America is brought to you by Helix Look, Helix was with us early on in the early days of God Save America, John, we would have had some sleepless nights, you know, because of the stress.

But then Helix came in and we slept like babies ever since. Uh huh. You know, he likes sleep, has a quiz that takes just two minutes to complete, matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. Do you guys know that?

Of course you did. You took the quiz. Why would you buy a mattress made for someone else with you?

Because you're getting a mattress that you know will be perfect for the way you sleep. We took the Helix Quiz, three of us, yep, we all did great, who got the best score?

Oh, it's not that kind of I got booty was my thing now.

OK, now. Oh, that was mean. No different. Different quiz. Sorry. I mean, the answer is no, but yeah, he did it cool love.

It was madness at midnight. I don't know why I'm giving getting Levitt's score but love.

It was matched with Midnight Mattress because he wanted something that felt medium and immediate, you know, and he sleeps on his stomach. Just madness. Is that right. I mean your stomach and you are across and you move around all night. I do.

It's the stomach sleeper is the curse of the stomach sleeper.

Like, you know, now like, you know. Now add any natural endorsement. I love it. It's a huge upgrade over what I used to have delivery in setting up as fast and easy, soft, but still really supportive. I'm falling asleep right away.

Honestly, I read all of them because they're all true. They're all true. They're all true. From ordering to the delivery to the quiz, to the feeling of the mattress, it is a wonderful thing to fall asleep on.

So if you're looking for a mattress, you take the quiz, you order the mattress that you're matched to the mattress comes right to your door ship for free.

You never need to go to the mattress store again. He looks awesome, but you don't need to take our word for it.

He was awarded the number one best overall mattress pick of twenty twenty by GQ and Wired magazine. Just go to sleep dotcom slash cricket. Take their two minute sleep quiz and they'll match you to a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life. They have a ten year warranty and you get to try it out for one hundred nights risk free. They'll even pick it up for you if you don't love it.

But you will. Helixes offering up to two hundred dollars off our mattress orders and two free pillows for our listeners at Helix Sleep dotcom aggregate.

Welcome to Positive America, I'm John Fabara. I'm Melissa M. Monaco. Elyssa is here, Elyssa here. Elysa, why are you filling in for Dan?

Because I'm belove. No, just kidding. Because true hospital. He's at the hospital right now with Whouley. We have no news to report, but I am on the notification phone tree.

I'm at the very top, so if there's anything to report, I am allowed to report it. So we will see.

I didn't get any fucking notice about a phone tree, OK, because you're not good at that. I'm not good that. Hopefully I'll get a text from Dan though. OK, on today's show, Joe Biden announces his filibuster reform. Curious Republicans play politics with immigrant children at the border. And Elyssa and I answer some of your questions. Before we start two housekeeping notes, check out the latest season of Ana Marie Cox Show. With friends like these, which is all about forgiveness and reconciliation this season.

This week, she'll be speaking to Rebecca Traister about the accusations against Governor Cuomo. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And you must check out America's favorite new sports podcast, Take Line, which is now number one in the Apple sports charts. Some of you have already heard the first episode, which includes a really powerful and timely interview with Jeremy Lin about his NBA journey and his own experience with the racism against Asian-Americans that has exploded into thousands of violent attacks over the last year.

To talk more about that interview, as well as the deadly shooting in Atlanta this week, we are joined by one of Taglines co-hosts, Jason Concepcion. Jason, welcome to the Pod and welcome to the cricket family. We are so happy to have you and and your insanely talented co-host, Renee Montgomery on the team.

Thank you so much. It is a delight to be here. I could not be more thrilled. I could not be more thrilled to be speaking and to mix with Renee Montgomery, two time WNBA champion and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. It's been really wonderful. Thank you for having me.

Oh, it is great to have you. You are. Your interview with Jeremy Lin just happened to go out the same day as the horrific shootings in Atlanta. Why was it important to you to have that conversation about A.H. and violence and racism as part of the first episode?

Well, it's been so much a part of so many people's lives over the last, you know, couple of years, certainly since the emergence of covid and the really horrific blaming of China, which is easily conflated with anyone of Asian descent, blaming them for the emergence of this of this virus, using terminology such as kung fu, China virus, et cetera.

We've just seen attacks against Asian-Americans.

Asian people in this country explode by immense numbers, thousands of attacks documented by the AP API, among others, over the last several years. So it's just been troubling.

And then Jeremy.

Had he spoke out about a week and a half before we had him on just about his own experiences as an Asian-American in the league, the things that have been said to him on the court, someone calling him coronavirus, et cetera, and just raising awareness around that, the fact that that, you know, words matter, that there's a level of of, you know, discourse that is tolerated against Asian-Americans who traditionally have just kind of.

Being quiet about certain things that they've endured and kind of like gone about their business, but certainly it's important right now when you're seeing these violent attacks happen to just let people know that this is happening and it means to stop. I thought one of the most depressingly predictable examples of how pervasive this racism is was the BuzzFeed story about the Georgia sheriff's official who described the man who murdered six Asian women and two others as, quote, having a bad day. And then it turns out, surprise, surprise.

That cop had previously posted a picture of a T-shirt with a beer label that read covid-19 imported virus from China. What was your reaction to the shootings themselves and sort of the aftermath that unfolded yesterday?

My reaction was, you know, right before that the NYPD had just, like, announced that they were going to step up patrols in Chinatown and the various Chinatowns throughout the New York metro area.

I think Seattle had also said they were going to do the same things, some other localities that had announced that they would do the same things.

I think that what I thought was. The response to this cannot simply be.

More police in more non-white neighborhoods, you know, that's not a solution, and while I'm sure that residents of those areas drew some amount of comfort for that, the enemy and the problem is white supremacy as we see here, it's it's the immediate instinct to empathize with.

A white terrorist over the victims themselves and also like, you know, it's it's tragically humorous, also the idea that a bad day, you know, the idea that these this person is walking around all day using every ounce of his energy and concentration to not carry out racist attacks.

And then it's just, you know, some some bump in the road happens and that's just an instant and just snap and a murder might occur or several.

And the fact that, you know, the authorities are willing to couch it in those terms is just it's horrific. It's really sad. And it's unfortunately not surprising.

And I think the reveal that, you know, Deputy Baker is taking part in this.

Really awful anti Asian discourse shows that policing cannot be the the end all be all solution to this.

There are, you know, white supremacist ideology is virulent. We have seen the damage that it can do most recently at the capital. And we need to dismantle that. That needs to be dismantled piece by piece. Alison, what was your reaction to the shootings? I mean, well, it's fucking terrible, it's fucking terrible. But to Jason's point, you know, compounding the catastrophe are these press conferences, which to me, I mean, we've been through crisis comms before, either say talk about it when you know about it or just fucking hold your fire, because saying that they knew that they didn't think it was a.

. Asian violence, but that they knew he was a sex addict. It's like, why did anybody think the guy was going to cop to it being a hate crime when the penalties are ten times stiffer? Like it was just it was it was it was a tragedy compounded by a further tragedy.

Yeah. Like, no one expects you to have the legal motive nailed down at the press conference, even if the assumptions are there. But we do expect you not to just, like, run your mouth off about random facts that could shade people's perception of the crime before you actually do the investigation so loosely.

Also, guess what?

You can be racist without a conscious awareness of your motivations in any tabular area like that, taking essentially taking the murderer's word for it in that moment, less than 24 hours after the attack was just dumb and irresponsible.

Yeah.

And then more understandable when you saw the BuzzFeed story about that official was like, oh, that. Now I now I get it. Of course, Jason, you and Renee talked on the show about how sports are one of the few areas left in an extremely divided country where we can still come together. How does that inform the show you guys are looking to create with take on?

It informs it in the sense that we're going to lean into these conversations that are on the forefront of any conversation about sports these days and have always been but are just harder to ignore.

Those are conversations about racial and social justice, economic justice, labor relations, gender relations. All those conversations are part of any sports conversations.

This is a medium of force in our society that has always kind of been the the main driver of of integration of new people into mainstream American society. And, you know, as an American society becomes more fractured as we retreat into our echo chambers, as we are divided by economic lines, racial lines, etc. Increasingly these kind of like big tents like sports or, you know, big pop cultural events like, you know, Marvel movies, the comic book movies, Harry Potter, et cetera.

These these big metaphorical buckets are fascinating because this is these are increasingly at the forefront of these kind of like culture war conversations about how we relate to one another.

And that is those are conversations that Renee and I are very interested in and that we want to explore as a top line priority while talking about sports in the way that other podcast talk about sports, talking about the games, talking about player movement, et cetera. But we want to really steer into these kind of conversations.

Yeah, you know, and people on the right will say, like, why do you have to politicize sports, too?

But I thought you guys made a great point on the first episode that you would love nothing more than to just enjoy sports, have fun with sports, talk about sports. But like, sometimes there's like you announcers saying racist shit on hot mikes. Like, what are we supposed to do with that? You know, you got to talk about that shit legitimately.

What are we supposed to do? And the other thing is, and I say this all the time, but and it but it just drives me crazy. Like this idea of like keep politics out of sports. Yeah, sure. Let's keep politics out of sports. Meanwhile, you know, before every NFL game, they unfurl a two hundred foot American flag and they fly fighter jets over the stadium. And every member of, you know, represents the representatives of every member of of the military come out like there is a very specific political lens that is accepted as absolutely fine and baseline within sports commentary.

And that is expanding and that is expanding with some opposition from other people. That's right.

Jason Concepcion, thanks for stopping by the pod and thanks for joining the cricket family. Everyone go subscribe to take mine right away. It is fantastic.

Thanks for stopping by, man. Thanks for having me. All right, let's get to the news.

Elissa, I want to go through a timeline here. You tell me if anything jumps out at you, OK? Twenty twenty Democratic primary. Most of the presidential candidates come out in favor of eliminating the filibuster. Joe Biden says no. Let's keep it summer. Twenty twenty. Barack Obama says the filibuster is a Jim Crow relic. Joe Biden still supports the filibuster. Twenty twenty one bunch of Democratic senators come out in favor of killing the filibuster. Joe Manchin, filibusters.

Fiercest defender says maybe it's time for a talking filibuster. White House says no change from Biden just yet.

This week, one of Politico's nightly newsletters leads with a big story about Crooked Media's brand new Abolish the Filibuster T-shirt that very night. We get this clip.

Aren't you going have to choose between preserving the filibuster and advancing your agenda? Yes, but here's the choice.

I don't think you have to eliminate the filibuster. You have to do it. What it used to be when I first got to the Senate, and that is in a filibuster, you had to stand up and command the floor once you stop talking. You lost that and someone could move in and say, I move the question of so you got to work for the filibuster. So you're for that reform. You're for bringing back the talking filibuster. I am.

That's what it was supposed to be. Just put a hold on it. That's it.

Yeah, it almost is getting to the point where democracy is having a hard time functioning. I'm not saying this is going to be easy, George, but I do believe there's enough Republicans over time.

They haven't had that epiphany you said you were going to see in the corner. Well, I've only been here six weeks, pal. OK, give me a break. But six weeks, I think the epiphany is going to come between now and twenty twenty two.

Do we get results or do we get results? OK, Father Crooked Mirch changes hearts and minds. That is no malarkey.

So that was something. How significant do you think what Biden said to Stephanopoulos about the filibuster is?

I mean, look, it is Joe Biden is nothing if not true to his principles. Right. And I think that he has finally seen. The Republicans may not be on the level, don't want to find common ground, and we're not going to get anything done unless. You blow up the filibuster.

I actually thought that the most revealing part of that answer was not even when he started talking about the talking filibuster, but his very direct yes to George when George said, are you going to have to choose between your agenda and the filibuster?

Which shows me that, like what you just said, he finally gets it, that like there is Bieber fever is not breaking.

Fever is not breaking.

Barack Obama in 2012 used to tell us that he is going to break if he won the 2012 election. We were like, yeah, sure, I guess now did not break. And now, 10 years later, almost 10 years later, it still has not broken. It was interesting to me. The White House this morning went even further than Biden.

In that Stephanopoulos interview, Kate Bedingfield said to NBC's Holly Jackson, The White House won't allow progress and benefits to the American people to get held hostage. There are going to be conversations on process and they are open to discussion.

So you've got to wonder, is this really a further iteration, is this a shot across the bow? That's like if you don't Republicans find God soon, I'm actually going to do this. You know, I don't want to do it. I've made it clear to all of America I don't want to have to do this. But, you know, we might just have to do this because you're hurting the American people just because you're assholes. I know.

I think it's a shot across the bow. Republicans. I also think it's I wonder I wonder what the conversations are like between the White House and mansion and cinema and some of and it's not just the two of them. We bring them up all the time because they're the most public. There's a couple other Democratic senators who are on the fence about this. I wonder what kind of conversations the White House is having with these senators. And I also wonder and I've wondered up to this point whether the White House thinks it is more productive to push these senators publicly and to be out in front on this filibuster debate or if they sort of want to hang back because they think that them pressuring these senators publicly will actually hurt their cause Will.

And now you've got someone like Dick Durbin, who has been full throated in his support of change, who is part of this new Gang of 20, which is like half the Senate at this point of senators bipartisan, who want to talk about the filibuster. So, you know, as we know, this all happens in the Senate. And, you know, they have to the senators have to be the ones to take the action. But I mean, Fab's.

It's time.

It's time.

So there are there are a few different versions of the talking filibuster. And we are not sure which kind Manchin or Biden would support would mention speaks. You have to be a you have to be a Manchin ologist and really sort of just like detect every word and sort of unpack it all.

So some versions of the talking filibuster are nothing. Well, so let's go let's go through them.

Right. There's one version where senators who want to filibuster have to make sure at least one senator is on the floor speaking at all times. You could tag out with that senator, take turns, do little tag teaming. But as long as one senator is talking at all times, they could sustain the filibuster. So that seems fairly easy to sustain. Just one person talk and then you switch them out when they get tired. Biden seemed to be suggesting to George a version where the senators can't take turns filibustering and that the filibuster ends when one senator just gets tired of talking, because when that happens, another senator from the other side can say point of order, whatever, some procedure, and then that that stops them.

And then Senator Jeff Merkley has another proposal where all 41 senators in the minority have to be on the floor at all times in order to sustain the filibuster. So instead of 60 votes to break the filibuster, you need forty one votes to keep it going.

That would mean everyone who's against that piece of legislation, like if the Republicans decided to filibuster H.R. one forty one Republican senators would have to be on the floor at all times.

Now, Elysa, as someone who has worked with and schedule these little Senate monsters, which version or versions, if any, do you think could actually weaken the filibuster?

So the one I think that would weaken the filibuster is the one that Biden well, there, too, I think the one where it can just be the one senator on the floor, which I think is and Biden is speaking from experience because I think that this is the filibuster that existed in 1973 when he came to the Senate, which is, if you're so pissed off, go down and keep talking. And when you're done talking, you can I think it's called move to the question.

And that's that's the version with the 40 members of the minority or whatever it is who have to remain on the floor is also kind of a delicious and interesting option. But I think that mostly because, you know, how bad they all want to go home on the weekend.

Well, that's what I'm saying. Can you imagine trying to keep her? Imagine if you were like Mitch McConnell's office. Right. And you're trying to figure out how to get 41 members of your caucus on the floor in perpetuity until I guess the Democrats get tired.

It's basically a game of chicken. I think that's pretty hard to do. That's pretty hard.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think either of those being able to tag in and out is just hot trash.

Yeah, that's I think that's not going to work. There's another one, too, that's called three fifths present in voting. So that would mean that if all 50 Democrats showed up to call for the end of debate to move to a simple majority vote to end the filibuster, Republicans would need thirty four to show up and stop them. So basically, you need three fifths of the number of senators in the chamber present and voting, which is sort of like the forty one on the floor thing.

I think one of those versions would be good. The question is, does Manchin support one of those versions? He has said to reporters so far, I'm I want to get to 60. I want 60. I want 60. You can make an argument that you're still getting to 60 if you do the flip side and say, OK, forty one have to be on the floor. So I think Manchin still playing fast and loose there and he's still amenable to these.

But we'll see.

I also think that Manchin, like, here's the thing. Do I want to believe that he is opening his heart and mind to the idea of this? I do. I also think that he doesn't want to be ratio it on social media or his phone lines blow up.

So let's just say the proof shall be in the pudding.

Also, there is a good argument to be made that Joe Manchin is more powerful in a Senate where there is no filibuster because it looks powerful. Joe Manchin was on the American rescue plan where he needed to be the fiftieth vote, and so he could basically tell the White House whatever he wanted in that package. If we're going to require 60 votes, there's going to be one more reconciliation bill that gets done and nothing else. So suddenly, Joe Manchin is exactly isn't that powerful anymore.

So he actually gets more power by reforming the filibuster. This is all going to appease listening.

Joe Manchin listens to every part of this is so this is all going to come to a head soon. Chuck Schumer said this week that he's putting H.R. one before the people act on the Senate floor for debate, hopefully a vote. Joe Manchin said he will not accept a carve out for voting rights legislation like H.R. one. So he's still for the 60 vote threshold. That's what he's saying.

But Mitch McConnell must not believe Joe Manchin because that guy had a complete meltdown on the Senate floor this week. He threatened to retaliate against the Democrats if they get rid of the filibuster by grinding the Senate to a halt. And then he threatened to pass a slew of right wing policy priorities if Republicans win Congress and the presidency again. Here's a clip.

Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin. Can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched earth summit would look like, everything that Democrats did to President Bush and Trump, everything that Republican Senate did to President Obama.

Would be child's play compared to the disaster the Democrats would create for their own priorities if. If. They break the Senate as Senate Republicans wound up back in the saddle. We wouldn't just race every liberal change that hurt the country. We'd strengthen America with all kinds of conservative policies with zero zero input from the other side. How about this nationwide right to work for working Americans, defunding Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities on day one, sweeping new protections for conscience and the right to life of the unborn concealed carry reciprocity in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

He sounds like a fun guy to grab a beer with Jesus Christ.

You have a drink with Mitch McConnell, you have a drink with Mitch McConnell.

So I thought Talking Points Memo had a great headline about this, which was McConnell threatens to grind Senate to halt if Democrats don't let him keep the power to grind Senate to a halt.

Right.

I mean, also, you've been in charge for four years. The fuck did you do?

I mean, like, he he he has gone scorched earth already, so I'm not real scared of his threats.

Well, there is there's that, of course, also like it is an empty threat.

And I think he understands that because at one point in the speech, he said, oh, if I grind the Senate to the halt, I suppose the Democrats could just change the rules.

Again, what Mitch McConnell realizes as someone who understands the Senate very well, is that when you were in the majority, you have the power and you can change the rules if Democrats are willing to blow up the filibuster.

And then Mitch McConnell does a whole bunch of procedural moves to grind the Senate to the halt, Democrats will change those rules to and continue to pass it, which, by the way, is why, you know, back in the day when people were like, oh, Democrats should try to grind the Senate to the halt when we don't like something Republicans are doing when we're in the minority, we really don't have that power.

There's only so much power you can have in the minority. You don't really have power to grind the Senate to a halt. You do. But the majority could just pass a rule that overrules whatever stunt that you're pulling. That's whoever is majority has.

The power is where it comes down to. It's very true, and he really just reveals himself as the bitch baby he is, it's baby. How's the baby?

How worried are you about his threat to pass a bunch of right wing policies with simple majorities if Republicans gain power again? I notice he talked about defunding Planned Parenthood. He talked about abortion restrictions. I have heard from Democratic senators, staff on the Hill. One of the reasons that a lot of sort of longtime Democratic senators who may be more liberal and more progressive are nervous about this, is that they believe that for so long the filibuster has protected precisely things like funding for Planned Parenthood and abortion restrictions.

So you can't help but not be a little concerned, at least right. On the one hand, Planned Parenthood is popular. Roe v. Wade is popular.

Yeah, a lot of these don't forget, you know, this would ultimately have to involve the house at some point.

And a lot of a lot of GOP members are going to be loathe to vote against Planned Parenthood because it provides the health care to a lot of fucking people in their districts. You know, they like to paint in McConnell's rhetoric. He loves to blow up this like Planned Parenthood equals abortion, people who live in places now that Planned Parenthood equals fucking health care. So I think that he would have a hard fight. In a debate about, well, woman exams, cancer screenings, birth control, health care, et cetera, also the thing that's kind of funny, not to be a basic bitch, but he didn't really pass that much legislation when he was in power.

Like he he he did pass two trillion in tax cuts and then he just ramrodded judges.

And so both of which both of which he could do with with a 50 vote margin, that's the Republican priorities are tax cuts, gutting spending, confirming judges, all frames that you can do with just 51 votes and not 60.

Exactly. So, you know, his threat sounds great in newsletters and on television, but I will not be bullied by Mitch McConnell. Good.

And to your first point about just stuff not being popular, like, let's also remember what he tried to do with 51 votes and not 60, which was to destroy the Affordable Care Act. And the reason he couldn't do it is because it was too popular. He couldn't get enough Republican votes.

Exactly.

And I think like so, you know, if you want to defund Planned Parenthood, you've got to count on Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and a bunch of other Republican senators who have voted consistently in favor of funding Planned Parenthood. So I think it's exactly and that's a hard vote.

It's hard. But look, there is we've said this before. There's risks, obviously, to getting rid of the filibuster. But I think when you weigh the risks of, OK, what would happen if Republicans had the presidency, the Senate in the House, what would they do with no filibuster if you weigh that risk with OK, well, if we have the filibuster in place, like we're we're never getting to 60 Democratic senators probably for the next decade at least.

So there is no world where we get 60 Democratic senators and just pass whatever we want. So, Ben, we're basically thinking that the Republican Party is going to completely change and there's going to be a bunch of moderate Republican senators who work with us. I don't think that's fucking happening either. So there's no other choice. There's either like gridlock and obstruction for as long as we're alive or we do something about the fucking filibuster.

I mean, that's where I come down. It's time I'm with you. All right. You're with us. Let's do this. Where should we we ought to send the White House to abolish the filibuster T-shirts just to.

I will not be happy until we see George Stephanopoulos and Joe Biden doing a, you know, a catch up interview, both wearing their march on the South Lawn.

Yes, that's what we're fighting for here.

Party America is brought to by Bev, Bev is a female first canned wine brand that was founded to change not only the way a product is consumed, but the way an industry and culture have operated for generations.

Bev's mission is rooted in taking charge of your choices and responsibilities and giving a voice to those who've been historically silenced in an industry that is almost exclusively masculine, that is breaking norms and creating something from the female perspective that is approachable, fun and consumer centric.

They have five varietals Rosie, Surve, Block, Peno, Guri. Which is different, which is no different, yes, right, a different guy, a different language, a different.

I was utilizing Twitter for this because of buying some Old Yeller LA from the summer between my sophomore, my junior year in college when I had a job as a room service delivery boy.

So Pinot Grigio, same thing, different languages. I just I feel I didn't know that Pinot Noir now that something different, something else, as well as a limited edition, extra fizzy, sparkling white wine.

Delicious.

I love the rosé. I also love the South Block. What about you guys?

Whenever I hear Pinot Noir, I think of of that Tim and Eric thing where John C. Reilly was like peanut noir.

I like the SVP. It's in the blue. Can I believe put back a few.

Come back a few of those on the beach. No problem.

SBB. Thanks, Tommy. Thanks. Their minds are dry, crisp and a little fuzzy. Super refreshing and delicious.

Do you think they enjoy us saying little fuzzy?

They have zero sugar and only three carbs and 100 calories per serving.

Should it be fizzy? Oh, yeah, definitely. Let's see. I assumed it was fizzy. I don't want anything fuzzy.

It's been a long day. Little.

Oh yeah. You have. Do you should I actually, I'm curious how your day went.

What's that call you guys after was that they have zero zero just dragged it. They have zero sugar and only three carbs in one hundred calories per serving. Perfect for new year goals like cutting back on sugar or drinking.

Bev makes it easy to have a glass of wine and not overindulge. The cans may look cute and tiny, but each skin is a glass and a half of wine. Perfect for when you don't want to open a bottle of wine just for yourself. Twenty four pack is equal to eight bottles of wine. Just that's something that we needed to let you all know. Twenty four pack, eight bottles of wine.

Therefore packs are great for gifting, hosting and social distance hangs. Or maybe not special distance hangs if you're both vaccinated.

According to the CDC ship straight to your door and shipping is always free.

We have worked out an exclusive deal for Of America podcast. Listeners receive twenty percent off your first purchase, plus free shipping on all orders.

I suggest trying their best selling ladies night variety pack so you can check out all their delicious varietals.

Go to drink Bev Dotcom slash cricket or use code cricket at checkout to claim this deal that's dry and B.V. Dotcom Slash Cricket.

This episode of Pottsy America's Brides Buy Public Goods, the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients at an affordable price. Everything from coffee to toilet paper and shampoo to pet food. Public Goods is your new Everything store, thoughtfully designed for the conscious consumer. Rather than buying from a bunch of single product brands, public goods members can buy all of their premium essentials in one place with one beautiful, streamlined aesthetic. They ethically sourced and obsessively develop each of their products to be free of unhealthy ingredients and harmful additives still common on drug and grocery store shelves.

They're committed to making their products healthy and safe for humans, animals and the environment.

What haven't I used from public goods? Use their shampoo, use their soap, use their lip balm. I got anyone unless you get the trash bag. I got some coffee filters. It's quite a variety of goods that you can get from public goods. And it's a wonderful shopping experience on the website.

And they're Ramin is good to us. Thank you.

So they use a membership model to keep costs low and they pass on even more savings to their customers. Best of all, you can make your first purchase with no obligation to plant one tree for every order placed and incorporate sustainability into every part of the company. Join hundreds of thousands of others who switch to their new Everything store.

We worked out an exclusive deal just for Positive America podcast listeners receive fifteen dollars off your first public goods order with no minimum purchase. That's right.

They're so confident that you will absolutely love their products and come back again and again that they're giving you 15 dollars to spend on your first purchase.

You've got nothing to lose. Just go to public goods. Dotcom's slash crooked or use crook at a checkout.

That's publi c goddess dot com forward slash crooked to receive fifteen dollars off your first order.

Let's talk about the situation on the southwest border. I'm calling a situation and not a crisis just to piss off Republicans and White House reporters. Here is what's going on.

Every spring for many years, thousands of migrant families from Central America arrive at our border. Some apply for asylum. Some just cross over and get apprehended. Many are children 17 or under who are traveling by themselves. And this year, the Biden administration says they expect more families and children to arrive at our border than at any time in two decades because of the dangerous and often deadly conditions in their home countries.

I believe that you were still deputy chief of staff at the White House during the 2014 surge of unaccompanied minors. Can you talk about the challenge facing the Bush administration based on sort of your own experience with this? You know, because some people might hear this and say, what's the problem? Just grant these kids asylum and send them on their way.

Right. So, I mean, this is it's the toughest of the tough right. Because, first of all, let's just level set for a sec that kids who arrive at the border unaccompanied are not doing so because it was fucking easy, because I mean, these are people who face the most sort of catastrophic challenges in their home where they come from. So but once they get there, what do you do with them? They need to be housed.

They need to be cared for. They need to be hopefully united with someone in the country, you know, who can accept them and take charge of them.

And so it's really hard.

I mean, there's nothing else to say. It's just it's really fucking hard. There are laws, first of all.

Right, legally, you can't just let let children go. Right. So what?

So let's talk about the Trump administration was doing. The Trump administration was turning everyone away. Right. So they were using and they were using this sort of pandemic regulation to turn away adults and children, all of them, everyone who got to the border. The Bush administration is still using that pandemic regulation to and that policy to turn a lot of the adults away.

But the children, they're saying we're not going to turn children away like the Trump administration did. OK, so that's not going to turn the children away. So what do you do legally? You cannot just turn the children loose in the country, even if there was no law. Imagine just like an eight year old showing up at the border, checks in with the border guard and he said, OK, see you later. Have a good time. That's horrific, right?

So then when horrific, you have to hold the children somewhere.

They are being held at the at the Border Patrol facilities, which are horrific and not a place to hold children or anyone really for a long, long time. The reason they're being held there is because the facility is run by health and Human Services are completely full, partly because of pandemic restrictions, partly just because there's a surge of migrants. And so there's just they're overrun.

So and the reason they're all being held is because you have to call to force a lot of these kids, show up with a phone number of someone or relative who who is in the United States somewhere. You have to call that relative if you're the government and then you have to vet that relative to make sure it is a safe home for the children. Because one thing that was happening before that was a requirement is sometimes we were placing children. And this is like years and years and years ago before Obama even we were placing children with relatives who were horrible people or people who said they were relatives and they were actually smugglers.

So you can't you have to be it's the government making sure that the kids are in good conditions. So that's taking time. So there are not enough there's not enough room at the facilities. The facilities are getting overcrowded. It is there's not enough staff to just literally call the relatives and find good placement for the children. So it's a fucking mess. Right. But it's also a mess. It's a mess.

But also, it's like the Biden administration has been here six weeks. The Trump administration completely dismantled the entire asylum system. They left them a fucking disaster at the border.

So literally, it's just about the Biden administration building facilities as fast as they can, improving the conditions as fast as they can, hiring people to both place the children and to look at the asylum applications and process the asylum applications because there's a backlog a mile long.

Well, and that's the thing, is that that's what's so, as usual, disingenuous about how it's being covered is that we are where we are now because the Trump administration did everything they could to tear apart every ounce of infrastructure there was to deal with the problem. Something that has really been a fucking bee in my bonnet for a long time was a very important piece of this puzzle is the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

And during the Trump administration, do you know who ran the Office of Refugee Resettlement? He's a fuck.

That guy named Scott Lloyd, whose qualification for the job was having worked at the Knights of Columbus before he got it and used this position where you should be resettling refugees, so many of whom are children to enforce is like anti-abortion. He like had. The Journal of Tracking Women's Periods, a fucking lunatic terror. So so here we are now. Even that organization that's meant to deal with this problem was literally raised. It was burned to the ground. And so now Joe Biden has put in Cindy Huang, who is a she came from Refugees International.

Right. Celenk, the thing that everybody has to understand is that, yes, it's bad and the images on television are terrible, but they are moving as fast as humanly possible to try to. I mean, they have Fima down there now. They have HHS employees down at the border helping to register people faster to help with intake. You know, and FEMA is literally treating this like a crisis. Mind you, FEMA, the money Donald Trump robbed from FEMA to buy his wall and now FEMA is here solving the problem.

So, yeah, and look, none of this is to excuse the Biden administration. No excuse the Obama administration when it was up to like it's just that like I think because Trump was so such a fucking monster on immigration, it obscured the fact that even if he wasn't a monster, he would have had to deal with some pretty intractable challenges at the border.

That would have been hard for any president, even of good intentions to deal with.

Exactly. And that is actually exactly what we're seeing right now.

A president who has good intentions, the administration has good intentions, still having a real hard time because we have a fucking broken immigration system that's messed up. So like, you know, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, you know, he just he finally confirmed and he talked about sort of what we can do about this, what the administration wants to do about this long term. Right now, it's just sort of solving the problem for triage.

Right? So you want to invest in Central American countries and create new pathways for people to apply from afar.

So this is a big one. So if you're we want to let a lot of these young people know who are coming here or families, if you want to apply for asylum in America, that's great. Don't make the dangerous trek through Mexico to America. Apply for asylum in your home country. That, again, is a big process, takes a lot of work to send that message, to make sure they get that message, that they have access to doing that, but that that takes a long speeding up processing so asylum claimants aren't left just like roam around the country and kids could get transferred to guardians faster.

So you just need more staff, just something very basic. You need more staff and then you need to have more humane and bigger facilities to temporarily house children. Why they're waiting to get placed either with the relative or in foster care.

So that's that's the path out of this. But all of that takes time. And the other big challenge for Biden and why they don't have time is because there's a political challenge here. Right? Here's House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at an event on the border with a bunch of his Republican goons.

We asked him, which countries are people coming from Yemen, Iran? Sri Lanka. That's what's coming across and they're finding they even talked about Chinese as well. Oh, they oh, they even talked about Chinese as well.

Also, sir, Lanka, that nice, nice things that the fact that the name of the country asshole.

So so this is what we're going to hear for the next two years.

Joe Biden is letting covid positive terrorist immigrants into the country so they can pick up their mail in ballots and their stimulus checks and and their vaccines right out of the arms of the elderly that write like this is the this is the perfect storm of demagoguery for Republicans. How do you think Democrats should handle this? And how does it sort of affect the overall politics of immigration reform?

I mean, look, Kevin McCarthy is so fucking gross. You know, I mean, he's been around for the last four years because he also, aside from saying that all immigrants were terrorists, he was also like, this is so heartbreaking. OK, well, which is it, Kevin? Like. And the thing is, like the people who want to believe him are like, yeah, it is heartbreaking. And yet they are also terrorists. Right.

So, I mean, I think you just can't like we just have to put him in a box. I mean, like like I know that my answer is always like, just don't listen to him. But, you know, we need immigration reform in a big way. And, you know, he says it's a problem, but you only solve the problem with reform. And they don't want that either.

I mean, I think your point about how he's both very harsh on immigrants and also saying it's heartbreaking sort of gets to a larger point about public opinion on immigration that he's trying to exploit, which is like public opinion on immigration in this country is fairly complicated. Like you have huge majorities of the public in support of protecting dreamers. You have a majority in favor of a pathway to citizenship. You have huge majorities in favor of like never separating families. Right.

So that's where people are on the side of immigrants. You also have majorities that want more border security. You have a majority that doesn't want to decriminalize border crossings. You have a majority that does think we should deport some of the more dangerous undocumented people, that we shouldn't just have open borders. Right. So that public opinion on this is is mixed. And I think that Republicans are just going to look at this and say, oh, well, what people watching from home think is that it's a fucking mess.

A mess is going to redound to the person in charge. And that's Joe Biden. So we have to do is just talk about the mess. We don't have to be ideological. Immigrants are bad. We're sad for the children. Whatever it is, we're just going to pray on that and exploit people's emotions over this. Exactly.

I mean, they saw the. Over the past four years, they saw what Donald Trump did, they saw the race baiting, the build, the wall, all of this stuff, and he got people all hopped up about it and they were like, here's the thing. We're very intellectually lazy. And so we're just going to ride that wave for as long as we can because, I mean, if they wanted to, there is a lot of common ground here and they just don't want to find it.

No.

Well, look, I think the instinct of some Democrats is to shy away from this fight in this topic and sort of hope it goes away because they know that the politics of immigration can be fraught.

But my advice on that would be like it's not going to go away. First of all, it's not the right thing to do to avoid it, because it's an incredibly important problem and we should want to solve it. And we have a good immigration reform proposal and we should fight for it.

But even if you think the politics are bad, it's not going away. The Republicans are going to make this the issue. Fox News is going to make it an issue. The media's going to make it an issue. And so, you know, Cecilia Munoz always talked about this. She was at the White House and sort of ran immigration for us for a very long time, has been an activist for a long time. She said that Democrats should position themselves as the people who can fix a broken system, like, yeah, that's what people and I think that's what the Bush administration is to like.

We don't have time for the politics that the Republicans are going to play on this. They're going to exploit fear. They're going to exploit division. We just want an orderly, safe, humane immigration system in this country. And we're going to try to do it. That's right.

Perhaps. Yes, we are. Party America is brought to you by tax base, this pandemic seems to ruin just about everything, right? Travel plans, birthdays, weddings, you name it feels like our lives have been disrupted in every way possible, big and small. All those little ways we used to celebrate and make memories seem like they're never coming back.

Dark, dark. Don't be so down to space. I think they're coming back. But anyway, your therapist is there to listen and help see the bright spots. Even on the bad days, I wholeheartedly recommend Taxpayers for Therapy. You can sign up online and start therapy the same day you sign up. You could text video or send voice messages to your license therapist. So it's incredibly convenient to have virtual sessions from the comfort of your home town. Space has thousands of licensed therapists with years of experience in over 40 specialties, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, trauma, anger management, relationship issues, food and eating and so much more.

As listen to this podcast. You'll get one hundred dollars off your first month with tax base to match with a licensed therapist. Today, go to Tocks Face.com or download the app. Make sure to use the code cricket to get a hundred dollars off your first month and show your support for the show. That's cricket and text based dotcom.

Pozza America's Broady by simply safe. Here's some advice for anyone who showers.

I hope that's all of you. Don't buy a home security system unless you know for a fact that your privacy is protected. That's why Part-Timer recommends simply safe home security. Simply safe takes protecting your privacy as seriously as it does protecting your home. That's good. The simply safe security camera has a stainless steel privacy shutter built in.

It only opens when you want it to support. The stainless steel shutter is bright, reflective and loud, so you can see and hear when it opens and closes even from across the room. You can even control it directly from your phone because simply safe is so easy to set up. You never have to let a stranger into your home.

There's no wires, which is nice. You don't want wires and wires.

You just place the sensors on walls and shelves throughout your home. Simply safes. Trained specialist can help you decide where to put your sensors without ever entering your home. You can customize your system and get a privacy camera for free. When you go to simply safe dotcom of cricket, that's simply safe Dotcom's cricket.

All right, let's take some of the questions we received from all of you, we got so many questions, it's just hard to hard to sift through. I'm going to try to just like Cruz.

Look, I was like, which ones do we do?

Well, you should throw some out if I have missed some. But don't worry. I will particularly, Joe. Great. Great. All right. Meghan via Twitter asks, Should Biden team take small bites on tax and immigration instead of a full swing fix, carried interest, capital gains, corporate tax rate, fixed dreamers and in some immigration aspects, instead of doing like sort of big, big reforms, what do you think?

I don't know. I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, you know me. I'm a bull in a china shop. I like to go big. However, however, when I think back well, I mean, I don't know, Fab's I'm a little torn.

I mean, I think that when we go back to when we were in the White House, you know, sometimes forcing the Republicans to go on record for all of the smaller issues there is, there is merit to that.

You know, I mean, the DREAM Act did not pass the first time. It did pass the second time after Republicans went home and got kind of killed because they were like, the fuck, you don't want to take care of the kids who have been here, like, what's wrong with you? But I don't know. I'm very torn on this one. What do you think?

I think you go big and then you take what you can get.

And, you know, I mean, look, I am surprised that we ended up with a one point nine trillion dollar package because when Biden proposed one point nine trillion, I thought that was the starting point.

I even thought of like, oh, Manchin is going to try to take him down to some smaller amount than this.

And he went big and he got it. So, like, if people in the White House had thought instead of going out with one point nine, let's go out with what we think we can get, which is three one four super good.

We would have lost the couple hundred billion dollars, you know, so you can't you don't know until you try. You know, we lost on the minimum wage. But, you know, now that we lost on 15, could you put a group of people together to get 11?

To get 12, something like that. Thirteen? Yeah, that's not good enough, but I take that over nothing.

So I agree with you. OK, so Alaska Avery asks, I'm confused about the tax credit for kids.

How have they changed it? Is it the same money just split up through the year?

OK, go for it. Do you know Duduk. I do. I go. I know some of it but go for it. I don't.

OK, so the last child tax credit was two thousand dollars per child under the age of 17. Right. That's the old. Here's the new.

The new is now three thousand dollars per child under seventeen thousand six hundred dollars per child under six and you can get half of it in advance from the IRS between June and December, which is pretty cool, which is pretty cool.

Did I get it right? You did get it right. And yeah, because it's fully refundable now. So if they used to be a minimum earning, so you had to earn at least so much money to qualify for the tax credit, which left out a lot of really poor families who probably need it the most. So there's no minimum now.

So everyone qualifies because the thing used to be all. If you don't pay taxes, you don't get the credit. Now, if you don't pay income taxes, you don't get the credit. Now, if you don't pay income taxes, you still get the credit.

You know, Chris Hayes described this better than anyone I thought, which was just this is Social Security for kids. These are social politics.

That's a great way to look at it. I thought it was great. CEO, Alaska. Avery, it's a complicated issue.

There you go, Jack.

Versity asks, How can Midwest Democrats in states like South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, et cetera, get back to making some headway? Having a D next to a candidate seems to be a guaranteed L in these states lately, don't you think?

OK, so there like a lot of answers to this question, I think here's mine. I think that Democrats need to start super, super local because I think that there is so much more common ground at the local level than when you start talking, just like national politics. National politics can be so polarizing. But so I think in those states, they have to make sure that they're running as many Democrats as they can at the local level. This is how you bring communities sort of like into the process.

And yeah, that's I just noticed, like up here in upstate New York, it's very purple already where I live. And our assembly person is a is a Democrat. And she says that that's just like when you talk about.

Funding libraries and schools and stuff, it's it's just much less polarizing and people start to believe, you know, she now has Republicans who come up to her and say, like, we're not that bad. And so I said, well, I love local. That's that's the only way to do it.

It's to play in all 50 states, to play in small towns. And, you know, this is easier said than done, like you have to find here to find Democrats in these areas who are willing to do that, who are willing to both organize, talk to their neighbors.

And if you're one of the Democrats asking the questions and one of those states, it can be you, right? Like you. You can be the person who organizes a committee meeting. You can be the person that runs for a small local office to start. Right. Like you can build up the Democratic Party in your area with your own neighbors. But it's got to it's got to start somewhere. I also think that, you know, South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, those are those are tough states to flip.

Those are going to be some of the toughest states to flip.

I think there are some states where no state was probably as primed as Georgia to flip because of Arizona, because of sort of demographic changes and and migration patterns and stuff like that.

But there are other states where there are sort of urban areas in red states that are growing that if more people move there, they kept growing. And we know the Democrats win in urban areas like you could start seeing those states get competitive like Alaska.

Right. Alaska is like people are moving to Anchorage. Right. And the more people move in Anchorage, the more blue it gets. Montana, right. There's a reason we still have John Tester in the Senate from a red state, like more people moving to Bozeman. Right. Because they like the outdoors. And you and you're getting a lot of this from like big congested cities on the coasts. People are deciding to start moving into the interior of the country.

So, you know, maybe a little maybe a little strategy. And where all the young lives move would be all the young urban professionals would be helpful. I'd like to say that Aaron and I forecasted this the political, which is that we are at the beginning of covid, that people were going to start moving and places might get a little more purple, a little more purple where people start moving.

They'd be so sweet. Rio Fernandez asks, This is for you. Why are so many Democrats still so spooked about advocating for legalizing marijuana? It pulls around sixty five percent in favor. Seems like an easy and popular issue to jump on.

Who are people still spooked? I guess people.

I couldn't fucking agree more here. No, here's what I think. Actually, this is very controversial, what I'm about to say.

I think more Democrats who are in charge of legislation need to actually try weed.

Oh, that's I think that one. I think that they have never done it. I think they don't understand it. I think they should all take trips to grow facilities. I think they should all talk to, like, very ill people who have used to and who have made it, who have who have, you know, really been helped in cancer and other things, which is granted medical marijuana is legal in many other places, but there are so many conditions that aren't covered under medical that are also so bent like benefit from it.

And also fundamentally it's taxes.

People have the money that states make. It is insane, the taxes that you can get from legalizing weed, you can reform major systems, we're talking billions of dollars in California and Colorado. I think weed is like the fourth biggest cash crop in the world. So mostly I think they're scared. I think they all smoked a joint in college and they were freaked out. And like, this is terrible. I also think, you know, there was a lot of damage done during, you know, dare to get kids off drugs and the war on drugs back in the 80s, which has stuck with people.

Right. But I just think that if you really fundamentally look at legalizing weed holistically, not just making it legal to buy, but getting people out of jail who sold it, making sure that those folks have ways back into society, making the weed industry equitable, making they're making there be equity and equality, actually, so that the fucking weed industry doesn't look like Silicon Valley. No offense, white dudes, but, you know, I just think that I think they're all just a little scared.

I think it really just comes down to that, that they're a little worried to go out and be like, I support weed. It's like, let me tell you, if you don't, eventually the ghost of Jerry Garcia will find you.

I think it's a great idea to have them all try it. I do think we should start them off smoking low microdots.

We should not have them do like the Maureen Dowd.

I'm going to have a whole chocolate bar edible and then write a column and she did real damage. Fucking does that. Don't don't follow me on Instagram. Yeah. How to do it.

Don't eat the whole chocolate bar members of Congress as you're contemplating marijuana legalization.

That's our that is our advice to you know, Stacey Kitchin asks love that you two are doing the pot together. What's your favorite memory while traveling?

I feel like those are OK. This is this is top of mind for me. Do you have one top of mind?

No, I was I was counting on you because my my memory is so horrible and all the foreign trips blend together.

But you start talking and then maybe it'll jog something for OK, so I have one that is just my favorite because you and I, despite the fact that I'm like seven years older than you, I think we were always treated like the kids.

Right. Like always treated like the kids.

And so you and I were in Singapore. Oh I Shangrila.

So this is one of the ones I thought about actually. OK, good.

I'm glad you're OK.

And so we're at the Shangri-La Hotel and as we love beautiful hotel, beautiful hotel and beautiful and we have a Harvey Wallbanger.

He wasn't giving any speeches. He was like doing a bunch of bilad. So like, I had nothing to do. I was like, Ben Rhodes is the important person with the photos. And I was just chillin.

This is and the thing that was just very funny about Singapore, I think we were there for a conference. Right. So some of us had less to do than others. So you and I text, do you want to meet down for breakfast? So we go downstairs to meet for breakfast and who is there? But Pete Rouse, our boss since the beginning of Obamaland and Valerie Jarrett were eating breakfast and they're like, come eat with us.

So you and I sit down and look, Pete and Valerie were like mostly professionally dressed for work. You and I were, I think, in sweatpants. And we sit down with them. Pete and Vijay already had a little bit of breakfast. I'm like, let's go take a tour.

And you and I find there is a chocolate fountain in the middle of the breakfast buffet.

I really do. This is crazy. There's a chocolate fountain.

I definitely got something in the chocolate fountain. And we go back we go back to the table and we sit down and Hillary Clinton comes over. She's got her pony to her hair in a ponytail and a scrunchie. She says good morning to us. You and I start feasting on our on our plates. And Pete Rouse, without missing a beat, looks at us and he's like, if you two don't want people treating you like fucking kids, you might want to skip the chocolate.

The buffet forgot. Like prosperity, but we finished our chocolate chip pineapple like it was very fair, I do you know what had happened the night before to me and that was that.

No, vaguely. Vaguely. I went out because we had the hotel where the president was staying and like all the stuff there, and then the press stays at a different hotel, like usually across town. But like all the press staff was with the press. And that's like, you know, Nick Shapiro was there. And Tommy, you know, my friends, was like, I'm going to go out with them tonight to bars in Singapore. So I went out with them.

I remember leaving Nick Shapiro at a bar because I was like, I got to go home. I got to go to sleep. I get in a car to go home.

I did not have you were supposed to have a lanyard with a bad for the for the Asian conference we were at.

Right. The Asian countries conference that we were at and Southeast Asia, and that's what it was called.

So is that where the ASEAN conference and I didn't have my badge. So I get there and there's a perimeter around the hotel, a security perimeter, and the cab drops me off there and I go up to the security perimeter and I just proudly have my Secret Service pin because I thought that's all I needed. And they said, no, no, you need the badge.

And like, I don't have the badge, 10 guys surround me with guns and they say, please give us your passport immediately. And so I give him my passport.

They walk off down the road to the hotel, which is like half a mile away with my passport. I'm like, fuck, now I'm sitting here in Singapore with guys having guns trained on me and I don't have my passport. So it's like and it's like 2:00 in the morning. So now the only thing I could think of is to email the White House people at the White House thinking they would be up because the time difference in DC and Faryal, someone at the White House got in touch with Faryal, who is the president's personal assistant at the time, and she told the guys who I was and came out and got me because someone from the White House got in touch with her, that it was dicey.

It was the reason I remember that story is because I was very clear with everybody before we got off Air Force One that this was not a joke, that we were being given credentials, that we had to have our credentials and was everybody listening to me and everyone was like, I'm listening to you. So the best was you didn't tell me what happened. Rhodes was like, umm, did you hear what happened with Fab's last night? Of course Daleville had.

I mean I missed I, I miss foreign trips.

I know. Me too. Me too. Well someone someone asked Amy I want to know if Alissa looks at the administration and misses being in it.

Administration. What do you think. I mean, of course, I mean, of course, a little bit like here's the thing, yeah, this is my.

I'm stating it for the record, what I'd like to do at some point in my life, but it only works if it's like a group thing, if you and me and Roads and Fifer and Tommy all do it together, I'd like to go back is like a czar for six months.

So I really give a shit about like I want to go back.

You know what I want to go back is the weed czar for like six months. I want to get that shit passed. I want weed to be federally legal. And I want to take like I think the one thing that we could all look back on is say that because it is so high pressure, it's so it's such a hard job. Every single job is a hard job when you're at the White House that I'd like to go back and just kind of live it up a little bit.

I know.

Do all the shit we didn't do. Did you ever go bowling? No.

No, I never I never. I never did. I never went bowling. I never went bowling. No, I want us to ride the golf carts at Camp David. I want us to just get hammered at a state dinner and like, really live it really live it up for a little.

I know I do want to do that. I do want to do the fun things. I think there is zero percent chance that any of us will be confirmed by any kind of Senate vote ever, which is why I just need a czar.

I need to fast track if a couple of tweets did it for Nairo and her, her tweets did it. My tweet certainly aren't surviving anything, so. That's right.

But no, I don't feel I never feel jealous when I see like if I watch poor Jen Psaki at the briefing for like ten minutes, who's doing an incredible job as White House press secretary. And I listen to some of the fucking questions she gets. And I was like, I know I can't do this anymore.

I definitely know, but because I just can't hold your tongue.

But I have talked to people who thought about going into the White House, this White House, who never been in a White House before and just asking me job advice. And I'm like, look for as hard as it is. And there are days when it's a real slog in your life is not your own. And you could be called in to work at any moment of the day. There are things that you will do in the White House that you will that will never be matched by anything you do in your political career and go into the White House even just for those things.

Go to some events in the East Room, go on a foreign trip, go on Air Force One.

Like, yeah, there are things that make it absolutely worth it, even though it's really, really hard. So, yeah, there's yeah, I'm mixed on that too. OK, listen, what jam recipe are you most proud of?

There's a lot of there are a lot of questions about this I jam recipe that I'm most proud of. I think I am most proud of these series of marmalades that I've done specifically because they're very hard. It is a lot of work and there are many competing there, like French methods and British methods. And anyway, I've loved it.

And my but the recipe I am most proud of is my I made Seville Orange Spearmon Weed Marmalade.

Wow. Really good. And I was throwing around words like de cabi oscillating my weed the way I love about Twitter. This is like the upside of Twitter is that when I posted a picture of what I had done, someone's like, wait, you know that there's a way better way to de oxalate your weed. I was like, I did not. So people are just like people want my gems to be successful. So they're just pushing me across the finish line.

I don't even know what that word means and I don't think I could repeat it.

So it basically means that you take the weed and you put it in the oven and you cook it. And the way that you make to get to get the to get all the turbines like getting going. And the truth is, the the tip someone gave me because. My husband and daughter are house smelling like a dead show when I was Cecava reading it, they're like, no, put a damp towel down on a on a cookie sheet and then put the weed inside a mason jar and like.

Anyway, it was a great tip. Nice.

OK, I'm going have to try some of that. So Daniel Resko asks, Hey, guys, would love to hear if you guys have experienced any post covid quarantine anxiety now that people are getting vaccinated in the country, starting to open up, what's the first thing you will both do once you're fully vaccinated?

I have to say, I've seen some of these stories. It's going to be so socially awkward when I get back into public and I have things that I understand that people have those anxieties.

I understand that to each their own people go through different things.

I have none of that. I am getting back out there. So I'm going to be running through the streets hugging people. I am getting back to our fucking office. All of these stories, like maybe we'll work remotely forever again, might work for some people again, you know. Well, we're trying to figure out remote working from home policies to for cricket.

I will have my ass in that office all the time. I am so excited to see people again.

So I felt this question in my core of anxiety.

Mostly, though, I think for me, well, the first thing I am doing when I am not just fully vaccinated, but when everything is sort of a little bit more open and people are feeling good, is that I am coming out to visit you, I guess leave how long it has been. I need to squeeze the baby's cheeks. I know. And then I might just I can drive the PCH up to San Francisco and bomb the Phifer family while I'm there.

Well, that that is the that's the toughest part of this.

And for it has been for so many people. Right. Like you, you see your own and hopefully you can see a lot of your immediate family or anyone who's living in your city. Right. And you can see them socially distant or whatever. And I've seen people like, you know, I see Tommy loves down the street and I've seen people like that. My parents finally are vaccinated. And so, you know that we've been hanging out with them.

But there's a whole bunch of people who you're close with who in the normal course of a year, if you don't live in the same city, you would see and you would hang out with. And it is like it is bizarre to me that I have not seen you in a year that you have not met Charlie like that is so weird.

And that I again, for millions of people, I mean, it's so I and I think where my anxiety comes from is like, let's all be honest.

There are people we haven't seen in a year and it's fine.

And so I think it's like, how do you deal with those people?

Maybe like when they come a calling, it's like it's that it's stressful is that you've gotten used to functioning in your household essentially.

Right.

And so more than anything, it maybe feels a little bit overwhelming in that way. But I cannot wait. I like it is I mean, Fab's like we have never, ever gone this long without seeing each other ever.

I know. I know it is.

I also think that just like the topics of conversation will change. Right. Because right now, like the times in covid where I've like had a backyard, socially distant Hangu, you're like sitting in a couple of chairs with people and like, what are you talking about? Like, so this pandemic and you just like talk about the fucking pandemic news and you don't ask things like, what are you been up to?

What's new with you? Because nothing's new, nothing's new. So the conversations become sort of like stilted after a while and there is an anxiety there.

And so, like, I think that's the thing. Once it's all lifted and everyone's back to normal, you start talking to people all their lives again.

Right, exactly. I mean, because honestly, there's not much happening to me beyond what you've seen on Instagram.

Same same same same way I have one. OK, go, go, go, go, go. Because there are four times. No, no, just one. Because Derek Pappe who is both a crooked he a big crooked fan all around. Yeah. He says what is the top Grateful Dead jam of all time. And was it ever used at a campaign rally. Absolutely never used at a campaign rally. But this is important because it is Felicia's eighty first birthday and there are tons of Deadheads who are fans.

So I just want to shout out two things. One, the Cornell shows in May of 77 are great and I have always been a huge fan. However, if we're going for a real jam here, I've got to go with deal into Franklin's tower, because that's an unusual combo from Winterland, June 77. And I just also want to say hi to Jeffrey Norman, who is the sound mixer for the dead and a fan of the show.

That's cool. Yes, that's really cool. OK, Jim says can also tell the story of Tommy and John's casual Friday choices that led to both.

Oh, yes. Let's talk about this for a hot minute, OK? Because Barack Obama, Senator Obama was very he was very generous and. He would let us dress on casual Friday in the United States Senate, and we all definitely push the limits a little bit. I had some very odd skirts, but, you know, always normal shoes. I didn't wear my Berk's to the office. However, you to numb nuts on a Friday showed up in the summer with jeans that had holes, not small holes, not ironic holes like like actual pieces of your pants were missing and you had straight up flip flops on.

And Pete Rose again to Big Pete Rouse episode. I hope he listens. Pete Rose came back and was like, I hope you two and all. You've ruined it for everybody in the office. People can't see that I run an office with people who have no respect for any dress code whatsoever. So after that, we couldn't wear jeans because of you.

I'm pretty sure that the reason we were dressed like that is because we came, we were hung over. We came right from the airport because we had been in Vegas, had a trip there.

We were going there. It was like a Monday. It was a Monday morning. No, wasn't it a Friday on Friday?

No, it was it was during the summer, which meant that all the week was casual. Remember, there was casual Fridays, but then like in the summer. You're right. You're right. Got a little loose in the summer. A little loose. Yeah.

So that was that was unfortunate. All right. Last question. What we're John, in Alice's first impression of each other when they first met.

I was so so you came as a package with Amy Brundage to the John Kerry townhouse, like two days after you had graduated from Holy Cross. Correct. And you were so you were like not uptight. You were super fun. And I was like, I never had a brother before. I'm going to make it mine.

That's so funny because I was going to say the same thing about you. Like, I remember going into the scheduling office and Amy worked in a scheduling office and we went to college together. So that was my one friend in the campaign. And it was you and Amy and Karen who ran scheduling.

And Karen was extremely good at her job and also like a little scary because she was like had shit lockdown and you were just so approachable and kind and fun.

And I had to say, like, as we got started getting to know each other, I was like I had never like I went to college an hour from home, so I never really left home before.

Right. And D.C. was my first, like, leaving home.

And I fell to my and so I was like a little nervous about just like living in a new city by myself. And when I met you and started hanging out with you, I was like, this is going to be like the sister I never had and she's going to take care of me. And if something goes wrong, like this is going to take care of me, I always did.

And you have for the last 15, 17 years, we were tweeting yesterday or the other day about when we actually left each other to go our separate ways before the Iowa caucuses. And the funny thing is I talked about how we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, but the actual reason we went to dinner is because I took you to Filene's to get sheets, remember, so that you could take them to Iowa with you. I was like, you can't go without sheets.

You have to bring sheets.

Yeah, I said I should have to deal with, like a bag of sheets and is like, well, there's an air mattress on the floor if you want.

You're like, yeah, no, I have sheets motherfucker. But the thing but the thing too that I always remember that to me is like just burned in my head. Is that the day that you left the White House? I actually don't even know if I can tell the story without crying a little bit. But the day that you left the White House, I was so sad because it was like the first time we'd ever be separated. Yeah. And I didn't want to talk at You're Going Away party because I was afraid I'd cry and I did anyway.

And I cried and Barack Obama got emotional watching me. And everyone was like, whoa, OK, we just thought you guys got drunk together. We didn't know you were like related.

It was that was emotional. It was emotional. Well, that's it. That's all the questions we have for today on that on that very warm and touching note.

We can add everyone needs that much love to Dan and Holly, and we cannot wait for news for the phone crew to get activated so we can all find out good luck.

And we love you guys. And we're very excited for new baby Phifer to come.

Hi, guys. Party of America is a crooked media production, the executive producer is Michael Martinez, our associate producer is Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.

Kyle Cygwin is our sound engineer, thanks to Tanya commentator Katie Lang, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Ruston and Justin Howe for production support into our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Na Melkonian, Yael Friede and Milo Kim, who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.

It's twenty twenty one, most of us are still in our soft pants, but maybe not for long, not if the economy gets a boost. We wanted to know from an economist what the job market might look like in this new year.

So we teamed up with a recruiter. There's been really steady improvement and recovery despite all the bad news.

That's Julia Polich is a recruiters in-house labor economist. In the data, she's seeing reasons for optimism.

Mainly twenty, twenty one is the year effective vaccines will reach Americans.

There are many businesses that are going to be alive and well because the prospect of getting back to business as usual, well, almost, she reminds us that pandemic life may have forever changed the way we work.

Employees are going to have to be more flexible about remote work going forward, and that affects recruiting, onboarding and building teams.

It can't all happen over Zoome.

I think it's a good idea for companies to send workers swagged to make them feel like part of the team, even if they've never met their teams.

When it comes to hiring, job seekers and employers will always need the best digital tools to thrive and zip recruiters got them. If you want to find the perfect candidate, the recruiter will find them for you and actively invite them to apply. And if you're really interested in the candidate, ZIP recruiter will send them an email from you to apply to your job, helping you stand out from the competition. So to find and hire qualified candidates fast, go to zip recruiter dotcom slash crooked to try zip recruiter for free.

Same goes for you job seekers zip recruiter dotcom sites crooked again.

Friends of the pod can try it for free at zip recruiter dotcom slash crooked. Hey, listener. Yes, you enjoying this crooked pod that you're listening to right now? Great. And you'll definitely love my podcast take line from Crooked Media. It's hosted by me, Jason Concepcion and me, Renee Montgomery. And every week we'll get into the week of sports and culture, from the games to the players to the issues happening both on and off, the court will be tackling the important political and social issues happening in sports head on.

And, you know, it'll be good because Jasanoff both are winners. I mean, I've got two WNBA championship rings and I've got an Emmy, so it's kind of the same. That's cute. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcast.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Smash subscriber.