Billionaires, Broken Politics, and the SOTU We Couldn’t Watch

Carmen and guest co‑host Billy take the State of the Union as a starting point to examine the deeper fractures in American politics. They dig into the outsized influence of billionaires, the fallout of Citizens United, Fox News distortion, media silos, and the collapse of political decorum. The conversation moves through wealth inequality, the healthcare crisis, GoFundMe medicine, and the moral erosion shaping today’s political landscape. With blunt honesty and lived experience, they explore what this moment reveals about democracy, culture, and the forces pulling the country apart.

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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth


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Transcript

Carmen: I have a very expensive camera though. That's why.

Billy: okay, you're telling me that my Mac is not expensive?

Carmen: So I don't use just the cam, like I don't use just the computer camera, so, but it doesn't matter. I'll, I'll try to make it look really good afterwards. How you doing, Billy?

Billy: how's it going, Carmen?

Carmen: Thank you for doing this, because Andrea is actually flying right now. Uh, so she's flying back from the East

Billy: To where

Carmen: She was on the East Coast in the blizzard, so I know.

Billy: they got all, they got all hung up.

Carmen: Yeah.

Billy: The all flights did, you know what I mean? Like it was, it was a bit of a, of a nightmare, right?

Carmen: Yeah, but she was not gonna be here anyways. Like the blizzard messed up her plans, like they actually landed when the blizzard started or something. And so, all of her plans got messed up. So, yeah, weird. I felt bad, but, Anyways, but thank you for doing this and coming on Culture and Consequence to have a conversation about politicsand culture. So, um, so let's start with, uh, you were, did you watch the State of the

Billy: Now that's a, that's a pretty good question. What do you think, Carmen?

Carmen: I didn't watch the State of the Union be okay. I tried. I tried, but af first of all, his voice

Billy: Ugh. It's like fucking nails on a chalkboard.

Carmen: You know, like, here's the thing, like imagine if he was like a really good guy, then you could listen to him. Right. You know what I mean? But because he's so bad, it's just, yeah. So I think I listened, like, first of all, um, what's that man's name? I always wanna call him Al Green, but I don't think that's his name.

The guy that came up with the sign.

Billy: I think it is Al Green actually. Or

Carmen: that a singer? Like I think that's a musician too. I don't

Billy: yeah, but I think it is Al Green.

Carmen: But anyways, he came out with the sign and I thought that was awesome. I was psyched that he did

Billy: kicked him out. They drug him out or something, I

Carmen: of course they did, because you can't really do look at the whole etiquette and manners of our government has just been, I mean, there's no moral core anymore,

Billy: There's no decorum, but he's, but he's decorum. He's responsible for that, as are the Republicans in general, because Marjorie Taylor Greene is a perfect example of a woman who showed no decorum in general. And you know, and I know. We're supposed to afford him the same, uh, kind of stuff. And I, I feel like,

Carmen: Respect you mean?

Billy: yeah, and I feel like Democrats in general have always been too respectful and they always take the high road and sometimes I just feel like you need to, you know, go meet them where they are.

Carmen: I mean, that's what Gavin Newsom's doing now. I mean, he just.

Billy: for sure.

Carmen: I mean, I think he put out a tweet with the F word the other day. Why am

Billy: Oh, really?

Carmen: I swear all the fucking time. I'm like the F word, like, well, it's hard to talk about decorum and then be like, motherfucker,

Billy: True.

Carmen: but, but, but Gavin Newsom I think is doing that.

Like he's doing the dual kind of,

Billy: He's, he's trying to meet them where they are a little bit and showing that, that he's not a, you know, a blow over. Right. And I think that, that, I think that's great in a, in, in every way. Um. But I didn't watch it and I wasn't gonna give him the satisfaction of watching it. And I got to see enough of the, of the clips from it and the sort of takeaways from it.

And, I have a couple of my, um, people, my real people that I, you know. Watch and listen to, and they talk about some of his discussions. And then I, listened a bit to, the Daily and they had a run rundown of his, his speech and Yes. And yeah, and what it was about and whatever.

I mean between, it's like I don't care. I ha I'm,I have so little care for him or any of his lot that he has in there that actually the more, the more I. Involve myself and think about it and follow a lot of this stuff.I feel the older I'm gonna get, the sicker I'm gonna get. I think that it's just gonna come, kind of come behind me.

So when you ask what should we talk about? And you said, maybe we talk about the State of the Union or some other things, and I really, I started to think about what I wanted to talk about. And I'm gonna lead you somewhere and then we're gonna see where this goes or whatever.

So,

Carmen: I love it. Bill is gonna take over my show.

Billy: no, I'm not taking it

Carmen: No, I.

Billy: I'm just, I'm, I'm just saying, I'm just saying like, we could talk about Donald Trump forever

Carmen: No,

Billy: it's, it's, it's the same, it's the same nonsense. And, you know, and I could. Talk about Christie Nome, or I could talk about, um, Pam Bondy, or I could talk about JD V. Or, I mean, it's just every single person that I come to.

It's just, it's like a dead end road, you know what I mean? it's toxic. Yeah. And it's, it's, you know, for, I don't know, I, I, I feel like we're in a bit doomed, but I, I kind of, what, what I wanted to talk about, which is why I think we're actually even a way more doomed than not, is.

I heard that and I, I'm not sure if I saw sent it to you. I heard this, um, this bit from Jeffrey Sachs. Do you know who Jeffrey Sachs is? Yeah. Yeah. So he's an economist from, you know, Columbia

Carmen: a professor.

Billy: Uh, yeah. And he's pr

Carmen: And he well renowned and blah, blah, blah, and

Billy: and he's really, you know, well spoken and well thought and whatever. And so here, here's, here's the point. 10 individuals own $2.3 trillion of assets in our country. And what's so frightening about that? What's so frightening about that is that, and he points out they, they own me, our media. They own our emails, they own YouTube, they own, um, the White House. They installed the Vice President.

Um, they own CBS news. They own the Washington Post. I mean,

Carmen: own ai, which is really important. Mm-hmm.

Billy: So it, it's like, and so. Uh, how do we have democracy or where is democracy in any of that, when these 10 individuals can influence so much? 'cause when you think of it, there's no way of getting around whether Elon Musk cheated or whether he just gave, you know, his presence in the whole ring itself, you know, was enough to, sway people or whatever.

 clearly he put a ton of money, as we know, into the election, which, you know, brought me to Citizens United and how, how we're kind of in, in this sort of like scary sort of place where it's like we're not really a democracy and everyone's talking about the midterms and I won't be.

Surprised at all if the midterms end up being not in our favor, which they absolutely should be, right? Like there's no way he should win the

Carmen: Well, let's, let's. Let's slow down a little bit. Just I don't.

Billy: No. What I mean, what do you think?

Carmen: So, no, no, no. I mean, so I think part of the problem is that people in our country don't understand that 10 families, basically, I, I thought it was more like 15 fam. It doesn't matter. A small chunk of people and their families own everything in the United States. And when we're talking about something like the economy, right?

You hear all these pundits come on and they're talking about the economy and the stock market. Most people are not invested in the stock market in any way, shape or form that is going to affect them. So when they're talking about the economy, people are like, well, I have my 401k. Yeah. You're not really paying attention.

Your 401k is not what they're talking about. You know, when they're talking about, it's like this big of a

Billy: Yeah.

Carmen: the stock

Billy: Not even.

Carmen: Right. But I think it was you who told me one time, I, I think it was you in a conversation, you said something that was so profound you said, um. So many Americans think they're like one paycheck away from becoming millionaires.

You know? Like everyone thinks they're gonna be

Billy: They're gonna make it like,

Carmen: like,

Billy: pull up your bootstraps, you're gonna get there. You might be able to buy a a Range Rover one day. Oh really?

Carmen: And I think that's part of the problem. It's like Americans don't understand that. Um, what's going on in the, and, and, and here's where it's different. Yes. Citizens United was a horrible, I will still say one of the most horrible decisions made by the Supreme Court. Um, but on top of it now the White House is also completely, even if it was before, like people wanna say, oh, you know, lobby groups, all these things have always had influence.

Not like this. This is a different ball game. There are no guardrails. They've fired everyone who's competent. They've installed people who do not know what the fuck they're doing, and they're stealing from the American people daily. They're taking money, they're buying jets. They're, you know, doing crypto crap they're doing, and they're just enriching themselves, you know, and people will do the whole What about is, which I love.

Right. What about Nancy Pelosi? She's a

Billy: Yeah. Yeah.

Carmen: the same thing. I

Billy: Not even close

Carmen: close. Like yes, there are problems with our government completely, but the answer isn't adding more people stealing from us or people making us believe that we're part of the 2%. Like love, that we're not

Billy: because, no, because, okay, so as you know, because you live in California and you live in la. And I live now in Mecca, Miami.

Carmen: Mm-hmm.

Billy: The, the wealth and the disparity of wealth is insane. Like when you look, when you look at these people or these, I mean these houses, I mean. 20, $30 million homes and a regular home for, you know, or a nicer home, four $5 million like I, and everyone's driving a Maserati or A-A-B-M-W or everything is like, it's just so exploded.

Carmen: I know, but here's the trick though. Here's what people don't understand, and I know you get it because we come from a different stock of people, but here's what people don't understand. All of those people are still not part of the 2%, and they're all in debt and they're all full of shit. They don't own their homes outright.

They don't. Can I work for some pretty wealthy people?

Billy: Wealthy people.

Carmen: they're not part of the 2%. Like,

Billy: Yeah, yeah,

Carmen: and they might have assets and they're clearly wealthier than I probably will ever be, but they're not part of the 2%. So it's all bullshit. Everyone is in major debt. Everybody is, uh, you know, pretending to be like the, what was it they used to say?

The Joneses? Is that it?

Billy: Yeah. Yeah.

Carmen: or whatever it is, the Benjamins, Joneses, doesn't matter. Never my family name, but, but I mean, I think that's part of it too. But you're talking about like even an apartment here in California. I live in Santa Monica and I'm actually in rent controlled area. 'cause Santa Monica is rent controlled and, and we're right by the beach.

And a one bedroom apartment is like $3,000. That's crazy.

Billy: and it's like, and, and then you think about it and you just wonder like, how, how do people even make it? Right? And like, I mean, I just, I, it's like, so, and, and this whole idea that these, these wealthy individuals. They're general. In general, they're not very, um, what do you call it? Um, when you give money, when you're philanthropic,

Carmen: Right, right.

Billy: they're just not

Carmen: and even if they are, they, it's always for a tax reason, right?

Billy: right or whatever.

Carmen: my nerves. Like every time people give money who have money, it's always to some nonprofit because they get a tax write off. They can't just give to give. They have to get something in return, which is a tax write off, which means, and also they feel good and then they look good, and then they have to look at, I said this the other day, I was, um, I mean, I don't mean to keep dissing Steven Spielberg.

I love Steven Spielberg. He's my favorite director of all time. I do not know him, and I'm sure, again, I will never get to meet him. And I'll be embarrassed if I ever do. But he gave money to, uh, Eric Dane. You know, the actor who died of it. It, it doesn't matter. I'm you, you

Billy: died.

Carmen: A LSI think. 

Uh, he's really young. I don't think you would've ever known who he was. But anyways, he was on a famous show and he, you know,

Billy: Oh, no. Is he the one that, is he the one that just died? That had the kids and wife and he was, and he was a young, he was a young actor actually. He

Carmen: yeah. Eric Dane. So, but here's the thing that became a big controversy is um, they set up a GoFundMe for

Billy: Because he didn't, he, uh, he died with nothing. Apparently

Carmen: Well, he didn't die with nothing. He even says in the GoFundMe, like, we even have the elite, you know, we have the best, uh, healthcare, but even with the best healthcare,

Billy: they still owed a bunch,

Carmen: they still owed a bunch or whatever.

And then like another famous actor was letting him stay in his house for the past year with his family. 'cause they have, you know, here's the point. 

 Why are we doing medical care by GoFundMe? Why is it in our country we don't have health insurance?

That

Billy: Oh wait, did we, did, have we covered that? Did we cover, did we cover that during the SE 1970s? I think you amid talked about that. In the 1970s they changed healthcare for profit and that was a Republican sham, another one of their efforts. So when everyone tells me, oh, the Republicans are Republicans, well, thanks.

Because all the healthcare we have is a res, is a, a product of them. Because it should be for nonprofit. It should, it should be,

Carmen: Yeah. And I, it, it's sad that you can have a successful career and you still won't be able to make ends meet.

Billy: yeah. In this, in this country now.

Carmen: Yes.

Billy: Oh, it's, it's only gonna get worse.

Carmen: I mean, here's the thing. If I lose one client and I can't pay my health insurance because the premiums now have gone up ridiculously because the Republicans keep trying to get rid of Obamacare. 

a weird, oh, you're supposed to be uplifting. Why are you making it so negative?

Billy: No, I, it's not, it's not. It's, I, I, I, I hope it doesn't, it's not that it's, it's not, I know sometimes I feel like I'm just negative Nancy, right? Like just everything is negative. But I mean, okay, where's, where is some of the light at the end of our tunnel in the United States, because I think it's capitalism gone.

Awry. That's

Carmen: not against

Billy: You know,

Carmen: You're not against capitalism.

Billy: I'm not against capitalism, but I do think, I do think there should be some sort of.

Carmen: Like no one should be a billionaire when people are hungry and don't have H Housing, like I don't understand.

Billy: Oh, you shouldn't be a, a, you know, a hundred billionaire or 20 billionaire or whatever, multiple billionaire, and you're not even really providing real jobs for the company that you're making all of your money on. Jeff Bezos.

Carmen: Jeff Bezos, right? Well, Walmart. Yeah.

Billy: Yeah, a Walmart, like, it's, it's a

Carmen: Amazon.

Billy: You are a

Carmen: a disgrace. Yeah. But.

Billy: I, I, I, I find, I, I find nothing, or e or even Elon Musk, I find nothing about them to be, you know, um, admirable. I'm

Carmen: people will say, people will say, they made their money, Billy. They have the right,

Billy: On the backs of fucking a lot of people.

Carmen: that's right, that's right. Like, how can you have all that money except that you stole from other people? I, here's the thing, if you paid people correctly, it still wouldn't affect the amount of

Billy: It wouldn't it at all. At

Carmen: At all. It wouldn't even, it wouldn't even hurt. Like not even a little bit. And if you need evidence of that, what is, uh, Jeff Basil's, ex-wife's name? Mackenzie. Mackenzie Scott, like, I don't know who her publicist is, but they need to get a new picture of her. But God love her. I love her, but every

Billy: only got the one picture

Carmen: She's got the one picture and it comes out and they're like, she just gave $2 billion to blah, blah, blah. And she's still ma, I mean, she's still making money.

She's not less of a

Billy: course.

Carmen: but I wonder what the

Billy: and Melinda Gates too.

Carmen: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

Billy: one who's just like, and said, oh, sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm checking out before it all.

Carmen: I just, yeah,

Billy: all. Before all your hanky panky comes flying

Carmen: I, well, and he just admitted Bill Gates. Just, yeah, it's so

Billy: Gross.

Carmen: can talk about the Epstein files for a moment because I.

Billy: No, I, I can't. 'cause that's another thing. It's the Epstein files for me. It's beyond me. It's like I'm, I'm like, when I hear some of the stuff that I hear about it, I go, that can't be true. Oh, that, that

Carmen: wait. You know

Billy: can't be

Carmen: today. You know what they're doing today? They're deposing Hillary Clinton, who's never even met the man. They're doing it behind closed doors. They're going to be recording it though. And they are gonna have a transcript, but you know, she wanted it live and so does, and then Bill Clinton is tomorrow, so by the time this is airing, she would've already been done.

Probably. But yeah, the Epstein felt, but, but I just wanna be clear so everyone understands they're not going to talk to the president of the United States, who's in the Epstein files, millions of times

Billy: But doesn't it? But, and you know what I love about him is whenever the Oh, that's a shame. That's a shame. I've been totally exonerated. I'm totally exonerated from the Epstein files. How, who, who exonerated you?

Carmen: His, his minions, his people, his supporters, who can never see that he does anything wrong and they don't use logic. How do they, like, I would be furious if I found out that Barack Obama had betrayed us. I'd diss that motherfucker up, like it'd be done. It's not even a, but they keep finding ways to support him, even if it twists them in a pretzel or makes them like contorted in, in half the time.

If you ask a Trump supporter a question about the constitution, about the branches of government, about anything that has to do with policy, they, what about is, what about Hillary? What about dah, dah, dah, and then they can't

Billy: They all do. They all do it. They've all been, they're all in it. They're all in it.

Carmen: It's mind bog. How do you deal with Trump supporters? I'm curious. I know,

Billy: well,

Carmen: I want other people to know,

Billy: know how, you know how that goes. I. Avoid. I, I mean, I do. I've, I, I, I literally, I, and I have obviously some people in my life that I can't avoid, right? Because I cannot, so we choose not to talk about it at all, which to me is like, uh, you know, I, in such a time, uh, I find it, you know, kind of.

Impossible to imagine, but it is what it is. I just, but in general, I think, I

Carmen: So you live in Florida, so there's even a lot of businesses you have to deal with.

Billy: of course, of course, people who are and, and they and, and their support, their supporters. I, I. I don't know. What's the only thing I can say? You know, I was with a, a friend that I hadn't seen in a number of years, um, the other day. And, um, and he said, he said it so kind of simply, like, I've, like, I, like, I feel like, you know, time will prove them all wrong, right?

Like in, in time, right? Like, because truth always kind of will come out at some point and. When all is settled, said and done, you know, I think that, I think that it will come through as real dark time in, in American history and, and whether we recover from it or not, right? It will be what is either the demise of us or somehow we managed to, um, rise above it.

However, I feel that it's a much more precarious. Time than ever before because there is no real media. There is no real true. I mean, when you have Fox News as like a competing media source, lying about whatever they want to lie about

Carmen: All day long, all day long,

Billy: long, uh, and then, and then you go into. The way our, our entire government is set up so that we have this electoral college and, you know, and states like, you know, I'm going to these, Missouri has as much power in the senate.

As California,

Carmen: or Kentucky. What the fuck? Like,

Billy: So that they have the same sort of, and there's so many more of them because they're all in the center, right? They're all in the middle and they have no access to any kind of real, um, media, right? Because now. There are no independent newspapers or newspapers in general.

They've all been bought out and they've all been, you know, there, there is no real media. So they're kind of getting it from, um, social media or from, you know, like, and the problem, as we all know with that, and I can say it for myself, you get in an echo chamber.

Carmen: Yeah. A silo. You're just

Billy: Yeah. You're just like, you're fed the same sort of stuff.

Same sort. So I've never been in a MAGA silo. But I can imagine, it must be really interesting to see all those blonde mega girls like, oh, la, la, la, la, la. Which, you know, I just want to shove a pie in their face and

Carmen: Well, it, it's so weird because like just talking about like, here, here's a good example of how a silo works. So the reason why Gavin Newsom went off. On Sean Hannity is because Gavin Newsom was, uh, speaking at an event and he was talking about his dyslexia. So he's always, anybody in California knows the story of Gavin Newsom having dyslexia.

It's kind of one of the things I like about him, you know, that he kind of revealed that and he's written a children's book about it, whatever. So he's speaking at this event, I don't know if you saw it. And um, he says in the event. He says, you know, I'm just like you. I'm a nine 60 SAT person. You know, I I don't read you've, you.

No. He said, you've never seen me read on a teleprompter. Right. Because he has dyslexia, so he has to memorize everything,

Billy: has a pro processing disorder. Yeah.

Carmen: So what does Fox News Sean motherfucking Hannity do? They cut. So that it's perfect, right? So that it says, I can't read. I, they, they leave out the context of it. They leave out the, and and then they make it racist.

And they say, he was saying, I'm just like you talking to a black audience, not, not a black audience, and not what he was saying. Even if it was a black audience. So now Fox News people are like, see, Gavin Newsom is racist and he can't read. Like that's what they just heard.

Billy: Yeah.

Carmen: So Gavin Newsom, that's when his office is like, fuck you, Sean Hannity.

Where were you with your outrage when you were calling Barack Obama and Michelle Obama? You know when, when the president of the United States was, you know, um, putting out the monkey video thing, where were you with your fucking outrage? 'cause he's not a racist, right? Gavin Newsom is not a ra. You can call him a lot of motherfucking things.

Racist is not one of them.

Billy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Carmen: That's how Fox News works. And Sean Hannity, shame on you. You fucking piece of shit for promoting that bullshit. And I'm so glad that that, um, Gavin Newsom.

Billy: but there, it's all of them. Have you,

Carmen: is the great example of how it's done. What,

Billy: have you heard that? Me, Kelly?

Carmen: stop. I,

Billy: Have you heard her? She, that woman, that woman is a rabid,

Carmen: Don't call her what you usually call her on the show.

Billy: woman. She is such an evil, ugly human being. She really is. She is the bottom of the bottom. And I'm sorry. All of those people that Jesse, whoever that Jesse is, I see him every.

Yeah. Another, they're just, they're, they are the bottom. And that's what I was gonna say before when you were talking about how do you deal with Trump supporters or whatever. I'm just gonna say Hillary Clinton was right and everyone was so angry that they had to put deplorables. On their cars or whatever as bumper stickers because they were a deplorable.

You know what? You are, you're deplorable and if you still support and you still agree and you still are all part of that, it is deplorable. I'm sorry. And I, and it's not that I'm above you or I, I just find your take on humanity deplorable.

Carmen: You know what I, I am gonna say, I feel I, I don't care if you call me an elitist. I, whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better works for me. But please listen to the message like you are wrong. Trump supporters are just wrong. There is no. Redeeming quality of what's happening in the past year.

He has enriched himself and his family over a billion dollars. I dunno how else to explain that. I dunno how else to make. He has used the look it. If you were someone who was like, oh my God, I love that he made a Bible and put his name on it and then sold it to me for $90, you, you, you're lost. Like, how did you not see that as a.

Billy: And then he made it in China on top of it, like at least you could have made it in the us. I mean.

Carmen: Not awesome. That's so true. Like, right, because he could be, I mean, I look it, again, it's this idea that he is this person who has such values and is such moralistic and he's so close to Jesus. Like you have diluted yourself. You are, you've just, you've gone down the rabbit hole and Yeah. I, I don't have any more Trump supporters in my life, and I

Billy: And that's okay.

Carmen: I'm sorry.

Billy: And that's okay.

Carmen: And that's okay. I do have some family members who, who I think have turned the corner, took them a minute, but they finally have like, turned the corner. But what I realize is they, they, they can't talk about it. They don't wanna talk about it,

Billy: They don't want to talk about it. It's an embarrassment.

Carmen: It's embarrassment and that's okay. I get it.

You know what I mean? And they're kind of like just, they're just going, they're like, uh, I'm not talking about politics anymore. Like, okay, good, good, good, good. Whatever it takes. And I think that's a hard thing to realize, but it's also takes a lot of courage, but realize you made a mistake.

Billy: But again, I, like I said to you, what, what worries me? Or what I find so disheartening is that to get out of it. As a nation? I don't know. I don't see how we do it in, in part, you know, I was, I, I, I heard this other thing. It was, uh, I don't know, on Instagram something, but they were, it was, um, someone who was talking about how we have lost our moral code as a nation because we would've never.

Voted in a man like Donald Trump 50 years ago.

Carmen: I know, but you know why we did though? We know why we did this. We did this because

Billy: oh,

Carmen: didn't want a woman in office. We, we, I mean, and, and, or, and, and let's not talk about, you know, the whole black woman thing, but just Hillary Clinton. We, Hillary Clinton was. Is one of the most well experienced people, and comparing her to Donald Trump is just ridiculous that that was even a question.

So if you wanna know why I know this to be true is because who did beat Donald Trump in between it was a white man. Biden Biden. So we know why. It's because our country is so, we're still in that space where we don't understand that women are, if not more experienced, just as equal and just as experienced to run this country.

So I think that's why this

Billy: Yeah, but then, but then you gotta be careful because then you have people like Pam Bondi, or you have people like

Carmen: No, no, no. That's

Billy: They're women.

Carmen: No, no, no. That's so. That's a great example, but that is a different thing. We're not talking about unqualified women. We're talking about Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. We're talking about women who actually have worked in the system and understand how to run a business, how to run a government, how to be a senator, how to, these are people who have experience.

Billy: Mm-hmm.

Carmen: You know, um, this, so I'm talking about qualified women. I would never put Ba Pam Bondi in the same breath as Hillary. Please, please, never. I could run, I could run any executive office better than these motherfuckers. That's how I know we in trouble, because I never felt that way before. Marco Rubio as cops.

Stop. Stop.

Billy: And he's, and he's, he's considered like the, you know, like,

Carmen: The one,

Billy: like, yeah, like sort of like the, the, the deal. I.

Carmen: no. Here's my problem with Marco Rubio and JD Vance. The idea that you would be. him Hitler one month and then the next breath you're kissing his ass is to me the flip flop of the century. Remember when, what's his name from Boston did the flip flop and it like catered his entire career. The Hines guy.

What's his name? Yeah, Senator. Um, I can't remember his name. He was, he is married to the Hines Ariss or whatever.

Billy: no, no.

Carmen: remember his name. Okay, I'll put it in the bottom. But it was kind of that thing, he did that whole flip flop thing and that became the, the, the thing of the campaign. And then he lost the campaign because he flip flopped.

This is like. Everyone at one point hated this man because they saw him clearly, and then somehow they realized how they could enrich themselves. And so then they, they, you, you are a, that's your moral core. That's how we've lost our moral core by being okay with these fucking appointed people.

Billy: Well, and, and just, and just all of it. It's like, it's like when you think of it, it's like. Donald Trump was able to win back the presidency now and again, I don't know how much I believe in all of it, right? Between you and I, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but let's just say he did win all of the swing states.

He did,

Carmen: Yeah, you, you've always been adamant that you question,

Billy: Well, I questioned

Carmen: with Elon Musk involved.

Billy: yeah, I question something. I find it, I find it a little interesting, but whatever. Maybe he did, maybe he

Carmen: here now.

Billy: win. And maybe it is true because they said, uh, I don't know how many people sat out, right? Like there was plenty of people that sat out from the election itself.

So maybe that was part of it, but it's. A tall tale to say that, you know, our country still 70 million people decided to go to those polls and,

Carmen: Yep.

Billy: said, sure, let's bring them back in.

Carmen: Well, okay. But I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut you off, but here's the thing. Even right now, his poll numbers are at 36% lowest they've ever been. I'm like, who the fuck are the 36%?

Billy: know, I know. I.

Carmen: It's the same thing. It's mind-boggling that you could be getting screwed in your face, and you're just like, yeah, that's cool.

That's all right. That's cool. It's all right. I'm okay with that.

Billy: Yeah. I don't, I, I, you know, I don't know other than, you know, isn't he like almost half dead anyways? Isn't he like sick?

Carmen: I listen. The whole age thing is a whole other thing. I'm

Billy: No, not just the age, the, the, the health. I mean, he's not a very healthy

Carmen: I know he has like makeup on his hands and I think.

Billy: just kind of gross. So I'm, I'm like, what is going on with him

Carmen: I'm just saying age in general in politics, like I really need Democrats and Republicans and independents to hear me fucking step down.

Billy: uh, greed. Uh,

Carmen: dignity to say like, you know what, I'm 70 something or whatever, and I know I'm getting close to that. Well, I'm not close to 70, but I'm just saying like, we're all getting older.

I don't want someone to tell me. But shit, like someone the other day was like, would you give up your car if somebody, you know, drive? Yes. I, I would. If I had the money, I would do it Now. Drive. It's a weird power thing, right? Like

Billy: It is so true though. It's like, it's like I prefer for, just for the record, I will not go out in, in at night if I'm gonna go drinking or have a, a dinner or whatever. I'm like, yeah, I'll just do Uber. Thank you very much.

Carmen: Exactly.

Billy: I, I don't, you know, I'll, I'll pay the extra 20 bucks or whatever it costs,

Carmen: But it's a weird, it's a weird ego thing and, and look, you have to have an ego to be in office. You do. You have to think you can do something and fix something or whatever, but at some point, how are you 89 fucking Mitch McConnell?

Billy: Oh my God.

Carmen: God. What is happening?

Billy: Well, you know, you and I have always felt the same way that watching his demise on TV is. Thoroughly enjoyable, but it is, it's

Carmen: It's cruel, but

Billy: enjoyable. You know, I, I, you know, I don't feel for the turtle at all, but, um, because he is in part, responsible

Carmen: oh, a huge part.

Billy: a huge part because he should have impeached him.

He should

Carmen: wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's go back. Let's go. I always remind you of this with Barack Obama. I mean, he is the reason why, you know, bar

Billy: whole mission was to totally derail anything that Barack wanted to

Carmen: And he said it out loud and no problem. He was not. And so that's where it began.

Billy: mofo.

Carmen: And, but not even a patriot. Not even somebody who's like, I love my country enough that I am going to do the right thing, even if I don't like this guy. Whatever. Like, and that's why look it, I know people have issues with Senator McCain, but Senator McCain loved this

Billy: Yeah.

Carmen: and he was gracious and a good person, even if I didn't agree with everything.

I mean, he kind of ruined it with the Sarah Pale and shit, but I

Billy: But that was, but that again, that was the Republican party that did that on them, on him. I think they imposed her on him.

Carmen: Well, because they were trying to use a strategy because a black man was running, let's get a woman, and it was just wrong and, and also the wrong woman again, incompetent

Billy: talk about a dimwit. I mean a complete and utter dimwit because I, I remember when Katie Curry Curric interviewed her and she said, so tell me, Sarah, what, what papers do you read? And and Sarah was like, all of them. And Katie was like, Katie was like all of them. Like, could you name one or two of them?

Carmen: It was

Billy: name a goddamn paper.

Carmen: It was. Can you imagine saying that I mean, that's the incompetence, right? That's the problem. Like not even knowing how to

Billy: Yeah. Answer something, right? You know, it's

Carmen: governor of Alaska at that point for a long time. It's not like she was a newbie or anything.

Billy: know, I know. But, and, and well look at Christine home. She was the governor of Oklahoma or, or Idaho, or

Carmen: It doesn't matter. You know what, all those

Billy: Iowa or whatever it was.

Carmen: Here. Here, here's, here's my thing with the Trump cabinet people, it'd be okay. It's never okay, but you know, there's always someone who's not. Qualified or up to par. Like I think of Dan Quail, who looks like a fucking genius compared to like, remember he was the vice president under, I think George Bush senior and everyone, and he couldn't spell potato or tomato or something, and it was like, but he also had a lot of kind of moments where you could see this wasn't really his jam or something.

I just say that respectfully, but now he looks like a genius compared to these people. There's always one. The problem with this cabinet, it's everyone. Everyone.

Billy: And now he's, and now did you see who he's trying to appoint to the health?

Carmen: Oh, an okay.

Billy: an influencer.

Carmen: a medical

Billy: doesn't even have an md.

Carmen: No. Yeah. Well, I mean, look it. Look who's running. Uh, you know what?

Billy: I know. I

Carmen: at, we're at a ho. Look at where I've gotta cut this off because if we have to talk about RFK Junior,

Billy: Oh my

Carmen: I mean, if you have him at the head of a department, you're already lost. Can you imagine?

Billy: Well, yeah. 'cause we're living it.

Carmen: Did you see that video They

Billy: Yeah. With him and Pete Ha. No, him and Kid Rock.

Carmen: Yeah, him and Kid Rock.

Billy: yeah.

Carmen: And it was on the White House

Billy: Yeah, there you go. I mean, one thing after the other, I mean,

Carmen: Disgusting.

Billy: the disgrace, the disgrace of them in general is just like, I don't know. I have nothing to say and Well, no, I have

Carmen: I love what you just said because I'm like, you just spoke for 45 minutes, but okay.

Billy: Yeah, I got plenty to say clearly, but I, I just

Carmen: to be uplifting. I mean, you okay. I, I know that you feel the way you feel, but I actually think here, here's what I think. I actually think we will be able to get out of this. It's gonna be hard because voting and what they're trying to do to suppress the vote with like, even all the mail-in ballot stuff that they're trying to, you know, and all the, they're trying to make sure everybody has ID now to.

Be able to vote. And here's the thing that's interesting about that. So here's kind of, um, I'm not even gonna argue why we don't need to have IDs. Let's just say we do use IDs. Here's what you don't understand. Trump supporters. Most people who are educated and actually travel are the ones who actually have passports.

People who don't have passports, right? Or access to their birth certificates tend to be red states because they don't travel that much, they're not as educated, and it's not about academia. I'm saying a lot of people don't travel outside the United States, and that's not a dis so. You are gonna have that problem where people don't have passports.

'cause that would be one way. The other one is people don't have access to their birth certificates. People don't have easy access, so you're gonna have to get a certified birth certificate in order to get your whatever Id they're talking about. And my favorite one, my favorite one, is women have to change their names.

They

Billy: yeah, yeah, yeah,

Carmen: change their names when they get married. So if your name doesn't match your birth certificate or your passport, then you're not gonna be able to vote. I mean, the whole idea of that there's corruption and voting is such bullshit, but you've all believed it because you wanna believe the lie.

All they're trying to do is safeguard that Republicans win again. That's all they're trying to

Billy: yeah.

Carmen: because they can't win the right way

Billy: Right.

Carmen: without cheating.

Billy: Well, I, again,

we are in a real tough spot and I do hope that somehow we can, we can figure it out as a nation, right? Like we can figure out how to Yeah, and I think, and I think what we need too, uh. We, we really need someone who cares or people who care, who really care because yeah, like it's interesting to me that any of those mega supporters or any of those Trump supporters, they really think he cares.

Carmen: Yeah.

Billy: they really think he or any of his cabinet or any of those people care? Like I, it's like how.

Carmen: talks like them.

Billy: How disingenuous do you have to be for some, you know, it's like, it's it, it's so obvious to me. Right?

Carmen: it's, but Billy, what you're misunderstanding is that he talks like them so they feel connected and then they think, oh, I'm like him because that's how I speak. And so therefore I too can become a billionaire. Like it is that weird logic.

Billy: Yeah. That weird connection.

Carmen: the reason why Trump speaks the way he does, even though he graduated from, uh, the School of Wharton, the Business School of Wharton, which I have to tell you is a very prestigious school, and he talks the way he does and he doesn't know things is because he's not smart.

Like he's not a smart person. He got into school and he got through school because of legacy. And if you remember that whole court case with one of the, um, the two of the celebrity women who got caught paying for their kids tutors or whatever it is for cheating, whatever, it's that same system. And the only reason why I am sure of it, not only because of the way he speaks, like you don't have to go to college or university to, to be educated and to speak well, that's not my point.

But I am certain you cannot go to the, uh, business school Wharton, at at, at the University of Pennsylvania talk and be this dumb. You can't have gone through four years of college and be this dumb about basic things about the Constitution in the United States or the economy, like this whole tariff thing.

So that to me is just such evidence that. He is so stupid, and I'm sorry. I know people get mad. I don't care. I'm disrespecting the president of the United States because he disrespects people in this country all the time. He disrespects them all the time. So I feel nothing for him. But yeah,

Billy: Oh, and like I said, I just feel, I feel like we really, we really need someone, or we

Carmen: You don't see that? I see the fire in people's bellies. All I feel Governor Pritzker. I think Governor Newsom, I see it. You don't, I, I

Billy: I know, I think there are some for sure. I think there are some people I, what's interesting to me is how people have been pushed to sort of this brink that they feel like, um, Democrats are socialists and the whole idea behind socialism. Is really, um,

Carmen: I care about you.

Billy: yeah, yeah, painful to people because somehow they feel like it's, you know, they're the ones that are being taxed for it, which truthfully, the bottom half is taxed at a much higher rate than obviously the real wealthy.

Right.

Carmen: Well, because there's a loophole, right? There's all the loopholes that welcome people

Billy: that they're able to use to not have to pay taxes.

Carmen: Look it. I have a CPA. I have a CPA who does everything they can to make sure I pay the least amount of time, and I'm nobody, I don't make that much money. That's what a CPA does. So can. Somebody who's at a higher level and then they have all the loop and businesses, you know, going back to what you were talking about before, businesses don't pay anything.

They get away with, they get so many tax write-offs. They get so many incentives, they get so much money from the government that they're not paying their due. And then on top of it, they don't pay workers anything. So we're back to where we started, but I have hope. I dunno why. I think our country's gonna be

Billy: I have hope that it's all gonna change, especially with AI coming.

Carmen: Oh my God. Okay. All right. We're gonna close this down because I am saying, I think, look it as quickly as he has done damage to our country, I think we can just as quickly. Start the process of fixing it, but we, we have to unite, we have to vote and we have to have people go out and vote so that It's undeniable.

It's undeniable. It can't be like a close race or whatever. This, it has to be like everyone voted against you. You can try to cheat

Billy: Well, wasn't that, wasn't that Biden after all.

Carmen: Right. That's what I'm saying. It has to be undeniable.

Billy: 20 mil? Did he win by million or

Carmen: I don't remember exactly, but it was undeniable. But he's still trying. He's still trying because he's his ego.

That's the other thing, like, dude, you lost, let it go like you lost. But

Billy: and on top of it, it's like he's repulsive. He's just, he's so repulsive.

Carmen: You hate him more than I do. I hate here. Here's the difference between you and me. I hate all the enablers like I wrote him off a long time ago. But it's all the enablers who I hate, the people who actually do know better. And I'm talking about you Republican party, you Republicans in Congress.

Like that's who I hate more than him. I, 'cause he wouldn't be where he is today without all of them propping him up. Are you kidding me?

Billy: Yeah.

Carmen: Yeah. He would've been impeached by Mitch McConnell. He would've been, you know what I mean? Like he,

Billy: Yeah. Well, absolutely. And especially after Jan. Jan six.

Carmen: Yeah, of course. But instead,

Billy: me?

Carmen: instead they all became woos.

Billy: if that was a Democrat, they would have, he'd be in prison.

Carmen: Yeah, right. But, but I, but yeah, if it was Barack Obama, can you imagine?

Billy: God. Forget it. They would've hung him.

Carmen: Yeah, it'd be over, but All right everyone, thank you so much for hanging out, Billy. Thank you. I appreciate you doing this. That was really easy. That was really fun. Um, it's like our regular phone calls, which is.

Billy: It is

Carmen: Although, although I can, can I say this?

I, I love that you restrained your favorite word. I was like, please don't say it. Please don't say it. Right, because I'd have to bleep it out.

Billy: I didn't say it.

Carmen: No, don't say it. Um, everyone's gonna be wondering what the word is, but you'll just have to

Billy: and I think that's

Carmen: And he's on the show. What?

Billy: I think that's easy.

Carmen: Yeah. That's easy. But everyone, thank you so much.

Remember at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. Bye everyone.

Billy: Bye-bye. Bye, Carmen.