Latest / Before You Speak / Before You Speak | Episode 47 | The Cornell 7... Will We Ever See Strong Male Leadership Again?

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Before You Speak | Episode 47 | The Cornell 7... Will We Ever See Strong Male Leadership Again? · Before You Speak

• Derek: dude, they are preying on trans people. I mean, poor trans people. Like they're the they're they're the they're the punching bag in all of this because it's the only thing Republicans got. They're like, trans people. No no boys and women's sports. Elwyn: There there were more people in that room in Cornell than there are trans athletes in the entire N C double A. Derek: What's up y'all? Welcome back to the Before You Speak podcast. I am your host, Derek Peterson, and today I'm processing the fire hose of my news feed with this guy. He's above me today. Yeah. Elwyn: This guy. I am Elwyn and the fire hose of my newsfeed. Bro, I don't know what is going on with my newsfeed. It is fucking bat shit. It's just batshit. I I don't even have like a cool allegory or metaphor for it. It's just bonkers. Derek: Yeah, it's been it's been a week. I had to flip my news feed over to my my positivity Instagram that's all artists and football, which Elwyn: Mm-hmm. Derek: sometimes still makes me angry, but I follow no politics on that and I don't allow it. So if it tries to feed it to me, I I always click disinterested, disinterested, just because I'm like, I need a break, leave me alone. I don't want to talk about all this stuff. So, but you know, my Detroit Lions are doing pretty good already. I mean, they look, here's the thing. They have the easiest schedule in the NFL this year. so if they don't make the playoffs, there's a huge problem. And then Texas, you know, me being the super loyal fan that I am, they're they still have seven ranked games left. which is great for me because that means I still have an opportunity to sell one or two tickets before the end of the year and make most of my money for next year on them. and we went. Elwyn: Should Mizzou really be ranked like come on with Mizzou? Derek: they're not bad. Mississippi State's quarterback is legit. Mm-hmm. Elwyn: Is really good. Yeah, well I'm I'm a Giants fan for pro football, which is like this year just seems cruel at this point. It's this Derek: Yeah, d let's hope for next year. Elwyn: this year just seems like there has to be some sort of cosmic, you know, you beat Tom Brady curse that that is on the Giants, like the the reverse curse of Derek: No the Elwyn: Eli Manning or some shit, because you know I well, also everything Trump touches dies, right? Derek: Jackson Dart is that curse. You know, we're we're doing a political Yes, correct, we're doing a political podcast. And Jackson Dart, that hit on him, absolutely had the the all the makings of some dudes that were like, Yeah, screw this guy. Elwyn: Yeah. But also another another instance of Trump sticking his beak in some sports or getting connected to some sports guy. And they go down. Happens Derek: Yep. Elwyn: I went when he went to the Tennessee U T game, I was like I spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out had he made a statement who he was rooting for, 'cause I was ready to bet everything I own against Derek: Ha ha. Elwyn: against that team, 'cause there seemed to be few things more certain. Then Trump will cause the Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: team he's rooting for to lose. And if you want to say he went to Tennessee, Derek: No, it's usually the home team. Elwyn: they lost. Derek: Yeah, I was gonna say it's usually whatever wherever he's at. It's like the he cause he went to New York and the Knicks lost. he could have been rooting for Texas, but he was still in Tennessee. So thank God we'll take it. we Elwyn: Yeah. Yep. Derek: as a Texas fan, I I actually I kinda wish I had bet all of my my life savings on that game because well No, I would have been pulling my hair out at the end. It was way too close for for that. But well, today we're gonna do a little this pod a little bit different. we're gonna just kind of we're gonna not go full in depth on each one of these topics, but we're gonna since the news has been pretty active, we're gonna just cover a bunch of do new different news topics and a little bit more in depth. So I think we're gonna start today with the the Cornell seven. You wanna kick us off with that one? Elwyn: Yeah, this is this has gotta be, I think, sort of the biggest news story going around right now. and it is the story of a woman, a student in Cornell, who's not been named, so she's referred to in court filings as Jane Doe, who filed a lawsuit against Cornell University, seven students and a bunch of other parties and people, alleging that in October twenty twenty four she was gang raped. by these seven students. And the the story that is told in the court papers is stunning in its awfulness. Where you know, she admits that she was intoxicated when she went to this fraternity house of Kai Phi fraternity. She was going to see someone who she had considered a friend. you know, she had been at a sorority party beforehand, so she was, you know, already A little little bit buzzy by her own admission. And when she got there, they basically just kind of plied her with more alcohol, with weed, with ketamine. got her completely shitfaced, to the point where you know, she, and I think most people have to agree with this, even though incredibly there are some not, some that don't, was incapable of consenting to any sort of sexual act in a manner that anybody any reasonable person would find meaningful. And these two guys first proceeded to have sex with her. And then they sent a a group chat to the 57 men men in their fraternity saying, free pussy upstairs, come get some. And everybody's like, Wow, I love this place. my God, this is so amazing. And over the course of the next six or seven hours, different up to you know, total a total of seven college men came in. Raped her, had her do drugs, one one allegation. One thing she says is that she was forced to snort ketamine off of someone's erection. you know, and yeah, that that's kind of it. So she reported it a few weeks later, in November of twenty twenty-four. The school did their own investigation, the local DA did hit did an investigation. No criminal charges were ever and have ever been brought. In this case, two students were expelled. others were suspended. The ones that were not expelled, part of their punishment, and not the whole punishment. So it's important to be fair with the details, but not but part of the punishment was that they had to write an essay talking about what they did. I don't I don't even know what the purpose of that is. she or through her parents, she then asked to transfer. To a different school and asked for a tuition refund. And Cornell said, We will not give you a tuition refund. Derek: Well I'll bet you they're going back on that now. Elwyn: yeah. the the I mean, the the way so obviously it it's also interesting and I think important in this day and age to understand that this all came out through the reporting of the Cornell student newspaper. The New York Times. was like super duper late even after the corner like even after this went viral on social media, it was at least 18 hours before the New York Times had any story about it on their homepage, on their online page at all. you know, so just it's an interesting aside about the efficacy and and the ability of the actual media to find and develop it what is actually an important story because this just ties into this incredible history of men. P in college, but it at all levels of our government, right? Obviously, being allowed to rape and abuse and mistreat women with z with really no meaningful punishment at all. There was the the Stanford student about a decade ago, Brock Turner, who was convicted in in his case, I believe, of raping someone behind a dumpster. And he got like three months probation from the judge, who I believe was a family friend or something like that. You know, these kids, there's they're reopening the investigation and the DA is kind of like, Well, she's telling a different story now, but nobody's in jail. Right? Cornell is probably just mad that it didn't didn't come out in the way they wanted. Most of their statements when this really blew up earlier this week consisted more of just like, you know, we did expel two students and the essay was not the only thing they had to do. So you know, we think this is being unfairly portrayed. Fuck off unforely unfairly portrayed, right? Like so there is, I think, understandably white hot rage, particularly amongst women in this country, going on about this. And I think that it is just also tinged with this my God, how does this keep happening? Just this almost exasperation. and all of it is. Deserved and do, you know, I was listening to one pad podcaster talk about this earlier today, and and she was making the point, you know, why aren't any men talking about this on their social media feeds? Why are the only posts that I see coming from women? I was like, it's an interesting thing, but like I don't I don't feel like as a white male, like I'm qualified to speak. Maybe I should, right? Like it's obviously terrible. Maybe more white men should be saying, like, no, this shit is obviously terrible. But at the same time, I can understand. Why women in this country would want to say to me, Bro, sit it out. Give you know, we gotta process this, you know, sit it out for a week and then pop up next time really quickly or whatever. I don't know, maybe that's wrong of me. But so that's the that's the Cornell seven kind of in a nutshell, with all sort of larger kind of what is going on in this country implications. Derek: That's interesting because my feed has actually had a lot of males talking about it. So there's been a number of guys that have come out, like most of the progressive left the male influencers that I follow, like Good Trouble and a couple of these other dudes. the dude that's always dressed like he's chopping down a tree, whatever his name is. that guy's he's like a super handsome dude and he's like super progressive and he just like takes off his shirt and like has an axe all the time. I'm like, man, he Elwyn: Nice. Derek: na yeah, he's like nailed it. but like so it's interesting because like there are certain things like when it comes to politics and when it comes to just in general, like life where you can look at it and be like, man, like there's some nuance to this topic, right? Like we talk about abortion, right? When does life start? When is it what's more important, the the mom or the child? And You talk to progressives and they're like, you know, we believe that women, like, women like should have bodily autonomy, which is the line that I'm on. But I can genuinely hear the argument from the other side being like, you know, I believe life starts at conception and that abortion is murder. And if you genuinely believe that, I can understand the tension between like what happens when a pregnancy goes wrong or somebody is aborting. Because they just don't want a child. So, like all of those things I can conceivably understand. But I'm gonna guess that if you took a poll of just about every single male and in our country, you would just walked up to him and were like, hey, is rape and sexual assault okay? I'm gonna guess you're gonna get 98, 99% return on that, nah, it's not okay. Like this is absolutely wrong. And so there is no question here. Like there there's this is this is abhorrent to the fucking core of what it is. And beyond that, for me, dude, we're losing the dude, we're we're losing the point. We're losing the dude, there were 50 fucking guys in that text thread. So minus the three or four people that that probably don't text their, you know, check their text or aren't on snap or like, you know, in and out, but like Everybody else in that thread should be expelled and potentially charged with, you know, criminal criminal charges, whatever whatever it is. But dude, we're losing the point. We're losing the fact that, like, dude, these are fucking human beings. And at what point do we as men have the courage to step into a situation and and stop it and be like, man, like this isn't right. And look. Doing the right thing costs you something. Like it's gonna cost you friends. You might be ostracized. People might be pissed off at you for turning them in, but that's doing the right fucking thing. Like we've lost integrity in our country. We've lost, we're losing these like critical aspects where you're like, dude, it like one all it took, all it would have taken is one fucking dude to be like, nah, dude, guys, like, no, this isn't right. Like, get out of there. No. And I Elwyn: Yeah, I mean I think I'm gonna I'm gonna push back a little bit oddly. It's an odd thing to push back on, but like I of Derek: All right. Elwyn: course if you went up to a hundred guys and asked them all, you know, is rape or sexual assault good, they're all gonna say, like i there's one sociopath, I guess, in that list that would be like, no. But that's not the question, right? They didn't say, Hey, let's all rape someone upstairs in that chat. Right? The question is the the the the issue, the problem where where we've lost the thread, you know, where where we've lost the point as a society, at least in this country, is the degree to which men believe that women are subservient to them is alarmingly high. And if you think about October 2024, right, what have we got? We've got the Tate brothers, we've got the Manosphere, all that shit's pumping hard. Bro podcasts are absolutely cooking because it's the the teeth of a federal of a presidential election with Donald Trump. You've had eight years of Donald Trump acknowledging that he said, you know, I I can grab him by the pussy. You've had, you know, him being found guilty in a in a s in that civil proceeding, found having found guilty of raping Eugene Carroll, right? All with no consequence, not just with no consequence, but with reward. Came out a week before the election that he that Hollywood, that access Hollywood tape, and he won the election. Right. So you you're at and two weeks later, when the when he wins again, you've got Nick Fuentes online saying, Your body, my choice. Right. That's the time that this all happened in. And it's very clearly, I think, indicative of, you know, like no, they didn't they didn't see it as as rape, I don't think. I think they just saw it as like we can do this and we can get away with it. But period. There's Derek: That's an even bigger problem. I mean, Elwyn: That I I agree with you completely. Derek: but that's the I I we're still losing the point, right? And and I get what you're saying because I th I think it's correct. this is a top-down thing. Like this is we are and this happened the first time Trump was in office. Like when Trump was in office the first time, the racism and all of like the cheating, lying, like all as that start to became become more and more normal, like people were like, whoa. Like this is not okay. We have all these people coming out of the woodworks that are super racist and terrible bigots, human beings. Like, and because our leadership is basically part of the group, they're they feel like it's okay to be themselves in these situations. And you're like, actually, bro, it's not. And Elwyn: Yeah, the the the fish ultimately stinks from the head, right? It's like and and Trump's election the first time, you know, in in when we're talking about misogyny and and sexual assault and all this stuff, you know, absolutely creates a permission structure because he did this, he admitted doing it, he didn't express any remorse at all for it. He said, Wow, it's locker room talk, whatever. And immediately all all the MAGA folks were like, Great, thank you for saying locker room talk. Now I can call it locker room talk. I can wipe away, you know, this the stain on this of your legacy and go vote for you. But let's say, you know, I don't I don't know how old these kids were, and they're not kids, how old these young men were when in 2024. But let's say they were 20, okay, Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: juniors, seniors in college. So they're 12 when that Access Hollywood tape comes out in 2016. And let's say that they live with conservative pro-Trump parents, right? It's not, I'm not. Making shit up. They don't even have to. But let's say they do, and now they're raised in four years of presidency where they're hearing their parents wave away the most powerful man in the world, the biggest celebrity in the world, the man with the biggest public mu megaphone in the world, wave away obvious sexual assaulting predatory behavior and getting elected president with Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: that. How can we not, you know? This isn't Trump's fault. It's not Trump's fault that these kids raped this woman, right? That's ridiculous. But he's his presence and his past and the movement around him absolutely creates a permission structure. Couple that with the Tates and with the Manosphere and all this other shit for this to happen. For people to be like, No, you know what? Fuck you. I'm a guy. I can do whatever the fuck I want. Nothing's gonna happen. I'm going to Cornell. I'm obviously, you know. Probably parents have some money, you know, like the in in the coastal elite, whatever you want to call them, whatever the fuck, you know, I can do this. I can do whatever I want, and I'm gonna get away with it, right? And whether they think that in the moment or not, it's embedded in their core that they can do that, that they can do whatever they want without consequence. And they did, right? It took, it took the editor-in-chief of the Cornell student newspaper reaching out in. Early 2025, spending a year and a half befriending the victim and her attorney to develop and write this story. Right? They did get away for it, but for the fact that there was one person who is who just wouldn't let it go. You know, and they're employed. You know, one of them was going to be a doctor. The other one just got fired from another one just got fired from Wells Fargo. Like these are not, these are not people who were, you know, shit, I fucked up, I got, I got consequence. Nope. They were employed. They were on the way. Derek: Yeah. No, I'm with you on all that. I it the it sucks. It sucks that we're here and we're in the same pos like I'm not shocked because it was we saw this before in the last Trump presidency. And so it's not shocking to see that the these things coming out like this again. And you know, we're gonna talk a lot about some of this stuff today where it's like, yeah, like some of this stuff has real like generational consequences, like years like. So many of the things that we've normalized will follow us for potentially decades to come. and it's not just like the treatment of other people or people that are like women and minorities or anybody in the LGBTQ plus community. It's it's immigrants, it's the entire world, it's also the concept of you know, fairness, lying, cheating, stealing. Like we all this shit's on the table. And The the shitty part is is there's an entire generation of people that expect this from leaders now. and until we until we elect something better consistently, we're gonna we're gonna fall into these ruts and it's just shitty. It's a shitty spot to be. Elwyn: Mark Mark Wayne Mullen, the DHS secretary guy, was gave a press conference earlier this week where they asked him about the fifty three or fifty eight reported deaths in ICE detention centers thus far. And his response was, Well, we're not running a holiday in. Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: It's like, bro, that's not it's not what we're asking for. Okay. We're asking for people not to die. And, you know, it's it is it's not the same issue, but it is the same callousness. It is the same view of the worthiness of human lives that don't look that that for whatever reason to an individual like Mark Wayne Mullen or to the people in Cornell or to Stephen Miller or all these other folks that for whatever reason. They just don't think those lives are worth as much as others. You know, and and I find it hard to see any way around it. It it's there's just this scale this that they have in their head. This life is worthless. Derek: Yeah. The and the disgusting part about this is that they use Christianity as this disguise for it, which is, you know, irks me because the foundational Christi principle of Christianity, the whole point of Jesus dying was equality. Like you're everybody is these the same, like you've all lives are valued the exact same, which is, you know, as a Christian, you believe he diet for everybody. That was the whole point. and it's disgusting to watch it all. But all right. Let's leave that one there because unless you have anything else to say on it. Let's talk let's talk about a lighter topic. A hijacked fly Dubai plane. you won't yeah. So yeah, this one is insane. Israeli Israeli officials say fly Dubai co-pilot flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed another pilot pilot and attempted to crash the aircraft, causing a Boeing 737 to pro. To plunge roughly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. Passengers and crew reportedly entered the cockpit to help regain control. And the aircraft ultimately landed safe safely in Otter Saudi Arabia Arabia. And that's where the co-pilot was detained. So thoughts? What's going on with this? I didn't read much past it. Do they did they put out more information on it? Elwyn: Yes. the I mean it yes, but they don't know like the motive or anything like that. you know, so my Lisa is going to Jordan in like a week and it when she's done with Jordan, they're flying from either Jerusalem to Dubai or Dubai to Jerusalem on a fly Dubai plane. I was like, Hey, you should Derek: Okay. Elwyn: hear this story. She was like, Why'd you send it to me? Like I don't know, Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: this seems like a hijacking attempt. Like it seems fairly plainly to be a hijacking attempt. You had two pilots. one of the pilot is is Omani, he's from Oman. And that's relevant because there is a rule or a law that Israel has on the books that says that it you can't fly a plane into Jerusalem if there's if the pilot One of the pilots is from a country that hasn't normalized relationships with Israel. So through the Abraham Accords, there's all these countries in the Middle East, like the UAE or s not so like the UAE, that have normalized relationships. So, you know, they can fly in. The other pilot was, I believe, Indian, so he can fly in. But an Omani pilot is not supposed to be able to fly on a plane into Israel. Somehow he became the pilot. It would appear that, He started to he had a knife. So there's some question about how he got the knife onto the onto the plane. But to me, if he got on the plane with a knife, that kind of seems like, okay, someone knew what was going on and let him on the plane. I feel Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: like that's going on there. starts to stab the other pilot. The other pilot starts to fight back. The other pilot was able to, with his foot apparently, unlock the the door. The cockpit door, because the cockpit door, of course, is locked from the inside. Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: and there were people who already had heard what was going on. They obviously can tell the plane is falling very quickly. So they got in and it it's almost all Israelis on the plane. So there were a couple of Israelis of pilots, and they were able to pull the plane up out of the dive and ultimately land it. So seems like straight out of the 80s, you got kind of an old school hijacking attempt on a on it used to L Al, the the Israeli airline, but on a plane full of Israelis going to Jerusalem, except for you know, the the absolute insanity of the anti-Israel pro-Palestine lobby who immediately was screaming that this is a false a false flag. you know, they're they're immediately screaming Netanyahu has said they're that they're wary of another attack. There's an election coming up. A day after Netanyahu says we're receiving Intel for an attack. my god, there's an attack, which by the way, he said we have Intel for an attack, and there was an attack. Like maybe the Intel was right. I don't, you know, that that doesn't seem inconceivable to me from a guy who, and I like Netanyahu, but he is under fire for ignoring Intel about October 7th. So maybe he's just being more careful with Intel. you know, and just I my my social media feed is just. Five to one. This is a false flag. They can't trust anything the Israelis say. This is bullshit. It never happened. We need to know more. You know, and it's it's like how it's just coincidence that there were two Israeli pilots on the plane. Motherfucker, everybody in Israel has to serve in the military. You have 170 Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: people on that plane, Israelis, probably all of them served in the military. No, it's not surprising at all that there might be two pilots on the plane. It's not the the least bit surprising. Right? Is it crazy that the the Indian pilot was able to un to kick the door open from the inside to get help? No, why is that insane? Like why why is that ludicrous? So to me the story Derek: Yeah, it's interesting because it well, Tamara was actually telling me that like there's a code on the outside of the door too that can that in like I guess like you can punch it in and then the pilot has to like actually hit something to allow it to open. But apparently, like Tamara, and I don't know what she read, but she was saying that you know one of the stewardesses on the flight was punching in the code, and then apparently the guy on the inside was able to hit the button. that actually unlatched the door and opened it, which is which is if if that's what happened, which is super interesting. So like clearly like they were aware that there was a there was a scuffle, but sorry, continue. I was Elwyn: No, but that that's actually interesting really interesting because to me that would track, right, with like if he knows like of course everybody know on the plane knows there's video from the plane. They know that plane is going down, right? It fell fourteen thousand feet in thirty seconds. Derek: That ha dude, that's your life and you d i if you're on that flight, you're like, We're dying. Like like Elwyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it makes sense if there's a button that the pilot could have quite easily been like trying to kick at that button repeatedly, hoping Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: that somebody's punching the code in on the other side. And when she got the code in, the door opens, right? That that all of a sudden becomes quite a plausible explanation. But no media, I can't think of one media I didn't see them all, so I can't say that. But the BBC, The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR. All of them said the headline was flight diverted after altercation between pilots in cockpit. Motherfucker no. How about flight diverted after failed hijacking attempt? Right? Like what Derek: Yeah. That's Elwyn: how is this not a hijacking attempt? Derek: It well, you know, this brings me to like a bigger issue. And like it may not be like the direction you were headed with this, but at when we started when you sent me the list of things that we were going to talk about today as I was thinking about this, it that we it reminds me how much our foreign policy matters because you know when when you think about what's going on with the US right now and the Our dealings with the rest of the world. you know, we bombed a we bombed a children's school of all girls in Iran. Like, there's a good chance that breeds a terrorist. Like, you know, like there's this somebody that's gonna spend the rest of their life trying to revenge their their kids, you know, or a sibling or somebody else, you know, like and dude, Netanyahu's done some terrible shit and it's all recorded. This is a byproduct. Dude, these these kind of attacks it feels like is something that's we're gonna see we're gonna i need to expect more of. Like we've Elwyn: Think you're right. I I think the the problem, I don't have a problem with anything you said. The problem with that is aside from it being a problem in and of itself, is the you know the justification, the willingness to accept it, to accept something terrible if it aligns with your larger cause. So no, I know you're not. I know you're not. Derek: No, well that I'm not I'm not accepting it because look, dude, because I it's I mean when you break it down killing the the the resolution for killing isn't innocent people is should never be killing more innocent people. Like that's it you you you just continue the cycle. Elwyn: So what I'm what I was referring to in my mind was one of the more viral posts that went out after yesterday was this account, it's called the leftist lawyer, whatever. You know, I don't know why this person has a lot of followers, but she does, you know, and she was like, she basically said, killing of innocent people is always atrocious. But there's the butt, right? Enter, enter, Derek: But Elwyn: new line, but in all caps, enter, enter, new paragraph was literally how she wrote it, you know, and basically was like, desperate people do desperate things. It's like, no, no, no, you you can't excuse this. You because when you do, like if I if I if I agree with her, let's say I agree with that sentiment, right? Which I think is the sentiment that you're referring to also, right? Just Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: more like, okay, in in the Middle East, it's gonna breed a terrorist. Here it breeds a fucking leftist lawyer dipshit. well, what if I take the Yeah. Yep. Derek: It brings t it breeds terrorists here too. Like look at how many schools have been shut up, you know, like Elwyn: But what what if I make the argument, which I can easily make, that on October eighth, two thousand twenty three, Israel felt desperate. They were hurt and they felt desperate to protect themselves, and they felt, you know, fury at the twelve hundred people who were massacred and the hundreds of hostages who were taken. And they felt deeply, deeply, deeply hurt to use El Sayed's word, desperate to use this other person's word. Does that then justify in these people's minds everything that's happened since then? Shouldn't it? If that's the argument, if you're gonna make the argument that, well, you know what? Because what this woman said in the second paragraph, the post-butt paragraph, was, you know, if you're gonna see a genocide happen in front of your eyes. Well, you're gonna be led to do desperate things, is basically what she was saying. And it's like, no. No, you can't if then then I get to use that logic to excuse any number of atrocities. You can use it to excuse September eleventh. You can use it to excuse any number of abuses that we committed in Iraq and Afghanistan after September eleventh. You can use it to excuse October seventh, with peop which people do, but you can also use it to excuse the Israeli actions in Gaza after October seventh, which people do not. Do, right? So it's not that you believe desperate, desperate times call for desperate measures or hurt people, hurt people. It's that you justify the killing or the attempted killing or the horrible atrocities from the people you agree with, where you agree, if you agree with their hurt, then you agree that they can hurt other people. But if you don't agree with their hurt, then they're genocidal baby killing Nazi maniacs. Well, that's not an honest discourse, at the is the nicest way that I could respond. Derek: Yeah. Dude, do you think that we we've lost the world in the sense that like I feel like and maybe I'm wrong on this, but like there's been moments throughout my life where I felt like our leadership was genuinely good. Like that our that there was that that we were we were always striving towards something better. That like, you know, like you you I would read these stories about, you know, like somebody who's you know, child had been killed by somebody else. And like the just the power of like parents that like walked up to that person and forgave them, you know, and and was like, this, we're gonna end this here. We're gonna end the we're gonna end the retaliation and the the the continuation of violence and against each other in this moment. And it's we live in a world where justice is so often never served. And people have to take it upon themselves to do so. And the result of that is this chaotic world that we live in. And furthermore, like it feels like now people are profiting off of this stuff. Like it it's become something different than what it ever was before. Clicks and likes and viral videos and all of this stuff. And you know, even notoriety and fame for potentially doing something terrible, which In my mind, I'm like, man, we've we've incentivized being a terrible person and we've deincentivized love and forgiveness and people actually trying to mend and collaborate and work together and figure out like a way to move forward. And dude, I just I don't see the problem getting any better. It just feels like every around every turn it's getting worse. Elwyn: Yeah. I I mean, I think when I texted you and at the beginning of this episode when I was like my newsfeed is on fire, I think it's it's that. It it's just example after example, sort of small bore, medium bore, you know, of that, of just this is awful, right? This is just another bad thing. Now you asked specifically about leaders, you know, it's we are completely captainless in this country at this point. We don't We don't have a functional leadership that can provide any sort of moral guidance or or moral context to what's going on, even if it's a morality that I don't necessarily that doesn't completely align with mine, right? It it it's simply not there. The if you I don't know if you've ever heard either Joe Biden or Pete Sousa, who is Barack Obama's photographer, his pres presidential photographer, talk about Obama after the Newtown shooting in Connecticut, which was what 2015, I think, or 2012. So it was during his during his term. He went after that shooting and he met, it was 26 families. He met with every single family. It took him two days. And it it it's a powerful story. He said to each of them and to his staff, each family gets as much time as they want. There's no schedule, right? To take my phone, whatever, right? And he said, They Derek: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: get to be with me for as long as they feel they need need or want to be with me. And Biden will tell that Derek: God, that is that that is po I'm gonna tear up just hearing that. Like Elwyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and Biden will talk about and Pete Suiz will talk about Obama was just wrecked. And and Obama talks about it as the worst, the worst moment of his presidency. That's you can you can hate Obama, right? But how can you not recognize that that is what a leader should do? You know, Donald Trump has said nothing about the Cornell Seven. This is a story that's blowing up our news right now, right? Somebody's got to ask him. Hey man, what do you feel? And he's gotta have the moral a leader would have the moral compass to speak against it and to say we have a very clear problem in this country with misogyny and with with young men not valuing young women in the same way they do their own friends, right? and and taking advantage of that. And this is an issue that is going to permeate our society unless we speak up at the at the federal and at the state and at the community and at the living room level. About all of this. Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: Right. That's what a leader would do. But so no, to your point, like we we have no leadership in it. And i i if you have nothing tying two sides together, even if the two sides are apart, right? If if you have two things that are each anchored to a to a point, then they don't spread too far apart. Right. But without that anchor now, yeah, sure, I feel like we're spreading pretty far apart. Derek: Yeah. Yeah, dude. And I don't know. I mean, there's some leaders out there that I think I hope and pray they end up getting elected. Have you seen this that they just released new South Park episodes? They have the second one came out yesterday. And dude, they keep using this tagline in their episodes. Dude, everything's gonna be better after November. And then they're like af w every time they say it, they're like, Well, what happens in November? and they're like Grand Theft Auto Six comes out. Elwyn: Ha ha ha. Derek: Which is amazing. So well, speaking of terrible leaders, let's let's jump into our next topic. the taxpayer funded Trump commercials. The federal government is airing television commercial commercials Prominently featuring President Trump, including one declaring opposition to communism and another invoking the final battle against the deep state. The advertisement is paid for by the US government. and Reuters reports that they have drawn criticism from everybody, Democrats and the Republicans, over whether taxpayer money should be used for messaging that resembles the campaign advertising just weeks before the the midterms happened. So, like these were ads that he was. running as it's the it's just the same ad that he was running when he was running to be elected. So like Elwyn: Is it? I've only seen one. Derek: yeah so like it the actual footage is the exact same as the as yeah of him walking but like the so that I had two thoughts on this one initially that I'll I'll share before you jump in on it, which is one either one it it's signaling that he has no issue or no plans to attempt to leave off Like there is, and this is the either the most dictatory thing that a president could ever do. Either that or I feel like, and you know, like I'm on my third marriage. so this is a pretty big statement. I feel like I am receiving like the I'm being punished and feeling the consequences of somebody that has not worked through their daddy issues. More than ever before. Because if you're doing this just for attention, like go fuck yourself, like come on, like this is this is awful. Like it, you know, I've dealt with some terrible shit throughout my dealings with relationships and other things, but like, yeah, like come on, man, like running commercials for like you could not be more beta. And vying for attention than something like that. So it's like it feels like it's one way or the other. Elwyn: Well I think the the incredible thing is probably he feels from from what I've heard, he feels like he needs the the November forecast is grim and getting grimmer like by the hour for Republicans. some of these generic ballot polls are just now going just bonkers. and yeah. Derek: I don't believe any of them, but I mean I I w I will say that there is a general discord amongst everybody at the moment that shit is getting out of control. Dude, also we just got our we actually got our official like if we renew our same healthcare plan from last year for this year, which is it goes out to all federal employees because Tamara's technically a federal employee. It's like a OPM or something like that. But our Our premiums are for the same exact insurance are going up three hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars a month. Thank you. Yeah, that's a Elwyn: real money. Yeah. Derek: lot of fucking money. Elwyn: Yeah. No, the so he he hears this. He, you know, everybody's telling him, bro, the no the midterms are gonna be a a a disaster. And his and his response, and I think that's where these commercials come from, apparently has been he said he needs to make them more about him. That's why he did the like midterm convention thing in Dallas where they're like they're kind of like, Bro, this really looks bad. Like Think people don't like you. They're they're mad about some stuff. They're mad about the war. Like, you know, and and they're asking us not to come out onto the campaign trail. And he's like, no, run commercials of just me talking about stopping communism because nobody gives a shit about that right now. Like, that's so out of touch. Right. And let's do a convention. Ken Paxton was caught on a hot mic saying, Yeah, that that convention hurt me. Like Trump is Trump is hurting me. Ken Paxton in Texas. Is saying that. And I think it just comes down to just this malignant narcissism. And and all this is like, of course, there is no fucking way that the US government, that we the taxpayers, should be paying for that. It like Derek: No, zero. Elwyn: there's no fucking way. Right? The FCC, Trump's FCC goes after Jimmy Kimmel because they make jokes that get through his incredibly thin skin, right? And they feel and they say that well, yeah, you're a partisan hack, Jimmy Kimmel. And then at and Brendan Carr was asked and he said, No, I didn't see any reason to review those ads. Looks good to me. Derek: Yeah, dude, I was listening, I think it was Pod Save America, that, or it might have been Raging Moderates, where they were talking about basically every Republican coming out of that convention after the convention was down like two and a half, three points overall. So the midterm convention actually did exact the exact opposite of what everybody was expecting them to do. And for some reason, Trump still thinks that he dude, you could not have an example of more of somebody surrounding themselves with yes people out of fear. It's like I I remember this dynamic I experienced the first time when I was working in the music industry. Cause once you're around a lot of real really rich and famous people for a period of time, they start to become pretty terrible because like you stop hearing the word no. And like some of these, you know, A-list artists over a period of time would have like a new assistant every couple of weeks because they couldn't keep an assistant because they as soon as that assistant like was like, wait, that's not normal. I don't think I should have to do that. that's kind of fucked up and just straight wrong. and I I had to experience that. I had was c regularly put in a moral conundrum. When my boss would ask me to do something that I knew he was lying or was just straight not right, including billing artists for like his personal dates and shit like that. And I was like, Yeah, like none of this is okay to me. And so like you you get people go down these paths where if you're around people for a long enough period of time and you just don't hear the word no, like, yeah, you become a fucking tyrant and and so out of tune and untouched. Like This is one of my favorite stories. I'm gonna tell this real quick because it's kind of hilarious. we the our the in our office, we managed Neil Diamond, and he was coming in for an office visit, and it this was towards the end of his career, so he's kind of like a little bit loopy, like he's kind of just like an odd old and he would just walk around. And I had my cubicle and he walked up behind me. I had no idea he was there. And I had a picture of my wife who had we had just gotten married on my desk. And he asked me, he's just like, Hey, who's that? I was like, That's my wife. And he's like, you guys are kind of a couple. And he he followed it up with a question. And as I started responding to his question, he just literally turned around and walked the other direction. Like mid-sentence, like not even like no, like no signal of like, hey, I don't want to actually be in. It was literally like, and I'm gone. And I was like, and I will just stop talking, I guess, because you're not interested. So Elwyn: Damn it, Jewish Elvis, be better. Derek: But I say all that because like the yeah, like you get to a point where your world is just completely different than everybody else's and you don't care. So like you don't give a shit. Elwyn: Although I have to say I think I aspire to be able to do that. I think I aspire to just be Derek: Ha ha ha. Elwyn: able to like this person's boring me the six words into the answer of a question I asked. I'm out, I'm just Derek: A thousand He had zero interest in the answer to that question. And now looking back on it, I'm like, I shouldn't have even answered it. I should have just been like, Yeah, thank you. That's it. That's I should have it's good to see you. I'm glad you're here. That's it. and I probably would have, but it was actually shocking to hear anybody ask me a question in because normally they just don't ask. So like the fact that he actually asked me something, I was like, all right, well, and then nope, never mind. Just Elwyn: Should like kneel rolled him. Like, yes, we're we're Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: holding hands, reaching out, touching hands. Yeah, you can see in this fo in this photo. Derek: yeah Touch she's touching me, touching you. And to be honest, at that time I wasn't even a fan enough to probably do that. So Elwyn: see, that's why. That's why he walked away. Derek: the this is this is why. But dude, but overall, like I mean, this situation with the commercials, it's dumb taxpayer money. This is look, in a situation where a lot of people in America are hurting and struggling, getting kicked off their insurance, losing business because of gas prices. feeding their families, getting more expensive, all of these situations. It's just somebody that clearly can't read the room and has nobody around him that can honestly oppose him without potentially losing their job. And this is where things just start to go off the rail. So like Elwyn: And in in this limited circumstance, I'm all for it because I think every time most people see that commercial, they're they hate him a little bit more. Derek: Yeah, I would say I would say I agree. and to be honest, like he does not give a fuck about the midterms because they he did absolutely zero to for anybody in the Republican Party to report anything normal. They've got they're they're dude, they are preying on trans people. I mean, poor trans people. Like they're the they're they're the they're the punching bag in all of this because it's the only thing Republicans got. They're like, trans people. No no boys and women's sports. Elwyn: There there were more people in that room in Cornell than there are trans athletes in the entire N C double A. Derek: Yes. That's that's an accurate that might be a threads post for me later, so thank you for telling me about that. Elwyn: I might have I might have seen it online, but it was un uncredited. Derek: Yes. Okay, these next two topics I'm gonna let you kind of cook for a second 'cause Elwyn: I think they're short. Derek: the the abortion fight headed to SCOTUS. Yeah. Elwyn: yeah, okay. We can we can skip that Peg S Pete Hegseth is insane because it's just he's fucking insane. the Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: yeah, so the the Supreme Court heard a c agreed to hear a case this week. they'll hear it later in the term, brought by Louisiana and Alabama and some other fuckwad state. and the the the case is to prevent other states like New York and Massachusetts From being able to send Mifepristone, the abortion drug, into their state. So they're saying, you know, well, we have passed laws outlawing abortion. And New York and Massachusetts are undermining those laws by having companies that will send, because it's not the state sending it, right? By having companies that will send Miphopristone to people in our state. Therefore, that needs to be banned. Right. So there's a few things going on here. One, they're coming for abortion yet again. They're coming for it in every way, shape, way and shape that they can. Whatever Trump said in 2024 that he wasn't going to, he is going to. They are constantly gunning for it in in any way that they can. The second is just it it's more hypocrisy and just kind of stuff that makes my head spin a little bit. The whole Dobbs decision overturning Roe v roe v Wade. And the whole argument that's the same states like Louisiana and Alabama and Mississippi made the at the time was this is states' rights. This is a state's rights issue, right? We shouldn't be federally allowed, it shouldn't be federally disallowed. We reserve the right to make that decision on the state level. Right. Now that's all bullshit because if you ask someone about if you ask, you know, a conservative MAGA person about Massachusetts and having, you know. Pretty lax abortion laws. They're like, that's a fucking disgrace. They shouldn't be allowed to do It's like, wait, no, I thought your state's rights. But isn't this states' rights? Like w the isn't this Louisiana and Alabama saying, no, New York and Massachusetts, you do not, your states' rights are subservient to our states' rights. I don't know, you know, I'm sure that the court will rule in their favor. I'm not sure how they're gonna thread the needle. They don't really need logic to begin with anyway. But yeah, it's it's just This constant sort of moving of the goalposts from principle to principle in order to achieve a result. in in their brief, I believe it was their their primary brief, not not a friend of the court brief, they liken this to mailing anthrax. They liken Miphapristone to mailing anthrax, which, right, you talked at the beginning of the episode about if someone who is pro-life believes that life begins a conception. Then in their mind, this is the same as mailing anthrax or mailing fentanyl, because you're killing a human life with the thing that's mailed. And it's bonkers and it's failed at the circuit court at every level, and now it's going to the Supreme Court. Derek: Which is super dumb. You know, like Elwyn: Super dumb. Derek: like it's hard for me I I struggle with this now, and you know, this has been my journey, but like there comes a point where that like just the emotional intelligence required behind some of these topics to understand that like mean you can personally be pro-life while also still understanding while somebody else could be pro-choice. And not necessarily feeling like you need to like you know force your views onto somebody else in that in that way, shape, or form. Like it this stuff drives me fucking crazy because like really all it does is impact the people that really need to like if you don't want to bring a life into this world and be responsible, how are we not all supporting that? Like this it makes zero fucking sense. Like and then furthermore, like we talk about this often, the group of people that are the most staunch staunchly against all of this are the same ones that have zero interest in caring for these little human beings once they come out. And so, like, they're not getting health care, they're not getting child care, they're usually they're usually being born into terrible situations where the parents didn't want them anyway, and were trying to abort them. Like, my God, like Tay like just think about that for a fucking second and then and then start to make your decisions after that. But if we're actually trying Elwyn: Yeah. I I think Derek: to make the world a better place, like this is a great this is a great place to start. Like how about not forcing people to have put kids in the world that they don't want to have here? Elwyn: Yeah, I think you know, at the beginning of that you said you can see why, you know, someone be pro-life, but you can't see why they those same people can't understand that someone else might come to a different decision. I'm paraphrasing. It's funny, I don't I don't even get that far because to me it's okay, I don't really understand why someone is pro-life, but I accept that there are people who are who have deeply held beliefs that are pro-life. What I don't understand is why those people think that their that their opinion means a shit to anybody else who's making that determination. Why does the woman, why does somebody in Oklahoma or Alabama or Mississippi, why does their opinion get to determine in any way, shape, or form the decision made by someone in Massachusetts, New York, or Vermont? It's you know, that's the thing. It's like you you why do you believe That you have that right to impact someone else, right? You know, the I don't know I don't know if you heard what happened in Tennessee last night. Like, Derek: No. Elwyn: you know, we talk about how you you mentioned how you know they don't value life once it's born. So there was a woman who was set to be executed last night. They they stuck seven needles in her and couldn't kill her and didn't kill her. Derek: Ugh, dude. Elwyn: the their her attorney said today One of the needles they they when he went to back to see her, they had seven needles in her arm and one of them was like bent as they pulled it out. And now they're like, Yeah, we're gonna take another run at it. And you've got John Yu, who is an attorney for George Bush, the pro you know, he was like one of the pro torture guys in Guantanamo Bay, who's like, Fuck it, we should just do a firing squad. Why aren't just doing a firing squad for these these people? It's like the yeah, once you're born, you your their interest in your life drops dramatically. Derek: Yeah. You're a number, you're a you're a statistic, you're a way for them to, you know, bleed money from you in some way, shape, or form. Elwyn: Yeah, you're probably a freeloader. Derek: Yes. It's it's it's it drives me nuts. But I mean, but these are the same people that we've regularly hit on that don't value human life equally amongst all, which, you know, takes a special kind of asshole to do that. So well I guess we need to get into our shut the fuck up today, Elwin. Who we who we telling to shut the fuck up? Elwyn: Eric Schmidt, Republican senator from Missouri. Low hanging fruit this week. Eric Schmidt does not value Derek: yeah, this is a good one. Elwyn: an Atlanta hawk versus an Iowa hawkeye. so Eric Schmidt, Derek: Ha ha Elwyn: you know, I I know you saw the clip. He had Jack Smith in front of him for a Senate hearing, and he's going all in, man. He is salivating. He's just gonna get Jack Smith to to lie. He's got he has the gotcha. He has texts showing that Jack Smith was in Atlanta. Where the DA Fanny Willis had just, you know, there was just a a big moment in the case where she was prosecuted that she was prosecuting Trump in, and he's got Jack Smith in Atlanta the next day to see an Atlanta Hawks game, and he's got texts proving it. And Jack Smith is like, I don't think I was ever in Atlanta. I don't I Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: I don't I don't know what I mean, I went to the airport, but like I don't remember being there, and I certainly know that I wasn't at it at an Atlanta Hawks game. And Derek: And he actually said it that he he thinks he perjured himself already. So he's like he's already like Elwyn: Yeah, so sh so Schmidt goes like whatever. I don't care. You've perjured yourself already. He he has the closing, right? He set it all up. He doesn't know that he set up just a load of shit, a house of cards. He set it all up. He goes in for the kill. You've perjured yourself. You're a dirt bag. And during the courses, he had hung up held hold held up some big like sign with the text messages. So his time is over, and Amy Clobishar starts and she's like, You know, hey, can we see that thing, you know, that you put up like Can we didn't really see it? Why did it go down so fast? You hit it really quickly. And then Jack Smith is like, hey, I remember I went to an Iowa, an Iowa versus University of Maryland women's basketball game in Maryland, right around that same time. Cause I I wanted to see Caitlin Clark play basketball. So yeah, no, like I'm pretty sure I went to that. I went I went to that basketball game and Amy Clovenstar is just like, The Hawkeyes. And and the best camera angle I saw of this was Katie Britt, who's a senator from Alabama. I don't know if you saw this. Derek: I I saw the I saw the zoom in on it. It was fantastic. Elwyn: It's just spectacular because she's sitting there and her eyes are wide and her mouth is literally open. Her jaw is literally hanging down as she watches this go on. And then she realizes, I better close my jaws. Like I better close my it's just spectacular. The crash and burn of this. Just he was just so self-righteous about what he was doing. And it went I I when I first saw it, I was like, all right, this is funny, but I don't know if this has legs, right? This was Tuesday. And then I went over to your house and we hung out, and you were like, yeah, I saw that. And I was like, if Derek Derek: Yeah. Elwyn: saw it and actually watched it long enough to like have known it, then this says, not that you're not into it, but I was like, that Derek: Take it to Elwyn: that's a level, like it's it's beyond my like uber lefty blue sky bullshit. you Derek: Yes. Elwyn: know, and and Schmidt is just like. Trying to rehab somehow. He's like, Well, you know, well ha ha basketball. Derek: Dude, no yeah, nobody loves a a backfire gotcha moment like me. Like that is I I especially when it's somebody that's g being a complete asshat. And then the the the cleanup that he the interview of him after where he was trying to play it off like, like, well, this is why we have these hearings is to learn more about and get more information. It's like, motherfucker, you literally in that moment had told him that you thought he already perjured himself. This was your gotcha moment. Like you this wasn't you inquiring to to learn more about the situation. This was you trying to put him on blast and it one thousand percent backfired. Elwyn: There may be hearings in our government where where senators and congress critters are actually trying to get information. But when it's Jack Smith or you know, any of these like highly or Fauci or any of these highly controversial figures, it is pure political theater. There is n there's nothing new that they're trying to like honestly uncover. They're trying to get a gotcha moment so that it can get on Fox News and it can get on Hannity. And Hannity and a Mark Levin apparently were like all ready. They they were like, Yeah, Schmidt, today at the hearing, he's gonna be good and then they were like, Well, that we're not gonna we're just Derek: That's a Elwyn: not gonna talk about that. Derek: That's right. There I did I did read that. That there was like they they had set up the the Republican, you know, all of the news media and everybody to to hammer all of these afterwards. So the fact that it bat backfired is just freaking great. Elwyn: Beautiful. Derek: yeah, and to be honest, it squashed another culture war bullshit that Fox News would have been running through the rest of the midterm. So now they've got to find somebody else to put on blast because apparently this one This one didn't work out the way they had hoped it would. So Elwyn: But other problem, like the the the other side of that same coin, is there was testimony Jack Smith gave, you know, that's pretty damaging to Trump, you know, talking about all the terrible shit that Jack Smith uncovered that Trump did, that you know, the flip side of this Eric Schmidt coin is that nobody's talking about that either. But fuck it. It's fucking worth it just to see this twat waffle embarrass himself. Derek: I agree. Well, what are we talking about next week, Owen? Elwyn: Still no idea. Derek: That's all right. Elwyn: I'm so bad at that. So hopefully you're talking about Iowa beating Ohio State. The whole episode. Derek: The Elwyn: If Iowa beats Ohio State, then your p your punishment for leaving that Texas Ohio State game early is you have to wear like a Hawkeyes hat and speak glowingly about the University of Iowa. Not the state, just the university, for like ten minutes. Derek: if I dude, if Iowa beats Ohio State, I 1000% will do that. That's there's no I will do that without even you having to prompt me. But Elwyn: Ha ha ha. Derek: it in every it's funny because every time I ask that question, like, hey, do you remember did you ever watch that show Pinky and the Brain? you dude, it's it's hilarious because Pinky always asks, or Brain always asks Pinky, yeah, like hey Brain, what are we gonna do tomorrow, Brain? He's like the same thing, same thing we do every day, Pinky. Try to Elwyn: Same thing we do every day. Derek: Try to take over the world. So that that's the it's fantastic. Elwyn: Yep. Derek: I will probably send you a clip later. So well, I guess we y'all have to y'all have to just wait until next week and see what's on the agenda. So if Dano, thanks for listening this far in, and we'll see y'all next week. Elwyn: Yeah. And that as always, Clarence Thomas is a piece of shit, Greg Abbott hates you, and Susan Collins is concerned. Derek: Blam, mic drop. Elwyn: Mm-hmm.