The Napkin In Between

Blue Called...She Wants Her Shift Back!!!!!

• Daijné Jones • Season 1 • Episode 42

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The night the “blue shift” never showed up still sits heavy—the 4 a.m. doom-scroll, the Barbie Land coping, the dread that followed. This week, the vibe flipped. We felt a real surge of hope as wins rolled in across New York City, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, and more. While these wins reignite feelings of hope, we must not to confuse good news with a done deal. The heartbeat here is simple and urgent: celebrate the victories, then turn them into a plan.

We get honest about skepticism. Politicians promise change; voters get whiplash. So we draw a line between step one—elect leaders—and step two—hold them to it. That means receipts, not vibes: tracking votes, showing up to hearings, organizing transportation to polls, and translating legal jargon into real-world stakes like SNAP benefits and school meals. We also tackle a tough question: what do we do with people who fueled harm and are only now waking up? The answer isn’t easy or cute. Grace is earned through action—canvassing, persuading family, and doing the unglamorous work between elections.

We also unpack power mechanics that shape outcomes: why Article II, Section 4 and impeachment are process-heavy, why majorities decide who gets a hearing and who gets a pass, and why midterms are not optional. Control of the House and Senate means control of oversight. If we want accountability, we need numbers on the board. That’s the throughline: hope backed by a checklist—confirm your registration, set reminders, map your polling place, plan childcare or a ride, and plug into local organizers who know your district’s swing precincts.

If you felt the spark this week, protect it. Momentum grows when feelings become steps and steps become wins. Hit play, share this with a friend who votes with you, and drop your midterm plan in the comments. If this moved you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us one action you’ll take before the next election.

Speaker:

Is this thing on? Hello, hello. Uh-oh. Another yucker with a mic. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Napkin in Between Podcast. I am your host, Daijne Jones. I hope everyone's been having a good week except for that orange rink lady. Of course. I have a reignited feeling of hope this week because Zoro Mimdani is my mayor. Like that. Zoro Mamdani is my mayor. I know people have been saying that and then being like, oh, I live in Sweden. Oh, I'm in Texas. Oh, I've never even been to the US. I live in New York City. When I say Zoro Mamdani is my and not to brag, okay, because he's everyone's mayor. I get it. However, Zoro Mamdani is my mayor. I live in New York City. Like I voted for him and he's my fucking mayor.

unknown:

Bitch.

Speaker:

I'm better than you else. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But I feel so excited. I feel so hopeful. I genuinely have not felt this amount of hope in a year. In a year. I can remember. I was talking with Talia and my roommate about, you know, how we feel right now compared to last year. I remember the night of the election, Talia and I were in our living room and we were just sitting there. We were watching the election results come in. And we just kept telling ourselves, like, oh, like the blue wave, it's coming. You know, the blue wave, it's coming. They're they still have to count all the votes. You know, it's the blue shift that's coming. It's it's the red, what do they call it? The red, the red mirage, I think is what they call it. Because so many of like the littler states that are always gonna be red, like they can count their votes quicker because who the fuck lives there but people who fuck their cousins? And so it's always looking very red in the beginning, but then the blue shift comes when they start to count the bigger states' votes and the bigger cities' votes and things like that. So we just kept trying to convince ourselves like the the blue shift is coming, the blue shift is coming. Like we we literally sounded like fucking Paul Revere. Like, the British are coming, but we were like, the blue shift is coming, like don't worry, it's it will it'll happen. And the more and more we sat there and blue didn't show up for her shift, bitch, no call, no showed. We just like the dread and this the despair that came over us, we were just so fucking sad. And I remember we were trying to like keep up good spirits, and so we put on the Barbie movie, and we were watching this movie, and I think it low-key made it worse because we were like, This is how we should feel right now. We should be living in Barbie land, but unfortunately the cans have taken over, and so that didn't help us feel any better. We literally stayed up until like 4 a.m. I I got like two hours of sleep that night because I just I was tossing and turning, and I just felt so just so like uh like y'all really let racism and misogyny dictate who you voted for. Cause if you really looked at what Trump was saying he was gonna do if he got back in office, like I you can't convince me that anyone genuinely thought that he would be better for the country. Like you can you just can't fucking convince me. People voted for him because they couldn't bring themselves to vote for a black woman. Like that you'll never convince me that that's was not like the main thing that they went into that voting booth with. So we were just reminiscing on how we felt last year compared to how we feel right now, and we just feel like a reignited feeling of hope. And I'm just so proud, not only of New York City, and because we really fucking did that, but the elections like all over. There were so many big wins. Like Virginia's blue and they just elected their first woman governor, New Jersey is blue, Detroit just elected their first woman mayor, um, Mississippi, they they just ended the state senate supermajority, and Democrats won every special election in Mississippi. There was big wins in Georgia, there was big wins in Colorado. They just taxed wealthy so that there can be free meals in schools. Prop 50 in California passed, Pennsylvania had some big wins. Like, there was just so many big wins this past election. And it just makes me so happy. It just makes me so hopeful that people are waking up. Like, woke is back. Woke is back. I said that I was gonna go schedule 27 abortions. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have said that. Why the fuck would I ever schedule an odd number of abortions? Let's let's just go for 30. Let's just go for the why not round up. I'm scheduling 30 abortions, who wants to come? My mom can drop us off if your mom can pick us up. Like, oh, I just feel so hopeful. Woke is back, people are waking up, and woke is back. And this is obviously not the fix, like, we have a long way to go, and we'll talk about that later on in the episode. But this has been the peak of my week is just seeing people show up and vote, and it just gives me so much hope. And I also understand people who, you know, might feel hopeful but also skeptical because I that is so valid, I feel that way a little bit as well. Because at the end of the day, we don't have the best track record with politicians, right? Like they say they're gonna do something and then they don't, you know, they make all these promises and you know they don't keep them. And so I can understand if people are like, yeah, I feel a little bit hopeful, but also like, is it really gonna be change? And that's what I want to talk about today. Because again, this is just the start, right? The first step is trying to get them in office. The second step is for them to do the things that they said that they were gonna do and for us to hold them accountable of doing the things that they said that they're gonna do. What we need to continue to do voting, see what happens when we come out and vote, see what, see what we can do when we come together and vote. And you know, I've I've been going back and forth with this because I'm like seeing all the elections this week and seeing how much like Democrats just whooped fucking ass in all of these elections, it makes me curious. Did that happen because people have seen what's happened in not even a year of Trump's presidency and seen just like how shit everything is, and so people were like, okay, damn, like we need to go out and vote. Or because I'm still there, I you'll never convince me that he won this election fair and square. Did he cheat on the election last year? I'm I'm inclined to think maybe it's a little mix of both, but I'm inclined to think that he did not win that election fair and square. You'll never convince me that he actually won that election fair and square. I'm so sorry. They didn't even try to make it look like they didn't cheat. Winning all seven swing states, come on. You'll you'll never and the popular vote? Yeah. Nah. Nah, you'll never really convince me that he he really won everything. But I do also like to think that maybe there are people who are finally waking up, maybe people who voted for him last year and are now like, oh shit, I shouldn't have done that. And it's like better late than never, I guess, but like bitch, what the fuck? And I'm saying people be like, oh, we have to give people grace. Like, some people may have voted for Trump, and now they're finally seeing and they're coming to to the realization that they fucked up. Like, let's give them grace. Sorry, we're all out of grace. Actually, like I can't find my grace for them. I'm so sorry. Actually, I'm not sorry at all because I don't feel that I need to give them anything. Honestly. I I think that I did my part in the group project as a part of the 92%. I did my part, they didn't do their part, and now all of a sudden they want to give a fuck or they want to care because it's affecting them. When they thought that it wasn't gonna affect them, they didn't give a fuck what happened. They didn't care. They skipped happily on the one and three beat to go vote for that man. So why the fuck should I give them grace? Am I am I happy that they're finally waking up? Yes, but I'm not about to sit here and call to them and be like, oh, it's okay, you didn't know. Uh, like, I'm happy you're no, I'm not doing that. Because the thing is, like, people are like, oh, they were bamboos, well, they didn't know what was gonna happen. Trump was clear as fuck about what his plans were. Clear as fuck. All you had to do was research. And the fact that you were going in to vote for who was going to be president, the highest office in this fucking country, and you didn't do any research, or maybe you did research and you were like, oh, this won't affect me, so whatever. Like, I I don't have grace for you. I don't have grace for you. In fact, I think you should give me grace. You should understand where I'm coming from and how I'm not just here waiting with open arms to coddle you and be like, oh, you're it's okay. It's not okay. And not only should they be giving us grace and understanding as to why we're not here ready to accept them with open arms, they should be the ones on the front lines. They should be the ones canvassing, they should be the ones going on in the community, they should be the ones talking to their families to try to help take this fucking country back from the wannabe dictator. Because y'all got us into this mess. Y'all got us into this mess, so it should be y'all who are fighting the hardest to get us out of it. Hot take, unpopular opinion, maybe. I don't know. I don't really give a fuck. That's how I feel. I don't have grace for you. I don't have anything for you until you show me, not just with your words, not just with a oh, I'm sorry, show me some action. Show me some action, reparations, bitch. Get out there on the front lines and fight to get this country back. Once I see you maybe putting in some work and doing something more than just an online apology, then maybe we'll see. But as for right now, I don't have grace for someone who's just like, oopsie, I'm sorry, I made an oopsie. Bitch, fuck you. Fuck yourself right up your anal cavity with a spiked bat and dip it in sriracha first, actually. And don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they're waking up. Like I'm happy that people are realizing, oh, I fucked up. But I also can't ignore the fact that it took you to feel yourself for you to finally wake up. Like I that saying, those who don't hear must feel. Okay, you're feeling, but I've had to feel too, and other people have had to feel too, and we didn't vote for this. So no, I can't, I can't just disregard that and be like, oh, finally they're waking up. Sorry, I can't. I can't. I'm happy about it, but I'm also just like, bitch, what the fuck took you so long? But now that you're finally here, and now that we're finally, you know, it seems like we're waking up and blue, the blue is shifting. I feel like we gotta keep this momentum. We gotta keep this momentum, especially into the midterm election. Because I've been doing research because I at this point I'm fucking tired of of the bullshit. I'm tired of Trump still being this fucking president and doing all this bullshit. So I'm like, how the fuck do we get not only him but his whole his whole cabinet out of office? Because I hear people always talking about the 25th Amendment and removing Trump from office under the 25th Amendment. However, if that if we just remove Trump from office, then it goes to JD Vance, who honestly, I don't think that MAGA would follow JD Vance as strongly as they follow Trump. I don't think JD Vance has the charisma and the the oomph for that. However, JD Vance is worse than Trump simply because he's smart. You know what I mean? Like he actually has a little bit of sense, whereas Trump is just like a fucking idiot. However, I was doing some research this week and again, I'm key words. I just started doing this research. So I'm still learning a lot about this myself. So please do not just take this and run with it. Let's all do our own research. If anyone has any information that you can add to the comments so that more people are, you know, educated on this. Let's do that. I I don't know everything, I'm still very new. This is all very fresh. So take all of this with a grain of salt. And if you have any additional information to add, please put it in the comments. But I found that Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution is a way to impeach the president and all of his cabinet members. Now you have to obviously there's still like a trial and there's still a process to it, but it talks about in Article 2, Section 4, impeaching the president and all of his cabinet members for things like treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, which I fucking hate that language. It literally says other high crimes and misdemeanors. So it's like, what the fuck, what's what's that other? What does that actually mean? I like I hate the the vagueness of it. However, I I didn't know that this even existed, and so that's why I wanted to talk about it a little bit. And again, I'm just now finding out that this exists, so please do your own research on it. But this is a way to remove not only the president but his entire cabinet. The thing is though, at the current moment, I don't think that this could work. I don't even think just impeaching Trump would work because Republicans have the majority in the House and the Senate. So the first step, of course, would be to try to flip the majority to the Democrats. And that's where the midterm elections come in. Next year in November, are the midterm elections. We have to show out and vote in those midterm elections. We have to get a Democrat majority so that I hope someone will finally do something and start the impeachment process and we can get him out of office because there's no way that he can do all the things that he's doing and like nobody stops him. It's it's getting to the point where he was court-ordered. Several courts have ordered him to give people their snap benefits for the month of November. And this man is tweeting that he or not tweeting true social and whatever the fuck. I don't, it doesn't matter to me. But he's talking about not giving people their snap benefits until the Democrats open the government. Mind you, again, Democrats have the majority nowhere. Not in the House, not in the Senate. He stacked the Supreme Court, Republican president, but of course the shutdown is the Democrats' fault. Anyway, I don't understand how he can just openly and blatantly disregard court fucking orders and like nobody does anything. And it's I think it's it mostly because the Republicans have the majority everywhere. So even if, you know, the Democrats and the minority voted to impeach him, they're not gonna get the enough votes to actually, you know, it's a two-step process. Impeachment starts in the House, they draw up the articles of impeachment, and then it has to go to the Senate for the trial, and they need two-thirds vote in the Senate in order to actually impeach the president. And the issue is with the Republicans having the majority and them all being just like yes men and a group of circle jerks and just want to suck Trump off for some reason, they're they're not gonna vote to actually impeach him. So, in order for us to have a step closer to actually getting him removed from office and my fingers, hopefully fingers crossed his whole cabinet because they're literally all just yes men. Even if he's removed, I feel like he would still in some way find a way to pull the strings and get whatever he wants done through JD Vance or whoever the fuck. So what we need is a Democratic majority, and then even then, I'm gonna need Democrats to actually step the fuck up and do something because not gonna yay. A lot of them have been extremely disappointing in this whole process as well. Sometimes it really does feel like Democrats are elephants in donkey clothing, which is why, again, I'm saying the first step is getting them in office. The second step is holding them accountable to do the things that they said that they would do. But we have to do that first step first. We have to get them in office, so we have to vote. We have to get out and vote. I'm loving this momentum that it seems to have started right now. Like blue, the blue tsunami, she ate. Oh, she ate, and I'm so happy about it. Like, we really did that, we really did that, and we have to keep doing that, especially in the midterm elections next year. So fucking important, and I need y'all to to keep this energy and get out there and fucking vote. For everyone who voted this year, I'm so proud of you, I'm so proud of us. We did it, Joe. We fucking we did it, Joe, but we have to keep doing it. We have to keep doing it. So please, I I know we have a it's a year from now, unfortunately, but maybe there's a little light at the end of the tunnel. I don't know. I feel very hopeful. I feel very hopeful, and maybe I shouldn't have as much hope as I do, given the history of politicians, but I just feel like I don't know. I feel it in my left labia, I feel it in my gut that it's like it just feels it feels real. It feels real, and this feeling of hope is something that I have not experienced since last November, and I'm just very hopeful. So again, so proud of me, so proud of us. We fucking did that, and we just have to keep doing it. So make sure you have a plan. I know it's a year away. I don't give a fuck, we're starting early. I need everyone to figure out a plan to vote in the midterms next year. They're so fucking important. I cannot stress enough how important they are. Please, the feeling that I have right now, and the feeling that I know so many of us have right now, let that be even a bigger push for you to keep this momentum up, to keep it going, to vote next year. I genuinely cannot stress enough how important the midterm elections are. Because we can't keep doing this, we cannot keep going down this path that we're going down. So it is up to us to come out and vote, and then it is up to our voted elected officials to do the work that they're supposed to do for us. Keep in mind the government is supposed to work to protect the people. Don't ever forget that. They they work for us, right? They're supposed to be protecting us. And if they're not doing that job, if they're not protecting us, if they're not doing things in for the benefit of the people, not the billionaires, but the people we gotta get them out. We gotta get them out, and the first step to doing that is voting. So please. This year we ate that shit up. Let's eat that shit up again next year. Vote in the midterm elections, make sure you have a plan. Again, I know I'm a year early, I don't give a fuck. We need to we need to be on it. We need to be on our shit and vote in the midterm elections. Very, very proud of us this year. Let's keep this ball rolling. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I hope everyone's having a good day except for that orange drink lady. And I will talk to you in the next episode. Peace and love. Talk to you later. The napkin in between, hosted by Daijne Jones, produced by Daijne Jones, post production by Daijne Jones, music by Sam Champagne, and graphics by Isma Vidal. Don't forget to like and subscribe. See you next episode.