The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal
"Fiercely and unapologetically progressive, and definitely NSFW. 'The Professional Left' features award-winning bloggers Driftglass and Blue Gal as they skewer right-wing absurdities and dismantle mainstream media mealy-mouths with razor-sharp wit and zero filter. From mercilessly mocking partisan hacks to elevating stories the media ignores, it's the profane, unflinching political commentary you didn't know you needed. More at http://ProLeftPod.com."
The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal
Ep 1025: Panic At The Grift Shop
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Episode 1025 opens with a longer off-the-cuff discussion of Mehmet Oz stripping people from Obamacare and the GLP-1 "bridge" program from Medicare, both moves that seem designed to serve Trump's ego and pocketbook more than public health. Driftglass and Blue Gal then turn to the MAGA voters now performing shocked-pikachu-face on TikTok after ICE came for their own employees and girlfriends, revealing they never cared about anyone else's suffering, only their own. The episode traces how Never Trump media figures like Steve Schmidt flip on a dime for billionaire money, and how George W. Bush finally broke his silence this week not to condemn Trump, but to fundraise for the same Republican Party that killed his signature achievement. It's about scapegoats, alibis, and why the mob that built the Tea Party and then MAGA will always turn toward whoever hands it its next target.
Links for this episode - Driftglass is a guest on other podcasts!
Brad Blog: https://bradblog.com/?p=19336
Bob Cesca Show: https://bobcescashow.substack.com/p/the-bob-cesca-interview-92326
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SPEAKER_05This is the podcast for the week of September 25th, 2026. It's not safe for work.
SPEAKER_01Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance, where do you know the Klingum proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best deserved cold?
SPEAKER_08It's very cold. In the midterms, it's the professional left with drift glass and bluegal.
SPEAKER_05As many of you know, I had to take a full-time job in order to have health insurance after the Republicans in Congress refused to extend Obamacare subsidies. And the cost of our health insurance for me and youngest child, who at the time, at the beginning of the year, was still in college, uh, was $2,561 a month. And that's without subsidies. It had been about approximately $698 a month prior to that. And and we paid that. I mean, we paid almost $700 a month for health insurance out of pocket uh last year. But this year, uh we weren't we there was no way that anyone, I don't think anyone can afford $2,561 a month. I have seen someone on Blue Sky claim that they pay $3,000 a month for health insurance, and I believe them. Uh but certainly in our income tax bracket, we're not able to afford that.
SPEAKER_08That's insane. No.
SPEAKER_05Uh that's two and a half times our mortgage.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And so uh I went back to work full-time. And the job that I knew I could find right away, because I'm qualified to do it, and because those jobs are available here in Springfield and around the country, was answering phones in a medical center. Uh, I answer phones uh in a large medical center uh for I think it's nine doctors and six nurse practitioners. So uh, and all of their nurses. So it's it's a busy day. Uh this week I had two days where I spoke to 100, over 100 patients per day. Per day in a in a nine-hour day. Yeah. Eight-hour day with an hour lunch. So uh it's a lot, it's a lot of work. Uh but the story came across the transom this week that uh Mehmet Oz and uh his ilk in the Trump White House were getting ready to kick another group of people off of Obamacare. And this group of people were people that did not use their Obamacare for over a year. Year or two, I think it was a year. I I want to say it was a year. It might have been two years, but I think it was a year. No claims, in other words. So they they didn't get any prescriptions filled and they didn't uh have any appointments or any copays or anything that would bill insurance.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_05And uh the the the thing about that, I have I have a lot of opinions about that because uh one of my jobs is to call people who have either not shown up for their appointments or need to reschedule their appointments, they canceled them and didn't reschedule them, uh, get them to come in and do lab work that they didn't do when they were supposed to, and and it's like bill collecting. I mean, no one answers their phone, you know, and you're leaving voicemails all the time. Or they're living, they're living out of state or they're yeah, we have a lot of snowbirds and and they're in they're all already on their way to Florida or Arizona or whatever. It's just it's trying to track people down to just show up at the doctor's office.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05And the vast majority of our patients, like many medical centers, are retired and and have health insurance that's not Obamacare, that is, you know, they they do have Medicare. Uh, but still getting them to come into the doctor's office is often really hard. And the tragedy is you do get, you know, widows who have no transportation to get to the doctor. That's the sad call. Or and there is a senior bus here in Springfield that will take to the doctor, but you have to find a way to get to that bus and or have that bus come pick you up. It's it's a challenge. And uh so anyway, the the the I read up on this today. I read up on what Memadaz was up to.
SPEAKER_08Wait a minute. And so in your spare time from answering phone calls, yeah, only along. Okay. Yeah, I did nerd, nerd.
SPEAKER_05Well, as you know, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_08I know.
SPEAKER_05I read up on I read Andy Slavitt's book, okay?
SPEAKER_06I know you did.
SPEAKER_05You you really medical medical policy is one of my passions and has been. Yes, since I needed health insurance for my children.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_05And you got really after I got divorced in 2008, and that was when the whole Obamacare thing started. So I became an expert.
SPEAKER_08You got very, very good at it. Very good.
SPEAKER_05I got very, very good at making sure my children had Medicaid, making sure that Medicaid covered what they needed, uh-huh. And following the debate and the and the intricacies of health insurance coverage.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_05And so I so yeah. So when this comes up, and and it's just another way to hate to put hatred of Obamacare in the headlines so that Donald Trump knows Mehmt's doing his job. He's destroying Obamacare, which is his job from the inside. And so what apparently Oz did was um he says, this is what he says he did. Who knows what he actually did, but he says that the policy was to get insurance companies to go through their records and anyone that had not filed a claim against their Obamacare subsidized health insurance policy in a certain amount of time, whether it was a year or two years, send them a letter. Contact them and send them a letter. And if they don't respond to the letter in 30 days, kick them off. They're gonna get kicked off, they're gonna lose their subsidy. Right. Which means they're gonna get a bill for $2,561 in the mail. That's right. And uh so there was an article in the Atlantic about how uh how stupid this was, and how uh 30 days is no time at all when people are on vacation or traveling, or uh maybe put putting all of the junk mail in one pile or one box on the dining room table and only opening personal mail and then figuring out later on, oh, this is actually something I needed to open. Yeah. Uh, or throwing away everything that comes from United Healthcare. Because you didn't make a claim in two years, though this can't possibly be anything related to your life, right?
SPEAKER_08Exactly.
SPEAKER_05And the people who do not see a doctor for a year or two years are generally young, healthy people. And those are the people, this is the thing that these Republicans do not understand about health care pools.
SPEAKER_08There's there's another group, yeah, which I was a member of age-wise, which are um older or middle-aged men who are afraid of the diagnosis they will get.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right. Right.
SPEAKER_08And they want to know that the insurance is out there just in case, you know, I'm hit by a comet. Right. I can go and not go bankrupt.
SPEAKER_05But I don't want to know what that bump is.
SPEAKER_08I don't. I'm just a little freaked out by it. I'd rather not know. I'll just walk it off, you know, and women too.
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry, people between the ages of 55 and 65 are waiting. This is why there is a burst of cancer diagnoses at 65. It's because people have ignored ignored that ache, ignored that pain until they knew it was paid for. And so they go into the doctor when they have insurance at 65 and find out, oh, we did a blood test and you've got cancer. And there is a genuine explosion of cancer diagnoses in this country at 65 for that reason. It's exactly directed to access to affordable insurance that's not going to make you go broke. That's right. So uh, so here is MMADAs telling insurance companies to send a letter. Now, I don't know how the Center for Medicaid and Medicare enforced the insurance companies doing that letter and actually accurately tracking responses. I I have no idea. They just announced, oh, we just did this and saved $2 billion. Well, $2 billion in the age of Trump deficits is nothing.
SPEAKER_08It's silly.
SPEAKER_05It's what it's what it's what Donald Trump is pocketing in a week.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05With his with his owning stock in Eli Lilly, by the way. Uh, and this was the other thing I brought up with you this week, Driftglass, is uh the bridge program. There is now a bridge program for weight loss drugs, which is accessible to seniors who do not have a Medicare Part D plan, who do not have uh access to these weight loss shots mostly uh on their Medicare.
SPEAKER_08Right. They're not covered for it.
SPEAKER_05They're not covered.
SPEAKER_08You if you want to buy it outright, it'll only cost a few thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_05To be to get weight loss drugs, and you can get them anywhere, right? You can go online and and order them and whatever. But if you want insurance to cover them, uh this plan started in July on July 1st of this year, and we immediately started getting massive numbers of calls from from patients wanting to sign up because it's $50 a month, flat fee to get a weight loss drug. Um here's the problem with that program. If you've been on a weight loss drug for a month or a year or 10 years or whatever, paying for it out of pocket, or worse, paying for it with your Medicare Part D, if you've allowed your drug plan to cover the weight loss drugs, you're not eligible for the bridge program. It's only for people who've never had coverage for these drugs. And a great many people have already jumped on the bandwagon of these drugs because they have sleep apnea or because they have diabetes, or because, because, because reasons other than weight loss, which are what allow insurance companies, what what what insurance companies then give patients permission to be covered by these drugs because you have a comorbid condition, they call it. Right. Right? Another condition other than obesity. But it's adjacent to a whole lot of insurance companies will not cover a weight loss drug for obesity, which is ridiculous because obesity does lead to many other physical health problems. But if you have obesity, chances are you have sleep apnea or you have you're pre-diabetic or have diabetes. Uh, and I think there's a couple of other conditions that they say, oh yeah, okay, we'll cover it. This is before the bridge program, we'll cover it because you have this other condition.
SPEAKER_08You know, back in the day when uh medical marijuana was just taking off, yeah. Suddenly there are a lot of cases of glaucoma showing up.
SPEAKER_05No, and and that was the thing. A whole lot of people went and got sleep studies.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_05And in order to prove because they were not breathing at night and their and their health got better because they did go on CPAP or they went, they got some oxygen or whatever they did, and then they lost weight, and and a lot of people have better outcomes from sleep apnea. I'm one of them because I lost weight on GLP1s.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Uh, but anyway, back to Elijah.
SPEAKER_05Anyway, back to this, the point is that if you were ahead of the curve and and proactive about your health and wanted to get these these injectables to lose weight, um, a year ago, you would be covered by your Medicare Part D. You'd pay $150, $175. Maybe I've had one lady say she say she told us she paid $800 a month with insurance for a GLP one drug. And now Trump is giving people who didn't take advantage of Medicare Part D, which is the Bush print plan, right? That's right. Medicare, unpaid Medicare drug coverage. It was not paid for. It was we borrowed money for that. That was that was always a huge deficit maker, uh, according to the politics of the time. And and Trump overrode that and said, Oh no, if you could and and because number one, he's on those drugs. And number two, he owns about $700,000 worth of Edelai Lily stock.
SPEAKER_08There's the there's the penny that drops, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And so he wanted more people to be on this drug. And and by the way, 700,000 people have taken advantage, over 700,000 people have taken advantage of the bridge program to get GLP1 drugs for $50 a month.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_05So uh, and many of them have been calling my office. And we have gotten, it's so funny because um, not to get too much into the weeds of my personal life at work, and I don't want to talk about in any any detail about it, but I have had higher-ups in my office say, Oh, I don't want to get involved in any way with the bridge program. I don't want to talk about it. Everyone who answers the phone has become a granular expert on the bridge program.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_05So uh, you know, you can't you can't be on it if you've had your any kind of insurance over 65 pay for it. You're shit out of luck. And I've had to inform pharmacists of that. They're like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_08Sorry.
SPEAKER_05My patients, my patients are gonna be really mad because she's paying $250 a month for this. Yeah, and she's gonna continue to do that because she's not eligible. Anyway, I'm going a long story short, they're trying to destroy Obamacare by degrees. They're but more importantly, trying to get headlines to make Trump happy.
SPEAKER_08Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. And regardless of whether this affects, and and it does affect, it's a stupid way to do it. They should, you know, and they they have never, Republicans have never wanted to actually get doctors and healthcare experts like me, people on the front lines in healthcare, social workers, uh, home health workers, uh, nursing homes, doctors, anyone providers, nurses, never wanted to get any of those folks involved in making policy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08And those are the people that the Obama team talked to.
SPEAKER_05A lot.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. To find out where the bottlenecks were and where you can get you know better results.
SPEAKER_05That's why we have so many urgent cares around the country, is because please make it possible for us, our community, to have a walk-in clinic where somebody with a sinus infection can come and get antibiotics. Yeah, because you know what we will alleviate that is such a bottleneck for us because we cannot provide, we cannot provide the number of people needing long-term care in terms of annual physicals, blood work, cancer treatment, and so forth, and do acute care at the same time. We need, we need, and and Bernie Sanders understood that.
SPEAKER_08When you when you when you provide for acute care, you save uh orders of magnitude more money down the road.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, because then people don't go to the ER.
SPEAKER_08Right. You catch it early, they don't go to the ER, you catch a serious condition, possibly before the comfort.
SPEAKER_05People go into or are willing to go into urgent care because it is a low entryway into the medical com medical event of I'm gonna walk in, I don't need an appointment, I'm gonna see someone who's gonna give me a prescription.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05However, you go in and that lump that was bothering you and you thought was a muscle pull, the doctor looks at it and says, That's skin cancer. I'm sending you over to, you know, either the ER or some scanner or some ultrasound or some other specialist immediately. And all of a sudden you have fewer people between 60, 55 and 65 finding out about cancer at 65. Well, and finding it out and catching it early.
SPEAKER_08The umbrella over all of this is that Donald Trump's people don't give a shit about the people. They don't give a shit.
SPEAKER_05And Republicans have never given a shit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08They don't care about their health, they don't care about their welfare, they don't care what happens to them, they don't care if they deliver or die. They care if they vote for them and send them money.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08That's all they care about. And so they invent scare scare words, you know, b death panels, death panels, and right and and all the rest to scare the Rubes into voting against decent care for everyone. Yeah. Because they do not want to provide that to the American people. They do not want to be the instrument for making life better for the country. They just don't think that's their job. They think it's their job to get power, maintain power, and get rich. And that's it.
SPEAKER_05That is the only And this was the tremendous failure of the mainstream media when it came to COVID.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_05COVID should have been the kindergarten of understanding medical policy in this country. That any time someone is sick, that means all of us can get sick, no matter how wealthy or privileged or educated or Republican or whatever we are. Doesn't matter. It makes sense to have the cashier at Walmart have health insurance so that when she has a sinus infect and have medical leave, so that when she has a communicable sinus situation, she's not spreading it to everyone who walks into Walmart.
SPEAKER_08Right. Because the disease doesn't care whether you're Republican or Democrat. All you are is a disease vector. That's all you are. You're you're a carrier. That's all you you amount to. Right. And actually, we had this discussion today a little bit, not medically, but also but uh in terms of civics at uh with Brad and and Desi and uh Democrats. And Dave and all those great show.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Excuse me. We talked about what happens if the Democrats win the midterms and or or do or whatever. But suddenly, you know, six months in people are getting really impatient, going, Why aren't you fixing things? Why isn't everything better? Why and and you have to be able to, whereas COVID should have been the here are the kindergarten ABCs of how the medical system works, how it should work and where it's broken. There should be in the first six months of any new Democratic congressional majority, a constant civics lesson from the best people who are good at explaining things to the public, saying, we would love to make housing more affordable, we would love to provide health care for everyone. Those assholes over there are blocking us because you need X amount of people to pass it, and we don't have those people. We're close, we could have had more, but your brother and your mom and your auntie voted for the other guys. That's why you don't have healthcare now, because of Republicans. And even if we have the majority, that son of a bitch in the White House would veto it. Do you know what a veto is? Do you know how vetoes work? And every time there's a roadblock, you need your best speakers and most aggressive, blunt talkers who are not afraid to use the F words every now and then, to explain here's why we cannot give you what you need, even though you gave us the authority to do that, because that authority is being blocked by people who fucking hate you and wish you ill. And the only cure for that disease is getting those people the hell out of office, which means you've got to have a real serious conversation with your auntie and your cousin and your dad about getting rid of those people because they're the fucking problem. Not us.
SPEAKER_05So now I have to ask you another question, and this is gonna take another 20 minutes, and that's gonna be our show tonight, and we will talk about a lot of other things on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_08Like I care, like I care.
SPEAKER_05Our senator, Senator Tammy Duckworth, had an interview this week. She said she would. She said, fuck this shit.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, she did.
SPEAKER_05And you know, she had a lot to say.
SPEAKER_06She did.
SPEAKER_05Someone wondered if she was drunk. I don't know. I have no information about this. Uh-huh. But one of the things she said that shocked me and I think really angered a lot of people.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05Was we should not, she said that we should not waste time in the next two years if we win the Senate and the House impeaching Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05That we should try to allow him. She literally said she we should try to allow him to save face. And and I guess she means work with him to get some legislation passed.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_05Uh, I do know how time consuming an impeachment is, in terms of the Senate in particular, where the trial takes place. Um, but and and of course, two impeachments did not remove the president from the office.
SPEAKER_08So Republicans won't allow it to happen. They will not allow it to. Happen.
SPEAKER_05So so I want your response to that. And I want to hear what you think of our senator here in Illinois saying that.
SPEAKER_08Well, my response uh can be heard on the Brad Show because we talked about this very subject. So yeah, and I'll just repeat what I said there because you know what? I've been talking all day.
SPEAKER_05I was at work.
SPEAKER_08I know. You were busy at work. I have a small amphibious creature living in my throat right now. That's it. You might be able to hear it. So because I've been talking all day. But here's the here's a short of it. Um, this is what it might be. Now, Tammy doesn't call me as much as she used to. I know.
SPEAKER_05Why shouldn't she call you?
SPEAKER_08You you knit you knit her that little baby outfit, didn't you?
SPEAKER_05I did. Oh, well, we talked about I I had an opportunity to talk with her about that.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Oh, no, I know.
SPEAKER_05Her child is like four to six now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Her child is is approaching Medicare. So, you know. Time flies, baby. Time flies. But this is a possibility. I'm not saying it's true. I'm not saying it's accurate. I'm saying it's possible.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, and this goes hand in hand with what we talked about with uh Adam Hamilton on Tuesday, which is it occurs to them, the Democrats, that they currently are winning.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08They're winning every argument, they're winning all the discussions. We got you got MAGA people that we're gonna talk about who are just like, I'm never voting again. Both sides are bad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. But but Democrats, in terms of polls, don't get happy, don't assume you're gonna win. Get out there and vote. Postcards vote. Don't assume we're going to win. Fight as if you're 10 points behind all the time. But overall, Democrats are looking fairly good for the fall. Why fuck that up by alienating anyone and saying, yeah, the first thing we're gonna do is impeach this guy?
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08That might scare off some of the people who who are gonna make up your majority. I can't imagine it. But if you're thinking like a pundit, and and this is this again is goes back to Adam Hamilton Tuesday, which is he gave this wonderful sermon, talked about white nationalists and Christian nationalism and white supremacy and Nazis and Klan, and 30% of this country is that way. And then he went and spoiled it somewhat by saying, But you know, this isn't a left or right issue.
SPEAKER_05This isn't Republicans and Democrats. You know, this is the Klan and Nazis, but it's not Republicans.
SPEAKER_08This even just after saying a third of this country are this way and they can never be changed, and you can't reason with them, and they're all one fucking party, then he turns around and says, But it's not really one party that's the problem. No, you can't, both those things cannot be true. Now, if I lived in Kansas, would I vote for him? Yes, I would. I would send him money gladly.
SPEAKER_05I'd be I'd be knocking on doors for him.
SPEAKER_08But it is probable that because he is a Methodist pastor, yeah, and they're used to just talking this way, because everybody can be redeemed, blue gas, everybody can be safe.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and my friends across the aisle, he's gonna do a lot of that.
SPEAKER_08And what Digby pointed out is those of us who live in blue states or have blue politicians or are lucky enough to have, you know, governor like J.B. Pritzker, yeah, are gonna have to face the fact that there's gonna be a bunch of people, if Democrats win, who are coming from red states. Yeah, yeah. And they talk this way.
SPEAKER_05And they have to because they won with 51% of the vote.
SPEAKER_08That's right. That they had to peel off some votes. Now, I think they should have done everything in their power, and I hope they are, to rally the base, get the base up and run and get them fired up, get but the the Democrats are simply not a majority by any stretch of the imagination in Kansas.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_08But there are issues that you can get some Republicans to join you on in Kansas, like abortion.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So as a savvy politician, if I were a completely amoral person, or not amoral, but if I were a situationally ethical person running for office, I might talk that way if I had to run in a red state, or I didn't want to scare anybody about what the first six months or two years of a democratic administration would look like. I I don't I didn't hear her say we shouldn't hold hearings.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_08We shouldn't drag Jared or Don Jr. in front of a Congress didn't hear any of that.
SPEAKER_05Right. Um so she didn't say don't don't impeach Heggseth either. No. And I think that's that's that's the strategy going forward is to get rid of some people who are utterly unqualified for these managerial positions uh as quickly as possible. And uh leave Donald Trump there because he's our best friend in terms of winning in 2028.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he looks, he looks, and that's the other thing Digby pointed out, which is uh George Bush got got a thumpin', right, in 2006. Two years later, he didn't get any better. No, and and two years later, Barack Obama just swept into power. No, he then he blew it, but um the point being that for two years, Donald Trump is going to be, if things go our way, effectively powerless, yeah, um, not able to pass anything, angry and and melting down in public. Yeah, and a narcissist, and and we agreed sort of, you know who he's gonna blame for for Republicans, if Republicans lose in the midterm? He's gonna blame Republicans.
SPEAKER_05He's gonna blame Republicans, yeah.
SPEAKER_08He's gonna say, you deserted me. You betrayed me. The German people deserve what's coming to them because they've they failed me. Yeah, he's gonna fall fully into that and he's gonna spend a lot of time slapping his name on shit. And that kind of raving lunatic, as long as he doesn't, you know, blow everything up, that kind of raving lunatic being the voice and face of the GOP for two years, uh that I would rather have Kamala Harris in there.
SPEAKER_05Despite all of the suffering that's going to happen as a result of that, and I'm not it, I'm not blind to that. No. Um, you know, that's why I threw up uh the morning after the election was I was just like, this is gonna be so much suffering for the world.
SPEAKER_08It is, yeah. And it has been, and thank God that Mark Carney has stepped up to become the leader of the free world because that's not our job anymore. We blew it, we absolutely blew it. And we I we said this on Tuesday also, a bit of repetition. Trump election in 2024 was the second tower on 9-11. Yeah, it was like, oh, the first one might have been an accident or a fluke. Oh, oh no, we're under attack. Yeah, this is deliberate, this is intentional, this is the way it's gonna be from now on. And these people really mean this shit, and they're not gonna stop just because you know they're wrecking the fucking planet, and they elected the worst person in the world as president because they're terrible fucking people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And they they want a white daddy to run their to be the to be there so they don't have to pay any attention to anything.
SPEAKER_08But you know what can reach them?
SPEAKER_05Diesel gas prices.
SPEAKER_08Gas prices. So what do you think about gas prices, baby?
SPEAKER_05Well, we'll talk a little bit about gas prices, but we're already 30 minutes into the show, Driftglass. I'm just letting you know.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, but this was the microphone's not on, right? I mean, this isn't being recorded.
SPEAKER_05We've been recording this brilliant conversation we've been having. And and before we get to gas prices, I want to mention one other article I read this week because we are really going, going we're we're doing it live, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_08We're blowing off our show notes. The outline's out the window. I don't know what to do. I'm disoriented. I cannot orient myself without a series of words put in front of me that I will recite verbatim because I just can't think on my feet.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08So, yeah, what were you gonna say about an article?
SPEAKER_05Article I read this this morning uh that was very good. Do you remember the story about Amy Clobichar getting really mad about someone bringing a salad and not having a fork?
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_05And just berating her staff, and she wound up eating her salad with a f with a comb.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, she threw a comb at them, I think, also. Something like that.
SPEAKER_05But she ate it with a comb, apparently.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Ate her salad with a comb.
SPEAKER_08Um well, technically it's a salad fork.
SPEAKER_05Technically, it's a salad, haha. Uh apparently someone has noticed that stories like this about women candidates are frequently in the New York fucking time.
SPEAKER_08Really? My goodness, isn't that strange?
SPEAKER_05And uh Mary, is it Petola who's running in with the Paltola in Alaska had such a story about her, and um she uh something something happened where uh the staff was disorganized, they didn't have their shit together.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05And she had a water bottle. She was getting ready to go on television or go in front of a microphone, and she took the water bottle and she held it up to her mouth like a microphone, and spoke to her staff and said, You guys need to get this done. Please go do this, and handed the water bottle to a staffer forcefully, uh-huh, and went to the microphone to do her whatever she had to do.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05And the New York Times deportrayed this as spout uh staff abuse.
SPEAKER_08Hormonal bitch goes nuts.
SPEAKER_05Hormonal bitch doing staff abuse, yes, holding a my a water bottle to her mouth and saying, I need you guys to hear me. You guys need to do this now because you didn't do it yet.
SPEAKER_08It's hormonal democratic bitch.
SPEAKER_05There you go. And it is hormonal democratic bitch, number one. Yes, and it is the New York fucking times. Yes, it is, it's always and this article said, I'm sorry, I don't know where I read it, but of course I read it because it was about women and it was about the New York fucking times. Um, that the New York Fucking Times is is the HR department for democratic staffers now.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05They will go and blab off the record at how mean my lady Democratic boss is. And Republican men who rape their staffers, you know. I mean, it's just not a balanced playing field here, folks.
SPEAKER_08Which is shocking to shocking to no one. A display date to learn the New York Times is wildly off balance when it comes to political coverage.
SPEAKER_05And there is one other story that I want to bring up. I know we're we're using we're just gonna play it live for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_08Don't worry about the clock. The clock is your friend.
SPEAKER_05The clock is our friend. Yeah, uh, I have a friend who lives in the Boston area. Yes, you do, and she wrote me tonight to say, guess where I am. And I I asked you to guess where this my friend was.
SPEAKER_08I and my guess was terrible.
SPEAKER_05Your guess was terrible, Driftglass. You said you thought she was on the Mark Stein cruise.
SPEAKER_08I did. I did.
SPEAKER_05With Michelle Bachman.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_05This is this is happening in October, and it's sold out, folks.
SPEAKER_08Sorry, can't get a ticket. Not so love no money.
SPEAKER_05And I do this because I'm very interested in what Republicans are doing around election time.
SPEAKER_08Are they leaving the country?
SPEAKER_05And if they are just deciding, oh yeah, I have all the time in the world, I can go on a cruise and raise money for myself as a celebrity on a cruise instead of campaigning for Republican candidates.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Then they they've seen the writing on the wall. So Michelle Bachman, the Mark Stein cruise has Mark Stein, of course. Michelle Bachman and um uh Amy? No. That that woman who wrote the the beauty myth, uh, Naomi Klein.
SPEAKER_08Oh, Naomi Klein, that's right.
SPEAKER_05Naomi Klein, who's now a conspiracy for a while, has been just a big since COVID for sure, a huge conspiracy theorist and a hero on the right, because she used to write about feminism and now she writes about you know how Democrats are stomping on our individual liberties.
SPEAKER_08Even the liberal Naomi Klein.
SPEAKER_05Even the liberal Naomi Klein is on the Markstein cruise.
SPEAKER_08That's right.
SPEAKER_05So uh I've been keeping my eye on that. No, she's not at the Markstein cruise uh or getting ready to go on the Markstein cruise. She is at an event in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the governor of Massachusetts, a woman, is uh interviewing and at a town hall, the governor of Kentucky, Andy Bashir, for no particular reason. What is he doing in Cambridge, Massachusetts? And why is he speaking to uh the governor of Massachusetts and doing kind of outreach to who a very reliable group of blue voters with deep pockets?
SPEAKER_08I have no idea. No idea.
SPEAKER_05I think he's running for vice president, but that's that's what I think.
SPEAKER_08You know what they won't be talking about at the Mark Stein cruise?
SPEAKER_05No, they won't be talking about will they be talking about it at the Andy Bashir event is the question.
SPEAKER_08No, what they won't be talking about at the uh Mark Stein cruise.
SPEAKER_05Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_08Diesel prices.
SPEAKER_05Diesel, he's gonna get back to diesel prices. We're gonna we, you know, you will have noticed by now that the rate at which Trump's approval numbers are falling is inversely proportional to the rate at which diesel prices and the price of everything diesel vehicles carry, which is just about every consumer product out there, is rising.
SPEAKER_08That is true. And the MAGA idiots don't care about democracy, as we as we can see clearly, or mass incarcerations, or Trump brown shirts murdering people in the street, or concentration camps, or all the corruption, and the corruption and the corruption, a little bit nowadays.
SPEAKER_05There's a lot of corruption, there's an awful lot of corruption.
SPEAKER_08Um, or the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, or the proposed throwing of all these hundreds of thousands, possibly up to a million people off of Obamacare, or the 10 plagues of RFK Jr., or pardoning traders, or deficits, or any of it. They don't care about it about deficit. And they never did. They never did.
SPEAKER_05Yep. They only care about themselves, Driftglass. They care about what's three feet in front of their nose, and they only care about that. They cared very much when ice came for their employees or their girlfriends or their husbands.
SPEAKER_08That's correct. And there is now an entire, you probably have noticed, an entire cottage industry out there, these morons getting on TikTok or YouTube or Instagram or Friendster for a whole big white trash pity party.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, one asshole who goes by the handle scouts out 99. He knows what needs to be done, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_02You know, I was an avid, avid, avid Trump supporter, and I'm a complete conservative. There is no reason whatsoever we should be paying five dollars and fifty cents a gallon for diesel fuel. When it is a byproduct, it's the throwaway when gasoline is made. President Trump, you are the reason for this. And I'm a supporter, but I'm starting to second guess my thoughts now, my support. Turn that fucking place into glass and be done with it. Make an example out of them. Let's get our country back on track. We weren't supposed to have any new wars. You were supposed to drain the swamp. The swamp is deeper than it has ever been right now. Get your shit together, Donald, or you won't make another turn.
SPEAKER_08And TikTok user Sarah with an H knows who to blame.
SPEAKER_04I have fought, literally fought, for that man's name. Don't vote. Fuck it. Don't vote anymore. Don't care. Republican, Democrat, everything, they're all liars. They're cheats. They're pieces of fucking shit. Buy some land, do your own thing, fuck the government. Like honestly, what are we doing? It's a fucking j and I'm so s like it hurts my heart. I was die hard, Trump, y'all. Or uh die fucking hard. And look at us.
SPEAKER_08See, both sides are to blame. Or, or to put it another way, more poetic way, Sarah with an H knows that everybody but Sarah with an H is to blame. My heart hurts, Driftglass. It hurts. My heart hurts. Just as Scott, uh Scott's Out 99 knows that everybody but Scott's Out 99 is to blame.
SPEAKER_05Yep. They're they're the real victims, Drift Glass. I wish we had Sarah McLaughlin music in the background.
SPEAKER_08Well, let's find some public domain, Sarah McLaughlin like music.
SPEAKER_05They were all hoodwing to do do. There was no warning. No one could have foreseen this. And of course.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And of course, the choices they made, those personal choices to vote for Donald Trump. Well, how could anyone blame them? Seeing as how no matter what, Democrats are always worse. Which you're hearing more and more as another alibi for voting for Trump.
SPEAKER_08How long were you a cantor uh at Temple? Just out of curiosity.
SPEAKER_05Well, I was the only female tenor in my uh high school chorus. Yeah. Yeah. I sang a lot.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08And you still do.
SPEAKER_05And I still do. I sing to the cats all day long.
SPEAKER_08Each cat has their own song, by the way.
SPEAKER_05They do. Maybe someday we'll just put out an album.
SPEAKER_08I think we should. I think we should.
SPEAKER_05Oh so uh, you know, I didn't want to vote for Trump, but Democrats gave us no viable alternative. I had no choice.
SPEAKER_08You had no choice.
SPEAKER_05If only Democrats had run a decent candidate, I would have even voted for a woman, just not that woman.
SPEAKER_08Not that one, just not that one.
SPEAKER_05And by the way, in the end, Democrats made us do this.
SPEAKER_08They might have, they might have as well have put a gun to our heads and forced us to vote for Donald Trump. It wasn't, oh, you adorable yokels, you. We've been through all of this before, you know, over and over again. We know all about this. We know all the scams that you guys run. We know the conservative cult is the political equivalent of the Hotel California. You can rant and swear and bitch and tell everyone you gotta quit voting. But we know that you never really leave.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we see you and we know you. And we know that you never actually change your mind. You just change your costumes, you change your branding, and this time we're ready for you.
SPEAKER_08Yes, we are.
SPEAKER_05From white robes and hoods to khakis and polo shirts, from tri-corner hats and Gadston flags to MAGA hats and Trump flags. And we can't wait to see what you come up with next.
SPEAKER_08Oh, it's gonna be glorious.
SPEAKER_05It's gonna be billionaire funded.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it'll be gold-leafed something or other.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Now, there are a bunch of groups who are vying for the attention of these people. For example, Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green, together with their friends, want to fold these mopes into their own America First Fascist variant. Because they can see the potential for harnessing the rage of millions of angry, racist hayseeds just as clearly as Goldwater did, and Nixon did, and Reagan did, and Bush Sr. did, and Bush Jr. did, and Donald Trump did. Oh, and we're definitely going to get back to Bush Jr. in just a minute.
SPEAKER_05He's a good Christian man.
SPEAKER_08Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yes, then there is Joe Manchin and his independent conference grift.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Which is another example of Republicans and Republican adjacent people kind of opting out of what's actually going on, boots on the ground with the election. Oh, right. No, we're gonna hold a conference and charge people money. I mean, that's what the Mark Stein cruise is. It's just on the water. It's the same thing. We're gonna we're gonna do a mutual masturbation society and talk about how great we are and our ideas are and not get involved in trying to elect John Husted senator in Ohio.
SPEAKER_08Right. We don't want to talk about that.
SPEAKER_05We don't want to deal with that. Right.
SPEAKER_08Because both sides are the same.
SPEAKER_05Both sides. And uh these clowns at the independent conference can't afford to tickle the mega racist gangly as openly as Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green, but they make up for it by elevating the both sides do it lie to Olympian proportions.
SPEAKER_08Truly, it blots out the sun. And as a cautionary tale, we're gonna take you back just eight short years to revisit Lincoln Project co-founder and never Trumper Steve Schmidt. You all remember Steve Schmidt, right? Steve Schmidt, at this point, had already blown his career once and was only saved because his friend from the McCain years, Nicole Wallace, and the rest of MSNBC took it upon themselves to rehabilitate his reputation. And he emerged as your typical anodyne, always on TV, never Trump guy. Trump bad, Republicans bad, Democrats are the only viable alternative.
SPEAKER_05Then in 2018, the billionaire CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, decided he wanted to be president, but there were no candidacy vacancies available in either of the two major parties. So Howard Schultz decided he would run as a, say it with us now, an independent. An independent. Both of the major parties are irredeemable. Both sides are bad.
SPEAKER_08And indistinguishable.
SPEAKER_05Which is why I have no choice but to run as a 100% vanity candidate. Oh, wait, I mean independent.
SPEAKER_08Independent, because I'm a billionaire, I want to be president, and I'm an independent, whatever the fuck that means. So then he went out and rented a prominent political consultant who already had. A large national audience, thanks largely to MSNBC running through their Republican reputation laundromat. So Schultz backed a dump truck full of Starbucks money up to Steve Schmidt's front porch, and Steve Schmidt went from Trump bad, Republicans bad, Democrats are the only viable alternative, to this almost in mid-sentence. This is from MSNBC in 2018.
SPEAKER_03You've got centrist, wealthy people who are willing to look the other way and take his lies for fact because it works for their bank accounts. Because they hear about far-left candidates uh winning the primaries and they worry, uh-oh, what's gonna happen to my tax dollars? I'm gonna believe Trump's lies because it's convenient for me.
SPEAKER_00Once upon a time in American politics, it was a business of persuasion. You would try to persuade people that your ideas were slightly better than the other side. It has become a game of incitement. And what Trump is doing is radicalizing American politics. And he is a beneficiary, the more radical politics becomes. When it becomes a game of incitement between a far left who says everybody's gonna have a government job, everybody's gonna have daycare, everybody's gonna have retirement, free school, free high school, free college education, as we careen towards $30 trillion in debt. When we have dishonest progressivism, right, and we have dishonest Trumpism, an alienated middle that surrenders. They break their will to fight back. They become disenfranchised and hopeless about the idea that free market capitalism or liberal democracy can prevail in a radical era. That is the danger.
SPEAKER_05Well, this is the moment for the center to rise. That's former Deutsche Bank managing director Stephanie Rule. Cheering on the center, Drift Las.
SPEAKER_08It's time for the center to rise, Blue Gell.
SPEAKER_05The center must rise.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And then there are the never Trumpers generally who are contractually obligated to remind you, we were warning you about a decade ago, that if we handed the microphone temporarily over to a handful of Republicans because they were finally willing to say that something had gone wrong with the GOP, we would never get that microphone back. And we were right. Because the idea that once never Trumpers had served their purpose, we could simply show them the door reflected a dangerously childish understanding not only of how power and media actually work, but the fact that we have no say.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05We as liberals have no say as to what goes on on cable news.
SPEAKER_08No, but we can we can we could have made our annoyance heard much, much, much louder.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and and I think we've learned, I I think we have learned something here because uh I noticed today um an NPR uh host, I believe it was. Steve Inskeep. Steve Inscape. It wasn't Steve, was it Steve Inscape?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I I saw the same story.
SPEAKER_05Oh, did you? It was Steve Inscape lending Inscape, excuse me, lending his credibility to Tucker Carlson.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_05And whitewashing Tucker Carlson's past.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_05And uh it did not go over so good for him on the socials.
SPEAKER_08If I have 90 minutes free tomorrow, you will see something about this on the Drift Glass blog. Because breaking news, this is not the first time that we've done this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_08Let's go back. I mean, I will go back tomorrow to Glenn Beck in 2016. Yes, but he became overnight a never Trumper. Never Trumper. And boy, was he given a handjob by all the important news. Oh, Glenn Beck has changed his mind. Oh my God. Which is why you can never ever trust. Now we predicted also of necessity that as more and more of their rhetoric aped what liberal bloggers have been warning about since long before Trump showed up, that would happen at the same time that they continue to mock and disparage those very same liberals, us, and which is exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_05And Drift Glass, I have I will never get that picture out of my brain of Tim Miller saying, Well, you could listen to liberals and the eye roll of of the century of uh oh yeah, well, you could listen to liberals.
SPEAKER_08I guess you could go listen to liberals who were right about everything all along, or you can sit here and buy Sarah Sarah Longwell's book, only $29.95 on tell basically reiterating what liberals have already told you for decades.
SPEAKER_05Well, Andrew Glass this morning on the way to work just said, How is it possible for them to sound exactly like we did in 2006?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it and it really is at this point, it's ridiculous. Yeah. That they are they're they're exactly the cadence, the vocabulary, everything, which I wouldn't mind if they quit if they stopped pretending that nobody said anything like this before 20 before 2016 or 2020.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08So we predicted that because they were selling a much more legacy media friendly version of what happened to the GOP than we dirty fucking hippies were. So they outmarketed us by selling a different, better story. They would enjoy vastly more and friendlier media support than liberals ever got or could ever dream of getting. And I'm talking to the tune of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free, positive publicity every year. And that has their own media corporation grew like kudzu, liberal voices would be regularly stepped on by what is called, laughingly, liberal cable news networks.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And that is exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Your liberal TV, MSNBC is not your friend, as our friend Steve always says. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And we also predicted that once liberal voices had been drowned out to the point where they could safely be ignored entirely, never Trumpers would begin to incessantly congratulate themselves because they and they alone saw the Trump disaster coming. Nobody else did. They're the ones that they and they alone warned of it. That they and they alone had been ignored and mocked and had been proved right, which is why they and only they should enjoy a special privileged status in the media, which is exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And this week over at the Bulwark, these same never Trumpers decided they'd finally had enough. They finally had enough drift glass.
SPEAKER_08A what?
SPEAKER_05Wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_08It says here George W. Bush. Yeah, they finally had it up to here with George W. Bush.
SPEAKER_05They'd finally had it up to here with George W. Bush?
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Shocking.
SPEAKER_05He gave too much candy to Michelle Obama.
SPEAKER_08No, that was liberals being uh upset with uh the Obamas, actually. No.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I'm sorry. Uh they decided that George W. Bush, and I'm not making this up, wasn't a good guy after all. Because apparently well-connected never Trumpers were using back channels to back channels? No, they worked for Bush.
SPEAKER_08No, no, I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_05It's not a back channel.
SPEAKER_08No, not not that. That is incorrect. They were using back channels after he was out of office during the Trump administration.
SPEAKER_05To try to persuade them to stand up to Trump.
SPEAKER_08Exactly.
SPEAKER_05Wow. To say something. He didn't. He wouldn't do it. And he wouldn't do it because former presidents should stay out of politics. Exactly. Right? Okay. And after all, Trump did kill the one program, Pepfar. That's that program that Bush started to end AIDS in Africa. And which was a successful program. And Trump killed it. And former Bushies never shut up about that program. And so they said Bush should be mad about that. He's one actual success. Right. Trump killed it.
SPEAKER_08For all the bad things that George Bush did, if he ever comes up in conversation, they immediately lead to what about Pepfar? Remember Pepfar? Pepfar was great. Yeah. And the Iraq war was a fucking disaster and was Katrina. Net net George Bush was the worst president in modern history until the other Republican came along named Donald Trump. Anyway, uh W always declined to speak out because, like Blue Al said, there's a tradition of former presidents to shut up about their successors. But this week, W broke his silence in a big old fuck you to never Trumpers and to Ken Paxton by fundraising for Republicans. He has picked a side. He has picked a side. From ABC News, September 22nd, 2026, quote, former President George W. Bush and Senator John Cornyn gathered Republican donors for a fundraiser Monday night in support of many of the party's major Senate candidates, excluding Texas GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxson, sources familiar with the event, confirmed to ABC News. Cornyn hosted a fundraiser in Dallas on Monday. Evening, sorry, evening for six Republican Senate candidates running in races this cycle that will decide the control of Congress. Because Bush wants Republicans to continue to control the Senate. Bush was listed on the invitation as a special guest. Attendees included Republican Senators Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John Husted of Ohio, former Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa, former Senator John Senunu of New Hampshire, and Michelle Tefoya, who is running in Minnesota. The events supported Maintain the Majority, a new joint fundraising committee supporting Senate candidates in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Ohio. Some of the donors invited to the event have also contributed to Paxton's Senate campaign.
SPEAKER_05But Paxton wasn't invited.
SPEAKER_08But he wasn't invited.
SPEAKER_05And that's this this was George W. Bush giving a one final attending one final party for John Corman.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Except the net effect of that party is raising money. A bunch of Trumpers who sat on the sidelines and let Donald Trump destroy everything George Bush said he ever believed in.
SPEAKER_05And if even one of those guys gets put in the Senate, they're just going to sit there and support Trump.
SPEAKER_08Yep. So that's it. Are never Trump supervisors, you know, we've got to be nice about them, or we get taken to HR and scolded. They're beginning to think that maybe W isn't a good guy after all. And it only took them It only took them 20 fucking years, blue guy. It only took them two decades to catch up with where liberals were in 2005. Anywho, since since I pay attention to what these former Republicans are saying and doing with their growing media superstar status, other than selling books, their opinions about the MAGA rats who are trying to leave the ship appear to not be fundamentally different from Joe Manchin's or Tucker Carlson's.
SPEAKER_05Where we look at the prospect of tens of millions of angry, racist MAGA zombies loose in the world as a problem to be solved, more and more never Trumpers are looking at them as an opportunity. Of course. It's an opportunity to be used, like the ring of power. The Republican old guard thinks that maybe, just maybe, they should hang on to that power. Maybe just steer those voters a little better, Driftglass. Steer them a little better.
SPEAKER_08Leadership counts, Blue Cal.
SPEAKER_05Oh, leadership counts. After all, they earned it.
SPEAKER_02You know, I was an avid, avid, avid Trump supporter, and I'm a complete conservative. There is no reason whatsoever we should be paying five dollars and fifty cents a gallon for diesel fuel. When it is a byproduct, it's the throwaway when gasoline is made. President Trump, you are the reason for this. And I'm a supporter, but I'm starting to second guess my thoughts now, my support. Turn that fucking place into glass and be done with it. Make an example out of them. Let's get our country back on track. We weren't supposed to have any new wars. You were supposed to drain the swamp. The swamp is deeper than it has ever been right now. Get your shit together, Don, or you won't make another turn.
SPEAKER_08And the new guard thinks that they could use this power for better purposes. There are other ways, Frodo.
SPEAKER_04Other cards that we might take. I know what you would say. It would seem like wisdom, but for the warning in my heart.
SPEAKER_06Warning? Against what?
SPEAKER_04There is no other way. You are not yourself.
SPEAKER_01What chance do you think you have?
SPEAKER_08They will find you. They will take the ring. If the Republican base would just mumble a few token apologetic words and accept a light slap on the wrist, and to make that tiny rebuke go over even easier, we'll slap a few liberals around too, just to make it seem fair.
SPEAKER_05But fascism has its own logic. And once the mob has swallowed that logic and metabolized it, it creates an awful kind of self-fulfilling, self-justifying momentum that cannot be turned to serve democratic ends. And I think that's why you see the never vote again frustration coming out.
SPEAKER_08Because they cannot contemplate ever voting for a communist baby killer.
SPEAKER_05Right, right.
SPEAKER_08And they and they are horrified that the man they trusted has been misled by his staff.
SPEAKER_05Horribly. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_08His staff probably misled him, Blue Gow. It'll never be his fault specifically directly. It'll be in the end, somebody failed him somehow. Because to quote the late great Rod Serling at the very end of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own. And that's all these MAGA deserters are looking for. The same thing they were looking for that attracted them to the GOP long before Trump showed up. They need scapegoats.
SPEAKER_05And like heliotropic plants turning slowly all day long to constantly face the sun. Whatever they are saying today, the MAGA mob will continue to turn their faces toward and open their wallets for anyone who tells them the lies they want to believe. This wasn't your fault.
SPEAKER_08It wasn't your fault.
SPEAKER_05You just loved America too much.
SPEAKER_08You just you're just too good a person. You're too open-hearted. You're too Christian, is the problem. Which in turn means that as long as there are churches and television networks and radio networks and social media giants willing to feed the MAGA mob a steady stream of scapegoats and alibis and lies, that is the direction the MAGA mob will always be facing. And those are the voices they will always believe.
SPEAKER_05And that's why I'm predicting a big religious revival again of people going back to the church and back to evangelical mega churches that continue to scream white Christian nationalism without attaching it to Trump. And then in 2036, 32, somewhere in there, 30 something, they'll have a candidate.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, another candidate will come along.
SPEAKER_05And another candidate will come along who will be a good Christian man.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, another Andy Griffith from A Face in the Crowd will come along and play them like the yokels that they are and take their money and lie to them and tell them that whoever the hell the villain is this weekend. Right.
SPEAKER_05And I love him because he's not a politician. Right. I mean, this is what happens, you know. And since selling lies to morons in exchange for money and power is the world's oldest profession, there is zero chance that today's morally bankrupt scumbags who pound those pulpits and flood the internet with their toxic garbage are ever going to stop doing it voluntarily. There's too much money and power in it.
SPEAKER_08There is. There's always been a lot of money in conning idiots and giving you their money. I think we should cap it there.
SPEAKER_05We're going to cap it there for this time.
SPEAKER_08You know, I've got, geez, I've got like 40 more pages of notes blue ballot. Extensive notes. The work I do for you people is just, you don't even know. You don't even know. I'm not even going to vote anymore.
SPEAKER_05I've uh Driftglass is going to vote all the time.
SPEAKER_08I vote twice, three, four times.
SPEAKER_05Did you get the email today saying your ballot's in the mail? I got an email saying my ballot from the Secretary of State is on its way to me.
SPEAKER_08Okay. I didn't get any such thing. I got one saying my ballot has been shredded.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So Oh, we know who you are.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, they do. They really do.
SPEAKER_05Each week we post to our Patreon page and website an internet kitty sent in by you, the listeners. But this week's internet kitty is a beautiful dog.
SPEAKER_08A dog.
SPEAKER_05A sweet pup named Dolly, who is a candidate for higher Arphus. Arf, Arphus. Arf. Got it? And I did love what Driftglass didn't let this go in the notes, but I still loved it. It was, he believes in ARFordability.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. He's running on a platform of that.
SPEAKER_05Anyway, here he is on the campaign trail in this picture. And uh whether you serve Pet Store Perfection or Dollar Store Dreck, your pupparoo will stand proudly on the candidate debate stage, waving the flag, and tell the world that they refuse to take any corporate pack money or their corporate pet food dreck. For them, it's only freshly poured, our fake sponsor. And it's made right here in America.
SPEAKER_08In our imaginations, yes. Right here in America.
SPEAKER_05In our American imaginations.
SPEAKER_08Lowest carbon footprint of any pet food.
SPEAKER_05Any pet food in the world.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because it's up here.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Freshly poured. Freshly poured. Oh my lord, it's freshly poured. I think I'll just leave the singing in tonight. Sure. And you can visit Dolly at our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash ProLeft Pod and our website proleftpod.com. And you can send your internet kitty, dog, iguana, sheep, whatever, rat, whatever you want. Whatever you want. If you have a pet that you love, send us a picture to our email address, prolefpodcast at gmail.com. Subject line internet kitty, no matter what kind of an animal it is. Right. Uh and proleftpodcast at gmail.com is also where you can write to both of us. Feel free to write us. We do love hearing from you, and we do read every email you send us. Be aware that if you write to us at any of our addresses, we reserve the right to read your email or U.S. Postal Service Go Postal Unions letter on the air, unless you say otherwise.
SPEAKER_08Also, the weather is turning. It's a little chilly here. It's a little colder than it was a month ago or a week ago. So hot apple cider is looking pretty good to me, or perhaps a gourmet coffee beverage that you can buy for us. If you can afford to buy one for yourself, consider doing so at patreon.com forward slash proleft pod. This isn't charity. This is in fact the job that we do every week with your help and support and only with your help and support. And you can also help us continue to grow by sharing our show with a friend. Find a friend who doesn't know about us and desperately and is in desperate need of the message and accept them with our professional left thinking. Turn them against their parents. Go ahead, do it. We're out here corrupting the youth, and we're not going to drink any hemlock for it. Anyway, thank you so much for doing that. We really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_05Driftglass is not a pumpkin spice latte drinker either.
SPEAKER_08No. Oddly enough, my birthday is the day before Halloween, and I hate pumpkin spice everything with a passion.
SPEAKER_05Except for pumpkin cheesecake. There was a pumpkin cheesecake you loved.
SPEAKER_08It was pumpkin. Oh geez. It was yes, it was, but it wasn't quite pumpkin cheesecake. It was delicious. A chef in Chicago made this thing. It was caramel. I had it with my family, with my my mom and my my sister, I think, and I think my former in-laws. And we were eating at a hotel that was at the point that the St. Patrick's Day Parade was starting.
SPEAKER_06Oh my god.
SPEAKER_08So we could see all the politicians like outside the window getting ready to go schmooze down the aisle. But it was oh, that was bloody good. And thank you for that because I've never been able to find it again.
SPEAKER_05You've never been able to find that pumpkin cheesecake again, yeah. But you did like that one.
SPEAKER_08I did.
SPEAKER_05So hey Drift Glass, how are the Internet Kitties doing this week?
SPEAKER_08Well, Blue Gal, the Internet Kitties want to remind you that even though Spay and Neuter Awareness Month isn't until February, you can begin spaying and neutering the American fascist movement today by casting your vote for Democrats as soon as possible. For example, as you mentioned before, early voting started in Illinois this very week.
SPEAKER_01Let's think about a living. Let's think about a loving. Let's forget about the wine and the crime and the time in the following switching.
SPEAKER_05The production of the podcast is produced and recorded under a Creative Commons license. Copyright DGBG Productions, HelloFPod.com.