Transcription
We now live in a world where when this president goes dark for 72 hours, people got to be like, is is he dead? You know, because we're living in like the Kremlin of 1980.
Hello and welcome to the Bullwork Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. It is Monday. I promised you a Labor Day podcast on Friday with uh Bill Crystal as usual, but uh we have some scheduling snafu, so we have a sub. Bill Crystal is the editor at large. We brought in instead the editor in large, the editor in charge, JVL, Jonathan V. Last. What? How you doing, man? What is an editor at large? What What I don't even really know what that means.
I think it means he just goes uh goes where he wants and does what he pleases. Oh, you know what? I I can do my best Bill Crystal bit for you if it'll make everybody feel more comfortable. told me a little dim. Yeah. As uh you know, I remember having lunch with Bella Abzug once and you know, back in the day it was uh I I don't know. I don't know where it goes from there, but it's all all of his stories wind somehow are and then I was having coffee with Lionel Trilling, right?
He does have lunch and coffee and and increasingly more recently Zooms or I was on a call, you know, I was on a call with some feckless Democrats. Um, you know, anyway, um, JVL, I want to talk, we talked a little bit about you on Friday's podcast with Tom Nichols.
Oh, I heard that. Yeah. You've been writing some dark triads, even for you, um, this past week. It looks like Friday's triad, uh, newsletter, which everyone should sign up for. The bor.com, um, is about, uh, how, uh, simple systems fall apart and, uh, how you think we might be reaching a tipping point for liberal democracy. So, that's an uplifting piece of material. on Thursday, you have Trump is planning a is waging war against the government and then he's going to wage war against the people.
Um, you know, uh, it's pretty heavy material. You and Sarah hash this out a little bit on Friday on the Secret Podcast, but u, why don't you just, uh, give us, you know, you've had a maybe maybe you got a little vitamin D this weekend. I don't know. I'm just wondering where your head's at on the autocracy watch.
I'd like to uh, I mean, it's gotten worse, I think. I look I should just say and Sarah and I talked about this on Friday. Uh I think the last couple weeks have been really bad. Really bad. And I I went and looked up something I wrote in early January before Trump had been been sworn in since the election. And I had done a couple of like, hey, maybe it won't be so bad and here's what it would look like if we kind of dodge a bullet here pieces. And they were, you know, like, hey, he doesn't mean any of this stuff about tariffs or deportations. He really just wants to golf and be popular and right redesign the White House. You know, we have we've had a couple of those things. just focusing on golfing and, you know, doing the ABA pan uh remodel of the Rose Garden. That would have been nice.
So, I I then went and wrote a sort of like, all right, so what does the worst case scenario look like? And uh and I said, you know, obviously the worst case scenario was always nuclear holocaust and we all die. But let's, you know, let's not look at the the 99th percentile worst case. Let's look at like the 90th percentile worst case. you know, that doesn't go all the way to like everyone's dead.
And uh and I sort of outlined what it would look like. And I I think we're way past that. Way past. Yeah, I think we're pretty far past that. National Guard in the cities, military in cities, like masked federal agents just grabbing people off the streets, uh using third countries as places to deport to, which is one of I mean, one of the reasons I did not believe that he would be able to do mass deportations is because you have to have somebody willing to accept them, right? And you know, I just thought like Mexico isn't going to take 15 million people. like that's that doesn't work. Like I mean just logistically and the answer that he's come up with is oh well we can just pay Uganda and Sudan and El Salvador to take to take people and jail them for us. That's something I hadn't I hadn't foreseen. So I think I think things are are worse. And I I'll just preview something I'm I'm thinking through tomorrow for for the Tuesday Triad. what we are seeing now.
It's not. It's not. Um, so I don't know if you saw Missouri is thinking about redistricting. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Missouri it's going to happen. Yeah. Indiana's going to more of a question. Missouri is going to happen. They'll But they're will only take one seat only one. But yeah.
Well, so but it's it's not really the number of seats. Yeah. It's the the idea that red states can begin imposing their will on the rest of the states. And this is so we see this is the redistricting thing. We we see this a little bit with some of the abortion laws which criminalize people for stuff they do in other states. Yeah. Travel. Right. So if you if you leave Texas to go and you get an abortion in California, then you know there's some laws trying to criminalize so they can arrest you when you come back.
Um sending your national guard if you are West Virginia or South Carolina to a place ruled by the other party that doesn't want you there. And so far it's just the district. We'll see. My point is that all of this starts to look like what we had before the Civil War when slave states were actively going and trying to bring more slave states into the Union because what they wanted to do is impose their will on the northern states and vice versa. And I mean that to me starts to look really dangerous, right? I mean, we're in a world where all the the red states are going to start redistricting sort of in a semicoordinated manner in order to try to to steamroll at the federal level the the representation of of blue states. That's a real us versus them dynamic. And when you throw in the National Guard and like red states sending National Guard, if if you wind up having like South Carolina sending their National Guard into into Illinois or something.
Yeah. I mean, like I just don't know that start. Am I crazy? Do I sound like a crazy person? Um I mean, it depends on what you think what you're saying. What the implications are of that. There's a lot of implications are I don't know. Yeah. Right. I mean the implications are like this feels like lighting the fuse on something that we don't know what happens when the fuse finally goes off. Does that make makes sense?
Oh, I I mean, I agree with that and I I you know, look, I I think that and obviously we had CO which killed a million people, but like in a weird way, we got kind of lucky in the first term, right? That like there wasn't like there was no crisis really until the last 10 months, right? And so it took a little time for that all to build up. And it's also he's in a re-election, right? So there was some counterveilling uh incentives for him, right, in that in that moment of the final year, right? And like you just imagine kind of the Black Lives Matter like the George Floyd situation now or something worse than that.
And I I do think that the um the potential risk there is is just extremely high and like much um much different than what we experienced the first time through. Um but I you know I don't know we could get lucky again. How many more days we have left? We could get lucky. And I should say like I'm not saying civil war again the divide is rural and urban educated and uneducated. like it isn't a geographical divide. So I don't think but but what I'm saying is these things look like acts of aggression from one part of the country against another part of the country in ways which are the only precedent is like you know the 1850s anyway unimportant
quick plug become a board plus member so you can listen to these deep thoughts from JV and Sarah on every Friday but I just I listen to Friday's secret and you're the argument you're basically making also is just that like it's hard to unwind this stuff then
oh yeah that I just don't see how you unwind Yeah. Do you Sarah's like, "We'll just build something better on top of it." I was like, "Ah, I don't know how that works."
I think it's like, "Sure, I can think about ways to unwind it, right?" Like you have some, you know, white knight charismatic outsider, you know, type Democrat actually wins in 2028 and like gets a mandate to reorganize like the way these systems work. Like you can imagine ways out of it, but it's it's hard to see it practically. And and I don't necessarily mean there's a way out of it like we live in permanent autocracy. I'm not doing the the Tucker thing where I think that we're going from one dictator to the other. I just mean like there's a lot of these things that that he that he has broken institutionally. Like the one that I just keep coming back to is the DOJ. Like like the notion of an independent DOJ. I do not understand how that gets reconstituted, you know, right? I mean like you know the next Democrat that comes in won't be able to act like Merrick Garland. then the next Republican that comes in will overstate whatever the Democrat did and use it as a rationale for going even further than Trump. It just seems like a total race to the bottom on like and that and like yeah losing an independent rule of law federal judicial system is a pretty key cornerstone of liberal democracy.
See I I think it'll be the opposite. I think what we'll do is we'll have an independent justice department under Democratic administrations and not under Republican administrations. I mean that that's the the reality is I don't see what I laid out.
I mean, is it barely um I don't see how Republicans don't do this with the Justice Department forever, right? Unless unless there are some really bad consequences for the people involved in this, which spoiler there won't be. Um, like I like isn't this the norm for Republican governments? Isn't this just the table ante for if you are a Republican president, this is how your Justice Department has to function? Yes. I mean I mean you think that the next JD Vance government would be different. This I just don't know how you could imagine that.
Here's a uh point again uh in the JVL camp also on the even if there is serious consequences you know might that change behavior. Uh let's let's look uh in the in the health ministry of this regime to see about that question. Uh because you might have thought I literally did think and I said I you know when I was doing my book rounds god now my memor is going off. Was it right? It was right before co stuff. So um at the time I was saying you know I get the question a lot which is like how do you do this? How do you revel this stuff back up? And I was always like ah you know there'll be some external crisis and you know people will realize that we need grown-ups in the room. You know what I like that was my answer right? like something will happen that will, you know, shake the tectonic plates of our politics and and you know, we'll revert back to and like then that happens and like the opposite happened, right? It it it sent people more. It radicalized people more and so I don't really have hope for that anymore as the thing that will bring the Republicans back. Um, but here we got today, you know, so there's this uh Jonathan Con is a great piece everybody should read about h about just like looking at what's happening within the CDC. He he features one guy in particular, Dimmitri Descal Descalakus. I apologize for not getting his name right.
Dmitri, we're just going to call him Dmitri. And he's in charge of the CDC's division for immunization and respiratory disease. Obviously had a huge influence over COVID vaccine and appro and approvals and all that. um he is getting pushed out because or pushing himself out basically because you know they were getting rid of essentially the COVID vaccine. There are certain people for whom getting the COVID booster is still really important. I got a buddy who just got a co this weekend. She couldn't go out. She couldn't go out and about. This fight is happening internally and you've got Trump now sending a post this morning. I have to read you JBL. It's very important that the drug companies justify the success of their various CO drugs. Many people think that they're a miracle that saved billions of lives. Others disagree with CDC being ripped apart over this question. Is that what it's being ripped apart over? I want the answer and I want it now. I've been shown information from Fizer and others that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not? They go off on the next hunt and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. They show me great numbers and results, but they don't seem to be showing them to many others. What's he even talking? I want them to show them now. I hope Operation Warp Speed was brilliant as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it and why.
I mean, I don't know what you want. He's not the president or anything. He's just a guy sitting there reading the news, same as anybody else. You know, look at this thing that's happening at the CDC. It's being ripped apart by some force. It's kind of funny that the ripping apart is happening within Trump. You know, he wants to take credit for it so badly. Yeah. but he also uh knows that he needs the quacks and the cranks, you know, and so like within a single bleet, he is, you know, he's vacasillating back and forth. It's the most passive voice thing ever, right?
Meanwhile, like, and this goes back to kind of what you on Thursday, like within this administration, the inertia is to burning things down, right? Right? Like Trump, no matter how much Trump wants to take credit for this, it's like the people with the power and the momentum are the cranks, the one the ones that want to tear down the institution. And so it's kind of like what could Fizer possibly put forth besides what has already been put forth that would change the momentum of this, right? The only way to change the momentum of this would be for Trump to say, I actually the CDC matters. I care about people's health. Bobby Kennedy's a quack. Uh, I don't want people randomly shooting off about mitochondrial uh, shortages, you know, who aren't doctors making decisions about vaccines. So, we're going to push Bobby aside and bring in an actual professional. He's not going to do that. So,
so here, I mean, I'll be hopeful for a minute. I think the the case of HHS and Bobby Kennedy is a very pure causal relationship to one guy, right? If if Trump just puts generic MAGA grown-up, you know, number one in that job like Mick Mulaney, right? Not even like a super grown-up, but just like a a good superartisan Republican. Even Mark Meadows. Mark Meadows, Mark Meadows in charge of of HHS. None of this stuff happens. And it doesn't happen because Trump doesn't care about it. Like this, none of this is the will of Trump. This is all because this is Bobby Kennedy's personal obsessions. Yeah. And that Trump felt like he owed Kennedy something. That's all this is. If Kennedy were to drop dead of uh, you know, like he did so many pull-ups that his arms fell off, you know, and and he just HGH overdose. HGH overdose tomorrow. Um, this stuff could all go back to normal because it's just about him and there is no I mean there are other cranks but the other cranks don't have any sort of uh like political power behind them. And this isn't as far as I could tell something that anybody else in the administration. Does Christine Nan give a [ __ ] about this? Does JD Vance give a [ __ ] about this? I don't think so. I mean, they might have antiax sympathies but not at this point though.
Here's the problem though. at this point he's already hired like the Means family and like you know some and some other random like weirdos from Silicon Valley you know who have decided that like the the right thing to do is just do antibiotic steroids and green juice and like that's the thing everyone should be doing. It's like they're now in and what these doctors are going to come back. Like let's say he did. Let's say he did say Bobby this is embarrassing. You know, this is how Trump responds sometimes to certain things like some rich guy's wife has cancer and is in Florida and can't get the COVID vac. And so he calls Trump and he's like, "What the [ __ ] My wife is dying and she she can't or probably more likely I'm dying. Trump would care about the wife. I'm dying and I can't get the co vac. This is crazy. You got to And Trump's like, "All right, screw you, Bobby." You know, and he has someone else fire him because he doesn't fire anybody. Like, do you think Dimmitri is coming back? Do you think that the you know what I mean?
But you can you could basically go you could hold the status quo where it is, right? And and ratchet back some of the other stuff. And here's here's why I was being hopeful. What if Trumpism is like that? No, I don't think it is. Yeah. But you see what I'm saying? Like what what if like if Trump and Bobby just both went away? Trump and what if Trump goes away? Yeah. You know, because he just decides it's too much work. He wants to retire. Maybe some of the I don't really believe that, but this is the again me trying to be quasi hopeful that maybe some of this stuff is really idiosyncratic and is really tied to the single figure who has gathered behind him a tremendous amount of popular power and political power. Um, maybe things could be okay. I don't know. I mean,
I think that some of Trump's idiosyn synchronicities is that that's not the right word, but whatever. You know, people know what I'm trying to get where it's it's a holiday weekend. Like, you know, the Putin love might go away, right? at some level? Maybe not. You know, I don't know. Some of like Trump's random like obsessions maybe. But I I think the broader authoritarian nationalist populist project is still continuing. I think so too. I think so too. I was just trying to be You said things could be hopeful and uh CDC was I thought you were going with the place that the CD things that could be hopeful in the CDC is that you know maybe some people maybe some people suffer the consequences of their own health choices. I thought that's what was going to be your your optimism.
No. And and to be clear I think that will be terrible when it happens. But uh, you know, life is red and tooth and claw, right? I mean, this is like we have we have spent a lot of money in America trying to insulate people from the consequences of uh of their decisions and maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for people to see them again. I don't know. I'm just talking about crazy.
I don't like Isn't it crazy crazy that like an antivax maniac like fired 500 bullets at the CDC like two weeks ago or something? like and just by sheer luck like just the one security guard died, you know, God love him. RIP and that's awful. But like because it was only one person and we live in a country where we have like mass shootings all the time, like one death doesn't really merit like big news anymore. And so like simultaneously we have this total like insane person who's been radicalized by a specific political movement shooting literal bullets at the CDC while the president and the head of HHS are dismantling CDC from the inside and that story and that just kind of that story just goes away and like you in different years that would be the biggest story of the year. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that almost every day. Yeah. I and almost literally that's why the last two weeks were so hard for for me personally. Um, because I felt like every single day there was something that I thought, well, [ __ ] this would have been the biggest story of the year, you know, this this would be a defining moment. And it's just, you know, it's just another day that
end people would have had like CDC ribbons, you know. Oh my gosh, can you imagine? Yeah. And the the the double weirdness of, you know, a guy who's shooting up the CDC at the same moment that the CDC is being realigned to his priorities. Do you see what I'm saying? Like that's the the double weirdness of you have to imagine if you're on the inside of it and you're like a normal human being, you know, you feel like you're getting it going where you feel like you're getting it from both sides. Yeah. Right. You have this fifth column which is now in charge of your organization and you have also literal people on the outside shooting at your organization because you're not already what it's just it's bad. But your question is how does that go back together? I don't think it does. I mean, for one of the one reason, we're going to get a whole bunch of studies coming out of the government around health and science over the next three years, three and a half years, we're not going to be able to trust any of them, right? Any study that comes out of HHS that Bobby Kennedy has put his stamp on, nobody can, we saw the the first thing they put out that was like written by AI, right? Um, it is going to be like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and like what does that mean when the federal government is no longer a trusted clearing house just for basic information and data? Like I just don't know like so what so we then say on January 21, 2029, okay, now we can all trust the federal government again. How does that like that doesn't work?
And then people also don't think about the other stuff which is then the bad faith treatment. Like again, let's say a Democrat wins. Let's say it's somebody who's committed Sheree uh to changing to fixing the institutions which I think would be a pretty probably not politically potent campaign strategy. Let's say it works because things are so bad and they get in anyway and then they they then they try to fix it. It's like okay well what if inevitably that when that CDC [ __ ] up, right? Like because they'll do something wrong because we're still humans, right? Like even when the adults are in charge, they still make mistakes and we saw this during COVID, right? Then then the radical, you know, fifth column within that the people that are still there and then on the outside, you know, use that to undermine their credibility again and then eventually the other side, right? Like that that that was really more your point. Not that like we we are in a dictatorship now permanently, but like that these these problems, you know, that like the thing the trust that underpinned the liberal democratic society like once broken is that's gone. And that's that's that like simple complex system thing.
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While we're doing health stuff, uh just do you have any hot takes really quick on on Trump? Wasn't out that much this weekend. He he didn't look great going to the golf course. We saw we saw two pictures of him. He looked a little feeble. He was going to golf. I noticed we didn't get any pictures of him golfing. We just got him in the motorcade back and forth. He did post a bunch uh yesterday, including never felt better in my life, all caps.
So, I think that does that settle it for you? Uh couple things. First of all, during the cabinet meeting, you noticed the great lengths he took to keeping that one hand underneath the table. That was a thing he did. Two, I mean, during the Cold War, the CIA had an entire division, which all it did was keep track of pictures of members of the poll bureau to try to figure out their health. Like, you know, oh, is is Volknikov is he is he sick? Does he look like he has his cancer? What is his life expectancy? They're doing their own actuarial work because they're trying to understand what the dynamics looks like. And that has now come to America. Like we we are now we sit around and the only health reports we get from the president are obviously ridiculous, right? You know, we thought, oh, he you know, he only weighs 220 lbs. Really? Right. He's in the best the most spectacular health ever. he can throw a spiral better than Joe Burrow just
so none of this none of none of this stuff can be taken at face value because again that is clear like living in a dictatorship type stuff and uh we now live in a world where when this president goes dark for 72 hours people got to be like is is he dead you know because we're living in in like the Kremlin of 1980s Yeah. Are you I'm sorry. Did are you like freaked out by this? Because this fact really really makes me like this is I mean again this is not normal democracy.
Yeah. No, it's obviously not normal and it's very strange to live in this situation and I you would have thought that people would have rebelled against it in a greater way than they have. Um but I I mean I don't know. Why would I be freaked out by it? Does Trump's Trump's health Did you see JD last week? Yeah. Talking about how he's ready.
God forbid. God forbid. How do you think Trump takes that? I I think probably okay for now just because JD has just been such a slavish suckup. But I don't know. Maybe your thoughts. I don't know. He sort of he didn't like the idea of bombing Iran. Again, he's used a couple public formulations of Trump with regard to both Iran and the Epstein files. Yeah. Which were instead of just like I support him blah blah blah blah. It's he's really earned the benefit of the doubt. Yeah. You know, which sound to he thinks he's maybe I'm just being paranoid, but if I was Trump, I would look at that and be like, "Hey, dude, get in line." Yeah. You know, it just I would just say um what I actually think is happening is that Trump needed rest because he he's 79 years old and he's been keeping a really pretty heavy schedule. People need to remember that he is actually a human being. like he's not a like a villain from one of the superhero movies that you watch.
A friend of mine said, "We are going to wind up being like the Cuban people who spent 20 years waiting for Castro to die." Oh, for sure. And that then when it turns out he does die, it it's so late in the day that it doesn't matter. Yeah. Oh, no, definitely. I I I 100% agree with that. I think he likely will outlive me. It's like a [ __ ] lizard person with his insides.
All right. We've we had some actual news I want to talk to you about. There was a summit in China over the weekend. Yep. Putin, Modi, she al together looking very chummy. Uh Putin and Modi in the back of a limo. Was kind of a noteworthy uh visual choice by them. Like prom night. Yeah. After Trump invited Putin into his limo, Modi talking about how insightful Putin is. Um and uh I mean again in a different world we would be this would be setting off really like five alarm fires here in America, right? Like this axis forming over there of these other authoritarians. And you'd think that Trump would be wanting to try to coalesce the freedom loving countries throughout the world. That's what traditionally we'd been doing in the postWorld War II era. Not happening. um actually were alienating our allies and Trump's I guess threatening Trump doesn't want to ever threaten Putin with any actual consequences. So the stick that the administration has used to go after Russia kind of um since they haven't ended the war uh is is these tariffs on India for b as a punishment for buying Russian oil. So we're punishing India, not Russia really. And India's response seems to be, you know, sidling up to Russia and China even more. So I don't know what you make of all that.
Yeah. Well, uh I mean here's the good news. It could have been worse. Trump could have also have been there. Right. Right. The good news is that the axis of authoritarians so far does not seem they seem to believe that they should be setting up an opposition to America and not including America. So good for us. Yeah, that's a good point, I guess. Right. I mean, this is you could see a world in which like Trump is over there and they're all
You said 90% worst case outcomes, you know, we haven't we haven't reached that that side, right? We haven't we haven't gotten to that one yet. So, it's really pretty interesting and I think it's a sign and I wrote this after, you know, uh, Mark Carney came out and said the Canada's got to look elsewhere because the the relationship with America is no longer operable. The rest of the world is moving on. And that's what I think America doesn't quite understand. Some of us do, but uh, I think most Americans don't. The rest of the world is moving on because they realize this isn't just Trump. Trump happening once can be just bad luck. Sure. But twice means that like the character of the American people can no longer be relied upon. Like this is a this is a verdict on all of America. It's not about Trump and you can't make plans. America is weak. And China is just saying like look, we are what we are but we're not crazy and we don't go careening. We don't do like, you know, 10% tariffs on day 1 and then 39% tariffs on day two and then 22% tariffs on day three. Like you can you can do business with us. You can make plans around us.
Yeah. We might steal some of your IP while we're right? No, like we are what we are. You know, we're not going to But that's it's also interesting that China is not trying to pretend that there's something different, right? They're just saying like we are we are gangsters, but we are orderly gangsters. Yeah. And if you go under under our umbrella, you'll be able to do what you want to do less or more. You'll have to pay your you'll have to pay pay the Jews to us. Yeah. But you know those crazy guys over there where you can't you know that's like going to work for uh I don't know Elon Elon or something right again where are America's friends right? Europe is preparing to go without us, right? They are in the process of making alternative security arrangements that will lead to alternative economic arrangements. The Sharia oligarchs in the uh in the Middle East are our friends now. I guess that kind of oil, you know, oil that will be those will be our our El Salvador is a key ally of us now. Yeah, that's great. Again, this stuff is all gonna continue to happen and there's nothing I mean clearly there's nothing Trump can do. It is also funny to me that Trump wants in with them so bad, right? Because Trump really does see himself as a Putin or or a Xi and they're happy to like cuddle him and play him when they're in front of him, but they know he's so stupid that they can also just keep doing whatever they want to do. Right. Right. And you know, and so they're going and creating a post-american world order, which uh which so are the Europeans. And what are we doing? We're driving biomedical research and pharmaceutical research out of the country. Yeah. We are blowing up our own GDP.
Thought Jake Sullivan was so good on this on China, too. Like in meanwhile like we're just getting play and Trump's still like he cares most about the deal like the ornament that he can have that like meanwhile we're like bringing in 600,000 Chinese stu students to go to we're doubling the amount of you know cuz he wants she to like him he wants Putin to like him still like it would be like easier I guess to rail against if it was purely nefarious but like there's a nefariousness to it with Trump but also like this kind of weakness of of admiration that he house for those for the people in that at that summit. Um, and kind of this disdain for most of the the Democratic leaders besides the ones that are good at golf like the guy from Finland. That's why they keep him around. But so you know like that part. Okay. I I like there's there's not even you can you can imagine kind of a right-wing nationalist leader of America that's malicious that still has the masked guys taking people off the streets but that also I is really trying like like at least has a has a vision for what a strong America countering like China would look like and like that's not what we're doing at all. I mean ju just take the the India stuff, right? I mean, driving India into China's arms. I mean, this is, you know, they have a disputed border and China is being like super magnanimous about it. They're like, "Hey, we're not going to let this one thing define our relationship because Trump doesn't want to go after Putin." I mean, because that's what it is, right? He he's decided he's going to blow up the American Indian relationship in order to to make sure that he can not offend Vlad, his his friend.
That's literally what has happened. And it's it's crazy because it's so stupid. Uh and as you say, there's no there's no sign. You know what's going to happen on Wednesday, Tim? Listen. Xi's having a big old military parade in Beijing. He's going to be jealous. his guest, his special guest is going to be little rocket man Kim Jong-un. And uh I would bet you anything that Trump is obsessed with what that parade looks like. Yeah. I mean, and and that is cuz I think we're I think we're going to have another military parade. Did you He wasn't happy with ours. The army the army let him down. It was a sad military parade and so he's going to ask the I think it's the Navy to do better. But hand to God, I mean, we we are going to have an American president watching a a Chaom military parade with envy because that's the world we live in. Now,
just want to throw one last thing on this. Um I don't know if you knew this. I a shout out to our friends at Playbook because I I didn't I didn't have it marked on my calendar. Uh today's is the Trump's latest deadline for uh Putin to make progress on peace in Ukraine. That was today. I remember didn't say something about uh like you know Trump Putin will have played him again if no no no ceasefire happens by by Monday. There we are.
Here we are Monday. All right, final topic. I just I couldn't let this go by. I need to talk to somebody about it. Did you see the Rudy Giuliani press release over the weekend? Sure did. I have so many questions about it. For anybody who's enjoying them their Labor Day and missed it, I don't know, might have been distracted by other things like LSU's dominating victory over Clemson and Little Death Valley. Um, here here is the statement that you might have missed. On the evening of August 30th, 2025 in New Hampshire, Mayor Giuliani was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Okay. Prior to the incident, he was flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident. H mayor Giuliani immediately rendered assistance and contacted 911. That's nice. Looks like a Batman figure. He remained on the scene until responding officers arrived to ensure her safety. Following this, while traveling on the highway, Mary Giuliani's vehicle was struck from behind at high speed. He was transported to a nearby trauma center where he was diagnosed with a fractured thoracic vertebrae. um his business partner and medical provider were promptly contacted and arrived at the hospital to oversee his care. At this time, no further updates are available. This is the only statement authorized by Mayor Giuliani. Signed, Michael Reagusa, head of Mayor Giuliani security. I have so many questions starting with how does Mayor Giuliani still have security? Who's paying for that? Does he Why does he still have a business partner? What's his business? I thought that thought that he had to pay the Georgia election workers. So, I thought he had a lot of debt still. H maybe the security is being provided pro bono, Tim.
Yeah. I don't know. This is a this is the fishiest car accident story since the Tiger Woods golf club thing. Remember like, oh, Tiger Woods has been involved in a car, you know, he was in his driveway. It was it was the holiday. Who can say? We don't know what happened here. It's like, wait a minute. Why was Rudy in New Hampshire? What What is he doing in New Hampshire? Is he Does he have business in New Hampshire? Is that a like Giuliani doing a lot of business up in New Hampshire? Uh he's he's driving a lover in New Hampshire. Maybe allegedly. I've heard. I don't know. Does he just pull whenever he sees a car pull over on the side with flashers? Does Rudy just hop off? And is he a white knight of the of the roads? Is that what he's up to? any of the Rudy Giuliani that we have seen in public over the last eight years suggest that he has the wherewithal to operate a motor vehicle on his own? Was the security driver was he driving? Why was it why was he at high speed after this? How does it relate to the domestic violence incident? He's then waiting on the side for the police. He's the one who interfaces with the police. He is then being pursued at high speed and then following this the sort of this is the only statement. Please respect his privacy. Again, I have to feel that if it unfolded in the way that has been pre presented to us that Rudy wouldn't shut up about it.
Yeah. You'd want to do many interviews. He'd be on the Today Show. He would be in every like, you know, Rudy Giuliani rehabilitates himself. Rudy Giulia finally the the new America's mayor is back. I hope we find out what this is all about someday because I bet it's great. Do you have theories? Do you have any any guesses as to what this might be? I I mean I think the safest theory always is that Rudy was drinking um because he drinks a lot. Uh which is fine. I mean, you know, as long as it's not causing other problems in your life. And I I don't know if that caveat applies. Clearly Rudy's been fine.
So yeah, but again, I it's 10 p.m. a Saturday night in on 93. I I don't I don't know. I I I don't really have a great theory. I mean, I think that probably the best theory I I who the hell knows. Who the hell knows? I'd like to know more. We'll keep an eye on this story.
You know, the reason I want to know more, Tim, is because I want to make sure that I can afford Rudy the plaudits that he deserves for saving a woman who is the victim of domestic abuse. And so that is the only reason I want to know more is because I feel like his reputation which has taken a little bit of a hit over the last eight years or so. We deserve to be able to see him for the the real man of courage that he is and uh I just want to know more so we can all celebrate that. And at the poll work we like to give credit where due, you know, even if we have some disagreements. Um, you know, it's important that we acknowledge the successes of our political foes.
All right. Um JVL, thank you for subbing. What a show. a little longer than I meant it to be, but uh hopefully everybody enjoyed the bonus minutes and uh we'll be talking to you on Wednesday at the next level. If people aren't aren't downloading the next level with you, me, and Sarah on Wednesdays, what are they doing with their lives, honestly?
I mean, clearly they're just Tim stands who don't like it when me and Sarah are there. I don't think that that can't that could not possibly be it. Getting over your genius. Um I don't think so. I appreciate that. All right. Thank you, JBL. And no more compliments, please. Everybody else, we'll see you tomorrow. We got an old friend coming on the show. It'll be a good one. Catch you then. Peace.