Can the US Dollar Survive Geopolitical Turmoil?
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Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm Bea Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream presented by Betches News, where we explore the absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience.

How are you doing? So bad. So bad. I think we're all doing a little bit bad. This is quite alarming. Yeah. I started my day by canceling my flight to Boston because my wife was worried and being like, I'll just drive. About the planes that are having continuous problems. Yeah, we're worried about the planes. So I drove six hours.

And now I'm here at the Doubletree Boston. I'm glad. What are you doing in Boston? I start my Harvard fellowship tomorrow. So I'm so, you know. Very exciting. Yes. Very exciting. Wow. You could do like a little Elle Woods number. You know, you could. And I will. I will. You should do that. I'll be making content all over Harvard's campus doing it all. What? Like it's hard? That's what I was going to say. It's pink. Yeah. Scented. Perfect. It's my resume. Okay.

You know, there was one bright spot in all of this. Last night was the Grammys, and it was a great Grammys overall. It's another year of the pop girlies, and it was just – it was really great. There were some – I would say there were some American Fever Dream-related highlights that we want to talk through, right? Did you watch it? I watched a little bit of it. I actually wasn't watching until Beyoncé won, and then I got excited and tuned in. Like, I didn't really even know what was going on. Yeah, Beyoncé.

Oh, yeah, it was great. And there were great performances. Beyonce won not only Best Country Album, but Album of the Year, finally. Good. I like to think that perhaps our episode, Breaking Down Cowboy Carter, helped reach the judging panel of the Grammys. And we set forth a great argument for her in addition to how outstanding the album was. You know,

Yeah, I'm sure they were persuaded by two white girls breaking down the history of black country music. No, honestly, that remains one of my favorite episodes we've done because it really, you know,

For two people who know nothing about the subject, we were really deep. We did. And it was a fun one. And I'm really glad that she won. And I think she absolutely deserves it. And it's kind of like a big fuck you to the Country Music Awards. Like, who are you even? This is... You are not even a bother to her. She is unbothered and unburdened. The album is incredible and remains incredible. And she even said in her acceptance speech, her first one for Country album, she said,

She said that sometimes genres are a code word to keep us all in our place as artists. And I just want to encourage people to do what they want to do, which we loved. I love it. I was very distracted by Taylor Swift's outfit.

She had like the T chain on her thigh. Was that for Travis or was that for Taylor? I wasn't sure. It's a lyric, right? It was for Travis, I believe, in this situation. But if you're talking about the lyric, my suspicion, because based on the album when that album came out, that song was seemingly about Mattie Healy. So my guess is that this is...

attempt to sort of rewrite that narrative. Can you imagine? By associating the name written on my upper thigh with him. I see. Okay. That's how she works. That's pretty good. I'm just saying, I thought that was maybe the most clever use of jewelry since the full body chains that TLC wore to the Grammys that year. I actually loved it. It was very sexy. It was very risque. Very sexy. I was like, I'm going to do this. I love this.

Yeah, I am. One thing I did think was that it did make her sort of like feel like she needed to stand with like her Angelina Jolie leg out when she didn't actually have to do that. But I get it. You know, outfits. It was gorgeous. She really is impressive for how creative and inventive she is. And it's of course not her. She has like a team and stylists and whatnot. But it's hard to make.

glamour knew as many times as she has. There were some other notable moments. Lady Gaga, when she was up and accepting an award, she said trans people are not invisible and she wanted to let the queer community that they were loved. She better. We made her. All the statements were, I thought, even though they were explicit, they were

and like toned down. Like even Chapel Rowan, I thought that was also really amazing. She said, I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off artists would offer a livable wage on healthcare, especially to developing artists.

And she said, like, labels, we got you, do you got us? I like that she lives every day. Like, it's her last day to be famous and she doesn't care. She's like, she's like constantly kamikaze-ing her points across. And I love that about her. That like, whether it's telling a photographer it's not okay to talk to people the way that they do or telling the record labels during her acceptance speech, it's not okay to treat people like they do. Like, she really does stand on business every single time in a way that isn't beneficial to her, really. Yeah.

One more thing I want to talk about because I got deep into this last night after Kendrick Lamar won record and song of the year for Not Like Us. And I had been in the Drake drama back when that all came out and when it happened. But then I started really digging into the Kendrick Drake lore. Like what does he have against him sort of ideologically almost? And I was like, ooh, this is like really layered. Do tell because I'm not involved here. Yeah.

The feud started because another rapper, J. Cole, said in a lyric that he, Drake, and Kendrick were all three at the top. Kendrick responded by saying, no, that's just me. I'm at the top. And Drake came back with another lyric where he accused him, I think, of like abusing his – accused Kendrick Lamar of –

hurting his wife. But underlying this are bigger dynamics in terms of West Coast rap and being from the Compton community and how they see Drake as a coddled child actor who just does commercial pop and can't actually rap and rhyme as well as Kendrick Lamar, who...

He's on another level is because he's able to communicate so many really deep and insightful lessons and make so many meaningful references in all of his songs. And he makes it for...

Not necessarily commercial reception. Like he makes it for the fans and for himself. And there's so much like history in his lyrics. In the song Not Like Us, he accuses Drake of – he calls him certified lover boy, certified pedophile. Straight out.

Everyone. Drake's contemporaries. Was Drake there? No. I don't think so. There's a lot there. And this is sort of perceived as like the final blow. Like he does this, this like diss track. And I do think it is very representative of America right now that the winner for the best song of the year was a diss track. I know. And then a couple of that with P Diddy going to the hospital last night because he had stomach cramps and the world of rap is upside down.

First of all, I didn't know you could leave prison to go to the hospital for stomach cramps. But apparently if you're Diddy, you can. Do you think like he left because the Grammys were on and he was like, well, I want to be able to watch it or something? Was it like a stunt to try and pull focus from the Grammys? Did he think like people would be reporting on Diddy going to the hospital instead of the Grammys? Maybe it was like a psychosomatic. I live in Trump world where everything is a stunt. So I just assume everyone has like bad intentions for everything. Look, they were friends. Is he going to pardon him?

I wonder. I do. I do think sometimes that'll come. See?

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As the nation's fastest internet provider, Cox is always stepping up our game. Speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Cox terms and other restrictions may apply. Nation's fastest internet provider is based on average download speeds from highspeedinternet.com speed test in 2023. Speaking of no more surprises, cat's out of the bag. The vote is over. We have a new DNC chair. It is not Ben Wickler, who we really hoped it would be, but it's this other fella, Kenneth Nathan Martin. And he had a lot of – he was pretty good.

He was the leader of Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party, and he used to be the vice chair of the DNC. He won by 246.5 votes out of 428. I don't know how you get a half a vote, but he did.

The thing about Ken that like I'm worried about and I'm like cautiously optimistic for is he was endorsed by Tim Walls and Jim Clyburn, but then – Because they're from Minnesota. Because they're from Minnesota. Well, Jim Clyburn is from South – so it's like a Jim Clyburn having such an outsized impact on like what people do, but –

Ben Wickler had like Speaker Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, a lot of the Democratic donors. But I guess Ken had more of the DNC voting public. So Ken also got a last minute endorsement from friend of the pod, Marianne Williamson. And yeah, I like to think she's our friend. I think she listens to the show.

Her team writes to me on TikTok sometimes. We're supposed to have her on someday. So I'm calling her friend of her pod. I'm excited for that. I do not think that this is going to change anything. I don't think that any decisions that are being made are going to indicate any learnings were learned. And I don't think that this is going to matter because...

The Republicans, if you could even forget about Republicans, it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Doge are so far ahead that, okay, you can go to your little DNC election and talk about your vision for the future of the party. But I think everyone should look behind them. You think we're cooked? Fried. Fried.

I was concerned because Ken has worked on a lot of loser presidential campaigns. He worked on John Kerry and Hillary Clinton's campaign. He tends to win in the down ballot, like Tim Walz, Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith all won on his watch.

In his speech, he said, we need to decide if we're beholden to the billionaires or if we're building the middle class. And that actually gave me super cringe because I thought we had learned that I don't think that the people obviously chose the billionaires with choosing MAGA and feeling like that would help them be successful.

He said we need to go on the offense. Trump's administration is what happens when amateur hour meets demolition and it's our time to build the people's government. We need to win elections to improve people's lives. And I was like, okay, this would have been great if Kamala won, but I'm not sure that – I wanted to hear you – I wanted to hear the DNC chair get up and be like, listen up, motherfuckers, all right? We're about to go nuts on these people. We're smarter. We're better. We have more money. We're whatever. I want to see like an unhinged –

crazy rant like a fire. You know, yes, but the thing is their problem is they're always fighting yesterday's battle. Right.

Like this is, this no longer applies. We're two weeks into the administration and everything you're saying no longer applies to, you're having a conversation that should have been had six months ago. And when you talk about amateur hour, this is what I want to discuss for a big chunk of this episode because people keep saying, oh,

Oh, amateur. They're amateur. They're screwing up. They don't know what they're doing. Yes, they do. They know exactly what they're doing. They're just not doing what you think they should be doing and what they are doing. And that's the problem here. You still don't understand what they're doing, what they're trying to accomplish, what

what the results of that are and how it's going to impact people's lives in a way that you can persuade anyone and inspire any confidence that they should listen to you or trust you. So like literally I just feel like this is all irrelevant. This might as well be a fantasy draft for nothing. Yeah. I mean, it's Project 2025. They had it before they even came in. And more. Yeah.

When have we ever come in with a plan that distinct where we're going to match up? We matched up on the sub stack the points in Project 2025 and the executive orders, executive orders to page numbers. 50 of his executive orders correlate directly to pages in Project 2025. So we know what he's doing and they are getting it done. I mean, Elon gained access to the treasury over the weekend.

But the thing is that was not in Project 2025. There are many things that were not in Project 2025, which was endorsed and constructed by the Heritage Foundation. We are not in that anymore. This is a different situation that we are in because dismantling USAID was not part of Project 2025. In fact, it was part of Project 2025 to strengthen it and improve it.

And what I, something I read earlier, it's a quote from Timothy Snyder who wrote on tyranny. And I think that this really, I hope this helps reframe the way people are looking at this.

He says,

So I think we need to think about this entirely differently. And the way that that should translate is if you are calling your representatives who ostensibly still do have seats and your governors or whomever, that you are explicit about what is that you are clear on what is happening, not that you want them to just vaguely keep going with business as usual.

I, I, I'm at a loss a lot of the time just trying to do the news at night because I watched the Senate and I think they've pulled back a little bit from trying to do their snarky, like get their buzzwords in for MSNBC on the Senate confirmations of the cabinet. I'm almost like, don't worry about that. Like there's so many bigger things while you guys are all down there trying to like spend hours and hours and days and days and days on the Senate confirmations, which are very likely going to pass.

Like, what else are we doing? There's a horse loose in the Capitol and you're like, yeah, but there's a bunny over here and I want to play with the bunny because we always play with the bunny. And it's like, no, guys, it is very concerning. Trump's just given everybody whatever he wants because he's got his exit strategy. And it appears to be, you know,

seaside resorts in Gaza with – or maybe it's something with the Saudis. Like he's got his exit. So he's just selling out the American people to the highest bidder, whether that's the Heritage Foundation. Sure, sure. Go ahead. Give me your Project 2025. I'll make some executive orders. Or it's Elon. I don't care. I'm going golfing. Go dick around in the treasury today. Well, he set up a sovereign wealth fund today. Today is Monday, by the way, when we're recording. And

unclear what will go in there, who will have access to it, what will it be used for. And this brings me to something else that I think we should talk about because, you know, everyone knows about Project 2025, which is sort of the domestic plan as put forth by the Heritage Foundation to create traditional white Christian patriarchy. And

And I don't think most people know about something called Project Russia, which better explains what is happening right now from a geopolitical standpoint beyond the domestic change in policies. However, the changes in domestic policies do play into this. And I can explain how. You always bring...

Such devastating news, Samantha Betches. Project Russia. Tell me about it. Hit me. Project Russia is a series of anonymously published writings from between 2005 and 2010 that people suspect were commissioned by the Kremlin. And, you know, there's a sense of who some of the authors are, but it's not technically out there.

And basically what these writings did was outline a philosophical basis for Russia's war in Ukraine and for a broader assault on the West to reassert Russian dominance in the world. So it was published anonymously. The underlying philosophy of it is an argument that America and democracy and the West are bad because it's decadent, and instead the world should be controlled by some sort of

King monk, prince monk, like a wise man who is meant to be the ruler of the world. And he obviously imagines this as himself, Putin. We'll talk more about like the authorship and more about that in a bit. But basically the call for a collapse of the existing world order, they believe that the United States is bound to failure due to our perceived reliance on printing money and the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.

And even if they can't fully collapse it, they want any sort of partial destabilization. So ideally, like defaulting on the debt would be great. It also makes the argument that they used to invade Georgia,

in 2004, I believe it was for Crimea and then for Ukraine and talks about their, their approach of hybrid warfare that is partially focused on creating division within democracies because we allow that here, right?

And that's kind of what you saw that they then went after. And you know there have been so many campaigns run by the Kremlin in order to agitate and divide the left and enhance the MAGA movement. And I've talked about that a lot. There are specific goals for

are to destroy NATO, get rid of the EU in favor of recreating the nation states in Europe and trying to create nationalist competition again, put the UK and the US in alignment, but to weaken them collectively, make Turkey sort of the key country of a Eurasian movement that would include the Middle East, Greece, and potentially even Japan.

And Xi Jinping would have dominion over much of the South Pacific. Now, also, there was the advent of the BRICS currency, if you remember several years back. Partially, that is an economic alliance, which is partially trying to create an alternative to the U.S. dollar. There's also explains why there's been a ton of pushing for crypto, advocating to get rid of the Federal Reserve. They basically think the U.S. dollar is a Ponzi scheme.

So if the U.S. does default on the debt ceiling, and right now at this very moment, the Treasury is already taking extra accounting measures to be able to pay off the debt. That would greatly accelerate the collapse because our interest payments would skyrocket. Right.

Well, you know, I was reading that this is how Viktor Orban did it. He essentially seized the treasury illegally and then, quote, paid off Turkey's debt. But it made – it like makes the people have less money, less clout, less ability to access funds.

And then he owns them, right? So he has money. The government has money. He's a very wealthy man, but the people are very poor. And there's not like this central banking system like we have now where you could take on debt as a person and you could start a business or you could get a mortgage. Like all of that is gone. It's like what land do you have? What gold do you have? What maybe Trump crypto do you have? Whatever. Right.

But the other side of that is trying to destabilize even the cryptos. So it used to be like, okay, Bitcoin and Eurethium or whatever it is. Those are like the top two guys. And if you were invested in one of those, you were probably okay. Those were going to be the steady ones. Those are the ones that had the most power in them. Well, now there's a million meme coins, right? So like how will you know which one to pick? You can't. So maybe you put a little bit of your money into all of them thinking maybe you'll end up with a little bit of something. And the likelihood is if they're doing it the way that Turkey did it, which we know Viktor Orban and Trump are friends –

none of them will be the right one to put your money on because the coin that they hold will be one that they never released to the public, but that'll be the only one worth trading in. So like the top 1% will have access to that particular coin, but not anybody else.

The thing is that none of this is new because people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and David Sachs, who is now the crypto czar, they've been trying to replace the dollar since they started at PayPal. They're the PayPal mafia, quote unquote.

David Sachs, the crypto czar, said in 2017 that Bitcoin is fulfilling PayPal's original mission to create a new world currency. And one of their other co-founders confirmed that by saying in 2019 that the initial mission of PayPal was to create a global currency that was independent of interference by corrupt cartels of banks and governments that were debasing their currencies.

So they, this isn't like a new novel idea. And I think one of the distinctions with Orban and Hungary is that he moved a lot slower. Whereas here, like all of the pieces were in place. Russia had already, you know, established this land grab and really like broken down a lot of the defenses in Europe. The America had already been socialized to an insurrection. The media had essentially been taken over and it,

In a way, you can see that Elon Musk presented a huge opportunity for the authors of Project Russia because even today, after this USAID thing happened, do you remember Dmitry Medvedev, the former? He was like the placeholder president between Putin's Reagan terms. He tweeted, smart move by Elon Musk trying to plug USAID's deep throat. Let's hope notorious deep state doesn't swallow him whole.

So he's trying to like stand up for Elon Musk. He's also – USAID is part of why immigration and the rush at the southern border isn't worse.

I know like you look at countries like Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, different places where USAID is sort of like holding together the most poor people that we destabilized, being honest here. Like the United States went in there and meddled and now we have this aid program that basically prevents people from starving, but not much more than that.

And that's just enough so that those people in those countries will continue to work in things like chocolate production, coffee production, textiles, all the stuff that we get then shipped into the United States super cheap. Now, what I was talking to my Guatemalan family about is the shutdown of USAID will only incentivize those poor workers in Guatemala to...

To say, I can't stay here. There's no work. There's no nothing. And now I'm going to try and make a go for it to get into America or to get anywhere else because it's so desperate. So not only will it collapse the economies of these other countries because no one can stay to work in their businesses –

But it's going to exasperate what's happening at the southern border because people are going to go where there are resources and there's nothing you can do to stop that. No amount of fear-mongering will stop a thirsty person from seeking water. And that's what these immigrants are doing a lot of the time. They're coming from a horrible situation that we destabilized and the only thing they know to do is to try and go where there is work or where their children could possibly not starve to death. Now, taking away the USAID, I mean, that's just cruelty, right?

And Elon's like, oh, I pulled $45 million back into the taxpayer's pocketbook. $45 million in global funding is like –

It's like buying a pack of gum for America. That's like nothing. That's like a dollar to America. Less than one percent. It's like nothing. So one, the cash he's trying to present as so much money to somebody who doesn't know will go, wow, $45 million. That's a crazy amount of money. It's not a lot of money, one, in the grand scheme. And when you consider what value that $45 million produced, it's worth 10 times that.

It's also not out of the goodness of our hearts. This is called soft power. And it's about maintaining American dominance through money rather than force. It's a cheap way of asserting dominance, which gives Americans the safety and the

assets and resources that we have, which is what makes people want to come here. We will be so hated. We are already hated by a lot of countries for the way we destabilize. Pulling out USAID, you are creating future terrorism cells, truly. And I'm not saying that because other countries are bad. I'm saying it because you're going to want to hurt the one who hurts you.

Take what you're saying to a different logical conclusion. Maybe I'm colored by the fact that I'll never forget that in like 2018, Sarah Kenzie on Gaslit Nation said that their ultimate goal is to destabilize all of this so that they can

Break up the country, sell it for parts because a smaller population is easier to control. So I think the conclusion is not that they care. Their goal is to make people starve so they're easier to control. And you see what Trump is doing. He's trying to strong arm territory into, you know, other countries into becoming American territory through threats and threats.

Well, it's working a little bit because I'm getting texts from my dumb boy – my dumb boyfriends. It is working. Like all my dumb guy friends. Okay? And I love you boys, but you're dumb sometimes. Are like, yo, did you see this? Trump made two world leaders his bitch today. Mexico and Canada caved to the man. The king is back. We're so back. I don't want to be in an echo chamber. I see what's going on here. Some of the stuff that you and I might look at and go, okay, whatever.

Nothing changed. But to them, this is where I think it's weakening MAGA. Sometimes it's not. They see they are seeing this as like Trump already is only two weeks in and already two world leaders are like on their knees for a man. And I'm like, that's not exactly true, fellas. But I see why you think that. But that's not exactly true. He faked these tariffs. He created a problem so that he could solve it and look like a hero. But nothing has actually changed.

Nothing got solved and nothing changed. It was never going to happen, which is why all weekend I didn't do breaking news on the tariffs because I knew this was like a, this is a narcissistic thing. He creates a problem so that he could be your hero so that you stick around. Yeah. But also it is for a purpose. This does have a purpose that gives him leverage.

So when I think that you think about this as they don't necessarily care what the result is, and when you think about Elon Musk doing all these things, not because he's trying to make government more efficient or cut out the waste. Think about it as he's trying to help usher in a new world economy that does not depend on the system that we're all used to.

And that's what I think is really happening. But there are a few more things I want to talk about from the original Project Russia because there is a moral reasoning behind it. And the thing that they base this idea on, that there should be this like king of the world under this unified culture, centers on having one world religion, which aligns, which is much like the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been turned into an apparatus of the state,

Obviously, it's like a traditional white patriarchy. And that's where they align with the right wing. Because as we've talked about, there's the Seven Mountains Mandate and the Heritage Foundation and Tradwives. So you see why it does actually fit as a puzzle piece that goes with Project 2025 rather than in conflict with it. What's his end goal though? Putin's the president of the world. He's the king of the world. Like at what

Elon thinks – well, I think they all think they're going to end up the king of the world. What would even be the fun in that? And then what? I guess this is the thing. I'm a long-term thinker. Come on. Never underestimate a man's ego. These are short-term thinkers. They don't think about long-term implications of holding an empire that big. They just think about where the next day of power is, where the next hit is.

Well, Elon supposedly wants to go to Mars. Unclear if he wants to go there or if he wants to send other people there. I don't really get it. I think that's, I don't really buy any of that. But I do buy that all of these people are working in conjunction. Some of the suspected authors of Project Russia are relevant here. One of them is one of Steve Bannon's muses.

There was just one thing that I found to be really telling because, like I said, it was published anonymously, but they kind of know who the authors are. And one of them is a man named Mikhail Yuryev, who was part of Putin's inner circle. And he wrote a sci-fi novel that was published in 2006. It's called The Third Empire. And the novel is set in 2054. Okay.

And it tells a fictional story from the POV of a Brazilian historian who is telling the story of how Vladimir, I think it was, I don't know if it was the Redeemer, whatever, Vladimir, the leader of Russia, begins to reshape the world starting in 2025. This author died in 2019, but he had been living in the US since 2013. He established a company called American Ethane. Okay.

with another Putin guy, like a crony, whatever, ally. Now, American ethane became a funder and backer of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Well, obviously. Oh, my God. I do want to credit what I just conveyed to a reporter named Dave Troy, who I basically read a bunch of his research and summarized it.

These people, as soon as you introduce a sci-fi novel has been written, I'm down the path of L. Ron Hubbard. I'm down the path of Scientology. I'm back with friend of the pod Marianne Williamson and her The Secret. I'm like in – I'm at John of God. I'm in like a 1990s Oprah bad place, OK? Like –

What is it about the sci-fi market and authoritarianism? Like you would think I watched a Star War. I knew which side was the good side and the bad side. These people watch it and they like get the complete wrong message and then create religions and fantasy about like world domination in a terrible way.

I was reading something today was a tweet where one of the Donald Trump cronies were saying something like competent white men need to be at the top. And that's how we're going to like get things done. I'm like, okay, like, why are you all so insecure if you're so competent and wonderful? Like,

Dismantling the DEI. So afraid of trans people. Although I did hear one of the trans elders say the reason why they're so afraid of trans people and they're such a target is because trans people are the ultimate in having bodily autonomy. And in an authoritarian regime, the one thing they want to take away from you is your individualism and your bodily autonomy. And trans people are like...

You know, the diametric opposed to that. They're the exact opposite of that. And that's why they are so targeted. And I was like, that's really interesting. They would say it's like this represents the breakdown of truth and fact in society. Yeah, and it's like, no. But I do just want to say, you know, like the Talmud, like in Judaism. Yeah.

There are like trans people mentioned, like alluded, explained in that. So get you a religious source. In the Bible, they say the Holy Ghost, which has no, it's not male or female. It's the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost. Okay. The Holy Ghost could be trans. We don't know. He, she, they. The Holy Ghost is non-binary. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah.

I was like, where do women fit in here in the Catholic world? I don't want to have a baby or be a whore or a martyr. So what am I going to be? Maybe the Holy Ghost. They're just chilling. Nobody has any problem with the Holy Ghost. They're just like about. That's the part you want in this play. Yeah, that's the part I want in the play. They're just like there. It's like father, son, Holy Ghost. They're like the third wheel happy guy or girl. We don't know. Yeah.

It's amorphous. The infinite. There was a trans preacher. There was one in Quakers, right? Out here in Rochester. Went by the name, the public universal friend.

This former woman, Jemima, woke up and she was like, I'm now a man and live the rest of her life as a man and a preacher. And everybody was like, yep, totally makes sense to me. That's fine. And that was in the 1700s. We're fine. I think I talked about this maybe once already, but I had to turn down a speaking gig because of their new rules about –

DEI. It was at a state school in Utah. And they were like, you actually can't say X, Y, Z. It was this whole list of things. What couldn't you say? Oh, anything. I couldn't talk about my wife, my gender. I couldn't recognize within my speech that this country may have a history of racism. What if you had a husband? I guess you could say husband maybe, but I couldn't say anything gay. I couldn't do anything gay. I was like, what do you want me to talk about? And they were like, dyslexia. That's the only thing about you that's not banned. And I was like, I'm not coming.

Because I wear a suit. What am I going to do? I was like, I'm not – well, are they going to think I'm wearing drag? Like how will I – I was like trying to figure out how I would even do it. I couldn't do it. This is not worth it. And honestly, like it makes me sad because there's gay people everywhere. It's why I do Des Moines and Missouri and the South and everything. There's gay people everywhere and I want to go see them and be in community with them. But when you tell me straight off that something is going to maybe get me in trouble or fined or arrested, I was like I'm not going to do this.

You know what I'm wondering? If they're going to destroy the whole government, then where will they regulate DEI? Oh, I guess they're just going to make the corporations rule under their DEI policies. And then what will diversity be? People who can't have children? Because y'all are next, I promise you. Because they're saying that...

Each woman owes the United States three children, three future workers. That's like part of the Christian nationalist thing. So like what about women who, you know, physically can't have children or maybe they only had two? Like they're talking about now directing federal funds for public transportation and like parks and stuff to zip codes that have higher rates of marriage and children and whatnot. And I'm like, all right. Well, like, I mean, I'm 42. I don't know how many I could –

Rack out of here. Like what's going to happen to me? What if I, I don't know. I wasn't planning on having any, but I suppose if I owe the United States of America three as part of my patriotic duty, I better get going on it. Or what are they going to do with us? You know?

Anyway, that's been our episode. Sorry we didn't have any answers for you guys. I mean, the answers we have are that 50 of the like 52 executive orders that Trump has signed come straight off of Project 2025 and the other ones come off Project Russia, apparently. You know, 140 members of his administration are authors or contributors to Project 2025. And Caroline Levitt, the press secretary with a 60-something-year-old husband, is

starves in the Project 2025 training videos. So, you know, sometimes my mom used to say, one person says you did it. I'm on your side. Two people, I'm looking at you funny. Three people say you did it. You did it. Okay. And we have 140 people, 50 executive orders, and one woman who starred in the videos in this one administration. You're doing Project 2025, period, the end. That's what it comes down to.

If it walks like a Christian nationalist and talks like a Christian nationalist. Meanwhile, the rate of people being religious is like significantly down. So I don't know how this is actually going to shake out. I thought Gen Z is going up. I don't know that like attending church and stuff is going up. I think identifying as religious. No, it is. I'll have to check my news. Like for Gen Z. They're such weirdos. Because they're like boomers. They're boomer second families. Yeah.

They now are dealing with not having Roe v. Wade, but that wasn't really a thing. They were already sort of out of the overly Christian or overly religious childhoods that a lot of us had. They were out of slut shaming. They were more into a social emotional learning space. They had a lot more of that than we did. And so now their idea of...

It didn't work.

That's because millennials are nuanced. We are. We really are perfect because we had the golden generation, our grandparents, the World War II fighters, deeply in our lives and heard their stories. And I think that that does make a difference. I think you're absolutely right about that. Got a lot of my values from my parents. I did too. And my tap dancing skills and my patriotism, which is in balance with fighting the Nazis. Okay? That's what American patriotism is supposed to be about.

Life is a cabaret. Maybe this time we'll be lucky. But anyway, that is our episode. We have a special episode this week. I interviewed Reid Hoffman about AI. He's the founder of LinkedIn. Until next time, I'm V Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream.