The Find Out Podcast

Dems Keep Winning While Trump Melts Down

44 min
Dec 11, 20254 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

The Find Out Podcast discusses Democratic electoral overperformance in recent special elections, analyzes Trump's unhinged social media posts claiming unprecedented accomplishments, and explores how Trump's rise represents a broader cultural failure to hold wealthy individuals accountable, with implications for young men's values and American soft power.

Insights
  • Democratic overperformance in special elections (Miami mayor +18 points, Georgia House in Trump +12 district) signals a sustained trend rather than one-off, suggesting voter rejection of Trump policies
  • Trump's cognitive and physical decline is evident in his behavior and speech patterns, yet he continues to receive protection from accountability due to wealth and institutional power structures
  • The normalization of Trump's rhetoric and behavior among young men through media platforms and influencers is creating a generation without ethical guardrails, with measurable impacts on gender relations and workplace dynamics
  • Dismantling of U.S. soft power institutions (Voice of America, USAID, State Department) creates information vacuums filled by adversaries like Russia and China, undermining long-term geopolitical influence
  • Economic interconnectedness theory from 1990s-2000s failed to prevent conflict or spread empathy; instead, modern connectivity has amplified extremism and reduced accountability for powerful actors
Trends
Democratic electoral momentum in traditionally Republican districts signals potential 2026 midterm shiftDecline of U.S. institutional soft power and information dominance in Latin America and developing regionsRise of far-right influencer culture (Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate-adjacent figures) as primary political messaging to Gen Z malesGenerational divide: children with Trump as majority-of-life president lack baseline understanding of functional governanceWeaponization of cognitive/fitness tests as political theater rather than genuine health assessmentErosion of consequences for wealthy individuals across legal, business, and social domainsGender polarization in youth dating/social dynamics driven by extremist male ideology normalizationInstitutional capture: FEMA, HHS, and scientific agencies staffed with ideological appointees over qualified professionals
Topics
Democratic Electoral Performance in Special ElectionsTrump Cognitive Decline and Fitness for OfficeAccountability Gaps for Wealthy IndividualsSoft Power Dismantling and Geopolitical ConsequencesFar-Right Influencer Culture and Youth RadicalizationGender Dynamics and Dating Market PolarizationVoice of America Closure and Information WarfareFEMA and Emergency Response Institutional FailureHHS Leadership and Public Health PolicyMilitary School and Childhood PrivilegeNepo Baby Culture and Business FailureTrump University Fraud SettlementHousing Discrimination Lawsuits (1970s)Generational Political Consciousness FormationEconomic Interconnectedness Theory Failure
Companies
New York Times
Trump attacks the outlet for reporting on his cognitive decline and physical health, calling them 'enemies of the peo...
Trump University
Discussed as Trump's only profitable venture, which was a scam requiring $25M settlement; no actual education provided
Trump Vodka
Example of Trump's failed business ventures; product quality was poor despite vodka being easy to sell
Trump Steaks
Failed luxury product line; Trump served them well-done with ketchup, undermining brand positioning
Newsmax
Referenced as media outlet Trump watches during 'manic spirals' at 3 AM instead of working
S&P 500
Used as benchmark showing Trump would be wealthier if he'd invested his $400M inheritance in index funds
People
Donald Trump
Central subject; hosts discuss his cognitive decline, failed businesses, and normalization of unethical behavior
General Russel Honoré
Led Hurricane Katrina response and Iraq operations; interviewed for upcoming episode on institutional failure
Nick Fuentes
Platformmed by Pierce Morgan and Tucker Carlson; advocates Nazi ideology and opposes women's voting rights
Tucker Carlson
Platformed Nick Fuentes, contributing to normalization of extremist ideology among young men
Pierce Morgan
Conducted interview with Nick Fuentes, platforming Nazi ideology and extremist views
Pam Bondi
Observed waking Trump up during meetings by inserting his name into sentences to keep him alert
Marco Rubio
Observed tapping Trump during cabinet meetings to keep him engaged and awake
RFK Jr.
Appointed to lead HHS despite lack of medical credentials; instructing CDC to ignore science
Sean Duffy
Photographed doing pull-ups at Reagan National Airport as part of MAHA fitness initiative
Pete Hegseth
Performs pull-ups incorrectly in public, risking back injury; part of MAHA fitness messaging
Barack Obama
Referenced as counterpoint to Trump; represented functional governance and international respect
George W. Bush
Criticized for FEMA mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina; appointed horse association director as FEMA head
Ray Nagin
Democratic mayor during Hurricane Katrina who later went to jail; example of government failure at all levels
Sylvester Stallone
Attended Kennedy Center event with Trump; hosts speculate Trump copied Rocky imagery for cognitive test claims
Ben Shapiro
Represents moderate conservative route; contrasted with Nick Fuentes extremism in Republican party direction
Andrew Tate
Referenced as example of toxic male influencer culture affecting young men's values and behavior
Joe Rogan
Referenced as influencer whose worldview young men adopt; compared to Nick Fuentes-style extremism
Luke
Cited as positive example of navigating extremist influences in high school and choosing ethical path
Quotes
"There has never been a president that has worked as hard as me. My hours are the longest."
Donald Trump (read from social media post)Mid-episode
"I stopped eight wars in like four, eight months, 10 months, saving many millions of lives in the process."
Donald Trump (read from social media post)Mid-episode
"They are true enemies of the people and we should do something about it."
Donald Trump (read from social media post)Mid-episode
"This is not just a one-off or something like that, that this is a trend. And turns out people don't like Donald Trump and people don't like Donald Trump's policies."
HostOpening segment
"We need to train a whole generation of kids to be like him. And you know, I think we're starting to do those things, but there needs to be much more."
Host (discussing counter-messaging to extremism)Late episode
Full Transcript
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the find out podcast, which is laughing because I had added emphasis on that today. We're down to more guys who got sick because it's winter and I guess that's what happens and you'll notice that I probably sounded look a little bit different, but I am actually out in Los Angeles for what is called the ASDC meetings, which is the annual meeting of all Democratic State committees. So introducing everybody to us, having some really good conversations, people have been really, really fun, run a fun and interested to hear from us. And there was lots to celebrate last night because again, Democrats have overperformed in two special elections last night. The Democratic, democratically aligned candidate because in Miami, these are actually independent races, but the Miami mayor mayoral race went to the Democrats by I think it was about 18 points last night. And the Democrats had not held, which is fun. If you're not from Florida, it seems kind of you would expect it to be different, but in a city, but the Republicans or independents have had that mayor's seat for 30 years and the Democrats won it by 18. And then one that's sort of flying under the radar, but people should really be paying attention to is that there was a special election in the Georgia House last night in a district that Donald Trump won by 12 points. And the Democrat who ran in November of 2024 and received less than 40% of the vote won. So we have seen again and again and again over performances by Democrats. And at this point, you kind of have to look at this and say, this is not just a one-off or something like that, that this is a trend. And it turns out people don't like Donald Trump and people don't like Donald Trump's policies because they are doing what in, we have to be careful not to be too much. I told you so, but I told you so that this was going to happen. So guys, good night. Trump crashed out as well with some insanity, Rich, that I know you were reading earlier. Yeah, I want to know about this. I'm going into this totally cold. I don't know anything. So please tell me, Rich, what did Donald Trump do? You'll love it. I usually like doing a character count so I can get a full appreciation of how fucking unhinged these these crash outs are. But I'm guessing it's in the like, I don't know, like 500 word or like, you know, like 2000 character sort of. Like a full page. Like if you're a term paper in college, basically. Right. And it's there's a couple of periods. But I mean, this is it's struggling to be not a run on sentence. So I mean, I haven't even like I started reading it about half an hour ago. And then we had to start. So I haven't even finished this post yet. But but he leads it out with just a banger, you know, classic. There has never been a president that has worked as hard as me. My hours are the longest. He starts at like noon every day. But I guess if you count those like manic spirals at three or like that's true, that's work to him, right? It's like watching Newsmax or whatever. My hours are the longest. My results are among the best. I've stopped eight wars in like four, eight months, 10 months, saving many millions of lives in the process. Millions of lives prevented the Holocaust 2.0 created the greatest. Did he say he sorry? No, no, you just get that. I said he prevented the Holocaust, which would be what would happen if many millions of lives were lost in 2025 alone, just since inauguration, saving many millions of lives in the process that created the greatest economy in the history of our country, brought business back to the United States that levels never seen before, never seen before, you guys rebuilt our military created the largest tax cuts, regulation cuts, closed the dangerous border that created an aura around the United States that has led every country in the world to respect us more than ever before. Every country in the world. No exceptions. In addition to all of that, boring medical examinations, Walter Reed. Oh, he's doing the whole list. He got perfect marks. They've some have even said they have never seen such strong results. I do these tests because I owe it to the country. This is for us, you guys. This is not for him. Yeah. This is not for him. I mean, is he talking about his dementia test or his MRI of his head? Because I want to know what he thinks he got really the best results ever. Those are related. Definitely related to MRI and the dementia. I'm like a I'm a halfway through it right now. Cognitive examination. So yes, very few people would be able to do very well, including those working at the New York Times. And I aced all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts. It's like my eight year old would not go this deep into delusion if he were just making shit up on the spot. Been told many most people could not ace in this examination. He capitalizes examination. In fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other presidents have decided to not take it at all. That's why not because they didn't need it. Despite all of this, the time and work involved the New York Times and some others like to pretend that I am slowing up and maybe not as sharp as I once was. Or I am in poor physical health knowing that it is not true and knowing I've worked very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am slowing up, but it is not now all of the work I have done with medical exams, cognitive exams and everything else. I actually believe it's seditious, perhaps even treasonous for the New York Times and others to consistently do fake reports in order in order to libel and demean all caps. The president of the United States, but also in quotes. Why is it in quotes? They are true enemies of the people and we should do something about it. Just something. I'll have some coffee about it. They are inaccurate. They have inaccurately reported all of my election results. Here we go. And in fact, we're forced to apologize for much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen in this country is if the New York Times ceased publication because they are a horrible, biased, untruthful source of information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAGA. To this. He still doesn't understand the difference between plural and singular. These matters. Which matter? It's so low on the scale, but the fact that the president of the United States can't write a sentence, I mean, right, or punctuate or like, I mean, he leaves the pronouns out. That's what makes it the hardest because he's allergic to pronouns. I don't think he could circle the pronouns. If you give him a he would have no idea if you asked him what that was. No, no, absolutely not. I got to say the aura around the United like he put aura in quotes. Does he play video games? Like who taught him the word aura? Barron? I know that is that is that his video games? Is that his term for vibes? Is that is that what we're doing here? I really want to take these these people, you know, Donald Trump is exempt because he's lost just. Yeah, he's him. But there are so many people in this country who who truly believe this nonsense that everyone around the world respects the United States. These are people who never left the United States. I remember what it felt like in 2008 when I left the country. And I felt like I was like doing an apology tour everywhere I went because of George Bush and the Iraq war. Those were the good old days, man. And I'm looking back at those days and I'm like if these people had known what my country would do, I you know, they might have prevented me from going back because holy shit. Yeah, I mean, there are some countries, though, that they have, you know, they've had their own problems like in the UK where they had Boris Johnson, who is basically their version of Donald Trump, but somehow even more bumbling than him. But no, I agree. And I'm also trying to imagine this this cognitive test that he says he had in front of many doctors. Did he just like watch Rocky for the other night and see the Victor Drago parts where he's like running on the treadmill, they're like shooting him with the rods and like all these people. And then you got you got Rocky over here, like in the woods with like a like a stump. And this like whole thing is that is that like, is he just watched that at one point and then he saw Sylvester Stallone the other day, actually, for the Kennedy Center stuff. So like, I'm wondering if that all came up. And he just decided that like, I want that visual, I want that visual that strong and a monster Russian. So like it works out. Right. Definitely. Visual with YMCA playing in the background. Man sitting down at a desk with a doctor sliding a piece of paper in front of him and asking him to identify things like dog, right. And then when if he if he gets that correct, identify the head and identify the leg, right. That's that is the test that he's taking. He is he is identifying farm animals, which is something that like I have a six month old baby now that like is, I don't know, a couple months away from being able to do that. He's about to surpass Donald Trump and the cognitive. Yeah. Oh, she's already passed it. Yeah. She will. First birthday. I'll put out a challenge if she agrees. I want to see that. Can this adorable one year old beat Donald Trump in a presidential cognitive test? That would be uber viral. Instead of are you smarter than a fifth grader? It's are you smarter than a 13 month old or like let's let's let's what at what month? Like real talk at what month can a toddler complete these tests that that that Trump is taking? I mean, I have these I have these conversations regarding a border colleague because she's very smart. Like at some point, a border colleague is no longer smarter than your toddler, right? And we're in that same position where at some point, every toddler becomes smarter than Donald Trump. But I don't think we expected it to be 12 to 18 months. You know, like they should be out of diapers and then get smarter than the president. So my mom was a was a first grade teacher for 35, 40 years or whatever. And she had like six year olds that could write a sentence better than some of those run on sentences that he I mean, that was and he was also just like playing the hits, right? He's like, well, I'm mad that they think I'm old and feeble, which he is like, if Donald Trump doesn't want people to think he's old and feeble, then maybe he should stop falling asleep at the desk in the oval. Like they have to say his name like you can tell Pam Bondi was saying some bullshit the other day. And she looked directly at him and said like she pushed his name and title into a sentence that I'll have to find that like it didn't need to be there. It was something like, you know, the border, blah, blah, blah and, you know, terrorists or whatever. And then like President Donald Trump and she looked directly at him. I'm like, she just woke him up like she could tell he was dazing. Did Marco Rubio do that? Didn't Marco do that too? Because at the cabinet meeting, he was tapping him. Donald Trump because he sits right next to one. It's the first one there. And like, yeah, he's enunciating super. It's the thing when your teacher is like, and today we will rich rich today we will be discussing and you're like, sorry, I had Taco Bell for lunch. That was high school. Could you imagine Donald Trump in school? Like what that was like? I mean, I assume he did next to nothing. His dad got him into Penn and the Naval Academy or not Naval Academy, like some sort of junior, whatever. Like, I cannot imagine that that was a military academy. It was for bad kids. Oh, it was. It wasn't like you're so special go to the school. It was a, you're a bad kid. You need to learn discipline. It did not work. That's why he went to military school. Well, I mean, I mean, if your dad's going to give you $400 million on when he passes away, like, you know, you're going to get rewarded whether you're good or bad, right? I guess you just choose bad, right? And that's the thing that still kills me to this day of these, the MAGA folks that say, well, Donald Trump is like a great businessman. Like if you took that $400 million that his dad gave him when he died in the nineties, maybe 80, I don't know when he died and put it in the S&P 500, he would have been worth more than he was when he ran for president the first time. Now, he's done all the grifting and whatever. And now he's made a bunch of money. So it's no longer true. Crypto pile. Yeah. He was, he was an atrocious businessman. And the only reason anyone thinks that he is a good businessman is because he played an imaginary businessman on a reality show and fired people from completing tasks, which by the way, I've seen some of the episodes of that show. It is not indicative of whether you are a good businessman or not. No, it's like, here's a bucket of water, go sell hot dogs out of it. Like it was the dumbest show in the world. I used to walk by my parents' room and see it on and just be like angry. Oh, it's so dumb. I never, I knew back then. The bravado, he comes in with the suit and then he's like, yeah, you fired. And it's like, that's all he did to become president and convince people. He's just a walking tag. But that goes to the whole thing, right? Like where we talk a lot about how we can move men more to the left. And it's not necessarily the overtly political stuff, right? It is culturally interesting stuff, which is, which is, which is, and by the way, we're for our folks listening, like we've got some stuff in the works on that, but that Donald Trump is the perfect encapsulation of that, that he played a, a president, a businessman, successful one, and people bought it. And so you have to, you know, and like, it's just, it's just wild to me because he bankrupted a goddamn casino. Like he, he drove everything. He's never, remember Trump's stakes, Trump vodka. Those are the easiest things to sell. Like flying, gambling, steak and vodka. How the fuck do you fuck that up? Like you can just be shit at all of those things. And most people will be like, yeah, I'll have a vodka and a steak, please. Because it's probably in the world. Because he, because he buys cheap shit, right? So the stakes were probably, I mean, also if you've heard how he likes his stakes, do you know how he likes his stakes? Like well done with ketchup. He's got to have him with ketchup, guaranteed. With ketchup. Like, of course. And that vodka was probably like, probably they went to, to the liquor store and got the, what is that? Like the pop off, like the big plastic jugs and just ripped the label off and even Stephen Miller's in the back office just dumping him in the trunk. Yeah. I mean, the only thing that he ever made money on, I think was like the Trump University, which is a scam. And then he had to pay like $25 million to settle that nobody actually learned anything at Trump University because Donald Trump doesn't actually know anything. But it is interesting that like people still are buying it. And it's like, no, you know, I want to go back. Can you imagine teaching a student like Donald Trump, like really get your head into this, like Donald Trump, and who was he born in 45? So what, like 65 to 80, you know, ish was like, that was, that would be like his college window, right? He, he is the, like the douchebag, nepo baby, frat boy, bro, whatever, in every movie from like the sixties, like the, he's the piece of shit who, who is absolutely abusing, like taking advantage of every woman that he ever meets, beating up every guy that he ever met, or having his buddies beat up every guy that he doesn't like, just cheating his way through life, crashing through everything because nothing, there was no accountability for anyone back then. Like people don't realize like how recent like forensic evidence is in criminal research. Like it was all just, he said, she said, and then boys will be boys. And then the judge was the drinking slash golf buddy with your dad and the sheriff. And so like, I don't think people realize how recently that was the case where rich kids got away with everything. I mean, they still get away with almost everything. Back then they got away with everything, everything, because there was just no way to even prove that anyone did anything if nobody fucking talked. And that was guaranteed Donald Trump. I mean, it's a lot of people probably don't know. I went to a smaller ball art school and I, I've, I've always, oh, thank you. Yeah, thank you. But, but no, but like for folks who don't know the story, like this, you know, the, the, the show Beverly Hills 902 and O when they come from Minnesota to LA and it's this like over or Beverly Hills, it's this overwhelm. I had the same thing. Like I was this kid from small town Maine. And all of a sudden I was with, with a bunch of people who had very, very wealthy families. And like I've actually said that one of the things that I learned that has, has helped me the most in, in my life is learning how to talk to rich people. It's a different world. And they, I've heard stories. Actually, I've heard stories very similar. I'm not going to get too specific because I don't want to have anybody, but like specific about people, kids running into problems with the law. And then like they knew the judge and the judge is just like slap on the wrist, you know, go away, like do two hours of community service or something like that. And Donald Trump, that was Donald Trump's whole world was this rarefied space where rich, wealthy, white people to, to be clear, this is mostly about rich, wealthy white people can pretty much do whatever the hell they want. And that's that shaped his whole world. I mean, he got handed half a billion dollars, even though like he completely fucked up when he was running businesses for his dad, he got sued by the Justice Department, the Nixon Justice Department, because when they got for the buildings where they were renting, when you know, people of color would come, they would put that application in a manila folder and put the letter C on it and shove it into a drawer. And I bet you can guess what the letter C stood for. And they never rented to people of color and got sued and had to settle because they knew they were going to, they were going to lose. And so this guy's failed his entire life. He even went in front of Congress in the 80s and said horrible things about Native Americans because it was about casinos and all these things. And there's these hearings that you can look at YouTube. And he was awful there too. And still, even though all of that stuff was probably detrimental to their business, daddy gave him $400 million. So this is how you get a Donald Trump is he's having consequences and people have always explained it away. It's almost like you're purposely curating a monster. Like what, what, what would we have to do over 80 years to purposefully design a monster where you're just like poking it in a cage and fucking it up and like dumping beer over its head. You do. You do the life of Donald Trump. Donald Trump. You read anything about today's kids. Like, and it's not even just like MAGA parents, like schools right now have a major problem of boys and young men growing up, seeing the president of the United States and then a former president and then reelected. A man who has been rewarded for greed, for cruelty, for cheating. And, and it is, it is creating a great divide between young girls and young boys right now because these boys are growing up without any. And I wasn't wasn't the best kid in the world when it comes to like, I don't know, having a fucking conscience that was fully developed. But it's really fucking bad right now. And any article that's, that's written about like the, the lives of, of girls in school right now, like elementary, middle and high school, they're dealing with shit that they certainly weren't dealing with when I was, you know, in school in the, in high school in the late 90s, early 2000s. Like it, it sounds like America's in for a rough spot because there's a generation growing up thinking what Donald Trump does is okay. I think now they can go, sorry. And then they, and then they see these, these right wing influencers who are peddling even worse. I mean, there was this some interview with the Nazi Nick Fuentes that Pierce Morgan did the other day. I can't do it. I can't do it. I was like women shouldn't be allowed to vote. Hitler was cool, is that what he said? We want to stop pretending like he wasn't. Yeah. And this guy, and then Tucker, so Pierce Morgan and Tucker Carlson have both platformed this guy, which, you know, you would think it would mean important views would be shoved to the side, but it gives it, it gives it oxygen and well, it's outside, but it drags the overton window with it. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And now there's like a real fight in the Republican party about are they going to go the Nick Fuentes route or are they going to go more of the Ben Shapiro route? And right now it looks like they're going to go more the Nick Fuentes route. And what does, and what does that say to 16, 17, 18 year old boys that that is quote unquote, in some circles acceptable behavior? I think the one thing that can work in our favor, like the consequences for that kind of behavior have to exist at some level eventually. And fortunately, like locally, if you just go do Nick Fuentes shit, you'll still end up getting arrested or kicked out of school. Like the consequences are going to hit you real hard, especially depending on where you live. But like to be totally candid, young women have always had more of the cards in the dating game, which is why these bros resort to violence when they don't get what they want. Because they have there's nothing going for them. And you know, women are usually the the choosers, let's be honest, when you're sort of desperate and your teenage teenage boy, these boys are going to want the attention of women at some point. And there are only so many of those little like the tradwife want to be doting, you know, maybe 10% of young women are coached by their moms and dads and their weird stay at home, whatever to be that the rest of women are going to be looking at these little Nick Fuentes, Joe Rogan clones, not to put even put them in the same category, but like the the bros with abhorrent beliefs. And they just run the other direction. And so if those guys ever want, they have no power, they have no leverage in the dating scene, if they ever want to get the attention of women and go on dates, they have to find their way back to not any of what they believe right now. I mean, that's, that's like a that's logical, but it's not the world we live in. Like we live in a in a world where boys and men still hold a lot of power and influence. And, you know, it, it is dating is is not, is not everything. Right. There, there are, this is why like sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace matters. And, you know, people, young men in positions of power trying to leverage things like jobs and security to try to leverage those things out of out of women. Like, you know, it'd be nice if women could just simply deny, but they're often punished for protecting themselves to be very clear that is the ugly reality. You're 100,000 correct. And to be very clear, I'm talking about like 16 to 21, when you are like your whole your brain is saturated with hormones. That I mean, but this is where that comes from, right, is like men want control. They, when you get older society, men take control and and retain control. And now they're trying to institutionalize the protections that allow them to retain control because for like, what's six years there felt like we started to kind of go in the DEI, like we started to try to fix anything, and they just lost their fucking collective minds and put Trump in the White House. I mean, that's that's all we're up against. The concerning thing is that, you know, and I think the left is waking up to this, but we haven't matched the right's attempts to engage with young men to show them a better path. Because right now, you know, we've talked about it a lot, but like people listen, kids listen to, you know, the andrutates of the world who have a horrific world view and are horrific people and done horrific things. But when there's no counter, then something fills the void. And that's, I think, what we've seen. And I think we all have to do a better job of doing that. And I think, you know, he's not on today, so I can talk about him. But I think Luke is a perfect example of the opposite, right? Like he is, he managed to get through that world. And he but he has admitted that in high school, there was a few moments where he could have slipped the other way. And like, we need to train a whole generation of kids to be like, like him. And, you know, I think we're starting to do those things, but there needs to be much more. Because otherwise, they're just going to continue to do what they do. And that's when we see, you know, people raising boatloads of money on that horrible site, go send me for saying terrible things, which, you know, there was that woman that used the n word last week. And of course, all the conservatives defended her. And now are like, well, she was provoked into it. And I'm like, you know, you can you can defend yourself without using horrific, you know, tropes and stupid, horrifically racist terms. But we need a counter to it. Otherwise, like, leaving kids to defend for themselves is not a very good path to success. Yeah, I think we all went through some sort of inflection moment, right? When we were like teenage boys, you've got the the or maybe maybe before that, depending on how clear your parents are. But we go through this moment where like, there's always a group of guys, especially if you're in a big, like a big junior high or high school with, you know, hundreds of kids or maybe even over 1000. There's a group of guys who are trash. There's a group of jocks, there might be one or two good jocks, and then like a lot of really, really bad jocks. There's like the skaters and the stoners, there's the preppy kids, and there's the religious kids. And for the average person, even the kids who are in those groups, sometimes they're just joining the groups because like, well, I like football, and so I'm a wide receiver, and then you get sucked into this football group, and then they just drag you into that world because of what happens in locker rooms and how they joke about things and the parties they throw. But all of us have that window where we're asking ourselves, even if it's just in your own head when you're laying in bed at night, is this like, this doesn't feel good. Is this what I want? Is it normal? Is it not normal? And Chris, you did a video the other day that I thought was so good because like, we're so in this that we forget. But you talked about how people who were born, you know, like say you were born after 9 11, half to two thirds of your life has been like the tea party and birtherism and maga. And so if you're when you're born in the 80s, the 70s, 80s, 90s, like I think most of the people on our podcast, we remember most of society being better than what is what it is now. And every year that passes, right, right, right, like economically hopeful. Right, we have seen it with our eyes when things are better and feel normal. And you feel the American dream is like the thing that I'm going to go do and I'm going to get a great job with benefits and like a pension. Like those were all things that were normal when we were younger. But with every year that passes with Trump and and Fuentes and Carlson and Fox News and all this shit, we get further from that feeling normal. And so these kids who are 12 and 13 now, I mean, my daughter's 12. And Trump has been president most of her life, which is like, I can't even think about it because she could have had Obama and then Clinton and and it would have been great. And then instead, Trump is elected when she's like four the first time, you know, so that's been most of her life and in trying to retain some sort of sense of normalcy in our in our house so that she knows that this isn't just how America is is always the goal and it's difficult. People forget. And so I graduated college in 2001. So I and I was a political science major in my like the senior seminars, like a senior class for to in order to get your your degree. And I remember we were reading a lot of books and discussions about whether war was over, because the world had become so economically intertwined. There used to be this whole thing that was like a country with the McDonald's has never bombed a country with a McDonald's. And I think that ended with maybe the Yugoslavian war, I'm not sure, Kosovo or something. But yeah, and this was in that class ended in May of 2021, three months before, you know, 9 11. And we were having these conversations. I mean, we knew about Bin Laden, and we knew that there were strikes in Sudan to try to get him and all these things in Sudan and in Afghanistan. But but yeah, we were having like, war is over. Like, we're all we're moving on beyond that. And we could not have, well, I don't blame us, that people who wrote those books, and could could not be I could have not been more wrong. I mean, I was in DC on 9 11. And I had been in the job for like my first job ever for like three weeks. So like my my college education kind of got completely wiped out, not even a quarter after I had been been out because the whole world changed. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I grew up thinking, you know, I would get maybe a union job or something, like, you know, serving the military for for 20 years, that's a career, get out, you know, join a union, have a pension, and and like, and that would be it. This, you know, a simple life. Like, man, how fucking silly that was. I mean, if you had to go back in time and tell tell high school, Chris, where you are right now, would you even have entertained the option that that was possible? No, my my life is objectively fucking insane. Like, like I could come, it could be physically me looking like this with the fucking tattoo that I got when I was 18 and be like, Listen, this is what's going to happen. I wouldn't fucking believe it because it's so weird. So no. It's funny you mentioned like the economic intertwinedness of it all because I mean, we all think about that, right? I had a co-worker like 30 years ago, and he said, we could fix the whole middle. He was really right wing. And so I was like, Come on, dude. But he said, we could fix the whole Middle East if we just airdropped playstations across the entire region. And I was like trying to find like a problem with the argument, right? Like if everyone just had video games, I mean, they talk about that with like, there's a lot less violence, actually, like criminal violence has gone down because people are just not bored as often. Like we're looking at our phones instead of sitting around thinking, like, let's go get drunk and start a fire. And and so that's a thing. But now we're seeing Trump low and behold, disentangle the the economies of the world. And when you don't need another country for economic growth, if you don't need them for a military alliance, you know, resources are part of the economy. Like, why do you care about this country then if they're a different religion and the people look different, then suddenly it's like, well, they're they're getting genocided. And you're like, well, I don't really see myself in them. And we don't need them strategically. So I'm like, I have no empathy for them. Or you get angry about that about something with that country. And then suddenly there's just no reason to not attack them. Yeah. So what Tim said before about the books that we're like, we're so interconnected and economically interconnected, because we're so connected, there won't be war. I am right now writing the opening script for a future episode of my other podcasts on offense. And in that episode, I, I interview the general who was in charge with the Katrina response. I was in Iraq in 2005, when General Honore was was leading on the ground and bringing tensions down. He came into the public consciousness because he came off of a helicopter with a cigar in his mouth, and started yelling at National Guard and police to put their guns down. Because the Louisiana, Louisiana National Guard, excuse me, Louisiana, Governor, who is the commander of the National Guard, had said, you should shoot to kill if people are looting. And General Honore, who is a native Louisiana, and who grew up in the Jim Crow South before joining the military, came out and said, they're not looting, they're fucking hungry. Yeah, they're not stealing televisions, they're stealing, stealing, and I'm using air quotes here, baby formula, like that's not theft, that is, that is desperation. So I'm, I'm trying as I'm writing my script, I'm trying to put myself back into 2005 and how, yes, I was on the other side of the planet, but it felt like I was on the other side of the planet, like the, the horrors of Katrina that, that you guys witnessed in real time. I simply didn't witness, I got clips of it on the Armed Forces Network, when I went and, you know, got lunch and dinner, I got it, you know, in the newspapers that would show up three weeks after they were printed. But the this, like, I feel it's so silly that people in the 90s thought we were so connected, compared to what we are today. And like that interconnectedness has not created the empathy or the perceived mutual benefits of these types of relationships on a, on a, you know, international scale that I think we quite ignorantly hoped it would. Yeah, I mean, that, that Katrina itself was such a case of government failing at all levels too, right? Because the governor of Louisiana Times Democrat, the mayor of New Orleans was Democrat, actually, I think he ended up going to jail, Negan. But, you know, and then Bush famously basically sat on his hands or like flew over the, the, you know, the wreckage and, you know, had put in a guy who ran a horse association as the FEMA director, because that's when everyone always says, I wish we'd go back to the good old days of George W. Bush, I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about. Like that, like he did stupid shit like Donald Trump does, but did it with a twang and wasn't, you know, outwardly a terrible person as loud about it. Yeah, it wasn't, yeah. So, you know, it, yeah, I mean, it was just a horrible thing. And you're right, it didn't actually serve us in that particular case. And the part about the inner connectivity is it also that gives extremists more ability to reach out. So right, and it has actually caused a spread of that rather than a spread of good behavior. And, you know, so that has obviously those I hadn't really thought about the books I read in the late 90s, early 2000s, and I'm kind of like Chuck, it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Because, you know, Trump, they said, I saved all these lives, like cutting USA has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly in Africa, and in some parts of Asia. And it has irreprep, like just like hundreds of thousands. And yeah, it's just a sad situation. And, you know, the putting RFK junior in front of HHS, as in charge of HHS, and like telling the CDC to just ignore science. All of these things are going to kill countless people. Yeah, but RFK can do push up or do pull ups, Chris. That's all that matters. Right. Is the is the pull ups airlines great again, doing pull ups, what was he and get into it? He and Sean Duffy were doing pull ups at at Reagan National the other day. And I'm still trying to understand why I don't they want to make flying healthy again. It's a maha thing. Are we putting are we putting pull up bars in all of the airports now so that people can get their get their swole on while they're waiting? Is that the idea? Yeah, I really like look forward to getting onto a plane full of people who are sweaty from working out. That just sounds like a great idea. Also doing pull ups incorrectly. By the way, at least Pete Hegze does pull ups incorrectly. Which I don't know how he didn't rip his back in that one video where he's like, freaking and jerking trying to pull himself up. It's like, Jesus Christ. Yeah, you know, it's fun because I love when I find out things in real time while we're talking. Do you fuck around first? I was, I mean, I guess if if searching Google was fucking around, but I was like thinking about this interconnected concept and got it's like voice of America, you know, I mean, that's one of the that's one of the reasons that's another element, right, is is information. And so I was looking for just like, what's the quick fact about voice of America? And it turns out there's been a whole flurry of activity around voice of America specifically because of Venezuela. And Washington Post just five days ago or yeah, five days ago, posted an editorial Trump's closure, Voice of America is coming back to bite him. That's the first thing that he's ever done that came back to bite him, by the way. Um, in Venezuela, Russia and China have filled in the gaps in information where we once occupied the space. And 1300 staff members and contractors still fired or placed on leave. Websites frozen. Everything's gone dark for the first time since World War Two. But specifically, VOA's weekly Spanish language audience in Latin America was 100 million people just based on numbers from January, especially important in Venezuela, where the regime of Maduro has closed most independent media outlets and continues to harass journalists, many of whom have either been put in prison or have fled the country. And now the gap where VOA once helped cover because of that attack on journalism. Now it's just, it's just vacant. And so Russia and China is influencing Venezuela and now we want to attack Venezuela. Isn't it crazy how it's almost like he's doing things to set the stage for conflicts so that he can then go and instigate the conflict. It is. It is the 3D chess after all. The destruction of of our of things like Voice of America, of USAID, of soft power of the State Department and the embassies and the way that we used to genuinely do good for a lot of the world. This is like everything that Republican presidents do, not just Trump. It's like binge drinking, where they're just having a fucking party. And then the Democrat who comes into office after that has to play clean like Obama did with the Great Recession. And unfortunately, swing voters, a lot of swing voters are going to be just as mad at whatever Democrat is in office next because of all of the problems that a Republican president set into motion that take years and years and years for the for the back blast to hit us. The blowback, excuse me, the blowback. Amazing. Well, guys, I think that that is probably where we're going to wrap it today. Hopefully we'll be back at full strength next week. A couple of sickos today. So we'd like to get the whole gang back together. Also, don't forget, folks, that we have our weekly lives on Wednesday nights at, oh, I guess this is after this will already happen next Wednesday. Next Wednesday at 845. You should join us on YouTube. You should follow us on YouTube. Also, you can see that I'm wearing our lovely merch, which you should purchase. And I'm going to be walking around LA trying to get people to listen one by one, except I'm not because some of the people I've seen outside don't look like they want to be be spoken to. So we're going to probably leave that alone. But yeah, I'd like to say everybody had their own podcast already and they're all trying to tell you there's a guy down downstairs who had a sign that I can't read out loud. It's it's too. I just can't say the words, but he was out there and anyway, so but no, I'm going to speak in front of a bunch of state party chairman today. So that's an exciting moment. And yeah, super fancy. I don't know. I'm going to say yet, but we'll see. But anyways, outside of that, folks, please buy our merch at find out podcast.com. And also, a membership, if you can't afford it, would help us keep the lights on, which you can get at find out podcast.substack.com. Until then, guys, have a wonderful weekend. Like I said, hopefully we will be back at full strength next time. We'll talk soon. Bye, guys.