Bananas, Mar-A-Lago Face, and Tuscany | 12.12.25

In this episode of the Civil Union Podcast, the hosts introduce a new, spirited intro and discuss topics like Mar-a-Lago face affordability, Katie Miller's meltdown, and try out a new game that involves assessing movie characters' political affiliations. Additionally, they talk about a controversial decision by the US National Park Service and the Pantone color of the year. 

00:00 Welcome to the Civil Union Podcast

02:15 Funny Headlines and T-Shirt Ideas

08:01 New Game: How Would Movie Characters Vote?

13:25 Katie Miller's Meltdown and GOP Critique

18:12 Trump's Economic Policies and Public Perception

23:25 Mar-a-Lago Face and Plastic Surgery Trends

25:09 Pantone's Controversial Color of the Year

26:33 Podcast Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

0:06

You are listening to the Civil Union Podcast where life and politics makes sense, and sometimes it absolutely doesn't, but we talk about it anyway, left-handers, left thinkers, left wingers welcome. And if you're part of that Red Hat Brigade, fuck off. Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off. I can't ever do that. Right. Today we discussed Mar-a-Lago face affordability, that Katie Miller meltdown, and we try a new game. There you go. That's the new intro. Do you like it, Alex? I do. It's a good little, it's a good little change up. That is fun. Red Hat Brigade. Fuck off. We're gonna get better. Fuck off. You did really good. Fuck off. Fuck off. I feel like yours is deeper, like very hockey, and I can't get that deep. I've had a couple of hours of practice on this, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if you haven't followed us on Instagram or TikTok, um, give us a follow. Uh, how many new followers have we had this week? Oh, I don't even know. Not much. Well, I don't think so. Well, we got two, so today That's true. We got two. Okay. That's improvement. Missouri House of, uh, the House of Representatives, the Democratic House of Representatives. They followed us today. And then this Daniella, she's, uh, she was at the. Chicago. Yeah. Danielle. Yeah. She followed us too today, so I was like, Ooh, this is fun. That is fun. Well, welcome. If you haven't listened, uh, how are you doing this week so far? So far so good. Last night was my Friday. It is my weekend. I am ready to go. Yeah, it's been good. It's been good. That's, that's great. Oh my God. But this morning it was flurrying outside and I was like, no more snow. Well, it snowed for like five minutes and it was just sleeting outside just now, but it was like very light, but you could hear it anyways. Very annoying. Any Oopsy IES this week? Mm, no. I mean, but I've been at work so. We will see. Yeah, I still got a couple more days. Well, I haven't had any Oopsy Dopsie so far, so.'cause I'm perfect. Oh, you haven't. Interesting. Well, I guess that meal box situation anyways. I'm not getting into it. So as I was putting together this podcast or this episode, sometimes you crawl across like the funniest, like strangest headlines and I was thinking about it and I was like, it would be so cool if you could like print the headlines of news articles, like on a t-shirt and like sell it and yeah, so I found a couple and so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna read some of the funny ones off. So this one is from the New York Times and it goes. We did 65 hours of research to find the best condoms. Wouldn't that be a cool shirt? That was an article. Yes. What was it about? I didn't click on it. Oh. But I guess they did 65 hours of research to find the best condoms. Oh my God. Interesting. What was the best type? I didn't look. I didn't read it. Yeah, so, but, and then it get started thinking, I started thinking about The Onion. You know that satire? Oh my God. They have the best, the best. Headlines and it's just, it always cracks me up. Like there's one that goes, JD Vance begins to suspect. There's another group chat and there's like a picture of him crying. I thought that was so funny because that was, well, weren't they? Wasn't that, what chat system did they use? Was it their social media thing? What was it called? Their their, it wasn't Twitter, it was what's their Oh, true social. That's what they used. They actually used a chat messaging site. It was called True Social, and they messaged each other on it. Who did? The Republic, GOP, they all got caught'cause they were putting secrets out there on the chat. Remember? It was like public. Oh, Pete Hegseth. Yes. In the signal chat. Okay. That's a completely different thing. Know, but I think that's what they're talking about. Oh yes, yes. Oh yes, you're right. You're right. That's what they're where that headline came from. That's hilarious. And the, so there's another one, uh, family with two hour layover sets up shantytown near airport gate. Ugh. Oh my God. Stop doing that. You know, no, I don't like seeing shanty towns at the airport gate. Well, there's an increase of homelessness in this country. Well, they're not homeless. They're at the airport gate. They're just like spreading out everywhere. Ugh. And, and here's one that like, hits really close to home is unclear what coworker with Banana on desk is waiting for, and oh my God, look, you have a banana on your desk that is brownest banana. I've seen carry bananas everywhere I go. Like when it goes and I go into the office or when I'm just like out and about, I always have a banana on me. You know what I want? I want a banana carrier because I've noticed in my work bag, I carry a banana and then everything in my work bag smells like banana. I was like, they, I, they, they, I think they sell. Banana carriers. Well, and, but it's not like I'm actually like eating the banana. Why do you have it on your desk? Because I'm planning on eating it. It's just been here for a couple of days now. That is the bruised, most bruised banana I've seen. Well, you know, they're sweeter when they're like this. Yeah. They make really good milkshakes. But I like green bananas. Those are my favorite bananas. Green, green bananas. Those are not ripe. I know, but they're good. They're, they're really good. I just like'em like that. I don't know why. Hmm. Yeah. So anyways, talking about bananas, Gwen Stefani taught us to spell banana in 2006. Can you look at me in the, I spell banana. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Well, that was bananas, plural. Wait, what did you do? B-A-B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Oh, wow. Good job. Thanks. I don't have that bell with me on my desk. Oh, no, it's to ring. Ugh. Thank God. Anyways, well, tariffs have upped the price of my bananas, by the way. They used to be like 49 to 52% since a pound, and now they're like 56 to 59 cents a pound. Uh, at Schnucks now produce in general, they, they, they, there should be a law that show like, tells you how much things are, because bananas are like that. Grapes are like that too. They'll be like, something cents a pound and then you check out and it's like 10 pound bananas. You're like, well, if. For, I'm paying$9 for grapes or$10 for bananas. It's nuts. Oh, don't even get me started on avocados right now. Oh my gosh. Oh, avocados are very expensive. They are so expensive right now. It's really upsetting to me. But you know what? I don't think, you know, I only get bananas from Guatemala, and then my second go-to is Costa Rica. Like every banana has like a label of the country that they're like imported from. Yeah. Why is that? I have no idea. I must, oh, are you asking me why? Yeah. Why is, why do you prefer Costa Rica? Um, I just think they're, they're, they're better tasting. They're sweeter. Maybe it's a mind trick. I don't know. But then I'll go to Costa Rica. What's your first choice? Guatemala. Guatemala. Yeah. Huh. You know, sometimes looking in the organic section, they'll have different countries. Like I've noticed that Schnucks will have like all the same, and I'm like, Ugh, that's not the country Ryan likes. You know when, that's the funny part. When I go look, when I'm getting bananas for this household, I, that's something I, isn't it crazy I have to look at a sticker on a banana to see the source? Because I know Ryan prefers a certain country. Well, you know, do you remember the first time we ever used Instacart where like someone at the grocery store, like purchase it? Did you put that as an option? Yeah, it was our first time. I was like, let's. See how good this is. And I wrote Guatemala and they got me Guatemala Bananas. I hope you, do you remember that tip them well? Oh, I did. I always do. I always tip well, but you know, I don't think we're gonna see bananas from Venezuela anytime soon, so. Well, that's true. I don't think I ever have actually. But yeah, I don't know either. If that's a thing. I wonder what those bananas are like. Hmm, hmm. Anyways, so, uh, there's a new game that I thought we should play here, and so it's this new, I'm trying it out. let's play a game where we take our favorite movie and like the main character of that movie. Apply all their characteristics and how would they have voted in the last election? Okay. The character or the actor? The character. Okay. Yeah, so I just did, one of my favorite movies is Under the Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane who stars in it. And Sandra O. And Sandra O. Yes, yes. So, okay. Here's some bullets that I have from this movie. And we can just kind of like go through it and see how it sways us. Okay. Okay. So first she has lots of money. We're talking about Diane Lane's character, Diane Lane's character, and under the Tuscan Sun. Okay. So she has lots of money. So what does that tell us? Well, she would not wanna be taxing the rich'cause she's rich. Right. But she did, she did purchase property outside America, so that doesn't really affect her. So she's in San Francisco? Mm-hmm. The movie starts with her in San Francisco. So deep blue state. Mm-hmm. But I mean, she could be one of those, the money could come from like one of those techie, like billionaire places where they all like go to the inauguration, you know? I wonder what the trend, do you know the trends of San Francisco, like in that time period? What did they vote? Were there people that voted Republican? Like was it always blue? Blue? Oh, there's Republicans and Democrats everywhere. That's true. You know, but I would say that's a big indicator that she would vote blue is living in San Francisco. Well, yeah, but then her husband cheats on her, which is why she got the divorce, you know, and moved out or whatever. But I'm thinking, I'm like, hmm. So. Why did he cheat? Everyone gets cheated on, you know, but it's like, was she really conservative in the bedroom and she just, he just had to stray. So that made me think, Hmm, maga, I mean, is being conservative in the bedroom enough to divorce somebody? Absolutely no problem. Okay, next. But, but, oh, oh, here's one. She got money from her mom. To renovate her house. Not the one in Italy, but the one in San Francisco. I don't remember that at all. Well,'cause the husband wanted the house. Yeah. Okay. So what does that, so she comes from money. I guess I would assume she comes from money if her family was able to offer her that. And it does give us experience that she did know how to renovate when she moved to Tuscany. Oh, that's true. I didn't even realize that it's connecting right now. And so, but she has, okay. She has lesbian friends who happened to be Sandra o and Kate Wash. From Grey's Anatomy. Grey's Anatomy. Yeah. Addison, Addison Shepherd and Christina Yang. But oh my God, that's so funny. Lesbians can be conservative. Lesbians can be conservative, and I could see Addison's character being a conservative lesbian. Sandra, Sandra O probably was she? She was Sandra O. She had to have Oh, for sure. She was redhead. I feel like Sandra O is liberal no matter what. So that's a liberal friend and you know, but Okay, so she has lesbian friends. Yeah, so that's liberal. Okay. And then she goes on the Gay in away tour, so she's definitely pro-gay from San Francisco. So what are our thoughts on this? How did she vote? What's her party? And then like how did she vote? I'm gonna have to say she's a Democrat. I think she grew up Republican. She grew up with money. Her husband had money. That's probably how they met. They well both went to like Ivy League schools or whatever. She was definitely a Republican. And then she switched to Democrat as she grew older and moved to San Francisco, met Sandra o or lesbians in San Francisco and then became blue. But I don't think her husband ever became blue. Well, I think she would've voted for Kamala. I think she would've voted for Kamala, and I think she would've gone to the book tour that we went to, like for sure. If she still lived in San Francisco. Yeah, I think she was Democrat. Yeah. So what about Diane Lane as an actress human, like how do you think she is? I think Diane Lane actress is democrat or she, I think she doesn't really say much, but um, she was married to Josh Brolin temporarily, and Josh Roland's stepmother is Barbara Streisand, who's very, very liberal and democratic. Wow, I never knew that. Yeah. Huh. So I'm assuming Diane Lane is, or Josh Roland. I don't know. I mean, can you marry a Republican and be a Democrat at the same time? I think that's a topic for another day. I do think, though, I don't know, Diane Lane is very active still. She does a lot of different things, which is very impressive actually. But I think that. Even though she doesn't speak out to me, she just, she has blue vibes. Like she just does. She seems like, like a cool grandma. Like someone that would be like, I would love, like that would be so fun to have her in her family like that to, so to me, she gets off the vibe. Oh, anyways. Alright, so, uh, Katie Miller, Steven Miller's wife had a meltdown last week. So do you wanna hear it? Yeah. The meltdown? Yeah. Okay. Let's go So what do you think about that? I think it reminds me a lot of, and I know this is like an extreme. Comparison, but what? The Nazis did with the Jews in Germany when they started rounding them up. You know, it, it doesn't take much to start a fire. It just takes a little spark of mis misinformation. And I don't, I, I think people are, I don't know, it's a human condition to turn the blind eye and want to believe something to say, think that you were doing something right. When you know you're doing something wrong, you are, it's just a natural. Argument in your body to want to believe things so you don't feel, your conscience doesn't feel bad about what you are doing. And I think that's what these, the GOP is doing. They know what they're doing is wrong. They know that it looks bad, but they are, it's, they're already too far, they're too deep in it. They, they can't backtrack and talk against it or they'll be booted outta the party. All of them are invested. All of them have sworn their sworn their. You know, trust in the Trump and into that party. And so they have to play the game of lying to themselves. And I think that's what's happening because you can't deny what they're doing is wrong. Everyone's upset about it. There's videos all over the place. If you actually agree with what's happening, there's something wrong. So I think it makes a lot of sense. You know what you're saying? Yeah. Well, and then the whole step two process of keep saying it, like remember the. The, um, the chanting of the Hillary Clinton, what is it? But her emails or how was it? Yeah, her email. Uh, that was such a huge argument. God, and there was nothing there. I know. It's a mess. It's a mess.

Speaker 4: 17:53

this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about affordability. They just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. Just say it. Affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford any of it. The word affordability is a con job. By the Democrats.

Speaker 5: 18:12

Yeah. So after Trump said this, I had some friends, some who were former Trump backers text me saying that, I can't believe he said this, and his campaign ran on this, followed by a bunch of exclamation points. If you look at what voters are saying. Especially at how they voted last year. Affordability is on the tops of everyone's mind in every household. My household, my neighbor's household, even the people I work with. This is the number one issue. People can't afford the things they want to buy. And guess what? This is why Donald Trump is in the White House for a second time. President Biden and the people around him tried and failed to convince people that the economic data was good, the numbers were good, the stock market was good, which might have all been true, but the people didn't feel that way, and that is still clearly the case. A poll last week showed that 58% of people say that prices are still going up. That is almost six in 10 Americans. What's interesting is that Donald Trump his entire life, he's been so confident in his ability to convince people of things. He has a lot of evidence to support that. I mean, he's been able to do it successfully in a lot of ways and a lot of times for a lot of years, but. He is going to quickly learn that when it comes to the economy, it's completely different. You can't convince people that they don't feel how they feel when they can't buy a house, pay their personal property taxes, pay their health insurance costs, or even groceries. The fact that he's now putting this on Democrats and using the term democratic scam or democratic con jobb as he has done in the past, it's a risk. It's a. Very big risk, especially coming into 2026.

20:16

You know, he lives in la la land. He has never had to afford a grocery bill in his entire life. And, you know, I don't think he's, you know, it's just, it's wild out there. I, I think that this narrative is, and this argument by the GOP is something that we just go back and forth, Democrat, GOP, Democrat, GOP, because I don't, I don't know why people don't understand how the economy works. It's not rocket science. Trump was president. COVID happened. Warning signs were in place, guardrails were taken off. When he left office, it was in shambles because he did a terrible job at figuring that out. Biden took over. Everyone knew it was gonna take a decade to get back into where we were at. It wasn't gonna be an overnight thing. It never is. It doesn't take one presidency to fix these issues. It takes two terms. Biden ran for one term, Trump won again. So Trump inherited a bad situation that he caused in his last presence. See during COVID and now he's shooting off tariffs at the day, one of his presidency because he has, he's flexing his muscle'cause that's what he loves to do. And now we're seeing the repercussions of that, which we all knew was gonna happen in January, February, earlier this year. We all knew this was gonna happen and now that it's happening, everyone's like, well, I don't know what's going on. It's like this was all, it's look back in history like it's not, we all saw this coming, so I don't know where this narrative that he's trying to push is coming from. I know, I know. Well, you know, and even when COVID happened and we were all rushing to the grocery stores to like stock up on fucking, like toilet paper and all that, and cleaning supplies. Everyone, every economist was telling us inflation is going to hit, inflation is going to hit. And so every time inflation has hit, this happened to Jimmy Carter's presidency as well in the seventies, Inflation was really bad and it hit when Biden actually went into office, and it was a global inflation situation. Yes, it wasn't just America and it's really, really hard for as History Pro has proven. Very hard for a president to recover from inflation. Yeah, and that's that what you said is the, the very important, it isn't just a national thing. I think we live in a bubble here in America and we just hear our news. But I was reading the New York Times during that time period and it was very interesting to hear that like. France is going through the same stuff. London's going through the same stuff. People in other parts of the world are going through inflation prices as well. Trump's just making it harder this year because of the tariffs that he's enacted, but everyone's going through the same situation. It's all been a domino effect all the way from 2020. It's not like that just went away. It's like people want to forget and move on. It's like that's not how econ economics work. It's a wave and we're still hitting, we're still riding that, so the new US National Park Service is removing MLK Day and Juneteenth from its list of free entrance days. And you know what they're adding. Trump's birthday. No, they are not. I know. It's absolutely ridiculous. I had to like, Hey, it's Trump's birthday. Let's go see some redwoods. Yeah, right. So anyways, I had to throw that in there. Time for some civil bites. Here we go. So Marra Largo face. Have you heard of this trend, Alex? I have. It's like, it, it, it's like these women, these American conservative women who like spend their time at Marra Largo, like they. Looks so plastic surgeon, like done, like they got the high cheekbones and the eyebrows and, and the big lips, and there's like lips like Melania Trump and Kristi Noam and all of that. Like, it's, it's crazy. Have you heard of this? Yes. They look crazy. They look plumped up. Have you seen, oh, by the way, have you seen Susan Dell's face? She's like a billionaire. No, I haven't. She was just like in the news. Here, look it up. Here we go. Let me. Show you. Uh, there, there we go. Oh my gosh. She's scared. Her eyes are scary. I know. I don't, she's a billionaire. I don't know why. Like, we're nice people. We are, we're very nice people. But I don't understand like. When is enough work? Enough work? You know what it reminds me of is in that first wives movie when, um, what's her face gets to plastic surgery at the very beginning and she's like plump them up and her lips are like gigantic. And it was comedic back in the nineties and now it's like that's what people have, that's what they look like. It's not natural. And uh, speaking of Florida, by the way, if you took a satellite and did you know this is a, did you know if you took a satellite image of Florida and like. Flipped it upside down. It looks like the fucking Grinch. Yeah. And it's very fitting for that state. It is very fitting for that. Syd, a bunch of grinches live there. Yeah. Yeah. Live and they breathe. Ugh. I saw that gooding around in the social media sphere. And it's something that they started in the first Trump presidency. I think it was like five years ago when it popped up. And every year it comes back. It's just so funny to me.'cause it's fitting for that state so much. Yeah. And then this is something I look forward to like every year. I don't know why I look forward to it. It makes absolutely no sense. But it's a Pantone color of the year for next year, and it's called Cloud Dancer. It's like a white color. It's very white. It's very white. And I don't understand why in today's climate, anyone at that company thought that was a good idea. Like did they not think they were gonna get backlash at all from this? Why didn't they pick like. Purple. What kind of backlash are they getting? They're getting backlash because people are saying it's tone deaf. Like they're calling it Pantone deaf. Like that's what is happening. Pantone deaf. Pantone deaf, like they didn't, who in their company thought this was a good idea? Hey, did, did Sydney Sweeney have anything to do with that choice? You know, I'm surprised she didn't and she would've been tone deaf in doing it. Like she would've been like, yeah, sure, I'll do it. Like, no clue. You know, and I, it's unfortunate'cause I really like. As a person I like, and euphoria, everyone's gonna still watch season three, but she would've been the perfect candidate to run this campaign. Was she the one that was in the bathtub? Yes. Being like really quiet. Yes.'cause the girl was talking, that was such an intense I know. Part of that show, I still, yeah. Like get goosebumps watching it. She was the one in like when she was like, you look like you're dressed for the musical, Oklahoma. And she goes, what in the bathroom? The famous bathroom scene. Oh. Sounds like a friend that we have. Not mentioning any names. Um, so, hey, if you made it this far into the podcast, we want to thank you so much for listening, and it really means so much to us. With that, I'm gonna share some inspiration from Mel Robbins, and here it is. It's never too late to learn something new. And there you go. I love that. All right. I love that too. Alright, we'll see you guys later. Yeah, give us a follow on TikTok or Instagram and we'll see you on the next, next round. Next flip side. All right. Bye guys. Bye.