Upside Down Priorities: A Nation’s Reality Check

"Congress has become so out of touch that even corporations are stepping in to hold them accountable—how did we get here?" The latest episode of The Rant Network dives into the chaos of air travel, the absurdity of standing for hours in security lines, and the stark reality that lawmakers are distracted by fringe issues while ignoring what truly matters to Canadians and Americans alike. We reflect on the absurdities at the recent NDP convention where identity politics mattered more than issues affecting Canadians. With priorities flipped upside down, it's time to ask: who’s really looking after the people? Tune in for a candid, no-holds-barred discussion that exposes how far we've fallen—and what needs to change.

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Transcript

Cold Open And Travel Frustration

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I tricked you, David. It's too loud. I know, I know, I know. I just have to have fun with the toys, you know. Boys and toys, boys and toys. You know, we know this. All right. Let me ask you something. Yep. When was the last time you stood in a security line for two hours? When was the last time you showed up in the airport at 4 45 in the morning for a seven o'clock flight?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

When my mother-in-law made us do that years ago on a charter flight, we did that once. And the damn team and the damn ticket counter wasn't even open. It happened to us once. We did it once. Oh my gosh. Never again. Never again do we stand three hours.

Delta Revokes Congress Travel Perks

SPEAKER_01 0:52

All right. So let me continue. Please. When was the last time you watched a Delta Airlines, an airline company, not a union, not a think tank, not a cable news panel, publicly stripped Congress of its travel perks? Congress was the incompetent. So captured, so divorced from reality that corporations had to shame them into basic accountability. Nuts. That is not a hypothetical. It's not. Dang it. My screen just went blank, Dave.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Stuart, I gotta tell you, I think that what's going on today is priorities are backwards. Priorities are upside down. If I look, if you look at what you just said about the TSA, that Congress's only concern are fringe issues. And rather than what matters most to Americans, matters what most to keeping the economy going. They don't care about the American population. They think fringe issues are all that matters. They don't have nothing in 2024.

Shutdown Fallout And Airport Chaos

Funding Fight Meets Trans Rights Push

SPEAKER_01 2:09

That's not a hypothetical. That is the United States of America spring break of 2026. And while it was happening, while 50,000 federal workers were showing up for work without a paycheck, while airports were collapsing under their own dysfunction, while real people with real jobs and real families were doing the math on whether they could keep the lights on. A group of United States senators and members of Congress put their trans flag ties on and walked outside into the snow, announcing a bill that has zero chance of passing, and that has the majority of their own voters disagreeing with them. That's on the U.S. side. That is what I need you to understand today. That's not policy, that's not priorities. That's because their priorities are really the honest language that politicians speak. Theirs is theirs. Right? That's their thesis. Write it down. The modern Democratic Party has made a choice, a conscious, documented, traceable choice to prioritize its politics of identity over the material needs and workers of Americans. They claim to represent you and I. Well, they clearly can't with their names, their dates, with their Delta CEO own word says, let me start the shutdown itself because I want you to feel the weight of this. The Department of Homeland Security has been in a partial shutdown for over 40 days. 40 fucking days. That's a record. 50,000 TSA officers working without a paycheck since mid-February. 50,000 people. Not an abstraction, not line items on a budget, memo, people with mortgages, car payments, and kids who need lunch money. And the results were exactly what you expected. More than 500 TSA officers quitting. On some days, more than 40% of the workers at more majority major airports called out sick. Not because they were lazy, because someone couldn't show up for work to find free money. They had to go and get a part-time job. That's not a job. That is servitude. The line, God, the lines, Hartsfield, Jackson, Atlanta, sneaking through the concourse in and outdoors. LaGuardia, New York, where, by the way, my kid got bounced off of a flight because her and 17 classmates couldn't make it through the TSA line. Yep. Pre-check lines. The one you pay extra for, the one that's supposed to skip and bypass all the stretching and parking through the garages. Philadelphia in Philadelphia International Airport shut down an entire checkpoint. San Diego rep lines through the whole flipping terminal. A traveler in Houston told reporters, and what I want you to hear this, we're going to go on the 11 o'clock flight, but we rebooked it to the 4 30. We got there three and a half hours early. Yeah, three and a half hours early for a domestic flight on an American Airlines in 2026. That's right. Again, Delta Corporation isn't a crusader, so they got fed up and they pulled the perks for all of Congress and House. The CEO called it the inexcusable that the TSA frontline agents were being used and used and used and used as a political chip. Now ask yourself who's paying the chips. Here, how's a shutdown happen? Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security. It's very simple. They didn't want to pay for it because they didn't like IC. But you know, you know, here is where you gotta start twisting it a bit. Because what did you have literally just a short while ago? You had the entire Democratic caucus starting to push forward and flag forward a transgender bill of rights. Yep, transgender bill of rights in advance of going to vote. It doesn't just end there. They they Senator Kim, with respect to 510 officers, quit and said, you know, hey, not a big deal. We want to prevent and keep you safe. So we need to get rid of these uh illegal ICE agents that are what? Working at the airports, helping everyone get through the lines. And by the way, David, when I was in Arizona, I met the nicest ICE agents.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

They were smiling. I've heard nothing. I've heard a lot of great stories. You don't even have to go there on ACE agents. It's just it's a it's a it's a lovely lefty uh yelling screaming match. But anyway.

Canada Follows The Same Playbook

SPEAKER_01 7:00

But now let me let me flip back to what the topic is: a transgender bill of rights, right? Why am I talking about TSA and transgender bill of rights? Because the Democratic Party on February 11th, in the middle of the TSA crisis, famous Representative Japal and uh Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Sari Jake's California, and Mark Tacano of California gathered outside the U.S. Capitol building in chilling winds and snow and announced the reintroduction of a transgender bill. Yep. Yep, Japal declares the transgender community continues to be targeted and scapegoated by the hateful legislation and the politicians. The cruelty must stop. Mackey had another one. He was supporting by holding a flag, right? And Jacob said no one should live in fear of being who they are. But you know, you thought that was it, David? Yesterday, when Congress was on recess, DHS still not funded, TSA workers still dealing with the fallout, waiting for their paychecks to go. Japal Jacob Sicano and Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii introduce another resolution. A formal congressional resolution. David, do you think it was for TSA? No, of course not. No ICE? No, Transgender Visibility Day. But it doesn't stop there, right? You would think it would. Democrats have blocked this for 44 days. It's just crazy. What have they done in the time? Reintroduced transgender bill of rights, filed uh an MICUS briefed Supreme Court signed by 130 Congress members, arguing trans sports bans violates Title IX, issued transgender day of disability resolution, and showed up with press conferences with trans flags and ties. You know, 60% 66% of Americans support requiring transgender athletes to compete in their biological map. 56% of Americans vote restricting gender-affirming care for minors. It's a 50-plus issue, not a 10% issue. In some cases, it may be as high as 80% issues. But David, you know, you're in Canada. It's not just an American problem because now you got British Columbia Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equality or Equity, Jennifer Blackwick, issued a formal government statement on the 31st of March yesterday, announcing what BC is the first province to officially proclaim March 31st is transgender day visibility, as she declares it proudly in front of the trans community. Yep, British Columbia. By the way, the housing crisis there is so severe. Young people are fleeing the province, trying to move to the United States, Alberta, Calgary, yeah, yeah, even desperately to Montreal. And the government's response is let's have a proclamation day. The Canadian government also, under the liberal budget, spent$35 million specifically to expand it for transgender health care. David, I gotta ask you a question. I haven't been in the Canadian system in decades. Yeah, yeah. Is there different care for men, women, and transgender? So why would you need an additional$35 million for transgender health care services?

NDP Convention And Equity Cards

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Because it's because that is well, Stuart, welcome to woke politics in 2026. This is what it is. It dominates your news cycle. It's crazy what's been going on. And there's and it it is and it affects hundreds of millions of Americans, hundreds of millions of Americans. Transgender rights may affect 0.1%, 1%, whatever the number is, I don't know. But there's a I'm not marginalizing this group. I'm just saying there's are there are some serious issues that are on the table today that are ignored. In Canada, Stuart, what you missed last this past weekend was the coronation of a new leader of our communist party called the NDP, the New Democratic Party. Avi Lewis was made the new head of the party. What were his credentials? Well, he, him, his father, his grandfather were all part and parcel of this, this, this, the NDP party. His father had just passed away, a somewhat respected NDP or from Ontario, who probably looked at his son and went, how much further left can you go? And this is the thing, is even when the NDP started, back when it was called, you know, the CCF, back in the day of Tommy Douglas Stewart. I'm trying to pull your Canadian history out of your mind, the CCF never went this far. Socialized medicine was the biggest thing that they introduced in Canada, and it changed Canadian politics forever. But here and changing Canadian society forever. But today, what does the NDP stand for? Hate, anger, disgust at Canada, and equity cards. So, Stuart, the convention was this past weekend. And as I said, Avi Lewis was uh elected. And what did he say? What was the most important sentence he said? Israel's genocidal. We need to create a Palestinian state. And when you looked at the crowd as he cheers, how many Canadian flags did you think you saw, Stuart? Zero. How many Palestinian flags did you see? A bunch. How many people were in kafias? A whole bunch. This is the NDP party, the fringe party. And so to make things worse, Stuart, I took part of the Conservative Convention back in January. I now understand what it means to go to these policy meetings and to stand in the and and what and what are points of order and all that kind of stuff. Stuart, we went through some six about 60 different pieces of legislation of policies that we wanted to vote it on. And only a handful would go to the plenary, which would basically be the official party platform. And what not once did we argue like the NDP? See the NDP in their convention this past weekend, Stewart, each person got get this an equity card. The equity card reflected by the color, the priority in which you are in society and in this convention. So if you were transgender, if you were handicapped, if you were indigenous, you got a color and gave you priority status. I saw that. If you were a white male, you were in the back because white male is bad. Now, here's the irony of this steward is that by giving out these equity cards and complaining about how bad things are, they elected an all-white vanilla leader in Abby Lewis. Okay. And I think just because he's a Jew hater, it made it, I just they just it's a good checkbox. But the equity card, Stuart, we're all about who has privilege. This NDP, this communist party, is brought in under its so-called big tent that they keep using. Every person who hates society in Canada, every Western value you can be probably pissing shit on, they're there. Transgender person complains about they were they weren't allowed to speak. They should have had priority to speak. Is this our society today? Is this our society today? It's not about, hey, let's stand in line like regular people, and I'm not saying TSA lines like that, but I'm saying regular people stand in line. Even to go to McDonald's, you stand in line. You can't go to the front of the line and said, because, hey, because I'm gay, I go to the front of the line. That doesn't work like that at McDonald's. You stand in line like everybody else, not at the NDP convention. People stood and bitched about the order in which they were called upon by the chair. Oh, and let me talk about the chair of the convention. The chair of the convention was referred to by a Kafia wearing bitch who complained mercilessly about you know her not being able to talk on time and refer to the chair as madam chair. Wouldn't you know it? The person says, I am please do not refer to me as madam chair, I am non-binary, my pronouns are they, them, and just chair is sufficient. In 2026, in the NDP policy plenary, did anybody talk about crime? No. Immigration?

unknown 15:41

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Making the economy better, no, housing, no, it's all about fringe policies and all about hate towards Israel. That's all that mattered. And the clause that went out there for all of these people was off the charts. My when I sent this to you, Stuart, one of the fears I have is your Democratic Party is going to look at this and go, what a great idea. Let's do that in the in you know, in this summer's convention. When we have our convention, we should do the same thing. We should give out equity cards. And I'm telling you, and I'm warning you, and I'm warning everybody, this is how the left, the hard left, is pulling harder. Yeah, they haven't realized, Stuart, that they are losing a battle and they're pulling harder than ever before. So when I hear about Congress people like the ones you just spoke about, who are doing a transgender bill, who are who in the middle of a war, in the middle of a TSA crisis, in the middle of this fake ice bullshit, they're putting out pulling out all the stops on transgender rights. Once again, a total fringe policy when the economy's in the shits, gas prices at$4 a gallon, let's not focus on the priorities, let's just focus on this. And Stuart, I'm warning all Americans today, if you watch, please, Instagram, YouTube, whatever, watch the reaction in the NDP convention. If you believe in the United States that this is what priority you have politically, you're sunk. Now, the good news is in Canada, the NDP is does not have official party status in Canada because they lost almost all of their seats. They're trying to rebound. Of course, they're trying to scream and yell how wonderful they are. And the but the mockery that's gone across Canada on this has been off the charts. The Liberal Party of Canada is, sorry, sir, let me wrap this up with this. The Liberal Party of Canada is not much better, but they are a little bit better. The party's still full of hateful people, the party is still full of people who want to deal with fringe, fringe policies. You have a bitch like Anita Anand, our foreign minister, who decided that Israel shouldn't should not assassinate, uh, not commit, you know, do a capital punishment towards Palestinians. She confuses words like Palestinians and terrorists. To her, they're apparently they're one and the same to her. Um, because if you say we, you know, anybody who does commits terror in Israel and kills people should get the the death sentence. And then she stood up there and said, Israel is, again, making those racial remarks. So she could be a member of the NDP. She would be brought in under that under that tent because she's a visible minority, she's a woman, she hates Israel, you fit the bill, check. So we got to be really careful, ladies and gentlemen, what direction we're going in with hate. Because that is what the NDP is standing for today. Hate of white people, hate of Canadian philosophy. I mean, to stand there and not be proud to be Canadian, but the shit on Canada is what the party's doing. And your Democratic Party in the United States, Stuart, is looking awfully familiar.

Elections Accountability And Who Pays

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Well, so here's what I want you to take away. The Democratic Party, right now, in the last six weeks alone, has blocked funding for 50,000 TSA workers for 44 days, causing record airport chaos, hundreds of resignations, a real financial hardship for real Americans and for federal employees while paying themselves an enormous amount of salary and health insurance. Simultaneously reintroduced a transgender bill filed by 130 members, Supreme Court amnibus brief on trans sports and issued trans-day visibility resolutions, all while Congress is in recess and TSA workers are facing eviction. That is the priority list written in action, not words. Correct. But let me tell you what really working people care about. They will tell you they are the party of the little guy. They will tell you their hearts bleed for workers that can't make rent. That's what the Democrats will do. But at the moment when 50,000 workers need a paycheck, when millions of travelers that need to travel for business or for holidays are affected by the Capitol members standing outside waving flags about gender identity. That's not a party that has lost its way. That is a party that's made its choice. And you know what, David? In the United States, November 2026, people get to take another vote to the ballot box. Stuart, let me tell you. Let me this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. Well, let me put it to you this way. What you just said on that, on that, what you said. It is fascinating that in the middle of a war with terrorism at high levels, that the Democrats are willing to play with people's lives, that they are playing with your lives. Now, Republicans aren't perfect either. And I'm going to tell you that both parties are a bunch of assholes and selfish pieces of shit for not doing something right. They gotta figure this out. But kudos to Donald Trump, who passed an executive order and said, We're gonna pay these people because we want the safety of Americans to come first. Now, will he get the kudos from the left or from the democracy? No, never, not a chance. But even CNN and even MSNBC and all the rest of them are starting to realize the Democrats are really losing the battle. They are losing, they might win a battle here and there, but they're gonna lose the so-called voter war because this TSA thing, well, they're gonna go to the ballot box and say, Donald Trump screwed you with a$4 gallon. Donald Trump is gonna go back and said, you know, I may have hurt you guys for a short period of time with a$4 gallon, but I saved American lives by opening up the TSA where when Congress didn't have the intestinal fortitude to do it, and senators like Chuck Schumer, who couldn't figure out what to do after Donald Trump paid money, paid a paycheck to the TSA workers, all of a sudden he had to backpedal because egg was on his face and on Hakeem Jeffrey's face. And you want to know what's doing? If all you care about is fringe policies, I wish that the voters will remember that come November and vote you out.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yep, your mouth, the God's ears. You know what? But that's it. Wrap it up, David. You say get out of here. Let's get out of here. Guys, we're done.