Not So Civil Furries and Deportation Flights | 03.21.25

In episode 12 of the Civil Union podcast, hosts Alex and Ryan discuss life updates, including recent weather issues and hobbies like matcha drinks and movie marathons. They delve into political topics like a controversial bill in Texas aimed at curbing non-human behavior in schools, Chief Justice John Roberts' rare public statement responding to Trump, and the implications for handling judicial disagreements. The duo also plays their 'Red State, Blue State, or No State' game, addressing bizarre laws and policies across the USA. Additional topics include challenges to the 2024 election results in North Carolina, controversial actions by Pam Bondy against Tesla vandalism, and Trump's termination of Hunter and Ashley Biden's security details. To wrap up, they share quirky news stories and invite listeners to connect with them on social media.

00:00 Introduction to the Civil Union Podcast
00:54 Weather Woes and Patio Problems
02:08 Matcha Madness and Movie Marathons
04:32 Bird Nest Drama and Book Recommendations
06:51 Furries Bill and School Dress Codes
12:02 Supreme Court Chief Justice's Statement
17:03 Red State, Blue State, or No State Game
22:04 Quick News Stories and Odd News
26:50 Conclusion and Contact Information

Music: What's The Angle? by Shane Ivers -

https://www.silvermansound.com

Transcript

0:06

Welcome to the Civil Union, the podcast where politics meets partnership. We're Alex and Ryan, a married couple, navigating life and debates in a conservative state. We bring you sharp insights, bold opinions, and honest conversations about the political issues shaping our lives, especially those living on society's margins. Tune in for a real talk, a touch of humor, and plenty of passion because when it comes to politics, every voice matters, and we're here to make sure they're heard. Welcome to another episode of the Civil Union Podcast. We are back for episode 12. Can you believe we're at 12 episodes now? It's crazy. We're just kicking'em out like hotcakes. I know. Two in one week too. Wow. You're welcome. Um, by the way, if you haven't already, give us a follow on Instagram or TikTok. Um, that's our name is the Civil U. That's just with the letter U. Other than that, um, it's been a, it was a really nice week and it got very, very windy and now it's cold. I love that. It's cold again. I don't sleep well when it's hotter out. I don't know, I my, until it's summer, my body just doesn't acclimate back and forth like it does. Yeah. And then I'm dealing with like shards of glass all over our patio right now. Like that hailstorm that we had, I didn't realize that the patio lights that we hang have hanging over the. Patio, I guess Hail hid it and it just shattered glass everywhere. So I, I took the hose out and I tried to wash it off, and then once that dried, I went out the next day. And I mean, there's still just pieces of glass everywhere. It's so annoying. Yeah. And you know, after, now that you're talking about it, I didn't even think of the hail. I, when you were saying the lights broke, I'm like, God, the wind was so strong. And then I was like. Now it makes a lot more sense that it was hail. Well, yeah, and I think the hail was just pounding the pieces of glass that actually broke and it just got into these little tiny pieces. And so we gotta get like the, what do you call it, the leaf blower out and try to like push it away or something. I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I've been in a random matcha kick this week. Matcha, like green tea, little powder. I've been. All about it. I've even thought about like buying it and making my own, like smoothies or something with it. I don't know. I don't even know where it came from, but I've been in a gigantic maa and I'll get like extra scoops in my Starbucks drink. Um, Starbucks doesn't put like the sugar anymore in the maa, so you have to ask for like syrups and stuff. Anyway, it's a whole, when you. Go down the matcha hole. It is insane how many matcha there are. How many types? It's, I can't even, I don't even understand half of it. I just wanna drink a delicious beverage. But anyway, also, I've been still on my movie kick. I was so far behind this year on movies. I try to have 10 a month and I was like, like 20. Just like, oh, not even like five, like last week. So I've been going through movies like crazy and two of the movies I watched this past weekend, or I guess since the last episode even, um, was A Real Pain, which was the one with, um, kin's Brother, the one that won the Oh yeah. Golden Globe and stuff. It was pretty good. I, it was a little heavier than I thought it was'cause it deals a lot with the Holocaust and Jews and things, and they're taking a tour in that area of the country. It was very good though. And you can see why he won awards. It was just, it wasn't as light as I thought it was gonna be. And then I also watched this movie on Netflix. It's called Saturday Night, and it's not even a Netflix produced movie. It's um, it was a normal produced movie, but it's about the very, very first show of Saturday Night Live. And it's not a documentary, it's an actual movie. And it was so. So good. I don't really understand how it wasn't up for more awards. I actually, the lead actor of it who plays, who's Lauren Michaels, um, he was the little kid from Fable Men's, from Steven Spielberg's movie and now he's, playing l Michaels and Saturday Night Live or Saturday night, and he was up for a Golden Globe nomination. I totally missed that. Um, for best actor, for this movie, but it has a huge cast of people. Um, I would highly recommend it. I'm not even a big Saturday Night Live fan. Like I don't wa I am, I don't mind it, but I just don't watch it every week. And I could even, when watching the movie, could recognize all these different actors that played. These famous people like Lucci and stuff and Chevy Chase. They did a great job casting. Anyway, those were my little movies I wanted to Nice. Add in there. Oh, the, the birds have moved back. By the way, have you noticed, Alex, you told me that you found eggs. Yeah. Well, so in. 2020. Like which was what? Five year anniversary Now for COVI, we had blue birds move into the top little light on our front porch where everyone accesses it. And it was fun to watch'cause we weren't going anywhere. We were on lockdown. And I was like, oh, okay. And it was Blue Birds. Well, this time it's a little brown bird and. Oh my God. I was gonna remove the nest and I got up there yesterday. I took the little oberweis cooler and I stood up and I saw that, ugh, there's eggs in there now. And so I'm gonna let it go. It it, even though I'm very pro-choice, I'm just letting it go. I'm going to let the birds hatch. The birds made their choice. So we got, they did. They made their choice. Made their choice, and moved in. Again, we have to support, this is the brown birds, though. Those are cuter. I think blue birds are kind of mean blue. Those blue birds were mean. And what people don't realize when we, when why we're mentioning this, is because it does uproot our life. Because when they put a nest right at that light at our front door, it means we can't use our front door. All season. And these poor delivery drivers that have to deliver stuff, they, I remember when we had those bluebird, they were like attacking people trying to deliver packages. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see how this brown bird plays out or whatever. So, and we, you know, this is something we'll be stuck with for at least like two to three months because it takes that long for'em to hatch. So this will be an ongoing story. I'm so sure of it. Oh, I'm sure of it, yes. also just wanna throw out another thing if you're a big reader. I'm almost done with the Thrown a Glass series, which thanks to a friend, I've been addicted to it since last summer. Sarah J Mass, anything, who is the author I'm on. I mean, God, I think I've been, I've been reading this series since July and I'm. I still have like 40% left. I mean, it's like thousands upon thousands. These books are huge, but are so good. I mean, Ryan, you should read some of these books. You would find them, you would find'em entertaining. They get so raunchy so fast. It's. Hilarious. You, you know, these, these books are dressed up as like fantasy series, but they're really like smut. Like they're, some of these are really smutty and these women that are just reading'em at home, their husbands have no idea what they're reading. It's so funny. Oh, yeah. Speaking of raunchy, have you ever heard of furries? I have heard of furries, but isn't it like when people get into, like dressing up as animals? Yeah. They like dress up as animals and like have sex or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Well, so there's this new bill that was filed in and in the Texas house that would prevent students from behaving like anything other than a human. So not the sex thing, but it, it's, it's called the furries bill. So it's like The name of it is Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying and Education, otherwise known as the Furries Act. How long did it take them to come up with that? Yeah, right. I know. F-U-R-R-I-E-S. It was filed by Austin area Republicans. Uh, Steve. GERDs or ess, I can't pronounce that. Of course, he's a Republican though. And this bill would quote, prohibit any non-human behavior by student, including presenting himself or herself on days other than exempt days as anything other than being a human being. I mean, I guess this means theater kids won't be performing cats anytime soon in Texas. So true. Which by the way, is so weird. I actually talked about the musical this past week, Kaz. It's a great musical, way better live than the movie, If you go see that musical and you don't wanna dress up as a cat afterward and won the really cool outfits, something is wrong with you. But I will say, I do think it's weird that. They're labeling this bill furries because if it is, I mean to me and you, it seems like a more of a sexual thing. It's like, why are we mentioning that word with kids in school and expressionism anyway, so odd. Yeah, so this, this potential law would allow for exempt days such as like Halloween or other school dress up days. But the bill defines. Non-human behavior as any type of behavior or accessory displayed by a student in a school district other than behaviors or accessories, typically displayed by a member of the homo sapien species. Oh my God. So provided examples of the spill include using a litter box for the passing of stool or urine This was always a fake news, rubbish story. and so clearly this representative like believes that it was true. Um, another bullet point of it is using fur other than naturally occurring hair or a wig made to look like human hair, artificial animal-like ears. Students who bark, meow, hiss, or make other animal noises that are not human speech or even licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance. I mean, my God, does this guy have absolutely nothing to do? I looked him up on Wikipedia. This guy is like, he's 39 years old, so he's like our age. Married, of course, and I guess he's just. Doesn't like animals or something. It's such a weird bill. Such a weird bill. I mean, what the hell? First off, I know because I come from an artistic background of theater, art, and even went to a liberal arts college. I was always around people who beat their own drum, if you will. A lot of the kids who. Dress up in this way and show expression with animal ears, fur hats or whatever are the same kids who will grow up and go to Comic-Con and dress up to show expression in things they enjoy. It's not a form of identity as much as a form of expression. It's not a form of sexual anything. It's just the way they're gonna express themselves, especially if you live in an area that suppresses those things. Or a very conservative area. A lot of times dressing in outfits or costumes or El ears, animal ears is a way for you to express emotion, let kids be kids. Hell, I even have a fur hat with ears on it. I mean, it's from a company called God and I make sure you never leave with it on. Well, it's from Spirit Hoods, and it was all the trend with the. Festival circuit. So it's more for like music festivals, but I don't, I mean, I don't wear it out randomly during the day, but you don't, if we have a kid and they wanted to wear it, I would probably support them in it. another second point I wanna point out too, kids who may show these sounds like barking, hissing. They could actually be showing signs of, and let me just pre preface, I'm not a doctor, but I work in a pediatric hospital and deal with these types of kids on a weekly basis. But kids who do those types of sounds typically show other signs towards having autism or A DHD, or could be something called stemming, which is part of autism. A kid could also have Tourettes. I mean, just think this, I just think this bill allows for. Pure discrimination. I would hope kids with these health conditions would be seen under a different standard and they're barking or hissing, wouldn't get'em in trouble. But with the potential dismantling of the Department of Education, it's not very promising that these kids won't be targeted. Well, I hope Texas. Has better things to do than worry about, you know, the Furries Act. So who's wearing animal ears? My gosh. Anyways. Also this week, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, issued a rare public statement to rebuke an idea raised by Trump hours after the president said a federal judge who was here in a deportation case. Should be impeached. Robert said quote, for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. End quote, Trump had called federal Judge James Boberg, a radical left lunatic and a social media post, and said that the judge should be impeached. On Saturday, judge Boasberg ordered the administration to return planes carrying migrants that were said to be of a Venezuelan gang back to the United States while he considered whether their removal was lawful. The planes, however, did not turn around. Yeah, A statement by the administration is saying they were outside the US airspace and therefore outside jurisdiction. This case has emerged as a flashpoint and a larger debate over presidential power and the role of the courts in reviewing the actions of the executive branch, the Chief Justice's statement did not take sides on that debate, and he has often taken a broad view of the president's authority, notably in his majority opinion, in July, granting a President's substantial immunity. From prosecution. His statement instead made a modest point as it came in the face of risking calls for impeachment, not just by Trump, but also by his network of supporters, which have complained that judges have blocked a series of the president's initial policy moves. The correct reaction to a ruling that a party disagrees with the Chief Justice wrote is to file an appeal. Yeah, there is no modern tradition of impeaching judges for their rulings. Just eight federal judges have been impeached, convicted, or removed in the history of the country most for criminal or personal behavior. Yeah, and it takes just a majority vote in the House of Representatives to impeach a judge. But two thirds of the Senate must vote to convict, meaning Republican senators would need substantial support from the Democrats. It's very rare for a Supreme Court justice to release a statement like, the one that Justice Roberts did. It, was reminiscent of two early ones that he has also spoke upon in 2018. He defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary. After Trump called a judge who had ruled against his administration's asylum policy, an Obama judge. In response he wrote, we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. what we have Is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to give equal right to those appearing before them. Two years later, he denounced Chuck Schumer of New York for comments. At a rally outside the Supreme Court, Schumer attacks two of Trump's appointees in response to the court hearing a major abortion case. Yeah, and all of this is coming after weeks upon weeks of stories we've been telling you. The crazy stories we've talked about are now hitting the courts. I mean, here's a list of some of'em. Mahmud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who is detained by federal immigration agents called his arrested direct consequence for exercising my right to free speech about the Palestinian cause. He was prominent figure in pro-Palestinian demonstrations Act. Columbia, who is currently being held at a Louisiana Detention Center. A judge also blocked a policy that would expel transgender troops. Yet the current president avoided the military draft five times during the Vietnam War. U-S-A-I-D shutdown has been halted by a federal judge as well, so yeah, and the reasoning for Justice Robert's statement today is over the deportation flights of potential Venezuelan gang members, and The Trump administration used three flights. Bound for El Salvador to deport hundreds of Venezuelans. Over the weekend, one of the planes left a Texas airport after the federal judge issued a written order, halting any deportations. On top of all this, do you remember from one of our first episodes I talked about the cost of these planes he was using? He wasn't at the time using normal commercial sized planes to deport. He was using military aircraft. I looked up the tail numbers, the three tail numbers of these planes that is in question, and they all looked to be commercial planes actually, which. I do think if they had been military aircraft like he had been doing before, this would be a lot more of a cut and dry story From the bench, judge Boberg verbally ordered the planes that were in the air to return back to the United States. The judge's written order halting, the deportation flights was posted around 7:25 PM that day. Like I, I truly believe that what happened on Saturday is an an impeachable offense. Um, I, I don't think this is the last time we're gonna hear of this case, so it's pretty interesting. Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna be hearing more about it. Moving on to the little fun segment, red State, blue State, or. No state. We're gonna be playing this game again. This is our third week running. You know, you do a pretty good job at this part, I think actually. Um, we'll see how you do today. I came up with more policies and laws, some being real, some being fake, and you had to guess whether it's from a red state, blue state, or no state. So let's get started. Alright, let's do it in the first. Policy in this state, billboards are outlawed. Red state, blue state or no state? No state. Blue state. Um, can you guess which one? Yeah, let me think. Uh, it's going to be Vermont. Hawaii. Really interesting. And if you think about it, we didn't see any billboards in Hawaii and I thought about that too, and I was like, huh, they have no billboards. It makes sense though,'cause I guess they had passed it because of the nature and all that and the views. They didn't wanna have that. I guess it's been law there for a really long time. Interesting. In this state, it's illegal to get married if you have a perennial disease or vd. Red state, blue state or no State? Red State, correct. Which state? South Dakota, Nebraska. I always get the region. You do, and when I said Nebraska, I felt like Miss Congeniality. Anyway, in this state, they created a policy that restricts the mentioning of political ideologies before high school, red State, blue state, or no state. Red state, no state made up. Ah, but that is a pretty interesting idea if you didn't allow teachers or anyone to mention political ideologies to anyone until they were influenced in high school anyway. In this state, drunk drivers have to pay child support. If they kill a parent in a DUI accident, red State, blue state, or no State. Red State, correct. Which state? Georgia. Tennessee region. I look at the region, it's called Bentley's Law, which you know that should be a nationwide law. I think that's a great law. In this state, they created a bill called Quote, the Public Transit for All bill that provides state funding, the bank, public transportation, free for everyone. Red state, blue state, or no state? I'm gonna say blue State. No. State made a in this state it's illegal to hunt whales. Red state, blue state or no? State? Red State, correct. Which state? Alaska, Kansas. Whale hunting in Kansas? Yes. Wild. It is the most random thing'cause they're landlocked, but it is an actual thing anyway. Who know? Who knows? In this state it's illegal to pump your own gas. Oh, uh, I know this one. New Jersey. Oh, New Jersey. You were right. Everyone knows that it's, and that's a blue state. Uh, this law was created to protect jobs for gas station attendants, which I didn't know that. I, I had gone to New Jersey too as a kid, and they filled our gas tank and that was so awkward. But it makes sense that they were doing it to, you know, help people not lose their jobs.'cause if you think about it, no other place, no other gas stations allowed that. And that's an actual job anyway. All right. In this state, they created a law called Quote, the Silent Shopping Law, which says that all grocery stores must designate one hour per week for silent shopping where no one is allowed to talk and no music can be played. Red state, blue state, or no state, no state. Correct. That's made up. Where did you come up with these? I have help, but it's really fun, you know, and that actually makes a lot of sense because even movie theaters now do like sensory, um, viewings because they wanna lower the volume. It's for people with high sensory. So that actually would make a lot of sense.'cause some of these grocery stores on weekends, God, we go and they're so loud and they're so crowded. If I had sensory issues, I wouldn't even want to. Step into a grocery store. So I think it'd be great if they did that like one hour set aside every couple days to where it allows people to go shopping in quiet and in peace. It'd be great. Focus on your grocery, grocery list. Alright. That's it. That was it. That's it. That was eight question. Yeah. And you actually got, wow. Well, I get the regions, you get a region. It's hard to guess the state. It is really hard to guess the, like why did, I guess South Dakota and then about that VD thing. Alaska was a good guess with the whale thing though, because that would make a lot of sense. Not. What was it? I don't even remember. Landlocked state. Okay, so here's some other quick stories for you. Um, a collation of over 200 North Carolina Juris Senior State government officials, bar leaders practicing attorneys, issued a joint statement to Jefferson Griffin, urging him to drop his lawsuit, challenging the 2024 election results. For a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, the letter highlights the importance of upholding the integrity of the judicial system and respecting the will of the voters. The letter comes as North Carolina of appeals prepares to hear arguments. In Griffin's case later this week, last month. Wake County Superior Court denied Griffin's demand to discard some 65,000 ballots. A decision he's now appealing despite multiple recounts confirming his loss. Griffin continues to seek a reversal of the election outcome. Griffin lost by 734 votes out of the 5.5 million cast in that state. This remains the only undecided race nationally for the 2024 election, and of course, he's a republican. another story for you, Pam Bondy. Our attorney general right now calls all Tesla vandalism, domestic terrorism, promising steep consequences, like, will she call school shootings, domestic terrorism, Or is that just way too liberal for me to even think about? Supposedly, some of the people charged were in possession of Inc. She even said this incendiary devices such as AR fifteens. It's funny how it's something worth noting when it's on a car dealership, but not when there's AR fifteens in schools. What is interesting is the whole point of domestic terrorism is that vandals are trying to influence the government, but time and time again, this administration is. Saying, Elon isn't a government official. He's basically just Trump's friend. So moving forward, are President's friends covered under this? Can friends of the president influence the government that much? Is that normal anyways, Yeah. And here's another one for you. Trump takes Hunter and Ashley Biden's. Security detail Trump's ending, hunter and Ashley Biden's. Security detail immediately Trump said on social media that he objected to what he said. Were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden's Protective detail. While he was in South, Africa last week, he said Ashley Biden has 13 agents assigned to her detail and she will be taken off the list as well. Former presidents and their spouses receive. Lifelong secret service protection under federal law, but the protection afforded to their immediate families over the age of 16 ends when they leave office. However, outgoing presidents can extend protection up to six months after leaving office, which is what Biden did. Trump did the same for his children when, when he left office in 21 Bush and Obama, they all did the same. So that's. Crazy to think, but it sounds very targeted to It is very targeted crabs. He's very, very butt hurt over Joe Biden winning. I guess I have no idea. So stupid. some other light stories for you. So, A massive parasite carrying snail was found in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, The invasive giant African snail Elon Musk Is a risk to public health because it can carry meningitis, get fax people. That is so random. So random. Brooklyn Park. I have one for you. So a Texas woman was accused of abusing a corpse last weekend in Houston. She is or was a 34-year-old in Balmer, and she chose to mutilate a Mr. Rodriguez, who was 58 at the time of his death of natural causes. Well, I guess Rodriguez was a register. Sex offender and was charged with sexual assault back in 2001. the embalmer while embalming, the guy stabbed his body twice in the groin and then cut off his penis and placed it in his mouth. And this was all witnessed by two other workers, I mean. Whose side would you be on? In this story, the director noticed that Rodriguez's groin area looked disfigured and asked Lauder Melk to the woman's name about it. In response, Lauder Melk allegedly covered Rodriguez's lower body with a towel, and replied that the corpse had a lot going on with him per the document the woman turned herself in last week. One comment I read with this story said. He didn't feel a thing while I'm sure his victim suffers every day, so no, I don't feel bad for him at all, which is a very fair point. Yeah, there's actually a movie along the same lines called Hard Candy with Elliot Page and it's pretty entertaining. It's, you know, in this kind of instance I was also reading that there's like a GoFundMe being raised to pay for her legal bills, but she obviously is probably out of a job so. I would think so. That's crazy. Anyways, anyways, uh, that's, that's it for us today. So thank you guys so much for listening. Remember to give us a follow on Instagram at the Civil U. That's just what the letter U and email us. We're always down to receive an email, hearing critiques or uh, ideas or what we got wrong. That email address is the Civil Union twenty5@gmail.com. Thanks for listening everyone. Thank you guys.