Let's Talk TV (and Politics)
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Let's Talk TV (and Politics)
When Politics and Prime Time Collide
What happens when the Democratic Party pulls off a seamless transition with Biden stepping down and Harris stepping up? Prepare for an electrifying discussion as Jimmy Dailey and Barbara, unpack this bold move, which effectively took the wind out of Trump's sails post-convention. We question if this was a masterstroke of premeditation or just a fortunate turn of events, and marvel at the unprecedented unity within the Democratic ranks. Meanwhile, don't miss my side story about settling into Pittsburgh and gearing up for the Confluence sci-fi and fantasy convention.
Amidst the political upheaval, we navigate the rollercoaster of emotions and the promise of change hovering on the horizon. Our deep dive into potential vice-presidential candidates—Shapiro, Kelly, Whitmer, and Beshear—reveals their strengths and weaknesses, with a special nod to Kelly's impressive dual background as an astronaut and military man. We emphasize the crucial role a VP pick plays in rallying the electorate and giving the ticket a competitive edge.
Switching gears, we recap the Republican National Convention with a mix of humor and critique. From Mark Kelly’s antics in a gorilla suit to Elon Musk's trolling escapades, we leave no stone unturned. We also take a critical look at JD Vance’s foreword in “Dawn’s Early Light,” dissecting its radical conservative agenda and the contradictions in Vance’s own story. Ending with a comparison of the Democratic and Republican strategies, we draw intriguing parallels to TV dramas like "The Boys" and "The West Wing," making for a compelling and thought-provoking episode.
All right. So welcome to our second episode of let's Talk TV politics with your TV, or TV with your politics, and it's good to be back. But more and more about that in a second, but first, without further ado, we're joined this week again by my co-host, jimmy Daly. Welcome, jimmy, thanks, barbara, happy to be here. Tell us a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 2:I'm a writer. I was a TV critic for a long time. I haven't been critiquing TV recently, but I've been watching a lot of TV and I write a live theater show, slash podcast, it's all been done.
Speaker 1:Radio hour, which is comedy serials that sometimes get political, so yeah, All right, and, like Jimmy, I was a TV critic for a while, formerly the executive editor of blog critics magazine, and politics is really my thing. I watch a lot of TV and right now I'm writing novels. So my exciting news is this weekend I'm gonna be at confluence, which is the Pittsburgh area science fiction and fantasy convention, and I'm gonna be doing two writing workshops this weekend, which is gonna be fun, and I'll have a table in the dealer's room so I can get to know some of the Pittsburgh folks, because I still haven't quite gotten to know people in Pittsburgh. I'm still a Chicago girl at heart. Wish I was going to the convention. Anyway, I'll more about my books later and this what a year it's been since last week.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, yeah, so much has happened. We recorded six days ago and Biden hadn't dropped out yet None of that had gone down.
Speaker 1:We were talking about the possibility and the RNC, the convention hadn't been finished yet, true, but I feel like that's pretty old news. Canada got shot 10 days ago and we've stopped talking about that entirely. Pretty much. People say this wasn't strategic. But I got to wonder, and we talked a little bit about this last week because I was saying did I say by the way, did I say that by Sunday? Did I say that last week?
Speaker 2:Yes, you did.
Speaker 1:I did. He's going to wait till after the Republican National Convention and he's going to make any announcement he makes on Sunday. Yeah, and he did, yay me. He makes will be on Sunday, and he did, yay me. So, people, and I've been thinking about this too and I don't attribute this much strategery to Democrats because I'm one of them, but okay. So basically, the announcement of Biden's withdrawal from the race erased any chance of a Trump post-convention bump. He just killed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did, especially because they did it so well.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Him resigning and then passing it to Kamala like an hour later so it wasn't immediate and then her saying she's going to earn the nomination. But then, one by one, the steady drip over the next 24 hours of everybody falling behind her and all of her potential opponents falling behind her and everybody pouring the money, and they raised a hundred million dollars in 36 hours.
Speaker 1:I know it's insane and I have to say I put my little bit into, and so did Phil, but I had said sorry the word, the conventional wisdom was by Wednesday, close of business. She'd have it wrapped up. I said no, the way this is going, close of business Monday. She'll have it in the bag, yeah by Monday evening.
Speaker 1:You're right. You know you could say that it was pretty strategic. It was three-dimensional chess, because if this had all been pre-planned and I can't imagine that behind the scenes, Nancy Pelosi and some of the other folks were not sort of like okay, so if this scenario happens, then we have to make sure these ducks and I also use the word ducks in a row. They were going to make sure the ducks were in a row and then make the announcement so everything would be smooth and there would be no chaos. And it was smooth and there was no chaos.
Speaker 1:Pre-planned or not pre-planned, this is an argument we're having in our house, because Phil doesn't think that's true. Phil is my husband, who's just now walking by the dining room and up on his way upstairs to the library. Upstairs, we have an upstairs library and a downstairs library. Nice, we have a small house but we have two libraries. What can I say? There are only two of us in the house, um, but I don't. Do you think it was pre-planned, or do you think it was just that organic, as, as it seemed?
Speaker 2:I would say it was probably a mix. I mean, I don't think for months they'd been planning on this date this was going to happen and the cards were going to fall.
Speaker 2:I really genuinely believe it was probably last week that they talked Biden into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe Thursday, friday, he came around and then you decide well, sunday's the strategic time, but I don't think it was super planned out. But, like you said, pelosi and them, of course, have all the scenarios going, especially Pelosi because she's the organizer and I don't think they got every endorsement and stuff lined up, but they got some key ones and then the other ones fell into place, because Democrats are a party that put the country first when they need to, when the chips are down. I mean the fact that all of those opponents fell in line behind her and I do bet Pelosi called the big ones and talked to them ahead of time, but that they came out in support of Kamala was not. I mean, any one of them could have, for ego, seized upon the opportunity and gone for it. And you can't tell me if Trump didn't drop out now, even if he had JD as the successor, and of course he never would but say Trump drops dead and the Republican Party wants to seamlessly pass him.
Speaker 1:Wait, shh, don't say that. Shh, shh, shh, it's too soon. It's too soon, well, Soon, it's too soon.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying somebody murders him, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, I know he eats a lot of burgers, yes, and Kentucky fried chicken.
Speaker 2:But anyway, if he goes and the RNC wants to pass out on the Vance, you can't tell me that there aren't going to be some other GOPers jumping up and trying to take advantage of the situation, which did not happen on the Democrat side.
Speaker 1:No, I know, and you know, I think the Democrats understand the stakes and the chaos. I was having a debate with a good friend of mine he's a lawyer, we've been friends since we were seven and I asked him I said so what do you think? Do you think Biden should drop out? And he was like no, no, I don't think Biden should drop out, and because it'll just be chaos and they'll never get their act together. And it shouldn't be.
Speaker 1:Whoever runs shouldn't be a woman, shouldn't be a person of color, shouldn't be a Jewish person, shouldn't be a gay person. I'm like, hey, really. I said OK, I really disagree with you on this, sir. And now I beat him on the LSATs, which I took like eight years after he took his. I waited to go to. I didn't end up going to law school. I went to a policy shop and I studied policy. But I was going to go to law school and study administrative law and policy. But he never forgave me for beating him at the LSATs, the law school admissions test, a long, long time ago. But I just didn't want to tell him. I told you so, but I'm going to tell him anyway.
Speaker 2:I mean, if he had been, if they had followed his advice, I guess, and if Biden had dropped out and they skipped over Kamala and picked a straight white man, that would have been the chaos, that would have been the problem.
Speaker 1:And all of these people to do here. There was a. There was a Zoom chat with 90,000 African-American women.
Speaker 2:Yeah they had to call Zoom and ask them to increase the capacity.
Speaker 1:I know, isn't that awesome that never would have happened. How many hundreds of millions of dollars they've raised would not have happened.
Speaker 2:They said they had several hundred thousand people that were first time donors.
Speaker 1:I know, and voter registration up 800 percent over this time last. I mean it's insane. And it's almost 83 percent people under the age of 35.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's firing up the base that Biden was losing. Hiring up the base that Biden was losing. The question is, can she hang on to that? The middle, the moderate, white class, working voters, that Biden was doing better than Hillary on?
Speaker 1:I'm hopeful. Yeah, I'm sure she's going to lose some, but I'm hopeful she'll hang on to the low. She's ultimately a moderate.
Speaker 2:Her cop record is really going to help.
Speaker 1:The prosecutor record will help with that group. Yes, yeah, she's a tough prosecutor. So I was going to talk about some other stuff, but I want to go to, because a lot of how she's going to present to all those groups is going to have to do with her VP choice. So let's talk about the VP choices. We're going to get to TV at some point, but this is just like. This is like a television show, right?
Speaker 2:Real quick. While we're talking about strong women, though, and the prosecutor and stuff, I just realized and this was in the background last week, I'm sure as well. I apologize for the old lady flicking off your audience. If you're watching the video of my office, that is my grandmother, who has passed away, and I proudly put that picture of her, which feels a little out of character for her, but she was ordering, so I like it.
Speaker 1:Oh, did she pass away recently?
Speaker 2:uh 2020, so it's okay years. Yeah, yeah, so I realize that's probably a questionable background. Sorry, I'll see if I can readjust the camera for next time.
Speaker 1:Hey, I've got pictures in back of me too but any of them with their middle finger at the camera. Oh no, that's true, but that's OK. I didn't see the middle finger and I guarantee you anybody who's old wouldn't have seen the middle finger either.
Speaker 2:So there we go.
Speaker 1:Now you can't see the middle finger and I'm old, so oh.
Speaker 1:OK, vice presidents, Huh OK vice presidents Huh, I said okay. Vice presidents, Sorry I interrupted. Vice presidents, that's okay, I'm just like so you know. Oh, I have to ask you. Okay, Last week I told you I was like super depressed, right, I just wake up in the morning and I turn on the news and I'm like, oh, I just can't, I can't, I just can't, I can't, I just can't. And after Sunday I woke up Monday morning and I was like, yes, what is that feeling In a while? Tell me what your experience was after hearing the news.
Speaker 2:I mean absolutely I. I've been feeling really grim about this fall. I keep telling myself that we'll do the right thing, People will show up, they will, they will. But then you know, 2016 is the naggling doubt in the back of my mind that I do understand. Those are different circumstances. Now, we've seen what happened to Trump and getting so discouraged by how well he's doing. But, yeah, as soon as he dropped out, even Sunday night, I was feeling so much better about things. And even if we go down, at least we went down fighting and we've got a chance now We've got energy, we've got enthusiasm and, yeah, if we go down now, this country's lost, irreparably lost. Yeah, which I was already kind of thinking, but this is really the ultimate test of that. Like, how racist are we? How sexist are we? This is the test of that for sure it is.
Speaker 1:It is, and you're already seeing that, but we'll talk about that later in the show. I'm sure there'll be plenty of time. So, vice presidents, I have to tell you though Sunday night so CNN and MSNBC did like 24 hour coverage and I kept refreshing, so the AP had a delegate count sheet that automatically refreshed.
Speaker 1:So, I had it open on my phone. I kept refreshing it. I was like listening to MSNBC's coverage on Sirius XM, which is like when I'm not at the TV, I've got it on Sirius XM. Which is like when I'm not at the TV, I've got it on Sirius XM, like at work, like my day job, during my teaching day, when I'm not actually teaching kids, I have it on. But I had it on all night. I don't think I slept at all Sunday night. I was like really excited and I kept refreshing it and refreshing it and refreshing it.
Speaker 1:It was like, oh my God, she's got 1,668 delegates by Monday morning and um then, uh, you know, it was like very quickly thereafter she got her. She was over the threshold. Um, so, that's awesome, All right, vice presidents, yes, let's just go down the list, shall we? Okay? All right, you start pick one.
Speaker 2:I think the top three are probably shapiro, kelly and whitmer. A bit of a dark horse, but I I feel like there's a way of coming uh, it's of support behind her that I did not expect to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, hmm, so I think Shapiro Kelly and, um, maybe Andy Bashir.
Speaker 2:He's a possibility, but they're not going to win Kentucky anyway. I am thinking of the argument of you need to pick somebody that's going to help you in some way, and I don't know that Bashir really brings an additional voting base, whereas Shapiro, obviously his state is a must win for them. Kelly, Arizona, they probably won't win, but I feel like he checks a lot of boxes. That would help her.
Speaker 1:I really like him, the only things that I have. You know he's married to Gabby Giffords, which would, as somebody pointed out to me, carry forth the tradition of having the second spouse being Jewish. Oh, gabby Giffords is Jewish, that's true, and just like Doug Imhoff is Jewish, right, so that's a thing that's. I mean, that was not, you know, wasn't serious. So, andy Beshear, I like him. He seemed a little nervous on TV yesterday, so I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:The thing that the vice president has to do is not what JD Vance did, is not what JD Vance did. They have to come right out of the box, boom like gangbusters, be charming, be forceful, be everything that there is to be. So I love Gretchen Whitmer. I do. I think she's amazing. I think she'll make a great president. Yep, and she's amazing, I think she'll make a great president. Yeah, I just think it's a mistake to double down and have a female female. So there are arguments for doing it. It's like let's double down on this, let's do it, let's double down.
Speaker 2:That's what Trump did with JD Vance.
Speaker 1:Yes, he did.
Speaker 2:Which is not an argument for it.
Speaker 1:No, it's not, but it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. And I think they'll lose some of those potential rust belt white male voters who are like, okay, you know what, Kamala? She ticks the box, she's, she's person of color, she's black, she's in, she's South Asian. No, we're not double it's. I think it's. I really think it's a mistake. And the I just literally read on Twitter, maybe an hour ago, that the president of of NARAL suggested that she didn't. I think let me see if I can find talk to me while I find that Twitter opinion about NARAL.
Speaker 2:I mean what you're saying about Whitmer is the same reason. I think Pete Buttigieg is not being seriously considered. By putting a gay guy on the ticket, you're checking another one of those boxes of a non-white male, straight white male, and I think it would be great to have a woman and a gay man be the ticket. I think most Democrats will approve of that. But we are worried about losing those certain voters who are still behind where the Democrats are socially, that are a little more socially moderate, that are still for lack of a better term a little bit more bigoted than a lot of Democratic voters, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:And yeah so that's frustrating. The other candidate I would say that's being talked about in the Shapiro-Kelly vein is Roy Cooper, the North Carolina governor. Yes, which could also be a good choice for some of the same reasons that Shapiro or Kelly would be a good choice.
Speaker 1:I can't find it. Yes, he would be a good choice. North Carolina could be blue.
Speaker 2:It could be, but even if it's not, he again brings the type of voter behind him. I mean I hate to talk about it in such cynical terms, I really do. I feel like it shouldn't, these things shouldn't matter.
Speaker 1:It's about winning.
Speaker 2:It's frustrating, it's about winning, I know but it's still frustrating to talk about it like that.
Speaker 1:It's like you know I was so I was talking to a family member I won't say who it is, in case they do listen to this podcast and they were like well, what about Kamala's stance on this? What about her stance on that? What about her stance on this? I'm like so I don't necessarily have a formed opinion about whether I like this policy or that policy. It has been never in my voting life that I've agreed with every policy that the president that I voted for.
Speaker 2:Never ever. True. I don't know if anybody almost anybody could say they normally agree with every policy across the board.
Speaker 1:Right, and I said it's not about policy this time. It's about the democracy or not democracy. Do you want to save the republic or you want to trash it?
Speaker 2:It's funny there Trump's team is talking about it in the exact same terms, just, you know, lying and twisted the way he always does, I know. Like we had the that guy that opened for JD Vance coming out and saying if Trump loses, we will have a civil war to take this country back and it's like.
Speaker 2:I mean that violent rhetoric. You don't. That's not the way the Democrats talk about. The Democrats don't talk about if we lose, we're going to get out our guns and fight. The Democrats talk about it Like we lose. We've given up something vital in this country. We're not what we think, we are what we say. We are what the myth of America is anymore.
Speaker 1:Right, right, Well, okay, so let's finish. I want to talk about JD Vance, but first let's finish talking about the vice presidents.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Gavin Newsom no, well, he's from California, so that creates some issues as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you can't have two candidates, you cannot have two yeah, it would be lopsided, so that California would go into the ocean much quicker than it would otherwise do. Amy Klobuchar, oh sorry.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, but also he'd have to change his residency and he's governor, so he couldn't change his residency. Or Kamala would have to change the residency, or you'd only be able to vote for her and not him. In California because of the law of the president and vice president can't be Right from the same state.
Speaker 1:There is a law.
Speaker 2:Although there is a little bit of deliciousness of you. Know he used to be married to Donald Trump's girlfriend, junior Donald Trump Jr's girlfriend. So that would be kind of fun.
Speaker 1:That's a plus. That's a plus. So that would be kind of fun. That's a plus. That's a plus. Yeah, tells you something about his judgment. I know, unfortunately. So I like Bashir, I like Cooper.
Speaker 2:Cooper's a little old right. He's 67, kelly is 60 67.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's not that he's that old. I mean he's like my age, but, um, he's not that old. But that youth and vitality ticket, yep, he doesn't quite scream that, do you know? Else I like and I saw him on tv for the very first time yesterday was governor walls of Minnesota.
Speaker 2:He is a former high school teacher. Interesting, he's also 60. He looks older, though.
Speaker 1:I know he explained that, though, on Twitter this morning. You know what he said. He says that's what you get from supervising the lunchroom for 20 years. That was the best answer. I know it was like a great answer. I loved it. So, yeah, I mean, everybody's saying Shapiro, shapiro, shapiro. And again, I'm going to sound like an anti-Semite, but I'm not because I'm Jewish and it's practical. I'm going to be practical, I think it's. He suffers the same problem that Buttigieg suffers and that Whitmer suffers.
Speaker 2:Because it's not just straight white male. You want Christian, straight white male.
Speaker 1:It is a minority double down.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's the issue. I think I love Josh Shapiro. I love him to bits. He's my governor and I would love him to be the vice president and if he's selected, then I think he would be amazing and I think it would be an amazing ticket.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:However, he's a prosecutor too. Oh yeah, okay, let's get the lawyers Um, and everybody loves lawyers, everyone. Yeah, well, they love them when they're gunning against the biggest criminal of all time. I love, oh, I love, kamala's. Well, they love them when they're gunning against the biggest criminal of all time. I love, oh, I love Kamala's meme, which one? The one she's had so many this weekend? I know, I'm trying to remember what it is. Oh, yeah, jd Vance man with no convictions, that's OK. Trump has 34.
Speaker 2:That's good she did that one. I liked her getting the crowd to chant. We won't go back this weekend.
Speaker 1:That's a great answer to make America great again, yes, yes, yes we can with the M on the end yes, we cam with a K and an A and an M. Yeah, I mean, I really, really it's like there's a confederacy of riches.
Speaker 2:Do you think Doug Emhoff should be out on the trail complaining about how we've never had a male or white first lady and he needs to break that glass ceiling and put a white, male first lady in the white house for the right on right on first gentleman well, yeah, but I'd talk about it as first lady, just I don't know if he'd like that. So much um yeah, I'd just say, lay into the stereotype, but yeah, yeah that's true, although he's kind of hard to picture in a you know in a gown, saying I mean, if he wants to wear a dress I'm all for it, but I'm not saying he has to.
Speaker 2:I'm just yeah, I'm, I'm partial, so I like kelly but yeah, he doesn't have a big political record but I think his military and an astronaut track record make up for that oh yeah, how voters would consider his experience yeah, he's got experience serving the public and being in the public eye, even if it's not as a politician, right, and it's not a capitalist experience where he's been making money off of all of us, like some of the millionaires that want to run Right.
Speaker 1:So, yes, so I really I like Kellylly. He's probably my number one pick right now. He's not a real charming speaker, so that's the only thing, although I have to say I saw a video of him he posted today on on on uh twitter x. Sorry, elon. Oh, I have to talk about elon and don't apologize to elon.
Speaker 2:He doesn't deserve any apologies oh man, he trolled trump.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, oh my god, he. I have to tell you about that a second. But, um, mark kelly um posted a video that he had brought a gorilla suit into the space station, put it on and was playing around in the space station in the gorilla suit, in anti-gravity. You got to find that video. It's just delicious Nice. So he's got a good sense of humor. Yeah, I like him a lot. I like him. And Gabby Giffords has immediate cred as his second lady, or you know. Yes, so I don't know, we'll see. But yeah, shapiro would be my close second, I think. But yeah, shapiro would be my close second, I think. All right, so, jd, oh, I have to tell you. So you know, there was this thing. So Elon Musk had told Trump I'm going to give you $45 million a month. Yes, right. And Trump talked about it yeah, he's going to give me $45 million a month if I put Vance on the ticket. He put Vance on the ticket and now Elon Musk Dave's house never going to give him $45 million a month. It was fiction.
Speaker 2:But I'm I am happier to see suffer more in that story. I don't know. I am happier to see suffer more in that story.
Speaker 1:I don't know. So, Jay, I want to talk about the final. It's like we're going in backwards time.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about the last day of the Republican National Convention.
Speaker 1:You do realize we're taping this on Wednesday. I'm going to probably go live with it tomorrow because we'll have it consistently on Thursdays.
Speaker 2:You know the entire world may have completely changed again, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, you know, with, especially with, oh, with Biden giving his Oval Office talk, oh, before we get to Vance, my, yeah, same family members text back and forth we love each other, but she's like, yeah, okay, anyway, she's like I don't know. We haven't heard from Biden for a bunch of days. He's maybe dead, he may be dead.
Speaker 2:I heard that conspiracy. I'm like he has COVID he conspiracy.
Speaker 1:I'm like he has COVID. He's 80 freaking years old and he has COVID.
Speaker 2:Right, he still got on the calls and stuff and talked.
Speaker 1:I said he's sick. He's sick. Why would he want to be out in public when he's sick? I think he's back at the White House now. He is. He's giving a talk from the oval office tonight, but all those conspiracies, where is he? Who's running the guy? Who's running the government?
Speaker 2:really just a conspiracy. Yesterday I think it was yesterday on twitter that it was going around. I'm not on twitter or x. My brother still is and still posts in the group chat X's that he sees tweets Drives me crazy. I keep telling him to get off that cesspool. But I guess it was going around. Twitter heavily. I know there are a lot of people on there for legitimate reasons.
Speaker 1:I like threads, but it's a mess.
Speaker 2:He likes fantasy football and I guess fantasy football is still active on Twitter. Okay, and I guess fantasy football is still active on Twitter.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was going to just do threads, okay. And threads is really, really not confusing, but it's really hard to curate. I have a curated news list and I can't do that on threads.
Speaker 2:I haven't used threads hardly at all. I know I have an account, but but anyway, the twitter uh conspiracy was that jimmy carter was dead and he sent it to our group chat and I guess it was like all over twitter for hours before you know. The news of course debunked it, but yeah, I love twitter.
Speaker 1:Twitter, whatever it's called, I still call it Twitter. Oh, elon Musk is to attend Netanyahu's speech. Of course he is.
Speaker 2:Why not? He's an anti-Semite.
Speaker 1:Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:All these bad people are, I don't know. They say one thing and then they, whoever they're doing business with or whatever they just Transactional. They're like Trump, you know. They say one thing and then, whoever they're doing business with or whatever they just.
Speaker 1:Transactional.
Speaker 2:They're like Trump. It's so transactional.
Speaker 1:Yes, anyway, yeah, so, jd Vance. So the final night of the RNC we had it was actually the second to the last night, so it was like last Did we tape after JD Vance's speech.
Speaker 2:We taped after he was named the nominee, but we taped early on Thursday, so before that final night of speeches His speech was horrible, Horrible.
Speaker 1:And then Trump got up to oh, and then you have Mr Wrestling guy, right.
Speaker 2:Hulk Hogan. Yeah, I saw the clip of that. Oh my God, destroy the American flag to support Trump. That says all you need to see to know, right, yeah, right. So all the people that don't want to change pronouns or names for trans people. But you can call that guy Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 1:That's not his name. No, he was born with no well anyway. So then trump gets up to speak. What a incoherent mess. Have you heard him speak very much since the convention?
Speaker 2:since the convention?
Speaker 1:no, no no, he golfs a lot. He truth socials a lot, not really speaking a lot. He can't speak. Let's start a rumor.
Speaker 2:I wonder what's up with trump he's incoherent, but he has been for 10 years, so the media doesn't report on that and they don't speculate on that because that's just taking for granted with him I think, and I know he's gotten- worse, but it's it's part of, I think, think his brain is dead. It's been dead, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean deader.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't disagree. I'm just frustrated that it's not covered that way, because that's just taken for granted with him.
Speaker 1:Well, kind of, now that Biden's out of the race Hopefully you know they're going to have to, because now it's not. Now there's not this sort of relativism, right? Well, here are all the bloopers that he did. Here are all the bloopers that he did. You know really no. So, jd Vance, what do you think?
Speaker 2:I mean, he's garbage. Speaking as somebody from the same state as him, uh, I just I can't stand the guy. He's not sincere, he's super bigoted, he's trump light, trump, junior light, I don't know right, yeah, it was a terrible pick on every level and I know there's been some talk that in his camp that they regret him being picked because of Kamala and they're saying, if you know, if the Kamala news had come out a week earlier, he may have chosen a different vice president and all that.
Speaker 1:But right, right, oh yeah, they're like having big buyer's remorse. Oh, and then, of course, you know the Trump camp is suing.
Speaker 2:I know it's so funny. It's not fair. It's not fair. They owe us money back for that. We spent campaigning against Joe Biden and it's like. It's just not fair. They're trying to block Harris taking his campaign funds. Like they have no grounds for any of this. No legal standing, because none of it's illegal. Like Biden wasn't even the nominee yet, Right.
Speaker 1:And it's politics. It's not the presidency, it's politics.
Speaker 2:But with them it's everything's got to be the temper tantrum. Everything's got to be fair, which means advantage to them.
Speaker 1:Right it's, or else they have meltdowns like toddlers or else they have meltdowns like toddlers I know there's such a bunch of snowflakes.
Speaker 2:honest to God they are. Everything they say about the liberals is what they are times 10.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Every time, every time.
Speaker 1:There's so much more snowflakes. Projection is a beautiful thing, maybe the first time you've ever heard me sing.
Speaker 2:It's been a while, I think I remember hearing you sing something back in heard me sing. It's been a while. I think I remember hearing you sing something back in the day, but it's been a while, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So JD Vance wrote the foreword to this book called Dawn's Early Light Taking Back Washington to Save America. Now I have seen an earlier cover of this and it was called originally Dawn's early light burning down Washington to save America, and if you Google it or you Twitter it you'll find it. I think Miller put it up this morning. If I'm not mistaken, one of the Bulwark guys did. But I'm going to read you the blurb from this book. I have to make it bigger because I'm far from my computer.
Speaker 1:Okay, heritage Foundation president and Project 25 head, kevin Roberts outlines a peaceful quote, second American revolution, which reminds me remember it was. It'll be a peaceful revolution if the liberals let us this is what he's referring to. I think Right For voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people. America is on the brink of destruction. A corrupt and incompetent elite has uprooted our way of life and is brainwashing the next generation. Many so-called conservatives are as culpable as their progressive counterparts.
Speaker 1:In this ambitious and provocative book, heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts announces the arrival of a new conservative movement. His message is simple global elites, your time is up. His message is simple Global elites, your time is up. Dawn's early light blazes a promising path for the American people to take back their country. Chapter by chapter, it identifies institutions that conservatives need to build, others that we need to take back and more still that are too corrupt to save. For example, there's a little colon there Ivy League colleges, the FBI, the New York Times, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that's, who discovered the COVID thing the Department of Education, blackrock, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy I think they mean the National Endowment for the Arts, to name a few.
Speaker 1:These all need to be dissolved if the American way of life is to be passed down to future generations. The good news is we're going to win. The swamp is so drunk on power that the elites don't realize the ground is moving beneath their feet. Swamp is so drunk on power that the elites don't realize the ground is moving beneath their feet. In Washington, they wear foreign flags on their lapels Ukraine flags but they don't protect our border. They wave the constitution I said the Ukraine flags. It's not in the blurb. They wave around the constitution, but they don't respect its wisdom. They appeal to Reagan, but Reagan would never put up with this nonsense. Their decadence will be their downfall. A new day is here.
Speaker 2:It's amazing how wrong that is. And even if they take the government back and start to tear down those government institutions like the FBI and stuff, which they absolutely will if Trump wins, how are they going to tear down Ivy Leagues? How are they going to tear down the New York Times? That is so anti-democratic. To go and tear down private business Like that is some real fascist stuff. That is some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, authoritarian, autocratic bullshit.
Speaker 2:That doesn't. You can't do it without breaking the law. Yep, you just have to rewrite the laws.
Speaker 1:Well, or executive order, because, after all, the president is immune.
Speaker 2:If the Supreme Court likes their decisions.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right, but the Supreme Court would give her up her stamp. So what does this have to do with the Trump campaign? Sure? So who wrote the foreword to this book? None other than JD Vance.
Speaker 2:Best selling. Author of.
Speaker 1:Hillbilly Elegy, which was a bunch of bullshit. By the way, everything that he says about his background now is in contradiction to what was said in Hillbilly Elegy. My mother died because of the fentanyl coming across the board. She stole drugs from the hospital she worked at. Give me a break. He said it in his book. Now, which truth is it, mr JD? And do you know how many times he's changed his name? Oh, look it up. Oh, look it up. I'm just asking. So this is what he says in his review of this book Weiss, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, weiss, he was born James Donald Bowman, then took the surname Hamill from his stepfather, finally choosing Vance. I believe in America that you need to keep your birth name.
Speaker 1:Who is he Really? Is he the love child of Vladimir Putin that you need to keep your birth name? Who is he Really? Is he the love child of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump?
Speaker 2:I'm just asking.
Speaker 1:I'm just asking questions.
Speaker 2:How would that work, though I don't think either one of them could bear a child.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 2:Well, you never, know Conspiracy, we'll just start conspiracy theories now. Yeah, let never know Conspiracy, or just start conspiracy theories now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's just start some conspiracy theories. There are few enough people that listen to this podcast to actually do anything with it.
Speaker 2:Not a conspiracy theory you did hear during the RNC. They crashed the Grindr app right.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know it was being so overused.
Speaker 2:The anti-gay party crashed the gay hookup app because there's so much use.
Speaker 1:I mean going back to J Edgar Hoover. I mean, for God's sake, come on Hypocrisy.
Speaker 2:It's the hypocrisy that drives me crazy.
Speaker 1:So this is what JD says about this book in his review, because the foreword isn't available yet. Sure, never before has a figure with Robert's depth. This author Robert's depth or stature within the American right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism. We are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon. Fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon. Bum, bum, bum. And yeah, I mean, this is scary stuff.
Speaker 2:Really scary. It's scary, but we still have this segment of the country who is not paying enough attention and not realizing they're saying this and then, when you tell them democracy is threatened, they're like you're just blowing that up a portion, you're overreacting and it's that's exactly what my sister says.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she said that she's. Oh, it's just what they're saying.
Speaker 2:I'm like huh but also what happened on january 6 2020? Remind me, and why is mike pence not his vice president this time around? Remind me, yeah.
Speaker 1:And why did half the people, half the Republicans, all the Republicans in his cabinet, not come to the Republican National Convention?
Speaker 2:None of them. Yeah, most of them are speaking out against him. Yes.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, it's a different, it's an alternative universe that they're living in.
Speaker 2:Alternative facts as Kellyanne Conway would say yeah Well, oh.
Speaker 1:as Kellyanne Conway would say yeah well, oh my gosh. Oh, she was. What was she talking about, kamala yesterday? I can't remember what she said. I don't know, I stopped paying attention to her, thank goodness. I listened to her ex.
Speaker 2:Ugh.
Speaker 1:George found the light. Yeah, he found. He found, uh, neil Katyal, and they forged a common union of constitutionalists. I like George Conway. He's now on the Bulwark team too. There's a lot of good people on Bulwark. There's Sam Stein, I think, is the new managing editor, and you got Tim Miller and George Conway. Adam Kinzinger is now on. Now that would okay.
Speaker 1:so I want to talk about something with you we have to talk about the boys finale and I want to talk about the Sorkin op-ed to close things out, but there's like so much going on, so much going on, oh, so much going on. Oh, I see my puppy's sick. You hear that?
Speaker 2:I hear.
Speaker 1:She's barking because she knows it's not the truth. What was I saying?
Speaker 2:You wanna talk about the boys Before the I do.
Speaker 1:No, there was one other thing I wanted to talk about before the boys. Oh yes, all right, that's fine, let's talk about the boys finale, so talk.
Speaker 2:I mean they are now in a fascist authoritarian dictatorship. It's what will happen if Trump wins Not exactly, but close enough. I knew Sister Sage. I knew that was part of her plan that she got sent away. If Trump wins Not exactly, but close enough. I knew Sister Sage. I knew that was part of her plan that she got sent away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said that last week I did, I did, but I had seen it last week. But I told you I thought that before. I do wonder if she's the smartest person in the world. I'm trying to wrap my brain around. Could she possibly have done this to save the world, like take them to the lowest and expose them so that they could tear them down? Is that the only way to do it? Because otherwise I really wow. It's just so frustrating that she participated, but I do think she's a villain. I think she's a villain.
Speaker 1:She her and she plays three-dimensional chess. I mean, that's the whole point of her character. I think she wants all the power for herself, maybe, maybe she epitomizes the intellectual elite.
Speaker 2:If you take her, you have to decide if you want to take her at her word or not, because she told Homelander she did it to see if she could, which was her word, which would imply no ulterior motives. But yes, obviously she has motives that we aren't fully privy. But, man, knowing that we're going into the final season, of course they had to put things at their worst, take the heroes out of the game, run it way down so that we're going to be in trouble. I did hear that Gen V is coming back for a second season here soon before we get the final season of the Boys. Okay, I'm curious how that'll play into it, because those gen v characters were in the boys, you know, periodically throughout this season so I did not watch gen v, I have to admit okay so the two characters that took frenchie, and, and kamiko at the end, those are two of the main characters from gen v.
Speaker 1:Gen.
Speaker 2:V. But, knowing that they are now working with Homelander kind of spoils the whole season arc of Gen V for you, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Well, that does happen sometimes with TV writing.
Speaker 2:The Gen V season one arc was all about the virus and everything. So if you want to know all that and some of the characters, like the Vice President Newman, were in Gen V several episodes, so it really fills in a lot. It definitely takes place between seasons three and four.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll have to go back and watch it. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And the episodes are shorter, which is nice. They're like 40 minutes instead of an hour. Oh yeah, they're very long and only there's only eight of them.
Speaker 1:So it'll go quick. It's just like the gratuitous violence is just like oh my God it still has that.
Speaker 2:It does still have that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know it's part of the thing, but it's like I just can't watch those scenes. I just I close my eyes and I say to Phil, just tap me on the shoulder when I can open my eyes again. Yeah, and I don't mind violence in TV. I, I seriously do not. But it's like, oh, come on, oh, come on, really there was a, really. So that's just me. Maybe it's because I'm old I don't know.
Speaker 2:The older I get, the less I like violence on tv. For sure I I'm more like can't we do this another way? Can't we just West Wing it and talk about it instead of attack each other? I still watch violent shows. I just would prefer those are the scenes that I'm not as thrilled about. I don't get excited when the scenes get violent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm kind of grappling with that. I'm writing a new novel and, by the way, you can buy the Apothecary's Curse or Alchemy of Glass. Apothecary's Curse is the Bram Stoker nominated first novel by me and it is basically, if you want to take, my brain has stopped working if you want to take, uh, michael crichton and blend it with a little bit of anne rice, you will get the apothecary's curse and its trusty sequel, both published by pyre books and simon and schuster. You can find the amazon links on my website, barbara barnettcom, or at Amazon or any of your favorite booksellers. I just had like a brain freeze there for a second. We've been talking about all this politics stuff. So last week we talked about what would Bartlett do and we talked about the MS thing especially. We specifically talked about that. Well, aaron Sorkin published almost like the day after our episode aired and I can't imagine that he actually he actually like listen to it.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's a faithful fan, every episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every episode.
Speaker 2:Hey.
Speaker 1:Aaron, you could come on the show anytime.
Speaker 2:Anytime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and or any of the actors? Absolutely I would love to. Then we could talk.
Speaker 2:Handmaid's Tale too.
Speaker 1:We could Not today, though, because we're almost out of time.
Speaker 2:I know with Brad.
Speaker 1:But yeah, oh yeah, with Brad for sure. Well, ok, so President Bartlett had a lot of adversity going on, and so what you know in every season, right, there was a gunman at the end of season one, at the end of season season two, you have, you know, the MS thing come to light. You have his daughter kidnapped. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that happens to him.
Speaker 1:And in West, Wing he decides after the MS thing comes out and he says, yeah, I'm going to run and I'm going to win. He says I'm just kidding, this is public and I don't really care, I'm going to run and I'm going to win. He says I'm just kidding, this is public and I don't really care, I'm going to run again. So this is what Biden and when he wrote this, he wrote this last week before Biden decided to get out of the race. And this is I'm going to quote a little bit because I don't want to read the whole thing because it violates copyright but what Sorkin says, because I needed the West Wing audience to find President Bartlett's intransigence heroic, I didn't really dramatize any downward pull that his illness would be having on his reelection chances and, much more important, I didn't dramatize any danger posed by Bartlett's opponent winning. But what if the show had gone another way? Opponent winning, but what if the show had gone another way? And what if the result of revealing the illness polling showed him losing? What if that opponent, being simply just an unexceptionable boob that didn't have any brains, had been a dump truck of ignorance, just an evil guy like Trump? And I'm paraphrasing what if it had been like a dangerous imbecile or a white supremacist.
Speaker 1:Take your choice. We'd have had Bartlett drop out of the race, drop out, and this is back to what Sorkin said. We'd have had Bartlett drop out of the race and endorse whoever had the best chance of beating the guy. And what he says is the problem in the real world is that there isn't a Democrat who is polling significantly better than Biden. So he proposes in the article that they should, at the convention in August, nominate Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney, yeah, yeah, so. And he ends the article by explaining that this is the last thing, but mostly it would be the end of Donald Trump and presidential politics. So I don't know. And as soon as Biden actually did resign from the race, not from the presidency.
Speaker 1:Now, I remember what I wanted to talk to you about, and Kamala got the endorsement immediately. Sorkin said yeah, no, forget what I just said. Don't unsee it. Try to unsee it. I didn't mean it. Kamala 2024, yep, kamala 2024, yeah for his support behind her absolutely yeah, totally, and I bet he does. I bet they do a table read for her too, like they did in 2020. That would be great. Yeah, that was great. The thing that wasn't so great was the Rocky Horror Picture Show, one that they did in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:I didn't see that one.
Speaker 1:Oh, you didn't see the Rocky Horror Picture Show one.
Speaker 1:No oh that with with Tim, oh, that with with Tim, with with. Oh my God, who is the star of Rocky Horror Picture Show? Tim Curry. Yes, tim Curry, thank you, which was really sad. I mean it was brave of him to do it, but it was like super sad, but they were all in it, they all came to do it. Anyway, I digress. So, yeah, that was interesting that Sorkin actually did weigh in, because it's like, yeah, what would Bartlett do? What would Bartlett do? So this is the last thing I want to talk about. In politics, and we're almost out of time. Actually, there are still cries that, well, if Biden isn't cognitively good enough to run for president, he should resign the presidency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard this from the right From the right from the speaker.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like they're two different things. I've been arguing the whole time. It's not that he can't run the country, he doesn't have the chops to take it to Trump. And I think and this is kind of what I think in closing, and then you can weigh in too is that's what's so exciting about Kamala. Yep, she, I'm like I'm listening to her, I'm like this is the same exact message that Biden had, exactly, but delivered In a way that's taking it to the people and taking it to Trump. They almost could be the same exact words that Biden was using.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Delivered differently. So what do you think about all that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, first of all, the resign is nonsense. It's just them throwing their temper tantrum. I considered it part of that, did not look at it any no idea, like it's just bull. But they're lashing out because they don't have any strategy to fight this, even though they should have seen it coming a mile away and had a strategy ready to go. If Pelosi was working for them, she would have had a strategy ready to go. Um, if pelosi was working for them, she would have had a strategy ready to go. But yeah, it's two different skill sets. I he is just too old to campaign the way we need him to campaign right now because of the way our politics are right and people aren't going to judge him on his merits.
Speaker 2:If they were, he'd be a shoo-in uh right. So sending Kamal out to deliver the message is great. The message worked last time. It'll probably work this time. Yeah, it's even more important now than it was four years ago.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Let's see, another year will pass between now and next week.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:fixed for doing next week. Probably fine, my schedule is mostly open Okay. I'm going to go off record now, okay.
