Yo , what up ? This is D-Night and you're listening to the part of the interaction podcast . You know what time it is . It's pocket part time , baby .
Yeah , we got a couple of topics to dive into today , but of course , before we do that , we got to give a shout out to our sponsor , my man Colin McIntosh , the CEO of Sheets and Giggles , with the most incredible Sheets on planet Earth , and they should be the most incredible Sheets on your bed , and they can be , if you go to SheetsandGigglescom and get you
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I swear to God , they're softer than Kevin McCarthy's spine , so that should let you know something , speaking of Kevin McCarthy , of course . It appears as though we've managed to temporarily dodge a government shutdown , which is good for all the obvious reasons , and it's entirely possible . There's one reason that that's good that you may not have considered .
Have you ever considered why Republicans always seem to be more okay than everyone else to shutting down the government , despite the harms that it causes and , well , just the straight up cost of it For people who seem to be so concerned with government spending like government shutdowns actually end up in the long run costing a lot of money , while they continue to
let it happen , even when it's on their watch . One of the theories I have about that , given that no one actually knows what Republicans are even doing , even Republicans themselves is the fact that the public sector is the largest employer of black Americans in the United States , and a large portion of that is the federal government .
Black people are somewhere close to 10% of the population , but as far as federal government employees go , black people actually account for nearly 20% of all employees across the nation . So guess what ?
A government shutdown means that a lot more black people than not are missing out on paychecks and probably can't afford to go any length of time , considering that most people in this country live paycheck to paycheck . So while a government shutdown might actually hurt white employees more so than black employees , it disproportionately hurts black people more .
It's crazy , huh , I know ? I know you never consider the fact that racism might be a possible motivation for Republicans and their willingness to continue to shut the government down over and over and over . You're living your learn , I guess . So how do we even end up in this position in the first place ?
You would think that the role of the government like , above all else , like job number one above all self preservation right . If you're running a company , like goal number one above all things is to keep the company running , and this supposed party of fiscal responsibility can't even do the bare minimum job of keeping the fucking lights on and paying the bills .
It's rather insane . How they don't get dinged for that more by the media at large is a fucking mystery to me . I just don't have any explanation whatsoever .
Anyway , earlier this year , in an agreement with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling so the country doesn't default on the debt that it owes , which would be an extraordinarily disastrous development for the US economy and the world economy at large , you know , would tank global markets with almost 100 percent certainty .
As part of that agreement , kevin McCarthy also reached a deal with President Biden to nominally fund the government through 2025 . Apparently , house Republicans was super mad about that , bro , big mad , I tell you .
So mad , in fact , that they were determined to force Kevin McCarthy to renege on that deal Under threat of having him vacate his position as Speaker of the House , given that he signed that agreement to basically only require one vote from any House member to recall the speaker and force another vote .
Now you can ask why would dumbass agree to put himself in such a perilous situation where any member of the cuckoo caucus could presumptively kick him the fuck out at will ? Two points here House of all , republicans expected to win the House in 2022 by a huge margin .
You know 20 , 30 , if not 40 seats were the margin they were expecting to have in the House . That ended up being five A , meaning that in order to just get anything done in the House , republicans have to act in near unanimity .
They can only afford to lose a handful of votes when it comes to literally anything in the House , including choosing the speaker of the House , and we'll get back to that in a second . Number two Kevin McCarthy is an absolute desperate fuck . I never seen nobody this thirsty for anything in my life .
He's like the dude out there on the corner begging to suck your dick for two dollars so he can go get him a little crack rock . Except in Kevin McCarthy's case , like his crack rock is being the speaker of the House , like he gets high on that shit .
And for those of you who have no real life references to experiencing the crackhead on the street attempting to suck your dick for two dollars , congratulations to you on living a sheltered fucking life , lucky bastard , anyway .
So , being the absolutely desperate sicko that he is , kevin McCarthy , with no margin for error , had to come to the crazies in the Republican Party that he wasn't expecting to rely on and cut a deal with him .
And , as you know , the person who's the most desperate in a situation is the person who gets taken advantage of the most , because they're not willing to draw any boundaries . So the people with all the leverage get the opportunity to walk all over them .
And that's what the crazies did by instituting this rule where they can recall Kevin McCarthy at any time if he doesn't do what they want , even though they're like , of course , as far as crazy goes , they're the minority in the party .
Yes , the other members of the Republican Party in the house are just as evil as they are , and just as stupid for that matter , but they're not totally batshit bonkers .
So now Kevin McCarthy is in a position where he needs like five Joe Mansions , except if Joe Manchum was smoking crack and had like the support and security of knowing that 60% of his constituents are going to vote for him , no matter what .
Because you know , of course , in the house these districts are just like Jerry Mandard to insanity , where , no matter how harmful and unproductive these crazy people's behavior is , there's no way they can lose their seat in an election , because the party has chosen its voters by drawing the lines in such a way where they're guaranteed to win the seat .
The only way they can be removed is in a primary . So , in an attempt to rid the game in such a fashion that Republicans are less likely to lose , because most of these races are unfair , they've also hamstrung themselves , especially in this case , because the people holding Kevin McCarthy hostage they don't face any electoral consequences for all this crazy shit .
Shout out to the law of unintended consequences for coming back to bite Republicans in the ass . All right . So the nut jobs are like hey , if you don't make massive cuts to government spending , to all these programs that actually help Americans find fuck and shut the government down .
Well , of course Kevin McCarthy is aware that the prospect of a government shutdown . Especially now that Republicans control the house , nothing is getting done by the federal government . He knows that in order to keep the house in 2024 , shutting down the government spells certain doom and that they will get punished electorally for doing that .
And part of the problem with passing a very extreme right-leaning bill is that you need every single Republican in the house to vote in favor of it if Democrats are going to vote against it .
So one of the concessions Kevin McCarthy was trying to make with the cuckoo caucus in exchange for their vote to fund the government was to agree to open an impeachment inquiry in the president Biden in an attempt to keep the crazy satisfied .
Well , uh , you know I think we've talked about on this podcast a number of times how the Republican party exists to operate in 100% bad faith . All they do is lie and break shit and then try to blame the people who are actually attempting to do a good job of running the country .
Well , you know , kevin McCarthy got a taste of this firsthand as he sat around and watched Republican stab Democrats , as well as their constituents , in the back over the past few years .
And then it surprised when it happens to him , because Kevin McCarthy is aware not only that it is shutting down the government bad for Republicans , but also impeaching a Democratic president based on no evidence whatsoever is also bad for Republicans .
So , in an attempt to placate the crazies , with one potential House majority destroying outcome in a government shutdown , he traded it for another potential House majority destroying outcome in a sham impeachment of President Biden . And what was he rewarded with in turn ?
A government shutdown that was narrowly avoided , only because he had to turn to Democrats to help him pass legislation to keep the government open for another month and a half .
Now , as you can imagine , republicans are extremely unhappy about their attempt to hold Kevin McCarthy hostage being thwarted by some bipartisanship , because , of course , that's not what they're here for .
So Matt Gaetz , one of the leaders of the crazy crew , is out here explicitly promising to have Kevin McCarthy removed from the House well , house speakership , rather as part of his punishment for passing a bill to keep the government open . And if you think that sounds insane , you'd be absolutely right , because other than you know blatant racism .
The only possible incentive that these people have to break the government and shut everything down is the possibility that , if it went on long enough , that Trump's criminal trials in DC and the Southern District of Florida might be affected in such a way as to cause a temporary delay because of lack of funding . And that is it .
There is absolutely no other explanation other than that . And just if you stop and think about the fact that they're willing to destroy the federal government just to keep Trump out of prison , like that alone explains to you the links that they'll go to , especially if they let this motherfucker back in office Him or any other Republican for that matter .
But that's not all folks , because not only is Matt Gaetz promising retribution and punishment of Kevin McCarthy for turning to Democrats to do his job , and that's after having left a draft copy of his resolution to have Kevin McCarthy removed , left in a bathroom in the Capitol , like a week ago . Man , this time fly .
But Kevin McCarthy , punk bitch that he is still managed to get the House Ethics Committee to reopen its investigation into Matt Gaetz and his sex trafficking of minors down there in Florida , where he's paying underage girls through Venmo for sex and giving them drugs and shit .
Even though the feds close their investigation in the Gates , republicans in the House are secretly trying to have Matt Gaetz removed from office at the same time that they're publicly running a sham investigation into President Biden . Isn't that some fucking insanity that we're watching unfold here in the Republican Party ?
I think I told you late last year that , even though Republicans were about to take back the House , that the way they did so was in such poor fashion that it was actually not only a huge disappointment but , to some degree , a real loss for the Republican Party .
It was a record underperformance in a midterm election for the opposing party of a president in its first term . There's really no other way to put a spin on that .
Like all this , losing 2018 , 2020 , and 2022 was guaranteed to cause a rift in the Republican Party , especially given the fact that Trump is largely responsible for that and that Trump would be holding the party hostage in 2024 . Because , at the end of the day , the only thing that actually hurts Republicans is losing .
It would create a rift in the party that would play itself out in various ways .
That would eventually cause a civil war within the party , and we're seeing some of the effects of that right now , in that the nut jobs are going after their Speaker of the House and the Speaker of the House is going after their nut jobs , and they can't even seem to get it together to go after Democrats , like they've had the House for a year .
Name anything that they've done . I challenge you , you know , besides paying the bills , like raising the debt ceiling and funding the government , which they only managed to do for 45 days and with the help of Democrats Other than that , name anything that they've done .
You can't Apart from bickering and infighting the only thing they've done so far , this entire year and all the powers of the House of Representatives , the only thing they've accomplished is a circle jerk .
And then , while they're at it , like you know , considering had Democrats kept the control of the house , we'd be sitting here with the Senate on lock because , you know , we don't have enough votes to pass any legislation , because Joe Manchin is on some fuckery and Kristen Sinema is basically a Republican at this point .
Instead of all of America focused on the fact that Democrats aren't getting anything done with the White House and both houses of Congress , instead we're sitting here looking at Republicans like oh , you guys are fucking clowns . This is an embarrassment .
So not only have Republicans wasted all this time , they squandered every opportunity to go after Democrats or whatever you know shenanigans they were planning on getting up to and they've come up snake eyes . They haven't done a goddamn thing . Congratulations , guys .
And it's only going to get worse from here , given that the 2024 GOP front runner is currently facing 91 criminal counts and multiple jurisdictions , and the entirety of his business empire which is the one thing that he built his entire political reputation on the back of that thing is going on trial this week , and the judge in that case .
It's already ruled that that shit is getting shut down and he's going to have to liquidate all of his assets that are controlled by any entities that are founded in the state of New York , which includes Trump Tower and his home in South Florida , mar-a-lago .
Of course , we'll talk about this more when I get the girls back on a full episode of the Pied , but you know he'll have the opportunity , if he has the cash , to purchase some of his properties back , but that's , of course , if he has the cash and , as we all know , donald Trump is cash poor and debt ridden , so it's entirely possible that while he is
running for election in 2024 , he will also be looking for somewhere to live . You know , we can only hope so , while low test testosterone , kevin , as Matt Gaetz prefers to call them , and Matt Gaetz are fighting to the death in a cage match at the Capitol building .
Trump could potentially lose all of his assets and if that's not bad news enough , his packs and his campaign are spending all this money on legal fees . So it's entirely possible that they'll be broke come the presidential election .
And since they're broke , of course Trump is going to do his best to suck up all the donations from the small dollar donors , from all of the regular peoples , meaning that there won't be anything left for the rest of the party to dig their grubby little hands into .
Meaning they won't have any resources to fund these Senate races that they need to try and win back the Senate and these House races that they need to try and maintain control of the House in the presidential election year against an incumbent president . It's going to be fucking bananas .
So that whole MAGA silver war thing that I alluded to , like this , is just the beginning .
This is just the opening salvo , and it's only going to get worse from here , especially when it becomes beyond obvious that Republicans are going to lose the presidential election and , over the course of 20 years , only hell control of that White House for four years , and that only happened on a total fluke , where Trump actually lost to Hillary Clinton by 3 million
votes but somehow wound up in the White House and , as I mentioned , the Senate . There , of course , the Democrats hold a narrow , narrow , narrow majority in the Senate .
Considering that over the course of the weekend , we lost a giant in the Democratic Party , one California Senator Diane Feinstein , a juggernaut in Democratic politics and a standout woman beyond reproach , who will leave behind a historic legacy , crashing through glass ceilings , of no becoming the first woman mayor San Francisco , the longest serving woman in the Senate , the
first woman to serve as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee , and she passed a metric ton of legislation through the Senate , including the assault weapons ban and the Violence Against Women Act . She helped sponsor one of the first bills that combat climate change and a number , an endless number of legislative accomplishments throughout her illustrious career .
Rest in peace , girl . You was a real one . We have the utmost respect for you and all the work that you've done . Though , as sad as her passing is , there are some political implications , given that , again , the margin for error in the Senate at this point is virtually done .
Of course , public discourse turned to her potential replacement as the governor of California , gavin Newsom , had previously promised to replace Feinstein , upon her retirement , with a black woman , we can only assume that he intended to do so under less tragic circumstances . But again the promise stands and of course everyone is looking to Gavin Newsom to do so .
Obviously , some of the main critiques of his previous statements inevitably lead to the idea that if he does replace Feinstein with a black woman , that that person will only have gotten a job because they are black and that they are not actually qualified to hold that position , even though , in reality , every time that a black person is appointed a position of this
level of import and prestige , that person is generally the most qualified black person that is available for that position . Never in the history of America is , like the black person who gets this kind of position in terms of political appointments , under qualified .
It never happens , except for maybe , maybe , in the case of Republicans , because they pick , like the literal , worst possible representative of the black community to hold a position of power under the guise of saying , look , they're not racist when that person is harmful to everything that would move black people's fortunes in this country forward . I know the name .
You're all thinking . I'm thinking it too , clarence Thomas , for example . So it's going to be quite an adventure watching Gavin Newsom him and Hall about following through on his promises , because , of course , these things are easy to say in the moment but extremely difficult to follow through on when the opportunity presents itself .
And that is why I would say you absolutely have to credit President Biden for following through on his promise to select a black woman as his vice president and to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court should he win the election .
He followed through on his promises with no hesitation , selected the most qualified women for those positions , and here we are Vice President Kamala Harris and Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson . I certainly hope that Gavin Newsom is equipped to follow through on his promise in the same fashion . That concludes this episode upon the interaction .