Drones, Disappearances, and Diplomatic Chaos

In this episode of Chronically Informed, we discuss the growing use of drones as a response to school shootings and the larger conversation around prevention, the latest update in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool case, escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, competing narratives surrounding Gaza, serious allegations against Congressman Max Miller, and why so many people are asking questions about Mitch McConnell's prolonged absence from public life.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome back to Chronically Informed Everybody. I'm Brittany.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

And I'm Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

How are we doing? Did you survive the week?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

I mean, barely, dude. It was tough.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

I know, it really was. Every Monday I'm like, hmm, maybe it'll be a slow newsweek. And then I open my phone and I immediately regret waking up.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

So I I feel like the the universe and like the news cycles just take it as a challenge. Like every week, it's like somebody's out there hoping that they have a slow newsweek. And we're here to prove you won't.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

We're here to prove you won't. And also it's gonna suck real bad. Honestly, we have a lot on the table today. We have school shooting drones, a very satisfying reflecting pool story update from the first podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I can't wait for that.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Stoked on that. Um Aaron is gonna talk about the Middle East as he does. And where's Mitch McConnell, guys?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Where's Mitch McConnell?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Where is he?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

In the words of Trixie Mattel, where's Mitch McConnell?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Where is Mitch McConnell? Nobody knows.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So something that genuinely made me stare at my phone for like 30 seconds was seeing school shooting response drones. And I just need to know your first reaction to hearing that because mine was like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah, so you're you're not gonna be satisfied with my answer, and I'm sorry, but I'm not super surprised. Uh so during my job hunting uh efforts that I've been going through, I actually ran into a company called Zero Eyes, which I don't think in this case is the same company. It's not, we looked it up. Yeah, but there is another company out there. But Zero Eyes is a company that I saw where they were actually doing um, they may be piggybacking off of the flock cameras. I could be totally wrong on that. But basically they've created an algorithm for AI to identify weapons, uh, including guns, knives, uh anything that could be potentially dangerous, and it will highlight the weapon and then automatically call the police to that area, hoping to prevent uh some sort of violence from happening.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

No, I've I've seen that before, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So like I'm not super surprised, but also at the same time, I'm sorry, school shooting drones? What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Anything but gun control, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Because like, oh, there's an active shooter, yeah. We want every possible tool to stop them. That's not like the issue. But like, how is school shooting how is drones the answer and not legislation for stricter gun control?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Yeah, it's it's we're trying to get better at the reaction and less good at the preventative measures.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah, and like we're all acting like school shootings are just, oh, they're just a fact of life now. You know, oh, I guess we better buy some drones. Like, how is that the conversation that we've ended up at?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Uh yeah, and like I said before, I'm it comes down to people focusing on the response and not the prevention. So we're trying to find ways to react quickly as opposed to setting us uh setting our society up to where we don't have to react at all, where school shootings and mass shootings in general are not uh something that we have to really think about. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't a drone will help you when it comes to like an event already starting. Like a drone is gonna be able to get in there, identify, you know, do whatever you need to do, but it's not gonna help you stop it from happening in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Right, exactly. And every time somebody brings that up, another person's gonna go, oh, so you want to take everybody's guns? Oh, these crazy libs want to take our guns? No, actually, like shocker, us crazy woke libs have guns too. Like, it's not even what like what most people arguing for gun reform are even saying.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, and it's one of the reasons, honestly, like this is a very good case study for kind of one of the reasons why we started this podcast, because you get to you completely skip over the middle ground, honestly. You have one side that's saying, You will not touch my guns no matter what, and then you have some people on the other side saying, We're gonna take every gun in America, nobody can own guns anymore. And it's like, no, guys, there's a middle ground here.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Like, there is.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

And like it's so simple, like it can come from anything from like background checks, mental health, like anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, like sorry, I don't think Jim Bob needs an AR-15.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, if you can't spell your name correctly on a piece of paper, you probably shouldn't own a gun.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I'm just yeah, like your average citizen doesn't need a machine gun and an assault rifle.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

It like, sure, you have your guns for hunting. That's totally acceptable. I think there should be actually fun fact, there should be specific licenses for people that are hunting to have those certain guns. Like, I think the higher a caliber of gun, the higher background, the restrictions should be on like how you get them. And I think that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, um, because like I mean, uh we've talked about this before between us, but like I like guns. I I've always like I've been raised around guns my entire life. I come from a traditionally conservative family, at least on one side of my family. Um I've always grown up around guns. I've been in the military, I've you know done all sorts of like shooting drills and things like that. I've been raised around them, I handle them safely, I've been taught how to handle them safely, and I love like going to a target range and just shooting some little paper targets, dude. But that doesn't mean that I want my AR-15, like I want to go open carry my AR-15 into a Walmart just in case I need to shoot 10 people. Yeah. Like that's not that that's not really as somebody who is a I I like to think a responsible gun owner. I don't think that's how the thought process should be.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

No, absolutely not. And you can completely support the Second Amendment and still have a conversation about safe storage, the people that are getting the guns.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, exactly. But let's get back to like the heart of this matter, which is the school shooting drones that we're getting. So one thing that stood out to me about this is kind of how quickly technology is becoming part of the discussion. So, like we talked about the reaction piece, right? Every few years it seems to be something new. We have metal detectors at some schools, AI cameras, facial recognition. Now we're getting drones to basically help in the response. Because the thing is, it's like with the AI cameras and things like that. I of that list that I just said, I think the only preventative measure there is probably metal detectors, I guess, because it's like, oh, you can't bring the gun into school. So now you've in theory stopped a school shooting. There's a lot of ways to get around that, obviously, but everything seems to be very reactive. And now we're into drones, which their only real purpose is to, after the shooting starts, is let's deploy the drones. And I shoot the kid? Like, I don't know what the drones are supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

They have pepper spray on them, is what I pepper spray, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what you want to do, is somebody with a weapon, you want to make them go more insane.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah, like you want to pepper spray them. And the video was the drone was like flying into the dummy and pepper spraying it. So, like, okay, so why why don't we just arm the teachers with pepper spray then? Pepper spray is not gonna stop a gun, a gunshot.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, so that's another thing, too, is that whenever uh in the early parts of my career, I was actually uh trained to be with the like the military police, uh, security forces, whatever you want to call them. Um, it was more of a punishment than anything, let's be real. But part of that training was that we had to uh take OC spray to the fucking face. You did. And then continue to run like an off-school course. And I'm sure some of you have probably seen the videos because some of them are very funny. Uh, but everybody reacts to OC spray differently, and OC spray is like objectively worse than just regular pepper spray. Um, but like spraying somebody with pepper spray or OC spray does not completely cease and like it doesn't cease the situation. Yeah. All it does is make the person with the weapon pissed off. Yeah. Like, yes, it's harder to see, but they can still squeeze off rounds. They can still, you know, if they have like a machete or a knife or whatever the fuck, they can still rapidly swing it around. Like it's not just gonna, it's not immobilizing. Yeah. It just hurts a bit.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

It's just uh, it it just makes me it makes me sad that people that claim to care so much about children and the party of family and protect the children will suddenly jump through as many hoops as possible to even avoid an ounce of progress when it comes to gun violence. And there's also another thing that drives me absolutely insane is that we constantly hear there's no money for our teachers. We can't pay our teachers properly, no money for extra counselors in school, no money for classroom supplies. Teachers are buying things out of pocket every year. Parents are complaining that they have to spend extra money on class supplies every single year, but somehow we can always find money for like absurd AI drones for I even saw once suggested arming and training teachers. Teachers want to teach live children and have supplies.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yes, it's actually funny that you bring up the arming and training teachers. Uh, because like especially being from Texas, that was one of the biggest talking points when it came to like how to stop school shootings was always just like give the teachers guns, give the teachers guns! Yeah, it's a little ridiculous. Um, and in fact, what we were just watching uh The Good Fight, by the way, incredible show, if you haven't seen it. And one of the things they made fun of was literally just like the solution to shootings and gun violence and things like that always seems to be more guns. For those of you who haven't seen the show, without spoiling anything, there's basically a group that is made, and it's a bunch of conservatives, and then two uh black men, one is actually a conservative black man, but still like believes in sensible gun control, things like that. And basically, the two black men are trying very hard to kind of like push something sensible, like a um illegal weapons buyback program to get those off the street. And the three conservatives end up outvoting them by saying, you know what we should do? We should arm and train the teachers. Yeah, and it's like, oh, okay, so the solution is just more guns.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Which is like a great commentary on society, very relevant to our times.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah. Yeah, it's just it it sucks because when you get into you know the actual prevention conversation, it's never the flashy headline that people want.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

No, you know, it's absolutely not. Nobody's cutting a ribbon in front of the school counselor's office because, ooh, we got a new school counselor.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Hey, sign me up for that, dude. I'm I'll cut a ribbon.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Albeit yeah, I'll be at a ribbon cutting for school counselors. Over in the champagne, dude.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

That sounds like a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Nobody's making campaign ads about fully stocked classrooms, but everybody wants to make and unveil the newest security gadget instead of actually addressing the root problem.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yep, absolutely. It's uh it's probably because people can point to that thing and make it like a very tangible thing saying, like, look, we did something. We um we introduced this drone. I can hold this drone in my hand and say, look, we did something. It's much harder to kind of push the we need an almost ideological change, we need like a real policy change because you can't hold that. You can't hold that up and show somebody. Yeah, it's not like a physical thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

It's like, look at this thing we made. It's like, look at this idea we have that you can't see, but don't worry, we're doing something.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah, trust us.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yeah, and that's the part that frustrates me. Like, I don't think Americans are incapable of having a nuanced conversation about this at all. I think that we've just been told that we can't, and everything is all or nothing. And if you can't see it, then it doesn't mean anything.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, and I think when it gets down to it, I think most people, like if you were to be able to take people, sit them in a room, and have like a real nuanced conversation about this, people would probably agree on a lot more than they thought they would.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, exactly. Like I said earlier, us crazy liberals, as people like to call us, also have guns. It's not it's not a crazy thing, and I think, like you said, a lot of people would. A lot of people would agree more than they actually realize. And speaking of things people have been arguing about all week, can we please, please talk about the reflecting pool update? Okay, I'm gonna be a little insufferable about this one because I feel very vindicated and we were absolutely correct about the reflecting pool situation.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Dude, honestly, take as much time as you need because we deserve this.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

We do, we do deserve this. Um, because we talked about this when it first happened. We looked at the pictures and both went, hmm, that doesn't look like vandalism. It looks like a rush-chop job of a construction project. And now we've gotten more information. The US Attorney's Office said that they likely wouldn't have brought the original indictment when it came to the former U.S. Olympian vandalizing the pool if the Department of Interior had turned over additional documents sooner. Those documents suggested that the damage was actually tied to a flawed installation and a rush to finish the project before the American 250 celebrations. Shocker!

SPEAKER_00 12:11

No.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I know, which is exactly what we were all saying, and not because we're all construction experts, we're not. Um, it's just a weird thing to avoid account accountability for to begin with. It didn't look like somebody went out there with a knife or a blade. It looked like somebody or something wasn't built correctly, and then people immediately started getting labeled as vandals, and I'm sitting there thinking, can we just like slow down for like five minutes, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, and it's I honestly think it's a good reminder that um the first explanation isn't always like the right explanation, you know?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, and that's where I get frustrated. Not because mistakes happen, they definitely happen, it's because somebody got charged before everyone apparently had all the information, and that's like a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, and potentially like this could affect that man's life like quite heavily, you know, any sort of a uh conviction, even an arrest without a conviction, like those are kind of big deals, dude.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

I mean, he has a great lawsuit lining up, especially against like Fox News, who was literally like going in on him.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Good.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

No, he can't.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

And I can't wait for him to rake in the money from that.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Yeah. And yeah, like if somebody does vandalize federal property, charge them. If you have evidence of it, that's like a definitely a crime.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, it's absolutely a crime, and I think it's reasonable to charge and prosecute crimes as they are actually committed.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

I'd like to think so, yeah. The other part that caught my attention was Trump's response. Even after these documents came out, he of course posted on Truth Social saying it was still pure vandalism. And he acknowledged that there may have been contractor issues, but insisted that the major damage was caused by vandals. And he even posted a video trying to prove it, and everyone was like, it's a blurry video of somebody sticking their hand two inches into the water. Like what? And I'm just like sitting there thinking, if the evidence changes, why is changing your opinion such a bad thing? Like, if I say something on this podcast and next week new information comes out that proves me wrong, I'm gonna say I was wrong and I'm gonna correct it. I don't understand why that's a controversial thing now.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And I feel like you almost trust people more when they're able to change their opinions based on evidence.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, same. Like it tells me, oh, you're following evidence instead of trying just to defend your ego. Because at the end of the day, I don't really care about being right. I care about getting the information right, and there's a big difference.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, and that's kind of what the story became is that it started as someone vandalizing a national monument, and now it's turning into questions about communications between agencies, rush construction, and whether charges should have been filed in the first place. And it's a completely different conversation now. Um, although I feel like for most of us sane people, that conversation was the same the whole time because we kind of realize somebody probably didn't take a knife into the reflecting pool and cut a two or a football length uh long slit in the bottom. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, and that's why it's always worth revisiting these stories whenever new information comes up. And people love a breaking news headline, and a lot of the time, unfortunately, the foundation has been laid so heavily in misinformation that when facts are revealed and new information comes out, people are still gonna deny it.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, and then you start to see things like the correction, like the story correction getting significantly less attention than the actual original story got.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Absolutely. Alright, that's enough of that. Um, let's move on over to Aaron's favorite topic, the Middle East, because somehow things got even more chaotic overseas this week.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Alright. On Friday, President Trump said that he ordered the military to launch a fresh round of strikes on Iran in an attempt to make them say, quote, we just can't take it anymore. Following that, the U.S. I'm really getting some practice because this fucking idiot just keeps talking. So it lets me get some better ideas of how he speaks. So uh, but following that announcement, the U.S. State Department then issued security alerts for Americans in 10 different Middle Eastern countries, urging citizens to prepare for flight cancellations, temporary airspace closures, as well as travel disruptions. So just another day in a disastrous Middle Eastern war.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Can you kind of expand on like the travel alerts? Because people will hear travel alert and get out of the country and immediately think, oh my god, we're about to be in another war, we're all gonna die.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Yeah, so it's not by any means like a bad thing to think, because typically, whenever you see travel alerts like that, basically telling people like either get out of the country or really hunker down, typically that means that something is coming. Uh, in this case, though, and with this president, I would say not the case. If you see a travel alert, obviously heed it if you're in that area. But if you're just somebody who's, you know, kind of following the news, seeing the travel alert, whatever, not a big deal. So basically, these travel alerts, uh, especially with this president, uh, are the government saying things are getting tense right now and be prepared if you're traveling. Flights can get canceled, airspaces can close, uh, and then embassies will update their guidance depending on the situation. That is a pretty standard thing whenever there's like some conflict like this.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Okay, so if this happens every time tensions go up?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Um, not every time, but it is super common. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but basically they its you these travel alerts, so now you have uh whatever, I I don't know what the number is, unfortunately, but like this amount of Americans that are overseas uh now being essentially stranded somewhere uh because of these travel alerts, and because Donald Trump decided to continue to make threats towards Iran.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

That actually makes a lot more sense than the headlines made it sound, because if you're just scrolling and all you see is Middle East airstrikes, travel alert, and suddenly people are convinced that we're like hours away from World War III.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, it social media kind of trains people to skip the context. We've become a very much a headline newsreader country and less of a body text reader country.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah, because State Department updates travel updates travel guidance, isn't exactly going viral, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah, like what does that mean, you know? Like, hey, somebody got robbed the other day, be careful around this area, or does it mean there's maybe war happening? Be careful. War. But I do want to give an update to this story, uh, because just this morning, actually, uh Trump then did what he always does. Um, I would call it tacoing, but I don't think I'm going to because I don't think he's chickening out here. I think this is a part of a really uh ill-informed, horrifically planned strategy, uh, where he has now called off those strikes because apparently they are once again in the middle of agreeing to maybe kind of want to do talks in the future, I guess. It's a little unclear what he's trying to say, but it seems like pretty much the same thing that we've been getting this entire conflict, where Trump will make a big threat, you know, talking about I'm gonna end a civilization, open the street, you crazy fucking bastards, this and this and this, and then the next day being like, oh, you know what? Actually, peace is coming, no big deal. And in my big kind heart that I typically reserve for little kids, I'm actually gonna give you some kindness and we're gonna go back to you know negotiating.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

A deal has been made.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

A deal has been made, or a deal is in the works, or a negotiation is on its way, whatever. All it is is a way for him to one, play the crazy psychopath to Iran, uh, which works because he is a crazy psychopath, uh, but two, also to manipulate, you know, oil futures and the stock markets and things like that. Because if you notice, every time he basically starts talking about like we're in the process of starting talks or making peace, whatever, oil futures will plummet, you know, oil prices will start to go down, the stock market will do better because investors are less scared of conflict. It's just it's a repeating cycle that we've seen this entire time.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

So, I've also got another Middle East update. This one still pretty related to Iran, uh, but this one is we're gonna move towards Gaza here. So basically, Trump attempted to put his golden shit stain of approval on a plan to try and make peace in one of the most volatile conflicts in the world. Uh, Trump's Board of Peace, which is also referred to as the War Criminal Launch Hour, told reporters that the process of Hamas's disarmament would begin in the next month. However, Al Jazeera came out and reported that a Hamas delegation member says that disarming will not begin until the full Israeli withdrawal takes place. And guess what? Israel's response to that was we're not gonna withdraw until you disarm.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

That's what I was literally gonna say. I'm like, okay, but what does Hamas say about that? You can say this is happening, and Hamas is like, no, the fuck it isn't.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

We are right back in the same spot. Nothing is happening. The only thing that happened was that Trump got to make a statement about something that he's pretending to do. These talks aren't going anywhere, and quite frankly, he's being played a fool by anybody who's in the process of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

They're not going anywhere. There has been no like substantial update in any direction at all.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Exactly. Every single time there's an update, it is always, especially whenever it comes to the uh Hamas and Gaza issue, which is obviously it's it's a genocide, let's just call it that first. Uh, and it's an incredibly horrific humanitarian situation, it's disastrous for the Gazan people, uh, for the Palestinians, like all these different things. Every single time we get an update on one of these conflicts, it is always about we're gonna start a peace deal, or we've agreed to peace with Lebanon, but it doesn't matter if you agree to peace with Lebanon, or we've agreed to peace with Hamas, but then Hamas comes back and says, No, we didn't. Who are you talking to? It's the same thing, we're back at square one. This means absolutely nothing. And I'm quite frankly tired of him trying to be the peace president whenever you're in the middle of one of the most disastrous wars of the last decade.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

He just says these important things like we've won, and like there's some big victory when that isn't the case at all. The reality is he's just putting what he wants to be true out into the earth and just pissing everybody off. And they're making he's making people think, oh yay, let's celebrate. The war is coming to an end, and then the story changes six hours later.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Exactly. And the thing is, like with with content or conflicts, excuse me. Me like this, you have multiple governments, multiple armed groups, you have mediators, allies, all these different things. You have these incredibly ingrained ideals, like centuries of history between these groups and all that. And there's a lot of moving pieces. And typically these things come out and they are way oversimplified. Like, especially with Trump, his nuclear deal with Iran, he's trying to get it made in like a week, basically. He's like, Oh, I want this done in a week. Dude, the JCPOA, which was probably one of the most comprehensive nuclear deals we've ever made outside of like, you know, the uh the packs with like Russia and China, whatever, the Iran nuclear deal took a while. It took a lot of people, it took a lot of discussion, it took a lot of back and forth and a lot of compromise. Meanwhile, you have Trump with the Gaza conflict or uh the Iran nuclear deal. It's always either yes or no, you are either going to disarm or you're not. But that's not really how it works. And then you start talking about disarmament and withdrawing. One side's gonna tell you to disarm before you withdraw, and the other side's gonna say withdraw before we disarm. So it's these two different starting points that you're not able to find any middle ground on, and especially because Donald Trump keeps rushing these things and saying, like, I want a solution now, I want a solution now, so that he can put it on his uh shit-stained resume or whatever the fuck. Uh, it's just making things worse.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah, and neither side gets to pretend that the other doesn't exist. You can't just negotiate by announcing what you want to happen.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah, exactly. Everybody has their conditions, everybody has their red lines, uh, and until those start to really overlap, it's extremely difficult to make process.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Yeah, which is why it's really important to tell people to be careful with words like done deal or pieces here or we did it, like all of these like positive words that he uses. It if you've followed this conflict for more than five minutes, you know that it's never that simple and it's always a lie and it always changes.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Yeah, I can tell you right now, anything that Trump says about the Middle East, uh, take it with the smallest grain of salt because he is probably lying. If I was gonna find a way to put it, but no, he's probably fucking lying.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah. Alright, let's come back to the US because you have another story out of Ohio that is very disturbing.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

This week, Republican Ohio Congressman Max Miller is facing a number of domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife. According to some court documents, he poured hot water on his ex-wife, held a gun to her head, and broke his daughter's uh collarbone during an incident which involved him.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, the politico article that came out, or at least as the first place that I saw this, uh, was not great. Uh, since then, there's been a couple new developments, but we want to kind of get to the heart of the story first and like the facts surrounding it, all that, and then we'll kind of go into some of the more recent updates.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yeah, what always fascinates me before you get into this about like these accusations coming out about these men is just the whiplash that we get seeing people decide whether they actually care based on the party that the person belongs to. Like, if if if it's someone that they voted for or they trusted or were going to vote for, it's always, well, we have to wait for all the facts. Or women lie all the time. Instead of, hey guys, this is a dangerous person that shouldn't hold office no matter what party they represent. I know it sucks to have your trust broken and feel like you should have seen this coming, but you didn't. But we have to treat all abusers the same, no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Exactly. The standards should always be the same across party lines, and I think that the Republicans have a tough choice coming up, and for normal people, it wouldn't be a tough choice.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

It's not a tough choice at all.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

But for Republicans, this is gonna be a real mind breaker. Um, basically, they have to decide: are we going to uh kick this guy out of his spot, decide that hey, we want him to step down, whatever, uh, and treat people the way that they should be treated when they have these allegations levied against them, or are they gonna be completely hypocritical with what happened with Graham Platiner and go the other way where they then defend their fucking candidate because he's their candidate?

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, and he's not dropping out, he's very adamant against that.

unknown 26:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Like there was a video that was released today, and he's like, Oh, well, if I abused my wife, why was she nice to me? Why did she cook me dinner?

SPEAKER_00 26:11

We'll get into that a little bit more. Because it's absolutely insane. But I think at the end of the day, if there is evidence there we should investigate it, if somebody committed a crime, we need to prosecute them. But I don't understand why that's a controversial opinion. And I think that people get so attached to defending their team, quote unquote, that they forget that these are real people. This this isn't sports, you know, it's not, it's this isn't a team sport, these are real fucking people that are being abused or doing the abusing, and you have to treat them like you would somebody in your life that this happened to.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah, and that's something that I wish more people understood, and it all comes down to the understanding and the nuance that we really try to drill into people's brains, is that holding someone accountable isn't a it's not an attack on your political party. It's not an attack on you. If anything, it should be the opposite. If your entire political movement and political identity falls apart because one single person is investigated for some kind of crime, maybe that there's some bigger problems underneath there.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Exactly. But let's get into some of the updates. You had started talking about it a little bit. There was a video that came out today, but before you say that, um, I did want to note that uh Bernie Sanders as well as some other uh high-profile Democratic and even some Republican lawmakers have basically come out saying that this person is not well, uh, being Max Miller, uh, and that he needs to essentially step out of the race. But what's the update that we got? This video that we watched like just a few minutes before recording the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yeah, it was like a I don't know if we watched the whole thing, or maybe we just saw a clip of it, but it was like a two-minute long video, and he was like, I have the ring camera footage, I have text messages, my ex-wife was cordial with me, blah blah blah. And it's just so funny because yeah, I don't think that the woman that you have custody of the child, the woman that wants to see her child is gonna cause issues with her, especially if you've abused her in the past. And former ex-girlfriends have also accused him of domestic violence. There are records, I was reading an article earlier that had records and police records, and CPS was called for the daughter's collarbone. It looked like it there was like a bruise from like a handprint or something like that. Like he has had multiple domestic violence allegations. What? And he I just can't. Why would she cook me dinner then? Hmm? Yeah, it's take that, Libs. Like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 28:29

For those of you who haven't seen the video, uh, the video is essentially him trying to prove himself innocent by saying, if I did this, then why would she act this way? Um, he at no point uh unequivocally denied it. Denies it by any means. He never says, like, I did not do this, or whatever, whatever. Um, he basically spent the entire video saying, Okay, well, if I'm such an abuser, then why would she be so nice to me? Why would she send me texts that were like totally cordial? Why would this ring footage basically show her being like super chill? It's never, I did not do anything, I would never do that, and I completely disavow this. The evidence will show that, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

It's why is she acting like that?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

It's why is she acting like that? And he's trying to use that as his evidence as to why he didn't abuse her. It's fucking insane. And this guy is an absolute psychopath. Now, I will say this: I I want to see this go to trial. I want to see him actually get prosecuted for this because I want to see the evidence. I fully believe that he did this to her. I fully fucking believe that, especially with the other reports that you mentioned, babe, about the ex-girlfriends and things like that. I fully believe it, but I want to see the evidence, and I want that to come to light in a way that nobody can fucking doubt, and that this piece of fucking shit is put in jail.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Amen. Speaking of people that should definitely be dead, where's Mitch McConnell?

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Where is Mitch McConnell?

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Where is Mitch McConnell has been out of office for 44 days and he still isn't medically cleared to even leave his rehab center. Hmm. Interesting.

unknown 29:57

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

What are we doing? What are we doing? What is going on? There have been a couple photos released that are a little weird and honestly, in my opinion, too blurry in the year of our lore 2026. There is AI allegations, and yeah, there are some weird discrepancies in the videos, like his wife's hair. She didn't have highlights, then she had highlights, then didn't have highlights within a week. A little kooky. Um there's some of his signatures or appear to be autopen.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Yes, I saw a video somewhere. I don't know if it was Aaron Parnas or one of those types, um, like comparing the signatures.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Like what his signature usually looks like, and then compare to another one. So it's like, hmm, is that even his signature to begin with?

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Interesting. I did not see that part.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Fishy.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Um and why can't he just post a video?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yeah. Like reporters keep asking questions, and his team has literally ran away from them.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Like, actually ran away.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Actually, like, like scurried away from them. Um, his office hasn't said much besides he's healing, he's fine, he's totally not dead. And now we're all just waiting to see if they announce that he's actually dead tomorrow. Oh my god, big day. Oh my god at the special election deadline. And I honestly think that people are asking a fair question. If someone is representing representing, sorry, millions of people and they haven't been seen publicly in a long time, shouldn't there be more transparency? Like he's a public elected official.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Yeah, and let's be real here, there's a huge difference between like demanding somebody's medical records and like violating HIPAA and all these different things, and wanting to just know if the person that you elected into office is still, like, I don't know, breathing.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Yeah, yeah. Like that's that's all I'm saying. We're not asking for his chart. We're asking for at most a five-second video. Look at the camera, say, hey guys, Mitch is still kicking. Done.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

The big Mitch is still in it, dude. I mean, that would honestly put so many like theories and things like that to bed. Because like I I will say, when the first picture of Mitch McConnell came out where he was holding the newspaper and all that, everybody was like, oh my god, this is clearly AI, whatever. It was real newspaper. I thought that you guys were fucking freaks, but as this has gone on, it's like Why are they avoiding so much? What is going on? Like, this is this is so insanely like easy to fix, and the internet is gonna do what it does, which is fucking formulate some crazy shit in the place of the truth until they get the truth. So it's like that's unavoidable. So why are you just running headfirst into it by not releasing anything?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yeah, and like we're in a different era now. Ten years ago, if an office released a photo, most people would be like, oh my god, he's so healthy, good for him.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Wow, he looks great.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yeah, but now people immediately are gonna be like, is that AI? If it's old, if it's edited, whether you like it or not, that's the reality that we're living in, and they need to adjust to that.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, and I mean, if you're a public official, you need to have public trust. And quite frankly, after this whole fiasco, public trust is tanking.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Oh, a hundred percent. Because they all think that there is some big government conspiracy that they're holding off until his seat can't be filled.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

And to be honest, with each passing day, it's looking like they might be right.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

It's looking like they might be right. I wouldn't put it past them, I wouldn't put it past there being this big conspiracy. I saw something about a premature obituary for him being released.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Like I saw that too, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

There was that, there was when he got picked up from his house in the ambulance, the lights were off, it looked like he was dead. I there's just so many questions about this, and there is like zero transparency involved, and people are gonna ask questions. And if you are a public official, especially one who's been absent for this long, you have to adapt to the reality that you need to show yourself and show that you can be there for your constituents. Like, that's part of living in a democracy.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yeah, I I really wanted I really can't wait to see if his office actually says anything in the next few days, like, especially since tomorrow is like the deadline, you know?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Uh, I want to see if anything comes out before then. Maybe. Maybe we'll get like an 11th hour at midnight. Oh my god, he suddenly passed away from unexpected medical uh fucking complications or whatever. Or if they'll come out, you know, 11:59 p.m. Gotcha, bitch. Here's a video of Mitch McConnell, he was alive the whole time. I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah, either way it's shady, and uh once again, these are public elected officials. These aren't private citizens at this point in this capacity. You work for the people, the people don't even know if you're alive, and you are avoiding all accountability for quite literally your existence. I it's very frustrating. There are more questions than answers right now, and that's never a good place to leave the public.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Alright, guys, that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Thank you again so much for listening, especially if you're a follower, a subscriber, or whatever. Uh, we really appreciate you guys kind of sticking in with us as we start to get this thing rolling, we start to change formats, etc. Speaking of changing formats, you may have realized no state spotlights uh this time. It just we we just don't know if it's like really being received super well, like if people really care, if they don't care, if it's more about national news. So, you know, if if you do care, you want to bring back, like hey, like leave a comment, let us know. Uh, you know, just just tell us in some way that you want to bring back state spotlights, then we will for next week. But as of right now, new format going forward, probably not gonna do any more state spotlights, and we're gonna stick to a few more national topics every week.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Yeah, we we wanted to do the state spotlights just to you know be a little different and bring some more local news to everybody, which we will if it's if it becomes relevant. But it just I don't know, it was more of a fishing expedition trying to find stories that didn't really mean anything, and I don't know. I just feel like nobody really cared, so yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

But alright, thank you guys so much again uh for watching or listening. Well, really just listening, because there's no videos, truly. But thank you so much. Uh, if you are a follower or a subscriber, we greatly appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

And um if you're not, hit that like button.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Hit that fucking like and subscribe, dude. Hit the bell, dude. Follow us on everything. Um, but yeah, thank you so much, and I hope you guys have a great rest of your week.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Where's Mitch McConnell?

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Where is Mitch McConnell? Where is Mitch McConnell? Where is Mitch McConnell?