Latest / Before You Speak / Before You Speak | Episode 41 | News and Codifying Election Norms

Transcript

Before You Speak | Episode 41 | News and Codifying Election Norms · Before You Speak

• Elwyn: We don't need the solution. Your solution might be great. You know, there might be a great solution to voter ID if voter fraud was a problem, but it's not a problem. So I don't trust any of the solutions because any solution, by definition, is a layer of difficulty on top of the right that should be the easiest to exercise. Derek Peterson: What's up y'all? Welcome back to the Before You Speak podcast. I'm your host, Derek Peterson, and we're just processing the fire of my no my newsfeed with this guy who's on camera if you're watching it. Elwyn: I think I'm on a different side because you left me hanging in the waiting room for like ten minutes. I feel like normally I'm on the right, now I'm on the left, and I think that's your fault. Derek Peterson: I blame Riverside for changing their software update. So all right. Elwyn: All right. Well, I am Elwyn and the fire hose of my newsfeed is being carried around in a diaper bag with Natalie Harp today. Derek Peterson: Dude, Awsof is starting to look like a a little bit presidential here. I be I I had seen some clips of him a few months ago where I was like, okay, like I really like this guy. I he seems like he's willing to go a step further than some of the other Democratic nominee. Like you listen to guys like Pete Budej, who still kind of like play politics a little bit the little bit softer. on on dealing with Republicans and corruption and Osoff seems to be it he seems to it feels like he's the right amount of pissed off and good at articulating it. What's your take on it? Elwyn: Yeah, Oslov's knives are sharp, man. I I love his message and he's been on it consistently for a long time. he he's my he's at the top of my ballot right now when I look at at the rest of the field. You know, there's a long way to go, but he's from a red state. you know, at at the beginning of this election cycle, I think his seat, because he's running for reelection, his seat was kinda like toss up, barely tilt D type on the ratings. I think yeah, he's ahead quite handily in the p handily in the polls. And yeah, I mean the Natalie Harp joke, right? He he said this, he was he gave a speech and he said something along lines of, you know, Trump's not interested in running the war. He's not interested in what's going on on the aircraft carrier. He's just interested in ballrooms and traveling with Natalie. And all the words I said before traveling with Natalie are irrelevant. Because as soon as he said traveling with Natalie The bat signal went out in Republican conservative pearl clutching circles, and they've just been fucking flipping out for like four days about this. You know, just like, how dare he say that? That's so disrespectful to Natalie Harp. That no, this party thinks they're the champions of women, and now he's just saying this stuff about Natalie Harp, and kind of sane people are looking at this going, Well, he didn't say anything about Natalie Harp. He said Trump is interested in traveling with Natalie Harp. You can draw your own other conclusions from that all you want, right? And I'm sure Osoff knew what conclusions might be drawn. But also, aren't you the people who yelled at Kamala Harris for sleeping her way to the top when she was in California? Wasn't that a whole ass election story? And also, also, shouldn't we actually know more about Natalie Harp, who is with the president more than I think any other human on earth all the time, who has like Jumped in the trunk of SUVs because she was left out of the motorcade. you know, who who is who has compared him to like the Word of Christ and is standing there next to nuclear football every day. Like, isn't there actually a legitimate interest to be had in who this woman is, what she feels and what she's doing right next to the present? But nope. Osof crushed it because they have just lost their. brains on the right and it's amazing to see. Derek Peterson: Man, the fallout from this is also hilarious. Like listening to all of like the the conspiracy theories, potential conspiracy theories. I don't even know if I believe like like too many conspiracy theories are turning out to be real to call everything conspiracy theory anymore. But like there was rumors that Melania was pissed off that Natalie Harp is with the president so much. And so that her she she had kind of a directive to like push out to PR teams to shit on Natalie Harp a little bit. And then the the funnier thing about this for me was just that who Natalie Harp is. This was somebody that like was on their list of like a potential threat to the president because she was obsessed with him. And when you see her and her demeanor, she just looks like a stalker. Like how she speaks, everything is just like she has just. pinpointed that this dude is like the center of the world and the meaning of her life. And the crazy thing about it is, is it's not shocking that Trump would befriend and hire a stalker. Like this is like like that relationship dynamic just seems like it was it all was like a perfect match for a narcissistic, egotistical maniac. Elwyn: Also, who does Natalie Harp kinda look like? Derek Peterson: That's a fair point. his his I was g I was going Elwyn: Iv Ivanka look kinda looks like his daughter. Derek Peterson: for Ivanka. I was like, yeah, that's a Elwyn: Yeah, it's like and and you know, the whole thing is sick, twisted, hilarious. Derek Peterson: It It's just uncomfortable enough to be tricked. Elwyn: It's just incredible. You know, she may or may not be carrying a diaper bag around with her, who knows? You know, like whatever, anything's possible at this point. But yeah, Osof, what a what a grand slam he hit there. And I'm sure it was like a throwaway line in the speech, and he woke up the next day and was like, sweet. Derek Peterson: That that Elwyn: Yeah. Derek Peterson: That's funny. Who do you think who who's his running mate if he if he runs in twenty eight? Elwyn: I don't know. I I think it's actually really difficult Derek Peterson: You already shot down my you already are you already shot down my AOC comment because it's yeah, and you're I think you're right because Elwyn: Yeah, ALC. Well, I don't think AOC wants to do it, you know, a and vice president Derek Peterson: they she she wouldn't be effective as a vice president. She wouldn't have the opportunity to do she she is an active politician. She actually wants change, not just the status, which after you said that I was like, Yeah, that tracks. I could see that. Elwyn: Yeah. And I think she wants to be a senator and she'll run in twenty twenty eight for Schumer seat Schumer's seat. But I think it's it's actually a great question, because I don't think that we can answer that question until after this year's elections, because we'll know a decent amount about how DSA politicians play in Michigan, in Florida, in some of these races where they've won primaries. You know, if if El Sayed beats Mike Rogers handily, let's say, let's say he wins like fifty-three forty-seven, you know, then okay, that indicates a certain willingness in a purple state to vote for those policies. If he loses, and you know, the woman in Florida will get to, she'll will almost definitely lose, then you might have this kind of all right, the DSA candidates work in some places. But we definitely cannot run them on a national ticket. Derek Peterson: That makes sense. Yeah. The oddly enough, have you listened to Talarico speak recently at all? I I don't know if he is just doing a bunch of research on Barack Obama or if somebody is coaching him, but his cadence so often starts to sound so Barack Obama. I'm like, somebody is teaching him like his how he speaks how he like I'm not saying like he's Barack Obama esque and I don't want people to mistake that. I'm saying that his l I think he's literally taking the cadence of how he says words and applying it because there was there was two clips that I saw recently and I'm like, dude, if that was somebody doing a Barack Obama impersonation, I would be like all they do is need to like alter the voice a little bit and you're you're there. So I'm like, I think somebody's coaching him to do it. So we'll we'll see. I mean effective. Elwyn: I I love that manner of speaking, you know, where it's kind of you can tell someone is paying attention to the words that they're using, which I think I happen to love that. like that's right up my alley because it does two things for me. One, it shows me that they're thinking about what they're saying, and two, it adds a layer of accountability to the words that they ultimately choose. They chose those words for a reason, and we can now hold them to account. based on that choice rather than someone who's kind of flying off the cuff and is later like, well, that's not really what I meant. I just I picked the wrong word. Like, no, there's a there's a measured thoughtfulness behind it where it's like, okay, that word was chosen for a very specific reason and, you know, my whole family knows. Like I'm my favorite thing to say is words have meanings. So when people speak as though they believe that, I'm in. Derek Peterson: it's weird that you decided to do a podcast with me then. So who the guy that verbally processes everything. So half of the stuff Elwyn: Yeah. Derek Peterson: half of the stuff that comes out of my mouth has not actually fully been formed in thought for originally. So I have to be very intention. They Elwyn: I also enjoy half baked cookies. Derek Peterson: are sometimes the but the gooey middle. You know you it's Elwyn: Yeah. Derek Peterson: perfect. Sometimes it's delicious. Well, so I had a theory before that I posted on threads that all of this Big Ben stuff going on in Texas was another just another level of corruption for Trump and his cronies. because the guy that whose construction company got the 1.5 billion dollar no big contract to build the border wall through Big Ben National Park, I When they started rolling out a bunch of the tractors and stuff, the videos were really weird. It was and they they weren't doing much other than just like tearing down some random trees. So I'm like, I'm kind of watching these videos. I'm man, something feels a little weird about this. And then I'm like, man, I this kind of feels like one of those things where they knew people were gonna lose their damn minds over all of this and then shut it down, and then nobody's gonna talk about where the money from that contract went after the fact. So You know, like I personally just think that this was just a giant hey, we can do this thing. Maybe Greg Gabbott steps in and stops it. He looks like a hero for doing it. And this guy gets a bunch of money and nobody ever thinks about it again. So this guy who also happened to donate like I think ten million to Trump's campaigns over the course of the last two election cycles. So, you know, ten million gets you a one point five billion dollar turnaround. It's a good investment. I wish we had more money. Elwyn: hell of a return. Yeah, I can't I can't say no, right? I yeah. I want enough money to to not be able to go to jail ever. the Derek Peterson: Me too. Elwyn: the no I can't I can't say no because yeah the videos like there's that there's like one or two videos of one machine pushing over some bushes and everybody freaked out. Have you ever been to Big Bend? Derek Peterson: I've driven through I've not been in like no, not in the park. Elwyn: So I used to go a couple times a year. we had some land out there, and it is the dumbest place to build a wall for not just in the park, but for a hundred miles in each direction out of the park. Right. It's a desert lands, it's a desert landscape with mountain ranges. And you know, the where they were doing the work, the the Santalena Canyon and the Chisos Mountains, it's a 1500-foot sheer rock cliff. And it is a beautiful park. It's it's like I think Texas should be very, very proud proud of that park. I think it's underappreciated and underrated. so you know, the only thing that I would say is I don't think that it was like an abbot can step in and be a hero because it's too negative. The press is too negative leading up to him being that hero. And I was like, Bro, you you you're buddies with Trump. You could have stopped this months ago. but good Derek Peterson: Yeah, but dude, Republicans are are this is this his his entire campaign right now is this. His entire campaign is campaigning on shit that he caused, like problems he cro caused. You know, he's campaigning on fixing public schools and he cre he was the one that advocated for the the voucher program that dismantled all of our public schools and has shut down, I think, 144 of them and pushed more teachers out of the public schooling system than I think in ever before. ever before in Texas, you know, like the and that, and then you know, I'm sure he's gonna start campaigning on, you know, reinstating THC. Like he wasn't the part of doing it. And then the data centers. The data centers it's dude, I just saw an article where two people in in Texas have been arrested for posting videos on Facebook about the water in their towns. as a result of data centers coming in, like and they're literally turning on the water and it's turning brown. And these things aren't getting enough attention, but they are because of the NDAs and like I guess the legalities of like everything that's going on with all this, there's like these people are getting arrested for talking speaking out against it, which is complete horseshit. But that's what Greg he the only thing he's got is I'm gonna focus on trans kids, Slashing property taxes, and campaigning on fixing problems I created. Yeah. Elwyn: What I broke. Yeah. Yeah. I think my thought with the Big Ben, my conspiracy thought on the Big Ben thing is it provided cover for Trump to lift protections in fifty million square miles of other national parks, or whatever the huge number is that like a day after the they stopped the Big Ben stuff, he just eviscerated protections for like thirty percent of the United States national parks. And look, our national parks, those wilderness areas They are a national jewel. They should be preserved. They're incredible. Every single one is beautiful and different in its own right, and they're wildlife habitats and everybody from across the spectrum loves them. They are really, really a part an incredible part of living in this country, and they should be preserved and protected. Derek Peterson: Yeah. I think almost everybody in the country feels that way. But except for oil executives and tech company executives, because they want the minerals, they want the land for data centers, and they want the oil. So fuck all of them. So well, I wanted to talk a little bit about flock cameras too, because flock cameras are finally starting to well, not finally, like it there's been this kind of steady increase of pushback. But now the pushback is getting hilarious and it's all over the internet. So I wanted to play this clip real quick and and get your reactions to it. Elwyn: I s I saw that I saw that story. It's an incredible story. Derek Peterson: This is I am you know, when the public gets together on something that we are all like when it's like a bipartisan pushback, we are fucking epic at doing things. Like I love it. I love how many people came to the table and I love all of the videos of people cutting these things down. I love that they're exposing all of the other companies that are doing this. You know, I every single one of these companies is backed by big tech. Like they all have it's the Peter Tills, it's it's the same fucking billionaire class that we're we're all raging against at the moment. And so it's it's good to see that people are finally coming to terms with man, we don't want to see this. Elwyn: We talked about this story a couple weeks ago. It was a police officer in Florida who was on set with, I guess, some actress on a show that's on Apple T V plus and, you know, wanted to hook up with her. So he put her license plate into license plate readers, which I think in which include flock cameras, so that he would get real time notifications when she was going past them. And he just absolutely started to stalk her, right? At one At one point they show a video from his from his dash cam where he jumps into oncoming traffic to pa to pass a truck and get behind her and pull her over. Like he almost causes a head-on collision to pull her over. And they're they're talking to her. They they show the investigator who was talking to the woman and sh the investigator's describing all the stuff that this guy did, and the woman's like, my god, right? And it's just disgusting. And then the fucking investigator goes You know, we know you have a decent social media profile, but if you could refrain from posting about this, you know, at least until I finish my investigation. And then they arrest the guy, and she's the same investigator's talking to the cop, and she's like, no, don't worry, buddy. This will be just like a speed bump. Don't don't worry about it. It's like every terrible thing about a police state is in that one video. And it's like, sometimes we have to refer to the police as agents of the state. Because they are, right? It's it's not an inaccurate or hyperbolic phrase, but it does maybe make us think about like, wait, wait, wait, who who are some of these people? Some of them are good and do a good job and you know, police force it. We need police. It's not like a defund the police thing. But man, the the deference they receive sometimes not good. Derek Peterson: No, and it feeds into this whole manosphere bullshit. Like I I if I had to guess that cop is probably heavily in the manosphere, wouldn't be surprised if he has a Andrew Tate poster hanging up on his wall in his one bedroom apartment somewhere. But like I see this crap at the gym all the time because of you know, my wife is a I I would say she's a ten out of ten on the looks scale. And when we go to the gym in the morning, if she makes eye contact with another dude. there is a ninety-nine percent chance that that guy is going to try to talk to her. Like always. She can't be just a friendly human being without it being misconstrued into like this dude wants or like this chick wants me, she needs me to talk to her, like whatever. Dudes will jump through hoops in their heads with stories about, you know, what a woman wants if if they can if the narrative fits whatever thing they're going through. So it's just None of this shit shocks me, but th when you give somebody that's that insecure that much power, you know, this is what you get. You get a bunch of fucked Elwyn: And what's the what what what's his thought process, right? Like, hey, if I stalk this woman and, you know, tell her I wish your boyfriend was in the car so I could give him a hard time, she's gonna jump into bed with me? What is that is that the connection that that's being made here? It's I but yeah. Derek Peterson: yeah, it's probably a bunch of bad advice from dudes that are terrible with women. I'm gonna guess that he's he's been following some YouTubers that are like, This is this is a great way to get women to like you. And then the worst part is it's this probably turns into some hatred for women because it's her fault that she didn't respond the way he wanted her to. So but the that's the world we live in. I wanted to talk, let's talk a little bit about. what's going on with the Navy because we see Pete Hegseth is starting to get rumored as as potentially a G O P candidate for president. meanwhile, we have a bunch of sailors that are like, I would rather be dead than on this ship. So what are your thoughts? Elwyn: Literally. Yeah. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Elwyn: Yeah, I mean Heggseth, he's in Iowa. I mean, maybe he's not anymore, but he was certainly in Iowa over the last weekend, couple of days. and that is traditionally where you go to go to the Iowa State Fair, dip your toes into the the presidential waters for a little bit. So yeah, f certainly he's thinking about it. But yeah, this this story coming off of the Abraham Lincoln and I think s you know, there was another naval destroyer that some pictures about the conditions on board came out. is really amazing, right? Where at least one sailor has tried to kill himself by jumping off of the ship. he was rescued. Yeah. So the Abraham Lincoln has been at sea now for 258 days or something like that. It's the longest continuous deployment since World War Two outside of COVID. and I think in COVID there were still either port calls or resupply trips missions, which they haven't had. The for context, I don't think there have been two hundred and fifty-four days this year, two hundred and fifty five days this year. I think this is this ship has been out for the entirety of 2026 without restocking, without a port of call. So they're out of food. The women don't have feminine products that they need. The bathrooms are backing up. And they're not in a passive like in COVID, they were on the ship because they didn't want them to come on land for COVID. Precautionary reasons. These guys are in an active war zone. These guys have run like 10,000 different missions off of that ship. Right? They're working all the time. And, you know, now the the families are furious. He had 200 families yelling at the Nav Navy Admirals in San Diego. the pictures are coming out through social media. And Trump's like, Nope, the deployment isn't long enough. They should be out there for longer. And Heggseth is like, Yeah, well, I think I'd make a good president. And you know When when I think about the MAGA people and the Trump supporters on this, like, you can agree with the war in Iran. Like, okay, you might somehow think this is a good idea. But how can you make the argument that these people are good at their job? That they're doing a good job on a very fundamental basic level. You have sailors, you have volunteer people, you know, people who voluntarily joined. They knew what they were getting into, right? Who have now been treated so poorly that they've decided death is a better option. than continued service on the ship. I it's an amazing story that I don't think is actually getting enough play. Derek Peterson: Yeah, it leads itself to a bigger question too, because when you talk about like the nobility of our military, right? To protect and serve the people, like we've had all of this respect for the military forever. And our veterans, like I couldn't I mean, there's a reason why we have different programs and different things to to support them, even though we do a fucking terrible job once they get back. but All that to say is is that there is like the aura of what it means to be in the w military, I feel like is being lost. Because we, you know, Iraq and Afghanistan started this, and people coming back off of multiple tours and being like, What the fuck are we doing over there? Like, we don't even know our purpose. And are we actually fighting for something that is right or not? Because when you're when you're fighting To serve and save and help people, the fight means something. When you're fighting for oil executives to get more money or corruption, like it it starts to like the the meaning behind it is lost. And I think that, you know, when you see guys trying to hurl themselves overboard, it probably means they feel like they don't have a lot of purpose for being where they're at. and they're there for you know, way too long of a period of time. And You know, like this this concerns me in general, about the future of our military. Like that if if it continues to get used like this, I mean, I don't know that people will be interested in it ever. Like Elwyn: Well, especially if these are the conditions that they Derek Peterson: Yeah. Elwyn: might have to to go serve in, right? Like I think that's exactly right. The the the nobleness of the cause has certainly diminished. You know, if someone's twenty years old in twenty twenty six and they're about to vote in their first election, you know, they've lived through they were born in tw two thousand five. They were born in the Iraq War, the Afghanistan war, and now, you know, we're we're in a stupid Iran war. There's just been continuous wars that seem to make no sense while services and and conditions here get worse. You know, they're looking at this going, Wow, I don't agree with the cause, but you can still say that's not the fault of the people on the ship. Right? Like there Derek Peterson: Right. Elwyn: are there are plenty of reasons to join the military, right? One is, you know, flag waving, boot stomping Murica. We love it. You know, another one is there are a lot of opportunities. You get you learn skills, you learn technology, you get the GI Bill, you can go to college, you can get a leg up in your life, you can take your family and raise them up a a a social level. It might be the easiest way to do that these days. And now, you know, and that should be supported, that should be encouraged always. But now we can't even support them while they're out fighting the war that nobody wants fought. We can't even support them and give them livable conditions, in the most literal sense, livable conditions. And it's the the flag waving party, the support the military, military above all, party that's doing this. And when asked about it, they're saying, no, effectively these people should stop whining, serve for longer. Derek Peterson: Yeah. And who look, we we have way too much access to information now. Like there is people can call bullshit on this stuff way too easily. And and furthermore, like you know that after the fact there's gonna be videos and things that come out about this that show the reality of of what we're doing, which I think is gonna further the cause of making the military even less interesting, and also potentially push. The scarier thing about that is that the less and less people that are involved in the military, the more and more they're gonna start relying on advanced weapons, AI, and robotics, which is also terrifying because that's something that could potentially kill all of us with and has no it has no conscience about doing it. Elwyn: And as the whole thing becomes politicized, which it invariably does, and people in the center of the spectrum lose interest in serving in the military, you're just gonna have a more and more extreme version of individuals sign up for the military, and you're gonna, you know, you might wind up with a kind of ICE situation where you have just completely unqualified people. I read a survey that said that of 183. ICE agents, ICE and CBP agents that had criminal convictions this year, a hundred and fifty one of those were child abuse, child or sexual abuse. You know, the bar is so low now for who they'll take into those positions, you know, if that spreads over to the military, it's a real problem. Derek Peterson: Yeah, it's a huge freaking problem. So well, we could have bigger problems in the future if we don't start codifying some norms. And so we are gonna kind of start this loose loose series of just talking in general about what what things as we approach the the primaries in November, you know, like what things do we want candidates talk candidates talking about and What is the purpose of all of this? Because if we're talking about real change, real change has to come from people that are getting into politics to serve their constituents. We need people that actually care about other people more than lining their pockets and becoming famous. and we've created a situation where it's harder and harder to incentivize somebody to live on a meager salary and take the shit storm that politics offers. So, with that being the case, you know, there's still good people out there fighting and running, and we need those people to get in. which brings us to the topic of today, which is gonna just be elections. And so we've talked about this in general, but I wanted to read this article from Reuters real quick about last week and will that kind of launch us into our conversation. The Trump ad administration's streak of courtroom defeats in its efforts to abstain state voter rolls. reached 21 this year when a judge ruled this week that the states are not required to share their records with the federal government, with the president's with the president's Republicans defending him, slim minorities in both Congress and the House. His administration has mounted an aggressive effort to expand federal oversight of elections ahead of the November 3rd primaries or midterms. So what would be the purpose? like in general, what what would be the purpose of them, the federal government getting involved in state elections? Like what's the draw to this at the moment? Elwyn: Well so before I answer that, it's up to twenty three. It's and for twenty three now. Two more states came down this week. Derek Peterson: for twenty three. Yeah, that article was written on that article was updated last week. So that means two more in the last week have said Elwyn: Yep. Yep. Derek Peterson: no. Great. Elwyn: Yep. the the purpose is voter suppression. The purpose is to know who is against you, who is for you, the the purpose is i i there's myriad purposes depending on what the data shows. Like you you can learn, okay, these areas vote against me. We're gonna shut down voting centers or we're gonna put ice patrols at the at these at these places or We're just gonna like monitor the social media of some of these people and fucking arrest them if we don't like what they're saying. it is elections in this country work, first of all, right? They they have worked. The 2000 election that Trump talks about all the time, his own election chief said it was the most safe and secure election in history. Large scale voter fraud, medium scale voter fraud, small scale voter fraud does not exist in this country. That is empirically true. The Heritage Foundation did a study. They found something like 12 prosecutable cases of illegal immigrants voting in something like 20 years. That's billions of votes cast. They found 12 cases. So local control of elections, which we have now, works. But if you are the party in power, you don't want that. You want to control the elections. You want to rig the game. And the number one, the first thing that I think you would go after to do that. Is hey, who's on the rolls there? Who's voting? Who lives in the state? Can we find a way to kick them off the rolls? Can we threaten the state with funding? Can we go after them on an individual level, on a county level? It there there is nothing positive or vote enhancing about our national government, and I would feel this way if it was the Democrats, about our federal government seeking state-level voting data. It simply doesn't belong to them and it never has. So, you know, I don't think we know exactly what they would do with it. They've never said, you know, they they they justify it by saying, well, we're looking, we're trying to root out voter fraud. We're trying to find out how many people you know are are illegally registered to vote. And even that, you know, is like people don't f follow that up with the distinction that voter registration inaccuracy is not the same as voter inaccuracy. Right? If if I die, there's gonna be some amount of time while my name is still on the rolls. Right? And then people can look at me like that's a dead guy on the vote rolls. Yeah, no shit, because it takes time for this shit to come out. If you know, my daughter moved, she wasn't registered in Texas, but had she been registered in Texas until she re registers, you know, somebody could say, Well, she doesn't live there. Yeah, but she also doesn't vote here. Right? She's if she comes back and votes and control residency, then she's able to vote here. Right? If she votes here but she resides somewhere else, then you can say that's that's an issue. But that's what they're looking for. They're just looking for anything they can do to suppress vote, to scare people out of voting, to make voting more difficult and more scary. So it's by far, I think, the most reassuring thing that I've seen this year is that O for twenty-three number. Derek Peterson: Yeah. this is this is such a critical aspect for me because this is the top of the pyramid. Like if we cannot elect new new blood into office and we cannot throw people out and elect get people out that don't serve our interests anymore, then we've lost the country. Like that that is essentially it's gone. So everything starts for me with elections. It is it is the top of the pyramid. And there's a couple of things I see going on with these attacks. And one, the the you're correct. The information around election fraud and all of this stuff, it blows my mind. And it's a point that's been hammered home over the years is if if there was large scale election fraud from the Democrats or illegals, why in the how in God's name would everything be Republicans right now? Like there's no way. Like the it we would have used election fraud to keep him from taking office, which is what everybody would have fought against. So like that that in and of itself is just complete horseshit to me. But too like Elwyn: Yeah, you'll you'll never convince me that we rigged the twenty twenty election for Joe Biden but didn't get Susan Collins out of there. Derek Peterson: Yeah, correct. There's so many inconsistencies with that argument that logically it can be d debunked in like ten seconds. Just be like, yeah, on both sides, right? Like why in got like if like elections don't make sense all of the time, and after especially even after polling information. Where half the time we're like, you know, we just talked about this a couple of weeks ago with El Sayed and Haley Stevens. You know, like it looked like he was pulling by like 14 points and then wins by like a point or less. And you know, and we don't actually know the scale, I think, of what's going on, but I do think we can honestly say that if there is voter fraud going on, it's currently not widespread. and I don't and unless I see valid information to convince me otherwise, like great journalism around. you know, voting machines being rigged or something like that. Like I don't want to hear anything else about it. But I think the bigger concern for me around this is just that the strategy of planting these seeds that voting isn't secure is the thing that we're going to is the thing that we have to fight against. And I think part of the reason like, you know, w we started a podcast and that people should be talking about this stuff and trying to get their voices out there is that this is the point. Is They're going to lie through their teeth over and over again until November third to try and make you believe that everything is rigged. And they've already started it. They've already started the the true social posts and the like the misinformation about like this can't be real. They they if they win, it's you know, he's already started attacking what Detroit, Michigan, and claiming that they have the most fraud in the history of fraud. when it comes to voter rolls and things like that. And they're gonna push this information until it sticks. And that's been Trump's psychol like that's been his gold standard for for getting shit done. It's just like repeat the lie enough times and then people believe it. Elwyn: Yeah, I think, you know, we've talked about this before and one of the things that I I said and I I still believe is I think that there's been enough organizations out there speaking very openly about the risk to elections and what to look out for that it's harder it's harder to pull a fast one if everybody's looking for the fast one, right? If if if you're sitting there looking for looking for a fastball down the middle harder to get the fastball by you. so I think that's been reassuring, but it's not bulletproof, right? So we talked about like what are what are things that can that can be codified? What can be done? What are norms? And to me the thing that jumps out or one thing that jumps out is, you know, with mail in voting, because that's the one place where it's like, whew, they can fuck with some stuff with the mail, right? They've been challenging for a long time now. the idea that a ballot stamped on election day but received at the election office after election day, that that is acceptable. It I believe remains acceptable, but it's getting closer. I think that was I I don't think the Supreme Court fucked that one up. I have to remember that I usually don't forget that stuff. But like that's a big one. But then also like what is the responsibility of the post office to postmark that mail on that day? There is none, right? They could postmark it the next day and then your vote doesn't count. So and the post office is this intersection of federal involvement to an otherwise local process, right? If you're gonna mail your ballot, and there are plenty of states that have almost exclusive mail-in voting, and certainly every state allows mail-in voting in some cases, right? So if you're going to mail your ballot. Then I believe there should be some rules, some codified laws directing the post office what to be done. The post office has to stay open till nine o'clock on election day, let's say, right? Derek Peterson: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: To get to allow people to get home from work, write out a ballot, and go cast it. We do it on tax day. We could if we can do it for people paying their taxes, I feel like we can do it for people mailing in a vote. and they have to postmark that. And maybe they have to give you a receipt showing that you handed over your ballot. To a post office official on that day. So if you feel like your vote wasn't counted, and there's a tracking number on that, and you can track your vote to see if it was counted, which exists already, you know, you can s prove that I dropped this off on time. You know, and you can hold postmaster generals and post office employees liable for that, criminally liable, civilly liable, whatever, put penalties in to make sure that this intermediary, which is controlled by the federal government, doesn't get involved in fucking up the local government process. So that's one place that I think that it makes total sense for federal legislation to exist. It doesn't control an election in any way. If it's just a blanket law saying on election day of each year, post offices must stay open until seven, eight, nine o'clock, whatever. Anybody dropping off a ballot five within five days of the election, you know, must receive a receipt with a tracking number, you know, to indicate that they can receive that they can k hold to prove that they cast that vote. These are things that seem like they would only enhance the security of an election to me and are nonpartisan. Derek Peterson: Yeah, a thousand percent. the mail and voting and I've mailed them when I was in California, the f Elwyn: So is Donald Trump. Derek Peterson: yeah. Correct. Third time. Elwyn: Third time he voted in the Florida primary by mail this year. Derek Peterson: Which there's so many reasons why mail and voting is important for all of the people you know, like to be honest, I I feel like it actually hurts Republicans more to cancel it because I'm gonna guess usually the older crowd, the f crowd that votes, is older Republicans. And I mean it could mess some stuff up in places like California California and New York because population density, right? Like there's one of the reasons why mail and voting so big in California is just getting anywhere and doing anything is a giant pain in the ass. So, you know, like getting getting into Whole Foods parking lot and getting out is takes two hours. You know, like standing in line to vote is gonna take you maybe a week, you know. So the Elwyn: But that's why they have those those ballot boxes, right? And and you see the ballot harvesting claims. And like, you know, the Utah votes by mail, like 96% of their votes are cast by mail. I don't see the Republicans claiming that Utah's elections are rife with fraud. Right? So it's obviously like the the lie gets ripped apart right there to me, because like, no, no, no, you nobody's saying that Democrats are winning Utah. Come on, right? And they're all voting by mail. But like You always hear these the Yeah, that's right, I'm saying it now. Derek Peterson: We're gonna start saying it. We're saying it now. Democrats are winning Utah Elwyn: So you had you have these ballot boxes where these the where people can drive by and they'll be just like on a corner and it's a secure box and they come by once, twice a day and they collect the ballots. And that is just this incredible red flag to the, you know, big steel people, to the election fraud people. Well, I don't know, did you ever hear about this movie Two Thousand Mules? Derek Peterson: No. Elwyn: So Dinesh D'Souza, who's like this crackpot, right wing, nut job social media person with a decent following, he did this movie after the two 2020 election called 2000 Mules, where he basically says that he's blowing the lid off voter fraud and he's following these people who are collecting the ballots at these ballot boxes and bringing them in, and he's showing like wire. You know, people coming to this the why is the same guy coming to this one ballot box three times a day? It's like it's 'cause it's this fucking job. So in Georgia, a guy that D'Souza was profiling in kind of, you know, in a shitty way, sued him for defamation. Right? And just this week, Dinesh D'Souza paid it out on the eve of trial. He was like, I'm not gonna go to trial. How about I just give you a bunch of money Derek Peterson: Yeah. Elwyn: and we make this go away? so yeah, Derek Peterson: Shocker. Elwyn: like Shocker, right? So yeah, these things exist. Mail and voting, ballot harvesting boxes, right? These things exist to make it easier for people to vote because it is difficult. We don't have a national holiday for election day, right? I don't know what California's early voting policies are, but in New York they sucked. Like in Texas, they're they're decent. In Georgia, they're decent, right? So it's not always the case that you can vote early. And there's a it's not hard. to find people who work an hourly job whose job is not gonna let them off so they can go and vote. Wait two hours online to vote. So these things exist to improve democracy. Derek Peterson: Correct. And this is a foundational principle of democra democracy. So there needs to be laws in place around this stuff. And it's gonna be something I'm paying attention to our next president talking about. election day should be a holiday. Everybody should have the day off. Everybody should have equal access to being able to vote. If we're gonna force voting in person, which to be honest, I I go back and forth on whether we should ever be able to vote in on a phone or a device or not, just because there's something about being like when we're talking about voicing our our our opinions and through the political realm and advocacy, s there's part of me, and maybe this'll be old school, is like, yeah, you need to show up for that. Like it ha this should mean enough to you to like go and write your somebody's name or fill out a ballot and drop it in a box. It should If it takes an hour out of your day, that's that's it's a d hour that was worth it. It should take thought. It shouldn't be just like a few clicks of a button on your phone. that's my personal opinion, which Elwyn: Unless it takes six hours. Derek Peterson: unless it takes six hours, correct. Which but and there should be laws around making voting easier. Like if there was gonna be any federal laws around past, it should be in support of expanding voting. And the thing that concerns me about a lot of like what we were just talking about is just The people that get shit on the most are volunteers. Like the it's not like these people are getting paid a bunch of money to run our elections. Most of the people that are doing this are volunteers and are doing it because they're retired or they just care and so they're they're there. And the which to me is probably one of the easier things to potentially manipulate the fact that it's it's not. that it is. Well, and maybe you could make an argument against that, but you know, like All of the the nonsense around you know widespread fraud, I'm just like, man, and then people attacking voting stations and different or and you know, potentially, you know, threatening people as they're they're going to the box. Like those are the kind of things that I think we need to continue to put laws in place to protect when we're talking about election security. Like that's that's my opinion on all this stuff. And I'm paying attention to it. Like As candidates are speaking, like this is the kind of shit I want to hear. Like, yeah, like everything should be expanding accessibility and rights so more voices are heard and it's easier for people to to get out and and make their voice heard if it matters to them. Elwyn: It should be as easy as buying a gun. Derek Peterson: Yeah. Correct. That's that's about that's as accurate of a statement as you can make right there. You know? I can go to I can go to Cabela's right now and come home with one, I'm pretty sure. So the I think maybe even Walmart sells them, right? Elwyn: Yeah. yeah. Derek Peterson: The biggest the biggest arms dealer in our country. is there anything in regards, is there any laws that you would see passed as far as just general elections. We'll get into some deeper stuff in the coming weeks about this stuff. I'd I'd like to revisit gerrymandering and potentially some other things around elections. but, you know, in general outside of based on the conversation we had, is there any anything specific you'd like to see passed? Elwyn: No, I mean for today the specific one would be something around that mail in voting like I just described. But but largely I agree with you. I think laws regarding voting should exist to make voting easier, not more difficult. It's it's f it's a the most fundamental right to a democracy. Derek Peterson: Yeah. And if you want to pass a voter ID law, I'm I I'm not against a voter ID law if it's free and people and you're giving people early access to it and it's something that actually builds more confidence in in voting, cool. If it's if something came about like that, I I would not necessarily be against it as long as it was free, quickly accessible, and it made things better, not worse. but well Elwyn: Hard d hard disagree. Derek Peterson: hard disagree, no? Elwyn: Hard disagree. Derek Peterson: Why? Elwyn: Voter fraud's not a problem. Like I described before. Vote what voter ID is a solution in search of a problem. The point of a voter ID law, no matter how free and easy you make it, you are layering a barrier on top of voting. You have to have the ID, right? That's a thing that you have to have that you didn't used to have to have. It's a requirement that didn't used to exist. No matter how easy you make it. If you tattoo it on someone's fucking forehead, you're still making it more difficult to vote. It's just what you're just dis describing is incrementalism when it comes to how difficult it's made. But ultimately, the idea of voter ID is to prevent voter fraud. You need voter ID if there's voter fraud. There's no voter fraud. So why do we need to make anything regarding voting more difficult if there's no fraud? It doesn't solve an existing problem. So no, hard hard against it. Derek Peterson: I guess I just haven't lived in a state where it wasn't required anyway. 'Cause like Texas we have to have it to to reg Elwyn: Yeah, I didn't need it in New York. Derek Peterson: yeah. So like I've always had to do it. So it's it's never been an issue. I mean, we could also just require to get people to get barcodes tattooed on their necks and then we get scanned when we as a baby, you know. Elwyn: Well, you know, so so I could I could it I know it's a joke, right? So haha. But you know, why it why isn't that a d so why why isn't that Derek Peterson: Clearly not a funny one. Elwyn: a dyst why isn't that a dystopian future? Right? Like we we institute voter ID and people say, you know what? Or there's a lag between when somebody gets a s becomes a citizen or gets out of jail and they don't get it. And then people start to be like, well, you know what? When you become a citizen or when you get out of jail, we'll just put tattoo a barcode on you so that all your rights are preserved and you can go and vote that day. If you get out of jail on November 2nd, you can go vote on November 3rd. And then there'll be people who are like, yeah, that's a good idea. Right? When it's not, it's not at all a good idea. Right. So when you add you the the the appeal of voter ID and why it's such a dangerous idea to me is because it is so logically appealing, right? Like this is a basic right. We don't want fraud in our elections. We need to be able to trust our elections. But that's all a lie. That whole conversation, that whole point is a lie. Because you can trust our elections. Our elections are safe and secure. There is no voter fraud. So the minute you start to ignore that very fundamental fact in favor of additional restriction, all you're doing is raising the bar for the next restriction. So no. I've no sense of humor about this shit, Derek. Derek Peterson: Apparently. I'm I'm sorry. I'm starting to see that. Elwyn: Ha ha ha. Derek Peterson: I just think the Pandora's box been has been opened on this topic a little bit and there's been enough talk about it now and enough going on that at some point, even though I a thousand percent agree with the sediment, you know, we're you're gonna have half the country now that believes that everything that it they're not secure and that illegals are voting and all of that. And I think at some point as shitty as it is, like there may be a situation where, yeah, like again, like I'm for a solution that makes it that expands the rights of voting and allows people to vote very easily. I just don't know what that looks like. And you know I I hope it doesn't ha necessarily come to that. But dude, we're also living in a time where billionaires run our country and there is a potential scenario where billionaires Try to find ways to actually commit voter fraud, to to win elections to get their l legislative agendas passed. Like these guys have like, you know, these data centers and all the shit going on in Texas. I mean, like they're the future of these companies is largely gonna be decided on the will of the people who are fighting to prevent these data centers from going in to their places because The only way their investment, their billions slash trillions of dollars worth of investment is worth it is if they can actually go through and build the infrastructure. None of the AI stuff works without the data centers. So Elwyn: Well, Sergey Brin has spent $100 million of his own money fighting the wealth tax proposal in California, which to me kind of proves the need for the wealth tax proposal in California. But, you know, I think my last point on this would be the the reason that I have no sense of humor about this is because I think the The willingness to say this is a logically something like voter ID is a logically acceptable thing that can just be palliative in nature and we put it on and now we feel our elections are secure, that's what they want. It's the easy sell, and you have to fight that sell. You cannot give an inch on this, not an inch, because the whole premise is not flawed. It's untrue. The premise behind the voter ID movement is untrue. So to accept the idea of voter ID at all is to allow that untrue premise to take root, to accept the idea that the 2020 election was stolen is to allow distrust in our elections, right? There are certain things where when when the premise itself is the lie, it doesn't matter to me beyond that. We cannot, we cannot stop talking about the fact that the premise itself is the lie. And the premise here is the lie. So we you know to me, it's like, no, we don't need it because it's not a problem. We don't need the solution. Your solution might be great. You know, there might be a great solution to voter ID if voter fraud was a problem, but it's not a problem. So I don't trust any of the solutions because any solution, by definition, is a layer of difficulty on top of the right that should be the easiest to exercise. Derek Peterson: Point heard. And I will think about it for a week and then potentially fight you again on it next week. So we'll see how that goes. Elwyn: Love it. Love it. Derek Peterson: who are we telling to shut the fuck up today? It better not be me because of my voter fraud. Elwyn: No, no, it it it might be me. It you know, it when you hear what this one is, I I I I yeah, it might be me. I went to the bank this morning and I just had to make a deposit, right? And because it was cash, I didn't want to do it through the thing. I didn't have a deposit slip, I didn't want to do it through the drive-thru. And I go in the bank and there's like four desk staff and then at the end of the room the teller. And every single one of them like got up and was like, Good morning, sir. Hi, how are you? Welcome in. How can we help you today? Every one of them. And then I get to the end and the teller's like, How are you today? How can we help you today? Are you having a good day? What's your morning been like so far? How's your summer? And I'm just like, shut the fuck up and just process my deposit. I don't want to make small talk at all. You're all very nice, right? This is why it's probably me sh that should shut the fuck up, right? Like None of these people are offensive, except that someone up the corporate ladder was like, you have to bombard every person that comes in this branch with just sugary sweetness. And they're all like, I gotta keep my job, so I gotta be super nice. And no one ever comes in here. Like three people a day walk in. And then I have then like I couldn't be a complete dick. So now I'm in a whole conversation with the teller while she's doing the deposit about I don't even know what. And then on the way back out, same thing, like four people like, thank you for coming. I hope you have a great day. Thank you for coming. Are you gonna have a good day? What are you gonna do today? It's like I I'm gonna get in my fucking car and leave and take deposit slips with me so that I can go through the fucking drive-thru next time and Derek Peterson: Mm-hmm. Elwyn: not talk to anybody. I don't I just please provide the service that I need. You know, I'm never gonna see you again. The turnover in that bank is like every month the whole staff turns over. And as I'm standing at the town, I'm like, this is gonna be my shut the fuck up segment. And it might Derek Peterson: Yeah. Elwyn: be me who's the dick. But Derek Peterson: You know, I'm gonna say with this one, I feel I feel a little bit seen as of our conversation yesterday. Cause yesterday when we hung up, I felt a little bad because I compared you to my angry my angry Jewish buddy in California. And you're like, whoa, what what are you saying? And I was like, I mean, sometimes I can see it Elwyn: Yeah, no, sometimes, yeah, sure. Sure. You know, there's a Seinfeld episode where Kramer walks into a bank and everybody says, they go, Hey, hi, how are you? Hell ho there, right? And then there's a sign that says, If we don't say hello, you get five dollars. So so Kramer comes in again the next he sees a sign. And he goes back, they do a bit about it in the apartment, and he goes back the next day, and the same thing. Everybody greets him a different way. And he's like, You guys owe me five dollars. Right? And they have a whole meeting and they settle on like, you got a greeting that starts with an H. How about a toaster? Right. But as I'm leaving, and they're all like, Have a great day. I hope you drive safely. Hope you have a wonderful day. Hope your summer's going well. I'm just like, God don't you have work to do? Like look at your computer screen. So anyway. Yeah Derek Peterson: At least pretend like you're doing something. Well, to all those bank tellers out there that are being way too friendly to somebody that's a little bit grumpy, shut the fuck up. Or Elwyn. I wanted to I just wanted to Elwyn: Yeah, or me. Or me. God, the way you just said that, I was like, yeah, clearly me. But nah, fuck it. I said what I said. Derek Peterson: I just wanted to nail the point home. So well I Elwyn: What's the Jewish guy have what's the Jewish have to do with it anyway? Derek Peterson: don't know. If he was if he wasn't Jewish, then I would describe him as like a w whatever white guy or you know, if it was a black friend, I'd probably ask it was a describing factor, all right? I'm sorry. Maybe I should leave the Jewish part out of it. We talk a lot Elwyn: Yeah. Derek Peterson: about I talk more about Jewish people than I ever have before in my life because of our conversations. So, Elwyn: Good, good. Derek Peterson: you know. Elwyn: That's my goal. Derek Peterson: I feel I f I feel maybe more a little more at liberty than I should to to talk about Jewish people, but Elwyn: Also, we almost made it through an entire podcast without that coming up and then I had to fuck it up at the end. Derek Peterson: Nah, I like it. So w what are we talking about next week? Elwyn: We should if if we can remember, we should hit the Florida primaries that happened yesterday 'cause they were fucking nutso. Derek Peterson: That's right. Yes, we will we'll incl include a little bit of that in there as well and then yeah, continue our our series on codifying norms. So for any Elwyn: We can talk basically primary the the norms around primaries and what the primary system the the pluses and minuses of it Derek Peterson: Mm. Elwyn: in general. Derek Peterson: I like where your head's at. Let's do it. Well, for anybody that Elwyn: Let's do it. Derek Peterson: made it this far into the podcast, that he's isn't sleeping or put us on mute. See you next week. Elwyn: See you next week.