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Mail-In Voting Panic, Ticketmaster, and Rob Sand's Iowa · Vibes Only

0:00
BRIAN: I'm Brian Derrick.
0:00
GLENNIS: And I'm Glennis Meagher.
0:02
BRIAN: Welcome back to Vibes Only.
0:03
GLENNIS: This week-
0:04
BRIAN: GDP numbers just dropped, and things continue to look terrible thanks to Donald Trump.
0:08
GLENNIS: The Supreme Court shadow docket and a very shadowy emergency ruling regarding mail-in voting.
0:15
GLENNIS: And the category is corruption, with Ticketmaster and Live Nation's antitrust legal battle, and Trump's profiting off the war.
0:23
BRIAN: Off of his oil and gas trades while starting a new war that raises the price of oil and gas.
0:30
GLENNIS: And our Oath candidate of the week is Rob Sand.
0:33
GLENNIS: Kennedy lookalike, question mark?
0:35
GLENNIS: To discuss.
0:42
BRIAN: Glennis, did you hear the news?
0:43
GLENNIS: Rest in peace, Dolly
0:45
BRIAN: Rest in peace, Dolly.
0:47
BRIAN: Not where I was going, but probably- Sorry … more, more important.
0:50
BRIAN: More important.
0:51
GLENNIS: It's my entire for you page, tributes upon tributes.
0:54
GLENNIS: The great unifier, Dolly Parton.
0:56
BRIAN: It's true.
0:56
GLENNIS: What other news did I miss?
0:57
BRIAN: Is she just like Southern Betty White?
0:59
BRIAN: Is that kind of the vibe?
1:00
GLENNIS: Dolly is, was, may she rest in peace, a literal earth angel.
1:05
GLENNIS: Could have been a billionaire, wasn't.
1:07
GLENNIS: She put her money back into the community, back into children's literacy.
1:12
BRIAN: America has so few people that we adore and put on a pedestal in such a way, so-
1:18
GLENNIS: It's true… BRIAN: it is a big loss.
1:19
GLENNIS: Yeah.
1:19
GLENNIS: I was more so talking about the loss of free and fair elections- Oh … as the Supreme Court comes swinging in to try to help Donald Trump rig the midterms.
1:30
GLENNIS: Or did they?
1:31
GLENNIS: Or did they?
1:32
GLENNIS: Let's talk through this because what, two months ago, Supreme Court ruled what was perceived as election protection ruling.
1:39
GLENNIS: Cut to this shadow docket ruling yesterday that said what?
1:44
GLENNIS: Mail-in voting, no can do.
1:46
GLENNIS: Kicking the can down the road on even if it's constitutional or not to say that.
1:50
BRIAN: Yeah.
1:51
BRIAN: Let's get into it because I got- Okay … so many push notifications and freakouts from friends.
1:57
BRIAN: My newsfeed was immediately dominated by people saying, "The midterms are over." But- Okay,
2:03
GLENNIS: wow
2:04
BRIAN: Yeah.
2:04
BRIAN: Let's talk about what actually happened.
2:06
BRIAN: Starting from the beginning, Donald Trump issued an executive order trying to use USPS to restrict mail-in voting, to make it harder for people to vote by mail.
2:18
BRIAN: They said that they were gonna establish a list of US citizens under the federal government, and that every state would have to run all the people that they're sending mail-in ballots to through this list, and if they didn't match, then they couldn't send a mail-in ballot to those residents, those voters.
2:36
BRIAN: Super illegal on its face.
2:39
BRIAN: The federal government-
2:39
GLENNIS: Mm… BRIAN: does not have a role in It doesn't make any sense.
2:44
GLENNIS: It's a terrible policy.
2:46
GLENNIS: There's not time to implement it.
2:48
GLENNIS: It would be incredibly expensive.
2:49
GLENNIS: Yeah.
2:50
GLENNIS: Non-citizen voting's a non-issue.
2:51
GLENNIS: Like, there's just 1,000 reasons that this is a bad idea.
2:55
GLENNIS: Trump issues this executive order.
2:56
GLENNIS: Obviously, pro-democracy people/Democrats, because those are the same thing right now- Mm-hmm… BRIAN: sued to block this executive not one, but two injunctions against this executive order.
3:13
GLENNIS: And Trump immediately appealed those injunctions- Mm-hmm… BRIAN: to the Supreme Court saying, on the policy because we need it to go into effect right away." And so what happened this week that launched 1,000 headlines that were very dramatic, was that the Supreme Court, via its shadow docket, removed one of those two injunctions and said the 23 Democratic attorneys general, blue states essentially, that were suing against this policy had not yet been harmed by the policy, and therefore they lacked standing to sue.
3:48
GLENNIS: Right.
3:48
GLENNIS: So the too long; didn't read is that it's a procedural trap where the harm has to happen before the lawsuit can happen, which if we're talking about free and fair elections, it kind of becomes a moot point if people are disenfranchised because of this big government citizens list rule, and then it's chaos.
4:11
BRIAN: Right.
4:11
BRIAN: And so the states came out immediately after and said, "Okay, well, we're just gonna re-sue you as soon as you- Period … publish the rule." I think Newsom was probably the first one to announce that.
4:22
BRIAN: So USPS finalized the rule on Friday and is publishing said rule today.
4:29
BRIAN: We're recording on Wednesday.
4:30
BRIAN: So by the time you hear this, the rule will be public and the states probably will have already refiled their lawsuit seeking further relief.
4:40
BRIAN: It's going to end up back in front of the Supreme Court again, but I think there's like two core issues that people need to be aware of.
4:47
BRIAN: One, this did not immediately change how mail-in voting is going to work.
4:51
BRIAN: So I need everyone to like- Right … take a deep breath and not have 1,000 hot takes instantaneously spreading some- iffy information on social.
5:01
BRIAN: And it's true that the Supreme Court and Donald Trump are no friend to democracy, and very well could come back with more rulings- Yeah … that try to chip away at our right and access to the ballot.
5:16
BRIAN: I
5:16
GLENNIS: think people freaking out, it's a valid feeling.
5:18
GLENNIS: I mean, some ballots are being mailed as early as next week, right?
5:22
GLENNIS: It's alarming.
5:24
GLENNIS: So we'll stay on top of it.
5:26
GLENNIS: I think it is 24 jurisdictions that are affected by this, and it's includes Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
5:33
GLENNIS: S- pretty important states.
5:35
BRIAN: Right.
5:35
GLENNIS: So, you know, it's kind of like, Trump, we s- we see what you're doing, buddy.
5:39
GLENNIS: You're making everyone's life more difficult and less affordable, so you're trying to make it more difficult for people to vote.
5:45
GLENNIS: Got it.
5:46
BRIAN: Right.
5:46
BRIAN: That's exactly right.
5:48
BRIAN: I do think that the timeline here is on our side because once ballots start to get mailed out, it becomes harder to make the case to the courts that they should intervene.
5:59
GLENNIS: Hmm.
6:00
BRIAN: That they should change the rules and either invalidate ballots that have already been cast or to have different states operating under different rules.
6:11
BRIAN: So I do think that the delay of this and, like, the slow churning of the courts having to, like, review and re-review these cases actually works in our favor, and that's why I'm more confident, I think, that we will not have major changes to mail-in voting in the way that Trump is proposing pre-midterm elections.
6:34
BRIAN: 2028, a different story.
6:36
GLENNIS: Who do you think voted August 18th, 2026 with a mail-in ballot?
6:42
BRIAN: Hmm.
6:42
BRIAN: I don't know.
6:43
BRIAN: Who was it?
6:43
BRIAN: Oh,
6:44
GLENNIS: Donald Trump.
6:45
GLENNIS: Donald Trump- What a piece of shit … for the Florida gubernatorial.
6:49
GLENNIS: I actually looked it up 'cause I'm petty.
6:50
GLENNIS: He voted by mail August 26, March 26, March of 2021, August of 2020, March of 2020, 2018, and 2017.
6:59
GLENNIS: All mail-in.
7:00
GLENNIS: So-
7:02
BRIAN: Inherently corrupt, as he says it.
7:04
GLENNIS: But he is the figurehead of corruption, so.
7:07
BRIAN: 100%.
7:08
BRIAN: And I don't want people to interpret this as us, like, just blowing off all the threats- Right … from Trump to the midterms because there are other ones that are ongoing, including by USPS.
7:18
BRIAN: So he also has put three additional board of governors, three additional board members for USPS up who are election deniers- Got it straight up.
7:30
BRIAN: Who, like- Yeah … played a role in the 2020 nonsense and, and trying to undermine and overturn the election.
7:35
BRIAN: So they could cause other problems, right?
7:38
BRIAN: Just by slowing mail down, making it harder for people to get their ballots in by Election Day.
7:46
BRIAN: All other kinds of nonsense could- Yeah … be going on at USPS, and is.
7:51
BRIAN: But this is at least one potential way for us to head off what could be a really dramatic intervention in the midterms.
8:01
GLENNIS: Yeah.
8:02
GLENNIS: And I just wanna double down on the point that we made last week.
8:04
GLENNIS: This is why local and state elections matter.
8:07
GLENNIS: Your attorney generals are the first line of defense.
8:09
GLENNIS: Your governors are the last line of veto defense for state governments.
8:12
GLENNIS: So it's just, don't be naive to the fact that the federal government is trying to make it more difficult for you to vote, but you still have rights.
8:20
GLENNIS: You're still an American.
8:21
GLENNIS: Voting is your most, one of your most important roles- Yeah … as citizens.
8:25
GLENNIS: Sacred.
8:25
GLENNIS: Yeah.
8:25
GLENNIS: So G-O-T-V, baby girls.
8:31
BRIAN: Absolutely.
8:32
GLENNIS: Okay, Brian, hot off the press, what is the… What, did the jobs report just come out at, in the middle of a recording?
8:39
BRIAN: Well, we just got a GDP growth report.
8:44
GLENNIS: Gross domestic product.
8:45
BRIAN: Boom, there it is.
8:47
GLENNIS: For our econ heads.
8:48
BRIAN: Big surprise, it sucks.
8:50
BRIAN: In the second quarter, it shows that the economy grew at 1.5%, which is not good.
8:56
BRIAN: That is not what we are aiming for, and that's not a surprise because no one can afford anything, and Trump is continuing to yo-yo on policies constantly that prevent any businesses from making any long-term investments in the country.
9:10
BRIAN: That's why we're continuing to bleed manufacturing jobs and just jobs generally, why there's been a net loss- Yeah … of jobs in recent months instead of any sort of gain like we saw consistently in the six-figure range under Biden.
9:23
BRIAN: Yeah, just like more- Yeah … bad economic news just- Yeah … kind of constantly.
9:27
GLENNIS: It was actually 89,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since Liberation Day.
9:33
GLENNIS: And if you couple that with transportation jobs, it's at 189,000 jobs.
9:38
GLENNIS: Yeah.
9:38
GLENNIS: So that's all thanks to Trump.
9:40
GLENNIS: Manufacturing construction is down 14%.
9:43
GLENNIS: I wanna talk about the tariffs that were announced on Monday.
9:46
GLENNIS: Like, we're trying to start a trade war with Canada.
9:50
GLENNIS: Our friendly neighbors from the north, and they are not backing down.
9:54
BRIAN: Succeeding at starting a war.
9:56
GLENNIS: What's also crazy, I was looking at some numbers yesterday.
9:58
GLENNIS: The Supreme Court struck down the tariffs in February, as we all recall, and yet six months later, the tariff rates are higher than when the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs.
10:07
GLENNIS: The average American household is paying over $1,000 with additional tariff costs.
10:12
BRIAN: I think it's an underrated shift under the second Trump administration that we've basically seen the death of deference, that in the past when the Supreme Court would rule on something and say, "This is not allowed," typically presidents would give relatively wide latitude to that ruling to say, "Okay, understood.
10:38
BRIAN: We tried.
10:39
BRIAN: We're gonna go work on something else now." A good example of that would be Biden with student loan forgiveness in, like, the way that he handled that.
10:48
BRIAN: Once it was blocked by a court, they stopped.
10:51
BRIAN: They tried to do other stuff on student loans- He remixed it, yeah … and, like, and, like, restructure whatever, but they stopped doing the exact action that they were doing.
10:58
BRIAN: What's happened under Trump is now they say, "We're doing this thing, and we're allowed to do it because of law A." The Supreme Court says, "You're not allowed to do that.
11:10
BRIAN: Law A does not allow you to do that." The next day, the Trump administration says, "Okay.
11:15
BRIAN: We're doing the exact same thing because of law B.
11:18
BRIAN: Law B says that we're allowed to do that." And then the courts come back and they say, "Law B does not give you the power to do that.
11:23
BRIAN: You are not allowed to do this thing." And then Trump continues, doesn't even take a break, continues doing the exact same action and says, "We're allowed to do this because of law C." Because the courts work so slow, you effectively have policy in effect that has been struck as unconstitutional because the president just refuses to, like, hear what's being said.
11:44
GLENNIS: No, it's literally insane that the Supreme Court of the United States said these tariffs are unconstitutional.
11:49
GLENNIS: You cannot do them.
11:50
GLENNIS: You know when you were in, like, middle school and you wanted to make your papers seem old, so you would, like, put tea leaves on them and then burn them?
11:57
GLENNIS: He's just burning the Constitution.
11:59
GLENNIS: He does not care.
12:00
GLENNIS: He does not care.
12:02
GLENNIS: With the DOJ that is supposed to be independent from the office of the presidency, but this DOJ works directly for Donald Trump.
12:09
GLENNIS: It is just his little puppets to make sure that he gets what he wants.
12:15
BRIAN: Why were they teaching us to make forgeries in middle school?
12:18
GLENNIS: I mean- Like, wh- … they weren't great.
12:20
BRIAN: Why, why was that, like, the priority is not, like, on the content of the Constitution or, like, whatever the fuck that we were- … we were reading.
12:28
GLENNIS: Extra credit if you make it look old.
12:30
BRIAN: Right.
12:30
BRIAN: It was like, "No, I need this to look real. I need you to be convinced." Um-
12:35
GLENNIS: Like, using twine.
12:37
BRIAN: Yeah.
12:37
BRIAN: Like- To,
12:37
GLENNIS: like, close it.
12:38
BRIAN: Like, what?
12:40
GLENNIS: Oh, God.
12:40
BRIAN: Yeah, I, I think that you're right, and this is also why the shadow docket has become such a major topic.
12:48
GLENNIS: Well, let's pause.
12:49
GLENNIS: Can you explain what- Okay what that means?
12:52
BRIAN: Yeah.
12:52
BRIAN: The shadow docket is when the court issues emergency rulings without the full rigmarole, oral arguments, and debating it for months, and writing a lengthy opinion, and having certain justices sign on to that opinion, not sign on to that opinion, which l- as we've all sort of witnessed year after year after year.
13:14
BRIAN: Oral arguments are in December.
13:16
BRIAN: We hear back on the major cases the last week of June.
13:19
BRIAN: Like, it takes forever.
13:20
BRIAN: And so the shadow docket is a way for them to just, like, more quickly turn things around and be like, "Yes, no, yes, no."
13:27
GLENNIS: Hmm.
13:27
BRIAN: But the number of cases that they've taken under the shadow docket has exploded.
13:32
BRIAN: It's, like, way more rulings coming via that, which is a much less transparent process.
13:38
BRIAN: Yeah.
13:38
BRIAN: You don't even know what justice, like, wrote the, uh, opinion or whatever.
13:42
BRIAN: What they are choosing to rule on via the shadow docket has also expanded, and so it's really been a massive expansion of the conservatives exercising crazy rulings- Exactly and powers from the court without any transparency.
13:58
GLENNIS: If you're an American and you're seeing these rulings come out of the shadow docket, you should be really pissed because the Supreme Court's job is to do all of this in the open, and it's recorded, and you can listen to everything, and you can hear all the questions.
14:11
GLENNIS: And this is like them pushing you, the American citizen, out of the room, closing the door, reading their conservative amicus briefs, and talking to their little conservative clerks, and writing things that directly impact you.
14:25
BRIAN: That's exactly right.
14:26
BRIAN: And if Trump is going to just continually push the envelope and make up justifications and cite laws from 200 years ago to give him some new never before seen power over things like tariffs, and the court is the only viable option for us to intervene, it's really important that we know what is going on there and that they actually are having a fair process to make those kinds of rulings in a timeline that- Mm-hmm is responsive to the world that we live in.
15:02
BRIAN: I mean- Yeah … in reality, not to go there, but like it's another reason to expand the court is the num- I was about to say.
15:09
BRIAN: The number of cases that the Supreme Court can take on hasn't changed in a really long time, but it's in like the 60 to 70 range a year, and that's of the 10,000 plus that are- Yeah that people are like trying to get them to, to take.
15:25
BRIAN: It's a court expansion opportunity to say like- Yeah … actually the- we really need a Supreme Court that can hear 300 cases a year- Yeah, we need you on- … and issue rulings.
15:35
GLENNIS: We need you behind that bench every single day, okay?
15:38
GLENNIS: Right.
15:38
GLENNIS: If we're working hard, you're working hard.
15:40
GLENNIS: I also saw that the tariff rate is suspected to climb to 11.8%, almost 12% by December, so merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah.
15:52
BRIAN: Okay.
15:52
BRIAN: So yeah, just to clarify there, we have new tariffs on Canada because- Yeah … I don't even actually really know why, what started this one.
16:01
BRIAN: Do you know?
16:02
GLENNIS: Basically, they were in negotiation for a new like trade agreement, and then the United States wanted Canada to agree.
16:11
GLENNIS: If the United States decided to put economic sanctions on a country or to change the tariffs on a country, they wanted Canada to equal those tariffs against
16:19
BRIAN: that country.
16:19
BRIAN: To match our energy.
16:20
BRIAN: Okay.
16:21
GLENNIS: And they were like, "No." The negotiations fell apart, and they just kind of went to, to war.
16:27
GLENNIS: Got
16:27
BRIAN: it.
16:27
BRIAN: That's why we have new Canada tariffs, plus Canada has now, I think, put a 50% tariff on all US imports as well, so hurting businesses- Mm like twofold, imports, exports.
16:37
BRIAN: And then with Iran, Trump has now issued up to a 100% tariff on every country that does any business with Iran, which includes China.
16:49
BRIAN: Like China is importing oil from Iran.
16:54
BRIAN: So a genuine question, I'm like, is there about to be a 100% tariff on China?
17:00
BRIAN: Because won't the economy- Collapse explode?
17:04
GLENNIS: Yeah.
17:05
BRIAN: Like-
17:05
GLENNIS: Um, that makes me nervous … the second
17:07
BRIAN: largest economy in the world.
17:08
GLENNIS: Also, with the 50% export, uh, this is gonna impact Maine a lot.
17:15
GLENNIS: Hmm.
17:15
GLENNIS: Which is not good for Republicans given that-
17:19
BRIAN: Sorry Susie… GLENNIS: there's a very that we're looking to get.
17:24
BRIAN: By the way, if you're looking for your refund, good luck.
17:27
BRIAN: Good luck.
17:28
BRIAN: Yeah, no way.
17:30
BRIAN: Luckily, Donald Trump is issuing dollar off coupons for beef.
17:34
GLENNIS: Oh, I saw that.
17:35
GLENNIS: Did you see that?
17:36
GLENNIS: Yeah.
17:36
GLENNIS: Bring that to the next baseball game when you're paying for your $25 hot dog.
17:40
GLENNIS: "Oh, here's my Trump dollar." What?
17:43
GLENNIS: It's so offensive.
17:44
GLENNIS: It's literally so offensive.
17:46
BRIAN: It's literally like when he did like the Freedom gas stations for the July 4th holiday where there were like four gas stations in Philadelphia randomly that like lowered their prices by a, a dollar a gallon or something.
17:59
BRIAN: Okay.
18:00
BRIAN: So for the 1,000 people that could fill up their tanks that day at those gas stations, like rock on.
18:06
BRIAN: For the other 300 million of us, like you're fucked.
18:09
GLENNIS: Yeah.
18:09
GLENNIS: Yeah.
18:10
GLENNIS: It's so silly.
18:11
GLENNIS: And literally he said, "Get fucked.
18:12
GLENNIS: I don't care about you." Uh,
18:13
BRIAN: it's-
18:13
GLENNIS: It's so
18:13
BRIAN: performative… GLENNIS: it's so performative.
18:16
BRIAN: Mind you, while last weekend as he's waving his green flags like a little toddler with his like Lincoln Logs for this Indy 500 race, which was like the cap to the 250 celebrations that cost us, the taxpayers- Always helpful to keep in mind, none of that money was allocated.
18:31
BRIAN: Trump raided every account.
18:33
BRIAN: Our national parks, the money that is designated to- Chills … maintain our national parks, our public lands, was all raided to pay for ballrooms and IndyCar races and UFC fights and like the bullshit going on, the circus.
18:50
BRIAN: Quite literally, the circus- Yeah … around Donald Trump.
18:52
GLENNIS: And lest we forget, last week it was also made public that he's rounding up wild horses out of our national parks and selling them for meat abroad.
19:02
GLENNIS: For
19:02
BRIAN: glue.
19:02
BRIAN: Yeah.
19:03
GLENNIS: Like of all the things that has gone viral, I don't think this is like the most important even, you know, I'm a pescatarian.
19:08
GLENNIS: I don't eat meat, but like- You
19:11
BRIAN: don't
19:11
GLENNIS: eat hor-
19:12
BRIAN: you don't eat horses?
19:13
BRIAN: I don't- What do you, what- No,
19:13
GLENNIS: I don't judge people who eat horse.
19:15
GLENNIS: It's like very, um- What do you- Like in France they eat it.
19:18
BRIAN: What do you call someone who doesn't eat fish, doesn't eat other meat, but only eats horse?
19:23
BRIAN: An equestrian.
19:27
GLENNIS: Is this mic on?
19:28
GLENNIS: Ha ha.
19:30
BRIAN: Uh- That was
19:31
GLENNIS: good.
19:31
GLENNIS: A pas- But that went viral … a
19:31
BRIAN: pescatarian, an equestri- Equestitarian… GLENNIS: tarian.
19:34
BRIAN: I don't judge people.
19:36
BRIAN: People eat dog too, like, whatever.
19:38
BRIAN: But this went very viral, and it was interesting to see how many people were speaking out against this, and I was like, on the list of things that Trump is doing that is, like, really fucked up and super corrupt and against American interests, low tier.
19:52
BRIAN: But you know what?
19:54
BRIAN: Save the horses.
19:54
BRIAN: Yeah.
19:55
BRIAN: I don't wanna convince people to not be mad about bad shit that Donald Trump does.
19:59
BRIAN: You're right.
19:59
BRIAN: It's, it's very like- Good point … popularism, as David Shore would say.
20:03
GLENNIS: Mm.
20:03
BRIAN: Like, because you and I mainline news straight into our veins 24/7, like, we're pissed about other stuff, oftentimes wonkier stuff.
20:12
BRIAN: But if it's Spirit, if it's Seabiscuit that gets people to vote, then, like, I'm gonna fucking ride my horse to the polls in November- Yeah … let me tell you.
20:23
BRIAN: Like, I'm all in.
20:25
BRIAN: Call me Horse Girl, because if that's what makes you pay attention, I'm down.
20:29
GLENNIS: It's a very good point, well taken, and I do agree.
20:32
GLENNIS: You're right, I'm too in the weeds.
20:34
GLENNIS: And if you're mad about the wild horses being rounded up, show that energy at the polls in November.
20:41
GLENNIS: What about Horse Meat Disco also?
20:43
GLENNIS: That's like a… Is that a circuit party, or is that only in New York?
20:47
BRIAN: It or- started in London.
20:48
BRIAN: It originally, I think, was a DJ collective and a party that started in London and then came to New York, and I think the New York one is now much larger and more famous than the one in London is.
20:58
GLENNIS: Yeah.
20:58
GLENNIS: So Horse Meat Disco is a really fun party.
21:02
BRIAN: I think a huge number of our listeners have no idea what you're talking about.
21:05
GLENNIS: Okay.
21:06
BRIAN: But if you know, you
21:07
GLENNIS: know.
21:07
GLENNIS: But the ones who do, if you know, you know.
21:09
BRIAN: Yeah.
21:09
BRIAN: For the four of you who are gay and live in New York and come talk to me at parties, that's for you.
21:14
GLENNIS: We talk a lot about corruption, and I wanna start, like, through the election highlighting one or two stories per week that particularly chap my ass or that I think are tangible, direct evidence of corruption.
21:27
GLENNIS: So did you see the Live Nation/Ticketmaster situation?
21:32
BRIAN: Oh, yeah.
21:33
BRIAN: Yeah, I did.
21:34
GLENNIS: This is new reporting from The Wall Street Journal that came out, like, a couple days ago.
21:38
GLENNIS: And let's go back to, like, the Taylor Swift of it all, where this kind of rose to the top, and it was clear that Ticketmaster had too much power, too much control.
21:48
GLENNIS: Cut to an antitrust case against Live Nation, that they were manipulating the markets.
21:53
GLENNIS: They had too much control.
21:54
GLENNIS: They own the venues.
21:55
GLENNIS: They own the ticket website.
21:58
GLENNIS: Dynamic pricing.
21:59
GLENNIS: Have you ever been caught in dynamic pricing?
22:01
BRIAN: Yes.
22:03
GLENNIS: Yeah.
22:03
BRIAN: Yes, it's crazy.
22:04
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
22:04
BRIAN: If you wanna go on tour, no matter what your live act is, if you wanna go on tour, you're basically forced to use Live Nation owned venues.
22:13
BRIAN: And they will only allow you to sell tickets for that event through Ticketmaster, which then has essentially a monopoly on, like, large venue ticketed events from, like, soup to nuts, which is, last time I checked, not legal in the United States of America, which Republicans love to remind us is a place for free markets.
22:37
GLENNIS: Correct.
22:38
BRIAN: Continue.
22:38
GLENNIS: February 27th, 2026, the Live Nation CEO, Michael Rapino, he's in the Oval Office.
22:44
GLENNIS: He has a one-on-one with Donald Trump.
22:45
GLENNIS: The reason why they say he's there is to talk about getting more bookings up at the Kennedy Center.
22:50
GLENNIS: Not enough people are going to the Kennedy Center.
22:52
GLENNIS: How are we gonna fix that?
22:54
BRIAN: Which they're about to demolish.
22:55
GLENNIS: Which literally, which Trump was gonna shut down for two years, and is going to shut down for two years for much needed renovations.
23:03
GLENNIS: So how does that track that the CEO of Live Nation is going to talk to the President of the United States about a venue that's about to be shut down?
23:10
GLENNIS: Shortly after this meeting, where we can assume that they spoke about this antitrust case against Live Nation with the DOJ, Trump calls a senior DOJ official and says, "Settle it." In the court of law, you can do two things.
23:25
GLENNIS: You can go to court and hear from a jury of your peers about what's fair, what's not, what's breaking the law, what's not, what's a felony, what's not.
23:32
GLENNIS: Settling it is you settle it before it goes to court, nothing happens.
23:35
GLENNIS: So jury selection had started on March 2nd.
23:39
GLENNIS: Oh, the case was settled on March the 5th.
23:42
BRIAN: Yeah, so a few things stand out to me about this case.
23:45
BRIAN: Number one, Trump making a phone call to specifically direct DOJ to settle an ongoing case might sound relatively innocuous.
23:56
BRIAN: That kind of political intervention directly into the DOJ is not something that we have seen before.
24:00
BRIAN: Number two, the way that Live Nation got this case settled, that they desperately did not want to go to trial-
24:11
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm… BRIAN: was not by hiring really It was by hiring James McDonald, who has no antitrust experience, but represented Donald Trump in criminal cases in New York.
24:27
GLENNIS: And it further emphasizes that- Nothing anymore.
24:32
GLENNIS: Nothing is about the merits of the case- Mm-hmm … what the Constitution says, what the laws are.
24:39
GLENNIS: It's just about how much money you can pay to someone in close proximity to Donald Trump, or pay to Donald Trump and his family directly.
24:50
GLENNIS: That is how our entire justice system now operates.
24:54
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
24:54
GLENNIS: It's very transparent, and this case made that so the next time someone is getting absolutely screwed on concert tickets- Mm-hmm … you can directly thank Donald Trump for blocking this case from going forward, which could have resulted in dramatically improving the ticketing industry, which we all know is corrupt as fuck.
25:18
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
25:19
GLENNIS: It was so bad that 34 AGs, many of which were from Republican controlled states, refused the deal.
25:26
GLENNIS: They went to trial anyway.
25:27
BRIAN: When the DOJ is working to undercut you, like it really takes the wind out of your sails, let me tell you.
25:33
GLENNIS: And there's something else that came out this week, Trump's financial disclosures.
25:36
GLENNIS: It's so abundantly clear that this is the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States of America.
25:42
GLENNIS: He started a war, your gas prices went up, and his portfolio went up.
25:47
GLENNIS: Direct cause and effect.
25:48
GLENNIS: He has made 15, almost 16 million on his oil and gas holdings since the start of the war, and he has bought more oil and gas holdings since the start of the war.
26:00
GLENNIS: He's the only president in the history of the United States of America who's openly trading while being president.
26:04
GLENNIS: While starting wars.
26:05
GLENNIS: While starting, and being the president.
26:07
GLENNIS: You're supposed to put all of your money into a blind trust.
26:09
GLENNIS: He never did that.
26:10
GLENNIS: During this time, while Donald Trump is making millions of dollars off of your wallets, your gas pump- Your food on your table that you can't afford.
26:20
GLENNIS: You have paid an additional $71 billion in gas fees since the start of the war.
26:27
BRIAN: Yeah.
26:27
BRIAN: I think that it's both hard and important for people to realize the extent to which Donald Trump is intertwined with the system that's screwing everyone over all the time.
26:40
BRIAN: Yeah.
26:40
BRIAN: So it's not just the oil and gas industry, it's not just ticketing that is so obvious, but we've seen monopolies form and corporate consolidation across the entire economy.
26:52
BRIAN: Paramount.
26:53
BRIAN: And that i- exactly.
26:55
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
26:55
BRIAN: And that is exactly what is driving the cost of everything up.
26:59
BRIAN: Beef prices- Mm-hmm … so high.
27:01
BRIAN: We've been talking about that.
27:02
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
27:02
BRIAN: There are only four companies now that essentially own the entire meat processing industry.
27:09
BRIAN: You look at airlines.
27:10
BRIAN: Travel has gotten so much more expensive.
27:12
BRIAN: There are four airlines that control 70% of the entire- Yeah … market.
27:17
BRIAN: You look at wireless carriers.
27:19
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
27:19
BRIAN: There are now three companies that control 98% of the entire- Yeah … wireless industry.
27:26
BRIAN: You look at alcohol.
27:27
BRIAN: There are two companies that control 70% of the market.
27:31
BRIAN: You look at sunglasses.
27:33
BRIAN: Yeah.
27:33
BRIAN: Two companies control the entire market.
27:36
BRIAN: You look at search online, like digital advertising.
27:39
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
27:39
BRIAN: One company controls 90% of the market.
27:42
BRIAN: You look at PBMs, three companies control 80%.
27:46
BRIAN: Like, I literally- Media … could go on- Media … all day.
27:49
BRIAN: Media.
27:50
BRIAN: Yes.
27:51
BRIAN: Larry Ellison alone.
27:51
BRIAN: Who
27:51
GLENNIS: owns your local news stations?
27:53
GLENNIS: Who's owning the streamers?
27:54
GLENNIS: Who's owning the information that you're getting served?
27:58
BRIAN: I think that antitrust is the battle of our generation, that we've sort of- Mm-hmm … hit this point.
28:04
BRIAN: We've talked about this before.
28:05
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
28:06
GLENNIS: But,
28:06
BRIAN: like, capital gives you power.
28:08
BRIAN: You use that power to get more money, and that money gives you power.
28:12
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
28:12
BRIAN: And it's a very simple loop, but it moves faster and faster the longer it goes on.
28:19
BRIAN: The amount of wealth that's being consolidated by these monopolies and duopolies- Yeah … is why America is looking at this insane scale of inequality and why it feels like life is getting harder year after year after year, regardless of who's in charge, regardless of what's happening- Yeah … in the, like, global economy.
28:46
BRIAN: And I mean, that's why we need more people like your girl.
28:51
GLENNIS: Lina.
28:52
BRIAN: Lina.
28:53
GLENNIS: Lina Khan.
28:54
BRIAN: Lina
28:54
GLENNIS: Khan.
28:54
GLENNIS: She'll be in the administration of Mayor Mamdani this fall.
28:58
GLENNIS: For those who don't know, she's an amazing, trailblazing antitrust activist, organizer, adjudicator.
29:07
GLENNIS: I wanna put a finer point on the war and the oil.
29:10
GLENNIS: This is a war Trump started.
29:12
GLENNIS: He's getting richer off of it.
29:13
GLENNIS: You're paying over 71 billion more in gas prices, and big oil, their profit on this year alone, profit on this year alone is $125 billion.
29:24
BRIAN: But they had to increase the prices to cover their costs.
29:28
GLENNIS: Mm. Even though Donald Trump said, "Raise me a billion dollars, get me elected, and I'm gonna take care of you."
29:35
BRIAN: Diesel has to be $6 a gallon.
29:38
GLENNIS: Brian, should we go to some clickbait Double click
29:44
BRIAN: Okay, so I think content creator land has been blowing up this week over the Hakeem Jeffries, Jared Kushner meeting to discuss what will happen when Dems win the House.
29:55
BRIAN: Even James Carville somehow found out.
29:57
BRIAN: Even, even James Carville got in on, on the commentary.
30:01
BRIAN: Do you think that that story is a double click or clickbait?
30:06
GLENNIS: I honestly think it's clickbait 'cause I don't care about it.
30:09
GLENNIS: But if you're telling me the internet cares, I'm like, sure, Jeffries.
30:13
GLENNIS: I did see that Instagram video where he's got his, like, green Yankees hat on, and he's like, "Doo, doo, doo,
30:20
BRIAN: doo, doo." I think it's clickbait.
30:21
GLENNIS: Yeah.
30:22
BRIAN: I don't know that the internet cares.
30:23
BRIAN: I think that talking heads care.
30:26
BRIAN: I think that people who read about this stuff all day long care.
30:31
BRIAN: It's a fine line and an important distinction between the horse girls revolt of, like- Yeah … people mad that Trump is putting horses into wood chippers and the-
30:43
GLENNIS: Yeah Hakeem
30:43
BRIAN: Jeffries fury from, I think, content creator land.
30:48
BRIAN: That's my read on it, is I really think that this is for political junkies that are, like, souped up on the Kool-Aid.
30:55
GLENNIS: Personally.
30:55
GLENNIS: Yeah, I mean, if James Carville came out of his $10 million Louisiana house to talk about it.
31:01
BRIAN: I'm generally, just for what it's worth, I'm generally uninterested in conversations about s- whether someone should or should not meet with someone else.
31:09
BRIAN: In general- Same, it feels like a waste of
31:11
GLENNIS: time… BRIAN: I'm just, like, sick of it.
31:11
GLENNIS: I'm like, "Who the fuck?" I d- Who cares?
31:13
GLENNIS: I don't care.
31:13
GLENNIS: I don't care.
31:14
GLENNIS: Talk to me about the outcome.
31:15
GLENNIS: Talk to me about policy that we should or shouldn't support.
31:18
GLENNIS: Talk to me about strategies that we should or should not deploy, like, whatever.
31:21
GLENNIS: I don't really care about anyone meeting with anyone else if there's nothing else to say about it.
31:26
GLENNIS: Right.
31:27
GLENNIS: Well, you know what meeting I do care about, though?
31:29
GLENNIS: The head of CIA was in Russia yesterday.
31:32
GLENNIS: Did you hear that?
31:33
BRIAN: Tell me more.
31:34
GLENNIS: I-- No one knows because they won't tell us why he was there.
31:37
GLENNIS: He flew to Russia for four hours, had a meeting with Russian intelligence or whoever the head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe is his name, who he met with.
31:47
GLENNIS: I don't like it, I'll tell you that much, and I would like to know what was said in that meeting.
31:51
BRIAN: Well, I assume that Trump's handler hasn't been as in touch since he's, like, been really busy with IndyCar 500 and, like, with the renovations and that kind of thing.
32:02
BRIAN: So send your guy.
32:03
GLENNIS: Speaking of busy, White House cropped Natalie Harp out of Grand Prix content.
32:09
GLENNIS: Did you see these clips?
32:11
BRIAN: No.
32:12
GLENNIS: They're in, like, this box watching.
32:13
GLENNIS: It's Melania.
32:14
GLENNIS: 'Cause, you know, Melania comes out whenever there's a crisis, whether it be, like, the Epstein files or the Natalie Harp, all of a sudden she reappeared.
32:21
GLENNIS: And her and Trump are like, they're in a, a tense conversation, and then it's like, you know that like TikTok sound, "And who do I see?
32:29
GLENNIS: Abby Lee Miller." And it's like, you just, like, go slightly behind, and Natalie Harp's there, like… And then as soon as Natalie Harp shows up, Melania leaves.
32:41
GLENNIS: And then they, the White House cropped Natalie out of the photos that they posted from the Grand Prix.
32:47
BRIAN: I mean, I think that it's funny.
32:48
BRIAN: Yeah.
32:48
BRIAN: And I think that, like, them chasing their tails over this is like, we already said it last week, kudos to Jon Ossoff-
32:55
GLENNIS: Yeah
32:55
BRIAN: for hitting such a sore spot for them- Yeah … and just pushing.
32:58
BRIAN: I love it.
32:59
BRIAN: But I mean, ultimately clickbait.
33:01
GLENNIS: Yeah.
33:01
GLENNIS: I did see a really creepy face mashup.
33:04
GLENNIS: Natalie Harp does in fact look a lot like Ivanka Trump
33:12
BRIAN: Natalie does?
33:13
GLENNIS: Yeah.
33:14
BRIAN: If I'm being honest, I couldn't even pick her out of a lineup.
33:16
GLENNIS: Cr- the only thing about her, she has crazy eyeliner.
33:18
GLENNIS: I mean, honestly, girl, paint your face however you want.
33:22
BRIAN: It's giving Black
33:22
GLENNIS: Swan.
33:22
GLENNIS: I don't wanna, like, judge a woman for how she paints, but she's something else.
33:26
BRIAN: Our next one, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that the non-citizen voter numbers that it had put out were, shocker, inflated.
33:37
BRIAN: They said that there were 16,000 non-citizens registered in Nevada, but they actually went through that list and got it down to 185.
33:46
BRIAN: So only off by what?
33:48
BRIAN: 97%, 98%.
33:51
GLENNIS: It's tough because I know no one's gonna read that, but it is double click.
33:54
GLENNIS: To our earlier conversation about the Supreme Court mail-in voting ruling this week, like, the damage has been done.
34:00
GLENNIS: People probably saw that sensational headline like, "Wow, there's 16,000 non-US citizens on the voter rolls in Nevada," and that number sticks, not the correction.
34:12
GLENNIS: It's a double click in that it's like you should be reading the newspaper, people.
34:14
GLENNIS: You should be reading headlines.
34:16
GLENNIS: You should be reading corrections, but the damage has been done.
34:18
GLENNIS: I don't know.
34:19
GLENNIS: What do you think?
34:20
BRIAN: Yeah, I think it's a double click.
34:21
BRIAN: Dems need better messaging on this issue.
34:25
BRIAN: We're always so quick to try to point out like, "Non-citizen voting doesn't exist," which I'm pretty sure I said earlier this episode.
34:30
BRIAN: I think that elected should probably just more so be leaning into non-citizens shouldn't vote.
34:36
BRIAN: I agree.
34:37
BRIAN: Because it's not a thing.
34:38
BRIAN: Just say the thing that people want to hear from you, even if that means not correcting the record as much.
34:45
BRIAN: We can still say it, but like-
34:46
GLENNIS: Don't be so absolute with something that happens at a very, very, very, very, very, very, very small margin.
34:52
BRIAN: Totally.
34:53
BRIAN: While non-citizen voting is not a thing, and we should continue to tell people that it's not a thing, I think that it's also okay to just agree and be like, "Yes, we agree that only US citizens should cast ballots in federal elections," and that is the law right now
35:10
GLENNIS: Yeah
35:11
BRIAN: I don't know.
35:11
BRIAN: Whatever.
35:12
GLENNIS: We didn't wanna talk about this this week, 'cause it doesn't matter, but in South Carolina, Lindsey Graham's unqualified sister won thanks to a shot to the vein with an $800,000 super PAC spend the week before, and Donald Trump's endorsement.
35:25
GLENNIS: I don't know if you saw her speech at all, but it's going very, very viral.
35:29
GLENNIS: So I'm gonna play this clip for you, and then I wanna tell you how the Democratic side of the internet reacted, 'cause she's making a point, but I don't think she realizes the point that she's making.
35:38
DARLINE GRAHAM: I grew up in the back of a bar and liquor store in one room in central South Carolina.
35:42
DARLINE GRAHAM: My parents worked long, hard hours to make it, make ends meet.
35:47
DARLINE GRAHAM: We didn't take vacations.
35:49
DARLINE GRAHAM: If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work, because the doors weren't open, we weren't making money.
35:54
DARLINE GRAHAM: My mother passed away when I was 11, and my father just over a year later.
35:59
GLENNIS: The internet is going wild.
36:01
GLENNIS: They're like, "So you're saying if your parents had access to, like, affordable healthcare they wouldn't have died?
36:08
GLENNIS: You're boasting that you grew up poor and in the back of a liquor store, and your parents had treatable diseases, but because they didn't have access to affordable healthcare they just died, and that makes you stronger as opposed to, like, the clear opportunity in front of us, which is to have some version of universal healthcare so that everyone, no matter your socioeconomic status, should have access to basic healthcare." This dystopian conservative messaging that is trying to create this worldview for their electorate.
36:38
GLENNIS: There's villains, they're othering people, when there's enough money in our government to make sure that every single person has access to affordable healthcare.
36:48
GLENNIS: And not to mention, a lot of these Republican senators and House members voted for the big brutal bill, the MAGA murder budget, whatever you wanna call it.
36:58
BRIAN: Right.
36:58
BRIAN: A hard life making you stronger is not a good reason to make people's lives harder.
37:03
GLENNIS: You know who had a really hard life?
37:04
BRIAN: Tell me.
37:05
GLENNIS: Dolly Parton.
37:05
GLENNIS: She was one of 12- Mm … and her parents were sharecroppers, and she worked hard.
37:11
GLENNIS: That's
37:11
BRIAN: crazy.
37:12
GLENNIS: Yes.
37:12
GLENNIS: And she always knew who she wanted to be.
37:14
GLENNIS: You could
37:14
BRIAN: say she worked 9: 00
37:17
GLENNIS: to 5: 00.
37:17
9:00 to 5: 00.
37:17
9:00 to 5: But Dolly, Dolly worked more than 9:00 to 5:00.
37:20
9:00 to 5: She was working probably up until the day that she got checked into that hospital Anyway, there's a vision of America that protects everyone, and we are not living that.
37:31
9:00 to 5: But November 3rd, 2026… Oh, Brian, before we go, can you hit me with an Oath candidate of the week?
37:37
BRIAN: It's kind of our good vibe to leave people with also.
37:40
BRIAN: Ooh, okay.
37:40
BRIAN: We're gonna jam it together this week.
37:42
BRIAN: Our Oath candidate of the week is Rob Sand.
37:45
BRIAN: Rob Sand is running for governor of Iowa, which might sound like exactly the kind of race that I would normally tell people not to donate to, because Democrats haven't won in Iowa, it seems like, in forever, regardless of what Ann Selzer said in 2024 when Kamala Harris was winning by 12 points in her poll.
38:03
BRIAN: Well, this time around, multiple prognosticators now have the race leaning in Rob Sand's direction.
38:12
BRIAN: He is actually the favorite in November, which is bananas.
38:16
BRIAN: It's giving Andy Beshear energy, right?
38:19
BRIAN: In, in a big way.
38:20
BRIAN: Andy Beshear being- Mm-hmm … the Democratic governor of Kentucky.
38:22
BRIAN: It just, like, seems like it's impossible, but here we are.
38:25
BRIAN: He's running an incredible campaign.
38:27
BRIAN: The Iowa State Fair has been going on, and he is killing it.
38:31
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
38:31
BRIAN: Just, like, really, really knows the voters of Iowa in a way that's allowing him to carve his own lane and define what being a Democrat means to him- Mm-hmm … and maintain, like, mass appeal in Iowa.
38:45
BRIAN: So it's a very masterful campaign, very exciting to see.
38:48
BRIAN: He also is creating coattails.
38:50
BRIAN: He's gonna turn out so many Democrats that we have three potential flip opportunities in the congressional seats.
38:56
BRIAN: Sarah Trone Garriott, Lindsay James, Christina Bohannan.
39:00
BRIAN: Really exciting.
39:01
BRIAN: Rob Sand's honestly gonna be the next governor of Iowa, and that is both- Hell yeah … your Oath candidate of the week and your good vibe goodbye.
39:09
GLENNIS: Love it.
39:09
GLENNIS: Rob Sand.
39:10
GLENNIS: Some say Kennedy good looks.
39:12
GLENNIS: That's what the internet's saying.
39:15
GLENNIS: But I, but unfortunately- I… … I think it's like JFK sickly Kennedy.
39:19
GLENNIS: It's, it's not like- Eeh.
39:20
GLENNIS: Yeah.
39:22
BRIAN: Sure.
39:23
BRIAN: Sure.
39:23
BRIAN: Don't Google him.
39:24
BRIAN: The, the straights.
39:24
BRIAN: But make sure to vote for Rob Sand for governor of Iowa, and that is Vibes Only for the week.
39:32
BRIAN: Please make sure to comment, share, and have a great week.
39:38
BRIAN: We'll be back here next week, same time, same place, to check the vibes of American politics, and keep you guys in the loop on everything midterms.
39:48
GLENNIS: Iowa.
39:48
GLENNIS: Bye.
39:52
BRIAN: Thank you for that.
39:53
GLENNIS: Yeah.