Matt Connarton Unleashed 11-11-24

0:00 Speaker 1: Get command, don't get supremely magxilling. Hey, everybody, welcome to the first edition of Matt Connorton Unleashed AF. And if you don't know what AF stands for, just ask someone younger than you. But of course, the radio version of the show remains intact. But we've been teasing this, actually for months and months and months, an online version of the show, kind of getting back to our roots, the podcast version where we would speak about politics and other things, completely uncensored and unfettered and unleashed from the constraints of FM terrestrial radio or any kind of management oversight and so forth.

0:46 Speaker 1: So enjoining me for the first time in a very long time, my favorite conservative, Eric Pilcher is here.

0:54 Speaker 2: Hello Eric, Hello Matt. I don't know if I'm a conservative anymore, though, you know, I've had a lot of people say I'm not. Unfortunately, I think I I think I like the title independently conservative.

1:15 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, interesting. Yes, I have a family member who has said many times that you ser are not a true conservative.

1:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's rather unfortunate. I mean I will say that I'm conservative leaning.

1:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been having a little bit of a crisis with that. On my own, because as you know, I like to call myself an independent. But in the voting booth on election day, I just voted right down the ballot. I just voted for all Democrats. And I don't like being tethered to a party because of all the preconceptions that come with that from other people and so forth. Ben I don't really like being part of a club. But at the same time, I don't think I mean, unless there's a massive course correction in the Republican Party and unless they get the MAGA out of it, it's entirely likely that I don't vote for another Republican again in my lifetime, and the independence that do pop up usually end up being crazy anyway, like RFK or Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, who I know the media doesn't pay much attention to anymore, but she may very well be a Russian asset, so you know, so I might just go back to just calling myself a Democrat.

2:36 Speaker 1: I'm registered as a Democrat, so I also I have this struggle in terms of political identity.

2:45 Speaker 2: I do as well. I'll say on my end, I didn't vote straight Republican in the state of Iowa. I voted straight Republican. I have no problem saying this by numerous numerous issues with with this individual. I did vote for Kamala Harris. The big thing is is it was a business decision. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I work for a branch of the government that Donald Trump wants to privatize. Now, as ridiculous as that sounds, and his as ridiculous as it would be, if he even tried to accomplish it, he would fail miserably.

3:42 Speaker 2: It's still a fear. And I have to vote with my I have to vote with my finances, in benefits in my future because I have a pension. I have a four oh one k I. You know, I want to be able to retire and not worry about.

4:06 Speaker 1: Money, right, right of course?

4:09 Speaker 2: And you know so so yeah, I and the Project twenty twenty five just scared the scares of daylights out of me. Yeah. I mean I read nineteen eighty four and there's some real George Orwellian stuff in there. Yeah, and you look at so Yeah. There were a lot of reasons why, but the primary one was I got to look out for my finances. On the flip side, I did not agree with her economic policy. We very little she shared, and I'm sure we will get into that. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of things. And I think

5:00 Speaker 2: very early, actually, Tuesday night, I was watching and I'm like,

5:08 Speaker 2: by god, he's gonna win this. I think the writing was on the wall very early.

5:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a sinking feeling pretty early.

5:22 Speaker 2: You. I didn't have a sinking feeling. I was just like I thought we were. I thought it was going to be closer. And so that night when I got off work, I get a lot of statistical digging. And if anyone went down that rabbit hole, they should have had the same assumption that they should have had an idea of what happened Tuesday night is going to happen,

6:04 Speaker 2: because yeah, it was all right there.

6:08 Speaker 1: I was cautiously optimistic going in oh And part of what contributed to my optimism was the state of Iowa. I remember messaging you about it. That poll that did seem too good to be true, but that weird point Iowa that showed her like like or something.

6:31 Speaker 2: I show you. I saw the poll before you messaged me. Yeah, And if you, I do apologize to you. I was pretty flip it in my response to you on it. I'm like, well, we shall see, because I looked at the numbers and I'm like, this does not make any form of conceivable sense in this state.

6:56 Speaker 1: Except refresh my memory. Tell me if I'm getting this right or not. Didn't he not do great in the primary?

7:03 Speaker 2: There?

7:04 Speaker 1: Didn't Nicky Haley. I don't think she beat him. I don't think she beat him anywhere. But didn't she do respect respectably?

7:10 Speaker 2: We did it? She did enough to keep the train rolling to New Hampshire. Yeah, I will say at the caucus in my area, and I've went over that whole snaff who I heard from many people that in many caucuses Trump was three to one for every three Donald Trump supporters, there was one Nicky Haley supporter. I heard when you got when you went into southern Iowa, she wasn't viable. Okay, So once you got into our heavy farming areas, she wasn't viable. I think the viability for her came from areas such as Des Moines, Theater, Rapids, Iowa City.

8:14 Speaker 2: I think that's where a good portion of our viability carried over in Iowa and kind of gave her a sense of false hope. But pulling in Iowa, in my opinion, has always been vastly hard to predict what's accurate and what's not for the simple fact that we're like a state torn we are very much either metropolitan or farming.

8:45 Speaker 1: Okay.

8:46 Speaker 2: And you and when people and when these companies pull magazines and colleges and what have you, when they pulled, they do not take that into account. They really randomized. Say, Iowa should actually be split. If you're gonna pull Iowa, you should pull Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Waterloo, Cedar Falls. You should. You should do all the major cities, Davenport, Bettendorf, Council, No, not council Pluck. You should do the urban areas as their own pole and then move to the farming communities, and then you would see the great variance that happens there.

9:35 Speaker 2: Well.

9:36 Speaker 1: In a sense, though, I think you could probably say that about most states, because urban urban centers tend to be more liberal and rural areas tend to be more conservatives. And that's why that's why when you look at an electoral college map, it looks like, you know, there's so much red. Of course Trump did so well, that's also part of why there's a lot of red, But even even just when a Democrat wins it. You know, it looks very because those urban centers are so concentrated. But here in New Hampshire, it's it's interesting.

10:08 Speaker 1: We like to really split things up. You know, we just elected a new Republican governor, but our congressional delegation remains Democrats. And of course we always you know, we went for Kamala Harris. We haven't gone Republican in a presidential election since two thousand. We went for Bush in two thousand. Since then, it's been blue ever since. I don't think they even really I haven't heard us referred to as a swing state in a while.

10:37 Speaker 2: I don't think we used to be.

10:39 Speaker 1: We used to be, yeah, but I think I mean, at this point, I think we've pretty well assimilated into the rest of the northeast Iowa.

10:48 Speaker 2: I believe it is still considered a swing state by some outlets and some government figures, but realist stickley, we shouldn't be. We are a Republican state. And at the end of the day, and when I said that you really need to split this state, I was talking if you're pulling in regards to straight Republicans, because that's where the divide comes in the farming areas are not going to a majority of them in Iowa are not going to go Democrat. It just isn't gonna happen. So you can go to areas like solin Urbandale, Fenterville, Council Bluffs and you're gonna get just it's gonna be Red Kingdom.

11:50 Speaker 2: That's why else i was very hard to gauge because then you get into the metropolitan areas and they the farming areas are overwhelmingly read, the metropolitan areas are split. I would say in Cedar Rapids for every one Trump sign I saw, I saw a Harris sign. H it's pretty even. And that's the same for des Moines on Iowa City, on down on down the line, Waterloo, maybe not because they're more of an urban area, a lot very diverse area Waterloo is, so maybe not there, but aims where Iowa State University is, that's considered a farming community probably I would say seventy thirty Trump Okay, So it's it's very Iowa was very bizarre, and that's why I think a lot of importance is put not on winning Iowa, but how do you perform in Iowa?

12:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, because if you can be viable in Iowa, that proves you can cater to many different people of many different backgrounds. If you're not viable in Iowa, that's why after the Iowa caucuses, I feel you see so many people drop out. Oh yeah, because it's oh I couldn't get through this cornucopia potpourria people, Right, where do I go?

13:28 Speaker 1: Well, some candidates just skip Iowa entirely, Yes, but Iowa can be an important springboard. I still vividly remember in two thousand and four when it really looked like it looked like Howard Dean was going to win all these primaries and caucuses and become the nominee, and then all of a sudden, John Carrey, out of nowhere, captures the Iowa caucus and then goes on to win the New Hampshire primary, and then next thing you know, Dean was I can't stay long but not forgotten because of that sound that he made.

14:01 Speaker 1: But but Dean was very quickly left in the dust. So Iowa can be very important that way. But it's it's always interesting every cycle every four years to see which candidates place a heavy bet on Iowa and which ones just say no. We're going to focus on New Hampshire first in the nation, or whoever is first in the nation, because Biden didn't want New Hampshire to be first anymore. But anyway, Yeah, So, so you were pretty skeptical obviously about that poll, and I was, I was, I was being cautiously optimistic, but so did you.

14:40 Speaker 1: So in uh on your ballot, so you voted for Kamala but everyone else Republican, Is that correct?

14:47 Speaker 2: Yes, everyone else Republican.

14:50 Speaker 1: Was Kim re I know Kim Reynolds is very popular. Was she up for she is?

14:53 Speaker 2: No, she will be twenty twenty six, Okay, okay, and good luck, good luck, good luck to anyone trying to unseat her. Well, yeah, because I mean, you've got to look at Iowa's history. We had Terry Brand's STAD for so long. Yeah, and then we had Check Culver for a little bit, and and then yeah, then Kim Reynolds came in. And Kim Reynolds was actually lieutenant was deputy governor to Terry Brand's dada, So you yah had that and I actually think Brand's dad came in. He came in again a little for I think a term after chat okay, and then Kim Reynolds came into.

15:55 Speaker 1: Play because was very popular too.

15:58 Speaker 2: Right, Oh yeah, I mean Branstead's kid had so multiple dwi's in like his family values were called into question, and that still couldn't unseat him. And I'll say I ate lunch with Terry Brandstad once and very endearing guy. Actually I was in college and he gave me his card and said if I ever needed anything, call him. And I was doing an article about MMA in Iowa and how they were trying to deregulate it and the two the two representative spearheading it wouldn't get back to me. So I shot in the dark, called him and left a message, and I want to say, within two and a half days he got back to me and actually remembered me from this media conference.

16:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's good and.

17:01 Speaker 2: He so I will always have kind of a special place for Terry Bryant's Stead.

17:07 Speaker 1: For that that makes sense.

17:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, I I won't. I won't say you can argue as policies and everything, but to do that for a young man when I was a young man at a community college out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, you know that that's something not seen.

17:33 Speaker 1: So should we should we talk about you had you had messaged me and you said, and uh, this will be I think an interesting thing to analyze, although depressing in some ways. But you had said that you blame Biden uh for for this? Uh for yeah, and uh and I do too. Fundamentally.

17:57 Speaker 2: There's there's a lot of blame. Oh there, yeah, a lot around in this.

18:02 Speaker 1: A lot of things went wrong here, I did.

18:04 Speaker 2: I think, I as succinctly as I could said it on the Facebook status what I felt went wrong one Kamala Harris was not likable.

18:22 Speaker 1: I disagree with you there, but but but go ahead.

18:26 Speaker 2: I mean, you gov. And I'm looking at it right now on five thirty eight, which is the only side I trust. Yeah, in regards to statistical analysis, I.

18:38 Speaker 1: Was looking at five thirty eight quite a bit leading up to the election. I know exactly what you mean, yep.

18:42 Speaker 2: I mean because five thirty eight was probably the only website that was without showing any favoritism saying this could happen. Yeah, I mean, they're the numbers were pretty spot on. I mean, she was favorable forty seven percent, uh fifty one percent unfavorable according to YouGov. And that was November sixth, and that was right around election time. Biden, according to Atlas Intel, had a fifty five percent disapproval rating. His disapproval rating went up by thirteen points if we look at the same Paul Trump's favorability was forty nine fifty unfavorable.

19:41 Speaker 2: But the margin of error is one. Yeah, so we really had a country split. Chris Christy on election night, because I watched ABC for the coverage, Chris Christy said something very intelligent. He said, sixty percent of Americans don't like the way the country's going, seventy percent of Americans. I don't know where he got the seventy percent from, but whatever, he said, seventy percent of Americans do not like Donald Trump. This election came down to which side was going to pull people over, right, And what happened is seventy percent that seventy percent that disliked Trump disliked the way the country was going more.

20:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what happened. And there's a lot of things. I think Kamala Harris only having one hundred and seven days to run.

20:49 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it was a compressed campaign. I actually thought that might work to her advantage in some ways.

20:56 Speaker 2: If they would have let her hire her own staff, which they did not do. She inherited Joe Biden's team.

21:05 Speaker 1: And and and she didn't even get all of them from what I understand, right, yeah.

21:10 Speaker 2: Because he took some of them for his transition team, right right, So she didn't even have a full staff.

21:17 Speaker 1: Yeah.

21:19 Speaker 2: Another thing, if I had to say, in my opinion, when the kill shot occurred on Kamala Harris and kill shots probably the wrong word to use. When when the death blow occurred.

21:34 Speaker 1: Well, death blow is not much better, but well, at least that doesn't sound like a gun.

21:37 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, when the when? The when? When? When the uh? When the plug was pulled?

21:45 Speaker 1: Well, now, way how you make it sound like this was?

21:47 Speaker 2: Uh?

21:47 Speaker 1: This we euthanized her.

21:50 Speaker 2: You know what? When when I felt she was done, then did you miss me? Eric Brightly? When I felt he was done, when I was like, oh man, this person is in trouble. Donald Trump and people you can't see, but I am doing air quotes. Was working at McDonald's on that very same day. Kamala Harris was on the view taking where You're going, taking some very softball answers, taking some very softball questions. He was asked one question that stood out.

22:37 Speaker 1: To me, I know where you're going.

22:39 Speaker 2: If you could change any decision made by the Biden administration the last four years, what would it be. He paused to think about it and then turn and said two words, absolutely nothing.

23:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was awful, And you know what's so maddening about that. That was like you said, it was a softball. And any professional politician knows how to pivot and what she should have done, in my opinion, has said something like, well, I'm not focused on on, uh, you know, revisiting or rehashing the decisions that we've made. I'm focused on taking what we've accomplished in the Biden Harris administration and building on that and continuing to move forward, or something like that. That would have been an easy pivot.

23:33 Speaker 1: Any professional politician, you know, a state rep in New Hampshire, would be able to pull that off. But for some reason, in that moment, it's like she.

23:42 Speaker 2: Got she thought, she paused to think that I.

23:48 Speaker 1: Know, and that Yeah, that was terrible. That was a terrible moment. And what's even worse, she then circled back and tried to clean it up later. And that was the biggest awkward, the big.

24:01 Speaker 2: And I gotta give credit here to my friend Jordan Turchka Cychlic. He gave me this analogy and I'm running with it. The biggest dog ate my homework. Reason. I didn't want to show disrespect to Joe Biden. So bad Kamala. That's politics. Hurdle the weak, trample the dead. Kamala. He's a lame duck. But you you as your race to run.

24:32 Speaker 1: But she didn't even have to do that though, Like I said, she could have just pivoted and said because that's what I mean, that's what any normal politicians would have done in that moment, is just pivoting because as you know, Eric, I mean, rule number one in politics, you never answer the question that was asked. Nope, you answered the question that you wish had been asked. If they happen to match up, that's fine.

24:51 Speaker 2: Unless you're Donald Trump on Joe Rogan. Well, yeah, you just answer every question. And I think and we'll get to that later because I want to touch on that because yeah, but no, I totally agree she should have pivoted. The best answer would have been whenever you look back on any term of service, you always have regrets. I regret and I apologize to the American people. I did not serve to the best of my capabilities.

25:25 Speaker 1: Oh, I don't think that would have worked.

25:27 Speaker 2: It would have worked better than absolutely none.

25:30 Speaker 1: Well, I agree with that. I still think, respectfully, I think my idea is a little better.

25:35 Speaker 2: But yeah, but there is still some because I looked at it and I'm like, what a stupid response. But then I thought about it more, and it's like, what an insensitive response you have? An I get it. You know, poor economy, good economy is always on the sitting office. Yes, and it might not necessarily even be their fault. A little bit of a schoolhouse rock politics for you there, for those uninitiated.

26:11 Speaker 1: It's almost never their fault in my opinion, which puts me at odds with I think ninety nine point nine percent of Americans. But I write, I think we're a nation of low information voters who don't understand a damn thing about the economy.

26:24 Speaker 2: But that's look up tariffs. People understand what these are

26:31 Speaker 2: moving on. It's he should have at the very least showed sensitivity towards the American people that can't afford food, Yeah, that are having to choose between medications or a square meal, right, that can't afford to drive to work, that can't afford to clothe their Yeah, that was very tone deaf and very insensitive. But if I'm going to be honest, tone deaf, is the Democratic Party as a whole right now?

27:11 Speaker 1: Right now? I would say, for a long time my biggest problem because you know, I'm I lean left, I'm you know, kind of pretty liberal in a lot of ways. So I end up voting for Democrats, And like I said, I don't know if I'll ever vote for another Republican. But the Democratic Party is horrendous at messaging, horrendous, and

27:37 Speaker 1: on the very rare occasion that somebody comes along that actually is able to communicate effectively, what happens. They end up serving two terms as president, whether it be Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, two Democrats who Wow, imagine that actually understood how to explain things to people, how to communicate to the American people. But almost every other Democrat it's like they can't like this. Well, the thing is the fundamentals of this economy are actually very good, and when you look at inflation, we've done better than almost the entire rest of the world with inflation in terms of this post pandemic hangover, and now inflation is stabilized, so, you know, but they can't they can't communicate any of that.

28:25 Speaker 1: They can't figure out how to communicate. I mean, my god, when we talk about immigration, you know, and Trump wants to you know, I don't want personally, I don't like the term illegal aliens. I call them undocumented immigrants. But Trump wants to deport them all. And of course people are like, yeah, I get rid of them all. And it's like, well, actually, if you were to do that, if you were to literally do that, even though it's impossible it's not gonna happen anyway, but if you were to literally do that, that would be devastate, devastating to the economy.

28:50 Speaker 1: But Democrats can't explain that to people because Democrats can't explain anything.

29:00 Speaker 2: So it's so frustrated. It's it's the term is thrown around a lot lately. Man splaining. They man splain to their constituents, and they talk down to them as if you should know this, but let me take time out of my day to teach you something. They cater towards their one percent. They cater towards that elite group, and that's just so horribly misguided because you sit there and you watch Kamala Harris and you want you I watched a couple of her rallies. Actually, the SPAN did a great job of showing the rallies in their full dumpster fire glory.

30:00 Speaker 1: I don't know. I thought I thought some of those rallies were pretty good. I thought she ran a decent campaign overall.

30:05 Speaker 2: For I think she did.

30:08 Speaker 1: I think she improved. I was very skeptical in the beginning, let me put it that way, but I think she did the best she could with a very compressed time frame that she had.

30:18 Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Yeah, that one and seven days, And you know, a lot of me is I don't know. I sit here and I scroll through social media and I see a lot of anger. And that happens when you lose. I'm a sports fan. When you lose, you're mad at the world. But there's this vitriol coming from the left, and I get some of it. Not every single person, and this might shock you, not every single person that voted for Donald Trump is homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, or a misogynist. They're just not.

31:08 Speaker 2: We have this privilege and this I feel it's a civic duty to go vote. That's what makes us different than other countries. That's what puts us, in my opinion, a step above other countries. We have the right to say and it takes maybe thirty minutes out of your day to go and check the box. Yeah, you know, it doesn't matter. I don't care if you vote because you like the color someone wre you voted, you had your say. If you voted, you had your say and you lost. I get it. You have family members that are LGBTQI or a minor already there's a little bit of fear.

32:02 Speaker 2: But to attack those that just voted for their best interests what voting really is about, is wrong. And I mean, I just I have this issue with it. And to be fair, I had an issue when Trump's supporters did it four years ago, saying things that's not my president, or good work. Look, one of the favorite ones is good work libertads. It's like, look, the only way the government does everything you don't want them to do is if we are so divided, we can't we can't even be in the same distance with each other.

32:54 Speaker 2: That's how they have their That's how they get the power to do the things that scare us and you. I I have had conversations with friends that are Democrats over this. Once they got over their complete a gas that I voted for Kamala Harris, I explained to them why she lost and just again, the numbers, the numbers do not lie. This was this was a giant stamp of disapproval on the Democratic Party as a whole.

33:39 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean you know Trump. I mean he took all the swing states, every single one of them. It's it's.

33:51 Speaker 2: Sorry to interrupt, man, not to Kamala Harris didn't. Wasn't the And I really disliked the coverage on election night on that It was Kamala underperformed here, here, and here and here come. And Kamala underperformed every area, every city in the United States that Joe Biden performed performed in twenty twenty. Yeah, and it's like, no dig deeper. Every Democrat underperformed every benchmark from twenty twenty.

34:28 Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing they didn't show up. I mean the numbers of Democrats who voted was so much, I mean so much lower. This time.

34:36 Speaker 2: They even underperformed from twenty twenty two. Yes, which is astounding giving given the given the low turnout of twenty twenty two for Democrats, and the just just the gravity of this election. It's one thing to be upset if you voted. It's another thing entirely to be upset if you just sated home on your hands and watch the results roll that roll in and say, oh gee, this sucks.

35:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you think about I suspect we'll agree on this, But there are those who are beginning to say, oh, maybe Biden should have stayed in because of the way that Kamala underperformed.

35:30 Speaker 1: Maybe it was a bad idea to change horses midstream. My opinion on that is, I think that's silly, because at least with Kamala we had a chance. Whereas I mean, I'm not good at math, but I think I understand some of the basic tenets of probability theory. With Biden, we had zero chance. As soon as that what debate happened, we had the chance of beating Trump went to zero with Biden. So at least with Kamala we had a chance. Because on the night of that debate with Trump and Biden, I said it on social media too.

36:02 Speaker 1: I said it was like Biden was handing the keys to the White House in real time over to Trump and said, here, you take it. In January, it was that bad. And at least when Kamala became the nominee, there was a burst of energy, there was some excitement, there was some enthusiasm, and some relief didn't pan out. But but I don't I don't think it would have made any sense at all to stick with I don't. I think if we had stuck with Biden, it would have been a literal landslide. I think Trump actually could have turned for maybe only one cycle, but a couple of blue states read I think I think people were that.

36:38 Speaker 2: I don't think it would have even gotten to Pennsylvania. Yeah, I think Pennsylvania would have been the big to do it, was right. I think the Midwest, Yeah, the Midwest would have done it. I mean, he wouldn't have gotten to two seventy obviously, but the numbers would have been just so harrowing, Yeah, and just devastating. Yeah to the party.

37:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, it would have been much worse.

37:08 Speaker 2: No, I personally think Joe Biden should have been forced out before right after he said I'm rerunning again. Someone should have taken him into a room, given him a nice little pudding cup, set him down with some popsicle sticks and some glue, and said, now, Joe, we're gonna have craft time and you're gonna sit here and we're gonna talk about this. See here's what you think the world is. And I would have shown him a picture of the Teletubbies dancing under a rainbow, and then I would have then showed him a very scary movie and been like, this is what the world really is, Joe.

37:50 Speaker 2: And I'm coming off as a complete insufferable individual right now, but that's the reality.

38:00 Speaker 1: This is the right thing for it. Don't worry about.

38:02 Speaker 2: They should have forced him out. They should have been like, look, you can stay president, that is fine, but twenty twenty four is off the table for you. I think had they done that.

38:17 Speaker 1: Well, it's basically what happened, though, isn't it. I mean it took a little while, but they did. It was so little time. I mean, it was everyone's like, well, Kamala Harris didn't do Joe Rogan. When did she have the time she should have? In my opinion, she should have.

38:36 Speaker 2: I think a Graver mistake for her was not courting rfk.

38:42 Speaker 1: Ooh, I don't know.

38:43 Speaker 2: That's a third rail, Uh, third rail or not. I think can helped Trump?

38:50 Speaker 1: Do you think so? I think it did that. I don't think. I don't think it was a factor.

38:55 Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think it's as big of a factor as as the view was. I don't think it was as big of a factor as Kamala and not embracing the youth movement by doing the Joe Rogan podcast. She was actually invited by Barstool Sports to do a podcast in flat out turn them down. She didn't even give them the Joe Rogan offer of you can travel to Washington, DC. Yeah, but Trump embraced Joe Rogan, Barsteel, Theo Vaughn, the broken Computer, and they in brochure bro culture and Matt I actually think he'll agree with me.

39:43 Speaker 2: Bro culture doesn't show up to the polls. They just don't. But I don't know.

39:50 Speaker 1: I think they did this time.

39:52 Speaker 2: That's what I'm getting at. They did this time because they had a bro that they could go with. Can get the guys? Donald Trump brought on stage Dana Bleeping White. Yeah, I mean there is I love Dana White to death, and I think he is one of the greatest pro sports UH directors out there. What he did to bring sports back during the pandemic, he deserves an award for in my opinion.

40:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, I have mixed feelings about the guy. I have some ambivalence about him. There's some things about him that really bothered me. But I but I get what you're saying, and I don't. I don't hold it against him that he loves Trump. I get it in the case of Dana White, because when UFC was you know, Trump Trump gave in Vegas, gave UFC a venue no.

40:53 Speaker 2: Trump Plaza in uh New Jersey as well.

40:57 Speaker 1: Oh New Jersey. That's what I'm thinking. I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm getting mixed up. But yeah, so yeah Trump Trump really helped UFC out early when they were having trouble booking at at venues. So I I get it. You know that that's a loyalty. Hey, look, if Donald Trump helped me with my business in some way, uh, you know, I might feel the same.

41:18 Speaker 2: Saved you from bankruptcy. Let's put this in perspective. You want to people want to sit here and go after Dana White for being that. You can go after Dana White for whatever you want. Believe me, he gives he gives people ammunition every day.

41:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, the video of him slapping his wife doesn't say well with me, But that's a big.

41:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, my thing, my thing, My thing with that was that's another sub Yeah another day.

41:48 Speaker 1: We'll talk about that another day, I'm sure.

41:50 Speaker 2: But but yeah, yeah, personal feelings nonwithstanding, he that Dana White is like the chief you want. Uh, it's Dana Why?

42:10 Speaker 2: Actually no, No, I gotta go with Gana because Dana lives that bro lifestyle. He lives in a mansion in Las Vegas. He drives uh six figure car to his office every day. The man doesn't even have to work anymore. He has more money than what he knows what to do with after I never brought him bottom out. He works because he genuinely loves what he does. Yeah so, and he is one of the hardest working men in professional sports. Uh So, all of that nonwithstanding, I say, Dave Portnoy's a close second.

43:03 Speaker 1: Yeah.

43:03 Speaker 2: I think what hurts Stave Portnoy with the Bros Is his love of Taylor Swift. Oh.

43:08 Speaker 1: I think I didn't know that.

43:10 Speaker 2: Oh, he's a huge swiftye. I think that kind of takes him down a little bit. I'm a closet swifty. I don't know if you knew that or not.

43:19 Speaker 1: I didn't. I admire and respect her, I don't really care about her music.

43:23 Speaker 2: One. I think she's I look, game, respects game. Yeah, he is talented and her songs are catchy. I could be throwing mail at the post office and you will catch me singing one of her songs. Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, so Biden, so yeah, But I think we agree.

43:46 Speaker 1: I mean, Biden obviously should not have run for a second term.

43:51 Speaker 2: No.

43:52 Speaker 1: I My my position was, well, you know, when the debate happened, I said, okay, I said this election is over, not not foreseeing that he would get out. I thought, no, this election's already over. But I but I kind of thought that before. You know, I always kind of took the Bill Maher position, because Bill Maher way before anyone else was was saying that Biden cannot be Trump a second time, because we were watching this man get old very and the president does age you and I even I don't know if you did anything like this, Eric, or if any anyone else listening to this might have.

44:26 Speaker 1: But I actually went back just for the hell of it. After that debate, that disastrous debate, I went back and I looked at one of the twenty twenty debates Trump versus Biden, and yeah, he was much much sharper. The deterioration was impossible to ignore. Don't get me wrong. I mean in twenty twenty even I mean, he still seemed old, because he already was old, but he still seemed you know, and he wasn't as certainly as vibrant and dynamic as he had been at one time, even in twenty twenty, but he still seemed pretty sharp and you know, and and and articulate, and you know, held his own certainly.

45:03 Speaker 1: I had no misgivings about Biden watching those two debates in twenty twenty, other than I thought he let Trump kind of run over him a little bit more than he should have, because Trump Trump would often talk over him and so forth. But overall, I thought he was fine. But but then, you know, to contrast that with twenty twenty four, and it's like, no, this guy's this is it. He's you could.

45:28 Speaker 2: You could, but man, you could see it even during his presidential term.

45:35 Speaker 1: Well, I know, that's my that's my point. Like we were watching him get get very old, very fast. Absolutely. I mean, oh my god, do you remember the moment in Vietnam? I made fun of him on my show about it when he's he's he says, uh so, anyway, I got to go to bed, you know, like he doesn't like he's like fallen asleep at the podium.

45:55 Speaker 2: It's like he had no cards to tell him what to do at a breakfast. Yeah, like you and again you, I think as Americans, I do think we are compassionate people. Yeah we don't. I don't think we show it, but I think we are. You don't want to sit here and be like, I don't want to be that guy that is just ragging on this dude for obvious mental deficiency here.

46:30 Speaker 1: I don't want to be that guy. I mean I actually I kind of like Joe Biden and a lot. I mean, I have a lot of criticisms of him, and I think he was very selfish. I do blame him for why we have trouble. Yeah. But but but historically I've always liked him, uh.

46:45 Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, he he is a likable guy. He is that. I won't say he's that guy that you would want to go out and have a beer with. That's our that's our president that was elected. That's Donald Trump. That it's what trumpet, That's what Trump caters to. He wants to give off this image anyway, the guy that you would want to go to the bar and have years with. Joe Biden is that uncold that everyone in the family loves. That's just crazy and does things that are not offensive. But you're just like, oh, that's my crazy uncle Joe.

47:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. And so there is that affability that Joe Biden has and even had it during the eight years he was VP to Obama.

47:40 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and at that time he was still very much you know, yeah, I mean that that that version of Joe Biden today. You know, if he could have somehow reversed the aging process, which none of us can do unfortunately, I mean, he would, he would have won, you know.

47:57 Speaker 2: And the thing is with that is you brought up how the presidency ages. You look at how an aged Barack Obama. It takes a toll. I mean, you look at what the short time in office did to JFK.

48:19 Speaker 1: You you look, he's very sick too.

48:23 Speaker 2: I mean yeah, but the presidency didn't help. He was just just a shell of himself at the end.

48:34 Speaker 1: Even even just a Cuban missile crisis probably took a lot out of him.

48:38 Speaker 2: My god, oh those seven days. Oh my, we're.

48:42 Speaker 1: Your team though. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad I wasn't born yet. I wouldn't want to go through that with you. Jesus.

48:49 Speaker 2: No. Imagine being in school and having to do a drill where you get under your desk, not knowing if it's real or not. And then if I weren't growing up then and I looked back and realized ducking covered didn't work, I'd be suing some people tools. Somebody's getting a lawsuit.

49:10 Speaker 1: But I mean, as it was, I grew up with a very unhealthy obsession is too strong a word, but an unhealthy preoccupation with the threat of nuclear war. As I know my parents remember, because I would talk about it a lot. And that is, by the way, and I haven't said this out loud to anybody yet, but one of the I'm trying to find silver linings where we can with Trump, even though I think Trump is uh well, he's obviously a felon and an adjudicated rapist and the most obvious con man that I think the world has ever seen, and an insurrectionist and all that.

49:42 Speaker 2: But I'm I'm going to give you all of those except con man. I think Richard Nixon might might be up there in the con man.

49:56 Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know. I don't know, but I know I sound like I'm setting up a bit, but I'm actually not. I mean completely sincere when I say this, because you know, we touched on nuclear war a moment ago.

50:09 Speaker 2: Right.

50:10 Speaker 1: As much as I think it's important to stand up to Putin on Ukraine, and as much as it breaks my heart to know that in the end it will evolve been for nothing, because I fully understand, and I think we all do, Trump is just going to let Putin have Ukraine. But the one silver lining to that is I will be less concerned. Not that I was particularly worried before, but I will be less concerned about the possibility going forward of a nuclear confrontation with Russia. I will worry about that.

50:41 Speaker 2: Less, Yes, and with North Korea as well. You know, well, I don't know.

50:48 Speaker 1: They may have fallen out of love. I know they were in love at one time, Trump and Kim Jong yun, But you know, absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. They may have drifted apart.

51:03 Speaker 2: They're like that toxic girl. You keep going back to it. Yeah, yeah, but I've given my take on the Russia Ukraine situation. It piggybacks off your what you said on your show Putin can take Ukraine, but he can't keep Ukraine? What do you mean? On on Matt Conterton Unleashed, you said Putin has the ability to take Ukraine, but can he keep Ukraine? And I said, yes, he did. I'm brilliant, and it is brilliant because you look at no in my I love history. You look at every evil dictatorship. How did it end?

51:55 Speaker 2: It ended because the dictator got greedy and far extended his resources, and then the people rebel against him, and he has no resources to defend himself from the people because all of his resources are everywhere he wants to take over. So I say, look, Putin have Ukraine, let him let him go have fun. Sorry, Yes, I know that's cold hearted. Yes I know it's callous. Yes I know it's disgusting, But at the end of the day, it will accelerate the end of Putin that much quicker because he will exhaust every resource he has because, if anything, every dictator has narcissism in common, and a narcissist will always rip their nose off to spite their face.

52:51 Speaker 2: They will always do it.

52:54 Speaker 1: It does break my heart, though, but I'm trying to but I also realize it's what's going to happen. I mean, we all know. Look when Trump goes around saying within twenty four hours, I'll have that solved, we all know what it means. And Zelensky knows what it means.

53:09 Speaker 2: But I mean he isn't lying it will be solved. Yeah, it's not. It's not the solution. Anyone with a heart months to see app in yere.

53:26 Speaker 1: No, I'm really I'm dreading. I'm dreading it. Actually, I just I mean.

53:33 Speaker 2: You know what, Matt Saturday Night Live has four years of material now, oh.

53:39 Speaker 1: They sure do, they sure do. And the guy who plays Trump, now I forget his name, but I love his Trump impression.

53:46 Speaker 2: I am. I really wanted my own selfish reason for wanting Kamala Harris to be elected Maya Rudolph. Oh yeah, and heard Kamala Harris was great, yes, and they could do Kamala Harris on Family Feud with Keenan Thompson as Steve Harvey every week and I would tune in.

54:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. By the way, about Biden, I've heard a few people say, and I don't think this is right, but maybe I'm forgetting something, And you tell me if you remember something I'm forgetting. I've heard a number of people complain that Biden promised that he would be a one term president. I have no recollection of Biden making that promise. I remember him sort of implying it, and you know when he ran, and I remember I remember thinking he's implying it, but not saying it explicitly, but implicitly to try to get people to think that without making a commitment.

54:58 Speaker 1: But I don't think he ever actually said I'm only going to serve one term. But do you remember something that I'm forgetting?

55:06 Speaker 2: I agree with you in the sense that it was. It was I'm gonna go. It was heavily implied that he would be a one term president. I don't think it was ever implicitly said, but it was heavily, heavily heavily implied. And look, we're at a stage where implication if you don't meet the implication you lied, and unfortunately that's where we're at. You people can and I'm sure I'm going to get rasked for saying it, but hey, that's the way it is. If you imply something and don't follow through, you're considered a liar.

55:56 Speaker 2: And that's brass tacks. That's it. Let me.

56:01 Speaker 1: I want to get your opinion on something else too, because I said something to Jenny. She disagreed with me on this. But I'm curious here.

56:06 Speaker 2: If you I'm going to disagree with Jenny scares me. I.

56:14 Speaker 1: Uh, nobody is saying this, nobody's talking about this, but I really believe, and uh, I think the young people might call this a hot take. I believe that we also need to as we're thinking about how we're going to handle the Trump presidency, we also will need to start thinking about in relatively short order, which might I mean by short order, it might be a couple of years. But what I feel is the inevitability of the JD. Vance presidency, Oh oh d. Because I do not believe lock up the couches. I do not believe that Trump is going to serve until he's eighty two years years old.

57:01 Speaker 1: I do firmly believe that JD. Vance, for that reason, will be the forty seventh president of the United States. I think it is unavoidable, and I think jd Vance knows it too. But nobody else is saying this, and

57:17 Speaker 1: I'm actually surprised because I you know, I don't think Trump's going to serve until he's eighty two. I'm not saying he's going to die in office necessarily, but once he's in the clear, he's fired Jack Smith, he's done this, he's done that, maybe done some autocratic things. Then he just wants to play some golf and says, Okay, I'm gonna ride off into the sunset and go play golf, and then it'll be President Vance. I really do believe that's going to happen.

57:40 Speaker 2: I could actually see it, and I actually thought about that. Matt oh dud I'm not the only one. I'm on the same page. I could see Trump doing it. Yeah, after the midterm, Yes, exactly, He's going to be, for all intents and purposes, a line duck president right at the midterms. Look, I do think there is Summer Project twenty twenty five that is a complete, in utter, just complete and utter fear mongering. I think I think they have these pipe dreams of what they're going to be able to do. Donald Trump will not get a third term.

58:20 Speaker 2: I don't care what hyperbolic view of apocalyptic America you have, right, it will not happen. No, No, So he literally has two years to do everything he wants to do. And you know, people sit here and say, well, he has the Senate, and he does.

58:50 Speaker 1: He the House?

58:51 Speaker 2: He probably he does have the House. It was announced yeap House. But Republicans control the Halsey. But I do believe there are still some they don't have his loud of a voice, but there are still some that have that voice, that voice of dissidence towards Donald Trump in the Republican Party. And I to do the extreme things that people think he's gonna do, he would need every Republican on board, and he isn't gonna get that. He just says it. I do think there are some scary things, but I I'm saying this to say, him trying to become a czar, him trying to him saying I will be the last president you ever vote for.

59:49 Speaker 2: No, that's not gonna happen. He literally right now is a two year president because he's a lame doc. He's gonna get whitewashed.

59:59 Speaker 1: He's gonna there's gonna be a blue wave in twenty six because that's always what happens if when one party has complete control, the midterms are usually brutal on the party that has control.

1:00:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're right, Yeah, And I did say that in twenty twenty twenty to my cousin. I told him, I'm like, Biden only has two years. I'm like, so, I'm like, because I believe Democrats had control of the Senate in a majority of the House, they didn't have House.

1:00:34 Speaker 1: Control, very very thin margin.

1:00:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm like, look, it's gonna be he has two years. And that's the thing is, he really only has two years. I could see him getting his head kicked in and I could see the Democrats controlling the House, controlling the Senate. I think there is going to be a Democratic youth movement because there has to be at this point. That's the only way you're gonna reinvigorate this base. I agree, And I could see one of these young gung Democrats stepping up and saying, em, this happened during these two years.

1:01:20 Speaker 2: This happened, This happened, This happened, this happened. Hum we could roll these into a new new charges, and I could just see Donald Trump pulling a Nixon saying, Okay, you got me, I'm gonna walk off.

1:01:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, once she's in the clear. Because the whole I mean, well, I don't want to say the whole reason, but I do believe the number one priority for him for running for president this time was to stay out of prison. Now he can breathe a sigh of relief, he can he can do what he wants to do for the next two years and then go. There's also a possibility all these people who are very concerned about Trump ending democracy, and people get a little hyperbolic about it. But but I do understand. But I understand the concerns.

1:02:06 Speaker 1: I really do it. I don't take any of it lightly. But it's also possible that now that he can breathe a sigh of relief, he might just kind of lay back and not do not even attempt to do a lot of what's work people worry about him doing, because he might just want to play golf, because you know, he is almost eighty years old, and you know these appetites for power and all of it might start to diminish because you know, you get to that age and you know, the testosterone levels start to go down, and I mean there's a reason why people, you know, at a certain age, they have less energy, they have less ambition.

1:02:47 Speaker 1: You know, there's biological changes. He's already out of shape. He's clearly I know he always gets a doctor to say that he's the healthiest man in the history of the galaxy, but in reality, he clearly is not.

1:02:59 Speaker 2: If you listen to his victory speech, Matt.

1:03:03 Speaker 1: I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to do it, which is like me.

1:03:07 Speaker 2: But I was at work, so I could. I was working, so I actually had YouTube TV on my phone and I was listening to it. He sounded war out.

1:03:21 Speaker 1: Yeah.

1:03:22 Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things that the race is going to be more of more consequence than the victory. Yeah, I think, knowing what I know about Donald Trump, and I know I'm not buddies with the guy. I don't even know him. I've never even I've been in the same room as him once.

1:03:47 Speaker 1: Jenny and I met him back and when he ran in twenty sixteen. Yeah, well, in twenty fifteen, we met him at a couple of events here in New Hampshire.

1:03:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, but what I've read about him, and this is some people are gonna say, yeah, you're right and think that I'm ripping on him when I'm really trying not to. He does have a major ego. And the thing with that is is I think for him, this is a giant fu to everyone that wanted put him in prison, the court cases, all of that, everyone who said he was done politically after the insurrection attempt, after the coup at the Capitol, he we should trademark that, yes, after all of that, for him to come back, if you're a Republican, this is a disneyesque comeback story.

1:04:56 Speaker 2: And look, you and people consider here and say it's not a comeback story. He's evil, He's this that you say what you want. But I think that's really why he did it, is just to prove he could do it.

1:05:12 Speaker 1: Oh, I think that's I think that's a big part of it. Yeah, I think that's a big part of it.

1:05:17 Speaker 2: And I don't think there's a line in my favorite movie, Citizen Kane, at the very beginning in the news on the March, it's never said, but it's been so many times used. It's on one of the tech screens. Yeah, it says, if for nothing else, I am an American,

1:05:44 Speaker 2: Charles Foster Kane. I think no truer words apply to someone than Donald Trump. If for nothing else, he is an American, and that cannot be argued. The man loves America. He I think he he loves his version of America.

1:06:06 Speaker 1: Yeah.

1:06:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, he loves his version of America and he and he likes to portray this patriotic person. I guarantee you if some if there's dissonance within his MAGA group, his MAGA base on something that's proposed, it ain't gonna happen. And there is a lot of these issues people have brought up that do hurt the MAGA basse. You can say the Maga bass is hateful and all the other words I've used. And I would say everyone in their family has at least one person that is LGBTQI. Every person has in their family someone that's developmentally disabled, odd's favorite or.

1:07:05 Speaker 1: Just or you know someone or close to someone.

1:07:07 Speaker 2: Or you're close to someone. Yeah, yeah, of course, I honestly, and I know some staunch MAGA Republicans very staunch. I would have a hard time believing that they would stand idly by as Donald Trump some of them would try to eviscerate the rights of people because they are LGBTQ. I I don't see that. I get the fear because the heritage group is very homophobic. I understand that. I get the fear, but fear there's nothing left to fear but fear itself. I just I don't see him doing that for the reason that I stayed.

1:08:00 Speaker 2: Everyone has a tie to that community or or cares about someone in that community. And if you can look at someone you love and and be like, your rights are going to be stripped away, but don't get them Donald Trump, Yeah, then you're then you might be just as deplorable as Joe Biden said you were. And I can't believe that. I cannot and I will not subscribe to that theory.

1:08:39 Speaker 1: You reminded me the reason I was laughing a moment ago. You reminded me of something that I don't think. I think this is less unless I'm imagining it. Maybe it's my own personal Mandela effect, But no, this happened. I don't know if you might remember this, Eric, but people have forgotten about this back in twenty fifteen when Trump first announced he was right. I mean, he did an event that I think was hosted by glad Or or one. He did groups with the rainbows in it, and he and he and he said at the podium he said, I'll be the best friend the LGBTQ.

1:09:15 Speaker 1: However he put it, I'm sure he mangled it somehow, but I'll be the best friend you've ever had. And then I think somebody got in his ear and said, hey, hey man, you're running for the Republican nomination here, you can't do this. And because that was the last time, like after that event, we never saw any of that again.

1:09:34 Speaker 2: But but we also on the flip side of that, we also, if not, we didn't see him do anything to hurt them or strip away their rights unless I'm forgetting something, and I could be there was.

1:09:54 Speaker 1: I remember this. It was on a Friday afternoon, which was strange, but I remember it was a Friday. Talking about it on the show, he announced on Twitter that they were gonna get all the trans people out of the military or something hey, something to that effect. Now, I don't know if I don't think that policy ever got fully implemented though, because I cannot remember his name now, one of the joint chiefs, whoever was in charge of implementing that, I can picture him, but his name escapes me now.

1:10:25 Speaker 1: But he was slow walking that and it was obvious that he was doing it, and I think he got away with it because I don't think the policy was ever implemented. But yeah, he made he made it Trump out of nowhere. One day. He didn't even talk to them. He just made this announcement on Twitter that we're gonna we're gonna kick out all the trans people. But I don't think it ever actually happened. But yeah, yeah, he tried to do something to slap at them. That's the only thing I can remember though.

1:10:50 Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, he I mean in look, that's wrong again.

1:11:00 Speaker 2: Now keep in mind that we have seen and I'm just reading this on the ACLU website. Yeah, you know, there have been some Trump appointed judges rule in favor of LGBTQ rights in the lower courts. Oh yeah, Justice Neil Gorsich, who authored both Stocks versus Clayton County five ninety US six forty four in twenty twenty, our client's case establishing that title seven a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination and employment protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

1:11:37 Speaker 2: So even if these starts, I find it hard to believe that, even though there's a big deal being made about him appointing all these Supreme Court justices.

1:11:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's going to get he's about to get even more.

1:11:52 Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the Supreme Court does not They are not beholden to any politician right. They are beholden to the law. Does the law law say? I might be a hopeless romantic in this sense, but I still have hope in the Supreme Court.

1:12:17 Speaker 1: They I don't not anymore. If you a couple of years ago, I might have. But I've I've lost. I've lost all hope in the Supreme Court I have.

1:12:29 Speaker 2: I I can't go that far yet. I still like to believe that there are there's good in people. And Sure, and look, you can disagree all you want with the LGBTQ community, you really can. But I think at the end of the day, let people live their lives the way they want to live them. There are there are things that I just agree with that I personally have an issue with. Sure, But if there's dudes that want to dress up as women. Uh, you keep it out of public schools. I'm fine with it. I don't believe in the story drag queen story times libraries were having.

1:13:26 Speaker 2: I think if parents want to say no, that is their right to say no.

1:13:31 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, no one's forcing parents to bring their kids to.

1:13:34 Speaker 2: It, right, And I think that's once again one of those conversations for another day.

1:13:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we that would be an interesting thing to get into.

1:13:42 Speaker 2: But yeah, but yeah, he so. I I just I feel that some of this Yes Project twenty twenty five is some scary stuff. I'm the stuff that scares me is the stuff going into government surveillance, going into stuff regarding women's rights, going into those things. I'm not as worried about LGBTQ discrimination in this administration as I am about those other things, because yeah, because as it is now, people are gonna think what they're gonna think.

1:14:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Trump is far more dangerous to UH immigrants, for example, as we alluded to earlier, than he is too because I don't I don't think Trump is. I don't think Trump is. And again I remember that that one event that he did that was very pro lgbt Q. I don't. I don't think Trump is necessarily uh anti gay or anything like that, or even anti guarantee he feeds him as some of the rhetoric though, but.

1:14:52 Speaker 2: I I well, of course, because that's his base.

1:14:56 Speaker 1: But I don't I don't think. I don't think Trump himself actually believes that. You know, you send your kid to public school and they come home a different gender, and but he'll but he'll say that stuff because he knows his base.

1:15:07 Speaker 2: Once. Well, of course, you look, that's politics, that's politics, but.

1:15:14 Speaker 1: It's it's gone to such an extreme though, you know, or they're they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs, and then that becomes you know, just some people.

1:15:23 Speaker 2: Rocky, they're not really doing that.

1:15:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not gonna eat rock and eat Rocky.

1:15:28 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he was dead asleep and he heard uh eating dogs and he perked up like what ye Like? No, he besides, Rocky would just be a ton of fatty tissue. He's he's quite overweight and lazy, so he well, yeah, he wouldn't be appetizing. Yeah, I don't think.

1:15:54 Speaker 1: But I am more worried about immigrants, and you know, Trump wants to end birthright citizenship. That to be his crazy stuff, like what are we doing here? You know? And he's got Stephen Miller, who's back, Steven Miller, who looks like a James Bond villain, although far more evil than probably any James Bond villain.

1:16:14 Speaker 2: He did announce who one of his joint chief of staffs would be.

1:16:21 Speaker 1: I miss that.

1:16:23 Speaker 2: I'm looking it up right now.

1:16:27 Speaker 1: He's not gonna have very many people from his first administration because most of those people hate him now.

1:16:33 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, rightfully, so it is, it is rumored to be the guidance went toe to toe with AOC on immigration.

1:16:46 Speaker 2: I don't remember the one that said if I arrest someone for drunk driving and they have a kid in the car, the parent is separated from their kid as well. Are you going to argue that?

1:16:57 Speaker 1: See, I don't. I don't remember who that is, but you know, the I'm picturing a sixty year old man with gray hair, but I think that's probably very Yeah, a husky, sixty year old man with gray hair. It just seems like that's that would fit the bill. But yeah, I can't remember who that is. General Milly Wait Mark Milly Mark. Milly is going back no, I can't be.

1:17:27 Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, it's not Mark Miller.

1:17:29 Speaker 1: Okay, I was gonna say because I think I think he's one of the people that.

1:17:32 Speaker 2: Yes he is. He actually said in Bob Woodward's book, Trump is the closest thing to fascist we will ever see.

1:17:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, so we won't be saying, General Milly, we could, that's pretty unlikely.

1:17:47 Speaker 2: Donald Trump is a benevolent man.

1:17:49 Speaker 3: Matt.

1:17:49 Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, Gary forgiving holds no grudges. Sure, sure, yeah, yeah, I can't even say that with a straight face. Yeah. Uh no, Marco Rubio eyed for Secretary of State.

1:18:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that. I can see that happening, little Marco.

1:18:17 Speaker 2: Uh he asked, Oh uh, I remember, I remember the happy days when Marco Rubio did not like Trump.

1:18:28 Speaker 1: I never thought I would pine for the days of the Republican Party, of the George W. Bush administration.

1:18:32 Speaker 2: But here we are, hupa Ted, please come back. We want tedt bring the pinders, bring the pinders and women.

1:18:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, he's still in the Senate, obviously, but I missed the you know, I mean you know I voted for Obama.

1:18:55 Speaker 2: But Trump asks Representative Mike Waltz to be his National Security Advisor, Mike.

1:19:03 Speaker 1: I don't know who that is. Mike Waltz, I don't even know who that is.

1:19:07 Speaker 2: A former Green Beret in China Hawk who emerged as a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden Harris foreign policy record during the campaign. He sits on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committee.

1:19:22 Speaker 1: Wow, it sounds like I should I should be familiar with him.

1:19:25 Speaker 2: But honestly, Oh, here's the key thing about him, Matt, Sorry to cut you off. He has supported aid to Ukraine in the past, but has demanded conditions, including increased spending from European allies, additional oversight of funds, impairing the aid with border security measures.

1:19:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a poison pill. In other words, well, we all we already know where that's headed.

1:19:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he wanted to he wanted to provide Ukraine with Meg fighter planes. I mean, who's gonna fly? Yeah?

1:20:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. No, that's over for Ukraine unfortunately.

1:20:16 Speaker 2: And we get served. Now. This should give everyone a ray of hope.

1:20:20 Speaker 1: Okay, you remember how you said you.

1:20:21 Speaker 2: Wanted to go back to the George W. Bush administration.

1:20:25 Speaker 1: I wanted to go back, but I just you did you did? I prefer I prefer that version argument.

1:20:31 Speaker 2: We're gonna say you did. Walt served in various national security policy roles in the Bush administration, including Pentagon and White House.

1:20:42 Speaker 1: See that doesn't give me a ray of hope though, because the Bush versus foreign policy was so bad. But the good thing about the Bush administration is if you had lost to John Kerry in two thousand and four, I don't think there would have been an insurrection. So you know, that's what I mean.

1:20:58 Speaker 2: On the Capitol man, mhmm, the Capitol.

1:21:03 Speaker 1: Oh, Tom Holman, that's a very familiar name.

1:21:10 Speaker 2: He is Trump's newly announced borders are okay. He is the one who went face to face with AOC in

1:21:22 Speaker 2: uh compared immigrants to drunk drivers. Essentially, yeah, I.

1:21:34 Speaker 1: Uh, we don't need a borders are We need an immigrationsar. We need someone who's gonna work on putting it well. Sees, we almost had, we almost had immigration reform and Trump said, Nope, don't do that. Don't do that until I'm elected again.

1:21:50 Speaker 2: Here's here's what he said at that hearing for US. Holman said he does not plan to quote separate women in children, but acknowledged that deporting alleged criminoals would result in breaking up families. Quote. When we arrest parents here, guess what, we separate them? The illegal aliens should be no different. Homan said, our new borders are.

1:22:19 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean my position. I don't you know. I'm a left leaning guy, so people probably assume I'm for open borders or whatever. No, I think we should secure our border. I also think we need to overhaul the entire immigration system. That a lot. Yeah, I think we're largely in.

1:22:33 Speaker 2: Agreeable immigration in this country. For my entire life, and I'm forty one years old, it's been band aid on a bullet hole, except the bullet hole is getting bigger. We need to find a way to control it. I don't think breaking up families is the way to do it.

1:22:51 Speaker 1: No, but we need to not only not only control it, but make it so that we can see the problem is so many people want to control it by stopping it. They just don't want any more brown people. I mean, that's not a lot of these people think, and it's like, no, we need see. I wish the Democrats could figure out how to message this. We need these immigrants. We need them. Our economy is so screwed without them. We absolutely need these people in the country.

1:23:24 Speaker 2: Know what the you know what the Democrats should have done? Hold on, I want to make sure I get the title of the movie right, Okay.

1:23:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, because we need these people, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, I mean they should.

1:23:41 Speaker 2: Just for one of Kamala Harris's rallies played the movie the mockumentary A Day without a Mexican. Yes, and that would have some data.

1:23:54 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we need immigrants, we need them desperately. Our economy depends on them.

1:24:05 Speaker 2: But a day without a Mexican Yeah, I mean that would have explained it perfectly. Yes, yes, oh man, I should have been her campaign advisor.

1:24:22 Speaker 1: Well, you can't go back.

1:24:25 Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I couldn't have done worse.

1:24:28 Speaker 1: I mean, well no, I mean she lost, so you're right.

1:24:34 Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I could have carried her to one swing state victory.

1:24:39 Speaker 1: I don't know, we might have to talk about probability theory a little more, but.

1:24:43 Speaker 2: I could have carried Kamala. I could have been like, listen, listen, I have this cute dog. We're just gonna run him out on stage, don't do anything.

1:24:56 Speaker 1: Well, Eric, we've been on for a while, we should probably wrap up. I'm anxious. Ye yeah, I'm anxious to get the podcast up online because it's been a long time since we've been able to do this.

1:25:05 Speaker 2: Absolutely, but now when we've gotten.

1:25:07 Speaker 1: Back in the saddle, we should do it more often.

1:25:10 Speaker 2: I am definitely down. I think. I think if you know, this is gonna sound ridiculous, but if people really think about this, to have two people that have differing views sitting down and being able to talk, that's an example of what we can do in this country. Oh yeah, and if we just get rid of if we go into it with an open mind. Now, I'm not saying you should walk into a clan rally and say, hey, explain to me while you're why you're right. No, not at all. Please don't do that, because if you are certain people, you might not make it out of said rally.

1:25:54 Speaker 2: I do not advise that. But what I do advise is, instead of attacking people because of how they voted, try to understand why they voted the way they voted. Try to get a gist of it, and then if you have an issue with it, fine, cool. Yeah, But I have heard from people who voted for Donald Trump that you know you look, you hear it, and you're like, okay, that's a dumb reason. People I worked with said, my four oh one K in the last four years has went down thirty thousand dollars.

1:26:34 Speaker 1: I don't understand that though, what the stock market doing so well.

1:26:38 Speaker 2: But I'm saying, theoretically, yeah, yeah, yeah, my four oh one K has went down x amount. I'm going to have to work this much extra to make up for that. I plan to retire at sixty two. Now I have to wait till I'm sixty three and a half sixty four. That's why I voted the way I voted, because I want some of that capital gains back. Or you know someone who is in an area where immigration is just out of control, that's on a border state. We don't take border states into account and not. My point is, if you get fifty Donald Trump voters in a room, forty five of them are going to give you what you at the very least would say.

1:27:35 Speaker 2: I don't agree with it, but I understand it. They're not all sitting there like the people of South Park saying they took their jibs right.

1:27:47 Speaker 1: Some of them are, though, to be fair, some of them, all of them, use.

1:27:50 Speaker 2: Some of them are.

1:27:51 Speaker 1: I've met some.

1:27:53 Speaker 2: But I'm gonna sit there and say that that falls under the five out of the fifty hope. So I think you're going to find a majority of them at least have feasible reasons why they voted the way they did, and you don't have to agree with them. But I think you would walk away saying I get it. Well.

1:28:13 Speaker 1: I also think I don't know if i'd walk away saying I get it, but but I understand what you're saying. And I also think our conversations are an example to people of how, you know, even if you come from different places politically, like I'm kind of I don't know. I think I'm basically center left, you know, and you're a conservative, although I know some people think that you should be stripping.

1:28:33 Speaker 2: I would probably I like your center left. I would say I'm center right, center right.

1:28:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, but even though so, but even though so, we come at politics from opposite directions. But you know, if you listen to our conversations, we actually agree on a lot of things. There's a lot of common ground to be had.

1:28:49 Speaker 2: There there is, Yeah, I think again a quote from Citizen King. At the end of the day, we are all one thing, We are all Americans, and we have

1:29:03 Speaker 2: to start looking at ourselves as such. Don't look at it as does this does this guy on the bus next to me kiss other guys? Does this woman next to me kiss other women? Does this guy or this woman like to dress up like the opposite sex? Or is this person wearing face covering? Is he gonna bob my house? No, we're looking at things totally wrong there. We need to look at things as We need to look at people as people and get to know them as people. And I think if we do that, then we can see the common grounds we have.

1:29:46 Speaker 2: I will say, being a part of your show and listening to people chime in help me change my perspectives on things on some of my perspectives on things. So yeah, definitely, But I'm always going going to stand up for what I believe in.

1:30:06 Speaker 1: Yes, as you should. Yes. And I would just add, you know, because you were talking about like if you get on a bus and you see you know, if it's two women kissing, now I might be kind of into that.

1:30:16 Speaker 2: You know, I've always said this, if two dudes want to hook up. Sweet more women for me if two women want to hook up and let me watch even better.

1:30:28 Speaker 1: Common ground?

1:30:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, very good, Yeah, I see, I am. I am not. I'm open minded. Yes, I'm very I'm right there. I don't even care that they show Taylor Swift during pro football. Yeah I don't. No, Yeah, there's a lot of fans football fans that do.

1:30:55 Speaker 1: But I'm not. I know.

1:30:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, I am very, I am very much. You know what it's is what it is. It's bringing new people into football. No, there you go. So why would we even be upset about that? Yeah?

1:31:15 Speaker 1: Exactly well said exactly right. Why do you have anything to plug or anything or No?

1:31:24 Speaker 2: I am you know. I am currently working through somewhat of a major injury still in July. No, in July, I suffered a lower back spring that caused compression on my psiatic nerve.

1:31:43 Speaker 1: Oh that sucks.

1:31:45 Speaker 2: So right now it's work and physical therapy and they're looking at something you're familiar with through Jenny nerve ablation. Okay, So so yeah, right now it's you know, and that tied into my voting for Kamala Harris because working for the post office and I'm not ashamed to say I work for the post Office. I do have to add that the views and opinions I express do not reflect those of the United States Postal Service or the government.

1:32:23 Speaker 2: I want to protect the benefits I'm getting.

1:32:27 Speaker 1: Of course, I'm.

1:32:27 Speaker 2: Getting workmen's comp My physical therapy is fully covered because the injury happened at work.

1:32:34 Speaker 1: Good.

1:32:34 Speaker 2: I mean that includes transportation for me to get to my physical therapy. Like yeah, so yeah, I had to vote to protect my finances. Yes, And if you're gonna threaten to take away those things from me, then I have to vote in the best interest of me exactly. That's what I had to do. And so yeah, yeah, that's really what's going on. I mean, I you know, it's it is one of the most frustrating injuries I have ever had, because you can go for days at a time and not feel anything. Yeah, be totally fine, and then it hits.

1:33:25 Speaker 2: And it could be the littlest thing you do, like it in a chair, or like you turning the shower wrong, or you scrub the dishes too hard. The littlest thing can trigger it, and.

1:33:41 Speaker 1: That pain is yeah, and that pain is awful. I had a few years ago, I had a psiatic pain and it just it lasted for a couple of weeks and then it just kind of went away on its own, unfortunately. I don't know, I don't know why. I did a lot of stretching, and I think that helped it. So it wasn't It wasn't like an actual injury. Say, it was just something was causing my static nerve to bother me. But I just remember the way that pain would radiate it just ah, it was just such a drag. So I feel for you.

1:34:10 Speaker 2: I mean, it is what it is. There are people who have it way worse than I do. I mean, are there nights that I have to sleep sitting up in my on my chase on my sectional? Yeah? Does that suck? Yeah? But there are people in this country that don't have a chase to sleep on.

1:34:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, there are people.

1:34:34 Speaker 2: There are people in a hospital that they fall asleep and they're like, is this gonna be a Yeah. So I'm very fortunate and that's the way I look at it. So so yeah, but no, I'm definitely open to doing this more frequently. I think there's gonna be a lot more to talk about. Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot more to discuss, and I think you know,

1:35:02 Speaker 2: people don't laugh at the ridiculousness of this. Use Matt and I as an example, but make sure you eat pineapple on pizza.

1:35:15 Speaker 1: No common ground there, all right? On that note, I need to go eat something delicious just to cleanse my palace.

1:35:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a KFC and it ain't sitting good.

1:35:29 Speaker 1: Yeah does it ever? KFC? I can't eat that either, all right? Aaron Pilcher my favorite conservative even if you are we're more center right, but what I'll still call you my favorite conservative.

1:35:40 Speaker 2: Hey, I'm down with it. And if anyone has a problem with me being a conservative, send me a message. We can discuss.

1:35:47 Speaker 1: I know someone who might.

1:35:49 Speaker 2: Oh well, I know someone else. But I know someone else who might you know if you can figure out the technology of doing so.

1:35:58 Speaker 1: A certain New Yorker Yeah, uh uh no like.

1:36:02 Speaker 2: Section eight housing in Poughkeepsie.

1:36:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, he hasn't posted anything in uh like two months? Now. Do you think he's dead?

1:36:11 Speaker 2: I mean we're gonna stop there because I don't want to say something that's totally mean.

1:36:18 Speaker 1: I don't want him to be dead, because once he's dead, that there's no more. Uh, there's no more possibility of redemption.

1:36:25 Speaker 2: That's very true.

1:36:26 Speaker 1: Yeah.

1:36:28 Speaker 2: I thought I thought we would hear something him singing to the high praises when Trump or Trump won.

1:36:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought he'd posts something. But he didn't. That's why I think he might. Uh maybe I don't know, maybe you know what.

1:36:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully that individual is in good health. And on that note, I have to cleanse my palate.

1:36:51 Speaker 1: All right, Eric, thank you so much, my friend.

1:36:53 Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. It was good, it was it was fun.

1:36:58 Speaker 1: All right, and thanks everyone everyone for listening. I mean they're not listening live, but I will. I will post this shortly and uh, all right, Eric, take care of have a good night.

1:37:07 Speaker 2: You as well. Bye bye bye Commander, don't get Supreme Leader maxill coming