The Military Isn’t As Conservative As You Think
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On October 28th, Aileen, Sammy, and I are hosting a book discussion with author Margot Harrison, where we'll be discussing her brand new novel, The Midnight Club, and snacking on Nutella biscuits. No, I won't be sharing mine because I'm truly obsessed and they're actually my new favorite snack in the world. But don't worry, there's going to be plenty for everyone to share. Head to bit.ly slash book club IRL to grab tickets for you and your friends. That's

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Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm V 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. Today, we are bringing you a new take on TempCheck, Get Excited, followed by an even more intensive deep dive into Project 2025. With a focus on policies that are affecting veterans, we are going to continue talking about Project 2025 a lot. And we're going to talk about the

And then we have a Vets-themed down-ballot era and an Americant about voice notes. Are you doing them wrong? Are we doing them wrong? We report. You decide. Happy Tuesday, Sammy, and welcome to our veteran-centric episode of American Fever Dream. It's been on my mind, you know, Memorial Day. It's a time, it's a, you know, the start of summer, but it does have a little bit of a bittersweet vibe.

I'm feeling high today because I just bought, you know, those little free libraries. Are you familiar with this? Yes. Yes. Okay. I just bought one. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, but I just bought one. I'm going to set it up in front of my house and I have so many books. So I am going to stock that little free library up. That's very cute. You're going to have to put a little sign on it that says like books for adults because a lot of the little libraries are like for kids, at least in my neighborhood. I'm going to

put a mix of children's books, adult books, no real children's book because I just like don't have any, but other people can because that's the beauty of it. Give a book, take a book. Really excited about it.

Well, speaking of putting stuff outside of someone's house, Robert De Niro is out front of Trump's courthouse where he's been spending an awful lot of time this morning. At time of recording today on Tuesday, we haven't heard all of the closing arguments, but Robert De Niro is out front talking shit about Trump with two police officers who were attacked during the January 6th insurrection. So summer is definitely heating up. Yeah. I mean, I think that is a great time to get into TempCheck.

We're doing something new today, like I mentioned, because there's simply too many stories today. We couldn't narrow it down to just one for better and worse, some good, some bad. So we want to check the temperature on all of them. So I'm going to read out some quick blurbs about some stuff that's going on. And then V is going to decide whether these stories are raising our fever bad or lowering it good. Fever bad, cold.

cooling down good. Here we go. I'm excited for it. So we are going to start with a story about someone who I consider kind of a key fixture of the show. She's a bit of a breakout senator this year after she gave the rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union while sitting in her kitchen. That is none other than Alabama Senator Katie Britt. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Lyon Ted has finally traded in Lauren Boebert for the newer edition of Fascist Barbie. Miss Katie Britt. He's been trotting her out and about.

Yes. So Katie Britt and Ted Cruz made a joint appearance on the Megyn Kelly show last week, and they were talking about clicks in Congress. Thank you. I'm glad that that is what you take away from your job, Ted, and saying how they're like the movie Mean Girls.

I guess he's seen it a few times. And Ted revealed that the two of them, he and Katie Britt, have lunch together three times a week, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That's all the days because I'm sure they're traveling the other days. Right. And I'll note that is the same number of days as he...

times a week is he releases new podcast episodes. So this man is clearly not working. Nobody wants to work anymore. Is this raising your fever or cooling you down? This has raised my fever and the octave that I'm speaking in, which is my reaction to stress. Um,

Having lunch with Katie Britt, likely today on Tuesday as one million Texans are without power because of the Dallas storms that happened this weekend. I have to wonder, like, what do they order? Because, as you know, I was caterer in D.C. and Ted Cruz was famous for being obsessed with cheese and canned soup.

He, in 2016, yes, he used to like only, and he made this like a talking point when he was running for president in 2016, that all he ate was like a humble loaf of bread, a square of cheese and canned soup. Right. I'm sure when he goes to the Ritz Carlton Cancun, that's what he eats.

he's ordering. Yeah, right. So I don't know. Is he just sitting down to some canned soup? Does Katie Britt make him a sandwich? What's the setup? One thing I'll say, though, is Mike Pence would never. Mike Pence would never do this. And is this cheating? I don't sit next to the same person twice at a conference for fear that they'll get too personal with me. Having lunch three times a week with another woman? Heidi, you got to come get your man, girl.

I am not in their relationship, but if it's really just the two of them like alone, it's it's it's a little bit giving maybe emotional affair. But I can't imagine that Ted Cruz and Katie Britt are like looping in their significant others and like Katie Britt. Have some respect for yourself, girl. Don't be having lunch with Ted Cruz every day. Like, where is that going to get you?

Surely there has to be someone else. These two will have to appear on a double date and they'll have to call backward to photograph it so that we can confirm this goes further than just, you know, three times a week lunch. Those are all the days that you're in Congress, I'm sure. Okay. So next story, speaking of Republican princesses.

All nine of South Dakota's indigenous tribes have agreed to ban the state's governor, Kristi Noem, from entering their territories in her state after she accused tribal leaders of benefiting from cartels that they are allowing to operate on their territories. And she claimed that MS-13 is there. Is this giving us a fever or is this bringing it down? Honestly, it's both. I'm getting a hot flash from this one. One,

Couldn't be happier. Couldn't be happier that the indigenous people of the great state of South Dakota can protect their animals from Kristi Noem entering their territories. But

Also, she's just so nasty and so fake. And something I thought was funny this week is Megyn Kelly said that Kristi Noem isn't trustworthy or vice president material because she wears too many hair extensions, which I didn't think there was a way to shame a woman as specifically as that. But Megyn Kelly will find it.

So I'm hot flash about this one. I'm glad that indigenous people have the rights to keep her from their lands, which is sort of fun. But I'm also sort of chill, hoping that Kristi Noem will be out of our hair soon. Aha, I see what you did there. I mean, maybe they're just trying to protect the puppies of the territories.

They definitely are. I just can't believe, though, that they put her out there. All of these women that the Republicans are like putting front facing and either making them or convincing them or telling them it's a good idea to say the stupidest, dumbest things like that they shot a puppy or that they like have lunch with Ted Cruz. Like who is who? Where is the publicist? It's just such an unevolved way to insult Kristi Noem, given that she did shoot her dog.

So there was all that there. Megyn Kelly hates women. I mean, that was evident from her show, which I still can't believe NBC did the Megyn Kelly show. It was like 10 o'clock in the morning. Do you guys remember this? And all she would talk about was like violence against women every day with like a gleeful smile on her face. Finally, they got rid of that show. But I couldn't watch it because it was so triggering. It was just like the worst. Well, I do love the movie Bombshell.

Okay, I have a feeling I know what you're going to say about the next one. The first presidential debate is just under a month away on June 27th. R.K. Jr. has been trying to get into the debate. Since it's hosted by CNN, he will need to meet their standards to qualify. To get into the debate, CNN requires that candidates get at least 15% of voters in the

Four national polls that meet their standards, meaning like not bullshit polls, and that he can get on the ballot in enough states to total 270 electoral votes, even if that means he'd have to win every single one, which won't happen. So he probably won't meet the ballot requirements by June 27th. However, he could.

And there is another debate in September. But here's the part that is giving me the fever. So far, RFK Jr. has qualified for three out of four of those national polls. He got 17% in the Marquette Law School poll of registered voters that was out last week. How's your fever doing knowing about this? He definitely gives me the vapors. RFK and his brain worms has become my new guilty pleasure, rivaling only trying to analyze if Jojo Siwa was in fact drunk or faking it at Disney. I mean, I'm like, I'm on the RFK side.

train here. Not that I'm going to vote for him. I just find him fascinating and the people that surround him fascinating. I'm very up on RFK for sure. You and Keith are both like obsessed with RFK. Because it's really like, it's going to be one of these like in 20 years from now when I'm on Jeopardy, there'll be like a Jeopardy question about how absurd this campaign was and me and Keith will know the answer and no one else will. That's my favorite dream.

So Kennedy qualified for the ballot in five states with a total of 35 electoral votes. And he just dropped his paperwork off in York today where he did get enough signatures. He should get on the ballot here. They're saying that he has submitted signatures for ballot access in six other states, which gets them up to 139 electoral votes. But all of this still has to be approved by those states secretary of state states.

And I'm just not sure that he's going to get there. The thing that I had hoped for him for and that could have gotten him there was this past weekend was the Libertarian National Convention, and it was insane. And I know we're going to talk more about it later.

But I have never seen so many fedoras and cargo shorts often on the same guy as there was at the Libertarian National Convention. I mean, this is an odd group of fellas out here. RFK Jr. spoke to them. And then the next candidate that took the stage took an edible before getting on stage and just rambled. And then the next speaker was Trump, who we know was mercilessly booed. And then at the end, they offered RFK the candidacy. Now, this

would have helped him and RFK sent in an acceptance speech that they played in the room for everyone. But after they did that, this is how not serious the Libertarian Party can be sometimes. But after allegedly RFK was offered the candidacy, which would have really legitimized him, he sent in an acceptance speech that they played for everyone at this Hilton in DC. But then the chair, the party chair took it back and said, apparently whoever told RFK he got the Libertarian nomination was

was wrong, was wrong. They didn't have the authority to do that. So they had to run the vote again. And the libertarians ended up electing Chase Oliver, who we'll talk about in another episode. He's a weird dude. He's gay. He's pro-life, pro-gun, but anti-Department of Education. I don't know. But RFK, for a brief moment, I bet thought, holy shit, I just got myself on 38 states ballots, which would have qualified him for June. But the libertarians giveth and the libertarians taketh away.

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I'm Sammy Sage and I'll fill you in on the biggest news of each day, delivered to you in five minutes with some light, snarky commentary. The Morning Announcements was also the winner of the People's Choice Podcast Award for News and Politics in 2023. So tap the banner to listen to new episodes of The Morning Announcements on Spotify. Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original.

Still tastes the same like back in the day. Right now, get two pieces of chicken starting at only $2.99 or 10 pieces starting at only $10.99. Churches. Offer valid at participating locations. As we're talking about what RFK has to do to qualify to get on these ballots and how many signatures he needs to collect, I do want to point to some New York Times reporting from last week that RFK apparently had hired, possibly through a third-party vendor, a

groups of volunteers to go into every state to collect those signatures. But apparently, at least according to a number of people in New York who testified that this happened, they were approached by people who would like cover his name on the clipboard and say like, this is just to get an independent candidate on the ballot in New York or, but they wouldn't mention him.

him. They obviously denied that they didn't instruct that, but they were given instructions. So if we're going to shit talk and speculate a little bit, which is my favorite thing to do, let's take a quick, we're going to open up a little portal right now. We're going to shit talk and speculate. This is not facts. This is just me and Sammy and your eavesdropping on our little conversation for the listener at home.

Every time I hear that the RFK campaign has gotten an infusion of cash, we see a ton of action on TikTok. And I haven't been able to tie it together exactly, but it is something I'm chasing where all of a sudden a ton of influencers will attack people who are known Trump supporters or known Biden supporters.

and try to sow disinformation and talk about how a third-party candidate actually can win, or this is when I get these big bursts of being called a Fed. It's directly related to a lot of RFK stuff, and I cannot tie it together. This is why I'm saying I'm just shit-talking and speculating right now, but I think that in the next couple months, we're going to find that there's a little bit of allegedly, reportedly, perhaps, maybe,

not so on the up and up action happening with this campaign. Yeah. I think there's a lot of inorganic action on social media. And even in your own replies, I started going into people who like just certain points they were saying, it's like, this just doesn't seem like a real person who would engage with me on this. And you

You go to their account and it's like eight followers and no posts. And just like, it looks like a normal name. They've gotten better at this game. And I just want to remind everyone that this was an operation in 2016 and it was a successful operation here and with Brexit. So they've gotten substantially more advanced. And if I can be like sort of fooled for a minute for a bit,

this is really affecting people's perception. It's a psyop. It's a psyop. It's called manufacturing consensus. And there was a professor out of the University of Texas that I'll get to come back on the show. He was on my other show who wrote the book on manufacturing and consensus, and he deep dives on the 2016 election and the way that social media can make it look like so many people are supporting a particular point that at some point you just become awash with it.

And so I think we should have him on to talk about that because I have also heard from some of these bot accounts that words manufacturing consensus. And I'm like, okay.

All right. For another day, we'll do a conspiracy episode on another day. Next story in the temp check. Now we have some big settlement action. College athletes are now set to be paid under a new revenue sharing model after several current and former athletes sued because their schools use their likenesses on broadcasts that they were paid for. So now they're going to be paid a portion of ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcast rights deals starting in the 2025 to 2026 school year. How's your temperature?

I'm cool with this. I mean, as a former theater major, may I also ask, do we get paid based on ticket sales? No, we never sold enough tickets to make anything. With the athletes, I think they are generating insane money for the school through tickets. And now they even have merch sales, which is something that I had never seen before, where you could have gotten Caitlin Clark's jersey while she was in college, and it was so...

interesting to folks. So I do think that they're using their likeness and they should be paid for it. I do wonder how this affects college recruitment and the free ride thing. I would think I'd rather get paid and pay my own college tuition because I would make more money in the end than just get free school, but not a cut of the sales. But I don't know. Again, I was a theater major. We're just poor forever. So, I mean, the thing is, college theater is not...

an industry. That's, I think, the difference. It's like, this is a full-on industry that all brands, companies, everyone's involved in. Like, people are really following it. You're basically just have another pro league. So I think, honestly, like, clearly this is fair. They're still ironing out the details of the settlement specifically. So I'm not sure how that will play into scholarships. I have a feeling that might not be mutually exclusive, but it will

Absolutely affect recruiting. This is going to affect the schools immensely because this is like it's this is a whole other ballgame. Like I kind of feel like whereas the Ivy League might be getting its image dinged a lot, college sports and schools that are big with sports are going to be on the rise, especially for women's sports.

Where it may also affect schools is like if I'm a player and I know I could go be a superstar at, let's say, St. John's Fisher out here in Rochester, or I could be a bench sitter at the University of Tennessee, but I'll get paid because the UT games are, you know, every player on the team will be getting some cut of this broadcast, right? How will that affect schools?

the players, you know, decision-making process. Do I want to go be a big fish in a small pond or do I want to start earning right now, even if I don't get as much play time? So I think it's gonna be very interesting to see. We'll see what happens with that. Another lawsuit. The DOJ filed a lawsuit to break up Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, claiming that they maintain an illegal monopoly over the entertainment industry by locking venues and artists into exclusive ticket contracts. That has resulted in high prices for consumers, less competition in the industry.

Temperature going up for me right here. Yeah, going up. I think this is gonna be a huge fight. I think it's an important fight. And I think the only way that we can make ticket buying fair again is if you have to line up outside the record stores. Just like in the old days, like in the 90s. You know what I mean? I would get there like...

12 hours before for Radio 104 tickets. I think it's the only way to make sure that there aren't bots, reseller bots, extra fees, convenience fees. Line back up outside your record store and maybe revive record stores. Speaking of musical acts, our mutual fave, Chapel Rowan, performed for her biggest crowd ever at the Boston Calling Music Festival this past weekend. Did you see the drone shots of this? It was crazy. I did. And I'm just so happy for her. Honestly, it feels like

It just feels cool to watch an artist, you know, really rise up through the ranks, especially that's niche, especially that's authentically queer and writing original unique music that just really hits you. This is like, you know, queer Taylor Swift in some ways. Like she's such a wonderful lyricist and composer. And I'm just so proud of her. I'm so happy for her. It's electric watching her.

I don't know what it did for my temperature, I would say, according to my standard of good down. It lowered it. But watching her perform feels like when I first discovered Lady Gaga performing like Poker Face before that was a popular song. Yes. I knew Lady Gaga in the early 2000s. Of course you did. I did. I knew her when she was Stephanie Germanotta in the Stephanie Germanotta band. She was like roommates with my roommate from Six Flags when I...

And I did like summer performing Kitty. I knew Stephanie back when she was on MTV's Boiling Point show and also playing shows to like literally no one at Arlene's Grocery and in the living room in the East Village. So I was less excited for the making of Lady Gaga because honestly, she was kind of annoying. And I'm sorry that I said it, but you have to remember like

She was every bit as big a personality before she had earned it in some ways. And that is difficult in a friends group, or it can be when she says things like, someday you'll see my face everywhere. And you're like, okay, bitch, we're just trying to get drinks. Chill out, please. Everything was a performance, but...

Her big break was Chicago Lollapalooza, which does feel very much like Chapel Roan at Boston Calling. It was this like artist that a lot of people kind of started to know, but then she had this big pop. And I'm really, I'm excited for it. I recognize all the good that Lady Gaga has done for the gay community, but Stephanie was not somebody that anyone that knew her was like especially excited to see breakthrough the way I feel people are very excited to see Chapel Roan breakthrough. She's just so authentic. Totally. Yeah.

So we have another musical artist in our next temp check, Nicki Minaj. She was arrested while traveling to Manchester from the Netherlands for her own concert on suspicion of exporting soft drugs, AKA marijuana, specifically pre-rolls. I believe she went on Instagram live during this incident and was released a few hours after her arrest. She was like talking shit about the cops. However, she did have to reschedule her Manchester show. Yeah.

I worry about this. This has my temperature, I would say, all the way up because I worry about this for people traveling abroad. Like if we're seeing it happen with celebrities and high profile people like, you know, Brittany Griner with the little marijuana or Nicki Minaj or whatever is going on. It feels like Americans are...

a target as of late for extra security and suddenly finding these small amounts of weed, whether they're actually there or not on them. And I'm even thinking of the dad who just this weekend got out of jail. He was being held in a Turks and Caicos jail for allegedly having a little weed on him. And I don't know that he did actually have the weed on him, but he just got out of jail and came home. And so I just think it's a little bit spooky to me. It feels scary to me about Americans traveling abroad generally.

I wonder if there's a pattern to that. I will be checking the State Department website for some advisories. But speaking of overzealous security, finally, have you seen any footage from Cannes where this one particular usher kept getting into tips with various celebrities? Yes. And I don't want to be like...

But the celebrities were breaking the rules. But Ken's is notorious for their bullshit. Like you can only wear black if you're a man and you have to wear stilettos if you're a woman. Like, I mean, I'm never getting invited, so I don't really care that much. There's no rules for non-binary people. So I don't know what they would do with me. I'd be like Victor Victoria out there, half a high heel, half a suspender, trying to like make the rules work.

So the first one was Kelly Rowland that got meme-ified immediately. Then there was a Dominican actress named Maciel Tavares who was trying to unveil Jesus's face from the train of her gown so that it could be photographed. And the usher was trying to make her move and blocking the photographers. And apparently she didn't have like a photo time or something. So that wasn't allowed.

The third was an actress named Yuna. She's best known as being part of the K-pop group Girls Generation. And then later there was a clip of this same security guard like body blocking a Ukrainian actress to get off the red carpet. So people were talking like they're like a little racial component to it or like why was this woman so intense? Like why her?

Her colleague said she was just doing her job, but like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to guess that they at least definitely intentionally hired a female security guard to handle women who break the protocol and try to take photos when they're not supposed to. But I also think the whole thing was poorly executed, certainly came off as race motivated or misogynistic and aggressive. It was all around a bad look just in general. But, but Ken is like, you know, they're, they're, they're weird. They have their own rules.

It just seemed overly aggressive. Like, it didn't need to be this big a deal. Yeah, but also, they weren't listening. I don't know. I don't want to be like, well, you broke the rules. Like, because who cares? It's a fucking red carpet. Well, were they? Like, did... Yes. Can...

does not allow you to stop. And then they'll bring up pictures of Chris Pine or someone and be like, but he stopped. And it's like, I know, like surely sometimes- They probably gave him a photo time. They probably gave him a photo time where the studio paid for him to be able to stop, you know, to break these rules or whatever. He also wore a white jacket, which is unheard of. All that had to be cleared before. So I just think, you know, it's a stupid rule, but she was enforcing the rule. And I'm going to bet that Ken's

would not think that that security guard was out of line. I think they think she was doing her job. The only thing I want to see from Cairns is that movie The Apprentice, which apparently pissed off all the Republican donors and Donald Trump himself. So I'm hoping that goes straight to streaming. Wow. Put that out the day that we find out the verdict in his trial. No.

All right, welcome back, friends. Let's get into our main news segment.

As you know, yesterday was Memorial Day. And as a millennial, this day always hits a little hard for me because not only did I endure a childhood full of patriotic propaganda related to the Desert Storm Wars and my mom's reactions to this war being, well, we'll just leave the Christmas tree up until the troops come home. That tree remained up for three years. Yes, that tree remained up for three years before she realized it just doesn't work like that anymore. We don't win or lose a war and then just bring everyone home.

That, in addition to the fact that I didn't expect the first week of my second year in college in New York City on some random Tuesday when I skipped accounting, I'd be watching a plane fly into the second tower and spend the subsequent 12 hours trapped on Staten Island terrified while only occasionally being able to connect with my mother who was similarly not handling this well at all. That's wild. Yeah.

I think the millennials have a very unique experience with war and in particular with patriotism. I know after 9-11, I was home from school for a month and then I watched just about every boy I know sign up to join the military. And I remember specifically boys from my ballet class joining and a lot of the boys I went to high school with. Now, at this time, I did not know very many women that joined personally, but we know that it was a massive patriotic moment following 9-11 that drove a major number of millennial generation to enlist.

I think no matter where you fall in the millennial like band, I was like a young teenager when the Iraq war started. I think either way, like it was so formative. It was so like squarely in the years that you were,

mature and like you come of age that this happening as the backdrop and then you have the financial crisis all of this was so groundbreaking for our generation and it basically shifted the world that we ended up being raised into yeah we away from the one that we were prepared to be raised into well because you have people like my grandparents were world war ii veterans right and then you have like uh my uncles and whatnot who did

desert storm and everything. So when you grow up patriotic, the goal was after desert storm, we were supposed to be safe. This was supposed to be done. We weren't doing this anymore. And then they had this patriotic moment. And a lot of the millennials felt while there wasn't conscription, it did feel like mandatory service. And I don't know that we've been able to, as a generation really get that across to people, just how much we felt forced or compelled or inspired or driven to join this and

And, you know, in 2008, so even the kids who didn't join in 2001, 2002, they

In 2008, the economy crashed and there were no jobs for millennials who were getting out into the world. And this was great for the armed services recruiters because there was a surge in Iraq and even more of my friends joined up. So between 2001 and 2010, really, when I was in my prime 20s, a lot of my friends were gone. It was very normal to see them go. And unfortunately, a lot of those folks did not come home. And the ones that did come home

It's what we call didn't make it out. And that's why Memorial Day is so hard for me and I think hard for a lot of people is you're remembering the folks that didn't make it out. Either literally they were killed in action or their service related injuries and trauma contributed to their death.

The ones who survive, you know, go on to fight the ultra shitty VA system. And if they're lucky, they get disability benefits for their service injuries. But something you might not know is when a veteran gets disability or dies due to the service related injury, either during the war or even after service, those benefits are often passed on to their widows and children. And it's been that way for decades. But that may be coming to an end. And this is what really like gave me pause yesterday is that

the Republicans as part of Project 2025, I was looking up to see, well, what are they going to do for veterans? And they seek to dismantle the VA. Of course. Why would they care about the people who secured all of their safety and prosperity? They have no gratitude for that. I think that's one of the hardest things to watch, to be honest, is like,

I'm someone who has not really been touched a lot by the military. My grandfather was a veteran from the Korean War, but he was my closest relative who fought. And I don't know that many people who were deployed. But regardless of that, I'm very conscious of the fact that the general sense of

of overall safety and security we experience, not that it's equal everywhere for every community, but that we're not being attacked by a foreign adversary physically, is due to our military and those people who come back or don't. And it's not an accident that we exist how we exist, and it's because of those people. Even under the best circumstances, pre-Project 2025, our country does not treat veterans adequately.

No. And part of that is because it's been a while since George Bush lied to my friends about those weapons of mass destruction. And a lot of the post 9-11 vets have either been buried for a long time or politicians have just gotten sick of seeing them. And when it comes to disabled vets, well, they're expensive. And according to Project 2025,

The ones over 65 years old are especially expensive. And so they're proposing cutting benefits to disabled veterans, starting with what they think is an easy win by cutting abortion access and gender affirming care, because how could abortion or gender affirming care needs be in any way service related? And Sammy, I'm going to have you tell them how, because I'm going to go pace around for a minute in my rage. Who would ever think that there could be female service members? Believe that.

I mean, either way, regardless of even if someone is in the actual military or not, if you're a veteran or even if someone is deployed, your life does not end when deployment does. As of March 2024, there are over 700,000 female veterans who are receiving disability compensation benefits from the VA. That is an all-time record. And those women, on occasion, may need access to an abortion.

If not them, then the widows and children of disabled or fallen soldiers, they get their health care through a program at the VA called CHAMPVA. That stands for the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Say it five times fast, CHAMPVA. That is a health benefits program where the VA shares the cost of certain health services and supplies with eligible beneficiaries.

They provide coverage for outpatient services, inpatient services, mental health services, family planning, maternity care, skilled nursing care, hospice care, ambulance service, and more. So lots of things outside the realm of like normal deployment. But now they want to cut abortion care. And here's what Project 2025 proposes. Rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to principles of conservative governance, i.e. no abortions.

Starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery, neither aligns with service-connected conditions that would warrant the VAs providing this type of clinical care and both follow the left's pernicious trend of abusing the role of government to further its own agenda and not just give people the health care they want or need.

That's the thing. So like right there in it, it says rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to the principles of conservative governance. Well, the conservatives don't like IVF either. And they think that if we have IVF, we'll set up surrogacy farms and that everyone will turn lesbian. So you have to wonder if they're going after abortion care, will IVF be next?

What about birth control? They're coming for that next. Maybe birth control isn't a conservative principle and the need for birth control by conservative logic wouldn't be connected to a service disability. What if a service member gets pregnant and needs and has a miscarriage and needs it to be managed? That is a very common thing to happen.

Well, this is the thing that we say that conservative policies affect military readiness and reenlistment because I'm going to tell you right now, anyone who signs up to be in the military, let's say that it's a man, right, for purposes of this part of the conversation. Some man signs up to be in the military. It's because his protective instinct has been triggered. He wants to protect people. You think he doesn't want to protect his wife and his children above all?

So now he comes home from doing his service and his wife and his children are enrolled in CHAMPVA and God forbid something happens to his 13-year-old daughter. You think that that veteran doesn't deserve for his daughter to have access to abortion care if she needs it or for his wife to have access to birth control if she needs it, if they can't afford to –

He should be the head of the family to do the family planning, right? That's something they can all agree on. But that is not the way the conservatives want it to be. They want it to be something that like, oh, no, the only thing we're going to pay for is if your leg got blown up. Well, then we'll give you a new prosthetic leg every six years. Like, that's not normal. Absolutely not. There are other conditions that come from war. That's why there was the PACT Act, the Jon Stewart Act.

We talked about this last week, or maybe I put in the morning announcements where the, you know, toxic, toxic burns causing cancer. Okay. Either way, we might not even have to find out about what project 2025 wants to do for, for veterans because they recognize that big changes is a third rail issue for the U S because people like us get emotional about veterans. They understand that we owe them and,

So they're aware that they have to be slower and more precise in how they dismantle the VA specifically. But they still aren't shy about saying things like that they want to defund infrastructure repair or expansion to existing VA campuses in favor of creating partnerships for veteran care at for-profit private institutions. And there it is. There it is, right? They want to privatize the VA. Right.

Yep. Which, again, then they're not beholden to those policies. The private companies are. Trump is calling these community care plans. Watch out. That's a great euphemism. Basically, it gives veterans a voucher to go to a private health care facility that they partner with.

Right. So vouchers, just like how they're dismantling and deferring funds for public schools to private for-profit charter schools, Republicans are going to chip away at an already very tight VA budget by deferring funds to private hospitals using VA-funded vouchers. They are also calling to automate more of the VA experience, which is something nobody wants.

claiming that hiring is difficult and expensive, and they are saying that they could go so far as to court retired doctors who want to work with veterans to fill gaps in care plans. They're talking about treating veteran care as a hobby for retired doctors.

Project 2025 also calls to rescind all delegations of authority promulgated by the VA under Biden administration and replace, quote, lifelong employees at the VA with contractors. They're going to work with Congress to sunset the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, saying that these departments were well-intentioned when formed, but are redundant with the activities of supervisors who remember the new supervisors at the VA will be Trump loyalists.

In addition to gutting all of these programs, there's a House bill pending right now that is led by Republicans to automatically enroll every male age 18 to 26 in selective service. Men have always had to enroll, but some forget and it's not been automatic.

If we can automatically enroll every 18 to 26 year old for service, why can't we just as easily automatically enroll them to register to vote? They would never do that. Because they don't want them to vote. People think that the military is conservative. It is not. That is something that like once you're in this situation, you realize just how woke the military is and how socialism works for them. And they kind of want it when they get out too, right? They're trying to reduce the amount of mail-in ballots because they recognize that the majority of mail-in ballots from military are

All right, for Democrats, the military is the number one employer of trans people, 300,000 trans troops. It is a growing number of marginalized black and brown troops. It is a growing number of women. And right now, those people are voting to maintain their rights, just basic civil rights. So now they're trying to get rid of that, too.

People think that the military is conservative because conservative ideology used to map onto military culture. It no longer does because conservatives are now anti-democracy.

Well, they're anti-constitution, which doesn't square. We take an oath to the Constitution, right? Exactly. So they've left the Overton window of constitutional. That's why the military is no longer truly conservative. Okay, I know we're very pissed off about this, but we have another option. President Biden is proposing a fiscal budget for next year. And they just submitted a plan for the Department of Defense and the VA.

That will be voted on in September. Can't wait. I'm sure it'll go smoothly. His plan for the VA proposes $369.3 billion to increase spending on medical care infrastructure, including new clinics for veterans, women's health and benefits under the PACT Act, the burn pits we referred to earlier.

And it will also fund changes to the VA's family caregiver program. So it will benefit people's families who sacrificed for service for us. This caregiver program, that's like they're giving money. So if let's say your grandpa or your dad was a veteran, they will pay you if you were the primary caregiver to continue to take care of him as opposed to having to have a visiting nurse come in or something. You can do certain certifications. It's incredible. We want to keep our

family members at home. You know what I mean? They could have paid my mom. My, my grandfather went to a VA, went to the VA clinic. Yeah. So this program for $369 billion that Biden is proposing that will be voted on in September is

So women's conditions, understudied conditions.

Yep. Endometriosis, PCOS, all that stuff. I'll tell you something else cool they're doing, not just investing in women, but there's the things that the Biden administration has already done. Like the VA has permanently housed more than 40,000 formerly homeless veterans in just the past two years. And this budget from Biden will give another $3.2 billion to help the VA's efforts to end veteran homelessness and prevent veterans from becoming homeless in the first place.

We love that. Seems like that should be a priority. Really should be. Then you got that $2.9 billion for the caregiver support, which is a 20% increase so that you can care for your disabled vet at home or keep it in the family. And another $2.8 billion for construction. This is incredibly important to expand existing facilities and build new ones. There's a new critical care facility they want to build in West Los Angeles that is

pretty much mandatory. The rate of veteran homelessness and illness in West Los Angeles is outrageous. And they also want to expand a mental health clinic and other facilities in Dallas. Amazing. Yeah, it's so important. I mean, this is obviously such a key issue to Americans. And it's really tragic that veterans have to take the cuts.

Exactly. This is where we say that the facts speak for themselves and it's not an opinion anymore. Donald Trump is a failed businessman who now wants to tank the federal government and sell it off piece by piece to bidders that will benefit him the most. Remember when he said that he should get a finder's fee for whoever gets to buy TikTok because he's the one who wanted to ban it in the first place? I can only imagine what he's going to expect in return when Project 2025 seeks to sell off the VA.

We simply cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump's goons throwing the republic asunder for their own personal gains. We certainly can't have him as commander in chief when he doesn't even know that the benefits for disabled veterans are extended to their families or that women are veterans. I mean, it's just like craziness. On paper, Donald Trump is not a legit candidate and is seeking to – he's telling you how much harm he wants to cause people. We have to believe him.

Listen, we know what Donald Trump thinks about veterans, about people who serve in the military. He thinks they are losers and suckers. He has used that word. He asked his chief of staff, John Kelly, what was in it for them when he went to AI?

cemetery of fallen soldiers. And then he canceled an event of a World War II memorial in France because it was raining and he didn't want to ruin his hair. The man does not care. He also dodged the draft several times due to his bone spurs. We don't have to go into this again. The choice is clear. And now we're back with one of our favorite segments in our down ballot era.

This week's down ballot, girly of the week, is another organization. It's called VoteVets.org. And on the VoteVets.org website, you can see all of the candidates that VoteVets has endorsed from who's running for Senate to House to state offices, governors.

Incredible organization. And what they're focusing on right now is the fact that Nevada has the highest percentage of its population who are veterans, a civically minded voting bloc of an estimated 200,000 people with the power to swing a swing state. So check out VoteVets.org. It really shows the diversity of our veteran community because you can see all of these different levels of government that they've endorsed a candidate for who was a previous military member.

And it's not all white dudes. It's not even mostly white dudes, because remember, the military is the number one employer of trans folks, and those people also go on to become veterans and even run for office. But on there, you will also see a remarkable amount of Black women who are running for office, just everyone from everywhere, because that is what actually reflects our military and our veteran community. Check it out, VoteVets.org.

Okay. So now that we've got down ballot girly out of the way, Sammy, tell me it's your turn to a mayor. I can't this week. We're talking about voice notes and we're talking about the way people use them. Here's the thing. I don't mind voice notes, but I do think that there is an issue that we don't have an established etiquette around voice notes. Like, is it creepy to keep someone's voice note? Like, is that creepy? Unless it's

Just replay it for yourself. I don't listen to them. If you send me a voice note, I can promise you I did not hear it. I can't focus for that long. How do you listen to podcasts or TikToks? Well, I like that because that's structured and I've opted into it. I feel like these are being forced upon me. And in some ways, it feels like people are making a TikTok at me, like a personal TikTok. It's like a ranting soliloquy, which...

And some of these that I get are like three and four minutes long. And I'm like, just pick up the phone and call me. Like, why are you so afraid to call people? Right. Because then you would have to like respond. Like you have to like react and you can't re-record it, practice it. I don't know. So the only voice notes I'm sending are when...

It's like worth, worth it. Like there's a story or there's like too much to type. Maybe I'm driving, you know, something. Sure. There's a reason for the voice note rat, like an efficiency thing, or, you know, I don't want to type it out maybe rather than like,

I'm not just that's not my means of communication, but I also don't want to hear anything either. I'm with you. I don't want to hear, but I will look at the transcript. Well, now that I know that there's a transcript I can look at, I would look at that because that's fine. Like when people use voice to text, I like can tell that. And I'm like, OK, there's I could, you know, use context clues here to get what you're saying. I'm fine with that.

The issue I have is I will get these notes from people that are like voicemails, but way too long. Like your typical voicemail is maybe like 20 seconds. Hey, it's Sammy. Give me a call back. I want to talk about the show, right? That's fine. I can do that. But now they're like, hey, V, so I was thinking about this thing. And I'm like, this is a TikTok. This is like, it's a soliloquy. And I feel like I was not asked if I wanted to opt in to spending six minutes with you.

Right, right. Six minutes. That's a long time. Some of them are long. Some of them are long. Is it just unprompted that you're getting these? Unprompted. And then I will just stop responding. And then they'll be like, did you get my voice note? And I'm like, I cannot listen. I do not listen to voice notes. And then they're like, oh, it just said it's like one sentence. And I'm like, see, man, just send me the text.

You know how it was like, don't call me, text me. Yes. Right. Don't voice note me. It was don't call me, text me. Now it's don't text me, voice note me. And I'm like, no, don't voice note me. Definitely don't voice note me. Don't voice note me, text me. Unless it is specifically something that needs to be voice noted. Do you think it's like people-

No, but I just redownloaded it because apparently they're very pro-democracy and I like that. So I'm going to go back to Snap, I actually think, because there's certain things I would want to send, but it's like, I'm going to take a picture and text it. I know. We'll see. We'll see. We can maybe change. But what do you think about that weird communication without consent almost? Yes. Yeah.

That's what it feels like. I think that when we think back on our childhood, the biggest deal in the world to me was to be able to get a phone in my room. And we talked on the phone all the time as kids. And my mom talked on the phone. She'd be dragging that phone cord all throughout the whole house. And then the cordless one would die and she'd have to get the phone in the kitchen. And we were a phone culture. And I wonder if

With the advent of like social media, if younger people have lost the skill and never found the joy that is just like talking shit on the phone, just call me and I'll put in my headphones and talk to you for however long you want. Right. And also like, you know what? You know what? I think probably they don't want to have to navigate the...

silences that sometimes you're just true maybe like sometimes there's just a lull in your phone cover like let's say your phone conversation is not just entirely for one purpose yeah and you're just chatting or you end up on the phone for a while there might be a lull in conversation and i feel like that makes them uncomfortable maybe maybe maybe i'm wrong

Well, I'm hoping that folks who use voice notes in this way will write in and tell us because maybe I just don't understand it yet. And I'm open to understanding it and participating. But like it feels like the younger generation feels like everything they say because it is recorded is a statement. And so it's like on the record. You know what I mean? Like conversation is so formal with young people sometimes because they're so guarded in what they're going to say because there isn't this just like.

Talking shit, hanging out, chatting about nothing, going around in circles thing. It's like everything is a statement. Maybe I'm just older and I'm locked out and they talk to me like I'm an adult now. They teacher talk me, which I do know they teacher talk me where I could tell when they like the we have something to say. And I'm like, did this did you collectively like as a class come up with this thing?

Maybe that's just because you're like, you know, the older successful mentor, you know, I love, but I do love when I could tell that they have like, like that there is a group chat that I'm not in that they decided like I could help them with whatever this initiative. It's oftentimes like they want something from like the white house or they want something, they want to know how to call a Senator or whatever the case may be, or they want to be heard about something. And I'm like, okay, let me see what I could do. You could tell them this thing. You hate the phone.

Yeah, you got to call them. You got to call them up. But I do. I love it does like warm my heart because I'm like, oh, my God, I'm a safe adult. And there's nothing I appreciate more than being a safe adult. Oh, that's good. You should get a hat. Safe adult. You should. Safe adult. All right. Well, this has been fun. It has. Until next time, I'm Vita Spear. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream.

American Fever Dream is hosted by Vitus Spear and Sammy Sage. The show is produced by Rebecca Sous-McCatt, Jorge Morales-Picot, and Rebecca Steinberg. Editing by Rebecca Sous-McCatt. Social media by Bridget Schwartz. And be sure to follow Betches News on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.