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We're gonna sit here and look at what's going on in the world today. You know last night I was looking at the twitters or the social medias, whatever we're calling them these days since we don't call it Twitter anymore. And I saw that Elon Musk said whoever, whoever said that money doesn't buy happiness sure had it right. And I was thinking, poor Elon. Poor poor Elon. I mean he must be feeling terrible to post something like that. Do you feel bad for Elon guys? Our hearts go out to him. We all of us collectively here at thedsrnetwork. Please join us in sending greetings and good wishes for Elon so that his spirits will return. By the way, did you watch this morning here it's Thursday, the national prayer breakfast by any chance? Oh my, oh my God. Donald Trump's head is full of chicken soup. And I mean he was just doing one of these free association things where you know it's like, yeah I'm like I love you know faith and that's why I killed all those people in Nigeria. Anybody comes after Christians I'm gonna kill them and you know I love President Bukheli because he really runs good prisons and you know they're Democrats here but there shouldn't be. Because you know I don't understand how Democrats can come to a prayer breakfast when they're all such liars and terrible people. And you know I really won in 2020 and it was just this free associational insanity, insanity, full of evil, nastiness and I'm just like what's going on with these spiritual, as we call it here in 2026, faith leaders. What's going on with these faith leaders who have this guy who is literally a child rapist, murderer, fraudster, the worst human being who ever lived seriously, crawled out of a fucking frozen swamp of hell and they're like yeah we thank God, thank God for Don. I just, I don't know, really it really triggered me this morning guys. I saw Jelly Roll was there and I thought he was too dumb to get involved in politics. Jelly Roll because Jelly Roll got on TV and he went Jesus, Jesus, Jesus if you don't have Jesus in your life then your life is awful and I know and I have to say it and I was like are you fucking kidding me and and then he's like getting all this praise oh we love that Jelly Roll. You know whatever happened to this idea of faith being a personal thing and not trying to impose your faith on others and respecting the idea that there are many different faiths out there, particularly as the country grows more diverse in that respect. I don't know. But then he went to the spin room after his win and someone asked him about his politics and he said I'm too stupid to know anything about politics. I'm way too dumb. I buy the, I buy, I buy. Well then he shows up at the prayer breakfast so he knows something. I mean this guy is you know you know awful but this is just where we are intolerance is the centerpiece of this administration. With people the State Department where yesterday supposed to have a meeting with the center left parties from Germany leaders from the parties and they said no we'll only meet right wing parties. We will only meet the sort of new Nazis from Germany. We will not meet these people. I mean we're living in a great you know heck of a heck of a time. It's a good thing for me. I'm much older than you guys because I will be dead sooner. Anyway what's the news? House Financial Services Committee. Follow that, follow that you know you know sure go on. With Treasury Secretary Scott Besend devolved into shouting. As Democrats accused him of dodging questions and repeatedly talking over members during their allotted time. Flashpoints included disputes over Trump's tariffs, corporate investigations, housing policy, and alleged conflicts involving Trump's cryptocurrency businesses. With several lawmakers demanding yes or no answers and the chair repeatedly intervening to restore order. Republicans defended Besend and criticized Democrats' conducts while some Democrats called the hearing embarrassing and unproductive saying it undermined serious oversight. Of course it did. I mean I called this guy in a column last week or something the Secretary of Samarman. I can't watch it. He's just like oh yeah blah blah blah you know Don Don's so great and blah blah blah. This is some guy that a bunch of people, Democrats, were when he was coming in they were like well he's the normie. You know this is the normie guy here and he's a total Trump apologist and he's you know I mean he was asked about tariffs yesterday and somebody said you know you said tariffs would be inflationary and he's like well I was wrong. Tariffs aren't inflationary. He just he has no principles. All he wants to do is serve Trump. He doesn't care how he fucks up the economy and if you don't believe the economy is fucked up why don't you go look at the labor statistics that have just come out and the unbelievable spike in unemployment that has taken place and you know whatever I know about government labor statistics these days it's whatever is really happening is worse than what we're seeing right now. The dollar has plummeted since the beginning of the year and is on its way to not being a reliable reserve currency. You know all the stuff you know obviously the the deficit is going to explode with the insanity of the tax bill because we know that's what before it was voted on everybody knew that the big beautiful bill or whatever people call it big ugly bill is going to explode the deficit. Literally every single area that Besset is involved with including you know interaction with the Fed which yesterday he disgraced himself and his answers on that is going badly and he is a liar and he wouldn't submit to oversight because the Trump policy is we don't answer questions we just stick to our own message we don't care about the Congress and the Republicans and the Congress are like okay that's fine. We you know we don't care about our obligations to people or our oaths. I'm cranky today. A federal judge and I'm real cranky today. Go on. A federal judge in Oregon has halted warrantless immigration arrests unless agents can approve a suspect as a flight risk specifically targeting arrest first justify later tactics. Ruling follows a class action lawsuit highlighting aggressive enforcement operations that have reportedly swept up individuals with valid work permits such as a grandfather detained for three weeks despite his legal documentation. Judge Mustafa Kasubai characterized these actions as violent and brutal emphasizing that government power must be tempered by the bedrock principle of due process. This preliminary injunction remains in effect as the litigation proceeds acting as a significant legal hurdle for the administration's broader mass deportation strategy. This poor old judge this poor old guy due process. Seriously you think that exists anymore in a country where people are picked up off of the street American citizens thrown into jails not given a chance to call a lawyer not given a chance to speak to a lawyer or get the counsel they deserve being sent out of the country without any due process being beaten being pummeled being shot being executed in the streets. There's no due process anymore. It's a thing of the past and you know some of these courts are trying to put up you know fight for it but you know we saw this week people working for the Justice Department who haven't quit yet because a lot of people have quit you know complaining that they can't get the government agencies they work with to cooperate with them. That led to this woman in this famous breakdown two days ago where she said this job sucks please find me and contempt put me in jail so I can get some rest. The system's breaking down folks. The system's breaking down. How many of you have thought I wonder if I should take my passport with me as I go out on the street surely if you're a person of color you've thought it surely people you know who are people of color have thought it because they now feel like that the fucking Gestapo is walking through the streets and at any moment if they can't prove they're an American they will get tossed into a car tossed into a jail thrown into you know some other country you know their lives will be ruined they'll never see their families again maybe they'll be beaten maybe they'll suffer from some you know they'll get a in be in the middle of a fucking measles outbreak in in in Texas that's where we are I mean I hope these courts stand up for people but you know they have to make rulings and then the administration has to actually follow the rules and we're not there please stand clear for the gap another morning another reminder there's a gap to be careful of but maybe it's time to bridge the one between your nine to five and your dream of living life on your own terms at HSBC we know ambition looks different to everyone whether it's retiring early or leaving more for your family we can help because when it comes to unlocking your money's potential we know wealth search HSBC wealth today HSBC UK opening up a world of opportunity HSBC UK current account hold is only new campaign finance filing show Donald Trump amassed an unprecedented 375 million dollars across his political network in the second half of 2025 including what what is he doing raising this money for for himself is yeah because he gets to keep it I mean do people realize he's not allowed to run again sorry keep going I'm sorry I've been we will get to that you people in jelly roll you know triggered me anyway go on it triggered me too that's why I brought it up on the podcast because I need a community support yeah well I support you Riley apparently is on the fence on jelly roll no don't swear me like that Riley is plating and getting the full thing of all those face tattoos I can pull it off you could no one can pull it off Riley the way here is the reality if you get a face tattoo it's over that you have no credibility it's just a loud announcement to the world that you are an asshole anyway sorry I'm so sorry to interrupt well his millions include 26 million dollars through his joint fundraising committee eight million dollars to his leadership pack and more than 300 million dollars held by a Trump aligned super PAC the total far exceeds the resources of any other political figure headed into 2026 giving the term limited president enormous influence over the midterms and future elections despite being unable to run again Trump has so far spent sparingly in GOP primaries but his cash advances dwarf both the Republican national committee's 95 million dollars and the Democratic national committee's a far weaker financial position folks he's not going to spend that money on candidates come on wake up you know if the guy's got his hand in your pocket he's pulling the money out of it you know it's all going into his bank account you know realize what you're paying for here you're paying for the comfortable lives and retirements of the great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchildren of this mobster that's what that's what our taxes are going for that's what if you donate money to the republican party it's going for it's it's it's all going to the trump family so that they can live the kind of indulgent lives they want to for ever and so they can win because donald trump has it in his head that he with the most money wins it's not an election he wants to win it's the race with his next door neighbors in west palm beach that he wants to win. US senators elizabeth warn and andy kim have formally requested a pentagon review of spacex following allegations that chinese investors used offshore entities in the cayman and british virgin islands to secretly acquire stakes the lawmakers expressed concern that such foreign involvement could jeopardize critical national security infrastructure including the starlink communications network and military satellite launch systems consequently the department of defense has been asked to disclose the extent of any chinese ownership and assess whether a formal investigation by the committee on foreign investment in the united states is required by february 20th. again i mean should they be doing it yes is elizabeth warn and a great american is andy kim a great american yes these are people who are doing it right who understand how our country is supposed to work but we also know that elon is a huge contractor with the us government who is allowed to go into the us government shut down the agencies that he didn't like shut down the oversight agencies that he didn't like you know help direct the budget in the direction that he wanted to direct the budget and we know that he has hobnobbed with our enemies in the past with flatamere putin that he has in certain circumstances denied ukraine access to the the tools that they need in order to survive because he made the determination that they shouldn't have them that he's a racist that he's a misogynist that he had bought a website on which he promotes racist misogynist views and russian propaganda we know that he has taken a very soft view on china and still he gets the big contracts folks you don't think donald trump gives one shit about whether he's close to china or not i'm telling you i predict this here and frankly i am an opponent of china hawk policies i think the us and china need to find a better balance in their policies i think you know trying to isolate china and keep them from getting ahead of us is a is a losing game so i i i believe in balance china policy but i'm telling what is coming in and and you know there was a phone call yesterday between trump and shijian ping what is coming in us china policy is going to be complete us capitulation trump trying to get deals trump feathering his nest and and you know i mean even the tiktok deal where you know the americans were supposed to buy it from the chinese the chinese still have a chunk of us tiktok and they're still involved in it to great greater extent um then uh then you know was i think intended by the congress when they wrote the law it's so tiring it's so so tiring we have any more stories yes and we're going to end on a positive note a rally yes the supreme court unanimously allowed california to use its new congressional map this fall rejecting emergency appeals from california republicans and president trump that claimed the districts were unconstitutionally racial gerrymandor the justices declined to block the map without explanation effectively agreeing with lower courts that the redistricting was driven by partisan goals which the which the constitution permits not racial discrimination noting that the number of latino majority districts did not increase the ruling clears the way for democrats to gain up to five additional house seats and marx's setback for trump's broader redistricting push that began with g.o.p led map changes in texas you know now we're cheering for redistricting i'm glad the court didn't get involved um i i i think that partisan redistricting is a menace it's a cancer on our system but if one side's going to do it the other side's going to do it and for god's sake you know if one side is running people like trump then we've got to make sure that the other side can beat him so yay i'm glad we're doing this thing which is terrible for our system but that's where we are folks you've listened to this whole yeah we've listened to this whole podcast you just sort of say okay well this is net a relative victory we'll take our relative victory and we will move on uh do you want to talk more about this kind of stuff listen more about this kind of stuff listen to words matter that i did yesterday with norm ornstein or listen to the deep state radio that we did on the real hidden importance of the epstein files that i did with um edloos and with rosa brooks listen to what we've got going on here it's really good or the daily blast from the new republic or the other stuff on the dsr network um and uh join us again join us tomorrow i'm it'll be a it'll be a party just like today was hey a party it was a party thank you minna thank you riley for starting my day off right and i'm now going to go crawl under my bed in the fetal position and wait for our next podcast um so thanks everybody bye bye