The Civil Union
2 Midwest husbands breaking down politics with humor, receipts, and real-life context you won’t hear on the coasts.
The Civil Union
ICE Voodoo Dolls, Dory’s Vote, and Grifters | 12.21.25
In this episode of the Civil Union Podcast, the hosts cover a range of topics from the peculiar behavior of retail workers to political discussions and a playful analysis of Dory from 'Finding Nemo.' They share behind-the-scenes details of their hectic content creation week and discuss political figures like Rob Reiner. Debates on Trump’s actions, ICE detentions, and voodoo dolls are interspersed with humor and personal anecdotes. The show concludes with a thoughtful reflection on holiday stress using a Mel Robbins quote, emphasizing the importance of self-focus and letting go of others' opinions.
00:00 Welcome to the Civil Union Podcast
00:48 Personal Updates
01:26 Customer Service Experiences
03:22 Rob Reiner's Legacy and Recent Reads
06:09 Game Time: Dory's Political Affiliation
11:10 Charlotte Jones and Political Class
16:55 Trump's Obsession with Biden
18:11 Jim Brown's Heartbreaking Story
21:05 ICE Agent Voodoo Dolls and Gay Bars
22:40 LGBTQ+ History Month Controversy
23:41 Closing Remarks and Holiday Stress Tips
You are listening to the Civil Union Podcast. Where life and politics makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't, but we talk about it Anyway, left-handers. Left Thinkers left Winers, welcome and if you're a part of that Red Hat Brigade, fuck off. Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off. Let's discuss Ice Agent Voodoo Dolls. Katie Miller tries to Gaslight and Trump redefines the saying, this could have been an email. It's one thing to say that you'll listen, but it's another to show up and listen. Thanks everyone for showing up. You have a seat at our table, but only if you followed us on Instagram or TikTok. Just kidding. But hey Alex, what is our handle again? The Civil Union pod, my gosh, it has been a week. The holidays are here. The stress Anxiety Work life podcast balance has been so chaotic. The bags under my eyes are definitely bagging, but you know what? I've had great hair the entire time. I think it's that vitamin C combo thing we got going on. Plus, I have a great hairstylist, um, and I use this dry powder called Slick Gorilla. Yeah, it's been a busy week. We've produced a lot of content. If you follow us on our socials, you'll know that. But your hair definitely has been trending on socials this week. Thank you. But do do. Do people at registers talk anymore? We went to Panda Express last week, and I went to Starbucks. The, I don't even get greeted. I just walk up to the register and the people just like stare back at me. It's so weird. It is so weird that Panda Express experience, it was like some 12-year-old girl and she just kind of just stared at us. We walked up, she just stared and it was like there was no greeting. And even when we said goodbye, there was no exit greet. Like it was just so weird. And you had said, you were like, maybe it's'cause she's gen, maybe it's like a Gen Z thing. And I was like, maybe it is. Like they're so used to being on their iPads and stuff when they. Come across a human being. They don't know how to interact. Ugh. I don't know what it is. It happened at the mall too, but How are you, Alex? How are you doing? Good. A normal 70 hour work week, but that's, that's it's, it's every week. Oh my gosh. For me. So it's fine. But good week. It was a good week. Productive. Everything's great. Hey, how many followers did we get? Oh my gosh. We've been blowing up you guys. I think we've had like really? Yeah, we've had like. 10 new followers. Oh, hey, that's more, that's more, that's great. Yeah, we've, we've, oh, we've broke a hundred followers on Instagram, which is awesome. We did that Pretty awesome. Awesome. I love that. I was driving on the highway the other day and this like, wanna be like big truck drove by me in like the, the fast lane and. Yeah, on the back of the cab it had a big white American flag, and above it there were words that said, I am Charlie Kirk. And I'm like, oh my gosh. When did that become a mantra? Like who? Like, I'm sorry, but like is that a goal? Is that an aspiration? Is he proud of himself? I have no idea. Understand that at all. I mean, it's one thing to be like, I want to be Martin Luther King Jr. Or someone at like. Actually made movements, but like, I don't know, I'm not gonna speak on that anymore. Oh. But that Rob Reiner tragedy was so sad. It was so heartbreaking. I mean, just shocking and heartbreaking at the same time. Yeah. What's crazy about the Rob Reiner thing, I knew his name. Obviously he's a popular figure, but like I never really actually knew who he was. And this past week I was like on a reading craze and I read. Like I, I'm on my like fourth book this week. But anyway, two of the books I read, Kamala Harris's 107 Days, which I got in San Francisco. I finally read that this week that mentioned Rob Reiner because she was friends with him and I'd reached out to him and was like a mentor to her too, and to California Circuit because that's where she is from. So that was interesting. And then I was reading Diane Keaton's book, which was, let's just. Say it wasn't pretty, which I highly recommend. It was very sad'cause she obviously she passed away so it was, you know, it was written years ago though, and she mentions Rob Reer. I was like, I've never come across his name and the week of his death. I came across it twice in like random books that were written in very different time periods. Well, I would always see random, like social media posts with quotes by him, um, because he was very, very intertwined in the Democratic party, like very, very heavily, and I loved that for them. I mean, what straight man and his wife go to an equal rights rally and equal rights. Uh, benefit event and promote gay marriage. I think that is so, that's so cool.'cause you don't, you don't see it very often. At least not prominent figures like that. And I thought it was so cool. And I had just mentioned, I didn't know he directed the movie Misery with Kathy Bates. But I had just mentioned that movie. I asked you the other day if you saw it. You did. You did. You You mentioned that like the day before, his death or his passing. I did, because I was wondering, in my brain, I'm always thinking and I'm like, oh my God, if I turn 80 and Alex is my caretaker and I just need like a cup of water, is he gonna come in there with his hands on his sips and say, now what? Mr. Mann, what do you want? Now Mr. Mann? I can just picture you doing that. Anyways, I do feel like the universe works in weird ways, and this week was just strange how Rob Reiner was brought up, like around his, and it wasn't even like trending on socialism. It was just popping up in our lives. It was just, anyways, yeah. What a career, by the way. Great career, huge advocate for human rights, not just GOP rights, like some people, but like actual human rights across the board, GOP rights. Talking about, you know, Mr. Kirk, like he actually Oh, wow. He, Rob Reiner actually was a standup person that stood up for everybody and wanted inclusion for everybody. So it's very, yeah. Anyways, game time. So we're going to do the same thing we did last week. I had so much fun doing it. We're going to do the movie Finding Nemo. And we're gonna do Dory, and we're gonna see how did Dory, what's Dory's political affiliation and how did she vote in the last election? All right. Are you ready? Yeah, let's go for it. Okay. So one characteristic of this Dory character is she has unwavering loyalty despite short term memory loss. What does that tell us? I mean, I feel like the GOP has short-term memory loss, so that kind of sways towards their direction. Ooh. Yeah. She sings a lot, so maybe she's artistic. Yeah, she does sing a lot, maybe, but nothing she sings makes sense. Well, she does like the Just Keeps Swimming song. That's true. Motivational, you know? You know who whistles a lot. Oh, I hate whistling. Who? Our neighbor. Oh my God, that's so, I've never heard him do, have you heard him Whistle? Oh, it's from Sun Up to sundown. That's like horror movie style. I think. I don't trust people who whistle like that. I really don't. Yeah, interesting. I mean, he could. I don't think so though. Anyway, so another one, uh, Dory is a problem solver, so that's good. Yes. And she tends to get things done even though she doesn't know she's doing it. She has strong communication skills. She can speak well. She can't speak a different language, so she's smart. Okay. Bilingual. Yes, if you will. And she can read human writing as well. Yes. She's seven. Wallaby Wayne Lane or whatever that address was. So what do you think, her and Escap Escap. Yeah, exactly. So what do you think her. Political affiliation is, you know, that's a hard one, but she is blue. Oh, she is blue, huh? I just threw purple. What does that tell you? You did? Um, you know, I would think that Dory voted. What's her political affiliation? Democrat, because she was very welcoming to all fish in the sea. She was whenever, I don't even remember. But then she was guiding Nemo's father across the ocean. Any fish she came across, she immediately welcomed them. She wanted to know them. She enjoyed them. Like part of that was'cause of her short-term memory loss. cause she even befriended sharks. People who would eat her. She loved them. So in my like, idea is she's liberal. Well, I think of this way too much. I, I put too much time thinking about this, but she is a strong independent woman fish. Mm-hmm. Blue fish. And I think she is a independent that leads democratic. Democrat completely. So, so how do you think she voted in the last election? She definitely voted for Harris. Absolutely. Okay. I think she voted for Kamala Harris too, but I think she's one of those last minute voters.'cause she has short-term memory loss and so you're gonna have to really put a lot of propaganda and advertisements. Into getting her to vote for you. You know, she's one of those last minute voters that the polling, the polls won't even like know, you know? It's that always that 4% margin left or right, you know, and it's like she's one of those people. Yeah, for sure. Anyways, wow, we spent way too much on, you're doing this next, you're doing the game next time, by the way. I like this game. I'm gonna come up with a good character, you guys. You know, Charlotte Jones handled that with such class. I was so impressed with her and her being a multimillionaire and being a co-owner of the Dallas Cowboys and being in Dallas, you would expect her to be. Republican, but she handled that with such class and that that is what this party really needs to show because Katie Miller. Is trying to gaslight her clearly, and she just handled that so well. Yeah, I applaud Charlotte for sure. She answered everything perfectly. I agree completely. She handled it with Grace because she could have, she could have just folded and gone with the narrative that they're trying to push, but she didn't. I like when she said, I don't. Think our game is about politics. People don't tune in to look at politics. That's so true. I also liked that she shouted out immigrants in this country and because all sports, especially, especially football, and I feel like soccer too, but like they're driven a lot by immigrants. The players are immigrants, some of'em are immigrants. So she, I love that she had their back. Well, and, and if you think about it, it is like built on immigrants, you know? And that's so true because, uh, you being Hispanic and being a. A hundred percent American. You are always like, well, I'm fourth generation. I'm third or fourth generation. And I'm like, well, I'm fourth generation, right? My great grandma came here. My great grandma's parents came here, so. Me as a white guy, I'm also fourth or fifth generation, you know? So it's like, it's weird how the perspective on how you have to explain that to people sometimes. But I'm so excited for Bad Bunny, by the way. Oh, I am so excited. I think it's gonna be hot. I don't know. I think it's gonna be hot too. So he's Hispanic. He's from Puerto Rico. Is that Hispanic? Puerto Rico? Latin. Latin. Latin. Okay. Well, what's Hispanic? Hispanic? It's Hispanic, but Latin American. Whatever you wanna say. But yeah, I am excited for him. I'm excited to see what kind of guests he'll have. He has said, he initially said he wasn't gonna have guests, but it's kind of making it sound like he will. I don't know. And if it's anything like his tour that with the house that he like dances on the roof and those short shorts, I think it's gonna be great. I hope the Spice Girls are there. Spice Girls and Bad Bunny. That's a, that's a stretch. That's a gay stretch. Ugh. So the, oh, by the way, the Kennedy Center now is named the Trump Kennedy Center, which is absolutely. Berserk to me, by the way. It is beyond comprehension that we have a sitting president that has renamed this great memorial that was dedicated to President Kennedy. He couldn't even put his name. Second. It has to be Trump. Kennedy. Trump Kennedy. Trump. Kennedy Center. Is it official? Because I don't think it's official. I think for him it's official, but I don't think it's actually no official. He fired the board. Rehired or reelected the board, they un unanimously like chose or voted for it, and they're hanging the letters up right now. Okay. I'm confused. So what I looked up, um, first of all is that. Under, it's under federal law. That's the, the, the, it would violate federal law. The name of this building is under, I looked this up, title 20 of the United States Code, section 76 J. So what I had found is it would have to go to Congress. Under federal education law. So a budget committee would have to get involved. Federal funding would have to change for the building when the title of the building changes because all their tax, everything would have to change. And that would have to be, it's a procedure, like it would have to go through Congress and even if Congress liens GOP and they. Vote it through. It would still, I mean, there's Filibusters, there would be a lot. I mean, it would be like one to two year process. It's not something he can just do. He could probably do it unofficially, but officially it's not happening. Well, the letters are going up on the building right now, and there's a trendy word right now. It's called grifter, and I just learned what this definition is, and grifter means that it's a person who engages in petty or small scale swindling. And that's what he does. I mean, I love. All the research he just did. It's cute. And it's true. It's true. But he's bypassing Congress on everything. He can't, can't do that. Well, he's doing it. They're letting him, they stand down'cause they're. Scared to speak up against him. They are too scared to do this, or they're just entertaining him and doing it in like a physical way just to be like, shut up. When really it's like not actually happening. I can't only imagine when the next president-elect comes into office if everything is overturned yet again, because. It's absolutely ridiculous, but what's next? Are we going to rename JFK airport to the Donald J. Trump Airport? Oh my God. Or how about the Trump Jefferson Memorial? The Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. And just this past week they had the Kennedy Center Honors where he was joking about this and it's been talked about, but they are these people, the right are so triggered. By the rainbow color that they had to change the lanyards or the chains or whatever that you get on the rewards to Navy blue because they used to be rainbow, which was a representation of all the colors of the arts, and they're just so triggered that they had to change it. Yeah. People will just automatically associate rainbow to L-G-B-T-Q-I, but it's not always, I mean, it's, it's, it's, there's other meanings of a rainbow. I don't understand the trigger.
Speaker 4:Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden. Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden.
Speaker 5:In a recent economic address, Trump mentioned Joe Biden 30 times. Well. 31 if you count. Sleepy son of a bitch, which the audience sure did. Sleepy Joe Biden. Have you heard of him? Biden Food Price Increases unlike Biden. Stupid. Biden. Sleepy. Joe. Crooked. Joe. Joe, Joe, Joe. The first 50 days of this presidency. Trump mentioned Biden on an average of 6.32 times a day at a cabinet meeting last week, which was about 316 days into the new term. Joe Biden was mentioned eight times in the first 20 minutes, but his fixation has become more acute as he is facing the same scrutiny that Joe Biden faced over the economy and age. But he continues the sleepy Joe attacks when Trump has looked very, very sleepy in recent weeks.
So last week there was a house committee hearing where Christie Noam spoke about whether or not she broke the law by ignoring a federal judge's order to turn two flights back around that were filled with immigrants. She couldn't stay the entire meeting because she had other things to do that day. But at one point, a senator from Rhode Island asked if veterans have been deported. And here's one'cause it's local. So here we go.
Speaker 7:His name is Jim Brown from Troy, Missouri. He is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the Gulf War. He's married to a woman named Donna who came to our country legally from Ireland when she was 11 years old. She has lived here for 48 years because of you, Jim's wife, Donna has been in prison for the last four months. She did not come here illegally and she has never committed any crime other than writing two bad checks totaling$80 10 years ago. She is currently in prison and facing deportation. Ms. Noam, will you thank Mr. Brown for his service to our country?
Speaker 8:Thank you Mr. Brown, for your service to
Speaker 7:now, what possible explanation can there be for locking up his wife for four months? When she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for$80.
Speaker 9:Sir, it is not my prerogative, my latitude or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country get. You have broad
Speaker 7:discretion as the secretary can. You need to follow, you can issue, you can do all kinds of things, laws, but you're choosing not to. Well, you commit again to just reviewing Donna's case and reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife, who also loves this country.
Speaker 9:I will review the case.
So a conservative man, Jim Brown, Lincoln County, Missouri, which is about 45 minutes north of here. 20 year combat veteran who served in Desert Storm and Iraq. He's been married to a woman named Donna for 48 years. Donna migrated to the United States from Ireland at the age of 11. She's a green card holder, and on July 29th, Jim and Donna were returning from Ireland. I guess they went on vacation during a layover in Chicago, ICE agents boarded the plane and detained her. The only criminal history she has is writing two bad checks to the sum of$80 10 years ago. Repercussions of writing those checks have all been resolved. This angers me. This story really, really angers me. Like I, I, my hands are sweating'cause I just can't fathom the idea of this happening. And this is part of the reason why even for me, like when my friends are like, oh, why are you going here? Well, you know, it's not a big deal. This is, it's like, no, this is what's happening. And it. Scary and it scares me, and it's, you can be third, second, fourth, it doesn't even matter generation, but they're going after people. They can just, I mean, they're finding things on people and it's, that's the reality of this country right now. It's very, very sad. Donna has been detained at the Campbell County Kentucky Jail for the last four months. But if you call that facility, they'll tell you that they have no ice detainees and refer you to call the ice agency. And so maybe Christie Noam will review the record and we'll hear if she's released or not. But it's, it's really sad. It's frightening actually. this is out of New Orleans. Someone hung a voodoo doo dressed as an ice agent in the French Quarter. A voodoo doll. A voodoo doll, and it's hilarious, by the way, in my opinion. I think it's hilarious. And if there are any gift shops, by the way, selling ice agent, voodoo doll ornaments, I fucking want one. You know, I wonder if they'll have masks on too, and you can't see their faces. Oh yeah, exactly. The, the attorney, the attorney General of Louisiana said. You can tell prole immigration radicals are losing the argument when they start to do this. Well, I guess she's got us. We're prole immigration radicals. Alex, give me that voodoo doll now. Wow, that's a really wordy one, isn't it? Oh my god. Remember when you gave me that voodoo doll? You bought me a voodoo doll. Where were we? It's right behind you. It is right behind me. Memphis. We were in Memphis and it fell once and it made me fall. Like while, remember this? Ugh. Yeah, I believe in it. If the end of the world doesn't happen, Chicago O'Hare might be the first airport to get a gay bar. That is amazing and long overdue. I think the comments on this are absolutely hilarious though. Like they should call it missed connections. Oh, I love that. Someone also wrote nothing like boarding your flight after an an eighth vodka soda and show tunes. They would have to play show tunes the entire way. Uh, another user said it should be named the cockpit. Yes. There's so much opportunity for this to have like a thing going. Oh, and here's another local one. The Kirkwood school district, north Kirkwood Middle School, actually showed a video to students that acknowledged LGBT history Month and some. Religious wacko parents blew a gasket and had a conservative Catholic law firm sue them. Um, the, the law firm was called the Thomas Moore Society. Didn't you go to a church that was called Thomas Moore? Yeah. St. Thomas Moore in Norman. But I will say a shout out to that church, they are very liberal because they're part of the OU Congregation, which is a college, so they, they are very accepting. I mean, as accepting as a Catholic church can be. So anyways, who's Thomas Moore? St. Thomas Moore is just an a, a saint in the Catholic church. He's just one of many. I could not, I really don't remember what he's the saint of honestly, but, um, look him up. Probably has nothing to do with L-G-B-T-Q rights, so that's weird. Well, um, they asserted that their child's religious rights were violated thanks to the First Amendment. And thanks to the first Amendment, I can create my own religion and that religion. Is Mel Robbins. But before we leave you with a Mel Robbins quote, I wanna say thanks for listening. This has been the coolest, most artistic thing we've ever done. We couldn't do this without any of our listeners. We reach people all over the world. I mean, we've had listeners in England and Switzerland, and well with that happy holidays everyone. Yes, I love this. You know, people think what we are doing, we are doing this for fun, and politics is heavy, but, uh, we really, really enjoy this. So I really, I wanna say thank you too. It's just been great. And onto Ms. Robbins, here is a four word fix to relieve your holiday stress. Let them, let me, let them be disappointed you can't come home for the holidays. Let them have opinions about your life choices, then let me stay grounded. Let me focus on what actually matters to me. Let me focus what I can control. Thanks everyone. Love that. Thank you. I.