Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
If you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast, episode 310, Confirming Trump's Cabinet. With
With cues to be queer. With cues to be queer, I said. As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rakitansky. Liv Agar. And Travis View. Well, folks, things absolutely fucking suck. Again! Again. Trump's administration is moving at a fevered pace to jam through as many executive orders and to undo decades of progress, doing their very best to erase what was starting to become a
kinder, more inclusive government that at the very least acknowledge that gay, trans, and non-binary people exist. Trump is signing orders like a man shoveling McNuggets into his mouth on the evening before he goes to the electric chair. But amidst these orders and sweeping policy announcements, one can't help but shake the feeling that much of the Republican Party is being influenced or at the very least
catering to QAnon beliefs. I remember at one point the elite punditry held many a talking head panel about how Republicans would need to distance themselves from QAnon, especially in the wake of the January 6th insurrection, if they wanted to capture a majority of American voters. Turns out,
They were wrong. That actually, by folding QAnon ideology into their platform, they could gain more voters and not have to mention Q at all, but instead nod and wink when appropriate to let adherents know, hey, we're pill to the gills too. Many of Trump's nominees have played significant roles in the QAnon world, either by retweeting pro-QAnon accounts, going on pro-QAnon podcasts, or being a part of the Kennedy family.
Some, like Kash Patel, have even been mentioned in Q-drops themselves. And now, with announcements regarding human trafficking, mass firings at the FBI, and revoking former intelligence official security clearances, it's easy to see how conspiracy theorists could believe that this time, the storm is finally upon us.
So first for today's episode, we're going to be checking in with Travis View, who has been following Trump's cabinet confirmation hearings. And after that, I will be running down the list of recent, quote unquote, storm adjacent actions taken by Trump in the very small amount of time he's been president. It's going to be a long four years, folks. We'll do our best, but no promises. Travis?
Yeah. You know, one of the most important tasks for a president is choosing their cabinet. You know, if it's the role of a president to make important decisions and you obviously want to be advised by the best, most honest, most asserting people available.
And historically, this has sometimes involved choosing cabinet members who are willing to challenge and disagree with you. But Trump values loyalty more than traditional qualifications. So the pool of people he can choose from is pretty small. In fact, even smaller than it was in his first administration.
In fact, he has been reduced to nominating people who have been previously profiled on this podcast, which primarily covers unhinged nonsense from the internet. True. So for the role of Secretary of Defense, he chose Fox News host Pete Hegseth. For FBI Director, he has nominated loyalist and children's book author Kash Patel. And for the role of Head of Health and Human Services, he nominated vaccine denialist RFK Jr. And for the Director of National Intelligence, he nominated Tulsi Gabbard, who
who seemingly is beholden to the cult Science of Identity Foundation without being transparent about that fact. I know she's so mad that Assad fell like right before she got into power here. Yeah, right? Now, these are all people who are not just unqualified, but seemingly have like anti-qualifications.
Yeah. They should be disqualified. It's like, if you wanted to like do the opposite of what your job is, like if your job is to make people like healthier, if your job is like reduce health, yeah, it'd be, it'd be qualified. It's like bizarro cabinet beat.
Pete Hegseth has already been fully confirmed. And actually, I'm willing to bet the rest are all going to get into... Sure, why not? Who's going to oppose them? It's not as if there's another party. No. Yeah, it's literally like across the aisle is just like, you know, in Lord of the Rings, how they have to conjure up that ghost army that's like... Am I thinking of the right movie? Is it Lord of the Rings where they have the ghost... Are you thinking of Ghostbusters again?
No, no, no. There's like they have to like go to like some like a group. Man, maybe it's a different fantasy movie, but like they have to like go rile up a ghost army to fight. Like at first they don't want to. But like then the ghost army comes over the hill and they sort of like help at the end. But like I imagine like Republicans looking across the aisle and just seeing like glowing, just like glowing, like semi blue, green, like transparent husks, just kind of like crying softly, like with a lot of reverb. Yeah.
So let's talk a bit about how their confirmation hearings are going. And specifically, I want to talk about Kash Patel and RFK Jr. Now, the prospect of Kash Patel being FBI director is really ludicrous. I mean, once he gets in, he's obviously going to use the FBI in whatever way that Trump wants. And that includes prosecuting his enemies and exonerating his friends.
During the confirmation hearings, Patel was asked about his connections to extremist movements, including QAnon, and his apparent intention to use the FBI against Trump's political opponents. His answers were evasive at best, and at some points, he arguably outright lied under oath. Hmm.
The person who asks about his connection to QAnon was the Republican senator Chuck Grassley, who, by the way, is also mentioned positively in Q drops. There are a few that say trust Grassley, which is if you're a cool like spy insider, you know, many, many years in the intelligence community, you're sort of leading your your your readers on a Tom Clancy esque adventure and you go trust Grassley and you go over and look at a picture of this guy. It really doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.
Despite the fact that Kash Patel has appeared on several QAnon shows over the years and even signed copies of his children's book with a where we go one, we go all, he claimed that he rejected what he called QAnon baseless conspiracy theories. Are you a follower or promoter of QAnon? No, Senator. In fact, I have publicly, including in the interviews provided to this committee, rejected outright QAnon baseless conspiracy theories or any other baseless conspiracy theories.
They must be addressed head on with the truth. And I will continue to do that. And I will always continue to support Americans who support law enforcement or military and want a secure border. It's like he can't even say no. He's like, no, I don't like you. And I'm but also down with this realtor agencies. I loved it. I love our troops. Yeah, he really looks like a guy who's got his like back to the corn. He's like, I don't believe that shit. I didn't touch that bitch. Yeah.
Yeah, every word of that response is very practiced and lawyerly and deliberate. It probably went through multiple revisions. Yes. I wonder, does Grassley know really what QAnon is? Like, do you think he knows he was mentioned in a drop? Or is this one of those things of like... God, that's a great question. Yeah, when senators were like grilling people about like crypto and they have no clue what they're talking about. Yeah.
They've got to. If you're a Republican, you have got to know about QAnon because odds are there's somebody in your family or friend circle that's hitting you up on the low going, hey, did you see Q mentioned you in a drop? You know? Yeah. In that response, you could tell it's kind of deliberate because like a lot of QAnon followers pointed out, he didn't say he denounced QAnon generally. He said that he rejects QAnon baseless conspiracy theories. Yeah. Oh, man.
According to like QAnon followers. Okay. That's obviously different from the verifiable true information that they have emerged through the Q community. And of course they also fell back on the classic. Well, you know, they asked about QAnon. There is no QAnon, right? There are Q and the Anon. So that's like a nonsense thing. It was like a Q drop bullshit, but it's like a yellow era. He said that he talked about that. And then Cash Patel immediately followed up and was like,
Oh, but I will always support Americans who believe in law enforcement and like, you know, a secure border. He's like, he immediately went back to essentially, you want to be mistaken for being perceived as sort of like denouncing QAnon followers. So he threw in that kind of praise and they're like, you know, actually guys, I got your back.
Well, there's so much QAnon in the water anyways that if you denounce QAnon outright, you denounce like kind of the platform, you know, the Republican platform in a lot of ways. And there's so much in the water that if you just say like, I support the military, I support our troops, I support, you know, it like already kind of sounds like you believe in it anyways. Yeah. Kash Patel was asked by Senator Dick Durbin about his connection to the neo-Nazi podcaster Stu Peters, which led to this exchange. You familiar with the
Stu Peters. Does that name ring a bell? I'm sorry. Are you familiar with Mr. Stu Peters? Not off the top of my head. You made eight separate appearances on his podcast. I mean, my gosh, that is a lot. Besides this one, I've never appeared eight times on any single podcast. No, me neither. It's like a West Wing moment. Yeah.
Damn, that's so funny. His face is so funny. He clearly wasn't ready for that question. He shrinks down, too. He gets kind of small as body language. Eight appearances. These guys are definitely messaging each other on Twitter. They probably have each other's signal numbers. Yeah, he's like, do they have the messages?
How deep in this? It's like if I were up there and they were like, do you know somebody named Julian Field? They were like, ring any bells? And I'm like, oh, who? They're like, you appeared on a podcast with him 600 times.
I don't know. I don't know. We'll see how things go. But if like Kash Patel takes over federal law enforcement, we might find ourselves in a position to ask if we know him. Yeah, that's true. That's going to be so fucked if he gets in. And why wouldn't he, right? Like Liv said earlier, who's going to stop them? Yeah. Yeah.
Dick Durbin also asked Patel about his connection to the recording of the song Justice for All. So there's a charity song and it consists of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance over January 6th writers singing the Star Spangled Banner. This was relevant to some of the senators because the director of the FBI is supposedly the chief law enforcement officer.
And to produce a song that seems to celebrate or like, you know, whitewash the January 6th rioters seems to indicate a special affection for at least certain lawbreakers. Previously, when Cash Patel was speaking on Steve Bannon's podcast, he indicated that he was very much involved with the production of the song. So what we thought would be cool is if we captured that audio.
And of course, how the greatest president, President Donald J. Trump, recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we went to a studio and recorded it, mastered it, digitized it and put it out as a song now releasing exclusively on War Room. Oh, my Lord. Exclusive. I thought he was going to say exclusively on iTunes or something. Sounds like he's on like the Breakfast Club promoting his new signal or something. Yeah.
However, when he was questioned about it during the hearing, Patel indicated that he had nothing to do with that. He wasn't even aware of who made the recording. My understanding is that the performers on this J6 choir were the rioters who were in prison. I'm not aware of that, sir. I didn't have anything to do with the recording.
You weren't aware of who made the recording? No, Senator. Does he not realize that when you do a video podcast that gets posted to the internet, these things sort of stay up and people can reference them to make sure that, you know, you're not lying? I mean, it's probably not even going to matter anyways.
Oh, of course not. I guess it doesn't matter. He probably was coached to be like, if they ask you about something that's weird, just lie about it. Yeah, just say, I don't know. I can't remember. Look, I put those recordings in there because it sounded cool. It was like ominous. I didn't know who recorded it. Look, I went to sleep one night and when I woke up in the morning, somebody had put together this song. They had mastered it and they had released it exclusively on War Room.
Right now, as I'm speaking, Patel isn't yet confirmed for the position. Yesterday, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made a request to the committee chair, Chuck Grassley, for a second hearing with Patel. Among other things, they want to press Patel on his apparent falsehoods regarding his statements on the January 6th choir recording. But again, I don't know if that's going to even happen. And I'm
I'm confident he's going to sail through. I mean, I've seen like so many like threats to Republican senators who may dare to not vote for Trump's picks. I mean, they're, they're scared. So, uh, yeah, I've, I'm pretty confident he's going to sail right through. Cash Patel is a pretty young guy. I looked it up. He's, uh,
44 years old, just a couple of years older than you and me, Travis. Is that one of the younger, you know, would-be FBI directors that we've had? I can't say I know. I mean, it sounds, yeah, it sounds 44. That sounds young, but I don't know. That's, you know, definitely somebody who is part of this, you know, our weird generation that grew up without internet, but got internet soon enough into our lives to be
you know, to be susceptible at least to becoming, you know, online, online, you know, very online swamp creatures. And, and given, uh, you know, Patel sort of signaling to QAnon and the podcast that he appears on, it'll be weird. It'll be weird if he gets in to have like a, a proper sort of like weird, uh,
alt-right, very online conspiracy podcast guest as a director of the FBI. It sort of sours this sort of theory that you've been seeing online from liberals who are hopeful that the three-letter agencies and that the good deep state, the good law enforcement agencies will stop Trump and his team from destroying America if you've got cash potentials
as the head of the FBI. No, but Jake, you don't understand. There are people in the three-letter agencies who have a plan and they're going to work around Kash Patel because he's an idiot and he's a moron. I mean, that part's true, I guess. He doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah. See, to me, that kind of QAnon makes a lot more sense. That there's an opposition party when...
The people who control the levels of government are the bad guys, right? Whereas the original QAnon, it was like Trump was in office. He had won. I mean, he was in power. And the theory is that, oh, well, there are bad actors sort of within. It's kind of like a weird reverse. I think that's maybe why it was so effective is because it's like usually you want to do conspiracy theories when you're losing because it's like, oh, well, there is someone up there who has your interest. Don't worry about it.
It's not as if, again, there's literally no one at the wheel right now. It's just like, you know, you're about to plunge into a bridge. Yeah. But when you're in power and you do it, you can be much more optimistic. I feel like especially like core, like 2017 to 2019 QAnon people were like so happy, like surprisingly cheerful about the fact that like our guy in power is all powerful and he's going to do these incredible things. Maybe like that's why it was so rare, but also why it was so effective because it's like winning, but even more.
Yeah, it was popcorn memes. It was watch the, you know, get ready for the show. Oh, my God, I can't wait to see Clinton swing, you know. Now, I also want to talk about like RFK Jr., because I think that of all the nominees, maybe Pete Hexeth, but like besides him, of all the nominees, he could probably do the most damage in his
positions. Because like Kash Patel, there's only so many people you can like prosecute, right? You can only so many people you can harm through the weaponization of federal law enforcement. But with RFK Jr., the worst case scenario was much, much worse where like many, many people can get sick and die. There's currently a bird flu going on right now that I guess they're just not doing anything about. Yeah.
So I'm not going to cover, go over every single batshit thing that RFK Jr. has said, but I do want to highlight one of my personal favorites, which is that he once claimed that COVID-19 was ethnically targeted to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people.
the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. We don't know if it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic differential and the impact to that.
We do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing plastic fire weapons. Another implication there that the Jewish people aren't white. Like it's already like a hidden terrifying Nazi thing. Yeah, yeah, that is. And also he's wrong. My family has Ashkenazi genes and I've gotten COVID like four times, so.
And I got very sick. So, so wrong again. Yeah, no, listen, I am Western European and Jake has gotten COVID way more times than I have. Yeah.
So here, Kennedy is referring to a 2020 paper titled New Insights into Genetic Susceptibility of COVID-19. So it did not conclude that Chinese people were less affected by the virus. It said that one of the virus's receptors appeared to be absent in the Amish and Ashkenazi Jews and speculated that certain genetic mutations could increase COVID-19 severity. So it's really the Germans that are getting away with this, too. Yeah.
Yeah. But the papers show that these mutations are rare and any potential impact would have little to no bearing on public health. And further, since the virus has mutated a lot since that paper was published, there's no reason to believe that those initial findings were even valid. So there's nothing in that research that actually suggested that the virus was targeted to hurt certain races.
The highlight of RFK Jr.'s confirmation hearing was when Senator Bernie Sanders grilled RFK Jr. on his anti-vaccine stance. Specifically, Sanders zeroed in on the Children's Health Defense. This is an anti-vaccine nonprofit organization for which Kennedy is named as a founder and former chairman of the board. RFK Jr. has tried to downplay his past statements against vaccines, but as Sanders pointed out, this organization sells onesies for infants that carry anti-vaccine messages. Huh.
Right now, as I understand it, on their website, they are selling what's called onesies. These are little things, clothing for babies. One of them is titled Unfaxed Unafraid. Next one, and they're sold for 26 bucks a piece, by the way. Next one is No Vax, No Problem.
Now, you're coming before this committee and you say you're pro-vaccine. Just want to ask some questions. And yet your organization is making money selling a child's product to parents for 26 bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell us now that you will, now that you are president,
pro-vaccine, that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market. Senator, I have no power over that organization. I'm not part of it. I resigned from the board. That was just a few months ago. You founded that. You certainly have power. You can make that call. Are you supportive of this?
I've had nothing to do with leadership. Are you supportive of these onesies? I'm supportive of vaccines. Are you supportive of this clothing, which is militantly anti-vaccine? Unvexed baby onesie for sale, never worn. Yeah, Bernie's been doing pretty well. He's like basically the only Dem that has like gotten out of this with like
broad support. I mean, people broadly like Bernie because he's like consistent in messaging and clearly actually his principles. It's a shame that the party didn't, you know, mold itself around his image, you know, four years ago. Maybe they'd be doing better right now. Yeah. He's just bubbling at the brim too. He's so pissed about this and it's genuine and it's a great question. And you can see RFK Jr. just
absolutely melt into his chair. You know, I've got nothing to do with this organization. And it's like, damn. Yeah. It's nice to see it. It's nice to see it. It's nice to know that there's like one guy out there that's, you know, seems appropriately upset about
all of this. And his messaging is popular. Like his recent videos on Trump on YouTube have gotten millions of views. Like I don't know what other Dem has done anything equivalent in relation to like new age messaging. Like the Democrats really have a problem where they're used to like messaging in 2008. Like the digital age is really too fast for them and they just haven't caught up. Yeah, I think that there was I think I think
I think Democrats in some ways... You know how the QAnon people think that they never thought that she would lose? They never thought she would lose. I think that there's some truth to that. After eight years of Obama, I think Democrats sort of felt like they won the culture war. They were never going to lose again because it seemed like everybody sort of broadly was with it. They were very interested in progress, quote-unquote. And so it's like they almost...
It's like they don't know what to do. They don't know what to do...
when they're on the ropes, other than kind of pretend that they're, you know, mounting this resistance. We're going to be, we will be out in the streets, we will be online posting, and it's just, it's not good enough. You have to have some kind of message. Yeah, Biden has especially ruined a lot of people's trust in Democrat messaging, that they just openly supported that guy as he was incredibly senile.
The way that people talk about Trump, you would think that he wasn't like in his late 70s and actively dementing because that effect just doesn't work anymore. It's like, oh yeah, you Democrats are worried about Donald Trump's age for sure. He really just poisoned the well. And everyone else and everyone who supported him and pretended that he was fine really just poisoned the well for that party so thoroughly. Now, I feel like I should also mention
an unofficial cabinet member who is more powerful than all the official ones, which is Elon Musk and his DOJ or Department of Government Efficiency Department. Now, I remember before Trump was sworn in, people were talking about, oh, this DOJ, this is the pretend government department. It'll just be an advisory role. It's probably something that Trump just gave Musk to make him feel more involved. But they've had much more impact than people previously thought that they would.
Now, I sometimes talk about how like QAnon people, they don't really want to get rid of the deep state. They just want like a good deep state that they think will defeat the bad deep state and all the badness. I feel like something similar is kind of like going on with Musk and all like the Trump people who are supporting Musk. And so Republicans complain about like the influence of like, for example, billionaire George Soros in politics. And like if you want to talk about the influence,
influence of political donors, that's great. If you want to like reduce or eliminate the influence of billionaires into our federal government, that's fantastic. But that's a broader conversation. But it seems as though Trump supporters don't want to get rid of the influence of billionaires as much as they want a billionaire that they like doing the influencing.
So according to reporting, people affiliated with Musk just assumed control over the human resources and financial systems of the federal government. Musk and his Doge lieutenants have taken over the Office of Personal Management and the General Services Administration, along with their computer systems.
A Musk team also gained access to the U.S. Treasury Department's payment system, which sends out more than $6 trillion a year on behalf of federal agencies and contains the personal information of millions of Americans who receive Social Security payments, tax refunds, and other government payments. Now,
Now, one of these organizations that receives funds is a charity called the Lutheran Family Services. This is a non-government organization. It provides health care for people who are homeless. They also run a homeless shelter, and they offer support to victims of domestic violence, among other services.
In response to a tweet from Michael Flynn calling this organization a money laundering organization, Elon Musk claimed that, quote, Doge is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments. So Michael Flynn writes, now it's the Lutheran faith, this use of religion.
as a money laundering operation must end. Lutheran family services and affiliated organizations receive massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and the numbers speak for themselves. These funds total billions of Americans. Show more. No, no, no. No, show more. Yeah, cut that. Hold on.
All right, we're going to cut that after themselves. Oh, boy. No, no, we're leaving that. No, we're leaving that. We're leaving show more. Absolutely. Okay, and then Elon responds to it. He goes, the Doge team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments. Turns out the Constitution just isn't real. Like, it just doesn't matter.
All these, you know, centuries of democratic institutions. It's just, yeah, what are you going to do about it? I guess so far the answer is nothing. Yeah, I know. It's like there are two things going on here. It's like, wait a minute, illegal? I mean, it's like I have no opinion on whether or not, you know, these payments are illegal. I'm
question like who decided this like Elon Musk just unilaterally decide which payments which functions are illegal and which not are not just like no like investigation no trial no indictment just Musk tweeting decides what is and is not illegal that's uh doesn't seem like you know a very very efficient system Travis view Travis Travis views tax return looks like an illegal payment I will
I'll be shutting it down effective immediately. Yeah. The other thing is that this guy, this guy is not, you know, again, like nobody elected him. It's like no one is sort of like unilaterally deciding how money is being spent. He can sort of unilaterally decide who does or does not get money. I mean, it's, it's,
Yeah, it's like not even the president trying to violate like congressional authority over funding. It's just some guy. And his team of like Fortnite players. Yeah, it's broccoli-haired zoomers. Yo, this funding is not busing. For real, for real. Yeah.
For real, for real. Fur, fur, fur, fur. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good. It's really bad. It's really bad. You go, Oh no. Oh no. They got what they wanted. I know. Sometimes you see like you complain about this. Like what, what are you doing? You can't just control like how payments are made.
And then their response is like, oh, so it's like, so you're like, you know, just okay with the government committing fraud? No, I'm okay with like, we got a system that determines what is and is not fraud. And we have a system that determines who does or does not get government money. Whatever is going on here is not transparent. Like I said, Doge, for example, as far as I know, doesn't fall under like the Freedom of Information Act because it's like a non-government.
Yeah, what official capacity? Are they an LLC? I mean, as far as I know, it seems just like a Twitter account. Yeah.
He's like a Morton Joe, like controlling the water, but he's like, do not become addicted to your social security payments. They will warp your mind. Yeah, Wired has done some really great reporting on the people who were involved in this Doge team. And of course, you know, they're all fair game for reporting because they have this much influence and power. And like a lot of people made hay about how young they are. I don't give a shit about how
young they are, honestly. But because I'm really more concerned about the influence they have. They're all, you know, Liv's generation, which is, you know... It's grim. I don't know. It's grim. I think it's bad, personally. What were you going to say, Travis? It sounded like you were like, oh, they're all Liv's generation, which is like, hit or miss. Yeah.
I mean, it's like it was I was going to say, well, it's fine. It's like I'm actually like I mean, it's I think like having like, you know, not in this instance, but more generally speaking, like having younger people involved in the government is, I think, a nice counterbalance to the fact that, you know, they're all on the verge of death. Yeah, sure, sure. But we don't want like Roblox players. Yeah.
Now, of course, of course, the people involved with it, they're all fair game for reporting. But the fact that they were reported on sparked some outrage. In fact, it seems as though the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, is threatening people who scrutinize the Doge team. And this was expressed in a letter that he wrote to Elon Musk. I recognize that some of the staff at Doge has been targeted publicly.
At this time, I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting DogeWork and the DogeWorkers. Even just, it's so Reddit, the DogeWorkers. I was thinking this is like the troll in Musk must be fucking absolutely enthralled that he got like a fucking US attorney to talk about DogeWorkers.
It continues, any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws. Let me assure you of this. We will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people. Again, this is like a U.S. attorney writing to Elon Musk and saying, use me as your instrument. I will go after anyone who dares impede you and the people who are working for you. It's really gross.
Now, people have suggested that the way Doge is operating is breaking the law. I'm not qualified to comment on that. But here's the thing. It's crime season. We've talked about that in the previous episode. I don't think it's just crypto crime season. I think it's generally white collar crime season. Obviously, lower level offenses will probably be still cracked down. But it's white collar crime season. So the only rule during crime season is that you can do whatever you can get away with.
So the real question is, is Musk going to get away with it? And, you know, that remains to be seen. I don't know. I have a feeling that once you're worth half a trillion dollars, that's like that's that kind of like it's an unheard level of wealth and influence. So I think he has pretty good chances. I think that we have no choice but to
put all of our faith in george soros's son a good billionaire who can who can like challenge it'll be like superman versus doomsday you know we we just need we need these two to face off like neo and agent smith in like some uh like rusted out subway station i think that's the only way that we're gonna solve this we need a good billionaire to come in and destroy uh musk and um
his broccoli-headed henchman. Because isn't there a Soros in the Trump admin? Is it his son? There's some other Soros. I think there is, actually. So maybe he's the white hat. Maybe he is the white hat. That would be awesome. That would be awesome if Blue Anon started theories that the younger Soros within the Trump admin is a white hat taking it down from the inside. I'm all for it. We just need an anonymous poster.
We've got everything else. All the other elements are in play. There's that like rogue White House senior staffer account. But that guy just does like, uh, like, uh, did he really? Like he's just doing kind of soy like, you know, Republicans are hypocrites. We need somebody that's that's that's doing drops. That's, you know, dripping Intel doing leaks like I'm waiting for. Who's that person going to be? A dark, woke version of that.
It's bound to happen. Yes. An anonymous user who calls Donald Trump the R word or whatever. Yeah. Whatever liberals are doing now. Yeah. Make blue sky totally anonymous. Turn it into a new Chan. Now, in 2017, when Donald Trump first took office, he issued a slew of executive orders in an effort to reassure his supporters that he was going to be following through on campaign promises. Here are a couple just to refresh your memory.
Repealing Obamacare. Slashing regulations on infrastructure projects. Building the wall. The infamous travel ban. For every new regulation issued, two must be eliminated. At the time, this felt totally extreme and dystopian. And I remember it was one of those, can they even do that? Moments of national panic.
And that was before QAnon was even a thing. Little did we fucking know that just a couple months later, an anonymous 4chan account would begin to steer the Republican Party towards an even more extreme agenda. Now here are just a few of Trump's executive orders this time around.
Five years after Republicans have been utterly cooked by QAnon conspiracy theories and Elon Musk's Twitter. Ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling. Protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation. Reinstating service members who were fired for refusing to be vaccinated.
Declassifying government documents pertaining to the assassination of JFK. Blanket pardons for all who had been imprisoned for crimes committed on January 6, 2021. Abolishing diversity and inclusion programs across all branches of government. Combating human trafficking and online child exploitation. Revoking security clearance of 50 former intelligence officials.
Firing anyone at the FBI involved in investigations regarding January 6th or of Trump himself. Open Guantanamo Bay to detain 30,000 migrants. The last one is a beautiful, you know, end of the Obama legacy of failing to close Guantanamo. Especially in respect, you see people respond like, oh, what would the Democrats possibly do while the Republicans are just doing literally anything with no consequences whatsoever? It's like, what? Look, he had all three branches of government. He
He couldn't have closed it. Well, and Joe Biden upgraded the facility. So he, you know, he sort of primed it, I guess. Yeah. But as you can see, you know, we thought 2017 was extreme. Like this shit is fucking cooked. Like, like this is properly. This is an egg. This is an egg that has been left in the pan for three and a half hours. That pan is ruined. You got to throw that shit out.
Wasn't one of the executive orders an update to the regulation thing? And now it's like 10 must be eliminated for every one edition. It's like... Yes, it's something crazy. It's exponentially worse. And, you know, when you read all this, it's hard not to feel like some Skinamax version of the storm is beginning to take place. You know, we're not getting full penetration, okay? But maybe, you know, a little bit of boob here, a little bit of, you know, a little bit of butt there. Just...
little peek at the storm, if I may say.
Of course, Anons were hoping it would be Hillary Clinton sent to Guantanamo, but they will more than settle for 30,000 brown and black people, I'm sure. Plus, as we mentioned in our last premium episode, Jordan Sather wondered who would occupy those cells once the initial prisoners have been deported. So I wanted to sort of take a little look at some of these executive orders and early policy from a much more vicious and unchecked Trump administration, and how it's being received by conspiracy theorists.
QAnon believers have always maintained that once the storm takes place, America will achieve complete and utter utopia. That the moment the cuffs are slapped across George Soros' brittle wrists, all of MAGA's problems at home and at work will disappear. They'll be rich, and no one will stop them from saying Merry Christmas ever again.
The enduring slogan of the Q movement is the Great Awakening, where they imagine millions of normies will wake up from the Matrix and realize that conservative policy was the only way to save the country. And of course, once this happens, the American people will be in a complete state of harmony and prosperity.
Built, of course, on the bastion skulls of all those who stand in their way. Now Trump's language recently seems to echo this as well as he keeps telling people that America is about to enter a new golden age. Here he is at his inauguration on January 20th of this year. The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.
We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put
America first. This video has me convinced that Trump is some sort of reptilian. I mean, look at his eyes. It's almost like they're blinking sideways. He does not look good. No, he's not doing well. Very tired. He looks very tired. He doesn't even look like he wants to be president. And I'm not
I don't know about you guys, but I am so tired of America getting taken advantage of. Yeah, I really hate the international system is really stacked against America. I'm tired of being the underdogs. You know, I just want to win for once. I don't know. I feel like this clever trick is that like, I don't know, like general, like regular Americans, like they do have this feeling like someone's like ripping me off. And like Trump comes in and is like, no, that's the whole country.
Everyone's ripping us all off. That feeling that you're feeling, that's the whole country. And then he gets people to resonate with that. Yeah. If you've been following QAnon research for any significant amount of time, you know that they have an absolute hard-on for the Kennedys, most specifically JFK Jr., but also his dad, who's been worked into multiple aspects of QAnon lore. Where we go one, we go all was said to have been engraved on JFK's boat, the Honey Fitz. This is not true.
There's also the fact that conspiracy theorists noted that JFK's eternal flame memorial can appear to look like the letter Q from a bird's eye view. That is, unfortunately, you can kind of see it. So when one of Trump's first executive orders was to order the declassification of all documents pertaining to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, it gave conspiracy theorists a whole lot to look forward to. For now.
The John F. Kennedy assassination, at least in my lifetime, was the most mainstream and accessible conspiracy theory until 9-11. So this isn't just a nod to QAnon, but to your not-so-out-there conspiracy enthusiasts as well. The brief reads as follows. By the authority vested in me, as president by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.
It is hereby ordered as follows.
and the truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all the records related to these assassinations without delay. I mean, yeah, like obviously, I think, actually, I think it would be nice if, like, yeah, I think enough time has passed that we just, it would be beneficial if the government released all the information it has on these assassinations. But, man, I'm kind of skeptical that that's going to be
interesting or relevant, or even if we squeeze the government drive, everything they got, that that will change, you know, because I don't know. I think it is part of this fantasy that somewhere within the government, there's a document. And if that document becomes released and people see it, it's going to rewire our whole reality. Everything's going to change once this piece of information becomes public.
I don't know. I don't think that document actually exists. Well, that's just the thing, right? That things have gotten so bad and so difficult for so many people in the country that that's all you can hope for is that one document will come out and it'll change everything. And the people that are responsible for making your life shit, for making your boss an asshole, for making your wages suck,
Like it'll all change, you know, because nobody wants to look down the barrel of like 10, 20, 30 years of slow reform that they'll never actually get to enjoy. You know, they need it now. They want it now. We're getting old. We're getting sick. Like we need life to be good now. We need the documents released now.
When I searched Twitter for JFK files to see how hyped up the general X population was about this news, the first thing that I saw was the announcement of a new meme coin called Oswald. Sure, why not? With the fucking dollar sign in front of it. Why not? Yeah.
And so the Twitter bio says, this is a meme coin dedicated to the anticipated release of the JFK assassination files, where we will learn of Lee Harvey Oswald's innocence. Joined December 2024. So new account. They've been prepping for this, prepping for the launch. It appears that the Oswald CTO has been working tirelessly to coincide the release of this special coin.
alongside the declassified documents. He says, Good morning, all. The countdown continues. Three days before the plan to release the JFK files will be made to the public. I read in an article, Saturday is the day. I'm amped up. Marketing plan is in the works. If you're not in yet, it's still early. Grab a bag, hold, and tag along for the ride. Oh my God.
Imagine this is how you lose your life savings. Oswald coin. Oswald coin. And he's got a big AI picture of like kind of like a muscly looking Oswald, like veins popping out of his neck. He's actually in a gym. If you look behind him, there's gym equipment. I
I know. He looks so lean and vascular ripped. If Oswald could bust out 50 push-ups, no problem. This is what he would look like. This Oswald, he wouldn't need a gun, okay? He could walk over to the president's car and twist his neck off, you know? Another tweet from the CTO of Oswald coin. That is so stupid. I just...
All right. He says, well, today has been the most exhausting day for me so far as a CTO lead. But forward we go. Things are all falling into place. And surely we all know our destination. Thank you to everyone who has been helpful in the dollar sign Oswald community. This is still only the beginning. There is so much more to come. In less than three days, things are going even more green. Good night, all. Here's an AI version of Trump and Oswald shaking hands.
Sure, why not? I love the idea that this guy, people ask him when he does, and he's like, I'm a CTO. Yeah, and they're like, oh, cool, where at? And he's like, have you heard of OswaldCoin? It's a special coin to commemorate the release of the JFK files. That does feel like a conversation with your Uber sort of thing. Yeah, it really does. Absolutely, absolutely. And then they stop paying attention to the road and start showing you YouTube videos on their phone.
This is so funny to me, by the way. And you know what? America, we've been doing this. Like, I remember like when I was a kid growing up seeing commercials for like commemorative coins for special shit all the time on TV. Now there's just like no actual coin. It's just like a series of numbers. Yeah, it's perfectly American because it's those, but it can rip you off. Yeah.
Yeah, totally. You know, it's not enough to have conspiracy theories by themselves anymore, it seems. Instead, every theory must be accompanied by a coin. Ain't life grand? And you too can own a commemorative piece of the blockchain history when a D-class arrives and we can know for certain that George Bush Sr. ordered the hit on JFK.
I do have a short clip of Trump signing the executive order, promising his supporters that everything will be revealed. We have an executive order ordering the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That's a big one, huh? A lot of people are waiting for this for a long, for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed. Okay? Okay.
Give that to RFK Jr. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. The thing he's giving to RFK Jr. for reference is the massive felt marker that Trump signs everything with. I'm sure he's bleeding over horrendously to the other side. And he thinks about it for a second. He puts the pen down and then he has the thought. You can see him get the idea. And he goes, give that to RFK Jr.
My new head of health or whatever the fuck he is. What's RFK Jr. going to be? Yeah, health and human services. Health and human services. Here. Here's the pen. Here's the pen that reveals who really killed your fucking uncle, right? Is this his uncle? Yeah, uncle, yeah. Ah!
In a move that feels more closely aligned with what QAnon believers might have envisioned as the storm, on January 31st, Acting Attorney General Emile Bove sent an email to FBI leadership with the subject line, "Terminations." It basically called for the firings of any prosecutors involved in the investigations into Trump, as well as thousands of agents who worked on January 6th or adjacent cases. And this is after forcing at least six top FBI officials to either resign or be fired.
In the email, Bove writes, The FBI, including the Bureau's prior leadership, actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as, quote, a grave national injustice that has been perpetuated on the American people over the last four years with respect to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. In addition, 12 prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases were escorted out of the Washington field office.
So for a conspiracy theory that constantly fantasizes about the deep state being led away in cuffs, this is the closest I feel like we've gotten so far. And a huge perch like this feels significant, wouldn't you say? I didn't even know they could do that. I guess they can. No one's stopping them. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody's stopping them. You'll see the guy signed over the list of all the agents. He just did it. I mean...
I'm surprised that like, just generally like Congress is standing for this because like, well, no, this was like an event that forced you and your colleagues to flee the building you were working from. And then, you know, there was, there was obviously an effort unsurprisingly to prosecute the people who did it. And,
I mean, you're now, now those people are supposed to be, even if you're operating from, even if you only give a shit about yourself and other members of Congress, don't you think this would be an outrage? But no, I guess they're okay with it. Yeah. If the field office is in Washington, you should stand outside and like get arrested by not letting police officers in the door. You know what I mean? Like, like,
at least something, make some kind of statement that, you know, you're upset about this. It would be nice to see any kind of real resistance as opposed to just fucking posting on Twitter, like against all of this shit. And of course, you know, QAnon followers on X are baking the shit out of this. They're very happy. I've included a tweet from the Storm Redux, which is a popular QAnon account. It's got over 100,000 followers and their tweet reads,
Wanna know why there is mass panic in DC over the purge at the FBI? This clip of Devin Nunes from 2023 sheds some light on the topic. Nunes explains that the bad guys at the FBI are compartmentalized so they are able to implement their agenda with nobody else knowing about it. Nunes, Cash, Trump, and team know exactly who these people are and are promptly removing them, cutting the head off a snake.
So, yeah, well, they're cutting the head off the snake of anybody that, you know, anybody that was involved in potentially getting to the bottom and charging Trump with, you know, the numerous crimes that he's been charged with. It's not a LARP anymore. They're just kind of describing things that are actually happening. Like Chrissy Teigen this time is going to be pictured with like an ankle monitor. Yeah. Oh, my Lord. It's going to be so bad.
So bad. So bad. This hasn't been a month yet. It's not even been a month. I know. I know. It's like, you know, as you get older, you kind of like wish time would slow down a little bit. And I feel like I've, I got my wish, but in the worst way possible. Monkey's paw curls. Yeah.
So the acting FBI director, Brian Driscoll, has stated that the number of agents... Oh, by the way, this is so funny. I read this online. So this guy wasn't supposed to be the acting director. It was supposed to be a different guy. But in the brief that the Trump administration put out naming the...
you know, the acting FBI director, they switch the two names of the guys. And instead of like correcting it, this guy, Brian, ends up being like the acting FBI director. He looks like he's my age. It just looks like some like young guy who's like, what the fuck? I know. I wish I was ruled by people who were actually more competent. I mean, it's just embarrassing that like, I just wish these people were malicious and sort of like able to fix typos and documents. Is that too much to ask? Yeah.
Absolutely, Travis. That is far too much to ask. And I'm sending you to Guantanamo. So acting FBI director Brian Driscoll has stated that the number of agents who have touched Jan 6 and Trump cases is in the thousands, maybe even close to 6,000. And also that there's no automated
way to gather this data, so they have to get a bunch of employees to go through and do it by hand. Can you imagine how pissed off you would be if you had to go through every single case file and find out how many thousands of employees had to do anything with a certain case? Driscoll did ultimately comply with the order, but he sent a memo to all employees that no personal information was provided, only employee ID numbers.
FBI agents have already filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Justice, claiming that they were denied due process and terminated unfairly. One funny thing that I found is that a couple of agents have noted that they didn't get to pick their assignments and didn't necessarily agree with many of the cases brought against the people that stormed the Capitol on January 6th. It really is just like pure petty spite.
Yeah. And they also said that like the Bureau is by and large conservative, but has no say in what cases they were assigned to. And this even seems to line up with a tweet posted by a Jay Sixer who voiced support for the agent assigned to his case. Liv, will you read this from Samuel Fontana's? I'm a Jay Sixer and my FBI agent handled everything with a professionalism and respect.
While she was following orders, she never treated me unfairly or out of line. It was clear she recognized the situation was unnecessarily escalated. Having dealt with serious federal criminals in the past, she approached my case as though it was minor by comparison, something that shouldn't have even been on her radar considering her experience with hardened offenders. She shouldn't have to lose her job over it.
wow that's uh what fucking world are we living in yeah these are the checks and balances i guess it's so bizarre and can you imagine if you're like a trump supporting fbi agent and you're pissed off that you have to fucking you know send you know work on a case that sends like you know some rioter to prison for two to four years or whatever you're like i don't know this is fucking fucked only to like and be like wait i'm gonna get fired because of this like i didn't
Mm-hmm.
It's also, I mean, the fact that they're punishing people who are simply, you know, assigned these cases may serve to basically send a message that like, you know, it's possible even if you're just just doing your job, even if you are, you know, following the letter of the law, you may be sacked for doing something that hurts or embarrasses Trump or any of his more fervent supporters.
I mean, it's just a big signal to be like, no, stay away from these cases. It's like even if they did break the law, because you will be targeted and ran out. Now, this next move from Trump, I think, is going to satisfy a lot of the old heads, you know, guys around during the early Spygate days, because it involves high up intelligence officials who they claim turned the CIA woke, quote unquote. So Trump has decided to revoke the security clearances of
50 former intelligence officials, this action is a direct response to those who signed a letter back in 2020 claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop saga had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. Now, the list of those affected includes some big names like former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Trump's executive order accuses these officials of weaponizing their positions to manipulate the political process and undermine democratic institutions.
And he's sort of like framing this as a necessary step to restore trust in the intelligence community, but he's clearly just pissed off that no one in any of these agencies tried to cover for him and instead actively spoke out against him and potentially led investigations into him and his campaign. So here's the opening paragraphs from that executive order, and you can tell he's being so petty.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered, Section 1, Purpose. In the closing weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, at least 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden's son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business.
Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. I think the word abandoned in that is so funny that he abandoned his laptop. It's like, wasn't even loyal to his computer, his MacBook. For so many years, the MacBook, its camera, it watched him do horrible things, do so many drugs, hold lots of firearms. And he, what did he do? He abandoned it.
I mean, yeah, this, this one, I'm like, this one works me up the least I have to say, because I do, I do remember that letter. I thought it was strange at the time. The way it was, they said like, oh, it has the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. It's like, well, we mean it has the hallmarks. Is it, or is it not? And it's like, I don't know. It's very, the whole thing is very frustrating, but yeah, I don't, um, yeah, whatever. I'm sure they'll move on. They're going to get wealthy consulting positions. They'll all be fine. Yeah. They'll sign, they'll sign with CAA. Hmm.
It'll be fine. They'll all be fine. They just don't have access to their special security, their clearances, which, you know, very valuable if you're, you know, writing books, doing talk shows, all that stuff. But, you know, I'm sure they'll be okay.
And now for my final executive order, President Trump has announced to reopen sections of Guantanamo Bay to house migrants aiming to detain up to 30,000 individuals living, quote unquote, illegally in the United States.
Now, this decision was made during the signing of the Lakin-Riley Act, which was a law named after a slain Georgia nursing student that mandates the detention and potential deportation of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft or violent crimes. Trump framed this as a necessary step to enhance national security. Today, I'm also signing an executive order to...
instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately, right, and
That's a tough place to get out of. Today's signings bring us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all. And it was just a purely, it's just an unforced error that we even have to be doing this. Now we need Congress to provide full funding for the complete and total restoration of our sovereign borders, as well as financial support to remove record numbers of illegal aliens. And this is people who are accused of a crime, not...
who have been successfully tried. So it's just extra legal removing of people into basically a black site. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. That's not even in the country. It's in Cuba. And it's not just immigrants either. You know, they're going to use it for American criminals as well. I didn't include this, but they just didn't, you know, announce this terrifying deal with El Salvador, who's like basically like, oh, yeah, like for a small fee, like we will house like anybody you deport and whatever American criminals you want. And like the place that they're talking about in El Salvador is like a prison.
is like multiple prisons within a prison i watched like a small video it literally looks like 20 like airplane hangers it looks like you know what it looks like it looks like the place where they keep all of the the players in squid game it's like beds stacked on top of one another no mattresses just like steel thing like it it looks literally horrifying and like i mean they're just gonna put it's
just, it feels like slave labor. Like it feels like they're just going to put these people in work camps. It's fucking horrifying. And, and yet it's like, it's so far from what the QAnon, you know, QAnon conspiracy theorists would love, right? That like, Oh, they're sending all the people I don't like to Guantanamo Bay, but it's actually like so much worse. Like I,
I would rather like one Hillary Clinton go to Guantanamo Bay than like 30,000 people who are just trying to like make it to the United States to like have some kind of chance of like a better life for themselves and their families. I mean, yeah, this is,
this is really sick. It almost feels, almost feels like a part of a Trumpian negotiation. Cause like, like, you know, people, people heard about this, like, you know, fucking Gitmo camp x-ray shit and be like, Oh yeah. Now it's this, this military black site where people are detained indefinitely without trial. And they do like real sick sort of like, um,
like sensory deprivation shit. And the conditions are so horrible that the inmates there go on like long hunger strikes so that they're force fed. And then, you know, the reaction should be like, oh, that's really bad. We should probably close that down and like, you know, not have that place anymore. But other people go, it's like, who can we send there? Can we send Hillary Clinton there? Like, no, no, no, not...
Not Hillary Clinton. We don't prosecute our elites. And like, even if she, even if we did, she wouldn't be going there. Okay. How about migrants? All right. Fucking deal. We'll have migrants accused of a crime. It's really, it's really, really sick. It's just that they want, they hear there's this horrible place and they, I don't know. There's like people want to send somebody there. Yeah. Here's how meaningless like your little conspiracy theory is. Hillary Clinton is sitting behind Trump at the inauguration clapping. She's not in prison. She doesn't have an ankle monitor. She's not getting sent to Guantanamo. She's at the
fucking inauguration clapping when he says shit that's they're all none of the people that you want to see punished are ever going to be punished instead it's going to be the most vulnerable in our society and like Travis said they're going to be subjected to like the worst conditions
It is so fucking terrifying, so disgusting. I feel so helpless in a lot of ways. It's good to do the show. It's good to do the show and talk about it because I kind of get it out of my system and I don't have to spend the rest of my day like just talking and discussing and thinking about how horrible like everything is. And like Liv said, it's only fucking January. That's February.
Ah, February. See, I don't even know what month it is. So, the announcement, of course, has sparked significant concern and criticism from human rights groups and international observers. Critics argue that Guantanamo Bay, historically used to house terrorism suspects, is not equipped to handle such a large number of people, and that conditions could become inhuman. Cuban officials have also condemned the decision, calling it a violation of international law and an affront to human dignity.
Despite the backlash, Trump's administration is moving forward with the plan, and they have already, I read last night as I was going to bed, they have already sent a plane of migrants over to Guantanamo Bay. So it is really happening, and, you know, not even the way that I think maybe QAnon people would have hoped.
What do you guys say? I mean, they want to see people punished and they will identify any sort of suffering that Trump has committed as an extension of their own interest. The problem is just that their lives will continue to be shit. Like the storm never happens and they never get their world, you know, where everything is a utopia. There's, you know, cancer is permanent, completely cured.
all of this shit, their lives will always suck. And in fact, we'll probably get much worse, especially if we see these tariffs go through, which I still think they will. I don't think Trump is going to find out that all of the concessions that Canada and Mexico have offered have already things they're going to be doing. And he's going to be mad and he's going to feel weak. Yeah, he's going to feel duped.
Yeah. And so they're going to, I think, go through with them. At the very least, the Canadian ones. Ironically, I think they're more likely than the Mexican ones. Because Trump's real demand to Canada was to be annexed, basically. Fucking insane. Like, there's just no actual demand. It's like, yeah, if you're in the country, you won't have to pay tariffs at all. So, I mean, yeah, there's no one at the wheel right now. They're really doing whatever they want. And...
These democratic institutions that were supposed to stop him aren't. So, you know, that's the world we live in. It's the world we live in for at least the next four years. Liv, do you think that Canada will be annexed and that we will all be citizens of the same country one day soon? I think if it is, I don't know if I will be a citizen of the country. I don't know. Yeah.
Where will you be going? I'll be we'll be in this weird limbo thing with no political representation because we're too woke. What's going on with Trudeau? Is he like step? What's what's the deal with all that? Is he like stepping down or is there some sort of like interim government? What's happening there?
It's true to over. He stepped down about a month or so ago and there's a leadership race right now with mainly Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney are the two liberal candidates. They're both like charisma black hole uninteresting, but Carney seems to be winning and he has a fairly popular approval rating among people. He used to be a pro-business governor of the Bank of Canada in Britain. Hmm.
And it's very, very bad for the Canadian conservatives right now because they base all of their identity around Trump and American conservatism. And now everyone hates America. There's footage of like, I think it's Edmonton Oilers fans, like in Alberta booing, or no, it was the Calgary Flames. It was in Calgary booing the American anthem at a hockey game. That's like unheard of, the level of hatred. It's like...
Trump has permanently ruined, or at least for the next couple of decades, honestly ruined that relationship. Canadians are generally fond of, I think, America. Our economy depends upon you guys. Even if he doesn't do the tariffs, it's like such an incredibly, you know, he's destroying the relationships with his closest allies. It's very irrational. Yeah.
his approval ratings are down. Like, and, and judge, you know, you look at this, this quote from this, this J six or somebody who, you know, should be like, you know, so grateful to Trump for, you know, they're, they're pardoned. They, they no longer have to identify as, as a felon or a criminal or anything like that. If they were serving jail time, they got out and he's like, please don't fire my FBI agent. Like she,
she didn't do anything wrong. She was like very cool with me and she loves you. Like it even seems like amongst the people who wanted him the most or who would be most loyal, they're kind of like, oh man, I don't know. It's just, I don't know. But hard to say. We're in the honeymoon period and his approval is still negative. Like we're getting at the very least Bush 2008 numbers. Like that is like-
That is the one consolation for this, I guess. Honestly, I think they could, if Trump was smart economically and he somehow did make sure inflation didn't happen and eggs weren't doubling in price right now, I think people probably would be tolerating it. They don't actually care if Trump puts every trans person in an internment camp or whatever. People don't actually care that much about that if their personal lives are doing well. But they're too stupid to do that. They're too irrational to do that.
They have to do all these insane tariffs. Like Trump is obsessed with William McKinley and like bringing back tariffs as the primary mechanism of like filling the treasury. Like he wants to do that. That's why he's doing these things. It's not like to gain leverage to negotiate. He wants the tariffs. He wants to go back to like mercantilism. And there's no one stopping him. There's no no one is driving right now. No one's at the wheel.
It's so funny because, like, you know, he talks about this golden age and, like, you know, of course, this is, like, references back to the Gilded Age. But, like, what happened in the Gilded Age was essentially is that, like, all of these, like, you know, British, you know, these, like, foreign oligarchs basically, like, saw that America's economy was doing well. And they were like, well, well, well, like, we can step in and get a fucking big piece of that. So it's just like, yeah, it's so funny. It's like the poor people think that, like, the golden age is, like, meant for them, right?
You know, but it's not at all. It's going to be for the same kind of people that they actually hate. You know, they haven't been able to yet separate that like Clinton and Trump are part of the same, you know, are part of the same economical class. It's ironic because tariffs in that period mainly had a negative effect on the elite who like bought things from outside the country.
The economy is so integrated with, you know, the world economy now that tariffs will now mainly affect poor people. So it's like there's an ironic like inverse there. But I mean, I guess that's really the only positive note you could think about is that despite how people how much people view Democrats as useless, like there is some resistance here that is going to form. People are not going to be happy and already aren't. And again, we're only a month in are already not happy with him. He doesn't really get it.
honeymoon phase. And then there's four years of him just doing whatever. Look, he's also an old guy. He's got to get in and out of a helicopter. It could be raining. Those steps could be wet is all I'm saying. You know, we you know, we don't know for sure if it's going to be a full four years. And I, for one, pledge my allegiance to President Vance. Please don't please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt my friends. And yeah.
Great stuff. We're having a lot of fun doing the show. Everybody's not stressed and everybody, you know, we're pretty happy overall. Travis, final thoughts?
I mean, you know, I feel like there was a, you know, I talked about this on Blue Sky a little bit, but like people are asking the questions like, well, is that allowed or is that legal? And I feel like, you know, it's like, well, that's really the wrong question to ask because, you know, laws are just words decided via public ceremony. And what's allowed is whatever you can do if nothing stops you. So people are just, the Trump administration is trying to figure out what they can do without anyone stopping them.
And this is something that also has historical precedent. It's talking about like Andrew Jackson. Like he, there was a 1832, there was a Supreme Court ruling that basically affirmed that Native American nations were independent and sovereign. Therefore, you know, like state laws didn't apply to them.
But like Andrew Jackson, like said, no, he ignored that in the pursuit of policy of native American displacement. Anyway, he just said, I'm not going to do that. It's like, well, can the president just ignore the Supreme court? Well, yeah. If, if, if no one stops them, they absolutely can. We're in another period in which executive
power is stretching its arms trying to see how far it can reach trying to discover what it can get away with and um you know i guess we're all gonna find out we're all gonna see if there is any uh limit to their reach or uh you know or not so yeah we're just um yeah it is a very very interesting tumultuous time thank you for listening to another episode of the qaa podcast uh
You can go to patreon.com slash QAA and subscribe for $5 a month to get a whole second episode every single week, plus access to our entire archive of premium episodes and mini series. We've also got a website, QAAPodcast.com. Liv, where can people find more of your work? I have a Twitch stream where I talk about politics, twitch.tv slash Liv Agar, and a newsletter at LivAgar.com.
Travis, where can people find more of your work? Well, I'm on Blue Sky. I've been trying to avoid Twitter. I still go on there. I still check it pretty much every day. Mostly retweet, but my posts are mostly on Blue Sky nowadays. All right.
And I am getting pretty good at Call of Duty. My wife and I have been playing Prop Hunt a lot. We've been hiding as barrels, bags, tool cabinets, all sorts of things. Trying to hide from the hunters when they discover us. And you can find us there. We will be under the bridge disguised as a cone. Listener, until next week, may the deep dish bless you and keep you.
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He absolutely knows who I am. If I go on a show eight times, I don't care if I've had 10,000 appearances. If I go on a show eight times, I'm not going to deny knowing the person.