that it worked again. Or I'll need to learn from this
so it stop squorking.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Well said, did you say, Carl Kevin? You know I
agree with everything that DJ said. And first of all,
the Boston Globe also had to apologize they had a
headline a transgender boxer, not transgender. In twenty twenty two,
the midterms, I would go to all websites of senatorial
(24:26):
and many congressional candidates, Democrat and Republican. And the one thing,
two things you could count on for every Republican candidate
we go to their website, they got guns, they're holding
a gun, or someone with them has a gun, an
anti LGBTQ. They run on those issues. And one of
(24:46):
the reasons we all know they love Vladimir Putin on
the far right is the hates the same people they hate.
Vladimir Putin is seen as the white Christian savior of civilization,
like Victor Orbon in Hungary. And these people that Donald
Trump clings to because they're autocrats and they play to
(25:08):
his political base. So yes, this is all part of,
you know, in Putin's mind, destabilizing the West, trying to
stoke the culture wars, just like he intervened in the
twenty sixteen election and will try again in the twenty
twenty four election. And you know, my husband said to
(25:29):
me a couple of weeks ago, why do these people
not let kids or people be who they are? What
threat is it? What threat? It isn't a threat, It
isn't a threat to our society, It isn't a threat
to our culture. It just isn't. We should be going
to the doctors, the parents, the people are kids themselves
(25:53):
and practice best medical practice and psychological practice and biological
practice for those kids. And as Tim Wall said today,
I repeat, mind your own damn business.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I agree, Rebecca.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean this is it's boxing, which, like I don't
even like boxing as a sport. You know, a sport
where you're the goal is to punch people out is
not my favorite. And it's also boxing, and boxing is
governed by weight class, so crubosomes don't waigh much, so
(26:29):
they that's not what's you know, deciding size and skill
level in that ring. Regardless of what's going on, Both
of the boxers appeared to have the same sort of
muscular structure in their arms and shoulders, so if one
is punching harder than the other, it's probably a matter
of training, not a matter of gender or anything. What
(26:51):
it sounds like to me is this wasn't a controversy
at all, except that some people didn't like one the
way one boxer looked. And you know, she punched the
Italian boxer really hard in the nose, and that hurts.
And I understand the Italian boxer not wanting to keep going, and.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I'm going to build on that. I agree with everything
that's been said. I agree obviously it was a non issue.
It was a controversy without any controversy. But beyond that,
if you look at the actual footage of the fight. Now,
I've never done any boxing. I don't know whether anybody
else here has. I'm assuming Rebecca you haven't, but.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I have done.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I have done martial arts, and you do have to
learn some boxing skills in the martial arts. And I
was watching that fight after the whole controversy flared up,
and what I saw was the Italian boxer and I
apologize for not remembering her name or the name of
her opponent, but the Italian boxer, basically, it was not
(27:49):
protecting her face. She had her fists down and spread apart,
and she just gave that person an opportunity to punch
them straight in the nose.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And oh, so she was a bad boxer, and that's
why she's bad boxer.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
And so she got she got a straight right right
into the nose. And believe me, when you get your
nose broken, it feels like the hardest punch ever took.
And she quit. And I got to say that I
think that the uh, the result of that match was
not about gender, It was not about chromosomes. It was
not about Putin. It was about one boxer had better
(28:28):
skills than the others.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's what I gathered too. And and you know, and
they said she collapsed in floods of tears before surrendering
because of the woke mind virus. I'm like, I think
she was crying because her nose hurt.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, and she quit, Like I think I think she
was crying.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And was entirely about pain and disappointment.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Like that's she said as much.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, I quit because my nose hurt.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Quick, because my nose hurt. I was crying because I
had to quit. It was nothing about about about Miss Cleief.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
She was supportive of Miss Kalief and everything else. But
that didn't stop the IBA from awarding her olympical money anyway,
as a way of just saying f you to the
rest of the world.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You know, Ron de Santus started his campaign for the
Republican nomination with Woke, Woke, Woke. It was an website,
all his literature, all his buttons. It didn't work, it
didn't test well, and he dropped it. It works well.
You know, all the in Republican far right primaries, but
Trump has those locked up. Anyway, I don't think woke
(29:29):
works well for Middle America, who cares about their kids
being safe in school and being able to pay the
bills at the end of the day and have a
thrivable wage. So I mean, this is part of the
culture wars, and it's one of the emotional reasons I
again say, why people like Ronda Santis and Marjorie Taylor
Green and Donald Trump are in love with Vladimir Putin,
(29:53):
Well don't.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I don't know if you guys followed. This was a
week and a half or so ago where Elon Musk
did a ridiculous interview with Jordan Peterson, which is why
it was ridiculous, talking about how one of his children
is trans and he says, I was tricked into signing
these papers to allow puberty blockers, and my son is
basically dead of the wokemand virus. Now and his daughter,
(30:16):
who has since petitioned the court to change her name
to her mother's maiden name because she went and does
not speak to her father, has bigically said he wasn't tricked.
It was me sitting down with him with the paperwork
and explaining what it was that my mom and my
doctors had agreed to he knew what was happening. It
wasn't the wokemand virus. It was that I'm trans. And
(30:39):
also he was never around, so I don't know how
he knows anything about me. Was we basically don't have
a relationship, and we never have. So you know, we've
got Elon Musk who his heart on for Putin's slightly different,
only slightly though, DJ you know, trying to perpetuate these
(31:01):
woke mind virus culture were things, and throwing his own
children under the bus, and fortunately his child appeared to
be able to take the wheel. It was like speed
where the bus just ran over Elon, and it's it's dumb.
It's dumb. You're right, Carl, it's mind your own business.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
He also moved the SpaceX headquarters from California to Texas
because he said it was because of California's trans policy.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I mean, all right, no, okay, we actually wanted to
talk about this, like when that first dropped, Gavin Newsom
signed into law. Basically it's that California schools do not
need to tell parents if a student is presenting as
transit school but not doing so at home. We have
that same law here in my county, and actually a
group of parents tried to sue to block it and
they were kicked out due to lack of standing because
(31:49):
none of their kids were trans and had a trans
plan at school. And the misinformation campaigns around these policies
are like schools or transitioning children and without their parents consent,
like no schools are making a note of what kids
want to be called and not calling home to confirm
it if the student says, I don't want you to
tell my mom. Yet, it's not nearly as nefarious as
(32:12):
people think, but it is allowing kids with unsupportive parents
to have a safe space within their public school at
which they are mandated to be for X number of
hours per week, that no one's handing out meds, no
one's performing surgery.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Macro views very quickly that I have of the current
iteration of the Republican Party, the right wing that's evangelical
and so authoritarian. There was a governor of Georgia named
Eugene Talmadge, father of Hermann Talmage, but this was a
segregationist governor of Georgia. Eugene Talmage in the thirties, and
(32:49):
he said in nineteen thirty five here's a quote. We
are the true friends of the Negroes, always have been
and always will be, so long as they stay in
the definite place we have provided for them. This is
of people like Trump. They want LGBTQ Americans to be
in the place they provide for us, the Vice presidency,
(33:10):
women to stay.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I was going to say that's a joke about fanc
being a closet case.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Sorry, but they want to That's their make America great
again is to put people back in their place where
they assume whatever it is the patriarchy or the racist
hierarchy that they want. And that's why Desantus tries to
take away African American history, why he tries to make
(33:35):
LGBTQ parents invisible in schools. They want to take us
back to a time when they were in charge and
made us keep our place. And Kamala's message today along
with him Wilson, we're not going back. You heard that
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I love the resonance on that because that is well
before Dobbs, that was the chant at reproduct of justice events.
We are not going back.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
So I would say I would say two things. Uh.
First of all, I'm quite certain that JD. Vance is heterosectional.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Say now.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
For that joke to work, go with us Senate seats
from South Carolina, much better shot of than actually working there.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
That's very a lot about the Ottoman Empire as well.
Let's just ding ding leaning.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
For those of you who for those of you listening,
which is all of you, because you can't see Rebecca
trying to keep down the wine she just followed after
car'l drop that line.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
The puns are just they keep coming. Uh, This kid JD.
Vans like who did grow up in poverty and did
claw his way to a scholarship at Yale, and now
he's the couch humping guy.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And well, you know, I like the energy that Tim
Walls and Kamala Harris had today because they were saying
the elections in your hands, and Walls ended with we
have ninety one days, we sleep when we're dead. I mean,
they are telling us that they are going all out
twenty four to seven. Come along with us because it's
(35:16):
this important. I just thought everything, as I said, I
lapped up every second of that rally. And whoever's writing
the speeches, they got two great candidates to deliver it
and make the case I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And if you guys haven't seen yet, djay you had
a thought, I want to give you the chance to
finish your thought.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Okay. So the other thing is I this, this whole
thing started in twenty twenty one when Glenn Youngkin got
elected governor here in Virginia, and everyone sort of turned
their heads and tried to figure out why. They skipped
over the part that Terry McAuliffe is not really a
very good candidate, right, They skipped over the part that Biden,
(35:58):
that Biden's popularity had sunk a lot because of the
Afghanistan withdrawal. They focused on the issues that young Cain used,
and Youngkin was a culture Youngkin was a culture warrior
in those last few weeks. It was enough to get
him to win. And everybody and all the Republicans are, Okay,
that's what we have to do. That's why DeSantis followed
(36:19):
that trail. That's why everyone else went down the critical
race theory. De ei woke nonsense that everything they did
they never took into account that it was just a
fluke for a bunch of other reasons. I mean, Youngin
didn't win by a landslide. He went by like two points.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
And a lot of Youngkin's policies were dead on arrival,
like he lost his legislature and hasn't been able to
get his signature stuff through.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Okay, exactly in twenty twenty three, Virginia said, well, no, no,
we actually don't want that.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
That's all, okay. So what I'd like to do is
bring this home with something that Rebecca wrote on her
social media pages earlier today that I just love so Rebecca,
I help you know what I'm talking about, and I'd
like to hear you say out loud what I read
in your own words today.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
What I said was, y'all take a moment at look
at what people are leaning into this summer. First we
have Kamela smiling and laughing and dancing. Next, we get
the barrage of stories out of the Olympics that are
all about the support and fun and love athletes are sharing.
Now we have Tim Waltz going to the fair with
his daughter and talking about positive policies he delivered for Minnesota.
(37:29):
The coverage of all that positivity has eclipsed Trump's ugly
name calling. America is starving for joy. We're ready to
lap up every drop of news about the best facets
of humanity. Hate and fear are exhausting. Let's be our
best selves as individuals and as a nation.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And as a podcast and as a podcast. I want
to thank everybody for listening. If you like what we
do here, please share our link on your Facebook timeline
so your friends can discover us as well.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
And that.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Any last books.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
I just thought, you know, I did not read what
you posted, Rebecca, but I loved it here. And I
just note that I started this podcast saying I lapped
up every second. I don't know how often I use
the verbal app but I sure look hid up every
second and I said it was joyous.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So yeah, No, Tim Waltz his first line in his speeches,
thank you Kamila for bringing the joy back. And I've
been hearing a lot of that, and I think part
of it is the Olympics. It has been a love
fest and a joy fest. Those the girls on the
podium last night, bowing to the gold medal winner and explaining, no,
I'm over're giving her flowers. She's queen. This is it?
Speaker 4 (38:44):
So yeah, they competed, they didn't claim bone spurts. Good
for them.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Correct, Correct, They weren't on the couch or in the
couch
Speaker 4 (39:02):
N
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