Stop The Bleeding: Now What?

Hey there. We recorded an episode on on Tuesday called Will These Be the Last

Midterm Elections? We sat down before the results and they started coming in while

we were still talking. Near the end,

I said, I think it'd be interesting to hear on Thursday and think,

man, if only they knew we were victorious.

Well, now we know. We are not posting that last episode because,

wow. Like

Holy shit, did you see what actually came in?

We had to record this episode

Harder less.

instead. Democrats took the House and the Senate.

NBC projects 258 House seats,

the widest margin

Thanks.

the Democratic Party has had in the House and Senate in 33 years.

Susan Collins is out after 30 years.

Ken Paxton is a loser. Governor Abbott,

gone.

Texas elected a Democrat governor,

a Democratic senator, a Democratic Attorney General,

a Democratic lieutenant governor,

and Thor and Cthulhu, please help us all a Democratic Railroad Commissioner

after 32 years without a single statewide Democratic win.

Kansas elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since the 1930s.

South Carolina took a

Back seat Republicans have held from since I don't know,

Strom Thurman switched parties in 1964.

Elon Musk put $168 million into

two Texas super PACs and got a Senator Tallerigo.

The Texas map that cost the RNC $7,500 to gerrymander and was drawn

to get Republicans five more seats.

The reports write.

That I'm reading today say they lost four of those five districts.

Best $7,500 the Democrats never spent.

And here in Oklahoma, where the top of the ticket stayed red,

as tradition demands, Democrats flipped six state house seats and took

out the House Majority whip.

When a Trump advisor told CNN it was essentially too big to rig.

So what happens the next time it's close?

With 17 states' voter files handed to the Department of Justice and nobody saying

they came back. Are we safe? Or did we just win by too much for anybody to try?

Will, this is the overlap. How are you doing?

Come well, Joshua, how are you?

I'm great. I wasn't directing this is the overlap at you.

I was it I just realized I forgot to say it.

Yeah.

So this is the overlap.

If you're if you're here with us normally,

we're we're we're usually a little bit more scripted than this.

We have a topic, we try to keep to it,

and it's hard to remember all these statistics just off the top of our heads.

Because there are a lot of them.

Yes. Again, w we like to deal in facts.

We like the numbers. We like the percentages.

We like to know the things. And we're gonna talk about a lot of those things

today. Will, how are you feeling today?

I am upright, so I'm calling it a good day.

That is a good day. And I I it feels like a good day.

there's a lot of positivity. I even saw a fantastic video about the city of Austin

after it was announced that Hina Hosa won the governorship.

There was literally horns blaring.

It was so good.

I heard comparisons to Coruscant.

I know you don't watch the Star Wars movies,

at end of the third Star Wars movie,

there's a big celebration when the Emperor is destroyed.

And that was a comparison people were making to it.

It's kind like when all the Ewoks come out and dance in the streets.

So yeah, there was a moment.

Yeah. I I don't know what you're talking

about, but I assume that's that's a similar situation.

Yeah.

yeah, so I I mean, you know, you were you were an hour ahead,

you were living in the future.

Um

That's right.

so you you got to see the the projections before I did,

only I don't think that's how any of that works.

No, but it feels good.

It does feel good. And it feels a little bit it feels a little bit lighter today,

like we might be able to fix this,

maybe turn it around even.

At least, yeah, at least stop the bleeding.

Yeah, so let's talk about some of the numbers,

right? In the house, NBC is projecting 258 Democratic seats,

33 years the widest House margin.

They needed 218, they got 40 more than they needed.

Exactly. And now MS Now is actually saying 250 plus,

right? CBS, who is now owned by the right wing,

ranges 251 to 268. Like what?

Wow. Right.

Where are we living right now?

The Senate.

Democrats have about 54 Senate seats,

with Republicans having 44, which with seven flips.

Seven states flip their senator,

Texas, which obviously

Nuts.

nobody expected. Ohio by Ramaswamy,

you know, Iowa, that's Housted,

right? No, I think Housted is maybe no,

I think Houstead was Iowa. So you got Iowa,

Kansas.

I have some family members in Kansas that that say some pretty nasty things

on Facebook all the time. So in your face.

Uh Maine,

and on Kansas anymore.

right? Maine ousted a 30-year governor.

North Carolina, where

Yep.

you live, also ousted uh a Republican governor.

Hey, literally

every vote, every voting county in North Carolina went blue.

Entire state didn't get a red one.

I'm gonna ask you some more about that a little later because I have some

interesting statistics on Oklahoma as well.

South Carolina. So both North and South,

what was once divided by the literal Civil War,

both went blue in this uh semi midterm election.

Welcome to the party, South Carolina.

So let's let's talk about some some names here,

right? We have Talerico who who bit beat Paxton,

or as we call him Senator Talafrico.

That's right.

Jackson beat Susan Collins up there in Maine.

We have Brown beating Husted, we have Turek beating Henson.

Andrews beat Darlene Graham, sister of the late Lid Lindsey Graham.

I've seen some interesting you know,

Instagrams today about that. in

Memory of her brother, apparently she finished on the bottom.

Well, hey, look at it this way.

uh

National Security doesn't learn anything about national security.

Exactly.

a political novice, CNN basically says that Trump pressed to run,

right? Lindsay Graham's sister,

uh the the the late loser Darlene Graham got got pushed out as well.

Cooper beat Watley, El Sayyed held Michigan,

the first Muslim senator in the entire country.

Yep.

Amazing. Governors flipped. You have Hinahosa over Hot Wheels Abbott.

We got Georgia, Nevada, Ohio choosing Acton over Vereck Vivek Ramaswamy in Iowa,

who has always been one of those battleground states,

regardless. But

Yeah.

Texas, where both of us lived not too long ago,

Mm-hmm.

flipped attorney general, lieutenant governor,

choosing Goodwin over Dan Patrick,

railroad commissioner.

Not one single house or one single election went to a Democrat statewide

since nineteen ninety-four. I remember that year.

Yeah, we were alive then kids.

I was in middle school. I know.

So I guess the the the question I have for you is is what do you think flipped Texas?

Taler Rico or or Trump? Or did Texas just decide that it was gonna flip with

a different Republican than Paxton?

Does it still that would it still look like it does today?

I think, and this is not a cop out answer,

but I honestly think it took all of those things.

I think it took Trump just fumbling it hard like he did.

Thank you for that.

Right.

Then I think it took Tallarico being like a standup guy and dealing with

all the stuff that was thrown at him with grace.

Mm-hmm.

And just

like, mean, he handled his business.

And then I think Paxton is an absolute crook.

I hope that he ends up where he belongs.

He's one of the few people I got to...

I'm feeling the goodwill very much today.

And so I'm not on the revenge path.

get it. Believe me, I get it. People who watch people,

Well, wait till you see where this episode goes.

know.

Yeah, right. But I will say, I will sleep better knowing that Paxton is behind bars.

I will too.

So.

Um, I I wouldn't be hurt if it was a few more people than just that.

Yeah, well, if we ever find the Epstein files.

I mean, you know,

right. I I I do think that, you know,

I I don't like it, but I n understand Texas.

I think that it gave uh, you know,

in Talarico, I think you have exactly what Texas thought it was,

which is white, male,

Yeah. uh

and Christian, and just

put it in a blue box and actually

Right. Yeah.

showed up in the way that, I I actually heard what's his name on on CNN he does

that that morning uh Democratic show mornings with Joe or whatever

Joe Scarborough. Yeah

Joe Scarborough? Yeah.

he said he he he said something along the lines of of he's just a good guy.

He's not a a great guy.

Yeah.

Now and I don't think he meant that he was that Talarico wasn't great,

but I think that

Right.

Focusing on somebody who's insisting on being great,

we the the Republicans ignored the fact that he wasn't even good.

Right. So it's great that

Right.

you're you're you're reaching for great,

but but can we just start with a good person running for office?

And I think that that's what you had in Tel Rico.

I agree. think he's a stand up guy.

And I think he was up against a crook and all the bombs they launched at him just

blew up in their faces. I mean,

it was this beautiful thing.

And I've never seen a more,

a more I guess you would say slanted uh more more slanted skewed look

at a person versus another person.

Basically, Tallerico looked and sounded and talked the talk and walk the walk

of what Republicans say they want and say they are,

Exactly.

and say

but they but he had a D behind his name instead of an R.

And so I think

All right.

that that there are definitely some Texans right now that that definitely made that

that jump. Not maybe not forever.

Maybe, maybe just for this election,

but didn't realize

All

enough that that we had the worst possible human being that could have been running

for office but had an R behind their name with the best of who they say they are,

with a D behind his name, and and now he's the victor.

All right, well deserved.

And then

I was I I'm not necessarily surprised at Hina Hosa.

she was a fantastic candidate.

and and Governor Abbott was there the entire time I lived in Texas.

I I moved to Texas in no 2012.

I moved when Rick Perry was there.

So I mean, you've had just this long legacy of of douchebag Republican

governors, and it it you know it's nice to see somebody who doesn't look exactly like

what what Texas claims they want.

In leadership going

Okay.

up there, we have the first uh Hispanic female governor of Texas.

Right. And I will note though that it just as a point of like bringing it back

to the facts and the numbers here.

If I'm not mistaken, I think she received significantly fewer votes than Telerico

did, which tells you a lot about what's going on there,

right? They were willing to vote Telerico,

A hundred percent. Right.

but you know,

she picked up enough from the down ballot vote to get in.

Exactly.

then look, hey, respect to Texas that they elected her at all,

right? mean, because it could have gone

Hundred percent.

Telerico only and no other, you know,

they could have just done Telerico,

but.

They did better. Way to go, Texas.

Yeah, CNN also said that Democrats held at least eight of the fifteen GOP seats

redistricted redistricting targeted,

right? And flipped at least four.

I love it. Yeah.

So,

like literally their entire plot just collapsed like a flan in a cupboard.

Um, Vicente Gonzalez. Go ahead.

Sure, which I will say, I will say again

though, that does like, this is the cynical side of me,

but I think what that says is not the redistricting doesn't work because

if it didn't work, they wouldn't have been doing it all these years,

right?

Sure.

The problem was they were just so bad that even the redistricted areas voted against

them because of what's happened this past year.

Yeah, they're seeing the actual effects of this.

like,

yeah, I'm just saying like the downer side is we can't count on those for future

Democrat votes.

or future reasonable votes for reasonable candidates.

I think we had them one time. Unless something good happens out of all this,

maybe people will be convinced that it's the right way to go for the long term.

But I think we just, for now, we just have to consider them one offs.

But it's still nice. Like you said,

it's like saying, you're gonna try and screw with the vote.

You couldn't screw up the country bad enough.

You couldn't draw a line bad enough to get your guys reelected.

That's how sad this was.

Right.

Of those four seats that were flipped,

Vicente Gonzalez was winning a seat redrawn to Trump by 10 plus.

Like plus 10

That's insane.

was was the spread on that, and he still pulled it out.

Shamari figures held a seat that was redrawn to Trump plus 14.

the same. These were already red districts.

Like this this wasn't a hundred percent,

They weren't more red and then

yes.

failed, then failed them completely.

Exactly. Because they tried to loop in typically blue areas into one so that that

that they could they could win the the bigger picture.

Yeah.

So moving on from that, we the last episode was really about the idea that

the Republicans paid a guy seventy five hundred bucks.

he was definitely a partisan guy.

He was working for a partisan pack.

and they paid him seventy five hundred bucks that we know of.

to basically draw this new

Right.

this new map and and we were we were talking about how how sad that

was and how the DOJ had r gotten all these voter rolls from from 17 different states

and which ones had had you know talked about

redistricting and how California responded and it was just this kind of kind

of war back and forth. But I think that it in general it it really backfired,

right? Like I mean, the

Yeah.

the re even even when you try to stack the side.

Now that's not to take away and I'll talk about this a little bit later,

some of the see things I've seen that Texas Republican lawmakers

are now demanding that the governor do before Kina Hosa actually gets sworn in.

But but I think that that really shows that

When we get together, right? when we actually make a decision and say,

we can do this, but we have to stop this,

right? Like that that we can

All right.

overcome the money. We can overcome,

you know, the the partisan gerrymandering.

We can overcome these things. Should they be illegal?

Yes, they should be. But until we can we get back into power,

they're not gonna be. Right.

All right.

Looking at at sort of Tennessee's Tennessee here.

So we you had DeJar Lay trailing by 280 uh in a Trump plus

24 seat. The Mississippi Senate

Good.

Cologne up by literally, and we you want to talk about voting mattering 43 votes.

Right.

Now last night when you know when I went to bed,

it was 28. I looked, I checked again today before the re recorded,

and it is 43 votes. I mean, so you that's gonna go to recount,

right?

Yeah.

So I uh

Yeah.

we also have Musk, of course. Musk.

Now I found a really great quote from from Instagram and and Twitter,

not Twitter, sorry, I'm not a big Tweeter.

I actually don't even have an account,

I don't think anymore, but I saw it on Instagram and I saw a TikTok clip that

basically he was talking to Tucker Carlson and he was like

I'm gonna go to prison. if the Democrats win,

I'm going to prison. And I'm really

Yeah.

just asking myself if that happens,

how long the sentence is going to be.

And you know, maybe. Um, but he put nearly half a billion dollars right into federal

committees overall and

Yeah.

then posted about his, you know,

election interfering space lasers.

Yeah, it's just unfortunate that that's still couch change to him.

he'd find

yeah.

half a billion dollars in his couch cushion.

So I I did see I saw this comparison on a different social media post,

I think it was on Blue Sky, where somebody was saying that from a a well wealth

perspective, right, this amount of money they'd put almost almost $500 million,

would be the equivalent of the average salaried person spending fifty dollars

on you know, to to overwhelmingly affect be able to purchase an election.

and

I I think I think that that hopefully now we start seeing investigations.

How hopefully we start seeing these things.

do you think that there is a a gerrymander that might have seen this go a different

way or or does this any does any of this make you generally feel better?

No, I wish it did, but I think this was honestly they lost too many Republicans.

They lost too many of their base.

Because you when you say no new wars,

that's that's what tanked Bush senior,

right? No new taxes. And yet there were new taxes.

Say no new wars, then you go start a war on solo without the support of Congress

Yeah. Still, still.

or anybody in your party. Yeah,

still.

That's that's not no new wars.

Like that's one at least one new war.

Right.

And at least they count that high.

So yeah, I wish I felt better about it.

I'll take the win though. I'll take the W all day long.

Yeah, I I'm I'm seeing it like as a as a a Gatorator,

if you will. it's giving me a little bit of an electrolyte boast to realize that

we what we're doing matters. What we what we can do is still to come and

and we can make a difference if we if if we understand that solidarity is the only

way to overcome powers that seem outside of us.

The the

and holding

both counties apart, accountable,

right? Like that's gonna be the key.

Yes. Agreed.

You can't just do

it on one side. You gotta do it on both sides.

Yes. And so

So.

so let's talk a little bit about that,

right? So I want to first start with with Oklahoma.

Obviously, this is where I live now.

and I've I was incredibly disappointed last night.

I mean it basically everything stayed red,

um, basically, until you actually start picking apart and looking at the data

underneath it. I I spent quite a bit of time last night and even more time than

that today, um, to talk about a couple things.

I I

I'll be honest, I voted for for Cindy Munson.

I supported her campaign. I donated a little bit of money that I could to her,

at least for a sign, and we put it out front.

And we're hoping other enough people did the same.

Now, unfortunately, uh she did not win.

However, um, there were a couple of house flips still in Oklahoma,

and and I've seen some some interesting maps and data that so first of all,

we we did flip six seats, taking the Democratic caucus.

Of Oklahoma from 20 to 26, right?

So Republicans still keep their supermajority,

of course. we had House District 84,

uh, where Jeffrey Perez beat Tammy West,

the House Majority whip, which is kind of the most important one,

from my perspective, from fifty fifty-one to forty-eight.

So even in the ones that they did win,

the election was still pretty close.

Now Munson lost uh

about fifty-three percent to about forty-five percent.

Now the last Democratic woman we had running for governor was Joey Hoffmeister.

I voted for her too. Um and she only got about forty to forty one percent

of the vote. So we're making gains there.

And forty six

Mm-hmm.

or sorry forty five to to fifty three is still a very narrow margin and it keeps

improving.

But looking at it county by county,

uh, it's what you would expect.

I think I actually think Will and I uh talked about this audience.

I think Will and I talked about this after we had recorded last night when we were

starting to look at some of the results.

I said, I I'm pretty sure Oklahoma County,

Tulsa County, and maybe Cleveland County in Oklahoma are gonna go for months

and no matter what. And like always,

it's low information, low education,

and rural voters that ultimately will bring home the Republicans.

win and and that ended up being true.

So O Oklahoma County, Tulsa County,

and Cleveland counties all went for Munson,

but we also flipped Payne County.

So I mean we were like Trump plus 28,

I think, or so, um, to going going into this election,

Wow. oh

or going to the last election.

And we have this much movement in the state.

So

It wasn't necessarily a blue blue wave here in Oklahoma,

but it was definitely a a red wave with a blue tide underneath.

Mm-hmm.

So the NBC actually reported that the governor's race moved 28 points toward

Democrats from the 2024 presidential race.

Wow.

a 28 point spread would have, wiped out just about every election in Oklahoma.

if we'd have grown by that that many points in Oklahoma across the the area.

Uh

Mm-hmm.

you know what what do I think it would take for a Democrat to win statewide here?

I I

Unfortunately, I think it would be probably similar to something that Texas,

Texas did. They found the the most decent person in the middle demographic

of everything that the state wanted to see,

except

Mm-hmm.

with the letter behind their name.

but they have a chance for that,

essentially. I mean, uh now Gunter Drummond was not necessarily a a rhino,

a Republican in name only, but he was reasonable on some things that that

Historically, Republicans really aren't.

He he supported a couple of choices,

but we have close primaries, right?

So moderate, moderate voters and independent voters were locked

out of these elections to be able to choose who the candidate was going to be.

So it ended up being Mike Maze.

Maisie, whatever. I don't really care how he pronounces his name,

but apparently he's the next governor of our state.

Stephanie Bice actually held on to the 5th district when when I lived up in the city.

Uh

she was my my senator and she actually got uh won barely

49.4% to forty-eight point two percent over Jenna Nelson.

Jenna Nelson is a wonderful person and and Republicans still hold all five

congressional seats at every statewide office.

There were no no Senate flips,

but the Democrats kept all of the eight members that they had,

uh they had in place at the time and

Julia Kurtz has they contested more seats than in the last 20 years.

So for s for the

Well.

first time, some people were actually able to vote for a Democrat where they have

never had the opportunity to before,

and most of the times just didn't get to vote at all.

And the Republican uh

Hmm.

was was just installed into office.

In Inola, where the smelter, you know,

Mike Maisie first came out for the this smelter that they wanted to put in,

which was partially owned by the UAE.

Mat Mazie actually took it by about forty four point six percent to Munson's

thirty-five. And surprisingly,

the window licker, independent Robert Brooks,

took fifteen percent of the vote in in Inola,

That's crazy.

in a town that

stit one by more than seventy percent in twenty twenty two.

Well.

So there's some moves there. you know,

Robert Brooks was a real piece of work.

I got called out several times on his Facebook page.

Like like he made videos with my face and then and telling me,

you know, saying that I was stupid and things like this because

I I had legitimate questions for him.

but what do you well I I I I ask myself more than anything,

like what would would a person that would

be the same concept as what they Texas did with Talo Rico,

still look like an Oklahoman in in a race like that.

And I the truth is, I don't really know.

I I'm I'm barely an Oklahoman.

I've been here now for five years or so.

Going on five years. It'll be five years next year.

I I think that that Oklahomans are are such an interesting mixture of Texas

and and Kansas and

They're a little bit north and a little bit south with a whole lot of native,

which is i is a good thing. And and I'm not sure that that what w what Oklahomans

consider the the middle demographic is something that looks very Oklahoman.

Yeah, hard to say.

So I guess w what do you think about this Robert Brooks getting fifteen percent?

Do you think that that fifteen percent is a is an for an independent is is more

of a a protest vote or do you see it as more of a preview for what we're likely

to see in the twenty twenty eight elections?

I know what I'd like to think about it,

but I think the reality is there just didn't see widespread enough support.

know, if a few more independents had really shown some numbers,

I might feel that way. But I feel like this is more a protest vote and they're

just like, they just couldn't take the chance that,

you know, of having a democratic governor in their minds.

um

Yeah.

But they were willing to throw their vote away.

So couldn't give it to the other

Well, the the the we

side, but.

we did have a c another couple of two,

you know, state questions. One was was capping was capping property taxes

for uh older

Mm-hmm.

folks who were made too much money to qualify for the tack like cap that

we already have in place. Voters overwhelmingly

Right.

rejected that. They also rejected um state question eight forty-five,

which basically would have allowed for a full partisan.

nomination committee to be installed in Oklahoma.

And so they rejected that as well.

So we do have those two things to look forward to.

Oklahoma County also rejected a a sales tax that was targeted toward

non-Oklahomans, more of a like an

Terrific.

tour a tourist tax, if you will,

that would be placed on on very high touristy things to support the uh Oklahoma

City jail. Now

Interestingly enough, the Oklahoma City Jail is currently in the process of being

built. So they actually re reject that they have no backup plan.

I don't know what they're gonna do.

And I saw some people saying that apparently they were gonna have

to ask the DOJ to assist with with finishing the build out of this new jail.

So that's fun. Um

Better hurry.

yeah, right. A little bit of a downside here is that our voter turnout here

in Oklahoma was was a little over 45%.

And the last midterm, it was a little higher than 50%.

And in 2018, it was 56%.

Now, Democrats here ran on the same thing they they ran on nationwide,

lower costs, better schools, better health outcomes,

and and better paying jobs, right?

So is that a progressive win or or a candidates finally were recruited win?

I I don't really know.

I don't have any concern with that one.

There was also a Comanche Comanche County had to manually enter enter their voter

counts because there was some sort of electronic upload problem with

the results. the ACLU did say that they were um making sure that they followed

the election protocol guidelines and they put them in locked boxes and

uh it the announcement actually specifically said that there were issues

in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman.

Oklahoma, as well as later reported Comanche County had those issues with

the upload, not with the count.

And those seemed to have resolved themselves.

But I I do find it interesting that those were the three places that very heavily

carried Sandy Munson. And they all had

Mm-hmm.

reported issues with vote tabulation and vote counting.

But it I also thought we had a bigger

those lasers

turnout.

yeah those lasers, masks, masks,

And turns out we didn't. It it was the the election voting space lasers that were

blocking the cell

yeah

phone uploads of these these hacked Russian vote counting machines.

Um

That's right.

anyway, I I we can move on from from our my individual state and and Will,

do you have any any thoughts on on North Carolina um specifically?

I went on the breakdown because I think Oklahoma expected Oklahoma to go blue.

Or at least purple and it went so deeply red with a very tumultuous undercurrent

of blue. So

Yeah, no, I'm just happy that the whole state was unified.

That's really what it comes down to for me.

mean, for what it's worth, it doesn't really matter what I am,

but nobody cares. But I would consider myself an independent.

So when I say these are wins, I'm talking about wins for the country or wins

for Americans in general, not wins

Right.

for a particular party, because I don't have any desire to see an unchecked

Democratic agenda any more than I want to see an unchecked Republican agenda

or virtually any.

agenda that's out there. I'm just looking for people to say,

we've looked, we've gotten real close and we've got to have a good look into

the abyss and we don't want that.

Let's give this America thing one more shot.

And I feel like that's what kind of happened last night.

The enlightened centrist.

I just, you know, I don't know.

I just feel good about it.

I've I've talked about this

before. I I have my whole trump trampoline theory.

I almost said trampoline. please,

I hope he doesn't rename them now.

but I I have this trampoline theory that I think it takes

How you felt?

all of the springs, right? it takes it takes springs of of every every kind,

Yeah.

color, quality, and and thought to keep the United States as a country in constant

you know elevation. it that's what keeps the whole trampoline actually bouncing

and r working and not not falling to the ground.

but I think we have had an imbalance here since twenty sixteen,

in general in our country. Um,

that what really is the minority in this case,

and and I I want to highlight that,

I I still think that conservatives are the minority in this country,

they got really loud and really good at being the loudest in the room.

And I think that what the non-right wing people saw.

From this election, and what we can take as part of the results is that

we are not a majority conservative.

We are a majority reasonable. And when any majority or any minority

tries to rise up and claim that they have any sort of superiority over any other

uh faction within our government,

that we have a both a right but also a responsibility.

to remind them that they don't.

Right. This was a lot about protecting the classes that couldn't protect themselves

from the government, which is awesome.

I think, like you said, the trampoline theory makes a lot of sense.

And if you lose too many springs,

you end up on America's Funniest Videos,

and not in a good way. um

Right.

And that's where I was afraid we were headed on this last bounce.

But thankfully,

Same.

it looks like we held together.

Yeah. So let's move on to a little bit of what of what the internet looked like

today. Um, you know,

my word.

these are these are our words,

right? These are our Will and I both created this this podcast and created this

this vision to to get people together because

We think that the the middle is actually the majority.

And the middle wants to work together to come to compromise and figure

out how we all can move forward together into time because you no matter how much

you want to, you can't just stop it,

right? And and we certainly can't go backwards.

So how do we do this in the most reasonable and responsible way to where

the least people are hurt and the most people are helped?

the right reacted.

last night as well and and into today.

That's the word for it.

Yes. Trump, the president of the United States,

did appear on Fox News. I say appear,

uh, I don't think he appears. He does.

Wait, wait. I thought he hated Fox News just last night,

wasn't it? Isn't it their fault?

He does. Um, but he called in.

Isn't it their fault they lost?

He called in. He has

OK.

he has apparently a phone number to just being live on Fox News at any given

moment.

or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

m

Yeah. So he says,

he he said that told Fox News,

and this is just a a a blurb. I'm not going read the whole statement.

but he says that it bear he bears responsibility for these losses

by consistently or sorry. It quote bears responsibility for these losses

by constantly and consistently putting on the Democrats opposition.

And worse. I don't know what that means.

That's a direct quote.

And it's not or it's them, not me.

My numbers are better than they have ever been.

So I think what he's saying here is that

Yeah.

that that the Republicans lost because of their issues,

not because it was a greater ballot measure about the efficacy or,

you know, the the presidency that is the Trump presidency.

And I think specifically Fox News for putting the Democrats and for giving them

a platform is what he was accusing,

even though they come on there basically to get beaten up.

But I think he was saying that Fox News gave him too much airtime.

But also, I also think he's saying that he doesn't understand how numbers work.

That's what I'm taking away from this.

No, I I I think

it's worse. Like I think his his human printer is is only showing him direct

quotes and completely fabricated hallucinations from,

you know, Grok AI or something about what reality looks like.

And he believes it. I I he also mentioned he also said that he was

not on the ballot, but had he been on the ballot,

he would have won in a landslide.

Yeah, yeah. Connect those dots for me and let's see what kind of picture it puts

together, because I'm...

Well, you you mentioned Jessica Tarlov.

He

he said that she was dumb as a rock.

that Bill DeBlasio was a ranting,

was ranting and raving like a lunatic.

Then he called into Fox and said,

congratulations to the Democrats.

I do want to mention that. He did actually say congratulations.

Right.

he did

say that he intends to work with the Democrats.

He specifically said something that an advisor probably told him

to say and actually didn't change it.

Didn't make it dumb, didn't call them Democrats,

actually congratulated them on their wins,

and that said that he would he would work with them going forward.

Now, take that for what it's worth.

Right.

how

many know that forward is to jail?

You start thinking about things a little differently.

Yes. So Sean Davis from the the Federalist actually said that Senate GOP leadership

should all resign tomorrow. Utter incompetence

Mm-hmm.

all around, lazy, incompetent,

and completely brain dead. Bo Luden said Rhino senators stabbed Trump in the back

by not passing the Save America Act.

Okay, that was was done.

I know it it it's great.

Right? Jack Basobiak said we will not surrender.

the United States of America to Marxism.

the he quoted that in the Independent,

Congrats, Jack. Nobody's asking.

right? the Independent notes no credible candidate identified as a communist.

They they felt it necessary to to to check Jack Basobiak on that.

We're not going

to turn to the Care Bears either.

I yeah, I I don't know. Well if you had to guess,

which of these people and their their comments so far,

which of them actually believes it?

And which of them do you think is just,

you know, doing it for the the the lols and the follows and the like?

I actually think Trump might be schizophrenic because I think half

the time I read him, I watch him and I'm like,

he actually believes this stuff.

And the other half of time, I'm like,

he is totally playing a game. I don't know if he knows which is which or when he's

in what state of mind, but I think maybe it's both for him.

And I think for the,

Does point to dementia less than schizophrenia.

well, perhaps I'm just talking about more of the like less about forgetting about

it and just like being a totally different person.

Right.

Dissociative

identity disorder would be, I guess,

the proper, yeah. Yeah.

I was I was thinking that too.

Like we used to call it MPD, but D I D is now what it's called.

Um I seen it too, just like he said.

Yeah. So no, yeah.

Like he said he was willing to work with Democrats.

And then but like twelve

Right.

minutes later called them Democrats.

Like what?

right? To be fair, he doesn't know how to pronounce words very well.

That's that's true.

So it could

have been a legitimate mistake.

But yeah, I would say the leaders,

the ones who call out everybody and like her just pointing their fingers

all the way around and, you know,

everybody should resign tomorrow,

that kind of stuff. The

Right.

quote from Sean Davis that strikes me as a true believer.

Okay. I I I I saw some people reacting with dread.

Joey Manorino said they're going to be ruthless.

This is gonna be two years of pure hell.

Tim Pool said this is a great a blue great mud flood.

Now that feels a little bit pointed.

Feel like that's racist.

Yeah. I I I have a feeling coming especially from Tim Pool that that's

directly racist. The ugliest, um

That's so unnecessary.

right, the ugliest response, uh

I say ugliest in in quotes, uh was from El Sayed.

Reuter said uh says that Trump repeatedly branded him as a jihadist during

his campaign. And after the wind,

the DDIA tracked Spanish language right-wing outlets saying he would push

Sharia law in Islam, and calling called it the beginning of the end of the West,

with replies asking if the country had forgotten about 9-11.

I think they actually did him a favor as much as it's horrible and horrific that

they would treat somebody that way.

I think they actually did him a favor because he so clearly wasn't that,

that you could see the contrast,

right? It's kind of like Telerico.

Like they just went overboard on him.

And when you go so far to make it absurd,

it's like, well, okay, why are you doing this?

Yeah. For sure.

You don't even believe what you're saying.

So don't ask me to.

right. Buck Sexton said sometimes you get your ass kicked and deserve it.

He lists mistakes, candidates,

prices, and an unnecessary war and and doesn't actually name Donald Trump

specifically. And and look, these are these are the loudest social media

accounts, right? And the the voters

Great.

who actually moved are not in these people's groups.

I mean, you know, it's these people are safely planted where they're where their

audience is biggest. And I think they do have a responsibility ultimately to

keep their audience. So I guess here comes the the bigger question that asks

are we safe?

Yes.

yes.

This election, in this election,

in this election, we're safe. this one's not going

Okay. I

back to the, yeah.

with that qualification, I I would agree to it.

I I a Trump advisor told CNN the result was essentially too big to rig.

I think that is a a

Exactly.

good one, right? I I think that the advisors and and the pundits

and all of the talking heads on on Fox News basically didn't expect this this

massive of a shift, right? Trump told the New York Times he is absolutely willing

to accept the results. I mean,

that's a quote. Absolutely willing to

Willing to accept the results and will work with Democrats.

Right. I he's got no choice, but yeah,

that's, I mean, was, I was never seen watching the earlier returns come in.

We were first talking about this year as we were wrapping up our show.

And I'm like, man, they're just talking about,

they're like, it's so close. Like all the,

all these Democrats are leading,

but they're like, it's so close.

And they have voting always goes to the Republicans.

You know, it's like early voting is

Right.

always favoring Democrats and day of goes to the Republicans.

Yep. I heard the same thing and I

So was like, man, we're going to lose all these.

then next thing I know.

I felt that same that same trepidation for sure.

Now look, there's still there's still some some outstanding races,

right? let's talk about a couple of them.

So you've you've got the whole Alaska situation with Dan Sullivan.

we did talk about that on the last show as well.

Uh it's Dan Sullivan versus Dan Sullivan.

We don't know who won, but Trump's DOJ has already filed a lawsuit.

they filed it before the election.

It wasn't new. that basically is own they'll drop it.

If the right Dan Sullivan wins,

both the right and the right Dan Sullivan wins.

the right.

And if Dan J. Sullivan, the the Democrat would would win,

they were going to continue forward with the lawsuit.

You've got Peltola, 102,701 uh to so Dan Sullivan

Peltola, is that right? Senator Sullivan is at 102,000

thousand seventy-five. So right now there's like there's about six hundred

and twenty-five votes between them,

Yeah.

with only

seventy-four percent counted.

And don't they do a rank choice for if nobody gets 50?

I do believe that they do use ranked choice voting.

So we will we will probably find that out soon.

The other Dan Sullivan has three thousand five hundred and eighty-three right now.

So more than five times a gap.

It's pretty sure not going to be the wrong Dan Sullivan.

but it's looking like Peltola

Right, he's not likely in the running.

right. They the actual running is really gonna be between Sullivan and Peltola.

So we're not gonna see that case from the DOJ move forward at all.

which, you know.

it's fine. I I think it's pretty dumb that you have a contingent case upon who wins.

that feels like a like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

I don't know that that really it says necessarily that the system hold.

We also have Mississippi, with Colum where the it's I mean it at one point

it was twenty eight votes. Like I would ab I mean at a governor's race,

I would absolutely ask for a recount.

Twenty eight is a rounding error.

Mm-hmm.

When you're looking at the

Right.

number of people who voted there.

do you think that do you think that this is the system kind of holding?

Like the checks and balances are still correctly in place,

or did we just win by too much for anybody to actually try or or what happens?

Unfortunately, I think it's the latter,

Yeah.

think, I'm very, happy with the outcome of this,

but I read virtually nothing into this election for the future.

There's very little that I think it says about the future.

Exactly. So so that is actually the the the kind of turn that we're gonna take

and talk about now what this election actually got us.

Because all of these things are great.

And you heard us at the beginning here.

We're we're in excited. We have a little bit of hope for the first time in I don't

know, 10 years. Yeah, you know.

It feels like, yeah.

No, I'm

pretty sure it's 10 years when he walked down the escalator in 2016 or whatever.

That's true.

so I you know it's it's

It's been a dark day, but this election did bias some things,

right? And now hopefully. it got us subpoenas,

hopefully, appropriations, hopefully,

oversight, hopefully. And Senate control of those of confirmations now,

right? So New Congress

That's a given at least.

gets sworn in on January third,

twenty twenty-seven. and Robert Garcia said lawyer up.

Wyden posted subpoenas.

This could get us these things.

Right. Here's what it doesn't buy though,

right? It doesn't buy any laws.

Trump posted before all of this a veto hat,

giant red hat with a veto on it,

and told the New York Post, I guess I'll become Mr.

Veto.

Yeah. So if I'm, if I'm my most

Overriding the house. Go ahead.

Pollyanna, if I can be my most Pollyanna self for a moment,

I'll allow it for a moment.

here it comes for

a moment. I would love to see Trump veto so many things,

like, and then just put in things that are just so plainly like the right thing

to do and just having veto it out of hand that the Republicans get scared again

about the next, the next election.

And then all this, mean, at this point,

if you're a democratic Senator,

Especially if you're a new Democratic senator,

you're going be wondering, the hall is just going at 2026,

it's going 2028, we'll be back.

And I think they might be able to get some people to actually do a super majority.

I'd love to see the country come together enough to

Mm.

say, if something is obviously right for the country,

there are enough Republicans who will say,

I'm not going to stick the party line and go with Mr.

Vito. I'm going to go out and vote for the laws that our country needs.

But that's my Pollyanna self.

I will I would have agreed with you.

Yeah.

I I would have agreed with you in 2004.

Right. Like I would have been like

Yeah.

I would have said the these the the Republicans that,

they're they're wrong, but they're principled,

right? And and if and they see that Trump,

that Trump is not a is not a dictator and and they they no,

I I don't I don't think that they have much reason left in the the base that

is still screaming MAGA. But you know,

we'll see. I think I I think that we

That's a point.

They didn't get rid of anybody who could have made a reasonable,

rational decision in there.

Exactly. now I'm not saying

bring out the guillotines, right?

I I I think that we are a nation of laws.

I I hate that that Republicans say that more often than not.

But but now that the Republicans are the ones that have been breaking the law,

that we can all clearly see it,

Right?

hopefully

they're going to see that we also believe that we are a nation of laws,

and you don't own that saying in and of its own right.

Right.

An override.

in the House is gonna take two hundred and ninety votes and sixty seven

in the Senate. And a filibuster takes sixty votes in the Senate.

So we're gonna have a little bit of power here.

We're not, you know, we're we're gonna be,

we're gonna have the House, we're gonna have the Senate.

And yeah, hopefully we can get enough things built that even if Trump were

to veto it, we could just send it back and get a two-thirds majority.

But, but if almost nothing becomes law for two years,

what do we what what

What should we be focusing on as a nation that wants to move forward with those

two years?

Well, unfortunately, it didn't buy a safety either or didn't buy safety

for a lot of people who have been targeted by this administration.

So we got to remember that they're still exposed.

Nope, it still hasn't. Yep.

They had something to look forward to now,

but they're still exposed and they're still vulnerable now.

So don't forget about them.

Now we are in now in control of the purse,

right? So we are we are in control of the money.

So he could they can theoretically defund ice.

Now they're not going to do it,

let's be honest. Because they wouldn't have a super majority to

be or a two-thirds majority to be able to do those things.

But they can be sure a thorn their sides.

They can put some really like you were saying earlier,

they can put some really good bills up there.

That would be an obvious slam dunk.

with an earmark that that cuts ICE funding and be able to do the same thing that

the Republicans did. look at the Saved Act.

They don't, they're all communists now and they don't they don't want to wanna save

America's money. It's like, yeah,

it's not, that's not what we were saying no on,

you know? Uh so I think we also we also need to understand that that we have

to hold these people accountable,

right? Okay, great, you won. But we still aren't done yet.

We have a lot, we have a lot of things that need to get done.

We have a lot of things. Aguilar promised lower costs on housing and healthcare,

gas, groceries, utilities. Uh Lou promised bills to reverse the Medicaid cut,

right? Restore the ACA credits and stop the Iran war.

And and Chuck Schumer today on television said relief is on the way.

Like what? Now we need to make sure that these people understand these things.

We need to make sure that these people actually do something about it,

not just make

Hmm.

all these promises. Because that's what lost Trump this election,

even though he wasn't on the ballot,

is because he said, I'll lower grow lower groceries on day one,

I'll lower gas prices, I'll I'll do all these,

I'll make more jobs and all this other stuff.

And look, some of that's not not in control of the presidency.

Like the president doesn't control gas prices,

but the president can absolutely make decisions.

That control gas prices and supply

Like not blow up Iran.

and demand around the world.

Yeah. Also,

know.

let's not forget that Trump was himself a protest vote at the time.

Right.

And

so this is kind of a weird coming full circle of a lot of things,

but they basically got the protest that they wanted originally.

then the timing was awful. And they're reaping the whirlwind now.

Yeah, I I also think it's important to to acknowledge,

like you said earlier, we are still bleeding.

Right.

And

it's not, you know, it's not just minorities,

it's not just like it's it's a lot of us.

The ACA subsidies

Yeah.

expired at the end of 2025. And I guarantee you saw you're seeing it right

now on open enrollment for January 1st.

Mm hmm. Yep.

The Urban Institute and Commonwealth Fund projected a 4.8 million dollars

would would actually drop in coverage on on healthcare as a as a whole.

The CBS exit polls, 89% called cost of living a major or crucial factor

in their in their decisions, right?

CNN says Trump has hinted that he could resume the Iran war now,

that the midterms are over. I I I don't know,

right? If if Trump what do you think?

If if Trump starts

re just restarts the the Iran war before January.

Which is a a possibility. like I said,

some some of the things I've seen coming out of like Texas right now are saying

we have to limit all of the powers of the governor and we have to limit the powers

of of the senator and the politicians that are going to be sworn into office to take

place before. We have to do it right now,

and we have to have emergency sessions to make sure that we limit the power

of the government before these people take office.

And if you think that that was true,

that's true because you're you're

Party regime is changing, then you should have also thought it was true when

you had the ability to change those things.

So what do you think Congress should do on day one if Trump restarts this war before

January?

Fit him with an ankle bracelet.

what?

you know, fit him with one of the like,

you know, I want to blank out the term,

like house arrest, put him on house arrest because he's going to need.

you think we should put Trump like

Victor Orban, put him on Orban arrest?

Yeah,

because he's going to jail after this if that's what happens.

I I

hope that's true. I you are Pollyanna about that,

I think. I am not. I I think that Trump will manage to fight this long enough

to die on his own in his house in Marlotta.

If he does, then God help the Democrats who didn't do their part

to get him because.

Agreed. He's billions

of dollars richer already. He that money I

Right.

guarantee you will be used to keep him at least at home.

And I don't want him at Mar-a-Lago.

Yeah.

I want him, I want him, if he's broken the law,

I want him in a cell.

Right.

I want him in jail. I don't even care if it's a white-collared jail.

I want him in jail under monitor 247.

Rape. I don't even care if it's one of his own jails.

Call it Trump Towers.

Exactly.

Exactly. But but here's

Byeeee

the thing. We have stopped the bleeding.

This election, this midterm election,

puts a band-aid on the wound and says

We have to focus on the most important thing right now.

We have to stop the bleeding. Now it's incumbent upon us to make sure that these

elected leaders actually do.

Make sure that they actually stop the bleeding.

Right.

Voters

hired a party that they do not like.

And let's be clear, I

That's the only option.

am also an independent. I voted for a party I didn't like because I understood

the assignment. Oklahoma didn't get it as a whole,

but Texas did. South Carolina did,

North Carolina did, Iowa did. Michigan did,

Well, the thing is, nobody likes either party.

Maine did. Yes.

mean,

that was the only vote available,

was the vote for a party you didn't like.

Which party did you dislike less?

More than three in four, seventy five percent of voters disapprove of Congress.

as a whole,

So Ram Emanuel, he said something back in in set,

I think September 28th or sometime between September 28th and October 4th,

right before I I left for Japan.

And I I really agreed with him.

What he said was that we need to pass massive ethics reforms.

I'm gonna see, let me see if I can find here.

Um let's see.

How sad is that

the people we vote to represent us are the ones we have to teach how to behave.

So ethics reforms that that are mon Emmanuel,

Ram Emanuel was talking about,

basically amounted to, let's see,

stock a stock trading ban. He w he wants to prohibit and he well,

Obviously, yeah. Right.

he thinks we need to do this. And and I I don't

disagree with him. We need a stock trading ban,

we need a prediction markets ban,

no more couchy for senators and presidents who actually can affect the outcome.

A mandatory blind trust for public servants holding assets valued over

$1 million. Term limits and retirement age.

He wants 75 to be the maximum age that you can be elected to office with mandatory

retirement for government officials.

Foreign income and gift restrictions,

which he he wants to call the Kushner rule.

Basically, it'll bar public servants from accepting foreign-backed gifts

or financial backing while in office for a set period.

Such as two years after leaving office.

So no, Emirati jets or anything like that being gifted to your foundation for when

you when you leave office. And he he wants to see massive lobbying reform,

clean up Washington through stricter lobbying regulations and transparent

tracking of government contracts to actually follow the money.

I think that's a fantastic start and might actually carterize the bleeding.

What are your thoughts on that?

I agree with most of them. Yeah,

I think it's mostly a good good package.

And most of those, yeah, should be obvious.

the whole trading ban, that should never even be a thing.

why? First of all, given what Congress is not doing,

how do you have the time to trade stocks?

no.

Well,

I can tell you how they die have the time.

They don't spend a whole lot of time working.

I know,

as I'm saying, like given all they're not doing,

but like, you know, that's, it's been some more time in the office writing laws

and reading laws. Um, and then we'll,

Right.

then we'll talk about whether we give you your money to use.

So let's talk about some

But yeah.

of these i impeachments and prosecutions too,

right? To see whether or not anybody

Yeah.

actually pays for this. I think I mean,

honestly, with with the way that Iran's going,

I think we need to get rid of Heg Seth first.

I think that's that needs to be not an impeachment,

just a removal. and I think if if Donald Trump has any intention of staying

out of prison, it'll be one of the first things he does.

Yeah, right before he renames all the things back to their original name.

right.

And Hakeem Hakeem Jeffries actually said last month that one of the first things

we're gonna do in the majority,

we're gonna run Pete Hegseth out of town.

Now let me tell you this. I want Hakeem Jeffries forcefully retired along with

Chuck Schumer.

But he's not wrong. We need as a country,

as the majority, to remove Pete Hegseth from his current position.

And CNN, you know, and most Democrats,

even some Republicans, actually see him as the first and prime impeachment target.

A Trump advisor actually said,

should any s somebody should pay for for what Heg Seth has done?

So if Trump fires Heg Seth as the scapegoat,

Did anybody pay? It will will that be will that be a good a good beginning to this?

What do you think?

It's a good start, but it's not by any means,

holding everybody accountable.

It's just one thing that has to happen.

I feel like for lots

I agree.

of reasons.

I heard I've already seen a lot of people talking about a Trump impeachment.

I'll give my over under.

Yeah.

I don't think that's gonna happen.

I think we're out of money for that.

I like, do we really have time for that kind of dog and pony show?

Well, my biggest thing is it would put J D Vance in the seat of presidential power.

Right, that's the last thing we need.

Like i any

Although give

him a few months in the chair and maybe he'll embarrass himself so badly he won't

run in 2028. He couldn't.

Yeah, but we'd still have to live through those months of of him being president.

That's true.

And and that could end up with

with people hurt, Um, I

Yeah.

I think, you know, Rahm Emanuel himself actually said that we should skip Trump

himself, right? he basically thinks that we're we're never gonna

get an impeachment. He he calls it a food fight and and Disneyland on the Potomac.

Uh Robert Reich actually

Yeah.

reads his midterm push as twenty twenty eight positioning.

So I don't I don't know. Um do you think that a a president who's impeached twice

and walks twice makes a third one pointless or does skipping it teach

the next one something worse?

I think everybody understands what an impeachment,

how impeachment plays out now.

And I think there's just no point to it.

I think it's not going to teach anybody anything.

It's just going to cost a bunch of time and attention that we need to spend

elsewhere.

I think it's gonna cost money and lives,

right?

Yeah, I

think he needs to go to a before criminal judge is what needs to go.

What needs to happen?

Right.

Impeachment is not good enough.

And for the next two years, the prosecutions,

the DOJ is still entirely run by Trump's party until January of twenty twenty nine,

right? France twenty-four actually calls charges before then a long shot.

Now, take it for what it's worth.

It's a French uh thing. But House Democrats call twenty twenty nine

the reckoning. Hakeem Jeffries has already said that the the five year limit runs

past this administration.

Lou points to the Pentagon's own war manual on the double tap boat striking.

What about pardons? Do you see pardons being a thing?

Because he he said that he would think about pardoning himself.

But welcome to the try. Let's see how that goes over.

Yeah, I I don't I

I don't think that would go very well.

I think I think pardoning yourself preemptively with being charged with

anything, uh,

Yeah.

I don't think you'll have the power to do it by the time I I think that's

why we start with the investigations.

I do think we should start investigations into all of it and corruption

and everything else.

So let's see. Emanuel's, you know,

five points. We talked about Rahm Emanuel and and all three branches are talking

about stock banning stock trading,

the prediction markets, the retirement of seventy-five,

blind trust, whatever, foreign gifts and investments.

Which one of these five would your your own favorite member of Congress hate

the most?

My own favorite member of Congress?

Yeah, well, and not not that anybody has a favorite member of Congress.

Right.

I just think

who do you think would be most impacted by this?

I think there are some things out there who would definitely suffer from not being

able to trade stock and I don't know how much they've had on board with

the prediction markets, but the stock trading for sure.

then the retirement at 75 would wipe out a lot of senators.

So.

Thing

is that they would have to do it,

affecting themselves. I I don't see

Yeah, well, mean.

a lot of these actually being realistic just because they'd have to vote against

their own interests.

I think if they're smart, which they're not,

if they were, betting stock trading and prediction market betting and all that,

that goes in your favor. Why not make it so the temptation is not even there?

yes, some of them have

Mm.

profited significantly from it,

but there may be some people who pay for it big time too.

I I guess the point of this was to go,

hey, we have some really cool wins,

right? But uh

Right.

I saw one person describe it as something like this is game four of the World Series

and they've won the first three.

We won a game and we're talking about it like the series is done.

The truth is we have to win uh three more games.

I don't know how many games are in the world series.

I assume it's nine because that's how many innings they have.

But I I think I think that.

This is a really cool win and we should absolutely take a breath.

I think we should absolutely separate you know,

celebrate it. And and that's why we did this this podcast today instead

of the one we had originally planned.

But we've also got to hold them accountable to this.

And I expect every person who's listening to this podcast to hold them accountable.

Like make sure that you are calling and harassing them until you start seeing

and CNN screaming and Trump yelling and tweeting and everything else.

Agreed.

Right. Before we go, uh I wanna to stay on the on the good part j though just

for one more minute. Texas elected a Democratic Railroad Commissioner.

I don't know what that means. I don't even know what a railroad commissioner does

to you.

So they actually control the oil.

It's weird they call the railroad commissioner,

but they're actually more about oil and it is a key position.

So it's a big deal.

Right. Susan Collins is out after 30 years.

Michigan elected the first Muslim senator after the president spent the entire

campaign calling him a jihadist and planting people to ask him why

why he had not denounced the Muslim Brotherhood.

Here in Oklahoma, the House

I still don't know what his middle name is

right. here in Oklahoma, the House Majority Whip lost in Bethany,

which has been a Republican stronghold.

I I watched those come in and

I was happy. I'm I'm still happy,

right? Yeah.

And you should be. let's look at the

voters who did this. They rate the Democratic Party in a net minus six.

They're not happy with the Democrats.

That does beat the Republicans,

which are at a minus 18, but it's still underwater for both parties.

And more than three and four, as you said earlier,

disapproval of Congress. Those voters fired somebody and they did not join

anything to do it. They just said,

I'm tired of like having to count my pennies to go to the grocery store.

I guess pennies aren't even a thing anymore,

are they?

I count my nickels. But,

No, I we're not allowed to make them anymore.

They'll have to take their Trump coins.

know, they,

yeah, exactly. think they're Trump dollars or whatever.

um

huh.

But the person paying for gas got a new Congress in the same bill.

mean, they're still going to pay for the same,

like gas prices aren't going to drop overnight.

And the voter in Georgia who doesn't trust the count in Fulton County is still there.

And 258 ZZ is not an answer, right?

I mean,

Only a super majority could be an answer.

So we still got a lot to do.

Well, and that's the rest of the world is is still watching us.

I saw I saw something with El Sayed and and a reporter from Sky News,

you know, and and that was an interesting piece just before we started recording.

But before the v vote, you have a a French lawmaker told the AFP that

a big democratic win is really not going to change things very dramatically,

right? Europe spent this entire year building what

comes next when the United States is not the economic powerhouse that we have been

for the past hundred years. Right.

They watched us elect him twice.

Now, I hate it, but it's true.

And this Tuesday doesn't really make them forget it because like the White House

tweeted, uh sorry, excreted, uh ex Twitter,

whatever, excreted

Yeah.

the morning, this morning,

PSA, Trump is still your president.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

DJT.

just him standing over the resolute desk with a stern look and a a red hat,

saying, PSA Trump is still your president.

I'm still your dad.

Right. So what would change anybody's mind?

We talked about Rahm Emanuel's list,

covers all three branches. We talked about that ad nauseam,

so I'm not going to repeat them here.

But would that change anybody's mind about the government if they were subject

to those rules? mean, the leaders,

the Republican leaders objected to the president's exemption and a voter ID rider

to fine, write a clean bill. I mean,

I don't know.

Yeah, I just we can't stop there,

right? Because the list doesn't really touch what actually got us here.

It it doesn't touch who paid for the campaigns.

Mike Maisie spent two $12.9 million to buy this election and only

won it by a handful of percentage points.

All right.

You know, he he literally gave himself $12.9 million to win this campaign,

right?

We need to know who pays for campaigns,

who's drawing the lines, who's who's holding these voter rolls that

had our name and our our driver's license number and the last four of our social

and and who we had voted for in the last election and and all of those things.

There's still 17 states with those files out there.

Also, we need to define what a president can and can't do with a pardon.

If

New Congress investigates for two years and just doesn't do anything that that

actually limits itself, which is the key here,

right? Like they have to limit themselves.

Then the next Congress finds, you know,

the nuclear codes right where Trump left them.

And then Trump can veto all of this,

like pass it anyway. Make him veto an ethics bill in front of everybody.

Then

Exactly.

send it back to

the to the to Congress and and work on that two-thirds majority.

And then see Republican senators going,

well, actually, if we don't pass this,

they're gonna burn us at the stake.

Right, yeah, nobody's safe.

So, Tuesday, when you're listening to this in the future,

tomorrow, you know, tomorrow when you're listening to this,

Tuesday stopped that bleeding.

We're not bleeding anymore. Congratulations.

But the truth is, cleaning out that wound and de briding that tissue

is a lot harder, right? Because some of that rot,

that festering flesh is on our side.

Schumer, Jeffries. And the people

Who were actually holding the scalpel also made money from this infection.

Mm.

And

which is the the bigger issue.

JD Pritzker said, We climbed one mountain tonight,

but we are sitting at the base of another.

And to be honest, it's a lot bigger of a climb.

Nevertheless, enjoy it today, scrub in tomorrow.

You can find us at fof.foundation,

full stop. You can find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify under the overlap.

Spell F-O-F-F. Put all that in the search bar and find us there.

Give us a five-star rating while you're there.

And make sure you share our podcast with someone you care about,

uh that democratic socialist friend who gets it,

or your your auntie who thinks Oklahoma survived this massacre,

but but knows what's coming with her roommate Audrey.

I don't know where that picture was going,

but be

Ha ha.

kind to each other and help out where you can.

And what do we always say at the end these things?

Bye.

Bye.