Not So Civil Raids and a Housing Crisis | 11.24.25

In this episode of 'The Civil Union' podcast, Midwest husbands Ryan and Alex explore a variety of topics ranging from personal anecdotes to in-depth political discussions. They open with a humorous recap of their weekend, tackling the everyday annoyances of parking woes at Starbucks and discussing favorite local eateries. The conversation transitions to more serious topics, including the housing crisis, the potential impact of 50-year mortgages, and the recent resignation of Marjorie Taylor Green from Congress. A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to analyzing a high-profile legal case in Marion County, Kansas, where a police raid on a local newspaper led to serious backlash and legal repercussions. The episode concludes with a creative exercise of casting actors for a potential film adaptation of the Marion County story. The hosts provide an engaging mix of humor, real-life context, and thoughtful political analysis.

00:00 Introduction to the Civil Union Podcast
00:32 Weekend Recap
03:33 Thanksgiving Preparations and Grocery Shopping
07:58 Political Commentary: Marjorie Taylor Green's Resignation
14:03 New Car Troubles and Taxes
19:41 The Housing Market Crisis
27:31 Young Politicians and Real Issues
30:42 Marion County Newspaper Raid
41:30 Casting the Movie: Marion County Scandal
47:34 Final Thoughts and Farewell

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

https://www.silvermansound.com

Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the Civil Union, the podcast where politics and everyday life collide. Two Midwest husbands breaking down politics with humor, receipts, and real life context. You won't hear from the coasts. If you're ready to stay informed and connect with your community, you've come to the right place. Yeah, welcome back everybody. Make sure to give us a follow on Instagram or TikTok if you haven't already, and. We'll start there. So yeah, I had a good weekend. We had a good weekend. Um, How was your weekend, babe? It was good. I just had a one day off. We just, I just had Friday off and now I'm back to work. But it was good. It was a good one day off the week. Yeah, it was good. I'll start with Friday. So on Friday I went to Starbucks to get like a quick like a. Bite to eat for breakfast, you know, and I'm sorry to all the parents out there, but the front door of the Starbucks is not a drop off pickup zone for your children. I was trying to back out of the five minute or less parking spot and I got stuck behind another car dropping off their kids. And I mean, I was there for like a good 30 seconds and. You know, I had to honk my horn because I was like waiting and I don't know what they were doing. I guess they were trying to figure out the name of the order or whatnot. It was just absolutely ridiculous. And you know, when you're doing that, you stop. All traffic in the parking lot. It was so annoying. I was so annoyed. Well, and now that you're mentioning this story, is it just me or are all Starbucks parking lots? The tiniest lots they could have. It's like they, they invest in their store, but they don't invest in their lot. Like think of any Starbucks we've gone to, they're all terrible parking. They are, but, but it's not a drop off zone. Like park in a spot, let your kids out and go. Get the order if you, if you don't want to get out of the car with your kids. It was just very, very annoyed with that. Oh my God. And that's like the last thing you want when you need caffeine. Exactly. Exactly. So anyways, I had to honk my horn that day. So, went on with the day. Friday was a good day. I got my hair cut as well with, this my hair stylist. Her name is Theresa, and we chitchatted the whole time. And she was telling me how she was going to a housewarming party over in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. And it made me think of. How Ponto Beach is like right next to Granite City, Illinois, and there's that really good taco place called Ernie's and Annie's. It's like this little dive bar and they have like tacos that are like really good tacos. We gotta go there. I miss Ernie's and Annie's. It is this dive bar hole in the wall place you probably would not expect to see me and Ryan at, but they serve the best tacos. They're like Jack in the box tacos. So think Jack in the box tacos, but think better made because they're not fast food frozen and they're so good. I know. Yeah. So I told her I was like. You need to bring, either you need to bring a cooler with you so you can like store those tacos while you're at that party and bring'em home or bring it as like a little like substitute to whatever they're serving at the party because it's so good. So anyways. Oh, that would be a fun dish to bring them a party. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. So then, uh, after the haircut we went to have sushi with some really good friends of mine. Went to com pie sushi in the Central West end and sushi is just so good there. I loved it. Km Pie is a cool little Japanese like, like environment as well. They have like fun little plush sushi pillows and they actually have an area where you can like sit on the floor. It's just a fun vibe. It's warm and cozy and I liked it. It was really good. And their sushi was good. It was so good. So then the rest of the weekend I went the, I did the Thanksgiving shopping. I got the Thanksgiving shopping done. So that's good. But you need to go get the heavy whipping cream, by the way. For your potatoes. I totally forgot. I totally spaced on that. That's all right. I'll add it to my list. I'll go over, I don't know if it was a sign, because usually you put pet milk in it. I do put pet milk, and I was told by certain people that my mashed potatoes are not really that good, but they say they're good every year out of love. And I don't believe it, but I was going to change my recipe this year to heavy whipping cream.'cause who doesn't like a lot of fat and milk. And I was gonna do that way. Well, I mean, I am, I'm the culprit. The pet milk is okay. And we always smile every year. Hmm. It's just so good. But I, I don't know. I just don't, I don't like the pet milk. Well, I will make some stellar mashed potatoes. And have heavy whip and cream and butter and there will be no complaints. Yeah. Anyways, so you gotta go get the heavy whip and cream. So I completely spaced on that and it was act actually easy, easy Sunday afternoon. There wasn't that many people there shopping so well. It was busy, but it was I think, normal for a Sunday afternoon. That's really surprising. And you know what, what I am curious about what the CAA groceries, if anyone's Thanksgivings will look. Different this year. Like if they won't have as many dishes or won't have as many how much food? Like I would be really curious how people spend their money this year. I would love to work at a grocery store and see that. Yeah. So I also, uh, was wanting to get like some pies to bring pies over there. And so I went to this little tiny grocery store in Webster Groves is off Big Bend and kind of near Barry and Big Bend. It's called Freddy's Grocer. Have you been there? I've never been there. I've always wanted to go. It's been there forever, since I've gone to college here. Oh yeah. It's been there forever. So I, I park in the lot and there's like this like. I'm assuming it's Webster, so there's like a bunch of rich people there. I don't know. The, I don't know. I've never been there. So, I actually remember during COVID that a lot of the co community here supported that grocery store like hardcore because they were a grocery store and they were getting supplies still, but like they were one of the few places you could go get like toilet paper down low or things that you couldn't find at major grocery stores. And they kept advertising. They were like, come here, we have it. So yeah, I. How was it? You liked it? Yeah. Well I saw this like Range Rover pull in and I'm like, oh, this person has money. You know? That's what I see or think about when I see a Range Rover pull in and he gets out of the car and he walks in and I couldn't tell if this guy was gay or not, but it just, he looks like the guy that he was the original queer Eye for the straight guy, um, on that show on NNBC, queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He was like. He, his career took him to the food channel and he like hosts those baking challenges. I can't think of his name. Oh, the one with the glasses? Yes. Yes. I swear to God. And he has like a weird, kind of a odd sno like snotty voice. Yeah. Kind of, yeah, kind of like nasally. Well, he was there, I swear that was him. Anyway, so I couldn't tell. so I'm in there and everyone's really, really nice. They had a, a trans person, I'm assuming it's a trans person working at the cash register. So I thought that was interesting and I got, I found two pies. I got a apple pie and a. A wild berry beast pie, so we'll see what that is. It is kind of like, I don't know, problematic to, like when you say you see a trans person working, but at the same time it is a big indicator that a company is. Cool and open when you do see people like that. I remember when we were in San Francisco, I saw a lot of that, like a lot of, yeah. You know, LGBT or trans people working in these stores or things that we would go to. And I was like, oh cool. Yeah.'cause it's regular people working regular jobs. There's no like discrimination, that's the thing. Exactly. So, so I'm in there and I got my pies and I also see that they have a lot of like these like. Pre-made dishes that you can get to. There was a, a chicken panini thing and a musca cho and lasagna and some barbecue chicken breasts. And I found two little trays of hamburger patties. There's two of'em. Today will be our red meat day. And I, uh, I, I purchased those. So there's some hamburgers in the fridge, by the way, so if you wanna try those. Or cherry wood smoked hamburger patties. I don't know. So. Wow. That's good. Interesting. They're like precooked. Yeah, they're already cooked. They're ready to go, so. Oh, wow. I love that. Yeah. So we'll have burgers tonight. It's our red meat night. Um, but anyway, so we were leaving sushi and I pull up my Facebook, you know, and I see Marjorie Taylor Green was like resigning from Congress and, I don't know, this is just like a, a wolf in sheep's clothing. She, she's pissed that. You know, Congress can't get their act together and she's, she's really had a turbulent time in Congress since going into Congress in 2020. I mean, it's just been absolutely nuts. And she did that to herself? She did. And she, she really did. And so anyways, she's resigning and I can see her, you know, coming out. Book and coming out, trying to run for governor of Georgia or Senate of Georgia or something like that. So I, I don't know what the goal goals are here. why is she. Resigning. It's just weird. Oh, she's definitely gonna come out with a book and she's definitely gonna tour just like Kamala did around the country and have like special speakers. I could totally see her doing that. I don't trust anything she does. I think it's very calculating. I think she knew exactly what she was doing when she was in Trump's little circle. Kissing his butt. I think now that things are kind of going down and approval ratings are low, she's distancing herself because she's the only smart, well, she's not smart, but she's taking the smarter route in that Republican party, the GOP, and she's saying. Fuck it, I'm out. And that's what she's doing. It's very, I I don't trust it though. It's very, it's very calculated. I mean, let's be honest, like she's up to something. I just dunno what that next move is. It's either gonna be a book so she can raise money, more money, because she's done, she's gotten like$25 million worth of insider training trading like in Congress. So. We'll see what's going on. Do you think if she does release a book, let's say, and she raises money, do you think she being stepping down, doing what she is doing, has the potential still, if she does go against Trump to run in 26 or the midterms or even presidential, but do you think she'll run again for any seat? Well, yeah. I think she's either gonna try to become the governor of Georgia or the Senator of Georgia. I think she's gonna try to run for that. She has to. She has to have. Some sort of plan going on, and this is not the less we've heard from her, but yeah, there are some really, really big alt-right MAGA people that are distancing, distancing themselves now more than ever that I've seen. Because this presidency is just absolutely, it's a whack job. So as we were leaving the sushi dinner that night, we noticed like higher, and some friends even told us some higher like. Security going on like in Forest Park and me and you witnessed that in the grove or whatnot. And it reminded me that earlier in the day, our alt-right Senator Eric Schmidt made a a, a video on Instagram with Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, Both of them were in St. Louis and they were both talking about how they're trying to curb the violence in St. Louis. So I was, I was surprised that we all had a conversation at the dinner about all the security we saw and just it, it registered in my brain, like when we were leaving, I was like, oh wow, maybe this has something to do with it. So I'm interested to see if we're gonna have a. Kick up in security and you know, the National Guard in St. Louis, we'll see if they bring a National Guard to St. Louis. I just don't think that that will bring trouble. I don't think people will sit well with that here in this city. I feel like we would be very much like how they handled it in Chicago, but who knows? I don't understand the whole St. Louis dangerous thing. I really don't. I've never have, it's a trigger for me.'cause I've lived here since college and I've never had any crazy experiences more than I have in any other city. It's. So that's, that's my take on that subject. Yeah. So this morning also I see our. Alt-right MAGA supporting House of representative Ann Wagner. She, she had to post a quote about God, so I'm gonna read that. So quote, she said, he has shown you immortal. What is good and what does the Lord require of you to act justly, to love, mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah six, eight end quote, I don't need. My representative preaching God to me. You know, I don't need that. I love that. She's so quiet. Like she doesn't exist half the time. And then she comes outta the woodwork and posts a Bible verse like, of course. Exactly. You know, if that madami from New York, the New York, new New York City mayor posted a, he's Muslim. If he posted like some Muslim quote after he won the maga, like Anne Wagner would have lost their shit. They would've lost their. Minds if you did that. Hundred percent. A hundred percent, also, as Marjorie Taylor Green was on this circuit of doing all these shows, like The View and Bill Maher and like all these other, like M-S-N-B-C and being interviewed about how she's distancing herself from, you know, Trump and she's distancing herself from the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, because he can't run the house correctly, She, after Madami won the primary in New York, she ended up posting on her social media a picture, an AI generated photo of the Statue of Liberty, wearing a full on burka and. It pissed me off because that was so low and it was very Islamophobic, if you will. And you know, no one, at least I've seen in the interviews that she's done has asked her about that. Like, can you please apologize here for doing that? Because if you really want to gain the trust of other independent voters and even maybe democratic voters, you gotta apologize for that because that's bullshit. That's the thing with that party, the GOP and people who support them is they, they, they turn the blind eye to many things and just focus on other things and then those other things just never have happened. They disappear. It's like, girl, we all remember it. We all remember these stupid things you've done in your past. And certain people hopefully will hold you accountable, but we'll see. Exactly. So. We did feel safe in the, the new car that you had. Uh, you got a new car last month. It's almost been a month since you've had a new car. So, tell people what happened to the Jeep. The Jeep Wrangler that you had. Oh, it's too long of a story, but let's just say in seven, in a seven day period, I took my car in. four times, and this was me working during me working a 70 hour work week with like two other extra activities on the side. All during that, uh, my car broke down. Engine light came on numerous times, dropped over God. over five grand on this stupid car. Love my Jeep. Really do. Always thought I would have it in my life forever. And it just, it got to a point where it was just, it wasn't worth it and I had to switch it up. And now my, I have a new SUV and I absolutely love it. And I think I like it more because my Jeep was so basic for so long. I had a CD player, no bells and whistles on this jeep at all. And so now that I'm in a car, I was behind on the times when it came to things that came in a car and now I'm like, Ooh, I can do this. Or Oh my God. Heated seats or Oh my God, a radio that works it was so, it's been so nice and smooth. It, it has been. It's been good. Congratulations, by the way. That's awesome. Thank you. It's crazy how much stress your life is in when you don't have a working. Transportation vehicle and how much stress you get when an inch light comes on. Like you don't realize it. You're like, oh, it's just another oil change or something. But that does, it hits something in your chest when it goes off. And now even for me, it's like P ts DI can't, I don't even want to know what happens in my brain when it happens again to me. it. It breaks you down. It's crazy. I don't know how normal people do it. It's crazy because it's like, how much more money do we like invest in this car? And is that investment actually going to. Add years of life on the car. Like when, what's that amount? That enough is enough. You know? Well, I do think Wranglers keep the price. I think if I would've, if I would've kept putting money into it, I could have resold it in five years or even 10 years and still gotten a good chunk of change from it. Because Wranglers don't depreciate value as much as other cars, but. I don't work. Me working 70 hours work like a week is pretty common, 60 hours a week. So I am not the ideal candidate to be driving a car that needs work all the time. I think if I was working four days a week or working from home or whatever it is, I think I would be more doable because I could just take it on my days off. If it was like a hobby for you, right? If it was more of a hobby car, That's what it is for most people. Jeep is a hobby for most people, but for me, my commuter car and I work so much, I, I can't, I can't do it. So anyway, yeah. So, but I, good decision. No regrets. I do miss my Jeep a lot. It's very sad. Probably sadder than most people would think. But I lost all my stickers. I been collecting since I was like 28, but. It's a new, new dawn, new life, new chapter in my life. I'm ready for it. Yeah, there you go. So how much can I ask how much your taxes were? Oh my God. I thought my taxes were gonna be in, maybe this was really naive of me, but I saw in the paperwork that I had received, I was like, oh, 500 bucks. Like that's easy. I saw a little total and I was like, oh, that's fine. And in my brain I knew it was low, but again, you had even said, you're like, that's not right. And I was like, well, this is what it says. There was no other. Thing showing me was gonna be more. Then I go to the DMV'cause I wanted to get taken care of. I was in line for like two hours because everyone, there was like 40 people there at like 8:00 AM on a Friday anyway. It ended up being like 2,500 bucks. Oh my god. Like way more than I was expecting. Geez. But you know, it is what it is and it taken care of. And you know, she looked at me, the register girl, they were very nice, but she looked at me and she goes, you're, you're, you know, you're up to date with your property tax. And for me, that is amazing to hear.'cause for the longest time I never was because. I just never was, but it was like, yeah, I am. Thank you. I am, I am up to date with my property tax, but even still, it was so expensive. You know, my personal property taxes this year has actually dropped drastically. I'm very like knocking on wood, literally like, that isn't as insane as it used to be. But last year it was nuts. The year before that, it was nuts. Like I, I don't understand personal, like you have to pay taxes for actually like owning something. So my tax dollars from work. You know, I have to also pay a tax for owning something I bought with those tax dollars. It just doesn't make sense. Well, and it's funny'cause I feel like when we were in California San F, like in that area, you feel taken care of. The roads are nice, the people are nice, right? That the poli politic politics protect you. You know, you do feel like the people there are paying more, the groceries are more expensive, gas is more expensive. But you're like, I, this is fine because you feel safe and you feel secure and things are just. Shiny and here it's like, why the hell are you asking me to pay$600 on my Jeep Wrangler every year for Missouri? That doesn't protect us. We vote for things and the. political party will just deny it or overturn it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, what are we, why are we paying you Then? Like, what, what is this state doing for us? It's just, it's not, I think that's what makes it worse is because we feel it does, like we live in an area that we're not protected. It does. It does. Absolutely. And you know, I remember back in the day, getting a loan for a car. It used to be like. Five years, 60 months. That's how we've always been grown to like, you know, perceive buying a new car. It's a five year loan for, or 60 months, you know, and now it's like seven years. My Jeep, what is it? My Jeep, uh, Cherokee. It's a, it was a seven year loan. And I think your new car is a seven year loan now too, isn't it? Like, yeah, but I'll, I'll pay that off way before. That's my plan. Well, and you're lucky, but you know, I think I heard people were toying with 15 year car loans. Like, is that really? An idea. And there's also like this administration are toying with the idea of a 50 year mortgage, which is absolutely insane to me. So here's, here's a bit that I think everyone should listen to about, what's going on. And is a 50 year mortgage really going to curb the housing crisis in America? This administration is now toying with the idea of considering a 50 year mortgage. Why do home prices keep going up? But our incomes have not kept up with the pace. The culprit that most people would point out is the housing supply. Over the last 30 to 40 years, the United States has not built enough housing to control the demand for people trying to buy new homes and trying to move to new places. We are a much more mobile people now, in comparison to the Boomers, they were able to buy a home, live and work in the same place for forever. There is just not enough supply out there for single family homes with all the moving around that we are doing. I mean, if you think about it, we live in a very blue county and city, but any other gay or brown or black person live in an area where this MAGA extremism has been taken a hold of your state for the last decade. If you're lucky, you work hard, get educated, and then get out. We even touched on this topic recently about how anti LGBT laws are affecting the state of Missouri's economy. But if you're either gay, brown or black, or even a well educated young person, you are more likely to leave for a bluer state where large chunks of the population coexist. And if you can't move to a blue state, people gravitate towards the crowded metro cities. I mean, a majority of the major cities out there are held by Democratic representatives. I'd assume an alt-right Christian living in a deep blue area would be doing the exact opposite. And it's not just the minorities that are moving. People move to bigger cities or areas for jobs, amenities like healthcare and an overall sense of stability. But in terms of the housing crisis, it's a simple economics problem of supply and demand. If you have more people searching for fewer homes, they start to build up the price which make the home appreciation accelerate. If you factor in a 50 year mortgage, the same thing is going to continue to happen. The self-defeating purpose of Trump's proposal, and we don't even know how serious this even is. There are clearly legal and regulatory issues that have to be ironed out on whether a 50 year mortgage is even possible. I mean, for the first time ever, the average age for a first time home buyer in America is 40 years old. So. Do the math, you'd be 90 by the time you finally own it. I'm not expecting the Republicans to just swoop in and wave some magic wand for universal healthcare, where life expectancy significantly increases. The total lifespan for a US citizen is 78. Missouri is 74, Texas, 76, California 79, and those numbers are drastically down due to COVID, which the alt-right claimed was a hoax. We don't even put enough focus on healthcare. You'll be dead by the time you own the home. Well, let me switch gears here today, a person the age of 40 has a 17 to 35% chance of reaching the age of 90. That all depends on genetics and socioeconomic status. Also, keep in mind that no one is having babies. The Republicans won't invest in childcare because it's too damn expensive. So you die, you're 80. The bank takes her home because they, you don't have any kids. Or if you did have kids, they'll be stuck in their own 50 year mortgages and. No one can seem to fix the pathway to citizenship problem that seemed to work in the 1920s, but apparently it just doesn't work. Now, that's if people still even want to live here, because after all this administration is done to the families of non-citizens. That's just another story for a different day. We're just going to end up with a bunch of rundown vacant homes and Republicans. They'll pass it on to the next generation to fix, just like they do with every problem. The climate crisis, next generation, the national debt, next generation. I mean, look at how they handled immigration. The New York Times actually quoted me on an article during my week as a delicate at the Chicago DNC. My number one point for Kamala Harris's election bid was. Home ownership. There are just way too many people in our age bracket that don't own homes. They can't afford a home. There is no end in sight with this current housing crisis in America. And a 50 year mortgage is not the answer we need to build. We need to invest. And let me emphasize that it needs to be in every part of the country, not just the booming Texas, new York's and Florida's. It needs to be the Missouri, the Kansas, the Michigan. It is an essential top tier priority that the Democratic Party must aggressively concentrate on in 2028. I think you did well with that. I really do. Because you hit a lot of points. I don't think people are buying houses or they can't buy a house. I think even when they do buy a house, I'll be very curious how this all plans out in the future for people, because you know. we were lucky when we bought our house before COVID, but we also got a low interest rate during COVID. We took advantage just like everyone else did. But now having to pay that, you know, 7% interest or more on a house is crazy to me too. But on top of that, what people don't realize, and I've told you this before, we bought our house. In a different period of our life. And I also bought our house knowing that I wanted some wiggle room. I didn't wanna buy at the top of our, top of our budget because I knew that prices increase every year for personal, like property taxes, all that. And it almost seems like people aren't educated on that because every year when things go up, because your, your mortgage does go. Not your mortgage, but your taxes go up it, it changes your monthly payments. And it could for some people drastically, everyone freaks out on Facebook and social media because they're like, why is our taxes going up? It's like, well, this is why you need to buy a house more like knowledgeable about going under your budget. That way when taxes do go up, it's still within budget. But I think it's gonna be interesting to see how this all pans out. I don't know. You had some interesting points. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Uh. It is true. It's, it's nuts out there. You know, there's way too many people that can't afford a home right now, and if they can't afford a home, they're not buying it because it's just, uh, it's not economically smart because you don't know what's gonna happen to the housing market. I mean, it's, it's has to be a big bubble right now, you know, just waiting to pop. So, I mean, we'll see what happens with that. I don't think, we'll, certainly we're not gonna have 50 year mortgages, right? Or do you know? And think about it too. Think of all the new construction we're seeing around different areas of even just St. Louis, but like everything's just apartments. They're not houses. If anything, there's houses being remodeled, like in Webster Groves that we see that I don't like'cause it's like that's not the aesthetic of Webster Groves, but that's a whole other topic. But other things are being built. It's all apartments and they're stacked on top of each other because that's what needs to be done. But these young people, they're just gonna rent. They're going to rent. And if we move to a very expensive city, we would almost have to think about renting. When we were thinking of moving in, like just for a hot bit, Hawaii, like to live in Hawaii, you would have to rent. Like that's what people do. They rent. It's just. It. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how some people do it or will be doing it in the future. Well, and it's also a focus that some of these like newer, younger candidates need to focus on. Like there's this really nice lady I know that posted a video of two just today. She posted it, it was two house representatives that are wanting to, or they want to be a Missouri State House of representative. And they're, they're very young. They look young, they're dressed up in their finest attire and their finest jewelries, and they. They look, you know, the fall foliage is behind them and they're telling us how, you know, politics needs to be a conversation between all and everything. And this is from the Democratic party, uh, of Missouri. And I'm just like sitting here thinking, I'm like, okay, great. I love that. But I would much rather hear someone from me, like wearing, like right now I'm wearing tennis shoes, joggers. And a t-shirt right now. And I feel like I have a lot more knowledge on politics and what needs to happen and the crisis that everyone faces every single day, I have more knowledge than them. Than what they're portraying. You know what I'm saying? Like we need more candidates, like everyday people like you and I that work, the nine to fives that are struggling. We're not struggling to pay bills, but a lot of people we know are, and we need more people, more real people is what I'm trying to say. I don't know if I. I don't know. Do you trust someone in a suit or a really nice like outfit with nice jewelry and their hair done? Like, I I, is that appealing to people now? Well, I know this is gonna go slightly off topic, but I, I just wanna bring it up'cause that's exactly, exactly what you're talking about is why. Kamala didn't win, is because people felt disassociated with her. She was almost too polished. No one wanted to know that. She was best friends with Oprah and Beyonce. Like it was great, but like it made her seem elitist. It made her seem, it makes a democratic party, seem elitist, and that's why people couldn't connect because they were almost too polished. She was wearing her Gucci sneakers. She was wearing things that were just, it wasn't a good look. At a certain point it is, and usually it is. Usually it's fine. No one thinks about that, but in this climate. You can't, you can't do that. Well, it used to be, but I think, you know, more real people that look like everyday people essentially like, dress down. Yes. And speak to us. Like, what issues are you facing at your kitchen table at home right now? Tell me about it. And what is my neighbor facing? You know, like, I wanna know the, the real talk, the transparency. I wanna know what. People are bringing home because they act like, you know, we can't talk about how much money we make. You know, that's not appropriate. And it's like, well, I don't know. The reason why the minimum wage has just been stagnant for so many years is because no one. Bitches about it. No one talks about it and they think, well, you're not working hard enough. You're not trying hard enough. You know, you need to get a better job or better educated, you know, and it's just like, it just, it doesn't hit like it used to. It's a whole new generation that we need to start focusing on. And like I said earlier, a couple episodes, uh, episodes ago that. The, the millennial generation is the biggest working class generation right now in America. We need more millennials that are facing these everyday issues, you know, out there instead of these young, polished looking people. This next story takes place in Marion County, Kansas, where, essentially the. Town sheriff raided a newspaper office and it like hit the international news waves because it was a infliction on the first amendment right of freedom of the press. And it's a really interesting story I think everyone should listen to. Have you heard about this story? I heard about it when I was reading the New York Times. I do remember hearing about this because it was a big deal and there were like raids or something. What exactly what exactly happened? Break it down for us. Okay, well here you go. The story begins in Marion County, Kansas, in the city of Marion, a town of about 1900 residents. The city is located about 150 miles to the southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. The raid originated with a dispute between a local restaurant owner and her husband who were undergoing divorce proceedings. Her husband, Ryan was worried that his soon to be ex-wife, Carrie. Continued to drive and obtained a liquor license for her restaurant despite Carrie losing her driver's license. In 2008 due to A DUI charge. Ryan stated an unnamed source gave him a screenshot of Carrie's driving record. Ryan then passed a screenshot to a friend who in turn sent the screenshot to a councilwoman named Ruth and the Marion County newspaper, the Marion County record. Carrie alleged someone had accessed her private files by using a piece of post mail addressed to her by the Kansas Department of Revenue. Carrie claimed this was a violation of the Driver's Privacy Act, which makes it illegal to use any information. The Marion County record initially did not report on the evidence against Carrie believing the materials were leaked in relation to the divorce proceedings. The newspaper's, publisher and co-owner Eric Meyer, notified the local police of the leak. Soon after at a city council meeting, Carrie accused the newspaper of having her personal information. She admitted that she had continued to drive after losing her license, but alleged that the newspaper illegally obtained her information and distributed that information throughout the county. Okay. After those accusations, the newspaper published an article about the allegations Kerry made against the newspaper. The newspaper reported that a confidential source alleged that local law enforcement was aware that Carrie didn't have a license and that city police ignored repeated driving violations by her. The Marion Police Department, chief Gideon, Cody. Wrote that the records obtained would not have been accessed if a confidential source had not impersonated her soon-to-be ex-husband Ryan. The Marion Police Department then had a magistrate judge who the judge had a history of DUI arrest and driving on a suspended license record, authorize a search in connection with the criminal investigation into identity theft using carrie's information. On August 11th, 2023, the Marion Police Department raided the Marion County Records newspaper office, the home of Councilwoman Ruth, and they raid the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, co-owner and mother of the newspaper publisher Eric Meyer. Officer sees computers, cell phones, and reporting materials. In response, Eric Meyer filed to obtain a copy of the affidavit supporting the issuance of a probable cause warrant. The magistrate judge responded that she did not have a probable cause warrant during the raid. Body cam footage showed that the recently hired police Chief Cody was alerted to the presence of printed information about himself. Two seasoned female employees suffered health problems after this raid. One of them, Deb Groover. Had recently uncovered that police Chief Cody was anticipating being demoted at his former employer with the Kansas City Police Department. The demotion was due to allegations made against him from a workplace harassment. Cody instead opted for an early retirement. Deb Groover resigned from her position saying that the raid had caused her to suffer a stress related condition. But her story doesn't end here. The second employee, Phyllis Zorn, cited permanent aggravation of a seizure disorder as a result of the raid. This raid violates federal law. That law provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists. Essentially admit one of our constitution, freedom of the press one day after the raid on her home, the 98-year-old co-owner of the newspaper, Joan Meyer died. Video recording shows her extremely distressed as the police were raiding her home. She even says, quote, you know, if I have a heart attack and die, it's all your fault. If I die, you're gonna be sued for murder. The entire incident attracted international attention. 34 news organizations signed a four page letter condemning the Marion Police. The Society of Professional Journalists offered$20,000 for the legal defense. The Writer's Guild of America called for the officers to be held accountable. Days later. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation or the KBI said that the seized items would be returned. They also said that they would proceed with an investigation into the raid without reviewing any of the seized evidence. By the end of the day, the Marion County Attorney General withdrew the warrant. A complaint was filed against the magistrate judge, but later dismissed the Kansas Commission of Judicial Conduct stated in the dismissal. Facts and circumstances were not sufficient to conclude the issuance of the warrant crossed the line of incompetence. However, this is not to say that the commission agrees that the issuance of the search warrant in this instance was reasonable or legally appropriate in post raid interviews, owner and publisher Eric Meyer stated that the newspaper had been in the process of investigating police Chief Cody. Cody took the position just two months prior to the raids. The paper received numerous tips that Cody left the Kansas City police job under a cloud of misconduct allegations, but the paper had yet to publish an article about the investigation because the sources had not agreed to go on record. The seized computers contained those allegations and the tipster identities. Eric Meyer also said one of the newspaper reporters approached the police chief about those allegations. In response, the chief threatened to sue the newspaper. Previously Cody had expelled the newspaper reporters from a meeting with Jake La Turner. La Turner is the Republican congressman from Kansas' Second Congressional District. Reportedly, this was done at the behest of the wife Gary, whose restaurant was the location of the meeting. La Turner staff, which invited the reporters, apologized. It had been discovered. The Chief Cody, a captain of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department property crimes Unit was under internal review for allegedly making assaulting and sexist comments to a female officer in May of 2023. At the end of the internal investigation, Cody was told that he would be demoted to Sergeant. He instead chose to resign from the position that carried a salary of$115,000. Soon thereafter, Cody was sworn in as Marianne's new police chief, which carried a salary of$60,000. On August 30th, 2023, three weeks after the raid, newspaper reporter Deb Groover, published anonymous allegations from a former internal affairs detective for the Kansas City, Missouri Police. Allegedly, Cody had a reputation for bad judgment. In one instance, he sped through an active scene of a suicide jumper and ran over the body, compromising the entire crime scene. As a result, he was transferred and suspended on September 28th, 2023, Marion, Kansas Mayor David Mayfield, suspended Cody, with no reason given. On October 2nd, Cody resigned effective. Immediately fast forward to November, 2025. Marion County agreed to pay a little more than$3 million and apologize for the raids under the judgment The estate of Meyer's mother who died just one day after the raid on her home. We'll receive$1 million. Eric Meyer, the two former employees, Deb and Phyllis, and the paper's business manager, will split a 1.1 million judgment and former Councilwoman Ruth, whose home was also rated, will receive$650,000. Meyer said he's considering to fund, to ensure the Repa remains financially viable, or a program to encourage young journalists to work in communities like his claims against the city and city officials have not been settled. As for the former police chief. Cody will be charged with obstruction of the judicial process, a felony for directing Carrie to delete a text message conversation about the raid, and for the removal of two pages of her witness statement that included evidence showing that Cody had reached out to her to tell her she was a victim of a crime. In October of 2025, a judge determined there was enough evidence to go to trial that is scheduled for February 2nd, 2026. Damn the T on that story was great. What a story fascinated by this. I'm gonna keep following it. Uh, interested to see what happens. That is really interesting. I think that it's crazy that we didn't hear more about this. Why do you think this wasn't such, I mean, I know that it wasn't international story, but I wonder why it wasn't as big, like, not many people know about this story. I don't think. Well, it was really interesting story. I mean, it was like all over the news reels for a couple of weeks and then it just, things, you know, just populate and you know, people lose interest and the story kind of. Dies. But yeah, that, uh, judgment just came out in November about those millions of dollars being awarded to. The newspaper being correct and what happened and everything, and them winning their judgments. So could you imagine someone just coming in and raid your house? I mean the, the, the violation that would be on your rights and just the feeling of that. That would be crazy. Just'cause you work for a newspaper or you're in this little circle of people, it's just cra like, oh, it's a small town dramatic thing. Yeah. So there. Definitely going to be a movie made about this. There has to be. So I figured we'd take all the characters of this news story and like we, we base'em off of like actors and actresses that we would cast. So, okay. so we have the Eric Meyer who was the owner of the newspaper. I think Mark Ruffalo would be good. That's great. Pick. Yes.'cause I actually just watched something he was a detective in and he was really good and I think he'd be really good in this too. Yeah, it was that HBO show called task. Yeah. Yeah. Did, did you come up with one? No. Task. I think Mark Ruffo was a good one. Okay. Did you come up with any? No. Oh, you were supposed to. Oh, okay. So, uh, the female employee, I was thinking like Cynthia Nixon maybe from Sex and the City. I think female employees, Cynthia Nixon almost would be. Well, that could work. I feel like she's really polished. I would think someone like, um, oh my God. Um, who's the girl that we just saw in a movie with the, with the two boys? Um, in Materialists, remember? Oh, Dakota Johnson. Dakota Johnson. Yeah. She has a, I think she'd be good. Yeah, that'd be interesting to see that acting range. She has just like one, like monotone. acting? She does, I think. I think the second female employee, the one with the seizures would be Sarah Paulson. Oh, for sure. Sarah. She would be really good at having a seizure, I think like portraying that as an actor. I think she'd be excellent. I love that you were saying Sarah Paul would be good at having a seizure. She would. She's a good actress. I like her. No, she would, she would do really well with that. It would be like, yeah, award worthy. And then I was thinking the councilwoman, uh, maybe Amy Adams or Diane Lane. And I always say Diane Lane because she's in this new movie anniversary, which is a dark, dark movie that I watched last night. It was a really dystopian, but Like talking about this movie, uh, anniversary, like, it's like a, a new political mindset takes over this country and she's like a professor of a college. I don't wanna give a whole movie away, but like Diane Lane, the sun. Yeah. She stars in it. The sun. Starts dating this woman who writes the book called The Change, and everyone starts representing a different looking American flag and they start like posting signs in their front yard, kind of like the Trumpers and the the MAGA flags and everything. And it was just you had to, like, they had a new way of doing the census and it was just, it was. Really dark. I don't recommend watching it because it was, I didn't, um, it was just a crazy story, you know? Anyways, so I think the councilwoman would be either Amy Adams or. Diane Lane, I think that would purely rely on the age of a person. But I think both of those are really good. Amy Adams knows how to rough it up, you know, she was in that Little Lies movie on or series on HBO that I really liked her in. And then, uh, Diane Lane plays Superman's mom and she's very like Midwestern and cool and very like relatable and that movie. So I think either one would be really good. Are you talking about Big Little Lies? No, no, no, no. It was, um. It was when she was in the country and she had like that screwed up family and she was like frizzy hair. Was it called Sharp Objects? Sharp objects. That was it. Yes. You know, I never watched, I never watched the last episodes of miniseries. I never finished that series, but I liked her. We have one more episode left, but it's been sitting out there for like six years now. Yeah, yeah. But I like either one. I think it, yeah, it just depends. So the really old mother that died, I'm thinking Glen Close, or a Meryl Streep maybe. Glen close would be good'cause she, everyone loves her and I think she could rough it up as well and be like very Midwestern. I think Glen close is the answer. What about the share the, the police chief, I'm thinking. Leave Schreiber Police chief. There's just so I think it needs to be someone that can be like that. Not many people know, kinda like when they did Twilight, like the dad was like some random person, but like now everyone knows him. I think it would have to be someone like that, or like those HBO shows. It's always like a random actor. You're like, oh, I've seen like one thing of theirs. It would have to be someone like that. What about the husband? I was saying thinking. Raul Castillo, of course you were, because I just wanna see him again. Of course you were. He's had a moment from looking onward. I mean, everyone just loves him and Yeah, he is not bad. I love a nice Latin man. That's why I married one. Um, and then I think Raul Castillo is the, has been. Yeah. Okay. And then the, uh, the wife with the do DUI charges, I'm thinking like a. You know, and she owns a restaurant and she's a Republican, so I'm thinking like a Natasha Leon or something, or Emily Blunt. Or Emily Blunt. I just don't wanna see Emily Blunt as like a Republican. Yeah. But she'd make a, I think she'd be a good one with Raul, like they would be, but then we can like put a Hollywood twist where she like changes her vote or something. Yeah, that's true. Like, yeah. An alternate ending that wasn't true to the story. Yeah. Huh. I like that. Yeah. Huh? You didn't do your homework assignment, babe? No. Well, I, I want your list because I wanna see if our list would match or not. No, I really like that you did this. Everyone knows I do this with my books, so I was really curious. I like how you did it for once, like it was really interesting to see someone else do it. But yeah, next time I'll come up with a list that's really good that rivals yours. You know, I, I came up with this little, little, like, casting idea from this English class I took in sophomore and, you know, I failed it anyways, but it was, uh, we had to, um, what is it? Cast the guys in the book called Lord of the Flies. Did you ever read that book? You know, that is one book I've never read and everyone tells me I should. It's like, well, it's not that entertaining. It's like, and they're like. Eating a pig or something. I have no idea. It's like yellow. They, people say Yellow Jackets is very much like, Lord, the Flies like it's about a group of people, young people that kind of cannibalism and all that. But I think like nowadays, like I would've put a female twist on it. I would've casted all my characters as women. I swear to you that is what Yellow Jackets is about. Like that's why they wrote it is because it's supposed to be a female lo the flies. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure someone's ahead of you. I would've made waves in that. Class anyways. Alright, I think that's all we got for today. Uh, thank you for listening. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And yeah, follow us on TikTok, follow us on Instagram at the Civil Union pod. And my name is Ryan. My name is Alex, and we'll talk to you again. All right, bye bye.