The Rithm (formerly The BlacLife Pod)

TR016 | Pushin'40

After deciding how to proceed with the assassination attempt in light of how the victim is proceeding, we get to the latest internet craze for young men: Jaw Gum. After discussing what it is and how we would handle social pressures and beauty standards if we were teenagers today, we move on to the Heritage foundation's connections to the Republican party as well as our frustrations over political ideologies and how information should be presented. All of that plus a whole lot of laughs, Bryan's wrist weights, Markus' scale issues and Alex believes in humanity.

Duration:: 1h 13m
Broadcast on:: 22 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

We shouldn't crack jokes or make a mockery of it because it's serious, right? Yeah, we should not crack jokes. That's been my approach all week, yeah. Mine too. I'm just laughing, it's coming back. So you agree we shouldn't make a mockery of it? Yes, I agree. We should not make a mockery. I agree that it is wrong to make a mockery of it. Now, if I were to tell you that Donald Trump is offering shoes with the picture of him with the fist up and it says fight, fight, fight on the side. Would that change your mind? No, because that is one of the most American things that we can do is to support our country in this time of crisis. The fuck out of here, Donald? I'm going to say it changes my mind because we sell this shit off of it now. And I'm like, oh, it's fair game now. I've seen I've seen coins too. Is he selling them or are just people selling them? I don't. Well, they're I don't not there. I didn't see it that if he's endorsing them or not, but his face is clearly on them. No, I doubled. I double check. He has a license agreement with a company to use his face of shit and he owns the company. Oh, that's selling these shoes. So, yo, fuck out of here, a dog. I'm supposed to feel bad because you showed up to the RNC with a pillow on the side of your head. And you all here selling shoes. Yeah. Come on, Doc. You think they were selling the ear, the ear things for the crowd too? Yo, probably, man, for like twenty five out twenty four and ninety nine. There's no way, though. I'm not spending twenty five dollars on some gauze. Or you can get him signed by him for an extra two hundred hours. No, there's no way. Yeah, somebody somebody in the crew, somebody in the campaign was cutting up gauze. I'm with Alex, you know, he's out. He's out at the door. All right. Twenty five bucks. Oh my God. I, I don't know. I felt I didn't. I felt bad that it's got to this point, but then when I saw the shoes and then I double check to make sure like somebody other than him isn't trying to cash in on the moment. I'm just like, whatever. It's clearly it's not a big deal. That's what it seems like. It's not a big deal. He survived, you know, God placed him here for a reason. You know, his air got scabbed over. We could know he always chill on the ear. Yeah, no, I just got to look at the pillow for the duration of the campaign. All for all we know, he only has one ear. Would that make you feel worse? If his whole year was shot off. Hell no, it doesn't make me feel worse for a variety of reasons. One, because he's selling shoes and merch with the picture. And two because they cool with AR 15s anyway. So anyway, so Donnie got two pairs of shoes now. No, he has multiple. He has some white ones. He's got some fake Timberlands. Oh, dang. That's a fight fight fight on the side. Yeah. He got some trumper lens, dude. Some trumper ones he had made before those gold ones. Yeah, those are sold out. Those are hot. Okay. Okay. Okay. I heard you got a cereal coming out too called Lucky Trumps. What? Not. Yeah, you certainly got. Donos. Donos. Yeah. Give me the beat. The rhythm. Brian, what's up, man? How old are you? 36. 36 markets. How old are you? 35. Damn. Nice. I am 37. Damn. Yeah, man. Shoot, I'll be up there soon. Give me a couple of months. So is it safe to say we push in 40? I mean, yeah. Yeah. You push it. Are we pushing 40? Or are we mid 30s? Like when does mayor mid 30s cut off? Markets is like literally mid 30s. I'm going to say I'm mid 30s. I'm leaning against the wall, but y'all pushing this. No, no, no. So, so when you round up a number, right? If you were to round up, let's say one or any increments of one to two to the next number. Like when do what point do you do that at? Like when that shit is like over the halfway mark. So over five. Yes. So anything over five you rounded up. So Mark ain't in his mid 30s. No more. I am if I were to round up rounding up from 40. You're right. But that's the farthest rounding you ever got to do. So. That's true. This is true. This came up because I was hooping the other day and I asked the young man how old he was. He said he was 27 and he said, because because because he was talking about how he doesn't drive to the basket anymore and how he don't want to get hit. I said, dog, you 27. I didn't stop that till I was like 33. He said, well, how old are you? I said, I'm pushing 40. All right. And that's the first time. I think I've said it to someone other than my friends or my wife and I really didn't feel away about it because I was out there again buckets. So clearly age ain't nothing but a number. Yeah, I feel like it really just depends on the like the. I mean, I agree with you, but I ain't gonna lie with you. That's it's a little cringy for me when I say so what I was going to say, right? Because Alex was out there killing him, so he's giving he's encouraging a young man to better his game. Right. So yeah, if I say pushing 40 and that kind of encouraging, he's been he's telling him he ain't shit. But well, I mean, kind of like a backhanded compliment, right? I'm doing my thing to the face. Chill. Yeah, relax. Well, yeah, I'm doing my thing. You could be better and I want to show you that I'm significantly older than you. So I had to don't significant in there because you're right. But like if it was like some shit like my ankle, it's like, yo, how are you? Man, it's like I'm pushing 40. Like that doesn't feel good, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. You know, you got a you have to actually work to stay in shape. Now, like you not just in shape because of your age anymore. Yeah, man. Yeah, which shit is hard. I mean, it is hard. But I feel like a week off the gym, like I look terrible. Like shit in my head, I feel like I look terrible. I take a couple of days. I'm just like, you ain't shit Mark. I look at myself in here like you ain't shit. Well, that's the thing. That's I remember I can't remember some older fella. Maybe it was my dad. Maybe it was one of his friends, but he used to always say after a certain age, there's no stopping and starting. There's only going because once you stop is over and no more that starting up against stuff. So if you go and do it, you just got to stay steady and keep on doing it. That's literally what I told myself because like, I mean, we joke about it, but I really had like a moment in the mirror where I'm like, you know, you said you was going to work out and you didn't. And you know, I might have gone on for a couple of days. So they like, but once you start like feeling the consequences of not like, you know, getting out moving because I got, you know, I got a sit down job now. So like it's different, man. So like, so, you know, I was trying to be diligent. I was trying to be diligent man and get back at it. So I must say, man, I was patting myself on the back this week because I was consistent, right? You know, even even when just like not just working out, but like, I'm like, all right, kids want to go to the park. How can I turn this into like a, you know, stay active, Mark, you know, like, so they went and played at the park, the wife and I walked a couple last May, we, you know, did like four or five miles. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, so throughout the entire week, you know, like I've been consistent. So come Friday, I wanted to to see where I was at. You know, like if we get back into it, we'd be inconsistent. One of the things that helps me stay consistent is keeping track of the way. Obviously, right? One morning I wake up. Everybody in the house still sleep. Yeah, it's time to check out the scale, pull the scale out, hop on it. It says low, like low, like low weight. Like what the fuck? So I, you know, and here we go about life. Like, oh, yeah, she woke up a little bit, saw me on a scale. I'll try to be discreet and like I'll be a ninja in the dark, right? She said, oh, yeah, I got to put batteries in it. And I was like, nah, but it says low. Like, you know, I've never seen myself say low. So I was like, yeah, like that little bit of like excitement before, like, you know, I've never seen it say this because I was, I was looking for a new number anyway. Like I've been killing this shit all week. So I'm thinking it's going to hit me with something that I've never seen before. And it did. But except it was words, like words, like I wasn't expecting that. Like low, like, yeah, I know I'm lower. But like, what's the numbers though? Give me the numbers. That'd be crazy. Like if the scale was like, get off. Scale, scale, say it out. You want motivation? No, what is it? I mean, it says, hi, heavy. That's, that's a hell of a motivation. You know, it's right there. When did our scale start using words? But that's the problem with these scales nowadays. Dog, like I remember we had a scale when I was younger. Like I was like eight, nine, ten. There's no batteries. It just is, I don't even know what it's called. It's just a scale. You just step on it. Yeah, it works off a weight. It's a little needle. Channel out. Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to say it a lot about it. But that's actually a really good idea. Have a scale for your like programming to your goal, right? And you step on the scale and it'd be like not yet. No, see, Brian, that's that kind of motivation that worked for you throughout your adolescent years and I don't want, I don't want to mean scale. Like I just want some shit that kills me the numbers. But you, you are on to something though. Scales are way too high tech these days because less, less address another problem. Can we address a small problem real quick? Like I can't even get on a scale in the dark now, like the shit, the backlights, the fucking shit, you know what I mean? Like woke her up so she could tell me the proper information but like I wasn't really looking for the proper information at that time. I wanted to just wallow in my false truth of like the snow. It was telling me it's low, right? Like I was just, I was happy for a split second and I was like, wait, this might have some to do with the batteries though. Like, right. No, what's crazy though, like Marcus, you lose and wait. Yeah. I'm still trying to cut a couple of LBS and then Brian. I don't know what you're doing, but I know at one point you were trying to gain weight when you were younger, right? Yeah. Did you ever consider that your jaw might look different? You know, no. It's a different time, though. We live in a different time where we got the TikToks and the Instagrams. Hence the name of the pod, the rhythm. So T boys are now using fitness gum and jaw trainers to try to get defined jawlines. What I have a lot of thoughts, but let me give you a little background here. So thank you because there are products like silicone jaw trainers, which are meant to be gnawed on in 10 minute intervals. So like a mouth guard and also facial fitness gum, which I might add has not been scientifically studied on a wide scale, but it's supposed to help give you like the defined jawline. Well, what makes it what makes it a fitness gum? Like what like what like what like is that like a descriptor of like, what is it tough to chew? Yeah, it's tough to chew dog. So it's supposed to work. Yeah, I guess there's muscles in your jaw. I'm going to make it better than it except for some of these women back in my backslide days. I knew they had strong jobs, but other than that, I never really. I never really considered right. Yeah, there's a company called jawliner. You get a two month pack of jaw gum for $42. Why are you saying it like that? Why? That's what it is. A jaw gun for how much money? $42 for two months. Yeah, they didn't lost a damn mind. I can just go to the fucking nearest corner store and get two packs of double mint and put autumn shits in my mouth. Yeah, I know. Yeah, but the problem with your double mint is that jawliner contains 10 times more mass than the typical stick of gum. Right. So that's why he said just put the whole packing him out. Now you got to fix this really fix this. Look, I'll just get two more packs for a total of four. It's still cheap. I don't know what we doing. So like the thing about it is like, but there's two ways to look at this. First, I want to discuss like the actual issue with this. Right. Is young boys and shit having the same sort of aesthetic issues that we hear about often with women and young ladies. And I don't think it's it's talked about too often. I never had that. I don't think it's about it all to be off. I think I've always been one of the prettiest people, but I know Brian didn't always feel that way. No. So let me ask you, if you grew up now, Brian, heavy on the socials, do you think that this type of stuff would have gotten to you? Like I think I think I think so. I think it's gimmicky enough, right. And I think that if I was a kid, right, and had all the access to all this information, and that's all I'm seeing is that. Yeah. I don't know what this algorithm got you down there. Is he pushing 40 still? Because I know this this particular young. I mean, this particular article discusses a young man as low as 12. What? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to talk to the dermatologist said that her son asked for it. And her son is 12. No, absolutely not. The fuck wait. So what did that mom say? You know what she like what she did? Did she end up getting him to gum? Did she have a talk with him? It does not say, but I would assume she didn't. I mean, she's a dermatologist. She would assume she's like smart, but she did say that. She learned her son wasn't immune to being influenced by social media fads. Well, like what do people think like weren't we teenagers? I know we're older, but like not that long ago. Most of us were rather impressionable. So what makes you think that you're not going to be impressionable when you keep seeing the same things over and over and over again. It she cares off the goddamn phones. Yeah, but that's not even just that. Go ahead. I was going to say because and I'm glad I'm glad you came on here and told the truth, right? Cause. Oh boy, I remember there was a time in college where you had what was that shit called the risk trainer? You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was week. Yo, I knew he was coming. Hey, he was. Everything was weak. Uh, everything was. Hey, I was. I wasn't trying to rate up to say your wrist was weak. I just remember like looking at you. He was like, like training your wrist. And I was just like, that's weird. But like you weren't the only person I saw with it. So I was just like, it must be like a weird, like fad at that time. Right. So when I see something like this, it's just like. Talix's point. Yes, it's a fad. I don't even know where to begin at, like how to protect your kids other than staying off the internet to protect them from these fads, right? But like, no, not the internet. Teach them how to use the internet, but stay off these damn apps dog. Yeah. That ain't, that ain't, but that also isn't the only issue, but continue. No, of course not. Of course. Yeah. Of course not. So like it was something like this that is seemingly harmless. Unless I mean, I feel like you crack a tooth and that heavy ass gum. Right. I don't know. But I don't know. I feel like I feel like it would be harmless. And I can relate it to like the risk trainer thing from back in the day. You're trying to get your shit up. You know, your muscles are, you know, trying to make your wrist more effective. I don't know, but like this, this is a little different because this is a little different because I feel like 12 year olds trying to get a stronger jawline. Like what's the benefit? There might be some benefits to a stronger wrist, but like what's the benefit to a strong jawline? I don't know. It's just you look better because there's beauty standards for men as well. I feel like the beauty standards were initially just fitness. Like looking like a superhero. Right. Now it's even now it's now it's evolving into, you know, same thing. I can say I haven't a symmetrical looking face at first. It was like the superhero with the muscles. Now it's just like all the way the the American superhero with the jawline. Right. Right. I always wanted to strong jawline just for the lineup on the beard. Well, wait, what because when you line up your beard, right? If the way you line it is where your jawline is in my face. I got like kind of a jawline, but it's not all the way there. But when you have that, you just line it up under all the way under the joint. You don't go at the jawline. You know what I'm saying? So I figured out how to do it and I still look great, but like other people obviously have this issue and there's this thing called mewing. Like the Pokemon, the things you learned on the internet, I don't know. None about Pokemon. That's something you'd be doing. So mewing is when you, you know, how you push your tongue up to the top of your mouth. Yeah, I just did it out. Yeah. Yeah. Like you do that and it's supposed to do something to your muscles and shit. I don't know. Do it. I don't know. I've never done anything stupid like that. Oh, it does. I've done that for. I heard that works for like brain freezes, but that's it. Yeah, I've heard that too. I have heard that. But, but the thing about mewing before it became popular on TikTok. It was a slang term, mostly confined to in cell internet forums, dog. Oh, wow. Well, for those of us who don't know what an end cell is, an end cell is a man who is involuntarily celibate. That means they just know ass that involuntary part is super important. And usually there is an online, you know, it's an online community. They consider themselves unable to attract women sexually. Therefore, typically their views are hostile towards women and men who are sexually active. I believe when we were younger, we simply called these people haters. Yeah, for real. As far as as far as the being being hostile towards men who get women. Yeah. But the whole misogyny aspect of it, like dog, like I hate to tell you, but the jawliner ain't going to change. That's never. No. Yeah. Yeah. That's the crazy thing about, you know, I think a part and aspect of this. And I'm not, you know, I don't have all the facts in front of me here. But I think in terms of when it comes to celebrities and what's also being seen on movies and TVs and what's socially acceptable now in terms of what, what it means to look good as a man. I feel like a lot of these motherfuckers who have money, right? They could look out there before and after photos of when they're growing up teenagers, even the early adults, what they are now. And potentially they may have had surgery to get those jawlines. So. Oh, yeah. That's possible. That's possible. Also there, there's a such thing as a glow up. Yeah. That's it. To me, it's like work hard, get in the gym, eat right. Yeah. And you can get there, but we all, everybody wants shortcuts now. Everybody's much short cuts. This is, this is specifically for like the in sales of age and like men in general, like you can't, there's no shortcuts. That's really going to get you to where you want to go. Like we will try anything other than eat, right? And exercise. We got the osympic. We've got the recovery, the set by will take some pills to try to get our body Yeah, even surgeries, even surgeries that were. Surgery dog, lap band, all that shit. Now I understand at some point, at some point, there are people who are morbidly obese. Right. And I understand it. I understand that too. But like the average overweight person, that's just because you like cookies and shit, but you don't want to go to the gym. Like that's a completely different thing for me. Like, yeah, you got to change your lifestyle. None of this jawliner, you ain't going to get no bitches. Yeah. Like if, if that's where you land it, like, I mean, not to poke any groups. Right. But like if you're, if it's been a significant problem, you know what I mean? And then you land on the jaw fixing the jawline. I feel like it's definitely more than the job. It's got to be a lot deeper than that. Right. Cause it's like, yeah, you, let's say, let's say this gum works. Right. Cool. You get the perfect jawline now. Now what? Now your face looks like an octagon. I was going to say, now you got a dope superhero jawline and you still got titties. Like as a dude, this is not going to. Yeah. And more importantly, you still ain't got no game. Yes. And that's the important part that people don't realize, right? The people don't want to take the effort to like wool or like, I don't even know. I haven't dated in 20 years. I don't, you know what I mean? Like, but I don't know if what it takes these days, you know, is a wooing or like a courting or like, but I feel like a lot of these dudes. I don't want to do it anyway. It's just like a fancy car and some bands. So nowadays I see like every now and then I indulge on the internet. Right? Like, and so I see these like these, I see these like pranks or these spoofs, right? Of like the guy trying to pick up the girl, but he's got, he just rolls up when they're like in a Lambo or something. Like that, right? And be like, she'd be like, Oh, is this yours? He'd be like, yeah, he's just trying to sit there and look cool. But like, say it seems like the name of the game these days is to say as less words to her as possible and see if I can still pull. But like what the fuck? Yeah. Talk about it's a car deficiency, Doc. No, it's called miscommunication all over the fucking place. No, no, I don't know this to be true, but I would imagine younger men in their team. puberty, trying to figure this out, right? As opposed to talking to women and getting rejected, they Google what they should do. Oh, no. And then they go try it and they get rejected. And then they Google some more and they keep getting rejected, right? Yep. And then it gets to a point that all the Googling and the rejection leads them to the group of guys who also been doing that shit and ain't getting done. And now all of y'all are in sales, what you need to do. My fucking in sale. Google one time, try that shit out. It doesn't work. Reflect on yourself. Yes. Try to understand why it didn't work. Try something else or I don't know. Ask some of the women in your life. I think it comes down to parenting too. You guys are parents and you guys and still, you know, you and still very ethical values, strong values. And moral, strong values and morals, you know, that provide value in terms of their like spiritual growth and even their physical growth, making the feel accepted, making the feel loved and, you know, well, yeah, I hope so too. But now you guys are. And so, you know, I think that comes from it too is, you know, if they're not getting that education and knowledge and just, you know, that encouragement and love from their parents or family or whoever is in there, of course, they're just going to continue to Google stuff because no one's telling them anything. No one's telling. Well, I understand, I understand that for like the confidence portion that you're speaking of, but I do think it's also important as a parent that you discuss healthy ways to deal with the opposite sex. If that is indeed who your child is attracted to, right, you know, saying like, I remember my mom telling me things, treat a woman like this, do this. If she doesn't like it, she doesn't like it. There's a woman out there who will, like, man, it comes with your mom. Yeah, same thing with my dad. All right. His was a little bit different. We're going to get into all that, but still I'm going to get into my was that dark now before we get into Brian's because I can only imagine Marcus. Did your mom give you any game about dealing with women? I don't recall. No, I remember a very specific conversation, though. Oh, man, where, you know, it was, it was, I went through a little dry period in high school and I heard her talking to my auntie on the phone. I think she was, she asked my aunt. She was like, you think Mark is, you know, he's attracted to the opposite. No, that's not. She said, you think Marcus gay? That's what she said. And I was like, how in the hell? We all asked that. Yo. I'll play it. I'll play it. Let's think about it for real. Like you've had the same group of friends for like ever, right? Yeah. And there's all dudes, right? Right. You ain't never bringing no honey dips home. Never. Nope. So I can under, I can understand her saying that. Right. If she's just looking like that, but not like it's not like your demeanor is what people would generally judge as gay. Like that. So I saw, I can, I can understand it from that angle. Yeah. Me on the other hand, I was. Oh, you were what? I was loved. What do they call them now? Thoughts? I believe that's the word. Yo. He was a body. I was a body boy. Yo. Yeah. Good times, man. Good time. What about you, Brian? Oh, here we go. Yeah. My mom, I mean, I feel like there were times where she didn't necessarily like teach me, you know, oh, you know, this is how you treat a woman. But I remember there was a few times putting that for you a lot. But the first time like I was taught to hold up in a door for her, but then, you know, do this for women was that we're going into the store. And for whatever reason, I was in front of her and I continued to go in the store and at, you know, I don't hear my mom's footsteps, right? Like at that point in time, I could always hear her behind me. Right. Right. And here I look back. She saw outside the door. I walk back. She's like, you need to open this, open this for me and hold it. So I did. And it's, it was like that for a period of time. Okay. And then I got a little older, right? Maybe like middle school. No, I'm middle school. Like fifth grade me. You maybe sixth grade and then she starts. Yeah. And then she starts to say things like, um, is she white? And then after that, it evolved into bed and I get these white bitches pregnant. Oh my gosh. Yeah, my parents didn't, didn't, my parents didn't call them bitches, but same sentiment. Yeah, that was, uh, yeah. I mean, don't get none of them pregnant, but I do remember white being, uh, I remember that one. Yeah. But the thing is we got to understand where that comes from though. It's not for, for my parents, it wasn't like don't mess with white women. No, it was the fear of what they knew had happened to other black men. Right. It's like with white women growing up as children and teenagers in the sixties and seventies. Yeah. And at the time, uh, at that time, the majority of the student body was all white. So yeah, but even then, right? Those, I'm just saying those are the talks that I had with my mom about, you know, how to treat, how to treat women. No, I had, I remember quite a few. And I think, uh, my wife would say my parents taught me well. Yeah, mine too. So for those of y'all that, that, that don't have parents and ain't getting them. Let me teach you well real quick. Hold the door open when there's a woman going through the door. Dog, very, very simple. Open the door. Hold the door so she can walk through. Tell a woman occasionally she looks nice. You ain't got to be specific. Just say you look nice today. That girl at school that she just said, Hey, what's up? That's all you got to do. Dog, it's not that. Yeah, maybe get her her name. conversation, you know, yeah, not off top. Wait till you got some type of poor rapport means that you, you're speaking to one another on a regular basis. It doesn't have to be anything deep. That's how they communicate. So it probably is through text, but whatever. But if you really want to pull, you got to learn how to talk. Unfortunately, yeah, or fortunately, that's the way it goes. Or else you're going to be in sale that thinks that they can pop off and pop the president. But before it, but more than that, do you think that too far? But do you think he was chewing gum? Hold on, but like, no, I've seen the, I've seen the pictures of them. There's no way he was chewing gum. You know, but like, there's just, there's just so many things. Like when I think about, when I couple stuff like that with where we are in this political climate. I do. Do you think that in sales wrote project 20, 25? They just don't want nobody to have nothing. I mean, that sound like it. I was mad at women. They just mad at being rejected. They mad at everybody, project 20, 25, finally hit the mainstream news cycle. And then Trump got shot and then Democrats were like, yo, Biden is old. He was at Jesus birthday party to like replace him. So it kind of knocked project 20, 25, all out of the news cycles. But I'm here to tell you all of this distractions. You will not distract us from what's at stake in November. We've been talking about this and pre production for the past couple months trying to figure out how we were going to address it here on this podcast. And we're going to address it in bits and pieces because this thing is 922 pages. There aren't 922 days between now and the election. So over these next few weeks, not next few weeks until the election and maybe past the election, depending on who. Yeah, depending on what happens, we're going to get into this. But I thought I thought this was important just to as a primer. So let me give you all a little primer before we get into this deeply in the next few months and weeks and so on and so forth. So do y'all know exactly what the Heritage Foundation is? No, tell me all about it. So the Heritage Foundation, according to their website is a research and educational institution whose mission is to build and promote conservative public policies based in Washington, D.C. Now, that's that doesn't sound too bad, right? That sound, you know, rather innocuous. Yeah, yeah, like I can trust that. Nope. All right. Until you hear the president of the Heritage Foundation named Kevin Roberts and this was a few weeks ago, he said on media outlet called real America's voice quote, we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless. If the left allows it to be what? That is a direct quote, which I will play here. In spite of all this nonsense from the left, we are going to win. We're in the process of taking this country back. I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless. If the left allows it to be heard that see he said it, he said it. Now, if you missed it, I said conservative earlier. I also mentioned conservative media outlet. I also mentioned right wing. Now, all of these things will lead you to Biden. When they, of course not Donald J. Trump, oh my gosh, but he says quote, I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who was behind it. I disagree with some of the things that they're saying and some of the things that they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them. I wish them luck. Now, I'm going to ask each one of y'all and I need your, your honest answer. Marcus, do you think he is telling the truth? No, Brian, do you know the truth? You do not. I do not either because he never tells the fucking truth, but more to the point. Here is Donald Trump in 2022 as the keynote speaker. Where is he a keynote speaker for the Heritage Foundation dinner? Our country is going to hell. The critical job of institutions such as heritage is to lay the groundwork. And heritage is such an incredible job at that. This is a great group and they're going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America. And that's coming. That's coming now. That was 2022. That was after. Trump's administration. So I mean, it's safe to say maybe he was just getting the bag. In the 2022 Heritage Foundation, you know what I'm saying? Maybe, maybe this ain't got nothing to do with policy. You know, Donald Trump's a grifter. Yeah, not at all. Exactly. Right. We're not true. So as far as project 2025 is concerned, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration worked on 2020 project 2025. Furthermore, the Heritage Foundation also does this report. Like, I'm not sure how often it is. I think it's every year, but they do this this whole study thing called the mandate for leadership with policy recommendations and all kinds of shit. So naturally, they had one of these for the first Trump administration, right? Now, the mandate for leadership have an approximately 334 policy recommendations for Donald Trump's presidency. Now, before I give you the rest of this, I want to note that this is a man who said, I have no idea who was behind it in quote of the 334 policy recommendations given for President Trump's presidency. After his first year, he had began to implement at least 64% of the policy prescriptions. So nearly two thirds of what the Heritage Foundation proposed. This is a direct quote from the Heritage Foundation. Analysis completed by Heritage determined that 64% of the policy prescriptions were included in Trump's budget implemented the regulatory guidance or under consideration for action in accordance with the Heritage Foundation's proposals. So as far as that whole, I don't know who did it. I don't know these people think he's lying. And if you look into the policy proposals that went through and that they began or whatever they were just saying, there's a full list of these things. This stuff is all public knowledge, but, you know, we don't really look for it. And since y'all don't really look for it, we're going to look for it. We're going to bring you some more information on Project 2025 in the following months and weeks because this shit is wild. It is. I mean, that's an understatement, to be honest. That's crazy. Yeah, this is true. 922 page plan with a dramatic expansion of presidential power. And for one thing, a plan to fire nearly 50,000 government workers and replace them with Trump loyalists. Now, for those of you that don't know generally, a government worker is thought to be someone who works for the good of the people. Right. The public might be holding to a single leader. Yeah. But this is where we were we're headed. But I don't want to bum you out anymore than you're already bummed out. But before we move on, Marcus, you got anything to say about that information I just gave you. You know, the more this goes on and the more we kind of like uncover in research, the more I learned that, you know, how like as a citizen, of the country, you kind of have like a, well, I was going to say a natural fear of the system because like with actions, there should be consequences. Right. But I can't say healthy, right? Because as black men in this country, I feel like our disposition of the system is a little different than others. Right. But still that fear of being caught up in the system or be or having a consequence to an action. Like it's still there, right? I feel like it's a little different for some people. Yeah. Thanks. What? Yeah. Part of what what's what's so obnoxious about it is the I don't know this for sure. But I think I can infer this, the majority of people who plan on voting for Trump or who vote Republican in general have no idea how these policies have and will affect them. Right. Which is sad, but I mean, makes that's all it goes. Is that the only way? Is that the only way to really understand it though? Because I try to give I try to give that individual that you speak of a little more benefit of the doubt and why? Well, because every time we come on here, we talk about how easy the information is to to look up or find it. I know people have people are busy people have their lives to live. Right. Anybody that busy? I mean, I'm just no people people are people are busy. Yeah, but there's a lot there's a lot of things that go into it. Part of it is people don't want to know. Yes, because if they do know it will it will challenge what they believe. Another another point, another point of it is that people don't want to spend their time doing that. Like everybody we got enough shit going on, everybody got bills. A lot of people aren't to pay. We got kids we trying to eat at the end of the day. The last thing you want to do is read part of a 900 page. Policies and all that. Like, yeah, I completely understand it. And part of the problem is that we trust certain media outlets to inform us. Not understanding that it's not to inform us. It's similar to your phone is to keep you engaged and whatever keeps you engaged is what they're going to show you. Yes. I'll say that and you would hope that the government haven't interrupt you. Sorry, but that you would hope that you can trust the government too. Like the government. Right. That you want to trust the government to do the right thing by you. Right. But I think I think in this election though and actually in several like prior elections like their their goal is to kind of like slander and disprove the other side. Right. So I feel like with with how many things I read about the importance of this election and all the things at risk and all the things being leaked and credited towards each side. Like there was something that kind of like irked me to kind of dive in. You know, Alex, we talked about like there's certain podcast to listen to. You know, there's there's other resources, right. But then like at the end of the day, you got to. I guess you have to be moved enough right by what's going on outside to like do your own research. And I guess I guess I would like to think that people have that within them or you know, you talk about putting faith in people a lot, but like is that putting too much faith in the idea that people will go out, learn the. It's putting it's putting too much faith in people because people aren't educated enough to understand that doing your own research doesn't mean that you simply. Look for what confirms what you already leave, right? Because I'm reading directly from the Heritage Foundation. Yeah. Nothing about me is conservative. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I went directly to the source. Generally speaking, we're not going to go directly to the source because we don't understand which sources are which we have. Go to wicked someone, someone who I'm going to get back to that Wikipedia point. But we have someone who is out here actively telling people the New York Times is fake news. The Washington Post is fake news seeing in his fake news. So these people aren't going to go there in turn, they're going to go where they're comfortable and in order to make those people comfortable, they're going to reinforce what they already believe. Thus not getting any information that challenges the fact that Project 2025 is not only going to ruin our lives, but will in turn ruin their lives. But they don't see that. They only think it's going to be good because it's Republican. That means it's going to it's just going to, but not even that there's there's a faction of people who are okay being hurt if other people are hurt more. That's that's what I'm saying. Like I'm terrified. So it's like you look into it and you look into other countries to see if it's livable too. Like for, but you know, you think about some of the consequences of letting some of this shit fly and it's just like, you know, I often think like, you know, are people just sleep out here or. Yeah, like, yeah, of course they're asleep. Why do you think there's a crusade against woke? Yo, that's a bar. I mean, I keep some bars though, but but often we not going, we're not going in on the project 2025 talk. Like, I think I think it's important to be informed. I think we all agree with that. Yeah, I think how you get your information is important as well. And with so many outlets, like you can really inundate yourself with you can all that is going on in America and the world and it's heavy. It's heavy, especially because a lot of things we do are algorithmically gathered. So we're not really out here picking a strong right. So yeah, so I got to ask like Marcus, how first of all, how do you go about staying somewhat informed? But on top of that, how do you stay sane with so much available? I try to only like go for the facts, man. You know, like if I want to figure something out or I listen to like a podcast and it has like the details of something, I try to only listen to the facts because everybody has an opinion, right? But if I find myself spiraling, then I usually have like a handful of like go to's where if I hear something, all right, I'm going to go to this reference point, right? Because they usually have the facts and it's usually easily digestible, right? They're not trying to rile me up, right? Right, right, get you emotionally invested. But even even looking at the facts, though. Yeah, can you feel yourself getting emotionally invested and have to like take a step back like, Oh, shit. I do. I do, man. It's not easy. It's not hard to round me up, man. So I do have to I do have to take a step back often. Yeah, what about you, Brian? Yeah, no, I've it's part of the reason why some I'm no longer I haven't been on social media platforms for a few months now. And part of that reason was because I feel like my algorithms were just feeding into some dark energy that I had and and making me more upset and sad more frequently than I wanted to. Because all I feel like I was seeing was just negative, negative events and situations, negative words, whatever. And before before you, you can tell just just real quick. That's what sucks about trying to gather information because you start from a place of curiosity and gathering actual facts and information. But then your apps and all that read that and then they push you further and further. So I completely understand where you're coming from with that. Yeah, so since I've done that and like I I only would whatever I see like the news, whether it's CNN, whether it's MSNBC, whatever, you know, that's all I'm seeing on my phone now. And it's not so it's easy. I think it's a lot easier for me not that I was like sucked in before, but like you said, you're inundated and it's just everywhere, like it's just everything, right? So, you know, not having that at the touch of a button on my phone now, like I actually have to go through a little bit of an extra effort to like look up information as it's definitely been beneficial for me. But in terms of like staying afloat, even sometimes it's tough, like be honest, I don't know how I do it. I think my body actually goes into like a survival mode where it's everything is autopilot. Yeah, that's happened to me before I'm very I am on socials, but I'm very intentional about how I use them. So I don't search any like like say Instagram search like I don't search anything even remotely close to politics or current events or anything out. It's like, you know, music, vocals. I have physical therapy things like I try to use it for stuff that's in that'll enrich me one way or the other and that's neutral. It's nurturing to you in some way, right, right. And I reserve searches for certain websites or new sites and things of that sort. But I also don't want to just be scrolling. So I have a 10 minute per day limit on my social media. Wow. Do you usually find yourself following that or do you go over that a little bit sometime for the most part? I do go over it when I'm in the middle of watching something and that's cut off. Right. One more minute. One more minute. All right. Yeah, I just got to finish this video that or on the weekend. If I'm done for the day and I realize that what I'm looking at is nothing just. Let's see. That's ruining my brain. Right. Then I might go past it a little bit for the most part. I've been staying in that I love podcast, but I've even had to stop that because the news is too much. We got presidents getting shot. We got presidents may or may not be running for president again. And everything is just panic mode. We got wars and all that. So I had to cut that and I've gone back this past week to just music everywhere. Oh, like I know how much I love music. I know how much I get on here and talk about it. But I haven't listened to it this much this consistently in a long time. Oh, I feel great. Oh, yeah, I feel great. Wow. I'm happy for you, man. Yeah, I just got off autopilot. So I feel great. I was going to say I feel like I did the exact opposite and filled my week with a bunch of politics. So I'm happy for you. Yeah, man. That should drive you crazy. Then on top of that, like so much of let's take the shooting, like the assassination attempt, whatever people want to call it. It's it's being investigated as an assassination attempt. I'm going to respect it as an assassination attempt, but this really has brought forth a lot of thoughts. And then Marcus, you heard a question I'm going to get to in just a minute on another podcast. But we had we did our pod our reaction pod last week about it. Right, and I remember telling y'all like we only going to know what we know at this moment. So let's only talk about that and try not to speculate. Right. Right. So as the week progresses, all you see are the snippets of information and speculation. So you see, what was this motive? Why did he do it? Is he a Republican? Is he a Democrat? Then you finally get the little morsel where the shooter was a registered Republican, but donated $15 to some Democratic pack or something. So like there's no narrative there, right? We still don't have a narrative there. Then it's like, why didn't the Secret Service do this? Now we have all these videos about. Yo, I saw 10 minutes before he's shooting and then like there's a video. I saw people on the, the, the, what's it called? On the roof and the crowd. Like there's all these little things that keep trickling out. And the only reason I know that is before we started recording. I looked because I haven't looked all week. I looked at it to see what the talk was. That seems to be the talk, which leads me to this question that Marcus found on another show. Is it better for the news to inform us of a developing story or inform us of the facts after it develops? Is it better for us? You mean? Yes. Yes. Yes. I think for us, it's probably better once they get all of the facts. However, I understand the reason why they don't do that. What, before I get to why you think the reason is, what do you think is better, Marcus? Give us the fucking facts, man. All of them or once y'all got them all. Well, hold on. As they happen or a summary at the end of the week, what would you prefer? I feel like I wouldn't mind having a summary at the end of the week just because, you know, during my week, man, especially if it's like a story as heavy as this, right? I'm with Alex, man. Let me enjoy my damn week and then hit me like something serious at the end. Like, all right. So we have more information now, right? But I know a majority of people we get every morsel. I know, man. Why do you think they do it, Brian? Here we go, Brian. I mean, they do it for ratings. They do it because it's going to reel people in, people who are miserable or people who, you know, are easily polarized, right? There's that, but there's also the fact that with something like this, it is indeed important. Yes. I'm not going to shy away from the fact. It is important. It is important. However, that the issue is, though, right, the longer, the longer they take to give out, let's say, full details and the longer they take to tell the story, right? After all the facts are given, it's more that, you know, hey, if we can, if we can have this story and cover it for three months and the election is, you know, three, four months away, you know, it's going to, it's going to be always on the front line. And we're going to be able to motivate and change direction of our, you know, voters or people or this 30 other, right, versus if you just tell all the story and have all the facts in a week, let's just say, or two weeks or whatever. That's your losing the moment. Yeah, but I'm saying you're losing the momentum, right? You're losing the momentum. Fuck the momentum. Well, that's what I'm saying is that I think that's part of what he was absolutely correct. I couldn't agree more with the first shit you said, right? Like the fucking, let me make sure I say this right. The information is driven by ratings. Exactly. I think it should be the other way around, like how we try to build our platform and how every platform should fucking be built. The ratings should be driven by the information. No, but ratings bring in money. So, but so they try to give us every single story that exactly within the first week. This shit happens and they're not doing anything, but pushing these theories and these conspiracies, which drives people insane. I'm seeing this shit. I've been seeing all week, but we have motherfuckers in the crowd wearing ear patches and they have, they still have their full ear. Like, is that not crazy? To y'all, like, isn't that crazy? It's called solidarity, son. No, but listen, instead, instead everybody, news anchors, platform owners, whatever era, weird era we're in right now, where pods and shit in social media gives us our news, right? Instead of looking for the facts, people are just looking to push it out as quickly as possible to maintain whatever, like a level of rating. Yeah, yeah, the momentum, like Brian Speaksa, but yo, these shits, even the news today, right? It's driven by the fucking ratings. Yeah, we know what we always bring up. What was the last famous ear, though, that you that you can think of? Evander Holyfield. Exactly. Exactly. And do you know what Mike Tyson has done? Lots of momentum from that, right? But it's picking it back up. You know what he's done in the last year to promote this ear game? I do, but tell the people he has created infused THC gummies that look like Evander Holyfield's ear after he bit it off. Here's a, it's a earlobe or not earlobe. Excuse me, it's an actual ear, right? But then there's a piece missing, like a, like a tooth, like teeth marks in the ear itself. Like not even like the real shits, right? Like it's like the cartoon, like take a bite out of crime shit, right? Yeah, but it's, but they're gummies, right? But that's how they're shaped is what I'm saying. So look, that, that's, that's, that's, I understand that for Mike Tyson. That's, that's kind of funny, but that's coming soon. But that's, that's nothing compared to a nominee for president selling shoes with a photo of himself. And the words he said after he got shot on the side of the shoes. Wait, wait, wait. That's neither here nor there. I need to back up something you guys said multiple times. I think was inadvertent. But it's a problem I have with the way these things are covered. You guys use the word story multiple times. Yeah. And in order to tell a story, you have to have words. No, you have to have details. Every single detail we get makes up whatever story these people want to tell or these people want to tell. Or people who just can't wait and need it right now. So you start piecing things together without having anyone to check and make sure these things are real. Right. When my man got popped in the ear, there was a, a purported video of him golfing. Initially, when I saw it, I was like, this motherfuckers crazy. Right. But then that video was like 2022 or something. Yeah, so had I had I just gone off of my initial, like, this is crazy. And then go start telling people these things. Like that's how we get to this place that we're at right now. I feel like it is what most people don't do. Like what you did, I've had so many moments, right? Because like y'all maybe, maybe not Alex, but my shit's been flooded with like some of this shit, right? Because just, you know, looking up Project 2025 stuff and looking up stuff about the president, right? I've had several initial reactions where I'm like, yo, he's straight. Like he golfing or like, yo, he's going to the next group of girls. So he is straight. Like he is straight, but that's not the point. That's not the point. The point is people like are companies or whatever, like they put some of this stuff on the, the front line or whatever on the front page. To push a narrative like Alex was saying, like, yeah, but okay, I was, I was joking. I mean, I was joking, but I wasn't when I was like words, right? What makes a story words? Cause it might be the best what I mean though, in terms of these, these crumbles, these morsels, these pieces of a story. They have words. Essentially at the end of the day, it's all words, right? And so the thing is, if you don't have context or only have 1% of the context, right? And then you look at something else, you just start putting all these words from all these other sources. Together. And that's what watch this. You create your own story. You can. You can absolutely do. I'm about to do it right now. Watch this. Press breaking news. We just discovered that the shooter took a shit in the bathroom in the same building. And then he climbed the roof and FBI knew it the whole time. Like, oh, he was there the whole time. He used the bathroom. He climbed up there. There's videos that the people see him. Oh, oh, there's a there. What do you say? There's a divot in the roof. So we just didn't think that it was, you know, every like, what's the point of putting all this out? If not to rile people up, right? Like. Yeah, but, but none of that shit matters. Like it does. He, he got shot. Yeah. Okay. We're to the other, we're to the other side of the point is none of that other, none of the ancillary things that have been reported all week matter. You know what I mean? Yeah, right, right. The deed is done. Yes. Yeah. And he's fun. You know, it's like, it's crazy because literally all the examples Alex gave was on like, these are some of the examples that were presented on that pod I listened to last week. And I'm with you. Like, yo, what'd you say to do? You put 15 bucks. Why does that matter? I think initially it mattered because the narrative they were trying to build is he had to be in some political craze. Right. Exactly. That this takes me back to something I didn't mention last week. You know, what kind of children are we raising where a 20 year old gets a gun and shoots the president? Like if I've always thought if anyone was going to assassinate a president, it would be an older person. Who has gone too far. On top of that, I also thought it would be Barack. But that's neither here nor the chill. Now I'm with you. I'm just saying, but yeah, but the fact that is a 20 year old with access to guns and as far as we know, doesn't have any specific political ideology. Exactly. What what kind of society are we running here? This is crazy. I think I think we touched on that a little bit on the attempted assassination part. Go check out, you know, the rhythm. Do we did a little blurb on this too earlier in the way, but I was in my bag on that. Yeah, man. Yeah, my wife was saying like, yo, we killed that. But I think we mentioned that, right? Like my whole thing was like, yo, and Alex hit this right on the head. Like it's the simple fact that it's a young gentleman, a 20 year old. Yo, what does that say about our country? How many times do we have to have this conversation? Right? Yeah, but that's that's what it is. It's it's just a cycle. That's that's where we are in this country. Dude, young white male shoots something or someone with the gun that they shouldn't have. This thing is fine. Yeah. And then on top of that, we have the what I can't think of the gentleman's name who was killed at the rally. Oh, firefighter. Yeah. But Biden called the wife to offer some condolences and she wouldn't take the call. She wouldn't take the call. Now, no one there are very few people I feel like in regular life who haven't had an obnoxious tragedy. Now, understand grief like I do. But the thing about it is we can't get past our political divisions where the president call. I would take the call. Take the call. You know, the president of the United States calling. I might if I politically disagree, I might not come up there to beat with you. If like you're way out on some stuff I don't agree with. Right. Yeah. Right. But President Biden called her. She wouldn't take the call. Her reason was because I was going to say it was the reasoning real. I don't know. The reason was because her husband wouldn't have wanted her to talk to him. Oh my God. Not yet because it was a. Hold on. Yeah, go ahead. Trump hadn't called until Tuesday. Trump was selling those shoes I mentioned earlier before that. Do you think that he really gives. But that's a a people going to do what they do. But but you just got to think. Think of the people were down the way here. You're like he was selling shoes of him. Getting shot where your husband was cute. Thank you. Highlight that highlight that please. Cause he's supposed to hold on. The fact that she said, you know, Alec, that's such a great point to highlight. We have to highlight that you're so entrenched in it that you. Yo, I can't I can't even my brain doesn't fathom. Not being able to. It's hard to digest the reality that there's people that exist that would just totally disregard you based on. Your alignment or, you know, you're and I know that's something that we've had to deal with for a really long time, especially being black in this country. I feel like just being a minority in this country. That's just something that that's just part of growing up. Right. But it's it hits different when you hear it at 35 back to our pushing 40, you know, it's just it's just different now. Right. It's just different to me. It's different. It's different to me because. Again, I understand having differences in opinion. Me and Marcus don't agree on music tastes. Right. Yeah. And I don't agree with y'all on a lot. But yeah. Right. Me and Brian agree on damn there and nothing. Right. But we find enough commonality to be very good friends. Now you don't have to be very good friends with anyone. I understand that. But I do believe friends. I do believe that that I would take the call like as much as I've gotten on here and talked about how awful of a human being that I think Donald Trump is, I would take the call. No, I do you one, I'll do you one way better, you know, as much as we've talked about pre and post production. We don't ever air somebody real shit. Right. But like, yo, I'm with you. I can sit here and think whatever, whatever I think about Don, right? I don't even want to call him Don. But like Don, no, part of me, I'd be lying if I said part of me wasn't concerned. Like just because there should be, I feel like that's just a human thing. Right. There should be like an ounce or a little piece of, yeah, but any realistically dog with humanity doesn't exist in the United States. So what are we talking about? Relax. It does. It does because we're sitting here talking about it at a federal level, excuse me, at a federal level. And doesn't exist because in a state level, it doesn't exist. Well, hold on. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. A person entrenched in whatever political affiliation they are. Yeah, should not deter you. It should not, yo. Humanity for me. Sure. Yeah. What are we talking about? Sure. Yeah, sure it does. Yeah. I didn't say it does or doesn't. I said it shouldn't go that far. Like if I, there's someone I know, I got to say this without giving out too much information. There's, there's this older lady that I know that I've helped on numerous occasions. And one of these occasions was helping her with her phone. Because her phone was doing whatever was doing. She couldn't get it. And all that kept popping up were these far right wing notifications as I'm trying to help her with her phone. Fuck, fuck, fuck. So no, further than that, further than that. So true social, true social than that. It was a while. Shit, I don't know what's further than that. So I'm helping her figure out her phone while also seeing these things pop up, which I know. Oh, are not true at all. Right. And in my mind, I know the other things that these specific websites and such spew. So I know how I think I have a pretty good idea of how she views the world, right? But the fact that this old last white lady is trusting this pushing for the black man to help her shows that regardless of what it said, if you just interact with people. Yeah, you realize it ain't that bad. Now, she may go home and think to herself, he's one of the good ones, right? You know, which is inherently like the problems from some racist ideology, right? For sure. But the way I look at it is if I am one of the good ones, she might take my word. And at some point we may have to have that conversation and she may see my humanity more so than these pop ups and all that shit. So I for one, I believe that the humanity is there. But what you're saying is not is because the algorithms got you done. And breaking news from the United States where President Joe Biden has said that he is going to stand down from the presidential race and not seek reelection to the White House in November. He has said that he will step aside as a candidate. And he will focus on fulfilling his duties as president for the remainder of his term. He adds he's going to speak to the nation later about his decision. So this information has come to us via X, formerly known as Twitter, the social media platform where Joe Biden has posted a letter. It reads, my fellow Americans, over the past three and a half years, we've made great progress as a nation. Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We have made historic investments in rebuilding our nation in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors and an expanding, affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances past the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court and passed the most significant climb climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today. I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our democracy and we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world. It's been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision. For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all of those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you've placed in me. I believe today, what I always have, that there is nothing America can't do when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America. [ Silence ]