Royal Cannon

Constitutional Convention - Never Forget

• Cathy Cannon • Season 1 • Episode 5

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This week, Cannon and Royal discuss the mechanics and common misconceptions around a potential Constitutional Convention. We discuss the history, the precendent, and the potential in the current chaotic political climate we find ourselves living in. 

We also reflect on the coming anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and how as a nation we have abandoned the memory, and the sacrifice of those we lost that day. Let this episode be your reminder to Never Forget. 

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Speaker 02:

All

Speaker 00:

right, welcome back, everyone, to the Royal Canon Podcast. I'm Cathy Cannon, back again with the man himself, Royal Webster. Today we are talking about some really lighthearted stuff, nothing controversial or emotional at all. We're going to talk about a potential constitutional convention, and I will try to convince everybody not to be scared of one, and maybe even convince you that you want one too. And then we're going to talk about the attacks of 9 11 which will mark 24 years this week right i think that's right 24 years um a

Speaker 03:

week from tomorrow

Speaker 00:

right a week from tomorrow from where we're recording here and uh we'll talk about how we have betrayed the memories of the people we lost that day because we will talk about january 6th 9 11 and how we went ahead and forgot what we promised never to forget right so you know light-hearted stuff Y'all ready?

Speaker 04:

Yes.

Speaker 00:

We're ready to go. All right. So how much do you know about a constitutional convention right now? Because I know this is me in my GovNerd land. I know a lot about it.

Speaker 03:

So what I've read in the past about it, first of all, nobody knows how to really hold one

Speaker 00:

because it's

Speaker 03:

never been held. We haven't had one since 1987. Correction. 1787. You mixed

Speaker 00:

up some numbers there. Yes,

Speaker 03:

1787. So, and it's, I know it's covered in section five of the constitution that they are allowed to have it. And they actually said that they could not have one within the year of when it was first,

Speaker 00:

when the original constitution,

Speaker 03:

when the original constitution was had, but they, they need two thirds of the states to agree to have a constitution. And then they need three quarters to ratify it. But here's the problem. And what I find really interesting. What are the rules?

Speaker 00:

There are not.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 00:

They

Speaker 03:

don't even know how to vote on the rules.

Speaker 00:

Because there are not. And that is the part I think that scares everybody. And it's because there are no rules. That's why the last one turned into a runaway convention. But it needed to because it was the Articles of Confederation and they were hot garbage, right? They just they were bad. All right, so that's where a lot of the fear from the Constitutional Convention comes from. The only one we ever had turned into a runaway convention. They threw away the entire articles. There are no rules. Nobody knows what to do. And that fear, understandable, but I also think it's a reason that we're kind of stuck in this constitutional stalemate with a government that very much doesn't work the way it was supposed to and a constitution that is long overdue for some remedy. The last time we even amended the Constitution, Royal, do you know?

Speaker 03:

The last one? No, I don't remember the year.

Speaker 00:

1992.

Speaker 03:

Which was the 27th Amendment?

Speaker 00:

The 27th Amendment, and it was a Congressional Pay Act. And you know who wrote the amendment? The Congress. James Madison. Okay, that's how old it was. Okay, so the original Bill of Rights was 12 amendments long, but they only actually ratified the first 10 of them. The 11th Amendment that was proposed with the Bill of Rights would have explained in nauseating math details for us exactly how many people were to sit in a congressional district and therefore would have a significantly larger House of Representatives today. And the other was a provision that Congress couldn't vote on their own pay raises. Okay, so the congressional district one still pending, still has not been ratified. But in 1992, they ratified the 12th, which became the 27th. And prior to the 1992 amendments, the last time was 1971. And you should remember that one.

Speaker 03:

uh, It's down to, it's 26. Yeah. Right. I don't remember. I know. I remember the 25th, but what's the 26?

Speaker 00:

The voting age to 18. Oh,

Speaker 03:

to 18. That's right. That's right. And that was under Nixon.

Speaker 00:

That was under Nixon. Right. And so my point being here is that the last time we actually amended the constitution was over 30 years ago and it was written by somebody 250 years ago. And prior to that, the last amendment to the constitution was over 50 years ago and it was so we would stop drafting children to war. So do you think we're overdue?

Speaker 03:

Yeah. And we can get rid of the 18th while we're at it just to confuse people.

Speaker 00:

But I need the 18th there because it's how I get people to remember 18 and 21, right? Because the 18th Amendment enacted prohibition because you're not allowed to drink at 18, right? But the 21st Amendment gave us our whiskey back because you are allowed to drink at 21. Right. That's pretty clever. I have my moments, Royal. So kids always remember those two amendments. But pin the 21st Amendment away in your brain, kids, because we're going to come back to that in a minute when we get through this Constitutional Convention stuff, because I'm a good teacher and I can do that, right? So the point is, is there are no rules and everybody freaks out. The first Constitution, the first Constitutional Convention, sorry, was supposed to just be a revision of the Articles of Confederation. But that is not what happened. By the time the delegates arrived in Philadelphia The articles had been tossed out and the goal of the convention became to rewrite an entire new constitution. But to be fair, the articles were a hot mess and the country had barely been holding itself together. You had 13 states basically acting like 13 squabbling siblings. They had their own currency, their own rules. Nobody wanted to get along. Taxes were optional. And I'm sorry, Royal, if taxes were optional, would people pay them?

Speaker 03:

No. And if they were optional, not only are they not going to pay, but the government's not going to survive.

Speaker 00:

Correct. And that's exactly what was happening with the articles, right? So the nation was doomed if something didn't change soon. And the delegates at the convention knew that even if Americans in general didn't see any problem with the articles, if they thought they were fine, the average American doesn't understand the complexity of government enough to recognize where those problems come from. And it was after Shays' Rebellion. Do you remember Shays' Rebellion? Yes. Okay. It was for those if you don't know in podcast land it was some scrappy farmers in Massachusetts who didn't want to pay their taxes so they threw a tantrum about it is the best way to explain it and Hamilton and Washington needed an army to go like shut it down but didn't have one and they were able to like scrounge like together some sort of military force to basically put it together but after that it was like we are not going to survive another uprising like this like we need a way to shut down scrappy colonists who don't want to pay their taxes right even if we're not legally allowed to collect them so they get to philadelphia and they scrap the whole thing now the philadelphia convention was done very much in secret and that's i think the other thing that scares people when you start talking about constitutional convention because the whole thing is secret that they could just write a weirdo handmaid's tale version of the constitution and we're stuck with it But no, they couldn't because I'm

Speaker 03:

sorry. You can also do secrecy back in 1787. You can't do it now.

Speaker 00:

That's exactly what I was getting at, right? You tell me nothing leaks on Twitter. You tell me nothing ends up on... And that's the part that I like to stress to people. I was like, look, they can close the windows at Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1787, which, by the way, brutal. That's 50 men wearing powdered wigs and wool coats in a sealed up... pre-air conditions like a state house in July, right? That was a smelly room. This is like in an era before daily showers and deodorant. You have 50 men in wool coats with no air conditioning in a sealed room, doors closed, windows closed. Woof, did they give a lot for America.

Speaker 03:

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but at the same time, that was more common back then. I guess. I feel like I have a nosebleed thinking about it. Yeah, but bathing wasn't normal or done on a daily basis or even sometimes on on a weekly basis. Some of those guys were farmers. They came in smelling like dirt. So

Speaker 00:

who knew the difference, right?

Speaker 03:

Yeah, it's just different time, different threshold of discomfort, I guess.

Speaker 00:

It's a far cry from the Axe body spray in the hallway we get now, but probably just as unpleasant. Somebody's got to talk to the kids about the X body spray for real. It is just not okay. But that aside.

Speaker 03:

So from what I understand, you have a limited amount of people that can come to this, right? It is, if I'm not mistaken, I know every state has to have the same amount, but then they can decide if they do it by population or not also, right?

Speaker 00:

Well, that's the thing. There's no rule about that. So each state would decide how many delegates and how they select their delegates, which, again, I think is the part that freaks people out because we had 13 colonies and 50 delegates last time. How many delegates do you think would get sent this time?

Speaker 03:

Yeah, and there's no real way of knowing who gets to elect them either, who gets to appoint them, whether it's the governor who gets to appoint them or if it's Congress who gets to appoint them.

Speaker 00:

Well, there is. It happens at the state. So each Each state is in charge of selecting their delegates, but each state is also in charge of making their own rules as to how they select their delegates. So the comfort I find in that is that the biggest concern here that people usually present to me in the TikTok comments is that, oh, well, the Republicans will just gerrymander their states and rig it so that all of the state legislatures do what they say. And by the conversation we've had thus far, does it already seem too complicated to rig?

Speaker 04:

Yes.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, and that's the problem. There's too many moving pieces to it for it to possibly be that a national party or a president or even the U.S. Congress could hijack the proceedings. It's too messy to rig, which is why I would love it.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, I would love it just because it would blow the guy in the Oval Office's head off.

Speaker 00:

Oh, he would be so mad. Because he couldn't

Speaker 03:

control it.

Speaker 00:

He wouldn't be able to control it, and nobody could. And the other thing I think people are confused about is they seem to think that if we call a convention that freezes the government and that we're just stuck with whatever comes out of the convention. And no, that is not how it works, right? Like any changes that are made at the constitutional convention mean jack shit all, unless they're ratified by the states thereafter. And that would be 38 states that you have to get to agree to ratify whatever comes out of the convention. And that's a whole other mess. So before we even get to selecting the delegates and rewriting a constitution, the ratification is a whole mess itself, which which is also too complicated to rig. So this is why I love the idea. It'll force people to learn about their government Royal. You know, I love it so much.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. And then here's, here's the biggest question I've had about it. Is there a time limit?

Speaker 00:

No,

Speaker 03:

I know. So you could start and these people can, could just stay there and stay there and stay there until people just start leaving

Speaker 00:

until people start leaving. Right. Or until, a Congress exists that would ratify whatever they have. So here's my thinking, right? If we set this up and we get far enough that we call the convention, we get far enough that the state sends their delegates, okay? If Republicans start trying to draft a Handmaid's Tale version of the U.S. Constitution. It will leak everywhere. It'll be all over Twitter. It'll be all over threads, Instagram, TikTok, everywhere. It'll be everywhere. And the people who think they support the Republican Party right now because they don't believe they really want to do the Handmaid's Tale, would they be able to deny they want to do the Handmaid's Tale if they're like literally talking about changing the government to a Christian theocratic nightmare? It would blow the whole game for them, right? It's the same way that Donnie was trying to say that he's not running on Project 2025 and he doesn't know what Project 2025 is, but now he's enacting it step by step, right? It's going to be really hard for you to say you don't know what something is when you're actively writing it, you know? So that is. So that is. But

Speaker 03:

here's where they're going to make a mistake when they do it. Let's say this happens and they get the delegates and they're all in there. And what they're going to do is because this is how politicians live nowadays. And the delegates, make no mistake about it, will be political.

Speaker 00:

Oh,

Speaker 03:

yeah. Yeah. They're going to start arguing what is on the extremes instead of finding common ground. Right. And how you should do things is, at least in my opinion, you should find common ground and then work your way out. Right. Because. The left and the right wing, especially the further out you get, are not going to ever agree on anything. But it's all the same bird. Right? It's the left wing and the right wing are the same bird. And what's happening right now is they're pulling so far apart is that the middle is tearing apart and you're killing the bird.

Speaker 00:

Basically. It's the horseshoe theory of politics, right? That it's not really a straight line spectrum as much as a horseshoe. If you go far enough one way, you end up on the other. The fence between between far right extremism and far left extremism is literally a neighborhood fence. It's like literally hop over from one side to the next.

Speaker 03:

Same thing in psychology with crazy and genius. It's a circular thing. It's not linear. It's not horizontal.

Speaker 00:

And that's what it is. So I think you're right. But I also think that it's inevitable that the extremes are going to be the loudest in the room. I also think that if you let this extremes be the loudest in the room, it shuts them the fuck up really quick. It makes everybody be like, all right, these guys are fucking crazy. And if nothing else, it shuts the convention down then. And we have the government we have and the whole thing fails, you know, no worse for the wear, right? So to me, the worst case scenario there is that the constitutional convention doesn't do anything. To your

Speaker 03:

point. I don't think it would. Yeah,

Speaker 00:

like right now, probably not. But I do think that calling one would be a fun little experiment because of nothing else. What I have realized is how little people know about how their government works. The number of people who tell me to read the Constitution when they're glaringly wrong about what the Constitution says. Like, I made a video last week and some lady was telling me how Mike Johnson becomes the vice president, right? If J.D. Vance becomes president. I was like, who the fuck taught you this shit? No, it doesn't. She's like, if you read the Constitution you would know that. I'm like, it's amazing to me that you just told me to read the

Speaker 03:

Constitution. It's an amendment in the Constitution. I

Speaker 00:

was like, it's remarkable. Had you done what you're declaring I should do, you would know how actively wrong you are right now. It's adorable, but that's totally fine.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, I saw it on your TikTok.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, like, ugh, people, man. But the fear of a runaway convention, right? So... I think it'd be hard pressed to get the 34 states to agree to call one, let alone the 38 states like willing to ratify it. But I still want it to happen. I want it to happen so bad because my thinking is we're not going to get a new constitution. Okay. And I don't think we need a new constitution because the bones of our constitution aren't actually that bad. Because if like, I went over today, like I was teaching McCullough versus Maryland and implied powers. And we were talking about the elastic clause. And I told the story of like I, Eisenhower and his cross country trip with the military tanks in like 1919 that took 62 days. And I went to Germany. He's like, well, that's how they conquered the continent because they saw highways. So we talked about.

Speaker 03:

And then he and then he puts in the interstate.

Speaker 00:

And that's exactly what we were talking about. We were right. Like, how did Eisenhower come back? Like where in the Constitution does it say we can build a highway? It doesn't. It doesn't say anything like that. But what it does say is that we can build postal roads. So did Eisenhower come in and stretch the meaning of necessary and proper and stretch the meaning of postal roads to create 41,000 miles of interstate highway? Yes, because he also said, you know what we have to do is regulate interstate commerce and highways would make it a lot easier for commerce to act in America. And you know what else? National security, promote the common defense right there in the preamble. You know what would help us mobilize the military better? Fucking highways. And that is how the implied powers of the constitution can be used. And like people tell me, Well, the Constitution doesn't say that we can't do it. Yes, it fucking does. We have implied powers. We have necessary and proper. We have the Ninth Amendment enumerated rights to the people. We have the Tenth Amendment reserved powers to the states. The bones of the Constitution are pretty brilliant, which is why it's the longest standing Constitution still in effect to this day, which is as much a flex as it is embarrassing, right? Because we haven't changed the Constitution since before the internet was a thing. And I'm going to venture to guess a couple of things have changed since then. That probably Probably needs to be addressed.

Speaker 03:

Just a couple.

Speaker 00:

I

Speaker 03:

think you can get the 34 states. I really do think you can get the 34 states. I don't think you can get the 38 states to agree on any changes. On

Speaker 02:

any changes?

Speaker 03:

I don't think so. Just because you're going to have some people that say, oh, I want to declare that the sky is blue, and they're going to go, no, it's green. Or wait, it's red. It's red.

Speaker 00:

Jewish space lasers. You're not wrong on that one. You're not wrong on

Speaker 03:

that one. It's just because they're going to just argue because whoever said it. Right?

Speaker 00:

For the sake of

Speaker 03:

argument. I think you can get to 34. I don't think you can get to 38 because people are just going to argue because of where the suggestion comes from. that's

Speaker 00:

there. I was thinking that what I would love to see happen, and whether anything comes of it or not, but to the point about the Bill of Rights, how there were 12 of them, but we only ever ratified 10. What I would love to see come out of a constitutional convention, beyond the squabbling and the fighting, which is inevitable, but I want to see that too. I want everyone to kind of show their true colors in a constitutional convention, because to your point, it's not going to be a secret one. It's going to be the most public, participatory, democratic event in modern world's history and I need to see it. But I feel like... even if they drafted a second bill of rights, maybe they wouldn't all get ratified, but they might get a couple of them. Because some of the amendments you could put up there reword the second amendment, right? We all care about people having the right to protect themselves, but you seem to ignore the well-regulated part of the amendments in favor of the shall not be infringed part. Can we emphasize that well-regulated part a little bit more clearly? Can we get rid of the electoral college? Can we ban gerrymandering? Can we get dark money out of politics. We could present these things. And a lot of those issues actually poll at like 70, 80%, right? Universal background checks for guns, like all of these things like poll at 70, 80%. So to your point, there's no time limit on it. So let's say we put this list of amendments up and 70, 80% of the American people want it, but state legislatures refuse to ratify. Well, golly gee, what can we do? Vote in a better legislature that's willing to ratify it. I want to create a bill of rights that's sitting there waiting for ratification. to force people to pick better state legislatures, pick better governors, pick better senators, pick better U.S. representatives. If you want this Bill of Rights, we need this ticket of candidates that wants to ratify it, make it fucking happen. Will it take a long time? Sure. Will we need another 85 essays? Maybe. But me and my best friend Taylor Swift will happily write them for you. She's going to be my best friend. That's what I've decided in this scenario where we get a constitutional convention.

Speaker 03:

You're a little obsessed over that.

Speaker 00:

I want to be her best friend. We're both Sagittarius. and born right we're December babies we're both I was born at the beginning of the 80s she was born at the end of the 80s I'm just saying Roy

Speaker 03:

let's go to the second amendment and yeah lots of it meeting her would be step one I think whatever best friends so let's go to the second amendment my whole theory on the second amendment is you bring in however many people you want and then you pull everybody and then the people that say everybody should be able to own a gun, get them out. Throw them out of the room. The people that say nobody should own a gun, throw them out. And then have reasonable people talk. And I think there's background checks. I think there's things that the FBI can do and form an entire branch that studies and investigates because the problem with the fbi is they're not a deterring agency for the most part they're an investigative agency and that needs to change because they don't they have intelligence but they really don't do what they could do i think the fbi the their mission is actually antiquated nowadays and i think they need to work more on preventive stuff than investigative like there's nobody in the world that can investigate a crime better than the FBI because of all the information and everything that they can do. But I think they could be pre-act, you know... losing my talk of words here, preemptive and help prevent things like school shootings by just doing a better, getting a better algorithm to track Facebook and X and Twitter and TikTok and certain things. And then people will say, well, that's a privacy issue. No, it's not. You're putting it out there. You're putting it out. You lose all privacy when you put it out there. But I think they can do stuff. And I think the Second Amendment to me is the one that hurts the most because whenever they post something, what do the United States do better than anybody else? School shootings.

Speaker 00:

To be fair.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. And until the one in Minnesota, until that person took a shot, he had never broken a law. Until he actually took the shot.

Speaker 00:

The same with the Virginia Tech one way back in 2007, I think. The first thing he ever did that was wrong was fire the gun on that campus, right? And I'm on your team on this one. I don't personally like guns, but that's because I'm a clumsy fuck and I would shoot my foot off and I know that about myself, right? I'm not morally opposed to it. I just don't trust me, which is also why I don't think everybody should have a gun because there's more than me in the world that would shoot their own fucking foot off And

Speaker 03:

they're easy fixes for me, at least. Oh, I buy an AR-15 because I like to hunt. Where's your hunting license?

Speaker 00:

Well, that too. But also, if you need an AR-15 to hunt, you're a shit shot.

Speaker 03:

You can do single shot, and it is an effective weapon to hunt. But if you're going to use it for hunting, then you need to have a hunter's license for it. And when you get a hunter's license, you actually have to go to classes to get a hunt. And I think it should be mandatory. And I think there's a lot of things in the Second Amendment that you can fix, and a well-regulated militia is not what we

Speaker 00:

have now. To that point, the wording militia, I think, as well, is antiquated because we have a standing army now. The militia is the

Speaker 03:

National Guard.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, and that's the point. The Second Amendment, as it reads right now, was not written for modern day, and I'm perfectly fine protecting castle doctrine, defend your house, defend your people. I'm totally fine with all of these things, but I also think There are reasonable steps that can be taken to keep guns out of the hands of children. Just saying is all.

Speaker 03:

The reason everybody says, well, it's the Second Amendment because they found it's the second most important thing. Yeah, what's the Third Amendment? They found that very important, too. Why? They just finished a revolution. So the First Amendment, they got their freedom of speech, religion, and protests and everything. Second is the ability to defend yourself. And third is so you don't have to house the other military in your house.

Speaker 01:

Yep.

Speaker 03:

Right? Because they just finished a revolution. I'm telling

Speaker 00:

you. I think we're beyond

Speaker 03:

that.

Speaker 00:

I know. Side note, though, the Third Amendment is going to have its fucking day in the sun. Okay? I've been waiting for it for like 20 years, like since my undergrad days. I was like, the poor Third Amendment. It's like one of the only ones. Yes. Yes. okay so let's just say we're not in times of peace and we have a tyrants in the white house the third amendment does not prohibit him from putting national guard soldiers in your house if we declare war or if he has a national emergency

Speaker 03:

yeah it would be martial law it wouldn't be uh war

Speaker 00:

it would 100 would be martial law but it's it's also going to be the first thing like that's going to be the day the third amendment gets its challenge like donald trump may be the reason that the third amendment gets incorporated to the states is all i'm saying And I've been waiting.

Speaker 03:

I don't disagree with you. And that's why he's testing the waters with the national guard.

Speaker 00:

And he's losing. Did you just see the courts ruled against him and sending the troops

Speaker 03:

in California? And, you know, Mike, Mike Johnson, Glenn Abbott, and what's his name? And is in Mississippi or Alabama when they, they find out that, well, wait, my state has worse crime than California.

Speaker 00:

Dude, that was glorious. Gavin was just like, why don't you worry about your, I mean, The way Mike Johnson's like, he should worry about governing his own state. I'm like, hi pot. I'm the kettle. Maybe perhaps we should heed our own advice on that. Mikey boy. Um,

Speaker 03:

New Orleans. I love New Orleans. Uh, it is one of my favorite cities. The crime is high and Shreveport is out of control. If you want to talk about crime. So if he wants to send the national guard anywhere, send it to, to Louisiana. Dude, how funny would that be?

Speaker 00:

How funny would that be? So funny. But, um, Yes, I think the Constitution needs some changes. I think a convention, while unlikely, to make big changes would socially and culturally have a big impact. You know what I mean?

Speaker 03:

Yeah, there's a big push actually for the younger generation to change the 26th Amendment too.

Speaker 00:

To increase the voting age?

Speaker 03:

No, to lower it to 16. Oh, to lower it. To 16.

Speaker 00:

You know what? I don't know how I feel about that one exactly. I teach 17-year-olds, and they're dumb as fuck. I mean, I love them, but they're also dumb as fuck. So are

Speaker 03:

45-year-olds, and so are 50-year-olds, and so are 30-year-olds.

Speaker 00:

You know what? That is a valid counterpoint to my point. And oh, you know what? There would be precedent, too, because the unemployment rate is measuring people who work 16 and over, right? So if they're good enough for government data, they're good enough for the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, well, by golly, they should be good enough to vote on economic policy. You made a believer out of me. Look at that. That was me.

Speaker 03:

Aren't they trying to lower the age of work also?

Speaker 00:

In some places, put 13-year-olds back in the factory. Well, you know what? Then fine. Let the 13-year-olds vote. I wouldn't let 13-year-olds vote because they'd be putting Skibbity Ohio Riz in the Constitution and we'd all be like, what?

Speaker 03:

I wouldn't want 13-year-olds to work, but 16-year-olds can work. They can vote and they can Yep.

Speaker 00:

I think I'm on board. So to wrap up our big takeaway on a constitutional convention, right? Where I land is I don't think it's automatically the end of America, like everybody thinks it would be. I also don't really think it's going to make big changes except for the national dialogue, which is to me the most important part. Even if we can't get anything passed convention wise, it opens up the conversation, it exposes some skeletons that are being hidden in some political closets, I think, because The real danger in America right now isn't the Constitution, what's in it or what's not in it. It's the transparency that we have with our government and our understanding and knowledge of our government. And if we can do anything, even if it's something crazy, like calling a constitutional convention just to make people realize that they still do have a voice and that democracy works best when people are informed and involved, that would be enough for me. Even if nothing comes out of it, it would be enough for me to see people care enough about their country. I

Speaker 03:

would only have one stipulation. If they do have it, it has to be telecast on CNBC.

Speaker 00:

1000%. Oh my God. Give C-SPAN the camera. Like remember like when they had the speaker fight going and there were no rules for the C-SPAN cameras so they could just do whatever they wanted. I want, I want C-SPAN cameras in the convention with no fucking rule, like no rules, right? Like the C-SPAN journalists do your worst. I want to see every fight. It would be, it'd be the speaker fight on Sarah. And

Speaker 03:

they couldn't, they weren't, no reporters, just cameramen.

Speaker 00:

Just cameramen and delegates. That's it. Just cameramen and delegates. No questions being asked, no interviews, just eavesdropping on conversations. Because you remember how bad the Republicans looked after that speaker fight? How bad are they going to look at a constitutional convention? Because the Republican Party is made up of some strange bedfellows, right? Like the leftover industrial business class of the finance bros, plus the leftover Dixiecrats of the south plus the religious lunatics of also the south those are the ones

Speaker 03:

that would be exposed the most because they don't know the constitution

Speaker 00:

at all at all and they would show how like we just want to oppress women and turn everything into the handmaid's tale they'd be the first ones thrown out of the convention which good right also can we talk really quickly about how happy i was that james dobson died

Speaker 03:

I didn't know he passed. When did he pass?

Speaker 00:

Like a week ago, two weeks ago. Really? Yeah. The man is responsible for like, I don't know, the emotional and physical abuse of like two generations worth of American children. Yeah. May he rot. May he burn.

Speaker 03:

I had no idea he had passed.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. Oh God. And I don't know, but I remember I was in a really good mood that day. When I checked the news, I was like, I knew I felt evil. Leave the world's today. Just one more on the list. No, There's a

Speaker 03:

lot more on the list, yeah.

Speaker 00:

There's a big one on the list that I would like to see

Speaker 03:

go. When we get off, I'll look up how he died and if he hopefully died painfully.

Speaker 00:

Painfully and with suffering. Be great. But wrapping that up, are you ready for the uplifting conversation of how we betrayed our country? Yeah. Yeah. So... September 11th, the anniversary is coming up. And remember after the attack, right? What was like the slogan all over everything?

Speaker 03:

Never forget.

Speaker 00:

Never forget. It was everywhere, right? Bumper stickers, billboards, coffee mugs, baseball hats. And the uncomfortable truth is not that we forgot, but how quickly and completely we forgot, right? After that attack, we were supposed to, like, we started two wars to save democracy and spread democracy. How in 24 years did we go from spreading democracy throughout the world to betraying it in our own country?

Speaker 03:

Do you remember September 12th?

Speaker 00:

Yeah, I do. For a brief moment when we were all united and a day and a half later we decided to hate Muslims again.

Speaker 03:

Congress came out on the steps of the Capitol. And they, I think they played the Star Spangled Banner or they took the Pledge of Allegiance together. Buckingham Palace, they played the Star Spangled Banner. Bush gives a really moving speech.

Speaker 00:

Like even I have to give it to him.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. And like I said before, it's his high watermark.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. I think his approval rating hit like 83% after that.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. Right after that, slowly, every day, it got further and further away from what we felt that day. Everybody was in shock on the

Speaker 00:

11th. Even Nickelodeon was only showing coverage of this hour.

Speaker 03:

Every radio station, every TV station, everything changed. It went 24-7 to coverage You know, we talked on here before as to where we were on everything on that day. And slowly but surely, and I saw it coming. But I didn't think it would be, when it happened, I thought it would be my lifetime that we would remember.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

I did too. I thought I would be an old lady before it really disappeared. But to your point, I saw it coming too because I was dating a real jackass at the time. And I know it's shocking that I had poor choices in dating in my youth. We're all shocked by that. But I was dating a Christian Republican. I know. I know. It's very strange. I was young. I didn't know any better. But we were sitting on the couch at his parents' house later in the day. It was probably like 8 or 9 o'clock probably at that point. And after Out of nowhere, he just turned to me. He goes, aren't you glad Al Gore didn't win the election now? And I'm like, whoa. It wasn't what he said. What he said was bad enough, but the way he said it, you could just tell this is going to turn into... like the partisanship is not going to go away. Like we thought like for, for a glimmering moment there, I thought maybe the whole country comes together. We see a bigger picture. We unite. But like the same day he was right back to, well, Democrats are to blame. Like, really, really? No. Like that's just not important.

Speaker 03:

You know, who was my gauge for all this?

Speaker 00:

Who?

Speaker 03:

He's about to get the presidential medal of freedom.

Speaker 00:

Who's about to get the presidential medal of freedom? What did I miss in the news?

Speaker 03:

Rudy Giuliani.

Speaker 00:

You're kidding me. They're giving him the presidential medal. Oh my God.

Speaker 03:

No, no. And they're giving him around nine 11 or something, but regardless, he was my gauge because like Bush W president Bush, he, he reached his high point during that. Yeah.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 03:

disaster, not disaster, but tragic moment. He

Speaker 00:

was mayor of New York at the time, right?

Speaker 03:

Right. He really stepped up and did a good job and everything else. He got the city back. At the time, he's what later mayor pete became

Speaker 02:

right yeah

Speaker 03:

uh but his descent down and not being successful and i think it really warned him but i watched him and the further we got away from 9 11 as far as time went he really really started to crumble as a human being

Speaker 00:

oh yeah like his descent his fall from grace was

Speaker 03:

yeah and and as he but as he went down so is our remembrance for 9-11.

Speaker 00:

It

Speaker 03:

really coincides side by side.

Speaker 00:

That is actually interesting you say that. I didn't realize that, but you're not entirely wrong. I've

Speaker 03:

thought about this a lot.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. He was so associated with the attack that as he went crazy, everyone had to put the attack... Well, and George W. Bush as well, right? Because when the economy collapsed in 2008, he was remembered for destroying the economy, so we couldn't look at him favorably as leading us through an attack, like the Iraq War had Is that why we forgot 9-11? Because the two standard bearers of the attack turned out to be useless, insane people?

Speaker 03:

But George W. was at least a good person. Forget about his politics. No, forget about his politics. No, I know, I know, I know, I know. Him and Michelle Obama built this bond that is unbelievable. And I can disagree with people politically, but if you're a piece of shit, you're a piece of shit. And Giuliani was a piece of shit.

Speaker 00:

Oh,

Speaker 03:

yeah, 100%. And his true colors came out. And I think when he failed, when he had his run, and he failed miserably in his presidential run, I don't think he got out of it. South Carolina. I think he did Iowa, New Hampshire, and he, I think it was Iowa, New Hampshire, and he died in South Carolina, at least his political career died in South Carolina. And he just showed his true colors. And then he got involved with the guy that's in there now. And, you know, he was defending them in 2020. He, he's one of the guys that perpetrated the big lie. Yep. Right now. Which, after everything that happens in 9-11, shortly thereafter, 19 years later... We're attacking our own capital.

Speaker 00:

I know. It's so sad. W, to your point, I would say he is the political epitome of good kid, bad friends. The guy with the bad crowd and it did bad for him because his Cheneys and Roves and Rumsfelds. But nobody saw W coming.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

Well, I know. It was supposed to be Jack. It was supposed to be Jack. Do you remember what Barbara actually said when it was like, oh, the wrong son got elected? Can you imagine being George W. Bush and knowing your mom was like, the wrong son got elected president. Like, thanks, mom. Fuck you, too.

Speaker 03:

It was crazy because somebody told me that, you know, the guy that was being groomed was Jeb. And all of a sudden, here comes W, and W, out of nowhere, wins the Republican nomination, and then he wins the presidency.

Speaker 00:

Well, it's because of the Christian right that did it, right? So, like, George had been, like, the screw-up in the family, because he was a bit of a screw-up, you know? He's the middle... I think he's the middle child. No, he's the oldest. I don't even know. Honestly, I don't know. I don't know. But he got into some trouble, and Jeb was the golden boy, right? There There's a bad boy and there's a golden boy, and Jeb was always the golden boy. But George W. Bush went through that whole Christian rebirth, born-again nonsense stuff. Wasn't he an

Speaker 04:

addict?

Speaker 00:

Yeah, he was a cocaine addict, and that's how he got over it. He went to AA, and AA is very religious-centered. So then he became a born-again Christian. So then who was it that found him? The James Dobson crowd, the fucking whatever the moral majority turned into at the time, the 700 Club crowd, the Pat Roberts They were like, ooh, ooh, we know Americans are stupid. We have name recognition with George Bush because you'd be shocked. Actually, you probably wouldn't be shocked, but people might be shocked at how many people voted for George W. Bush thinking he was his dad in 2000. A horrifying number of people. Okay. So they basically took the name recognition of HW and the Christian conservative, like whatever post contract with America after the nineties takeover. So they pushed the Christian conservative narrative with George W. Bush and they got him in there and that's all it took. And in so doing, they ruined Jeb's political future because after George W. Bush's presidency, no Bush was going to be president again.

Speaker 03:

No,

Speaker 00:

I, I give it to Jeb for trying and all, but I'll, I'll never forget

Speaker 03:

that. There was too much time, too,

Speaker 00:

in between when

Speaker 03:

he was relevant.

Speaker 00:

Oh, yeah, from when he had been governor to when he ran. But also, do you remember that really pathetic, like, moment on the campaign trail where he said something and he was like, please clap? Like, Jeb, just go home.

Speaker 03:

No.

Speaker 00:

Oh, it was so

Speaker 03:

bad. Was it during one of the debates?

Speaker 00:

No, it was like he was at a campaign stop somewhere and he was saying something and, like, everyone just kind of stared, you know, know, the dreaded you say something and the kids stare at you blankly moment. He had one of those on the campaign trail and he was just like, please clap. I was like, go Jeb.

Speaker 03:

He fell off the horse and should have stayed off.

Speaker 00:

He should have stayed off, yes. And he's gotten the clue now, right? But the part about 9-11 I want to talk about because it seems to be the one that got lost the most in recent years, right? Because I've found that when younger kids are coming into the class now who weren't to lie for the attacks at all. The kids in my class this year were born in 2007, 2008, which is... I feel a thousand years old, right? But they know about the Pentagon. They know about the World Trade Center, but a lot of them did not know about Shanksville, Pennsylvania. They did not know about that flight. And there was a movie about it and everything, which kills me. But to me, that's the heartbreaking moment of where we are now as a country versus where we were at a country or as a country. Because when I teach 9-11 to the kids, I try to explain symbolically to them what they attacks were supposed to mean, right? The planes hit the World Trade Center because that was the symbol of America's economic power in the world, right? Literally, World Trade Center. So we're going to take down your economic power, boom, the towers fall. They hit the Pentagon, the symbol of America's military prowess in the world, boom, we hit the Pentagon. What is the other thing we're famous for? Our Democratic Republic, American democracy. So that plane that went down in Pennsylvania, I know there's still people that'll argue it wasn't, but there's a plaque in the Capitol, come commemorating the fact that that plane was headed to the U.S. Capitol that day. The intention was for that last plane to crash into the U.S. Capitol and attack the seat of American democracy. And when the passengers on Flight 93 figured that out, when they knew that they were, what, 20 minutes outside of D.C. airspace, I think, when they stormed the cockpit and took the plane down, like for the last act that they did as Americans was knowing their life. Yep. Let's roll. They called home, they said goodbye, and they went down fighting for America, is my point. They gave their lives to defend American democracy. They knew it was over for them, but they knew they could do something amazing. They knew that they could save the seat of American democracy from the attacks that had already happened to the Pentagon and to the World Trade Center. And they gave their lives to do it. And we swore we would never forget.

Speaker 03:

And

Speaker 00:

then 20 years later. Yep. Yeah.

Speaker 03:

But here's the other thing. The people that defended what was going on, some of those people were in the Capitol. and voted against their certification and justified what was going on. And they were in Congress when the vote was held up and then they later had it. But some of those people were still were in the Capitol. As congressman. Yeah, on September 11th.

Speaker 00:

And they forgot. And to me, like, I always say that, like, I've seen some horrifying shit on television as a millennial American, right? We talked about my space shuttle exploding when I was four. But the two most terrifying things I've ever seen happen on television were the attacks of September 11th and the attack on the U.S. Capitol because both of them left me with the same feeling. The same deep, like, guttural fear. Is America over? Because 9-11 shattered the image of America as safe and loved and adored by the world. That was proven to be hot garbage to us all. We learned a lot about ourselves in the aftermath of 9-11 and how we got there. I'll never forget it. I was at work and I was watching the vote certification and then the attack started. I had to leave. I have a dog. I had to walk the dog. I said to my friend Ryan, I need to go like I have to go home and take care of my dog but I'm scared in the 10 minutes it takes me to get home America will be over like what if I get in my car and America is here and I get home and America is over like I was scared to leave because I didn't know what was going to happen it was so scary and it's the same kind of feeling I got when the first tower fell you know the like the what do we do now like what does this mean it was horrifying and I just hate so much that this is where we have landed as a country And it makes 9-11 hard for me every year because they told me not to forget, but woof.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. So when you talk to people about the history of our country, the last time we were attacked prior that the United States, the states were attacked prior to 9-11 was 1814. Hawaii was not a state when it got attacked.

Speaker 00:

Really?

Speaker 03:

Yeah. Hawaii doesn't become a state until 1958.

Speaker 01:

The

Speaker 03:

only president born after we had 50 states is President Barack Obama. Everybody else was born when... He was born in 1961. Everybody else was born when there was only 48 states, every other president.

Speaker 00:

How did I not know that, Royal? I didn't know

Speaker 03:

that. I don't know.

Speaker 00:

I learned something today.

Speaker 03:

In 1812 was the last time the United States was attacked.

Speaker 00:

That was when Canada burned down the White House. The Canadian soldiers, but British soldiers burned down the White House. I love that story because it was Dolly Madison was the first lady and my favorite part of them burning down the White House was that she had set a whole big fancy dinner out for everybody when they had to flee the building so they wouldn't get killed or whatever. And the British soldiers, when they got to the White House, before they burnt it down, they ate her dinner.

Speaker 02:

Really?

Speaker 00:

They ate Dolly Madison's dinner and then set the room on fire.

Speaker 03:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

I bet she was a good cook.

Speaker 03:

They went different ways. Some went to Virginia, some went to Maryland, some went to Philadelphia. Do you know where the Constitution went?

Speaker 00:

I don't, actually.

Speaker 03:

Maryland.

Speaker 00:

It went to Baltimore. Went to Baltimore. That makes sense. I love that they took the... And that's another thing. On the January 6th attack, the hero of that day were the two interns that knew to pick up the caddy that had all of the electoral certifications in it. Because had they just fled the chamber and left that there, the rioters would have gotten it and there would have been no votes. It would have been done. So the fact that they knew to pick up that box and take it with them to their secure location saved America that day.

Speaker 03:

There's two things. One of it recently. I still have the picture and I will always have the picture of the Confederate flag being taken inside the

Speaker 00:

Capitol. Disgusting.

Speaker 03:

That burns a hole in me like nothing else. But the other thing that I find ironic, that the piece of shit that is in the Oval Office right now, signed... An executive order making it illegal to burn the flag. But it's okay to beat a policeman with a flag on a stick. Yeah. The hypocrisy is unbelievable. Unbelievable. And the fact that I said right now that there's a guy in the Oval Office that I call a piece of shit. That's royal thing bad words this time. Yeah. It bothers me so much. No, because if you notice, I never mention his name.

Speaker 00:

Oh, I notice all the time. I love it. The guy that's in there now.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, I don't say the word president when speaking of him.

Speaker 00:

He's a

Speaker 03:

guy that's in the Oval Office.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, he doesn't deserve the title. He's disgusting. To your point, the Confederate flag in the rotunda got me, but there's one scene that when I close my eyes, I can still see it playing out on television. I don't know if you remember it, but They had gotten a hold of like the, I don't know, window washer, like pulley things. And they were up at the side of the building. And I remember so very clearly them getting their hands on the American flag. They took the American flag off of the U.S. Capitol and threw it to the ground and tried to put a Donald Trump flag up. They didn't get the Trump flag up. OK, thank fucking Christ, because I don't think I'd have ever slept at night knowing that that flag. Oh, but I watched them hold the American flag on one hand and the Trump flag in the other hand. And I even remember watching. I'm like, don't dare drop that flag on the ground. I watched them think about it. And I watched them hesitate almost to do it before he ended up just tossing the American flag to the ground and then tried to position the Trump flag in its place. And nothing was more disgusting to me than that in that moment. I was like, you don't care about this country. You care about a man. And that's exactly what this country was. You might as well just put King George III on a flag and put on the building, you know what

Speaker 03:

I mean? Yeah, and the whole thing about burning flags and everything, I have a different opinion than a lot of soldiers. My father was buried with a flag. I've handed flags off to widows and to kids that lost their parents in combat. But burning a flag to me is... not anywhere as disgusting as using a flag or tearing it down from the Capitol. Burning a flag to me is a protest, as long as it's not done to start a riot, but it is done as a protest. Do I agree with it? No. Would I ever do it myself? Absolutely not. But it is already supreme court ruled on in 1989 yep that it is not against the law yep but yet this guy signed one because what he does and what he does i've actually seen a lot of times in in third world countries he picks a topic that is that he can get an emotional response from Immigration. And that one's he's staying on because we do have an immigration problem, right? We do have one. But they don't eat the cats and dogs. And he just gets on this emotional thing. And then he tried to do it with the English language. That didn't have any teeth. The American flag, he does it on that. He just brings up topics that are emotionally charged on both sides to make people fight against each other and argue against each other. But then he does the flag but yet he pardons the guys that took the flag out off the Capitol

Speaker 00:

yep because there's no scruples with him right and like to your point about all the emotional issues he's taking all of the leftover identity politics issues from the 90s that they lost and just rehashing them like the man is so trapped in a previous version of his own life it's pathetic right but to the point on the flag like I used to know the quote from the Supreme Court case but it's like the symbol of your freedom cannot just be a flag it needs to be the right of your people to burn that flag in protest, right? The

Speaker 03:

symbol of freedom is the Constitution.

Speaker 00:

Exactly. That's what I'm saying. It's not the flag. The flag is an emblem. It is not what we swear to. I don't want to pledge allegiance to the flag. I want to pledge allegiance to the Constitution. I want to swear an oath to the Constitution. A flag is a

Speaker 03:

flag. I respect the flag. When I present a flag, and I did it three times, when I presented a flag to the family of a fallen soldier, you know how I presented to them?

Speaker 00:

Kneeling?

Speaker 03:

On my knee.

Speaker 00:

Yep, because it's reverence. You are taking

Speaker 03:

a knee to give it to them.

Speaker 00:

Like every Catholic knows that to kneel is reverence. It's humility. It's this. So to me, taking a knee is more respectful than standing with your hand on your heart. Hand on the heart is very North Korea, Roman Empire-y, right? But kneeling in reverence and remembrance. All day, every day, I'm fine with that.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. January 6th is one of the hardest days of my life.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. The only thing that compared to the level of fear I felt that day was 9-11. I was a 19-year-old kid when 9-11 happened. That was terrifying to me. I watched January 6th with a PTSD filter. I felt like I was 19 years old again watching the scariest thing I'd ever seen. I

Speaker 03:

told you I I was in New Jersey when I watched the second one. I didn't tell you what I did. When the second hit, I got off the Jersey Turnpike, and I headed down for the ferry. I tried to get across.

Speaker 00:

You were going to go help?

Speaker 03:

Yeah. But you can't.

Speaker 00:

No, but you couldn't.

Speaker 03:

They shut everything down. Right, but the ferries were coming across, bringing people one way. And so what me and about five other guys did is there's a target not too far away from it. And we went and bought bottles of water. I bought like 10. The other guy bought like 10 more. And we came back because the people, it wasn't for them to drink. They're a little bit for to drink. To clean their faces. It was all full of soot. All their faces and all their clothes were full of soot. And so many people that work in New York live in New Jersey. And one of the saddest things I saw on TV that day I'll never forget this was the people walking across the George W.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. Because everything was shut down. I know. To the point of it was 19 years and a few months that it happens, after the January 6th attacks, that year was the 20th anniversary of 9-11. A bunch of TV channels did specials and documentaries to commemorate 20 years. The way it hit me so hard watching them that year, because a lot of the footage I'd seen before, there were some new interviews that I saw, but re-watching it that year and it was like it had just happened, you know, because of how fresh the wound of the Capitol attack was. And when they started talking about Flight 93, I literally started, like, even right now, like, I can feel myself getting choked up trying to, like, talk about it. But when they brought up Flight 93 that September in 2021, I was, like, beside myself. Like, I couldn't handle the emotion of it. And I remember I made a TikTok about it, and it was one of those, like, I'm doing this in one take, I'm recording it now, I'm posting it, because otherwise I'm not going to be able to get through it, but I just kind of made that point about how we betrayed our people. We forgot the sacrifices that Americans made, and we've let down ourselves, our countrymen, our constitution, everything that we stand for. We didn't just forget. We spat on the memory of these people, and I still haven't been able to shake it. Every time I think of 9-11, every time I think of January 6th, I just... I just want to cry every single time.

Speaker 03:

Being a Catholic, you know what January 6th is.

Speaker 00:

The day of the epiphany.

Speaker 03:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, no, that wasn't lost on me either, Royal.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. So, yeah, it's a lot of stuff. And like, I'm not going to mention her name. You did earlier before we were recording. But the fact that somebody is getting a pardon or getting a full military funeral when she was a traitor. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody that participated in that should have been. A lot of them were arrested and then they were pardoned. And then they were pardoned.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. I don't know how somebody can swear an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and then attack the United States of America. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Speaker 03:

No, and there's no expiration date on that oath.

Speaker 00:

That's why I told, like, I know people who have served in the military and voted for Chito Mussolini in the White House right now, and I told them, like, as far as I'm concerned, you betrayed the oath you swore to your country because you swore to defend against enemies, foreign and domestic and you voted for a domestic threat to the Constitution. You voted for somebody who has openly and actively said he wants to dismantle the Constitution, serve as a dictator, and openly violates the Constitution on a goddamn near daily basis. You can't tell me you love your country and love that man. It's not possible.

Speaker 03:

Then the other thing about that oath, you know there's two different oaths. There's one for the enlisted and one for the officer. The enlisted actually says that they have to follow the orders of the officers appointed above them and the president of the united states it is in the hands of the officer what orders that right right because they don't swear an oath to the president of the united states the officer's oath is to the constitution only

Speaker 00:

yep

Speaker 03:

only

Speaker 00:

and honestly i think the enlisted one should be too because it just creates too much confusion and people today who'd be like well i support my president

Speaker 03:

yeah it should it should be to the officers appointed uh over them the only reason that they include the president is because he is not a member of the military he's a civilian right and they they made that distinction uh when they set up the whole powers uh Executive powers and everything. Yeah, separation of powers. He is never to be considered a military member. So he can be given the Purple Heart by a couple of idiots. He cannot earn that Purple Heart because that is only for military members.

Speaker 00:

I swear, like the mockery we have made of our institutions because of this man. Yeah.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

The Founding Fathers sipping whiskey in hell. So pissed off, man. So pissed off. Yeah.

Speaker 03:

To the point of we need a new constitutional convention.

Speaker 00:

Yep. At the very least, Donald Trump has shown us where all of the bodies were buried. There's no hiding who we are or what we are after all of this. So I think we could at least start making a list of things we'd like to be better at moving forward. And if it takes a constitutional convention to get there, I'm all for it.

Speaker 03:

Yeah. Going back to January 6th, I don't understand how the people in Congress... after the riot, still voted not to ratify the vote.

Speaker 00:

Honestly, that was the most shocking thing to me. I remember sitting there thinking, you just almost got murdered yourself and you're still going to play this game? You're still going to stroke this man's ego? The fact that they acquitted him in the impeachment, I was like, if that isn't a justifiable impeachable offense, what is? If you can orchestrate a coup against the government and walk away, we're a joke. We're a And

Speaker 03:

then the Supreme Court that he puts in place says that he did nothing wrong because he can do whatever he wants as the president of the United States.

Speaker 00:

You know, tricky.

Speaker 03:

Yes. But then that's why this is why they don't even listen to what they say, because then they started saying, oh, President Obama, he did this while he was in office. Well, it doesn't matter. The Supreme

Speaker 00:

Court said you can do whatever you want. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, based on your own. And when Joe Biden was in there, like, oh, Joe Biden's violating the Constitution. I'm like, did you not just read the U.S. versus Trump? If the president does it, it's not against the law. I remember saying, Joe, just test the waters. I remember, like, pulling for Joe Biden to do something fucked up. Because, one, I know he wouldn't because he's been in government long enough and he respects it. But, like, how funny would it have been if he just went, like, well, fine, I'll cancel the election. See how you like it.

Speaker 03:

yeah

Speaker 00:

and the more

Speaker 03:

the closer the closer we get because you asked me this and i i told you three weeks ago, four weeks ago, maybe, that I thought the midterms election would be held. The closer we get, the more I'm not sure.

Speaker 00:

Really? I mean, to the point like the Constitutional Convention, it's too big to rig, right? Like states are the ones that run election. There's no such thing as a federal election. There's no federal authority over elections. The worst he could do is what he did in 2020, which is bully Secretary of States to not certify elections. But just like in 2020, the courts ruled against them every single time. So He might try and stop the election, but I don't think he'll be successful doing it.

Speaker 03:

No, I don't think he'll be successful in stopping it. I think he'll be successful in rolling out National Guards to places.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, but even still, like there's nothing about in the Constitution that allows us to suspend elections for wars, right? Like that's not a thing we

Speaker 03:

do in America. Not at all. Not at all.

Speaker 00:

So you just think he'll do intimidation factors? Just have him standing there with guns to make people scared? That I could see happening. Putting ICE agents in front of freaking polling places?

Speaker 03:

Yeah. ICE agents. What a joke.

Speaker 00:

What a joke. But you know what? Hopefully he'll be dead by then.

Speaker 03:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

That's what I keep hoping for.

Speaker 03:

Has anybody seen him?

Speaker 00:

Nope. It's been over a week. Nobody's seen him. And they keep releasing photos to prove he's alive, but they're like from... I think he had a

Speaker 03:

stroke. They had him playing golf and I can't remember who they had him playing golf with, but it's back from August.

Speaker 00:

No, but also they said he was going to his golf course, but if he was at his golf course, then there should have been a no-fly zone over his golf course. But guess what they didn't issue? A no-fly zone over his golf course. And they've closed every entrance to Walter Reed except the Navy entrance, like the one that goes through the Navy place, but you have to have clearance to get in there, and the main entrance, which makes it feel like that's really easy for Secret Service to guard, the one entrance to Walter Reed. And Melania has been seen touring Walter Reed by herself for the last few days. Well, a several day tour of a hospital by yourself. That seems weird. Nothing suspicious there.

Speaker 03:

He goes to Walter Reed or does he go to Bethesda?

Speaker 00:

Well, they said Walter Reed. I don't know where he actually goes, but I think Walter Reed is the presidential. I thought

Speaker 03:

it was Bethesda because Bethesda is the Navy one. I'll look it up. Yeah, I don't know. Walter Reed's Army, Bethesda's Navy.

Speaker 00:

I don't know which one it is, but I know the exits to Walter Reed are the ones that I know had closed down. It could be for a different reason, but I think he had a stroke. I think he's nonverbal. I think he's probably still alive, but like... I'm going to make a very terrible joke. I think like Terry Schiavo alive, I'm going to throw back into the ancient realm of people who paid attention to politics in the 90s. I would say he's probably in a close to vegetative state and they're keeping him alive because- What state does

Speaker 03:

she live in? Was it Florida? In the 90s?

Speaker 00:

Yeah.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, because I was in Maryland. Yeah, I

Speaker 00:

was in Maryland. Because it was a- Bush, actually, back to him, that was making a big deal about it. She died March 31st, 2005 in Pinellas Park. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Long time ago, but yeah, that's what I think. I think he's had a stroke and if he's either completely nonverbal or if you've known somebody who's had a stroke, like the immediate aftermath, they're verbal, but they're not, you know what I mean?

Speaker 03:

They're slurring, but he has shown signs of that before.

Speaker 00:

Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. Like, and he's been getting like daily IV because his heart failure is so bad. I don't know. Like I said, I don't think he'll be alive to cancel the midterms. So I'm less concerned about it as each, It goes by. Not that I'm hoping for it or anything. Totally hoping for it.

Speaker 03:

Hypothetical. Hypothetical. How long before J.D. Vance says he's not capable of running the country?

Speaker 00:

I don't think he'll admit it because he's an arrogant swine, but I fully believe, and this might be a little bit cannon, tinfoil, hattie, whatever, but I don't care. Donald Trump right now is president 47. He dies, or J.D. Vance becomes president 48. I can see a realistic scenario because he's so unpopular and the Republican Party will so... Instantly start eating their own. Right. Because like a cult of personality without a personality is just a cult of crazy, you know, and they will they're all a bunch of crazy. We talked about the strange bedfellows that make them up already. Right. So I can see a realistic scenario where the 2028 election will be electing the 50th American president.

Speaker 03:

So you think it's a Agnew? No, not Agnew, a Gerald Ford type thing.

Speaker 00:

I think it'll be a Gerald Ford type thing where I think JD Vance will probably serve as president for a little while, but I think he'll probably go full tech bro, which will break the MAGA cult, which will probably make like the Marjorie Taylor greens of the world go crazy. They'll probably try to impeach him. And how funny would that be if JD Vance gets impeached? Right. Have you been

Speaker 03:

listening to her?

Speaker 00:

Who, Marjorie Taylor Greene? She started making sense one day, and it scared me, so I stopped.

Speaker 03:

Her

Speaker 00:

head's spinning.

Speaker 03:

Her

Speaker 00:

head is

Speaker 03:

spinning. She's a confused person right now.

Speaker 00:

Yes, because almost like she bought into it.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, I don't think she's bright. Nope. I don't think she's stupid. I don't think she's stupid, but I don't think she's bright. But I think her head's spinning because she doesn't know what to do.

Speaker 00:

Yep. Because Donald Trump, like I think the Epstein thing broke her, right? Like what I think of her is I don't think she's smart. I don't think she's dumb, but I think she's gullible written on the ceiling dumb. Does that make sense? Okay. Yes. Like, yes. And she can be led. Exactly. And I think she was into the MAGA cult, but I think the way Donnie's been waffling on the Epstein files and she was all in on the Epstein file thing. And I'll believe that she cares about kids. She's like, I'll, I'll give her that. She's a human.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 00:

So I think him waffling on Epstein is making her question her life choices big time. And I don't like when I agree with her on things, so I avoid anything to do with her. But she's definitely in a crisis of conscience right now. And I doubt she's alone.

Speaker 03:

So who, again, hypothetically, who does Vance pick as VP?

Speaker 00:

I don't know. I would say Peter Thiel, but I don't think he can because he's not American, right? He's

Speaker 03:

American, but not by birth.

Speaker 00:

Yeah, that's what I mean. And same with Elon Musk, right? So he couldn't pick either of them. So there's got to be a tech bro somebody, right, that he could pick. I don't know who it would be, but I know it won't be somebody popular. I could see a scenario where he can't get anybody confirmed. So the vice presidency stays vacant.

Speaker 03:

Yeah, and that's when if something happens to him is when Mike Johnson becomes president.

Speaker 00:

Or, and this is, again, I'm owning the tinfoil hat moment here, or they keep the vice presidency open long enough To get through the midterms, we get a Democratic speaker, and then impeach JV. I'm just saying. Crazier things have happened.

Speaker 03:

I actually think if the scenario plays out, I think it's Kristi Noem.

Speaker 00:

Oh, gross. I really do. The puppy killer as VP? Yeah.

Speaker 03:

Think about it.

Speaker 00:

Who's on TV?

Speaker 03:

How funny would that be? Who's in front of TV? There's only two people that are in front of the TV. It's Trump. But then who's the next two people that are on TV the most?

Speaker 00:

Christine Noem and Stephen Miller.

Speaker 03:

No. Not Stephen Miller. There's a guy that's on there more. Secretary of Defense.

Speaker 00:

Oh, Hegstaff? Oh,

Speaker 03:

no. No, I know. He won't. But those are the two people that are on TV the most outside of Trump.

Speaker 00:

You don't think Marco Rubio? You don't think he's sitting there biding his time to become the under JD Vance. Little Marco, poor Little Marco.

Speaker 03:

I don't think people like him.

Speaker 00:

Nobody likes him. Nobody likes JD Vance either. They're not a likable crop of people.

Speaker 03:

Neither is most of them there, but I really think that it's Kristi Noem.

Speaker 00:

That's so disappointing. Look at me now pulling for JD Vance because I can't stomach the idea of Kristi Noem. You know what? They really did dredge the bottom of the barrel for this administration, didn't they? Woof. Yeah. Loyalty. That's all he cared about. That's all he cared about. Well, that was a good show. We ran a little long, but I think we had a good conversation all around. We covered some big topics, emotional topics, zany topics. Why not? So any closing thoughts, Royal?

Speaker 03:

Never forget.

Speaker 00:

Never forget. You know what? Couldn't have said it better myself. Never forget. I almost feel bad doing the outro part of the show now. Like, subscribe, and download the episode, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm going to leave it. I'm going to leave it with that. The anniversary is coming up, and let's try to remember what we forgot.

Speaker 03:

Let's do better.

Speaker 00:

Let's do better. I agree. All right. So thanks for listening, everybody. Hope you got something good out of the show today. Until next time. See ya. Thanks so much for listening to the Royal Canon Podcast with me, Kathy Cannon, at CanonSpotter on TikTok, Instagram, and everywhere you can find me, as well as my partner in chaos, Royal Webster, two teachers, one podcast, and way too much love for history. Don't forget to follow, rate, and share the show so more folks can join in on the fun. Until next time, stay curious, stay loud, and never let anyone tell you history is boring.