Not So Civil DNC Leadership and GOP Gratitude | 05.05.25

In this episode of 'Civil Union,' hosts Alex and Ryan discuss a variety of topics from the humorous experience of AI-generated dating ads to the serious issue of political engagement in conservative states. They delve into the challenges faced during a town hall meeting with Senator Chris Murphy and the importance of greater political representation for millennials and Gen Z. The episode also highlights the concerning proposed cuts to funding for a federal suicide prevention hotline and the need for younger leadership in the Democratic Party. Additionally, Alex and Ryan play a Golden Girls-themed game and touch upon the significance of Older Americans' Month, focusing on the potential impacts of budget cuts on social security and Medicare. The discussion wraps up with insights into Amazon's battle with new tariffs on Chinese imports and their potential cost implications for consumers.

00:00 Introduction to the Civil Union Podcast
00:55 AI Boyfriends: A Hilarious Social Media Trend
06:27 Attending a Packed Democratic Town Hall
11:26 The Need for New Democratic Leadership
15:33 David Hogg's Push for Change in the DNC
19:22 Challenges Facing the LGBTQ+ Community
24:08 Golden Girls vs. Golden Resistance Game
30:03 Older Americans Month and Social Security Concerns
34:07 Amazon and Trump's Tariffs
37:37 Closing Remarks 

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

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Transcript

0:08

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 political issues shaping our lives. Especially those living on society's margins. Tune in for real talk, a touch of humor and plenty of passion because when it comes to politics, every voice matters and we are here to make sure they're heard. Piss off bro. I ain't some show pony there. Satisfied. Ain't fighting over you mate. Fine. Maybe I'll smash a bloke if he gets too close. Shut up. Chat's done. We're going pub. Don't make it weird. Oh my God, I have no idea what I clicked or how I even got on this. A log rhythm on Facebook. But I now have these AI generated humans trying to date me. I wish I could show this video because this guy is not bad looking for ai. So it's an app where you type a sentence and he or she is supposed to respond in this ad. The first sentence type says, show me your muscles, and he responds with this. Piss off, bro. I ain't some show pony there. Satisfied. The last two sentences are fight for me and take me on a date. Ain't fighting over you, mate. Fine. Maybe I'll smash a bloke if he gets too close. Shut up. Chat's done. We're going pub. Don't make it weird. That's so funny that you found these things. They don't pop up on my social media at all, so I wonder what you're searching to get these AI generated boyfriends on your feed. It's hilarious. He'll, he'll smash a bloke and we'll go public because we're we're dating and secrecy. Then I get this loser, advertise to me, listen to this one. Hey, handsome. You lonely, bored. Just need someone who actually listens. I'm your AI boyfriend. No games, no ghosting, no, sorry I fell asleep. Just instant replies. Late night whispers. Okay. It would be hilarious if an AI boyfriend ghosts you. I mean, they probably ghost JD Vance, but what do I know? I could totally see JD Vance having an AI relationship, like having this on the side. But anyway, he sounds, you know, like he's got emotional depth and perfect recall, which, so I would say if we want to name him anything. Thing. Let's name him what every millennial dreams of and emotionally available with a software update. I would bet. I would bet on a digital divorce. If you did this and you had an AA boyfriend, I would bet on a digital divorce within a week, and you crawling back to me, your real human husband faster than your AI boyfriend could update his firmware. Uh, well maybe that's true. We'll find out. Let's find out. You wanna find out? Yeah, pay for it. Let's see what happens. Well, welcome everyone. Hope everyone out there is doing well. Alex, I think it has rained absolutely all day today. It literally has. I feel like, you know, we were talking about gonna Seattle. I feel like Seattle came to us. I feel so bad for the dogs when they have to go out and go potty and just all of that. It's just, if you look at the radar, it's just been like stationary right over like the entire metro area. I secretly love it though. I, I sleep so much better when it's cloudy. I hate sunlight unless I'm at a beach or a pool. I don't want sun. I'd rather have it cloudy. It's better for your skin. You don't age as badly in cloudy weather and you get humidity. It's nice little humidity. It's not hot. It's not hot rain. It's like cold rain. So it's great. I think, yeah, it, you know, St. Louis had the wettest. April ever recorded in 135 years. Last month, just last month, we broke a record. It's wild. It's been a very wet spring. I could believe it. We've had a lot of rain. Hey, did, did we change our Instagram handle, Alex? We did. Instagram's weird where like you sign up and certain profiles like usernames aren't available or whatnot. Well, now I was able to get our, our username more accurately. Kind of to what it we are. So our new Instagram handle and our TikTok, TikTok handle's the same. It's called the Civil Union Pod, POD. That's again the civil Union pod. Pretty simple and it's all the same on our Instagram and our to, so just look it up. Great job. I'm very, very happy. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, because I was noticing when we were like. Commenting on things. It just said Civil U. And it's like if no like that doesn't really show and we need it more up and center. So I think changing, it'll be good. So I almost want to purchase a blue check mark. It's like$1 for the first month and then it goes to like.$15 a month each month afterwards. I mean, is it worth it? I don't think we need a blue check mark to prove we're legitimate, but what are your thoughts? So I know on Twitter or X, when they made us start paying for blue, blue check marks on there, it was very controversial.'cause you could tell when people were paying for it and it was kind of like, Ugh, God, you're such a loser. You're paying for your own check mark. But I will say. On platforms saturated with so many profiles I found at least on Instagram, which is different than X, I found out on Instagram when I go back and read comments on these public posts that we comment on, my eyes, go to the profiles with blue check marks. I don't know why. I think because we've just been conditioned on Twitter to react to those profiles as legitimate. So I do think maybe on Instagram it would. Help. Ugh. I just don't want to spend more money. Everything costs money nowadays. Everything costs, costs, money, everything. You see those commercials where they're like, you have 20 subscriptions and you only know about five of'em. We can help you delete them. And it's like, I think that all the time. I'm like, God, how many subscriptions do we have? And I'm like, no. I know. Basically everything we pay for, but it's still racks up. I do too. I always go to my little Apple thing and I look at the subscriptions and I'm always like, can I don't want to Canceling? Yeah, I'm always canceling. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Yeah. So what have we been up to? Well, there was a town hall organized by Democrats where US Senator Chris Murphy, flew in from DC to speak to voters out in Chesterfield, Missouri. We get there and the turnout was massive. Just a lot of people, a lot of older people, more than 1200 people showed up. In fact, the turnout was so large, they opened an overflow room. The 4:00 PM start time on a Friday afternoon is just tough altogether, especially for us working class people. Alex and I scrambled to get there. I was allowed to leave work a little early. We battled traffic, thunderstorms, anything you can think of. And you know what? I was kind of pissed. After all the work we've done the last decade, the main event room reached capacity. We were just herded like cattle down a long hallway past the event room just to watch local democratic leaders speak from a freaking TV screen. When, when does a Democratic party take the hint and start hosting town halls outdoors, or even under large pavilions where anyone, and I mean anyone can attend. Are they scared of MAGA showing up? We need democratic leaders standing on tables, in my opinion, or on the backs of, you know, truck beds with, with that big speaker thing. Alex, you use one at every game. Game, what do you call it? Oh, uh, A megaphone. A megaphone, yes. We need democratic leaders on the backs of truck beds with megaphones speaking to the vast amount of voters that are coming to see these candidates. It's so important. I will say that I don't necessarily know if they even thought how many people were gonna show up. Like yes, it was frustrating'cause we couldn't find a seat or a spot in the main room, but I don't think anyone was aware that this many people would show up. And it's kind of been a trend in the nation. But the area they had, it was this hotel out in the county and you know, we had to park, not even in the main hotel parking lot, we had to park in another lot and there were like three lots around that venue. And all of them were. Filled. I mean, there was traffic getting off the highway just for this event. I mean, it was, it was insane. So it's, it's, in a way, it's a good thing, but we definitely need to tweak the way we want to run town halls to bigger venues now that we know that we're gonna have that, that amount of people show up. A hundred percent. I totally agree. You know, when I mentioned like standing on tables and truck beds, I, I think of that scene in the movie Norma Ray played by Sally Field, where she was like. On a table in a factory that she worked at holding a, a sign with the word union and big black letters. Do you know that scene I'm talking about? No. But you know, every Sally Field movie, I think you've seen every movie of hers do like her. She, you do like steal magnolias. I mean, come on. Oh, and Homeward Bound. And Homeward Bound. You could cat sassy, sassy. Anyways, we need Democrats doing that, holding up big signs with like the word union or vote for me on it. Anyway, we, we saw Chris Murphy speak and it was okay. Nothing we haven't already seen or heard before. He did do very well. The town hall was filled with all Democratic elected leaders throughout Congressional District two. Each one gave a speech before Chris Murphy spoke, And every speaker would have the crowd chant. Where's Anne Wagner if you don't already know who Anne Wagner is. She's been the US House of Representative for Congressional District two in Missouri since 2012. She's never held a town hall. The National Democratic Party is now starting to. Let's be honest, care about Missouri, the flyover state, if you will, The DNC largely left Missouri voters after Barack Obama lost by about what, 8,000 votes in 2008. So was Anne Wagner even invited to speak at this event? Doubtful. Would she have shown up? Absolutely not. In the past, I don't remember any democratic leaders hosting town halls. Not here. At least, you know, we stay well-informed. We would've shown up if there were town halls. They certainly didn't during the 120 days, Kamala had to prove herself as a winning candidate for president. So these town hall situations are a little disheartening for me because now we're hosting town halls. Now we want to get in touch with constituents because of what's happening up in dc smoke and mirrors. And while I'm, I'm very happy with my current elected State House of Representative Ray Reed. The entire Democratic party, local and national needs a shakedown. We need a restructuring. We should hear and try to understand what David Hog has to say. More on that on the next story. My point of telling our listeners across this country is this, we need a new generation of leaders. I've said it before, I'm saying it again. It is time for the millennials and Gen Zs to come through. It's time for us to take control. Just look at this mess. The Republican party is fucking around with our futures here. We're the ones that have to clean up this destruction. Trump and his Band of Billionaire Thieves have created, I completely agree with everything you have to say. I mean, while the second largest labor force is the Gen Xers, which would be basically anyone born between 1965 and 1980. The largest labor force is now the millennials or those born between 1980 through 1996. You and me are included in that. We should be focused on those who are helping our economy steam through these chaotic times. We should be very focused on what the millennials kitchen table looks like. What bills are we facing? What issues are we facing? Do we really care if our neighbor is married to another member of the same sex? Probably not. We don't please take no disrespect to those who are older and closer to retirement here because I do really respect the ones that did show up to the Chris Murphy thing'cause they were quite a bit of them. And I always find that really cool that there is an older generation that is liberal and wanting to help us out. But we hundred percent only see, we only see progress when there is change. Yeah. So did you know the current House of Representatives is made of only 16% of millennials and Gen Zers? Roughly 1% of the Senate is represented by the millennial generation. That's for both parties. If you want change, if you want to get out of debt. If you want to fix immigration issues instead of just deporting people to an El Salvadorian prison, now more than ever it is time to focus energy and efforts on getting a new mindset, a new era of Democratic leaders. While I do think there is a healthy Republican party out there. Somewhere, maybe outer space. It's healthy to disagree and still create a non-biased plan for things that don't take away our human rights. It's also not a bad idea to focus our energy on protecting planet Earth. The climate, we only get one. Speaking of planets, Alex. Happy. Almost 25th birthday to Britney Spears's. Oops. I did it again. Album. Ugh. Changed my life. I wish she could release another album. You know, she went to Mars. I mean, you know. She did. Yeah. You probably get the reference. You're millennial, you get it. Yeah. There was a cute guy there. He brought her the heart of the ocean. Yeah. You know, if Britney Spears were to release an album right now, she would hit jackpot. If Britney Spears was in place of Katy Perry going to space, I think people would've actually been on board with it. I think people would really appreciate a new Britney in their life. I know I would. We need that. If she did her version, could you imagine this, if Britney Spears did her version of an. ERA'S tour that was like a four hour concert with her whole discography. Especially today where people are just itching for a pick me up. Could you imagine what Britney era would you be, do you think? Oh, era. Blackout, for sure. Yeah. That was my favorite album. Blackout was a good, that's a very rebellious one I feel like I would do. Yep. I think I would be glory or circus. Hmm. Okay. We should start asking people that What Britney Spears era are You think about it? Huh? What album are you? I don't know. Anyway, you know, do you think she would've done like a dancing video if she was up there? I. In that outer space trip where Katy Perry went and Gale King did. Absolutely. She would've been whipping her hair with the knives. Yes. Floating in air, in the anti-gravity. Anyway, okay. N New subject. Here we go. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the, that the party officers should be banned from taking sides and primaries. Ken Martin beefed up the drama between him and DNC Vice Chair David Hog clapping back at Hog's Plan to raise cash for candidates going after democratic incumbents. David Hog Rose the prominence After surviving the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, both Martin and Hogg were elected by DNC members earlier this year. Martin said he's drafting up a proposed bylaw to require the DNC office to remain neutral in all democratic primaries. This comes after David said he'll raise millions of dollars through a political action committee to support challengers running against longtime Democrat incumbents who are in very blue congressional districts. Hog says the party needs a shakeup. He wants leaders who would become more aggressive towards Trump while also connecting with younger voters. You know what? It needs to happen. Absolutely. All David Hogg is wanting to do is challenge the dead weight of this party that has been able to sit comfortably in various positions throughout this country. He wants to challenge them by supporting candidates who may come in and want to actually show. Up. He's not acting dirty. He's just giving people a fighting shot at running against established politicians who already have a team and campaign money in their coffers. And I don't see anything wrong with it. Honestly. There is nothing wrong in giving someone a push. There is nothing wrong with challenging these politicians. I think it holds'em accountable and wakes them the F up. If you want to retain your seat. Fight for it. Just because hog may support someone doesn't mean he's trying to push a politician out. You know what I find interesting about all this too, is I thought Ken Martin would come in and really change the DNC, and maybe he still will. There's still a lot of time there, but we are at a time where things need to change. What was working before isn't working anymore. We talk about it all the time. I don't think it has been for a while. We have a member. Now, who is the first to be from the Gen Z generation? That's David Hogg, and I think it's really important not only for the DNC, but for the image of the DNC to support this member. Obviously you felt it was needed. He should be a part of the board of the DNC, so maybe. You should listen to what he wants to do because sparring with him and threatening him, it isn't a good look. You know, especially us being the millennial generation and being the largest working generation out there, we need more representation and we're poor. I mean, let's be honest here, like we all have, we're all drowning in student loan debt. If you're lucky enough to buy a house, you got a mortgage payment to worry about interest rates. If your car goes out, you gotta need to get a new car. You need to pay insurance. I mean, it's just cost after cost after cost, and you got inflation and the tariffs now. And it's like we need to be the representation of that generation so we get our voices heard. There are a lot of. Young men Republicans out there in their twenties. I don't ever remember that. Like, usually historically it's like you're, you're a liberal, you're a democrat when you're, you're younger and then you slowly, slowly become more conservative as you get older. But it's just, it's uh, it's flipped the script really. Um, anyway, so, Hey, love is love, Alex. It is. Love is love. I just wish, yeah, I just wish, like Republicans use their hearts more instead of their, their Tiny Brains Elite budget draft plans to cut funding to a federal suicide prevention hotline dedicated to helping plus youth. Advocates say this proposal to eliminate funding for the 9 8 8 line will increase more deaths? Yeah. Republican leaders don't like minorities sharing the same rights as them. I, I really, truly believe that. So they will bat no eye at ripping anything LG plus related apart the hotline. Provides federally funded support to anyone dealing with a mental health crisis, and God knows Americans need it more now than ever before. In fact, the line typically fields almost 800 calls a month. In just 10 days. As the presidential election came to a head, they received roughly 5,500 calls. Wow. They were prepared for the calls to spike. Given that the LGBTQ plus community and specifically the transgender population has been a subject of debate. Yeah, so this hotline received 2100 contacts per day in February alone. That tells you how scary it is for minorities since its creation by the Biden administration and. 2022. The hotline has provided 1.2 million crisis contacts with lifesaving services. We here at the Civil Union Podcast believe in factual studies. Studies prove that suicide rates are disproportionately higher, um, for plus youth. And you do also have to think how many lives will be affected by this. They are turning their backs on thousands of people. They are telling them in the most brutal way possible that their lives don't matter enough to fund, to protect or to save. You know, in a time when trans. And LGBTQ plus youth are being vilified in communities across this country in a time when they are feeling unwelcome and shut out. This is absolutely heartless. This is happening in a political climate. I. Where bills are passed to erase queer identities and spaces from classrooms and communities where access to gender affirming care is being ripped away, and where hateful rhetoric is being spouted every day, like it's just normal comments on social platforms. And I wanna be clear, this rhetoric has become. A deadly soundtrack in these kids' lives. Could you imagine being a kid in today's social media society? It's insane. And then we wanna shut down the one phone number they could call the one lifeline some of these kids have when their household doesn't accept them. We need more lifelines, not fewer. If the cuts become a reality, they would be effective October 1st. If you or a loved one is struggling or in crisis, help is available For now. You can call or text nine eight eight, or you can chat online at 9 8 8 lifeline.org. One thing I had found too while researching for this story, it's important to note too, the Trevor Project will also still be available to those in need. You can get to that by going to the Trevor project.org. Texting 6 7 8 6 7 8. Or calling 1 8 6 6 4 8 8 7 3 8 6. We will be sure to add these links and phone numbers to our description of the episode, so look at that and you can get these I these, this information. You know, I have a side topic question after this story that we just did. Do you say. LGBTQIA plus community. Like how as a gay man, like what do you say? What do you prefer? Initially it was LGBT, and then it was L-G-B-T-Q. Um, then it became L-G-B-T-Q-I-A, and now it's just LI think as long as you're just making sure you're. welcoming and accepting everyone in that title. So you could say LGBTQ plus, I'm sure you could say plus LGBTQIA plus. Well, like what, what is the I and the A stand for? I don't even fucking know. Intersex. Oh, what is the a? You know, I, I just say plus, and that's where I stand and that's okay. You know, I get it. But that's just how I'm, that's what it is. Plus. There's a lot of identities out there with it. I think as long as you are putting the plus, you are saying there's more than just the LGBT community. Yeah, we are all inclusive here at the Civil Union Podcast. Hey, I think it's game time, babe. It is game time. What is it? This week? So, okay, so for this edition of Who Said It, I wanted to throw it back to the old sitcom era. Golden Girls Edition. Hey. Which I love. Golden Girls. Yeah, I thought the four women, Dorothy Rose, blanche, and Sophia, and who would be them in the political world today? So I came up with these parallels. Okay. Hear me out. Hillary Clinton would be Dorothy. Both are direct, tough, pragmatic. Jill Biden would be Rose. Both are good hearted and charming and innocent. Harris would be blanche. Both are confident, charming, and carries herself with sophistication. And then Nancy Pelosi would be Sophia. Oh, Sophia, yeah. Both are mother figures with sharp wit and unafraid to speak their mind. So, so what's the game? Could you, first of all, could you imagine all those women under one roof? I would love Kamala Harris. What would their wallpaper look like? What would their decor look like? I'd just be really carefully interested about that. Anyways, for this edition, I'm gonna give you a quote. You tell me whether you think it's the Golden Girls or the Golden Resistance. Then for an extra point, guess the person who said it. Okay. Oh God. Is this a long one? It's 10 questions. Alright. Quote one. You'll have to excuse my mother. She suffered a slight stroke a few years ago, which rendered her totally annoying. Golden Girls are golden resistance. So wait, what's the golden resistance? All the other women. Hillary, Jill. Oh, okay. Nancy or Harris. Okay. Well the first one is definitely Dorothy. Yes. Yeah. Good job. Golden girl. Yeah, Dorothy. Alright, you got two points That time alright, next quote. My mother would say to us, I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree. You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you is that. A golden girl or Golden resistance? Golden resistance. Who said it? Kamala? Yeah, that one was easy. I knew it was gonna be easy, but I just wanted to include it. I actually wanna be recorded. Say you think you just fell out of a coconut tree. Alright, next quote. If I wanna knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle. Golden Girls or Golden Resistance? Oh, golden Resistance. Who do you think it is? Nancy Pelosi. It is Golden Resistance. It was actually Hillary Clinton. Ah, okay, so you got one point. Alright, number four. Isn't it amazing how I can feel so bad and still look so good? Golden Girl or Golden Resistance? Golden Girls Who? Blanche. Yeah, that's one of her most famous lines. Alright, number five. Well, nobody ever believes me when I'm telling the truth. I guess it's the curse of every devastatingly beautiful woman, golden girl, or Golden resistance. I'm gonna go with Golden Girls. Okay. Who said it? I am gonna go with Blanche, correct? Yes. You got nine points so far? Okay. Nine. Nine. Quote six. I hope he comes. I wanna punch him out. This is my moment. I've been waiting for this. I wanna punch him out and I'm gonna go to jail and I'm going to be happy. Golden Girl. Or Golden Resistance? Oh my goodness. What a golden resistance to it is that I'm gonna go with golden resistance. Correct. Okay. Who said it? Okay, so there's the choices are Kamala, Nancy, Hillary, and who else? Jill. Jill Biden. Jill Biden. No way is it? No, no, no. Oh, okay. Is that your guess? You, yes. I'm gonna go with Jill. It was Nancy Pelosi. Damn Speaking about Trump in 2022. And I find that so funny that she said that. All right, number seven. It's time. I gave something back to the chicken community. A chicken once Saved my life. Golden Girl or Golden Resistance? Golden Girls Who? Rose? Yes. Okay, so hold on, I'm trying to keep your points added up. We're at 10, 11, 12. Alright, quote eight. It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy fathers would do it. Golden girl or golden resistance. Golden resistance. Wrong. Damn golden girl. It was Sophia. Sophia, okay. All right. Number nine. Life is difficult and if you sit around waiting for fun to show up, you'll find yourself going without it more often than not. Oh, that's a golden girl. One or golden resistance. I'm going with resistance, correct? Who? Oh, uh. I'm going to go with Hillary. It was Jill Biden. Jill Biden, the serious one. You know, I don't know many Jill Biden quotes. I couldn't find any funny ones. She's always very serious, which is fine. Yeah, but that's why it makes her Dorothy. That's what makes her Dorothy. Yeah, that's true. All right, number 10. Last one. You're at 13 points. I thought about boiling him in oil, but I have never doubted my decision to stay Golden girl or golden resistance. Wow. I'd be shocked if it was a golden resistance. I'm gonna go with Golden Girls. It's a golden resistance. Okay, well, let me guess. Uh oh my gosh. Uh, Hillary. Correct? It was, I feel like she would do that. It was an interview she had. She was talking obviously about Bill Clinton. Bill. Wow. I thought about boiling him and boy, she's talking about her husband. Yeah. Geez. I mean, do you blame her Anyway, what would she do to her AI boyfriend, I wonder, type that message. So outta 20 points, you got 14. Amazing. Which is great. Alright. Alright. Hey, that was fun, Alex. Thanks. Always is. Good job. Um, so, so we, we ran with the Golden Girls quotes and golden resistance quotes because May did, you know, may is Older Americans month. It's a national observance to recognize contributions and the contributions of older adults in the United States. It's a time to highlight aging trends, reaffirm commitments to serving older adults and to. Encourage community engagement. The theme for 2025 is flip the script on aging. Just how old is old? Well, according to, I don't know who made it up. Old is young. Old. There's young, old, middle, old, oldest old, young. Old is considered 65 to 74. Middle old is 75 to 84, and oldest old is 85 and older. This month is a good reminder to continue to think about aging Americans. Voters elected in administration with plans to completely shut down agencies that have built on helping those older adults, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, all on the chopping blocks. Remember when I said love is love earlier? Love is clearly not on the minds of this administration. Neither is gratitude. From all the years of hard labor put forth by people 60 and older, how dare we even contemplate chopping the resources that our parents and our grandparents depend on when these resources are cut you, I, everyone will have to find a way to support our aging families more now than what you're already doing. Hey, maybe the Billionaire Band of Thieves clubs will give us$5,000. Alex, they wanna give$5,000 to people who have babies. You know? Did you hear that one? That's true. I think, I think I actually wanna create an Instagram story where people can anonymous anonymously, like vote on their hospital bill after they gave birth to a baby. Because I think I know some people that had to pay a lot more than that, even with insurance. I think having a baby is like pretty expensive. It is expensive. I think for adoption it took 20 or 30 grand and I think having a baby in hospital, it kind of equals out to that too. That is just wild. But$5,000 to have a baby, I. Interesting. We just had a township meeting last night about this whole subject, and we had someone from the Missouri Budget project speak on this topic of how there may be changes to what is given in funding the Medicaid, Medicare, and social security when it comes to how much the federal government plans to give to states and whether states will have to front more of their finances. To the older population because of that. You kind of touched on this, but one thing that stuck with me and is important to note, just because you are not 60 or older doesn't mean that this doesn't affect you. If states are given the responsibility to pay for these things, states that are already in debt due to budgets being mismanaged and unbalanced since c. Where do you think that money will come from? It will have to come from somewhere, maybe from money that would actually go to fixed roads or facilities you use. Money may have to come from cutting state jobs. Even. You need to renew your driver's license next year or the year after that, or get a permit. Marriage license. If they cut staff, that means longer wait times at those offices or cutting office hours, which means when you get off work at four, they'll probably already be closed. It may not directly affect you and your health, but everyone will see these financial burdens start to mount up. On top of that, I think we all strive to want to reach old age. And be able to have our hard work pay off. I mean, I know I do, and I think older people who don't have the ability to work anymore should be supported. It's sad that these cuts and this administration's lack of gratitude would make their lives harder. If you have a grandparent, would you want them to struggle to get their medications or basics like access to healthy food? I think with everything going on. It's easy to focus on issues that are right in front of you, but it's important we stand for this just as strongly as we are standing up for other issues. Yeah, absolutely. It's very important. So next story is a little bit different. We're gonna kind of switch gears here. If you shop on Amazon, this story would be interesting, which let's be honest, is probably everybody. You know, I've tried to stop shopping on Amazon. I really do, but the convenience of it makes it really hard. I've definitely lowered the amount I use them, and I try to borrow books from the library over getting them through Kindle, because there was a moment where I was even doing that. But anyway. Here's the tea. Amazon was allegedly planning the slap a warning label on its site, telling shoppers exactly how much Trump's new tariffs on Chinese imports were jacking up prices. Bezos basically shots fired with this administration, but no surprise, the White House did not vibe well with that. Trump's press team called it a political stunt. Here's Caroline Levitt speaking on the matter. Then things got even juicier Trump personally called up Jeff Bezos and pretty much said the back off shortly after that. Amazon reversed course claiming they never planned a show. Tear of costs on listings. Oh my goodness. Trump, no surprise to anyone, posted a victory lap on his true social platform. So what's actually going on? These tariffs are part of Trump's 2025 campaign, which we've touched on previous. Episodes, but Trump is pushing a new round of pressure on China, including up to 145% tariffs and ending a longstanding rule that lets small Chinese shipments under$800 skip customs duties. That's a huge deal for brands like Sheen and Temu and Amazon. These tariffs could make a ton of everyday stuff more expensive. And while Amazon. It might absorb some of these costs. Smaller platforms and sellers won't have that luxury. Trump is trying to look tough on China. Amazon's trying to dodge political drama. I guess they really like their front row seat at the inauguration and we're stuck in the middle paying the price. Yeah. We're stuck on the lower fucking end because we have to pay the price. Yep. If we make things, I actually right now. Think that the final vest vessels without non-tariff charges are currently arriving at seaports across the country right now. This will hit us in a few months guaranteed. Great. I'll start looking forward. Yeah. Forward to that guys. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Boy, that was this a heavy episode. Uh, we've had heavier. I thought it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. The game was fun. Yeah. Hey, Alex, what is our Instagram handle and TikTok handle again? I, what is it? The Civil Union Pod. Civil Union Pod. The Civil union pod on Instagram and TikTok. I mean, if you already follow us, you're just gonna see an update, but if you don't follow us and you need a search for us, the civil. Union pod and our email is the Civil Union twenty5@gmail.com. Yes. That's perfect. Yes. All right everyone, thank you so much for listening. Uh, we hope you are doing okay and you get through your work week. So have a great one. Have a good one. Bye bye.