Sam Stein: Can Trump Avoid Humiliation in Iran?

Hello, welcome to the board podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller, a few housekeeping items. We have the live shows coming up in San Diego and Los Angeles downtown San Diego downtown LA, May 20th, May 21st, make a little weekend out of it. If you're not from Southern California, if you live on the west side in Venice or Santa Monica,

it's going to be a long drive either way, so you can pick your poison tickets are available for both go to thebullark.com/events. I do hope to see you in California. My guest today will be in California with us. Also for the YouTube people, we subscribe, we're getting mocked by some of these terrible

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every post. If you're on YouTube, subscribe right now, tell your friends. All right, today's guest. This is unusual for me. I don't usually do this. I don't usually get bullied into having a guest on the show. I usually get to pick. But in this case, our guest today was upset because he had him and the in-poled position, like the most downloaded episode ever,

was right before I went on vacation last summer. Our guest today was the special guest for that episode.

“I think that the reason most down on those is mostly because most of you are missed me,”

while I was on vacation, you kept kind of downloading it to see if I was coming back. But it was a point of pride for him. And as of a couple of days ago, that has been passed. Now, the episode of Jane Coast recently talked about Malania, not being able to speak English and Catholic school has passed it. I don't know why you guys loved that one so much, but there it is. We all love Jane.

And so he's back. He once, first. He once, he first again. He once pulled position. It's the

managing under the Bullock Sam style. How are you doing? Just to clear things up, further for it to start out here. I did not think to come on. You asked me to come on. I didn't think to that. You bet. You bet. You bet like a dog. Like a dog. You bet like a dog. Like a dog. No, but I mean, I'm deeply offended that I've been passed by Jane. So it would be nice to reclaim my title, but I did not ask to come on at all.

That's not. Not the reward that I got. I'd love to go to the transcript on that and hash that out another time. We'll start with Moran news, much to get to our cabinet rankings. We'll be coming at the end. I know you guys are clamoring for that. The current position is best I can tell from the president of the United States is that we're going to keep the state of Formus closed and let gas prices continue to rise for Americans until Iran figures that

shit out. That's basically how I'd sum it up. His bleat was this based on the fact that Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly. So an upon request a field marshal,

“moonier and Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan, why is Pakistan talking that's what to do?”

We have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal, ejected our military to continue the blockade and remain ready and able. We'll therefore extend the ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or the other. So the ceasefire ends. We've unilaterally decided to keep it. The state is still closed. Boyle prices are up

again this morning and our current position is, you know, Iran's going to figure out that a shit. We get it. We get it. They got a potential coup happening there. I don't know the eye at all, it might be in a coma. We don't know. We're going to give them a little extra time. We'll focus on it. If you read that truth, I did not sound like Donald Trump to me. There wasn't like a lot of all capsules. I think there's a not a pin to try it.

Someone authored it. It wasn't Donald Trump. Maybe he put a few flourishes in there. Do you think BB? BB? I don't think BB. Maybe BB is right in the truth these days. I don't know.

“But also, I think just one thing that's kind of getting lost is we're not actually in a ceasefire.”

I mean, we're in a ceasefire that Trump claims we're in a ceasefire. But Iranians are saying this is ceasefire. They think the blockade is an act of provocation or war. And so they're not treating this as a ceasefire. And they apparently have boarded two vessels this morning in the straight. That's the stuff that we're seeing this morning while we're recording. They're not going to the talks in Islamabad. So long as there is a blockade. So we're not actually in a ceasefire.

We keep calling it a ceasefire. We're in a place where Donald Trump is not pursuing more aggressive military action. But it's still an act of conflict or war or whatever you want to

call it with the Iranians. And that's the problem is that if you can't get a, if you can't get a

to the point where you can actually talk about a diplomatic offer, and obviously don't have a diplomatic offer. Yeah. And as you mentioned, this is a quote from an advisor running in speaker. The

No, no, that's right. I seem right. They are. There's another statement about how the loser doesn't get to set the terms just like, you know, a little bit of a monster in a provocation. And then they've got another Lego video out in the Lego videos. Who ever, the poll has got to try a few different means here. I don't know the poll is going to go to whoever figures out who is doing the Lego video. The Lego videos. Yeah. So 23 year old in turn and in terror. I do it. It's some guy

Malaysia probably do it. I am a Malaysia who's like DMing them to the, you know, the, the foreign minister. I don't know. Clearly, Iran isn't particularly trying to escalate at this point. Are you sure? Well, they did, they did board the vessels. They did board the vessels, but I just mean like, they're not droning natural gas facilities in UAE or Qatar or other types of things that they've said. They're going to do this. They said that they're planning other types of disruptive attacks.

“The Trump position here, I guess, and it's not, I guess. That's why if he stated, is that Iran is”

losing $500 million a day because of the blockade. And so eventually they're going to cry uncle. There's some conversation about how Carg Island, if you can't get the oil out of there, you know, and it will be some kind of logistical issues that would really cripple Iran's ability to transport oil outside of the country. But like, the daily males reporting this morning that they're been a couple of running ghost ships that have bypassed the blockade will see like these things

are all developing kind of as we're talking. But it seems like a bad bet to me that it's going to be the Iranians that are going to be the ones that cry uncle over economic concerns. I don't think the Iranians leadership cares that much about. I mean, they care about their long-term economic interests and getting a good deal and negotiation. But I think that, you know, if there are shortages in Iran for a little while and their people are suffering. And yeah, I think that there's much more

room for pain than there is in the, in the, in the, in the America. Neither Arkham is great, but I tend to

“agree with you. The regime doesn't particularly have a sterling record of caring for their citizens.”

So I have to imagine they're okay with more economic anxiety in the short-term at least. It's unclear to me, though. Also, you know, I'm no expert on this, but to the degree that the Russians and the Chinese are helping them out. I would be curious about that when we allow the Russians to help them out at one point in time is that still happening. I will say this. Like, we in America have not felt the pinch to the degree that the Europeans have in other countries

have because of these fuel prices. I saw a story this morning about, you know, some German airliner can't, like, a bunch of flights because the fuel costs for Jeff oil is just out of control. We haven't really had that here. And yet at the same time, gas is pretty damn expensive. I'd fill up on the way in today. It was crazy. We're filling up at that one gas station that the

morning famous always uses because it has the highest prices in the country for some reasons.

There was a famous gas station at the water gate in DC. Forever had the highest price. But they changed ownership. And now there's a famous one in your union station that always has high prices. I try to try to avoid those two locations in those reasons. But even this morning, I was like, just kind of filling up my tank and I was checking my phone and, you know, I was like, committed to keeping it under $50. I don't know why. And then I look over at $70. I was

hadn't even filled up. I was just like, that's going to head up for a lot of people. And then you have rising food costs, which we were talking about in Slack this morning. So it is going to hurt and it's starting to hurt really badly. And I, you know, Trump may be totally, you know, a sadist about this stuff. But he's at 33%. What was that AP pole? Like, he just lost redistricting Virginia. And we're going to talk about that. The house is looking completely gone. I think he

clearly is tired of this shit and wants to figure out a way out of it. So it's not that he's not feeling the cute political and economic pain here. It's just that he's in a game of chicken. And there's a larger thing here, a theme through all these stories that I'm going to get to later. But it boils down to this. Donald Trump starts shit without ever knowing what the offering is going to be. It's the same with Virginia and redistricting. It's the same with Kevin Wash

and the Fed nomination. He always starts something and he has no idea how to figure it out

and finish it off. And this is just what's happening in Iran. And he lives day by day. He's a survivor. He has the thing. Egor wrote a good morning shots about this couple of days ago, or weeks ago, and who knows, time is flat circle about like the end of Madman theory. And I'm mocked Madman theory because we can see the limits of it. And we can see how stupid it is here. But like,

“right, you have to acknowledge that there were times where it was effective. Whereas like,”

Trump was so crazy that other country leaders just like gave him shit that they wouldn't have given to Joe Biden just because it was like who knows? Like this dude is too big of a pain in the ass. And it's like whatever. Well, we'll cut some deal with him that we wouldn't have cut otherwise if we just had two bureaucrats to negotiate it. Like that it did work a couple of times.

But like one of the limits of Madman theory is that you always have to be the craziest man.

like there's they have an internal negotiation happening. And among the people on the other side

of the game of chicken are the craziest sons of bitches in the world. I mean, you know. And so it's like, okay, now what? And you can see what happens, which is now what, which is like he says, oh, I'm going to end their civilization or oh, I'm not going to extend the ceasefire. Oh, we're going to go back at their power plants. And then when push comes to shove, it's like he doesn't want to do it. This doesn't mean that he might not ever do it because he got himself into this fucking game of

chicken with the craziest sons of bitches in the world. But like, but you can tell he's trying to veer off. He's the one with the itchy turn hand. Yeah, it is a weird situation where it's like who is the biggest nihilist. And we have to live with that. I was talking with Sarah about this over the weekend too because I grapple and struggle with how to handle these threats that he makes about ending civilization and bombing power plants and bridges and stuff like that. Because obviously

he ducks out of them time and time again. And now I think this is like the fifth time he's done it or something like that. And yet I don't want to not take that seriously. If that makes sense to you.

“No, you have to take it seriously. Yeah. Yeah, but like, and he gets back into a corner the”

other thing about Trump is that he is susceptible to whatever the last person told them. You know, I don't know who around him wants to end around in civilization besides Hague Seth, Lindsey. Yeah, sure, but yeah, I don't know. I think it's worth taking it seriously for that reason. I mean you have to take it seriously. And then I guess the real nightmare scenario is where he's just like, okay, I've tried everything else and I'm looking like a big old pussy and I have to do this

and boom. That's a real risk because he is looking like a real pussy. We can say that now. Week, weekend. And honestly congrats to the hedge fund guy who after the election 20, 24, said to to the FT or whatever that he's excited about being able to say pussy again because you know, what's been a great run for him? I mean, it was worth it. It was worth it. It was worth it. Hopefully he's was long oil. Hopefully he was long oil and and wanted to say to be what? Well, gases for a 30,

but at least we can say pussy. Yeah, it's a couple other just things in our own really quick. There's a

“pocket of pullout last night, which I think speaks to his the political problems that you're going to,”

which is they just asked open ended like why are we doing this? What exactly is it that we're doing here in Iran? And the top answer was to prevent Iran for getting nuclear weapons. But that was only 22%. 20% said it was for taking their oil. 13% said it was a show of power. 9% said regime change. 6% said distraction for F16. 6% terror is a prevention. 5% helping Israel. Nobody knows what we're doing. And it just does compound the political problem. What it's like,

hey, I'm paying more at the gas tank, and I truly don't know why. Oh, Denny, just Trump even know why at this point. Trump's been Trump's been all over the map. No. What is the objective? If you went to Islamabad, right? Now, let's say they were going to Islamabad. They're not. We don't have ongoing negotiations. But like, what would be the objective? It kind of seems like the objective right now is just reopening the straight, which it was already opened before this all started.

Right. Well, then here is the real conundrum. Right. It's like any off ramp. Any resolution to this is itself going to end with embarrassment for Trump. What's the best

“realistic deal he could cut right now in your estimation? I think that they help him save phase”

by saying that they can take some of the enriched uranium out of the country. Not all they open the straight, but then they get sanctions relief. Some cap on their nuclear ambitions, some IEHX. Yeah, commit to not funding projects that they lie about. Yeah, that seems like the best deal. Okay. Great. Cool. First of all, Iran won't agree to taking all of the nuclear

material out of the country. They would never do it. It's a red line. But even in that scenario,

the rosius scenarios, they reopened the straight, it was already opened prior to the war. So congrats. And everything else you described is the JCPOA. Right. And it's like Trump blew it up. And we spent years trying to figure out what the hell to do. And then we end it back in the place where Trump started. It's a humiliation. Maybe he has a cut off the straight. You ask it to cut off the judge's difference between the JCPOA. We started, we get a 10% vague on the oil now.

Right. And it'll be in some sort of Trump family crypto and it's also great. And they'll fund the ballroom and what a deal. And fine. Like I met the place now or like let him grow about some stupid deal. It's just the JCPOA and he can pocket a few mil here and there. But like it is objectively going to be some version of that deal that he killed. And it's a humiliation. And I think he sort of knows a little bit that it's going to be difficult to sell any of the stuff because if you

now that we're like three or four deals ago. But the first deal was that 10-point principle plan

that they apparently had struck. And if you looked at the sort of specifics of it, it was actually quite worse than the JCPOA. It was much more sanctions relief, it was basically, you know,

instantaneously when the commentary turned negative on that. And so they're not ready. They're not ready to swallow their pride. So literally said from the start, I said I don't know how to

give the guy advice. Don't want to give advice. But after the first weekend, Monday after the first

weekend, he should have said that's a huge victory. We have obliterated them that's not recoverable, good luck to you and all your endeavors people have a run. Like that was his way to us. And they didn't do it this time. I totally agree with that. And they would have fit the pattern of what he had

“done before with midnight hammer and then his whale and all that stuff. I think the issue was the”

ratings responded by basically bombing the entire region. And at that point, you're, at that point, you're sort of stuck because you've basically drawn in your regional allies and their gas prices are skyrocketing and you got to figure out what the hell to do with the straight, which gets me back to my original conceit. He'd start things and has no idea what to do after the first day

and it happens time and again. At one last important around thankfully to Virginia,

we like to call it straight here at the ball or say, I'm totally right. You and you know, we want we do want to do real journalism. And I do think to be fair to Trump, he does care about human rights for hot people. Yeah. He cares about human rights for hot women. I don't know if you shovels bleach. I didn't post a bleet with a picture of eight women. They're all pretty good looking. I will say, you know, I just, as a gay man, I'm just an objective thing. I'm not objectifying them. I'm

“just saying, you know, pretty. They're younger women look pretty. And he posted this to the Iranian”

leaders who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives. I would greatly appreciate the release of these women. I'm sure that they'll respect the fact that you did so. Please do them new harm. It would be a great start for our negotiations. I'm fully up. I just pulled up the blue. I didn't see him for a very long time. Oh, come on. And it is literally like, this same thing happened to Zoran. Yeah, but this is the color Zoran. There's a Columbia student and she was pretty

and like within two seconds, she was out of ice detention. Yeah. And I was like, human rights for bad. We've got an old, we just have a creepy, old fucking card in the White House. And you can get human rights relief if the victims are hot women. Well, this, this actually brings up a possible end route for this conflict here, which is the Iranians can use AI and start creating these like bag of women in a bag of women in Iran saying, we, we love you Trump. Just, you know,

“open the strait, but also agree to sanctions really. You know, you Trump. Yeah. Yeah.”

Magical women Iranian, magical women. They should actually be the point people on the negotiation. Yeah, you know, the Lego shit is enough. Stop doing the Lego stuff. We need to switch it up a little bit. Hurry up. I just changed out my razor yesterday. Look at this. Look at our clean. I'm looking, I'm still very boyish. I only have to shave like once every three days, which is nice. But when you do shave, you want something that's going to make you feel nice afterwards when you throw

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about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you a big win in Virginia for the referendum to redistrict the state. There were a lot of concerns about that. And I had, as soon as I subramonium

on the podcast a couple weeks ago, and like they were basically saying the internal polling was

shown it as a coin flip. Virginia's back california. Virginia is a blue state light blue, but I didn't like to clean young, and not too long ago. You know, there's good government types in Virginia, a lot of military types in Virginia, and then Jerry Mandor that they put forth. I still still have a guy that I found election Twitter name James. He called it the 10-1 map looks absolutely insane. And it's wildly unfair. And the public had full knowledge of it.

And that's like right. That map looks ridiculous. It's a ridiculous map. And it's like you're in the same district if you're in the Shenandoah Valley, and if you're like right across the Potomac and Roswell, I mean, it's an absurd map. And they pushed it through as an FU to Trump for trying to play hardball and trying to Jerry rig to be honest to the midterm elections. And

I was supportive of this. I think that this is the way you got to do it. You got to punch these guys back in the nose, even if it's a little messy, but I was wondering what your takeaway was on it. It just underscored the map and how absurd it is. It's like you take the northern Virginia Arlington district, and then you just have like bacon strips all the way across. It's on it is really a ridiculous Jerry mandor. I mean, in the most comical sense, and in a normal universe,

which we are not in, you'd find it important. It's like in district 11, there's like a tiny, little straight-up or move. It's like a little straight-up or move. It's not really down to South West Virginia. It's unbelievable. It's unreal. I don't feel bad per se about it because I understand why they did it, but like you watch this happen. And you're just like, this is just a cannot be

this way. We cannot have a function in government, which basically the lawmakers are drawing

their voters. And yet, what is the alternative here? Is it for Democrats to basically be morally righteous about everything and then get their clock clean? I've seen a lot of complaints on the right about this, and they're like, well, you know, this is just a pour and how could they do

“this? They started this stuff. And like, no, that is not true. You have to look at what happened”

in this cycle mid-decade redistricting. It was started by Texas at the behest of Trump. And the only obvious outcome of this, again, was that Democrats were going to retaliate, and this is what happens. People who are complaining about this in their public and side are full of it. They're full of shit, honestly. This is what you brought on yourselves. The Democrats retaliation was stronger than I've expected.

Tim, it was stronger than a lot of them. I talked to a lot of Democrats about this heading into this. They did not anticipate Virginia was going to do something like this.

And if Virginia, I mean, it was a surprise when it first got floated for a lot of Democrats.

And then the original idea was they were going to go for a nine-two. Yeah, or eight-three, even. Or like, eight-two and a swing, you know, and it's like, right, I was talking to a Virginia Democrat, probably not one. Just being like, I'm in the podcast or prick. I can do that. So I'm like, push it for ten-one. I was like, it was like, fuck these people. I was like, I've been on election

Twitter. I'm sure they were like, yeah, I was like, you know what I was talking to. It was like, I want to do that, but you got to get everybody on board. You got to get the state Senate. And Abigail just got elected. And so, my understanding is Kain and Warner were not supportive of this house. Yeah. No, there were a couple of house Democrats, Virginia house Democrats, and then Louise Lucas, which, uh, lorening into that great profile in her state senator,

this was a revenge thing for her. Yeah. In addition to Trump, they redistricted her out of a congressional seat. She went to run in like six years ago or something like that. And they're mean to her about it. And she was just basically like, fucous. All right, it was good for the goose

“is good for the gander. The way, which they went for the jugular, I think is, is important. And”

like, my two big picture takeaways on this is, is someone good on spam burger for doing it, and then because she just gets in, she's not Kevin News. I'm she's not running to lead the resistance. She spent a lot. And she spent a lot of capital on this. I mean, it's going to drop a couple. It will hurt her ability to go. Yeah. Yep. But, you know, the moment called for it. And that ties to my broader point, which is there's very few people in the ecosystem out there who are incentivized

to say, you know what, the establishment Democrats really played hardball and did a great job in one. You know, and the Republicans want to paint Democrats to look like what's this and Democrats help them with that a lot. And I think a lot of the left wing ecosystem wants to paint the establishment Democrats to look like what's is so that they can overthrow the have more progressive people in charge. And in some cases, they have legitimate critiques on that. And like, you know, in the mainstream

media is never going to be out there doing like, woohoo, Abigail Spamberger for good reason. And so like,

there's not a lot of incentive for anybody to do it. And it's just what's saying that like, the Democrats, you know, hacking Jeffries, whether it was on both shutdowns and on this redistricting battle, I did what Democratic voters wanted their leadership to do. Like, played hardball against Trump, pushed back at him, and and won. And I do think that, you know, they should deserve credit for

“that. They're a little too late. I think for a lot of our tastes to respond aggressively to Trump,”

but but come, like, towards the end of 2025 and now into 2025. Like, we've seen the Democrats show a lot of spine and succeed and playing political hardball back against Trump. And it should be noticed. Yeah. I mean, there's just not many opportunities to do it, but when they've presented themselves, you're right. Like, the shutdown fights this, I know Jeffries has been trying to get even more. And he went to Maryland. Uh, wasn't able to do that, but they've basically been

clear out about it. And, you know, it is a little bit easier to operate from the minority position, right? Like, you don't have anything to lose. Sure. You know, you could have, he could have done

really, really. And we'll be happy. And Jeffries takes a lot of shit for the various times of what she has, you know, not, you know, going to the map and done a lot of the days wanted. And he had internals. Like you said, it was the senators from Virginia weren't so excited about it. A lot of the uh, commercial black caucus was excited about it because these sort of things dilute the percentage of black vote and some of these districts. So in theory, that could mean pure black representatives

“in the future. I don't really think that's a real risk, but there was, I think they were being a”

little overcocious, but still like he had to, he had to never get all that. So Kudos. Isn't the

more interesting story on the Republican side here? Like Trump opened up this can of worms. Trump's super PAC is hitting on like 300 in some odd million dollars. They spent nothing. Unbelievable. Zero. On the Virginia redistricting fight. And what are they waiting for? Well, what's the money for? Exactly. That was that's insane to me. I mean, the Trump family haven't known as the Senate. I guess I'm not sure. And I know that they're going to start spending

on Senate as early. Uh, they've seen those reporting, but I agree with you. And the other thing that's insane is just the way in which they failed to press their advantage, just kind of taking back the clock because you kind of forget the stuff going news cycle, the news cycle. But there was at least one of these podcasts where I sat here where the text this thing looked like it was going to happen Missouri and the Anna Florida were talking about getting on board. There was concern that the voting rights

act would would drop. I remember I had a conversation with Mark Elias about this and it was like there was an inflection point before the Gavin thing literally looked for certain. What was like actually, they might be able to jerrymaner their way into almost a full-proof majority. Like everything gone right for their Republicans and had the Democrats dethered. They could have like built themselves up like a 26, 7-seat cushion who knows. Like maybe that in a way they the Democrats still

seek out the house barely. But they could have almost like jerrymaner their way to a full-proof majority. And there was like a week, a couple months ago where it looked like that was maybe the median outcome. And to go from that to now the Democrats probably end up netting one or two seats of this whole fight. Crazy. It is crazy. Again, Trump starts something doesn't figure out how to

“finish it off. And I think the other big inflection point was when Indiana decided they were going”

to do it and then Trump basically just like flailed and said he's going to pride the hell.

These people and nothing's really happened. Speaking of primers, the other thing I thought was interesting showing Trump's weakening position in these sorts of things. So Massey is the other one that there is a primary and they are spending some money against his primary opponent and Kentucky. That's coming up. But yesterday I decided, remember our old friend Kyle written house. Yeah. Old friend Kyle written house endorsed Thomas Massey yesterday. And this might seem like a silly

thing, right? It's kind of like okay. Who cares? But they're just all of these little data points that the conservative grift class is not scared of money more. You know, like 10 months ago, there's just no way that a conservative grifter would have endorsed Thomas Massey. You know, that's their personal friends with Thomas Massey or libertarian or something. But like why why risk Trump's eye or not when Massey is his number one foe right now? We'll see how that

primary shakes out. And I think I've talked to folks around that race and, you know, I think there were legitimate concerns that Massey still goes down in a close race. But the fact that Massey is not only surviving, but getting endorsements and not backing down an inch and not doing the kind of campaign where he's like, I'm the real endorsed Trump candidate. You know, like some of the people, but I got to go cast. He's doing it in Louisiana. He goes to a peach Trump and every time I

turn on the fucking NBA playoffs, it's like Bill Cassidy is the real mag a Republican Julia let well, it's a woke, full work live, you know, and it's like, okay, that's not what Massey's doing.

“And I think that's pretty telling. Are we going to talk NBA playoffs by the way or no?”

Sure, we can say if we have, I got Pope Maria at the end. I will say you're right about that and it's only going to get worse after the midterms. I mean, he's a lame duck. Let's just what happens with these people. And he has a lot of power, still, I'm not going to undersell it and he can, you know, get a social media hoard, sick on someone and he's got that money. And yet after the midterms, he's not up for reelection.

No, no, it's where that money's going to be placed. And I think you're just going to see a lot of these people who would have been scared of Trump just like current has just been like, you know what? I don't really give a shit anymore. Yeah, so I can. We have a future Republican part of it to beta over.

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“What will happen for people that are in the administration, though? I think it's going to”

be the real question of the post-midterm, but yeah, what are the incentives for people who are in the administration and now how will they be? And what will they get down with the ship with them? And so, to that, I want to start with Kevin Wash. All right. He had his confirmation hearings yesterday to be the new Fed Chair. Kevin Wash is the NEPO Sun and Law of Ron Louter of STA Louter fame. He is the billionaire who is behind the season Greenland plot. He's also in a lithium deal with the United

States government right now. Epstein, friend, Louter and Epstein were friends. Wash was also invited to some Epstein parties. So, that was the choice for the Fed Chair. Some of you was like kind of serious on the economic stuff. It also has been Trump hack and his performance yesterday. I've got one clip on the play, but what was your big takeaway from Kevin Wash's confirmation hearing? Having read Katherine Rapel's piece on it, I'm kind of struck by how hackish he is.

If you looked at his resume, not sort of with great detail, but just saw the stuff on the CW, like he does play the part, right? And yet he's contributed his views of fiscal policy just to get the job.

I mean, he's basically been in inflation, hawk, his entire life, except for when Trump's

the president, and then he becomes someone who wants to cut rates. And there was one moment as the obviously gotcha from the hearing, and I didn't think the senators did particularly great, but there was this one moment where Elizabeth Warren asked her traditional question, and it's another thing that they do now, and all these hearings, where she's like who won the election in 2020. We actually have the audio on that Sam. Let's take a listen to Elizabeth Warren,

grilling Kevin Wash. So independence takes courage. Let's check out your independence and your courage. Well, starting easy. Mr. Wash did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? We try to keep politics if I'm confirmed out of the Fed. I'm just asking you a factual question. I need to know, I need to measure your independence and your courage. Senator, I believe that this body certified that election many years ago.

That's not the question I'm asking. I'm asking to Donald Trump lose in 2020. And I'm suggesting you in 2020. I'm suggesting you defend your huge inflation problem.

And so I watch this, and I'm like, at first, I was like, "Why are she asking this?"

“This is like, you should be focusing on fiscal policy and the independence of the Fed and the”

investigations into Lisa Cook and Jay Powell, obviously. And then I thought about the reason she said it, which is obviously you have to be able to like stand up to the guy. That's pretty much the biggest part of this job is can you be independent from the present? Because they're going to have tons of pressure put on you. And if you can't just basically answer that question, then he failed the test. He did. And so I thought, in this case, it was a very useful use of

that gimmicky question. Because it shows that he just is going to do what he can do and say what he has to say to stand there. Yeah. Which is concerning. He wouldn't condemn the Cook and Palin investigations too. Right. And this is one of those things where, you know, my point of view, it's just, if you ask, you ask, you won the 2020 election, you just say Joe Biden and move on, like the video, which he's like, "I would suggest whatever." Just like shut up, stopping a dish.

Yeah, do you think Trump would act? I mean, maybe Trump's so petty that he would be pulled the nomination. Right. He's already been nominated. He's already been nominated. Yeah. So what are you worried about? And this is what worries you about him being in there and this role. You know, you'd role your eyes at it. If that was him on CNBC and Andrew Ross Orkin asked him that two weeks before he was nominated. And it's like, okay, this guy wants to get the job.

He shows himself how to be a big was. But like, now it's alarming. It's like you've already been nominated. And you're testifying under oath. Like just, and you're supposed to be the independent if I just say it. And again, I get what have maybe been different if he was if then at least in

"No, there's investigations when to cook and power wrong," or, you know, "Yes, I will

“a buck the president to be advertised to pressure me." But he wouldn't. He didn't do it.”

None of that. He weaseled out all of them. Weaseled out of all of it. And the most charitable view of this is that he's just saying what he has to say and once he's in the post, he'll be fine. There's nothing that's given me any indication. And I, I, I, I really trust Katherine on this. But she was watching. She's just like, there's nothing really that comes to the surface to suggest that he will be independent. And Trump's been very explicit that he wants right cuts, no matter what.

And Washington pretty explicit that he recognized that the reason he didn't get the job in the first

Trump administration was because he wasn't forcefully advocating rate cuts enough. So it's all pointing in the same direction, which he's going to go in there. He's just going to do Trump's bidding. Yeah. The other thing he said, I would say that the broad contours of the economy are improving. Really? Yeah. I'm like, really? What, what parts? Yeah, it doesn't, what's the broadest

“contours of the crypto? The crypto market is the crypto sort of kind of down. Okay, private”

prisons. Prisoners improving. If you're a landman character, things are pretty good right now. I don't know other than that. Clash of mark. I want to highlight two board stories. I'll get to our cabinet rankings. Will Salonton or step it in for Joe Particone. Shout out Joe Particone having a baby, but a lot of board babies out there these days. Had a baby. Yeah, having had a dad didn't I say them? Had a baby. Had beautiful pants obviously. Obviously. Great genes.

Yeah. Not that we're doing calipers stuff and like jeans stuff right there. The new baby, Joe Particone's new baby really likes to part. Okay, really likes to part of a good looking baby. Sitting in forum on the press fast newsletter, we're looking at the various mom, Donny, acts going through Congress. Three of them. The public is really things that clever with various things that are have the Mamda Ni acronym. The couple of them that really jumped out at me was

“one was the Chip Roy Act about measures against Marxism's dangerous adherence and notchist Islamists.”

And it basically was saying we will deport people who are immigrants to this country who are socialists

or Islamists or believe in Sharia, will not allow immigrants to come in. If they believe in Sharia or if they believe in socialism, Chip Roy is a separate act, banning Sharia in the country. I got a couple thoughts in that, but I was wondering what your take away is worth in the story. Has the editor? I feel like we could get to five Mamda Niacs. The act again could be, yeah, at least. Mamda Ni is just really logging. It's on, I would turn down here to be the other night.

Literally not like a little funny bit like we do a little bit for five seconds. There's a full segment, like commercial segment commercial dedicated to the Mamda Ni Kurtz, which was that the Mets have not won a baseball game since he had a guest on to discuss it.

And it was like a eight minute segment. I'm just like the Mamda Niacs and now I'm not that serious.

It's massive. I maybe was four minutes. I don't know. It was a full guest. It felt like eight minutes. It was a lengthy segment on this. And it's like these guys are one of the conclusions they drew that he had. Mamda Niacs is a socialist and he's bad for New York and he's a case cursing mistake. But he's responsible for their bullpen collage. It's like really a distance. The grocery stores, I don't know, but the obsession and there are no chinks in the armor.

It is kind of like it's very Trumpy. There's a little bit of like Mamda Niacs for a long time. There are no chinks in the Trump armor. Like, let's talk like Amanda Punch. Anyway, sorry. Three of my dynamics. One other problem is that Trump seems to be totally obsessed with the guy. Right. Maybe he just can't get enough of these acts. They're so stupid. This is so, this is so dumb. But I will say the Chip Roy one is particularly dumb because if you actually

read it as well, then you like take it to its logical conclusion. It's not that you're like a self-identified socialist or something like that. It's like you believe in socialism. And that would be enough to provide your entry to America. So if you, if you took it to its basic conclusion, like AOC would be thrown out of the country. But his handers will be thrown out of the country. It's so dark and silly. And worse than that. I mean, it's not Americans. It's just fundamentally against the

basic kind of America. We live in a plural society. It doesn't actually matter what your political beliefs are. We live side by side as neighbors and working with democracy. And you can vote for your side and we can vote for our side. Do you think people really believe that we're about to be overwhelmed by Sharia law in this country? I'm glad you asked that, Sam, because I don't know. But if you were, if you were, if you were genuinely concerned about Sharia coming to the

Middle East seemed to own our government. We're getting a free Air Force one from a Sharia law

“government and cutter Donald Trump's kids are in business from what's with the Sharia government”

in the UAE. His son-in-laws in business, the Sharia government and Saudi. Apparently those Sharia governments were pushing for us to get into this war and Iran. We're sending our you know, young men and women over into harm's way because the Sharia governments that Donald Trump has buddied up with are concerned about their safety. It's like, okay, you know, they've fought our sports leagues. So maybe they're getting out of golf now. They're getting into our movies.

They're investing in the movies. I just, I would think that if you were serious about combat in the influence of Sharia in the country, like, rather than talking about, like, deporting a handful of immigrants, you'd be talking also, or maybe not rather, maybe in addition to that, you'd also be talking about, like, limiting the ways in which these Sharia dictators can invest and get their, you know, tentacles into our economy and into the president's family.

Someone needs to put together the Kushner Act. I can't come up with the acronym right now. Or the WITKoff Act. Okay, so yeah, someone in the comments give us a good acronym for that. But like, yeah, why does Jared get to hang out with all the Sharia dictators and take their money, but we can't incorporate some of their great laws. I should say, for full disclosure, you're going to make fun of me for this. But I may go to the Qatar embassy

“party for the White House Course magazine. That's a Sharia party. Yeah. I think it's Qatar. I think it's”

France. Oh, you, it's to each his own, Tim. Don't go to the fucking Qatar party. Don't want what are you going to throw blood on? There's red paint and throw blood on the wall. Hold on, there's the grinder party and then there's the Qatar party, the same night. I'm trying to, you're going to do both between them and see if there's any difference. You're going to be a bridge, if you want. I think the between the grinder party and the Qatar party. Maybe we can

intermingle the two. Yeah, how would that go over? I don't, I don't know. Final point, I think the Sharia, as much more dangerous that Sharia has integrated itself into Mara Lago, then into, you know, local governments across the country. Which they have not done, just to be clear, they're not in local governance. I do, I do hope that the chip relies with the world, but we'll get on that, if they're concerned about Sharia. I just want to mention this, because I appreciate

Jonathan Cohen's article at this, and I found that it's been talking about it yesterday. There's

this horrible mass shooting and Shreeveport, Arkansas, Louisiana. We kind of, Shreeveport's basically

Arkansas though. I don't like to know this. But Shreeveport, Louisiana, just as horrible mass shooting, one guy killed eight kids, age three to eleven in various houses. It's horrible, and Jonathan Cohen wrote about how it's the worst mass shooting we've had in quite a while, as far as the number of deaths, and then for all the best to be children. And just just it just didn't like the news coverage of it was basically non-existent sad. Yeah, no, this, I'm really grateful that Jonathan

wrote this piece, because it really does get to me. Even our, we're, at the same age, and obviously

“we're around, uh, during San Huk. And I remember that day very vividly, San Huk is, uh,”

times about 40 minutes from where I grew up, and, and also just the sheer horror of it. And I remember it like walking around that day and just kind of like days, it was just awful. And you couldn't really comprehend it. Like it didn't compute that something this horrible could happen in our country, and then, you know, we had a big gun, controlled the bait afterwards, and it failed, and all that stuff, and it was just demoralizing. And, you know, I wrote a lot about this about how this was the

toughest day at the Obama White House, and how they had to go about trying to figure it out. And I say that all, because, you know, that wasn't that long, got me a long ago, obviously it was 2012, I believe, but we cared that. And now you have eight kids who are just slaughtered, and it didn't even, and Cole was looking at the major news outlet, it didn't even make, like, top six stories. And we live in a society

where we basically become totally chaos to the idea that someone can gun down eight kids in two houses,

and that's just the way of life. And we deal with it, and we move on because we have become a custom to it. Now, there are circumstances here, obviously, this was two homes. It was a father. He was suffered from clear mental issues versus a school where anyone's kid could be. But at the end of the day, eight kids died, three to eleven, and nobody seems to have cared. And this is not a unpredictable situation. There are things you can do to prevent these types of tragedies from

gun crime in the past. We continue to just say that I think that there is a sense of political

“fatalism around this issue, which I understand. I think we're particularly after Sandy Hook and”

then after Parkland, like this idea that's just there's nothing that can be done, but like stuff can be done. I a Republican governor Rick Scott has done a sender assigned the red flag loft or Parkland. Yeah. And since then, Florida's gone the other way, like they've loosened gun lots under dissantis, right? They can be pressured. And I do think I can tell you think that there was a period for good reason. You know, there was a lot of, I'm for criminal justice reform and there are

a lot of reforms that were needed to our criminal justice system and continue to be there. But

I think that the focus on that and the left people are a little bit scared to come out for like

harsher, you know, kind of penalties and restrictions around people that have been violent criminals in the past or done gun crimes in the past. And I do think that like pairing something that is a little bit stricter around violent criminals and gun crime, like crimes using guns, you know, not drug crimes or whatever. But like, you know, crimes in property so gun was what you what the

“person did, pairing that with gender form. I think it's popular. I think most of people in the”

country want that. And nobody's really done it or tried really hard on it. I don't know. I think that that's a viable policy platform for a 20 28 them if if they want to have the courage to do it. Well, I mean, what you're talking about is a different version, but similar to the 94 crime, the fault love it is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I forgot about the time. You hate to bring that up because there's some bad stuff in there, but like the basic contours of that deal, which is like

cracking down on criminals and cracking down a gun. It was tons of money for cops after school programs, much stricter penalties for those who are convicted. And that was the issue that got a lot of people. But in exchange, real gun control legislative reforms, including the assault weapons ban. And look, it worked. But the assault weapons ban, this is irrelevant to this situation in Louisiana. But at least all of us in laps because it had to be on a 10-year window. But yeah, you're right. Like

this is the combination legislation you're going to have to do. And no one's putting it forward because there is a fatalism about it. All right. To the cabinet rankings, everyone's favorite part of the show. Hell yeah. I just want to go back into history here. Me and Sam have been doing this since the beginning of the administration. We ranked the worst cabinet members. It is so competitive. And I agonized over like, it's so challenging. If you go back to the end of the year, for example,

our Christmas time rankings, Sam's worse. Okay. It's Christy Nome now gone. Our rests in power. Christy and Brian. Play the Brian story. Really got dark. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. I mean, when you like literally our Sam Rockwell and why things are getting level rough. Christy Nome with

Sam's first RFK was number two, headset three, rust vote four. For me, it was Nome, Rubio,

Bessant at the end of the year. And then a couple months ago, after Nome was defenestrated, a my list was Rubio, headset, bond. He was my top three, rest easy, bandie, and Sam's was headset, bond the RFK. So bondy is now out of the picture. We've put rust vote out of the picture not counting him in the cabinet. I think just because of all the attention that he has received in the past week, I'm going to throw cash in. So it's not in the cabinet. No, no, no, no, no,

no, he's not in the cabinet. No, we can't do that. Throw fucking Steven Miller. It's okay. And we can make up the room. No, no, no, no, no. There have to be rules. No, absolutely not. Market zero. Market zero. Smoker. So he wasn't fucking stepped over the line. Can't do it. Market zero. Okay. Fine. We won't look cash in. Where would cash be? We'll do it. We'll just go

“crazy. We can clearly discuss this. That's why you can't put them in. All right. So the worst”

cabinet officials as it stands right now, we are going to include obviously as an option, the new DHS secretary, Mark Lane, Mullin. And then I would like to include action. Attorney General Todd Blanche, does that okay? If you're acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. So they're both in there. Sam, we're going to do a power four, a power three. Power four. Power four. Okay, fourth place, the fourth place, cabinet member for Sam Stein, fourth worst. Okay. Wow. See, the bet, the

my top ones now being gone makes this a little complicated, obviously. Yeah. I'm going to go with the

going to throw my, because I want to think this through a little bit. Okay. We're going to talk you

now. Okay. Like who is even in the now, who could even be in the nominated? Yeah. I mean, it's so nominating. It's very clear that headset is obviously in top four. That's the

“thing. No one's not exists in Rubio and Blanche and RFK. I think, obviously in the nominating category.”

You don't do that. You don't do that. You don't do that. You don't do that. You don't do that. You don't do that. But they're all in the nominating. Yes, they're in the nominated category. You know, are we just going to take a lot, Nick out? I guess he's kind of fall on off the radar. Chris writes how to really bad run. Yeah. Chris writes how to bad run. Like he's talking about bringing back coal as like our main source of energy. Yeah. He's just telling you, like, yeah, you know, I mean, the gas pressure. I'm on the side. This is what it is. Yeah. I keep wanting to get brook around.

You're going to say brook around. I keep wanting to get it. Make the case for why she should be. Who has been harmed? I guess immigrants, if you're just kind of trying to categorize groups. All right. I know we don't like to do identity politics on the board. But if we're going to do identity politics, which identities have been have been most harmed by this administration materially harmed. Immigrants, recent immigrants, people of Siles, like anybody in that category would be number one.

Farmers might be too. I mean, like the farm economy, the Iowa economy is in shambles. The farm economy is only going to get worse. Fertilize the prices now. We're just going to record and gas prices are just going to record and brook. Rollins is like, you guys should just have a

“chicken in your backyard and do your own farms. I think that you have to throw it out there.”

Okay. And we have to see Morris Chavez, Dreamer is no longer around so we can't. Did you see a picture of the strip club that she went to? No. I don't have to tell you. I haven't been following the Department of Labor drama that closely because, you know, there's just a lot happening in the news. But there's a lot of weird stuff happening. I mean, her husband and her dad were sending an appropriate text messages to the staff.

Her dad, too. Yeah. I did not know that. Well, I'm going to put this. We'll put this on the screen for YouTube people. I'm going to share this with you right now in Slack. This is a post from the person that you're trying to dethrone right now, Jane Coston. And she visited this club. That is Jane Coston. And she'll dancers lottery food. It is the most depressing building I've ever seen in my life. The Secretary of Labor was in there. Well, you haven't tried the food there.

I don't know. Could be top cuisine now. That's a shame. It's a rough joint. I always

can describe this. And we are in what looks to be a rural to ex urban strip mall that where everything else is is empty. There's a part store. And then there's kind of like a a concrete, a small concrete square with like a some shingles on top of it. It says Angel strip club with a lady in the outline of a booby lady in the picture. Do you see a little sandwich? Yeah, do you see a little sandwich shining? It's just a sign. It says food to go. In case you just want to grab the food. In case you know,

you just want the food but not the stripper. The Secretary of Labor was just vibed. Angel strip club.

“Imagine you're working that club in the Labor Secretary kind of rolls up. Madam Secretary?”

No, this is in Portland. This is in Portland, Oregon. Okay, so we're not going to include her. She's out. No, no, but we do have our next assignment for Jared Poland's video series. She's out. All right, she's out. All right, here's my sense. Uh, and there's the economy still not going that well. That's not going to let me look out. So I would say that the nominating category would be hegg said that there would

be a blanche RFK, right, Rollins best sent a nut like those would be eight potential nominees for

work. Okay, I'm going to go my first the worst or should be worse. I'm going to work it down.

Worst is hexaeth. Absolutely. And the reason he's bad even more bad now is that he's taken some of the RFK shit and just adopting it as his own, like getting rid of the measles. Uh, sorry, the flu vaccine requirement was a real stroke of fucking genius. Uh, let's just get everyone really sick. That's that's smart. So he's my number one. It's not even close. And we should just say that I think that at the end of year, like following, you know, the murders of American is in the streets. I Christi know I'm really

solidified herself as the worst cabinet member. A lot of competition, a lot of discussion. I think now, uh, pretty clearly, Pete Higgseth is the worst, and it's not really even a close second. It's hard to even to provide a secondary nominee. I totally agree with that. Uh, I continue to put Bobby

the pitch for Rubio is number two. Okay. He was your number two last time too. He was. Yeah, I think Rubio stays in my number two slot. He's the reason all this shit's happening. Yeah, that's a good point. These are easy to know if it's all happening. Like it's not, uh, the Venezuelan keeper was a Rubio deal and it's succeeded. And, you know, he's the knee icon and the administration. He's the one that wants to overthrow these regimes. I do think that there's some reports, and he was a little bit

skeptical, at least with the BB presentation and the in the situation room. Unfortunately,

“if we could include BB, as the captain is covered, he would be number two for me, but I think that's”

a little bit of a stretch. And so, uh, you know, Rubio to me is like supposed to be the adult in the room, and the thing that is in his portfolio is the policy item that is wrecking the president standing, wrecking the economy, resulting in the death of American service members unnecessarily. I just think he's a clear tip for me. Okay, for enough. I'm going to ask to go for top five, because I have a couple of top five. Yeah, I just, I'm thinking it's going to make this. I was going to make this do only three.

I was going to leave this hard choice for you in the third or it's a lot. There's a lot,

because you made a compelling case by Rubio. He's going to be my fifth. Rubio is going to be my fifth. My third is going to be best. I just think the economy's best. Yeah. Do you like the economy? Are you happy with how things are going? No, the economy's an nightmare. Yeah. No, and I hate,

“I hate best. I just have to look around and, um, you know, I can't let my personal”

distaste for Scott best and, you know, affect my rankings and the sanctity of the rankings. You do the best in a three last time. I know. I know. And I, I mean, look, I find him totally repulsive in every way. And there's a horrible representative of homosexuals, but it's got to be Todd Blanche. It's got to be Todd Blanche. I guess I'm not saying Todd Blanche isn't bad, but he's just started. I need a little bit. Did you? Did you watch? I watched a

Blanche press conference yesterday. I watched it. I watched it. I was like, I got, he's, I never pressed

going to start the Atlantic article of how to catch but tell needed the swatine to break down the door, because he was so drunk and he just like, I didn't read the articles. He is, he is responsible for the going Maxwell moved to bed. Trump obviously trusts him more. He moved, as insane as a sound. The reason why Binding got moved out is that Trump didn't think she was doing a good enough job of going after his political foes. And I thought like Blanche could do better. I don't even really

think it's close for Blanche. Okay. I, I, I look, when we revisit these rankings soon, it's, I will have more material to work with with Blanche. I'm going to give him a little bit of space here. Also, I thought the press conference was awesome, but I thought cash was the real star. I mean, cash just absolutely gained and killed under crushing and refusing to answer whether he, they're like, were you worried you're going to get fired because you couldn't, it's going to

lock into your system. He's like, could answer the question, refuse to answer the question. Shout out to Ryan Riley at NBC for pushing him on that. All right, for for me, for for me, because five is Ruby, a four for me is going to be Chris Wright. For the reasons I explained, this man is in over his head. Like, we are in an oil crisis. He's talking about gas,

never coming back down for a while and then he's like, well, we got coal and I just feel like

we need someone a little bit more in their depths at this moment at the Department of Energy and this guy ain't it. So he's not ever been in our rankings before Chris Wright. So this is new. Yeah. Chris wrong, you might want to call him. Okay, Chris wrong is not going to make my list, but it's a good nomination. For a lot, I mean, it's really RFK, you know, Tulsi was out in the nominated category, because she's against the war and she's going to be fired. So I was like, looking for a foreign policy

person, because since the foreign policy thing is driving everything, it's hard for me to believe Scott Bessant for the economic situation right now, and this moment, because it's really driven by the war side of things. And so for that reason, I think he's going to call out of my rankings this time. I'm going to put RFK number four in close. I've been dying to get Brooke Rollins into a ranking show. I'm going to close her out at number four. So I'm heggs up through the

Blanche RFK, Brooke Rollins. Congrats to Brooke. I'm the proud of her. It took a long time.

“You have to be a secretary of ag to even get a sniff as one of the worst cabinet members in this”

administration, and she's done it and she's our uh, you made a really compelling case for her, and I'm really proud of her. Final pick for you, you'd rub you. So your final ranking is Heggs

months. We're to close in the Pope Reece section. I'm going to. Sure. So two, two items for you on

“Pope Reece. One, you're posted this. Why aren't we talking more about down to Fuxing Louis?”

Good. Have you not watched it? I watched a couple episodes. It's okay. It's a statement. I love it's kind of, it feels kind of like Ozarks, but in St. Louis. It's a little Ozarky. The reason I liked it is because it was both fun. It's because it's making you and the miss is talking about maybe whether it's in ways that you could ever leave the marriage because that's the thing that DTS said was it's like married couples are trying to, you know, mess around a little bit. Is that why?

That's not quite relating the marriage. Not that's not it. It's a really, it's funny, but it's also incredibly sad. They managed to do the combination of that. And then, I don't know. I thought it was really well done. Batman's great in it. And obviously, it's probably one of the more interesting shows when it comes to the concept of midlife loneliness, especially male loneliness. I'm not saying I'm suffering from all this, but I thought it was a really provocative. I'm not. I'm really happy.

I don't know. I left every episode sort of thinking about it. You know, when it shows really good when you stop the episode and you're like, damn, I want to just stew over what I just watched. And I really like it. Now, when I posted that, the responses, I was curious for the responses.

A lot of people did not like it. I never was surprised by that.

Yeah. My husband did like it. We watched one or two episodes. And I'm like, wait, my hint. He's, I'm kind of deferring to him on shows now because he's not like they're, yeah, I'm either doing podcasts outlines or fighting with someone on Twitter or those are off during the shows now. So, oh, it's kind of like we're going to let do what he wants. I do have hacks his back. I haven't checked out yet. No spoilers. Okay. The one exception to that is obviously

the NBA playoffs. Yeah. I'm kind of down about it right now. My nuggets fans, my nuggets media

“pals. I did a nuggets podcast when I boy Jeff Morton. If you want to hear my nuggets takes,”

go check that out. But Jeff's more positive than I am. I don't know. I just, doesn't feel like the nuggets got that dog and I'm feels like we need Peyton Watson. We've had some great games though. The plan was great. When be just got hurt. That was what I want to talk about. Yeah, you saw the concussion. Yeah, brutal. I knew that tall. Then you fall and hit your head. Right. He did his shin. Yeah, shin. You're right. I don't think fall. He might be out the whole series.

Yeah. I still think they pull it out because the blazers are fine, but they're not. They're just on the car. Great. Yeah. The new blazers owner is funny. Have you found this story at all? He's like, he didn't let the team have a late. He didn't let the team have a late checkout. So ever the team had to hang out in the lobby for a couple hours. It's like pro super cheap paid

$4 billion for the team. All right. Let everybody get late. Check out at the help. All right.

Not great. The other series that's really, the other series that's really intriguing is Hawksnicks. I don't know if you've been checking that out. I have. Yeah. I've got a lot of Nick. I feel like I again, this is one of the things where it's like, it's somewhat similar. I feel like the Hawks are plucky and they're good, but they're not going to pull it off. But, man, these these two can both go seven. I would not be shocked by that. Yeah. Well, and I think not good. Timbles could tell. I mean,

it's been like that. But that's more realistic. I could have seen that even before. Yeah, right. That's where as these two series, I was like, okay. Yeah, it's my sweet. Yeah, I'm a little down because I just, it feels inevitable that we're. Yeah. He'll get under Celtics and I just can't. I can't do it. I can't do it. Celtics lost. Celtics just can't do it. I can't do it. I can't. I can't do it. Celtics lost. Celtics just can't do it. Celtics. Celtics just can't do it. Just the East feels weak.

Anyway, I don't know. The East is weak. Detroit looks weak. Celtics look weak. Next look weak. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It's the thunder on enough. Who are you rooting for? Well, I was rooting for the spurs because my boy Steph Cass is on the spurs. Yeah.

“And it's like an important one. That's what you kind of know. I know. It's a little bit hard.”

But Steph, I don't want to get too into it. Like, if you watch Steph just for a little bit, you really start to appreciate just the defense he has. He does this kind of shadowy defense on these players where it looks like he's just totally be in any kind of trouble them and get in front of their shot. I actually think he's so gifted. And then obviously, Wendy's generational and I'm worried that Wendy's not going to come back in a while and who knows what happens. But yeah, I'm rooting for the spurs

for sure. It was really cool if they did it with the uniforms in the stadium. I got love for the spurs hate for the thunder. Sorry. Okay, see fans. All right. That's Sam Stein.

I don't know if it's going to happen for you. I know you really wanted to get back into the first

place slot on most downloads. But the Wednesday won this tough. We had a lot of competition out there in the content space. I'm hoping for you, though, because you really elevate the show when you come on. You do. Well, that's why you invite me and beg me to come on. Yeah. You beg me. Well, on tomorrow's show, we got a double header. We got a double header. We're going to bring a little Christmas a little Christmas kind of April to tomorrow's show. I didn't have a new member of the

downloads and Sam. So I can really rub it in its face. We'll see y'all tomorrow. Bye, Sam. Bye, everybody. Peace.

Later.

“The board podcast is brought to you. Thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper,”

Associate Producer Ansley Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz, an audio engineering

in editing by Jason Brown.