Trump’s 9-5 And His Plans For 2025
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Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, 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.

Today we have quite a show for you. We are doing a temp check on the 4B movement, a whole breakdown of Donald Trump's criminal activity. It will be short, we promise. And an American segment about the rats of New York City receiving contraception. Imagine that. If it's good enough for the rats, Sammy, it's good enough for me. I think we should just make that the general, but good to see you. Good to see you too. I've missed you. We have a bit of a mix up this week for our listeners. So they're getting their regular episode on

on Thursday. I hope everyone enjoyed the Karis Wisher episode. We certainly did. We've been getting some great emails. Thank you to everyone who's been writing in. We're still getting stories about the Stations of the Cross. Never stop sending those. But it's great to see you. It is good to see you. And I do love getting the emails about people's religious trauma and the absurdities we all experienced.

growing up as Catholic children, because I'm glad that that period of American history seems to have ended the pomp and circumstance of the Catholic Church. It's been replaced with something far worse, as far as I can see, but it's good to have that time to reflect with y'all, and I appreciate you. Sammy, while you were gone, I had the opportunity to get deep lost in the internet, and I found a movement that I think perhaps

I have been a longtime supporter of. I just didn't know it. Because as a lesbian, I often just elect to not have sex with men. But it appears that women who standardly enjoy the practice of engaging in romance with the fellas...

are now joining what's called the 4B movement. I mean, this is true activism at its most creative. Tell us about it, V. So basically, the 4Bs are the four no's. It's a radical feminist movement which is purported to have originated in South Korea in 2019.

The women who were involved in this renounced dating men, marrying men, having sex with men, or having children, being involved in children rearing. The movement draws some inspiration from the novel Kim Ji-young and Born in 1982 and South Korea's Me Too and Escape the Corset movements. They basically claimed...

in 2019 that there were 4,000 women that said, look, until abortion is enshrined into our constitutions, until we have equal rights, until we can feel safe walking the streets and in our bodies, we are going to elect to not have sex with men in protest. And while it had 4,000 members in 2019, it

This movement has hit TikTok and is very much on the rise with over 60,000 videos using some form of the hashtag 4B. This is such a TikTok-friendly movement. I do actually remember reading about this, the South Korean version in 2019. It's honestly an interesting idea. I don't know how I see it working for, for example, women who don't think there should be abortions. They're not going to join up on this. But I do think there's some power at the

the margins. If you have your sort of single woman being more hesitant about sex, and it opens up a conversation. I am more careful about the men I allow into my life intimately because it can really alter the rest of my life and I don't have any recourse. And I think that that's a conversation that an emotionally intelligent man would understand. I'm just interested in the contours of this movement.

Well, what I think is interesting is when Roe v. Wade was overturned that fateful day in June, it was also the first day of VidCon, which is a huge creator conference. And it was my first year. And of course, I'm like, you know, the news to a lot of Gen Z and young people. And there's 70,000 kids at this thing to come and see their favorite creators. And I was walking to where my speech was going to be. And I got absolutely slam bombarded, surrounded and swarmed by boys, by

by young boys who were at VidCon there to see, you know, whoever their favorite DreamCloud or whoever their favorite YouTuber is. And they were like, V, we have a question. We have a question about what happened today. And I was like, yeah, what could I do for you, fellas? And they're like, girls are going to be afraid of us. This means like...

this no abortion thing, what does this mean? And I'm like, it means there's a possibility that contraceptive, like birth control could be off the table someday. Let's say you and your partner didn't want to continue a pregnancy. You might not have that option. I'm like, as of today, nothing has changed, but over the next couple of years, we're going to see a lot of challenge. And they were pissed. And they're like, so you're going to tell me some senators, some congressmen

who they all have mistresses and they all have problems and they all got to use this, this thing. Now we're not going to get to use it. And they were pissed. And I'm like, this is exactly it. And they're like, well, what can we do? I was like, one, you're going to do things like always wear condoms. You're going to do things like not, uh,

have any accident slips or oops, it fell off or oh, I forgot or oh, I don't like it. We're not going to pressure women if we don't feel ready and whatnot. And they were like, okay. And for a brief moment, I did feel like young men were extremely responsible with what had just happened and very concerned about it. And so I think the 4B movement is this natural thing that we think of when we don't have control over what could happen to us

Well, what can we do instead? And a lot of religious people will say, see, look, that's abstinence. That's what we want you to do. And it's like, no, no, no. This is responsible adult people withholding sex from potentially their partners or other

suitors for the purpose of protest. And that's very unique and interesting and difficult. I mean, a lot of men right now are furious about these abortion regulations because they, in a heteronormative circumstance, are tasked with being the head of the family. And now some random senator in Arizona is the head of your family making decisions about what your wife's body is going to do for the state. And a lot of men don't like that, right?

It's also a health issue. Taking it back to musical theater, as I always do, in college, we did a play called Lysistrata, which I'm sure a lot of you maybe read in college. So Lysistrata translates in Greek to army destroyer. And the premise of the play is that the women of ancient Greece, according to this lore, stopped having sex with men until the men decided to stop doing wars. And it worked.

the men become so what they call in the play in a cheeky way, burdened by their lack of opportunity that they just like decide that they'd rather have sex than not, than war. And the play ends with an orgy, but an important part of it.

college. It's college. How did they do that on the stage? They dance. It's like a dancing circle, okay? A dancing orgy, right. Yeah, we had parents that pay our tuition that had to come through this. So anyway, but the key to this was, and I think this is what we're probably going to be missing in the real world application of the 4B movement or something like

Yeah.

And like all the men are outside like, hey, they're like, go do your war. That's what you wanted to do. We're in here like having tea and doing each other's hair and giving cute back scratches like we're doing just fine. They eventually do decide, you know, that that it's better to love than to fight. So the wives of both of the army leaders of the opposite sides are like, hey, girl, don't

What if we do this? And that's how women essentially save, you know, ancient Greece. That's the that's the lore. You know, that could work, but we have too many people. It works in theory. But the idea. But then we have to play into the fact that not all men are your sweet husband, Avi, or my amazing TikTok boys.

A lot of men reacted to this on TikTok extremely negatively and honestly, quite disturbingly. Some people say, you know, you've got like your favorite alpha male incels out there being like, you won't be able to do anything without me. You're going to need my paycheck. You're going to need my seed, which I am. It's like no one's taking your seed anyway, bro. Isn't the whole thing about-

whole thing with incels that they don't have sex also like so they're the 4b movement is just an ally involuntary celibacy they want to have sex they can't that's part of why they're upset it's so embarrassing

It's so embarrassing. You can hear the octaves of my voice. The people who listen to the show know that we talk a lot about adult things on here and I am deeply uncomfortable with all of them. But they also, a lot of the men are saying like, oh, you guys think it's just women who are going to be able to do this. Women are going to be so thirsty for the D. They'll never be able to hold out. And I'm like, I...

you know, there's a lot more technology now. There's a lot more information and it's not like, you know, being a Victorian. And if you accidentally, you know, your hand slips, you have to go get a lobotomy. Yeah. Or eat a bowl of bran flakes. I mean, you can just do whatever you want now. Gosh, I hope Dipsy is sponsoring this episode. If there was ever a good one, this would be the one. Now we have that. We don't need, we don't need these methods.

This seems like the perfect way to transition into our main news, which is about our grabber in chief. We are witnessing our first ever former president going on criminal trial for the next.

several weeks. It's already been giving drama. Yes. And we got to talk about him today. The thing that's wild is people are like, for the first time, a criminal trial. And I maybe just don't have like a strong grasp of the law because I was like, man's been on trial for so long. Those were civil. Yeah. The E. Jean Carroll trial, even though he did a criminal activity, it was just the civil trial. But this is the first criminal trial. And he has been criminally indicted, but none of those trials have started. Can you imagine?

He is in court at trial. It is such a big deal to go to trial. I think that is underrated. We're all just sort of, oh, he's at trial. Not to him. He fell asleep. He's been taking little naps. I think that he's not taking naps. I think that he can't emotionally handle keeping his eyes open because the man has never had to be anywhere from nine to five in his life, even as president. And now he has to go four days a week to the courtroom.

This is torture for him. It reminds me of like when I was little and I would be aggravated, I would close my eyes and like stare at my mother with my eyes closed and she'd be like, oh, are you mad? Are you taking a break? I'd be like, I'm shut down. You can't see me and look at me. That seems to be what Trump closing his eyes is. It's like a three-year-old tantrum where if I close my eyes, it's curtain down and you can't interact with me. That's what it is. I don't think he's like asleep, although I'm sure he's tired from staying.

staying up all night. I'm tired. Socialing. Same. Like I close my eyes at any point and the man's 80. We have to remember this man is also extremely old. I just think if you're going to call your opponent Sleepy Joe, you can't be like snoozing around. You know what I mean? The man cannot keep his eyes open. I wish there were cameras. I know. The sketch drawer. I love those folks. Shout out to courtroom sketch artists.

You are doing the Lord's work. So interesting. And you can tell who they like and who they don't based on how good their sketch is. And I love that. Trump's trial has been all over the news. We've covered it on both morning announcements and under the desk news. But there was something else that happened today because there are people who truly believe that he is going to be the president and they are preparing for that. Just like Joe Biden's cabinet, which is an office right now, is continuing to plan for what will happen in term two. Trump's team...

is also continuing to plan for what would happen in his second term. And he is surrounded by decidedly less smart and likable people.

We know that Trump is not a good businessman. He's not a financial whiz. We can all accept that. The man is on trial for financial fraud. He's got hush money trial. He's got economic woes. If he gets a second term, here is something we can expect that I don't think any of the listeners, I mean, think right now of the wildest, stupidest thing Donald Trump could do. You will not believe what he's actually going to do.

He's already stared at an eclipse. He's already thrown paper towels at people who had just survived a natural disaster. He's already tried to buy Greenland. He already drew a hurricane path on a map with a Sharpie to claim that that was where it was going. He already suggested we drink bleach. So tell us, V, what could be dumber? What could be dumber than trying to be best friends with Kim Jong-un and pal up with North Korea? Devaluing the dollar.

So an economic advisor close to the former president is actively debating ways to devalue the U.S. dollar. It's a dramatic move that could boost U.S. exports, but also reignite inflation and threaten the dollar's position as the world's dominant currency. It is so scary and dangerous to me, the idea that he wants to devalue the dollar like

You don't have to be a financial whiz to understand how detrimental that would be. I mean, even the words devalue the dollar. I mean, it's pretty much all right there. Maybe what would be helpful is can you explain why you think that he thinks this is an effective message?

Trump is a person who makes short-term decisions without long-term consequence thinking. And so the thing that he's getting kind of ragged for right now is that when he was in office, he started this trade war with China and it caused a lot of issues economically. And so he thinks, well, if the U.S. could be exporting a ton of goods,

then we would be getting a ton of money in from other countries and people should be buying from America instead of us buying from them type thing. It's a very poorly thought out, uneducated, short-term decision. But we're not a manufacturing economy anymore. But he doesn't understand that because he thinks this is literally the infantile brain behind this. Well, we shouldn't be buying things. People should be buying from us.

Can I ask why he cares if we have more exports? Like our GDP is doing okay with the economy, not having exports as our main driver. Because he doesn't understand. It truly is that he doesn't understand. And I just watched the Civil War movie this past weekend, and I 10 out of 10 suggest it to anybody. I think it's very thoughtfully done. I was very worried about how it would be done. I think you'll be happy with how it's done.

But within this Civil War movie, they sort of allude to the idea that it's a third Trump presidency. It's a third term. The president's in his third term, and this is called a lot of issue. And there's a part, no spoilers, where they're at a gas station, and they say, we need $300 worth of gas, these journalists. And the redneck with the guns is like, what?

300 American dollars won't get you a ham sandwich. And she goes 300 Canadian and his eyes light up. So they allude to even in this movie Civil War that that a civil war would be in part because of the devaluation of the dollar or the devaluation of the dollar happened because of the civil war. Either which way. I think it's a destructive decision. But I also think this is.

MAGA movement is sort of for destruction in many ways, in my opinion, because if they destroy the systems that support the society we have, they think they could have greater control over the chaos when in fact that's just absolutely not true.

Right. I think they reason like we have the guns, so we will be able to take control from the United States military, which just blocked 350 missiles from Iran. Yeah. Also, shout out U.S. military. Incredible capabilities we have. I feel very safe and patriotic right now.

This is one among many of Donald Trump's threats or promises, depending what you want to call it. But do people know that he's promising this? Like, I don't think this is broadly being reported that his goal is to devalue the dollar. No.

And this is why independent journalism and citizen journalism and podcasts, not just ours, but so many are important because the mainstream media has to get the biggest bang for their buck. And the biggest bang for their buck right now is posting up outside of his courtroom and like letting him talk to their cameras and like showing how crazy the protesters are outside. They're not even that crazy. They're really not. Except there's one guy with a sign that says Trump or death. And I fear for him. I'm worried about him. You should wish for more for yourself.

So we have this thing about him devaluing the dollar, which I promise you, you have likely not heard many other places. And we also have Trump issued a memo to black America that I am also sure many people have not seen. And I want to read to you from this memo because I hate talking about him, but I do like talking about the things that we don't hear about him.

Donald Trump issued a two-page memo to black America. He's got promises for black America, as if black America is some monolith of people who have different needs than, I don't know, white America, Asian Pacific Islander America, Hispanic America. I'm going to read you some. First off, he promises that he's going to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Dude, Juneteenth has been a national holiday since June 17th of 2021 when Biden made it one. Although Trump claims that he should get credit for it because he, quote, made Juneteenth famous by moving his MAGA rally to Tulsa on Juneteenth of last year.

It's like Frederick Douglass. He's getting recognized more and more. Remember, he's saying this is for black America, not for all of America to celebrate the history and understand like what happened in Galveston, Texas was atrocious. But now we have to celebrate. Anyway, Donald Trump sees America and he just sees a black and white cookie. He really does. He really at

the bodegas he now visits. He's never been to a bodega in his life. You know what his order is at the bodega? Ham and cheese with the orange drink, if you know, you know, and a small bag of chips. He's never been. J-Lo's never been. They have the same order. Okay. That's a deep cut on J-Lo.

First of all, if you're not going in the bodega and getting bacon, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup on a roll, then I don't want to be your friend. I don't know you. I don't like bacon, but I do egg and cheese on a croissant. That's fine. That's perfect for you. I'll allow it. You need that greasy egg and cheese. I'm a simple gal.

Second promise to black America is to prosecute the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations and make lynching a national hate crime. Now that second half make lynching a national hate crime. That's excellent. We've been trying to pass that. The Republicans have been blocking that, but who the fuck is the leader of Antifa? Sammy is Antifa an organization with a leader, the way that the KKK have a guy that they call the grand dragon, which is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.

I thought it was called the Grand Wizard. There's Grand Dragon. Okay. Grand Wizard. Oh. There's all these like... Like, you are a clown. You are a clown. KKK. With the...

Who one day was like, you know what we're going to call ourselves? Grand Wizard. Grand Dragon. What the hell is wrong with you people? It's a fantasy and y'all need better creative outlets. You shouldn't have been bullying the artsy kids in high school. You should have been paying attention in creative writing class because that's the place for these whack-ass fantasies, not our legislation. Anyway, moving on. He's going to prosecute the KKK.

I would like to remind you that Jack Smith has indicted Trump under the KKK Act, which incorporates the 14th Amendment, Section 3 of the Constitution. The indictment was not restricted to Trump's activities just during the January 6th Capitol riot, but to the period of conspiracy to stage a coup that began after the election on the day he left office.

So Donald Trump is going to prosecute the KKK while also being prosecuted under the KKK Act for violating the KKK Act. So I don't know, man. I have a deep cut about Trump. You know, his own father was arrested at a KKK rally once. Oh, my God. And then he was like let off, obviously. But he definitely knows that, too. And that's why he's using this. Probably the only reason why he knows what the KKK is.

The next promise, which we have Google, the black farmers that this affected are still alive and still seeking retribution. He promises that he's going to fuel black farmers and access to healthy food to address food disparities. Now,

I used to work in the food space. I worked very hard alongside colleagues to get this legislation that would have given debt relief to black farmers who were cut out of some USDA programs that forgive the debt of white farmers very predominantly. So we got this passed and

a while ago and then Trump was president. So it languished for a while. And then Biden finally in America rescue plan, he included two provisions that provide much needed relief to black indigenous and farmers of color. The first bill provided $4 billion in debt relief for certain USDA farm loans because they,

If you guys don't understand farming and like how farms work, basically farmers can take out a loan from the government, from the USDA. It's understood that this will eventually be a subsidy, that that loan is not for real money, that it will get forgiven because we need to produce food here. And we have to, you know, so that's just the way the government takes care of the farmers. Now, when the white farmers did it, their loans were getting forgiven. But when the black farmers were applying to get that loan forgiven, it wasn't getting forgiven. So they were losing their farms and it was terrible. So Biden really tried to write this. Do you know what happened?

What happened? It got ruled discriminatory against white farmers. Former Trump aides, including Stephen Miller, sued and blocked the Biden administration from spending that money to allow the black farmers the debt relief they very much deserve.

They said reserving aid for quote, socially disadvantaged farmers defined by federal law as members of groups that have faced racial or ethnic discrimination, but also veterans. So there were some white folks that were mixed into this legislation because veterans are protected class. It amounted in their view to unconstitutional quote, reverse discrimination against whites. So we had this legislation that would have helped black farmers, uh,

Trump saying he's going to help the black farmers when in fact it was his people that got that money blocked. I would love to just talk about the legislation and the levers that are used here for social support. This is essentially like PPP loans, the way that it was forgiven for people. But this is how our government sparks our economy. This is how we create our GDP is that businesses need a lot of capital to run, like especially a farm. Like you need so much land, so much equipment, so much

And it's labor intensive. And if you want to be exporting anything, you really need to subsidize this.

And I think people don't necessarily appreciate how much of our economy in its most prosperous time were due to things like the GI Bill, like legislation that allowed people, veterans, but mostly white people, to get mortgages at low rates. And I think about this. It's like I grew up in a house, my grandfather's house, that he went to the Korean War and then he got to go to college on the GI Bill. He was able to make a life for himself because he

He was, you know, a veteran and then he was able to get loans for a lower mortgage. And like I grew up in his home and that enabled me to go to a great school district. But this is a very valid form of reparation. And for them to take this away because it's, quote, reverse discrimination when the entire history of our country has been built in this way. The only difference is that it's essentially just giving people what was given to white people before. And.

The fact that he then goes out and says, I'm going to help black America, I'm going to help black farmers. And then behind the scenes, this is the kind of thing they do. This is who the Trump administration is. And anyone who's listening, if you know people who are considering voting for him, this is emblematic of what he will do to you. It's exactly that. And it can't be reversed discrimination when in fact those white farmers did get their debt canceled. So

So this is another thing where the court is doing hypothetical cases, right? They did not have an example of white farmers who didn't get the debt done and the black farmers were going to get the debt done.

The white farmers had already gotten their debt forgiven. So there wasn't even like a real victim here. There was no crime other than the crime perpetrated on black farmers who were losing their farms, who we were finally going to say, hey, we just got to like catch people up to the bare minimum of what they deserve. So this is really the ground zero of inequality. This is how our economy grew. This is how wealth was accumulated post the Civil War when it was accumulated based on free labor. And we're still all living off of

that. But anyway, yeah, this is a pretty emblematic of the whole, the circumstances right now. The final point on this is, remember we had talked about his trade war with China and how he wants to export, not import, because he doesn't understand how trade works. Yeah.

Under Trump, the vast and disproportionate majority of his trade war with China relief money, because there was a huge subsidy that went to the farmers, disproportionately went to large farmers, people who don't even produce food for consumption, people who produce soy, corn for fuel, stuff like that, which is all incredibly important. I'm not discounting the importance of that work. I'm just saying it disproportionately went to not consumable food farmers and not ranchers and not small ranchers. Thanks to lobbyists.

Thanks to lobbyists and white supremacy and his choices. So when we were in this trade war with China, farmers were deeply struggling and he just kicked the farmers a bunch of money, but it did not actually make its way to the farmers. Almost all of it made its way to non-Hispanic white farmers. So-

This man has never done a thing for a farmer and no amount of sneakers he comes out with is going to make up for the fact that he stole reparations from black farmers that were due to them. And that just simply evened the score with their white counterparts. It wasn't a leg up. It wasn't an advantage. It wasn't more. It was just equal. He also claims that he's going to defend religious liberty and specifically African-American churches that lift the conscious of our nation.

fucking know? The man doesn't know which way the Bible goes. He doesn't know how many Corinthians there are. He doesn't know which testament is old and which testament is new. Oh, you're a fan of the Bible? Name five apostles right now. Name five apostles right now. And Peter, Paul, and John don't count. laughter

There are amazing clips of him talking about God. These are actually my favorite Donald Trump clips. He's standing on like the edge of a Vista on like his golf course. And he's like, you know what I think of God? God gave me this golf course. One more reason that I'm angry with God.

So anyway, Trump says he's going to support the black churches. And what I want to say is let's not forget that it was a Trump supporting conservative 21 year old white supremacist that carried out the Charleston massacre that killed nine black people who were in church doing Bible study with a weapon that this boy should not have been able to access due to past offenses that involve narcotics and threats.

So if you're going to protect African-American churches and historic spaces, then what are we doing about gun legislation? What are we doing about white supremacy? What are we doing about the fact that there is no accountability to protect the spaces that black people gather? Yeah, that's done on purpose. And he's not going to do anything. He's just going to say, I love black people. I'm speechless, truly, because it...

It makes me so mad that I have to use all of this emotion to try and like correct things that are blatant lies that this man does not care about. He doesn't care what he says. The people who support him don't care what he says. And no amount of emotion or fact checking or advocacy that I'm going to do on this podcast this afternoon is going to make him care.

And it just is such a bummer to me. But I know the people listening care. And that's what we need to do is like vote and organize and just sort of dismiss the idea that anything he says is real or should be treated as serious. But it is so frustrating, man. It is frustrating to feel like I'm always repeating myself. I'm always saying the same things. I'm like,

it feels like such a foregone conclusion. This man is a liar. He is a career criminal. His whole career has been crime. Like the only difference, if he were from a different racial group or ethnicity and he conducted his affairs the way that

that he does, he would not ever have been president. It's just that he fits this like wasp person who is enabled by our court systems and our laws to have gotten away with the levels of fraud that he did. That's what's so frustrating. But what I do find is that you never know what point will actually resonate with people. What point will actually be like,

make it click that, wait, he actually is a liar. He did do this. And sometimes people just don't know. They hear him say, I'm for black America. And it maybe might actually just the message might end there. And they might never know about the subsidies he took away from farmers or

They just hear, oh, he says he's for me. So that's it. And Americans are disengaged. Not the fault of people. People are busy. People are trying to survive out here. There's not enough of a strong media apparatus that's able to get people information. So it comes down to conversations and relational organizing and sharing these facts the best way we can. And hopefully they will hit.

I've had to limit myself. I mean, I do this show and I do Under the Desk and we talk about big things. But in my personal life, I've made a dedication to tell 15 people something big.

that hopefully can change their mind. I'm only tasking myself with changing the mind of 15 people in my real life. And I think if everyone were to just pick five, pick five people in your daily life that you think are worth the time to have these deeper conversations with who care about you, and you can get them to the polls to vote and to register to vote and care about it. For me and my dad, my dad was a Trump voter in 2016. He did not vote in 2020. He will not vote in this election.

As of right now, he's like, I won't vote for Biden, but I won't vote for Trump either. And I'm like, you know what, Pop? In 2020, that was the compromise that we made. And that was as far as he was willing to go. He is understanding more and more. And for my father, the thing that clicked. And my dad's the greatest, nicest man in the history of the world. He is a liberal. He's just a white man who grew up in Connecticut. So he identifies as Republican as a social circle, but not as an ideology or as the laws that he wants to see. But that aside, I'm sure a lot of our dads feel that way. That's what he does with his golf buddies.

But the thing that clicked for him was we were, I was at his house and we were in the pool and we were having a great time. And my father has been a champion of me since I was a child. He is the one who told me to tuck my hair up under my hat when I wanted to play boys baseball and took me to the tryouts when I was eight years old. And he is the one when I first came out who was like, I like girls too. You must get that from me. Like this man is a champion for gay people and a wonderful, wonderful human. But,

Couldn't quite get on with not identifying as Republican. We were in the pool and I said, Dad, I need you to understand that the Republican platform is actively trying to ban gay people from adopting children. And I'm really... I was getting married at the time and I'm like, I'm really nervous about this because if me and Natalie ever want to have kids and I'm the adopting parent as the non-birth parent, it's very possible that I wouldn't be able to do that. And he was like...

what? And I'm like, dad, this is the, this is what, this is a real thing that's happening to me. And he was like, show me where they said that. I showed him where they said that. And he was like, well, fuck that. Like, that's, that's not cool. That, that shouldn't matter. That shouldn't matter at all. And that is what broke him. And so there, you never know what it's going to be. That's going to change somebody's mind where it snaps them out of like

well, that's wrong. You know what I mean? And for you, it might be abortion. For other people, it might be adoption. For some people, it might be what is happening to the farmers. But yeah, we have to just keep telling the truth and recognizing that the purpose of cruelty, the purpose is cruelty and harm. You have six months to get your dad. I don't think he's a hopeless case, just my two cents, just based on like the way you're speaking about him. Because I think we assume like everyone has the same amount of information we have. But actually they have

nowhere near that. And that's not, again, like it's not a fault of people. They have lives. Like this happens to be our jobs.

But you never know what information you'll share that might actually make it click for them. He did pick a blue golf shirt last time we went out golfing. He did wear a blue golf shirt. So I think we're getting close. We're getting close. But the last thing, and this also was something that broke my dad, was the discussion of abortion. And my dad's raised Catholic. He's a 63-year-old white male, married, straight dude, has kids, loves kids, supports families.

Abortion was another thing that my dad felt the Republicans were getting too involved in. And to go back to our earlier conversation, my dad is the head of our family and he wants to make the decisions and protect his daughters and his wife from any potential harm that could come their way. And the talk about banning MIFA Press Stone was something that struck him in particular because it's something that he knows has helped people grow.

whether that's his children or his wife, when there was a miscarriage situation, when there was a problem with a pregnancy. It's not just for abortion. It's also for miscarriage management. And he was like, on the worst day of somebody's life, that pill can take away a lot of the pain and at least make it go faster so we can get to the healing. And I was like, and they want to ban it, dad. And he was like, I will not stand for that. So you never, you know what I mean? Like people understand things differently. And now Trump,

is realizing that there are folks like my dad who voted for him in 2016 are pretty pissed about this abortion stuff. They're pro-life, but they're also kind of pro-abortion. They're kind of pro-contraceptives. They are definitely pro-Mifeprestone when they need it. And Trump is now trying to backtrack and say that abortion should be left up to the states, which in my opinion was a very cute, coy thing to say, even a socially acceptable answer before we knew what the states would do.

Yeah, it's also left up to the states now. And look what happened to IVF. And look what happened in Arizona. Like, he thinks that this is like a moderate line because he's stupid. Before Roe saying, I think it should be a state's issue was a way that you could kind of like make people think, oh, well, yeah, why not? Well, now we know what the states will do. So if you say, I want to leave it up to the states, you're saying I support abortion bans because when it's left up to the states, the states ban abortion. I mean, look at what happened in Arizona.

Right. Also, like, who cares if he says he thinks it should be left up to the states? It doesn't that doesn't mean anything. I think he truth social this something to the effect of and I'm not quoting it directly that if we have to say that it's going to be left up to the states because otherwise we will lose the election. Correct. He's pro abortion. The man has taken credit for saying that Roe v. Wade wouldn't have been overturned without him. He has said that there should be a punishment for the women.

And in Arizona, we have states enacting legislation that was written by pedophiles from the 1800s. This cannot be the America we live in. And you did hear me correctly. If you listened to our episode a couple weeks ago where we talk about Anthony Comstock, we just learned some new information about him from Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was on a daytime talk show and she was like, yeah, Anthony Comstock, chronic masturbator, woman hater, pedophile. Yeah.

He was married several times. The first time he was married, it was to a 12-year-old girl. And then two other of his wives were 15 at the time he married them while he was an advanced age. How did this not make it into our last episode? Because I didn't know about it. I mean, this is something that just came to light. And I was like, you know, I never thought I just I thought he was like an insult guy. I never thought about who he was married to. It's not listed anywhere and it's not listed anywhere because he was a pedophile. He had been married twice that I had read about. Yep.

And well, now it sounds that he was maybe married more times than that, but that his the public wife who was like known as his wife couldn't have a baby, I believe. And that was and so they adopted a baby. So I don't know. That's weird.

Very weird. But again, we should not be taking advice from 1800s pedophiles. So we have a sound clip that I want to play for you so that you can just remember it. I'm going to play this from now until November about what Donald Trump actually says about abortion, how he feels about it, and maybe one of the only reporters who's been able to catch him up in the truth. And we'll play that now. What should the law be on abortion?

Well, I have been pro-life. I know, what should the law, I know your principle, that's a good value, but what should be the law? This presidential election is going to be very important because when you say what's the law, nobody knows what the law is going to be. It depends on who gets elected because somebody is going to appoint conservative judges and somebody is going to appoint liberal judges depending on who wins. I've never understood the pro-life position. I never understood it because I understand the principle, it's human life as people see it. Which it is. What crime is it? Well, it's human life. No, should the woman be punished?

for having an abortion? Look, I would say that it's a very serious problem. And that's a problem that we have to decide on. It's very hard. But you're for banning it. Are you going to say, well, wait, are you going to say put them in jail? Is that the punishment you're talking about? Well, no, but I'm asking you because you say you want to ban it. What's that mean? I am against. I am pro-life, yes. How do you ban abortion? How do you actually do it? Well, you know, you'll go back

to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places. Yeah. But you have to ban it. Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no, as a principle? The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah. I know that people still aren't super excited about voting in the presidential election, which is why it's time for our favorite segment, Down Ballot Girly of the Week.

We're actually doing something a little different for Down Ballad Era this week. First, we have a submission from one of our listeners who emailed our new email address, AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com, as you all know. Thank you to Risa, or Rissa. She says, I just wanted to nominate a very cool person for the Down Ballad Era segment because I think they need more attention because they're doing something really brave and really needed. Maxi Glamour is a queer activist and artist who is running for the committee person for the Third Ward of St. Louis, Missouri.

As a Missourian, there's so much to be afraid of in the state, but maxi glamour is giving me so much joy. I just wanted to lift them up and give them the attention they deserve.

So if you are in the third ward of St. Louis, Missouri, vote maxi glamour for committee person. I mean the name alone. I hope she has merch. I love political merch. Send me your political merch. My favorite political merch from the midterm cycle was from Alexandra Hunt, who was running down ballot in Virginia. And she was a former sex worker and dancer and she,

They tried to make her feel bad about this. And she was like, yeah, now I'm a soccer mom. And what a wonderful legacy I have. And her merch said, elect hoes. And it was my favorite political merch I've ever seen. So if you see crazy stuff out there like that, you can send it to the P.O. Box. 10310 Rochester, New York, 14610. Max Glamour's InstaBios.

Wait, there is a shop. A Maxi Glamour shop? Yeah. It looks like the Ford symbol, but it says fag. Oh my God. I have to tell you, I also reclaimed the word fag for myself, which a lot of people have said

V you cannot reclaim that. And I'm like, I absolutely can. As a person who has been called that slur so many times, I feel, I feel empowered by it. And I also think now at this age, sometimes somebody will walk by me and they'll be like, and I'm like, still got it. But I think much like the word dyke or butch, which are also words that there was a time in this country when being called a butch or a dyke was the worst thing that could happen to a woman. It was like a,

A slur like no other slander like no other. It was marginalizing was terrible. And now we are seeing so much of the lesbian community reclaim that term and be like, I'm proud Butch Dyke. I'm happy to be here. So I think if it's for you, it's for you. If it's not for you, that's okay, too.

And also reclaiming on the terms of the community that it has been weaponized against. Yep. The second organization we want to call out for our down ballot era is something called the Vote Mama Lobby, which is doing something really amazing in that they are raising funds specifically for mothers who want to run for office.

They say, we are here for the mamas who want to practice civic self-care. We are here for the mamas who are parenting in a time when our rights are on the line. We are here for the mamas who are fed up and who want to take action. We are here for a country with more mamas in charge.

So check out the Vote Mama Lobby. They have incredible candidates who are running on all of the issues that I'm sure as a listener, we know you care about. And yeah, and if you yourself are a mother who is considering running for office, again, it doesn't even need to be a huge position like, you know, committee person in the Third Ward of St. Louis. That's going to have an impact regardless of, you know, how many people are voting in that election. But

If you are someone who is thinking of playing with the idea of running for office, check out Vote Mama Lobby and just worth learning more.

Because a lot of the stuff that they do in 31 states, they will give you money towards childcare. So while you're campaigning and running, you can pay a babysitter, you can put your kid in the extra day of daycare if you have to, or whatever the case may be. And I think that that is just one of the greatest barriers to women running for office in this country is the fact that we are tasked to be the primary caregiver of the children. And if we could do a little village building and we could help you to relieve that burden the way that Vote Mama Lobby is, then I think we're really opening up

highway for more women to run. And I'm excited about it. Me too. We have one more special segment today. We are doing an Americant. We just could not, we can't miss this one. Okay. So New York City is a silly, often deeply unserious place. I love it. It's a mess. New York City is considering giving contraceptives to rats to control their numbers in the city. According to the New York Times, the city government proposed the idea after an escaped

Zoo owl known as Flaco died after eating rat poison, which was terrible. Wow. They're really, really doing this all for this one owl. It's of course for a man. They're going to do this for a man. Rat contraceptives will work to block ovulation in female rats and disrupt sperm maturation in males.

Officials plan to use something called ContraPest, that's the brand name, of the rat contraceptive that's been approved by the EPA. New York City is considering giving these contraceptives to rats to control their numbers in two different neighborhoods in the city. They have not said which neighborhoods they are, but they have said they've done a small-scale program like this and it did work in the past. The new bill will see the city's health department distribute salty pellets that sterilize both male and female rats, and

And I'm really excited about it. I think everybody deserves access to contraceptives, especially our overpopulated, overburdened rat population. Something's wrong about the fact that rats have more clear access to contraception.

and accessible contraceptives. Right. They're handing it out like candy. Yeah. Salty candy for the rats. What's interesting though is like, should they try this for other species that are having, you know, like you don't need to be shooting deer on site when you could just contracept them. They, they,

They have tried this in other populations and it's worked fairly well. I think it's much more humane. I'm very anti-glue trap. I understand that carbon monoxide has been used to kill rats, but then you've just got a bunch of dead rat bodies all around the place. Also, let me just PSA to anyone who's moved to New York City recently. We're in the spring. It's going to rain. Do not go dance in the rain outside. Do not let Drew Barrymore convince you to go dance in the rain barefoot outside. Okay? Love to Drew, but

you are dancing in a rat graveyard. Okay, just everything that is down comes up. Do not go dance in the rain in New York City. If I see you on TikTok dancing in the rain in New York City, I'm going to call your mother. Well, now that we've covered the rats of New York City, I think this has been a great episode.

No, I have one more thing, Sammy. I have to get your take on. Okay. This is indulgent for me and the listeners who have listened this far. This is hopefully a treat for us all. We've been talking about mothers. We need to go back and talk about the mother of all journalism, Kara Swisher, who we love. That episode on Tuesday was incredible. Go back and listen to it if you haven't yet. But what one thing she said that has stuck with me is when she said that, um,

young people are lacking mentors. And I was like, wow, you know, that really like hit me in the guts. And there is no greater example of a person missing a mentor than Jojo Siwa. And I need to know what your take on the Jojo Siwa rebrand disaster has been. It's part of the American fever dream. Oh, it definitely is part of the American fever dream. It's funny. Like I know she's sort of everywhere and everyone's talking about her.

I so I'll be honest, Jojo Siwa, it does not loom large on my cultural map. She's just sort of one of the people there. I picture her with like a ponytail and like I kind of just think of Lisa Frank when I think of her. I don't. Is that like an accurate association? But but I don't know much about her, but I know that she's.

It appears what she's trying to do is have like a Miley bangers-esque transformation, but it's not kidding because when you see her in the outfits, she sort of looks like if I were to wear the outfits and I would, I know better. So, but then I'm like, okay, this girl's 20. She's been famous her whole life. And I'm like, it's sort of harmless yet appropriative. You know, I know she said she thinks she invented gay pop, which to me is like so...

Stupid, but in no way meant to be harmful. Well, because if you consider her as a very sheltered figure who did not have a lot of mentors or exposure to the gay community, you might not know. Like when they asked her, what's gay pop? She said, Michael Jackson. She doesn't have the mentors and the knowledge to really the way that Miley did. Miley had Dolly Parton. She had her dad. She had so many people to help her sort of transition out of this Hannah Montana character.

I think we're seeing the definition of lack of mentors and, you know, protecting capitalism. She just seems super young. Like something about it feels more like a 14 year old doing it than a 20 year old. And for that reason, I'm like, I can't take this that seriously. It's just kind of funny. And I feel bad for her. And I hope that she has like a 29 year old glow up.

I do too. I also do hope that there are more responsible adults in her world. Cause to this point, I didn't really ever think of her as 20 years old and what that actually means, given that she's been on television since she was a child. We know that her mother is incredibly controlling and in, in my opinion, many ways, like,

abusive, started bleaching her hair at two years old. When your mom starts bleaching your hair at two years old, how much can you possibly identify like a self-identity, like a sense of foundational self that you can then change? I do think it's interesting that she's pursuing a career as a singer when she's such a phenomenal dancer and actress. I think she's a very good actress. She's very funny on Nickelodeon. Why the singer thing? And I think it's because if you look at queer people that she maybe admires and you are coming to your own gayness

You're looking at Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, like whatever, but to come out as gay, to develop a gay persona, to be as public facing. And, and this is a tough situation this girl is in. And I do what started off as kind of fun now feels like a little bit of a dog pile. And I kind of wish we could like reach out to her and be like, Jojo,

Why don't you come to on TV is gay history one-on-one. This is an open invitation and we will, I will get you there. I will, I will close that knowledge gap for you. We will go on field trips and then then, and only then can you make your decision. If you're going to, you know, go the way of lady Gaga, or if you're going to go the way of Tracy Chapman, maybe, maybe you don't need to be so gay and flashy. You could just be gay. I know what you mean. It's like the, the dog piling is,

It's a lot. Sad because of how harmless she feels. Like, like even her comment, I have inventing gay pop. It's like,

You're not even hurting anyone. We just know you're like young. I thought I invented the maxi denim skirt because I was the first one at school to wear it. I certainly did not invent the denim maxi skirt. But like when you're 12, right? And she's sort of stunted in this early, you know, teens mindset because of the way that she was raised and the expectations on her. You think you invent things and you're like, no, actually, there's nothing new. Yeah. So Jojo, we are here for...

for you. We support you. We're here to help you close the queer knowledge gap. And that goes for all of the baby queers out there. I think it's so important to know your history, to know your community, because there's so much to be proud of in this community. And it's not just the stuff you see on TV or that Target will sell to you during the month of June.

There's a lot of really cool stuff. So email us at AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com if you'd like to join Antiv's gay mentorship program. We are accepting members. We should. We could do a whole episode in June. We'll do an episode on Gay History 101. This has been our episode. Thank you so much for listening. Again, email us, DM us, get in touch with us. We love to hear your feedback.

And next week, we have some excitement for you. Next week, me and Sammy will be taking DC as part of the White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend. We got invited to a bunch of fancy parties that we are struggling to find outfits for. You're definitely going to want to follow the Instagram for what we turn up in and who we turn up with. It will be a very fun weekend. Are you excited to have our first weekend as the DC Beltway Elite?

Yes. I feel like we're Cinderella for the night. We are. And then on Sunday, we're going to turn into the pumpkins we are. Well, that's the thing is like me and Sammy are getting these invites and like some come to Betches, right? And some come to under the desk and we're like trading them like Pokemon cards. I'm like, I got the French embassy. She's like, I got the Swiss embassy. Did you get this? Did you get that? Right. And it's like, it's so fucking absurd. But we're going to go. We're going to have a good time. We'll let you know all about it. It's going to be so fun.

It's like the hangover, but for nerds. It will be. An American Fever Dream in D.C. Until next time, I'm Vitus 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.

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