BRIAN DERRICK: 0:00

I'm Brian Derrick.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:00

And I'm Glennis Meagher.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:02

Welcome back to Vibes Only.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:03

This week-

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:04

Mike Johnson leaked his plans to destroy all of the programs that we've paid for for years.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:11

And Trump is saying, quelle surprise, that AI regulation is a hoax, and a bunch of our elected officials are saying they don't even know what AI is.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:20

Plus, Mitch McConnell is back in the Senate. He's alive, and potentially high?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:26

Doge.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:27

Wait, do you get that reference?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:28

No.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:29

I'm alive. What's it from?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:31

Is that from Drag

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:33

Race? No, it's from, uh, House of the Dragon. That was funny. We have just 47 days until the midterms, and we are launching a fantasy league from Oath where you can win $4,000 cash, baby.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 0:46

We'll also get into why Brian feels bullish on the House but bearish on the Senate. And we're reminding you that Doge was a scam.

BRIAN DERRICK: 0:56

And finally, we're gonna talk about Democrats' plans to respond to the accusations that they are communists, and how we're gonna get a fair map in Wisconsin.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:05

Do, do-do, do-do.

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:11

Good morning, Glennis.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:12

Good afternoon, Brian. I'm still in Sweden, so-

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:15

True… GLENNIS MEAGHER: it's I have a pitch for you today.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:21

What is it?

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:22

I think we should rename the podcast to the Meagher-Derrick Vibes Only Podcast. If you don't rename it, then I'm canceling the show- … and we're never recording another episode.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:38

Wait, what is the inspiration for this rebrand?

BRIAN DERRICK: 1:40

The Kennedy Center, of course. Donald Trump- Oh … says he will not allow a renovation to move forward unless his name is on the building. We officially have a two-year-old as President of the United States, if we did not know that already.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 1:56

Yeah, he's spiraling. He's in full spiral mode. Like, I don't know what's going on. But he-- I mean, he always seems to reinvent himself, but this time it's just getting dumber and dumber and dumber and dumber, and costing Americans billions of dollars.

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:11

I think I know what's going on. 48 days, baby. 48 days till the midterms, until karma officially delivers her revenge. Should we get into it?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:24

47. 47 when this comes out.

BRIAN DERRICK: 2:26

Okay. So as you just corrected me, 47 days for our listeners until D-Day, until accountability finally reaches the halls of Congress. A primary season is officially over. We just had our last primary in Delaware. It was a total snooze fest. There was basically nothing competitive going on in, in the state. It's a blue state. But now it is officially general election season.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 2:59

How do you feel?

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:00

Yeah, I mean, there's been a thousand hot takes in the last, like, week or two about where Democrats are at, but they're all universally positive. It's just a matter of the degree of positive the Democrats should be feeling. There's kind of an interesting split between the qualitative and quantitative forecasters, which we can talk about if we wanna nerd out. But first, I think the thing that actually is on everyone's mind, that I'm getting in- Mm-hmm … my DMs every single day is, "What are the percent odds we're gonna win the Senate? What are the percent odds we're gonna win the House?" That's what everyone wants to know. And what say you?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:36

As, uh, I like to stay in my political lane, I'm cautiously optimistic we can do both. Like, I, I believe, I truly do believe, but I did read this morning some, some toss-ups that we thought were trending in the right direction potentially are trending in the wrong direction. Are you asking for, like, my percentage of, like, fi- like, 60% chance we win?

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:54

I mean, that's what everyone's asking me. But

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:57

that's such a weird- I'm, I'm

BRIAN DERRICK: 3:57

not trying to-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 3:58

I would tell them to shut up… BRIAN DERRICK: it's' GLENNIS MEAGHER: I

BRIAN DERRICK: 4:02

agree.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 4:02

So that's what I say. I agree. Yeah. I, I think that everyone needs to do everything i- in their individual power. I'm, I'm particularly focused on the Senate. That's where I'm dedicating, like, literally the next 47 days of my life. I'm going on this, another tour of the battleground states. I feel bad about the financial deficit the Democrats are in, something you could probably speak to, 'cause that was my question for you. I'm seeing that we have about $500 million less than the Republicans in the final 47 days towards the election, and that's not even including Elon Musk saying he's putting in 100 million. So does that worry you?

BRIAN DERRICK: 4:40

Yeah. I mean, it should worry everyone, but it will affect the races that we're talking about unevenly. I think that the huge cash stockpile that Republicans have amassed by being the most corrupt administration and party in the history of the country is really gonna help bring Republicans home. And so in the places where we currently have data that Democrats are wildly overperforming and that we have no business competing in, and suddenly it's a tied race, those are exactly the places where money is going to be the most effective at bringing people back into the fold for Republicans because they're gonna spend so much money saying that Democrats are socialists who want to turn your kids into transgender critical race theory professors or whatever the fuck. And those are the people who believe it because they already believe that in their heart. Those people- Yeah … already are, like, so ready to hear that the Democratic Party is socialist, that that messaging really works. Yeah. And so in a place like- LOL, South Dakota, Idaho, Kansas to a lesser extent, where Republicans are currently seeing tied polls with Democratic challengers- Right or, or independents in, in some of those cases. Those are the places where I expect there to be the most movement as they go spend billions of dollars on- Yeah… messaging for the next six weeks.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 6:15

Are you feeling cautiously optimistic?

BRIAN DERRICK: 6:18

Oh, I feel very optimistic overall. I feel- Okay … bullish on the House. I feel more bearish on the Senate than I think most people- Okay online feel, as well as, like, the New York Times poll. Quick recap there. We have, we have to hold our seats in Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Georgia, and then we have to flip four additional seats, which would most likely be North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Alaska, and then you have Iowa and Texas sort of potentially out of reach. So I'm not banking on the Senate. We've been saying that for a year and a half. Not banking on the Senate. Yeah. Have to win the House, and I feel great about our chances to score a double-digit margin in the House.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:01

Great. Did you see that Mike Johnson clip that's going viral again about the midterms? And he's like, "You, you don't want, you don't wanna know what they're gonna do to us. They're gonna impeach us left and right. They're gonna hold the trials." If

MIKE JOHNSON: 7:16

we were to, if we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, these Democrats, y'all, impeachment's not even the big concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they'll go after the president's family, the cabinet, his donors, and friends. Half of you in this room will be targeted.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:29

And I had posted, like, "Manifesting."

BRIAN DERRICK: 7:33

Did you see the other Mike Johnson quote from this week that leaked, him saying-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 7:37

No… " BRIAN DERRICK: Post-midterms, we're Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid more." He had a call get, get leaked, I think with a donor. So they're doing themselves no favors, and that's why I brought up- No favors the Kennedy thing too, is- Yeah… for them to be in the position that we're in, that we're describing right now, where Dems are positioned to flip the House, Dems are gonna come at least close in the, in the Senate. For them to be focused on renaming the Kennedy Center and Cutting more programs, like, is just a wild, wild midterm strategy. Totally. And you know, I was listening to The Daily, that was kind of their follow-up to the, the midterm Siena poll they had put out. I think it was a Sunday publication. And how for, like, the first time ever Republicans are polling as the elitists. Like p- voters view Republicans as elitists. And for years, you know, Democrats are viewed that way as these Ivy League college-educated elite people, you know, coastal elites. We've heard that many, many times. And the cause for that is because you're seeing Donald Trump get rich. You're seeing his family get rich. You're seeing people around him get rich. You're seeing his friends, friends getting contracts, all while the American people are not getting rich. Did you read the Axios this morning where the Republican memo was leaked for the data center talking points?

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:03

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:05

It's like they're like, "Don't, don't talk about him like that." Like

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:12

it's- Please stop saying that you're gonna defend data centers. Please stop. Yeah, totally.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:18

It's so cringe.

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:20

On that note, we have to, have to, have to mention the bombshell ProPublica piece that just came out showing that Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding was paid for by a Russian oligarch who's friends with Putin. What? I don't

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:40

even-

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:40

What are we doing here?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 9:43

I haven't read the full article, but this in my, uh, politically adjacent, like, not actually people working in the political field, but my friends who are, like, in the know, this went viral in that group chat because it is just so insane. It's

BRIAN DERRICK: 9:59

not even believable. If it weren't-- If there weren't receipts, you wouldn't believe it. That it-- But, but also it, it-- I say that, but then, like, it's so believable when you look at everything that this administration has done. It's completely on brand. But like- 2015 me would just never believe that that's a possible thing that could happen.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 10:21

Shocking. Shocking to think about how the world responded or Republicans responded to Hunter's laptop. Meanwhile, Trump's son gets a multimillion-dollar wedding payrolled by a Russian oligarch who is friends with presumed-- Like, our, our enemy. Like, Russia is not our friend. Yeah. It is- A

BRIAN DERRICK: 10:40

thug dictator, yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 10:42

Yeah. It's crazy. I have to read that piece till I saw it, and I was like… I guess to your point, I wasn't, like, shocked. I was like, "Here we are." But we can't, we can't, like, normalize these things. We have to keep talking about them because it is so insane. And by the way, he could afford to pay for that wedding if he wanted to 'cause he's so corrupt that he's getting millions of dollars a year now 'cause his daddy's president, and he's sitting on the- The drone contracts alone … Chinese random drone. The drone- I know. It's, it's actually absurd, and this should piss everyone off.

BRIAN DERRICK: 11:11

Corruption is the vibe, and it is Democrats' path back to the coalition that we need i- not only to win in a couple of weeks, but also in 2028 and beyond, is, like, that is how you realign incentives and policy, is to really focus on the corruption that has taken place in this administration.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 11:36

Completely agree. It is literal crooks in the administration and crooks who are running for office. Ken Paxton, impeached by his own party for corruption, is now the Republican candidate for Senate in Texas. Insanity. Meanwhile, Mike Johnson saying that he's gonna cut all the things that we've worked so hard to have as Americans.

BRIAN DERRICK: 11:59

Okay, wait. Where do you wanna go? AI? Oh, yeah. Let's talk about the end of the world.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:03

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:03

Would you rather have an AI launch a nuclear strike against you or an AI generate a bioweapon that kills you in your bed? What do you think?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:16

No, no bullshit, I w- I genuinely thought about this this morning because last night I was thinking about-- 'Cause Senator Kennedy, John Kennedy, who… Listen, he's a, he's a ba- a bad Republican, but if you've ever watched supercuts of him on TikTok, he should've just been a comedian. He is out of control. Anyway, he's introducing a, a kill safe bill for AI.

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:39

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:39

Because the AI is literally taking over. I thought, I, I don't have an answer to this 'cause I'm like, I'd rather AI kill me by like, 'cause you know like the paperclip thing? Whatever. It's like-

BRIAN DERRICK: 12:53

No. What does that mean?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 12:54

It's a, it's a philosophical study about AI. If they're given a task, they'll do anything in its, in their power to complete the task, if that, even if that includes, like, killing humans. I think I'd rather go in a nuke. Is that w- is that the question? Like an

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:10

AI- That's

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:10

the question the

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:11

AI

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:11

hit the go button? Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:12

I would pick door number three, and I want literal AI robots to come fight me. Like, I want my, I want my vacuum, my robot vacuum cleaner to, like, revolt and have an uprising in my house and set my house on fire or something. I feel like that's the most dramatic way.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:29

Have you seen, have you seen any of the videos of the humanoids dancing in China?

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:33

Yes. They had one… Wait. The- They had a, they had one outside of my office building this week. I'm not joking.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:40

That's

BRIAN DERRICK: 13:40

not- I walked up to my office building and there was a humanoid robot, whatever we're calling those, doing a little dance and, like, interacting with people on the street, and a robot dog as well, with marketing. They were marketing some company. Um…

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 13:59

I don't like it. I don't like it. I l- the dancing humanoids- I

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:02

kicked it right in the head.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:03

Good. The dancing humanoids make me laugh, but then when I see the, the ones that are doing kung fu, I'm like,"That, that would take me right out." If I got one of those robot- Nothing- arms to the neck.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:17

Nothing fucks me up more than seeing them run. I'm like- Yeah.… if one of those things is chasing you, you are cooked.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:26

You're, you're dead.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:27

I mean, well, to be honest- Yeah … all you have to do is turn, because clearly- Yeah … they cannot stop and they cannot turn. But if you are running in a straight line in a hallway and one is after you, sir, you might be in trouble.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:41

Yeah, it's like what they tell you with alligators or crocodiles. If one of them's chasing you, you have to zigzag.

BRIAN DERRICK: 14:47

I think that's fake. Do that with- I don't think that's real.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 14:49

It's totally… When it's just a way to embarrass yourself before you're eat, eaten alive by an alligator. Anyway, okay, so the AI. There are concerns that the AI is gonna kill us.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:00

Yeah. Okay. It's definitely hit an, a fever pitch in the last two weeks, mainly because this guy who worked at-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:09

Anthropic for, like, a month… BRIAN DERRICK: Anthropic. Okay. Oh, wait. Was it a month? I didn't know that. He wasn't there for a long time at all.

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:16

Okay, I didn't know that. Well, he's the one who really kicked the hornet's nest Gets on TV, says, "I'm in the algorithms. I'm in, I'm in the shit. I'm an engineer, and there's a more than 10% chance that this is gonna kill us by…" Is it within the decade or by the end of the decade? Whatever.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:35

Potato,

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:35

potato.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 15:36

You know?

BRIAN DERRICK: 15:37

And that seemed to really spook a lot of people, where it started picking up a lot of steam online. Members of Congress definitely perked their ears up at that, but then what I think has really changed the conversation is the heads of AI companies coming out and saying,"We agree. We want regulation. We want a slowdown." And multiple heads of, of AI companies have come out and said some ver- some version of that, particularly as it relates to super intelligence, which we can talk about. And then final, final sort of act of the saga, Donald Trump comes out, of course, and says AI regulation is a hoax. Hoax,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:22

yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:22

Which they had an interesting study of, like, there are actually very few things that Donald Trump will refer to as a hoax.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 16:29

Huh.

BRIAN DERRICK: 16:29

He saves that word for the things that he hates the most, so he seems very dug in. Talk about confusing, terrible messaging and strategy ahead of the midterms. And now we have a Congress that is seemingly paralyzed, Republicans who won't do anything to piss off daddy- Mm-hmm … and a president who has no interest in basic safeguards because he has David Sacks whispering in his ear, telling him, "Faster, faster, more, more, more, more, more, money, money, money, money, money." And, uh, it's making them all billionaires.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:00

Yeah, and for those who don't know, David Sacks is, like, the AI crypto czar or whatever.

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:05

And a billionaire.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:06

Also, did you read the… Oh, you read Axios every morning, but when they were asking, uh, Congress people about AI and if they use it, and they're, like, 75 years old and they're like, "No, it comes up on my phone sometimes." My favorite was Senator Roger Wicker, who is from Mississippi, he's 75. He's the chair of the Armed Services Committee. He's-- When he asked if, if he was using AI, he said, "Heavens, no." Mind you, three weeks ago, I was listening to retired General David Petraeus, who Russia tried to kill. I don't know if you saw that? The, his, the train that he was supposed to be on got bombed in Ukraine.

BRIAN DERRICK: 17:45

Recently?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 17:46

Yeah, yeah, a drone attack- No, I haven't s- … that had- I haven't seen that … and Boris, Boris Johnson. Anyway, he did this whole… I was listening to, like, The Economist or something, and he was talking about how with Iran and with Ukraine, we're seeing how drones are kind of the warfare of the future, and AI-controlled autonomous drones are probably the warfare weapons of the future. And here we have our chair of the Armed Services Committee saying,"Heavens, no, I've never used AI."

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:15

No

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:15

Shouldn't you?

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:16

Glennis, the quotes are bananas.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:19

The heroin one?

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:21

Holy shit. That was from Frank Pallone. Frank Pallone, who's 74, ranking Democrat on House Energy and Commerce."You don't need to do drugs like heroin to know they should be regulated Oh my God, sir I

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:40

know

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:41

Sir

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 18:41

I know

BRIAN DERRICK: 18:43

Get a grip. It's so embarrassing. Get a grip. And this is why we have been trying to die on the Hill, or get m- maybe some other people to die on the Hill, that we need generational change, that we need people leading on the issues who understand the issues, who- Yeah … it's not just about whether you have searched something on ChatGPT. It's about having the context and the deep expertise to have the imagination of what AI could do to our economy and to our world, and the types of threats that it could pose. If you literally don't even know what it can do, how it operates, what it is- Yeah … who makes it, how they make it, like, how can you be expected to look three years down the road, which is not that long- Yeah at the pace that we're currently moving, predict the threats, and come up with the right solutions. Like, get the fuck out of office. I'm sorry, but-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 19:42

Yeah… BRIAN DERRICK: it's- Get a grip… BRIAN DERRICK: it's time. Get real.

BRIAN DERRICK: 19:45

Before we move on, Maxine Waters, who we've talked about before- Oh … is 88, running for reelection- I saw that … had arguably the best response when asked if she uses AI. She said, "I don't know. I can't remember."

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 19:59

Great. And mind you- Be super

BRIAN DERRICK: 20:00

real right now

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 20:02

Be super real, and, like, we have been saying this for a long time, 'cause we are AI users, but even if you don't think you're using AI, AI is using you. It is on your phone. It is in your search engines. It is getting your data. It is learning your habits. So you need to be aware of why it needs to be regulated. And for those who might not know, and by the way, if you don't wanna use AI, don't use AI. That's fine. But AI now, for sure, in this current moment, has the power to completely shut down electrical grids, could completely shut down nuclear facilities. It is extremely powerful, and the fact that these AI CEOs now, Brian, are like, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta, we gotta slow it down," and it's like you're saying that because you see the public pressure, and this one guy who was there for less than 90 days is like, "Hey, it's actually pretty fucked up. Like, we should probably do something about this." It's crazy to me. And then on top of it, this is the last thing I'll say, but there was a whole kind of internet conspiracy on this too that, like, they were… Everyone was like,"It's awfully convenient this guy who's only worked at a company for 30 days and you've never heard of before is saying all of this right before Anthropic or ChatGPT's IPO. He's just trying to tank it. And it's like, who, who cares, one, and then also he's correct that we have to regulate it. We just need elected officials who understand the threats of, of current day society.

BRIAN DERRICK: 21:30

100%. I do just wanna give a shout-out. Alex Bores, who- I

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 21:34

saw… BRIAN DERRICK: I supported for lost in June, just launched a new effort called Who Decides, which is all about regulating AI, after the AI industry spent a record amount of money trying to defeat him in the primary. Wait, Glennis, did you watch… Wait, will you just go… I'm just gonna send it to you so that it's live- Okay … as you react to it. I'm sending it to you too, Jason. Wait, I saw this. Did you, did you see it? Oh my God, I was screaming. I love him already. Yeah,

BRIAN DERRICK: 22:05

but I didn't watch it. Wait, wait. Put the volume on and react to it, and then I want Jason to play a clip.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 22:09

Okay. Let me… Okay.

VINNY THOMAS: 22:11

My name is Vinny Thomas, and I just quit my job at the Boiling People Alive Factory after it became abundantly clear that this technology could be used to boil people alive I spent over five years as a product designer at the Boiling People Alive Factory. I designed the big pots that we would use to boil people alive. However, as I was developing the big pots, it became abundantly clear that they could be used to boil people alive. In fact, I would say there is a greater than 10% chance that we will all fit in the big pots I designed and will be boiled alive. It's so good. And I just wanted to get on here and let you all know that ultimately, if someone doesn't get in there and start drilling holes in the pots, we're all gonna be soup.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 23:01

No, but this is literally- We're all gonna be soup. It's like capitalism, like… Yeah. It's, it's capitalism. It's so good. It's so good. Right? Like, people have jo- Like a- Have you seen what Anthropic pays?

BRIAN DERRICK: 23:12

Oh yeah, it's bananas. I mean, people are getting… It's like minting billionaires, and then also people are getting equity packages like right off the bat worth millions of dollars. Yeah,

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 23:21

yeah. Yeah, with like a, a probably like a six-month vest, you know what I mean? It's like the entry level jobs are $250,000.

BRIAN DERRICK: 23:29

It, it is a little on the nose when someone is the whistleblower who's like building the thing. We, we need those people. We do need those people who are on the inside who know, but also you did choose to go there at exactly the time that everyone knew that this was the situation.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 23:49

Money wins. In America, money wins. But- Yeah … hopefully not in the midterms. Hopefully not- Right … in the midterms is all I have to say because we the people have power. Well,

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:01

we the people. Another reason that we're going to win the midterms, maybe a few other reasons- Mm … that Dems are, are well positioned to win the midterms. First, we got a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court, as we've been saying for months, that we would get from a SCOTUS on the USPS rule. So there will not be a USPS role in screening ballots that are sent via mail, obviously. I have- Because that's absurd… GLENNIS MEAGHER: I have to, I Truth Social tweet twat from Trump. Okay? Are

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:43

we calling them twats?

BRIAN DERRICK: 24:44

This was insane.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 24:45

I don't know. I just like was like, "Why not add some alliteration there?" Okay. Quote, this is from the President of the United States of America,"These are not the people I interview to serve on the United States Supreme Court. They are merely a shell of their original selves, a court that is costing the United States trillions of dollars." Editor's note, Trump has made at least 2.2, if not 3 billion more to date since he took office again."With shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won't be easily possible for our country to recover or heal He's insane.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:25

Okay

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:25

He'll-

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:26

I'm still stuck on what do you call a tweet on Truth Social?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:32

A shwat. A shwat.

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:34

Shwat. I think that is so fucking funny. Why don't we call them that? I love that

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:39

you think I'm funny. Yeah. I mean-

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:40

Holy shit.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 25:41

It's… M- yeah, mind you, he, like, didn't write that. Natalie probably wrote it, you know?

BRIAN DERRICK: 25:46

Yes. So he's having a meltdown over it. MAGA is having a meltdown over it. It will continue to be used by them to try to undermine trust in our elections, which is its own crisis that anything we do basically feeds into at this point. It's horrific. But importantly, people can cast their ballots via mail, and they will be counted. That is happening. That's one.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 26:09

That's great.

BRIAN DERRICK: 26:10

The second thing that's happening, that will have happened by the time people hear this, which we do not know yet, is a decision as to whether they're going to raise interest rates at the Fed. Hmm. This is a really big deal because Donald Trump, for over a year, as he was launching criminal investigations into Jay Powell, the former chair of the Fed, has been pushing for a rate cut, that he wants to hand out more free money to people because it's what juices the economy and GDP. But they're gonna have to raise the rates because he has personally caused more inflation than any individual in modern history by launching a war with Iran that he's losing, that has almost doubled the price of gas, like, the-- which has increased the cost of diesel to a record amount, which has increased the cost of literally everything. So inflation is forcing the Fed's hand. They're likely going to raise interest rates, harder for people to buy houses, cars, start businesses, all kinds of things, which is also really bad for the economy

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 27:17

Yeah. Trump and MAGA Republicans ran and won on lowering your cost of living and no new wars. And two years later, because of their corruption, groceries are up 4%, your electrical bill- Wow is up more than $200. Gas is up 27% just in this year because of the war, and your health insurance premiums are up 50% on average with deductibles up more than $1,000. So ladies and gentlemen, Trump lied to you.

BRIAN DERRICK: 27:46

Yeah, totally. I looked it up. The month before Trump took office, the national gas price average was 2.99, and now this week it's about 4.40 and pushing up because there's been an additional choke point, a pipeline that was attacked, which is the number one way to sort of go around the Strait of Hormuz or like to continue moving oil when the Strait of Hormuz is closed. That has now been attacked, and like the Houthis are like seizing land up and down the coast. So it's getting worse, not better, which is why futures are up as well. People are predicting that it's gonna get more and more expensive, not less.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:27

The one-

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:27

Bad for Trump … last thing I wanna ask you- Bad, bad, bad

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:29

when Trump straight up said, "I'll give every American $5,000 if Republicans- Oh my gosh … win in the midterms."

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:37

Yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:37

Number one, if he can do that, why not just do it right now? Why is it a carrot that you're dangling to steal and rig an election?

BRIAN DERRICK: 28:50

Right.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 28:50

And of course, it's illegal. I saw that and I was like, "Oh, you're insane, and so corrupt." And also when he had at the Republican convention in Dallas, when he had that culty like pledge allegiance to Donald Trump, I was like, people, people have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They try and say that if you hate Trump, you have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They're sick in the head. The

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:15

$5,000 checks are so desperate. It's so embarrassing. He still owes-- People have been posting all kinds of content about like he's promised rebate checks for tariffs. He's promised pandemic relief checks back in the day that never came. He's promised all kinds of cash incentives that have never arrived. Uh, people have no reason to believe that this would be any different.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:37

Yeah, he's lying to you. So now we'll do some Clickbait DoubleClick. For those who don't remember, this is where Brian and I run through some headlines, and we tell you if it's worth caring about or not.

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:48

Okay, I'll start.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:49

Okay.

BRIAN DERRICK: 29:51

Mitch McConnell returns to the Senate after his three-month absence.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 29:58

But is it him? Is it not maybe someone who has a skin suit on? Like, it is so depressing. It's clickbait, but this is a point you've made and Emily Amick has made quite a bit online, is he was more helpful to us in-

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:11

Missing.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:12

Yeah … preliminary hospice care or whatever.

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:15

Yeah, he came back to cast a tie-breaking vote. So it's not good- But- … that he's back… GLENNIS MEAGHER: did you see my God … zoomed in on his face? It is- He's just like … No, it's, there's nothing in his head. Like, it's- Whatever they gave Biden for that State of the Union three years ago, do you remember that? No. When he came out and was like-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 30:36

Do I?"Rah." Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 30:38

They OD'd Mitch McConnell on that. He is- Yeah … absolutely in La La Land. It's crazy. It's sad. I will say, this would be a double click if old, old Dems would step aside, like we've been begging them to do, and we had, like, a generational change happening this cycle, where 30 to 40 House Dems in their s- 80s were stepping down and being replaced by people in their 40s. Then it would be a double click. Then it would be like, "Let's go all in on this. This is a single party issue now that Republicans have to deal with." But unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for us because we have- Yeah … more old people than they do. So unfortunate.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 31:23

Ugh. Yeah. Okay. Kash Patel suggests FBI agents could go to election polling sites.

BRIAN DERRICK: 31:31

I think this is clickbait. They actually don't have the capacity to send FBI agents to every polling location. They could obviously target specific ones, but it's not the thing that I'm the most worried about. Yeah, they can't show up everywhere, and they could try and target, like, specific areas to try to depress turnout, but I actually think that that's less likely than other potential scenarios that could unfold with the midterms. So I'm gonna say click it.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:05

Yeah. Did you see Kash Patel's hearing, by the way, where he-

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:09

I saw clips of it about bestiality, to your point about John Kennedy being a jokester.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:14

Yeah. It's basically the FBI is no longer disqualifying candidates based on past prostitution or bestiality. Kash Patel's reasoning for that is it's like to protect traffickers, so if a trafficker or former-- someone who was formerly trafficked wants to be an FBI agent, like they're not gonna hold it against them. I'm-- I have no comment on this.

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:34

Okay. I have one for you.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:36

Okay.

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:37

The Trump administration spent $10 billion paying people to not work for the federal government because DOGE put them on leave in 2025. So we spent $10 billion on people doing nothing for- Double click … because the Department of Government Efficiency-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 32:59

Yeah

BRIAN DERRICK: 32:59

told them to stop working.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 33:01

Double-- Yeah. Double click for exactly that reason. It is-- it's a complete failure on behalf of the Trump administration to the American people to waste our taxpayer dollars in that way and to cut… We, we've, we've talked about DOGE quite a bit on this podcast, and the really, really important services that were, were cut, whether it be USAID or you look at even like election protection within the government. There's now zero people who are overseeing the safety and fairness of our elections because they were cut in DOGE. Double click. It is just, what a waste of money while your life is getting more expensive. Yeah. Wasting your taxpayer dollars that you worked so hard to give to the United States government that is completely disregarded and is, is used so inefficiently.

BRIAN DERRICK: 33:48

I completely agree. It's a double click. The total amount that the Department of Justice has identified in Minnesota as fraudulent is around 800 million. So the entire country stopped and freaked out over the 800 million that was potentially stolen in Minnesota. Terrible.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:09

Hmm.

BRIAN DERRICK: 34:09

Meanwhile, they spent$10 billion paying people to not work for the federal government. That's fraud. Like, that is the real fraud. DOGE was a scam, and they actually used it to access all of this extremely sensitive government data, and then they left the government to go start companies with that data. Like, it's insane. It's such-- Like, talk about waste, fraud, abuse. It was literally part of their DNA from the beginning.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:41

That's crazy. I didn't realize they started the companies with the data that they fleeced from the United States government. Yes.

BRIAN DERRICK: 34:47

Yes. I mean, they, like, went into these systems and then went and built systems using the knowledge that they stole from Social Security and other shit.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 34:57

We got a lot of work to do in '27 to convince, to, to teach more people about this. Last one, it's stupid. I know what it's gonna be. Republicans facing midterm peril try to brand Democrats as communists.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:10

Double click.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:13

I'm shook. Did

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:13

I-

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:14

Why?

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:14

Did I throw, did I throw you for a loop?

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 35:16

Yeah. Let's talk about it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 35:19

I mean, to our, to our previous point on the midterm spending, that is what all this money is gonna be put behind. That is the attack of the cycle. Mm-hmm. So Democrats have to have a meaningful answer to it. The, the answer does not have to be that we're super capitalists and we're all Josh Gottheimer and we're Republican light, which is why the left would say that is clickbait. But you do have to have a compelling response because it has shown in battleground districts in specific instances to be an effective line of attack. So to that extent, I would say a double click until we're sure the Democrats can actually get their messaging together.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:10

And there's also a fair amount of very, very left online dialogue of like communists aren't that bad. To which I say to them literally in their comments, "Tell me your thoughts on the Great Leap Forward." where up-upwards of 40 million Chinese people died because of government mismanagement, torture, famine Not to be a downer, but like- Are,

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:37

are we going there? Are we going there right now? Yeah, I certainly don't think that we want to be debating the merits of communism 47 days before the midterm election cycle.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 36:51

Yeah.

BRIAN DERRICK: 36:51

The goal for sure should be to pivot the conversation back to what Donald Trump is doing, the corruption of the administration, and how to make life more affordable in the, in the United States when it feels like we're on a hamster wheel. Having an effective ways to, to do that, that are believable and authentic to the candidate will determine whether we're winning in R plus eight seats or only R plus two seats this cycle.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 37:21

Which I agree. Speaking of, Brian, do you have an Oath Candidate of the Week?

BRIAN DERRICK: 37:27

Our Oath Candidate of the Week this week, you get to decide. We are launching a really fun new tool that people can go play with right now called The Democracy Draft. And with The Democracy Draft, you can make a prediction as to who you think is going to win the top races of the cycle, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan- Ooh … Troy Jackson in Maine. It goes all the way through the really tough House seats. You make a forecast, and the- Hmm … whoever gets the closest gets$4,000 at the end of the election.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:09

That you've put back into Oath?

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:12

No, you get cash money. Ah. It's a prize.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:16

That's really interesting. So do you have to donate to candidates to enroll yourself?

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:21

No, but once you pick who you think is going to win all of these races, we will send you a link so that you can donate to the ones that you picked to make sure that they win, so you're right. It's like March Madness for the midterms.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:35

Yeah. What I would, like, recommend is that people put it back into candidates, but that's me being holier-than-thou. If you want your 4K- I mean-… that's a nice little vacation.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:44

But you're getting your 4K post-election, so the candidates will have already won or lost. But you can give it to a presidential campaign.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:52

That's what I mean. The-- T.

BRIAN DERRICK: 38:54

Okay. Okay.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 38:55

After November 3rd, 2026, to me, the pre- the presidential starts.

BRIAN DERRICK: 39:02

T. That is coming up fast, let me tell you. So if you want to enter a guess for what you think is gonna happen in the midterms, go to thedemocracydraft.com and submit your bracket, and you might win $4,000. It's free to enter.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:25

I have one more question. Can you do pools? Like, can you be like, "Me and 20 people wanna go in, and then we win the pool"?

BRIAN DERRICK: 39:32

You can start side leagues, yes- Okay … just like you can with March Madness, and you can set a goal or prize for the winner of your side league, too.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:44

Okay. So

BRIAN DERRICK: 39:44

it's both.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 39:45

And speaking of friends, something I'm gonna be saying now basically every episode until election day is text your friends and make sure they know about the elections happening in their state, in their district. Make sure they have a voting plan. People are, are 80% more likely to go vote if someone texts them to remind them and do it.

BRIAN DERRICK: 40:04

Hell yeah.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 40:04

I'll be texting you, Brian. What's your voting plan?

BRIAN DERRICK: 40:07

Early and often, baby. Our good vibe goodbye for the week is coming from Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which Democrats have poured tons of money into electing a pro-democracy, anti-gerrymandering majority on that court in recent years. The court will now be hearing a case on their congressional maps, which we've been pushing for for two years because Wisconsin, which is actually a light blue state, pretty consistently leans Democratic in modern election cycles, but sends 75% Republicans to Congress because their map is gerrymandered. Oh. We are trying to get a fair map out of Wisconsin, and this is the case that we think could do it. So really good vibes for, not for 2026 map, but for 2028.

GLENNIS MEAGHER: 41:06

Great. We need that. We'll take the good vibe.

BRIAN DERRICK: 41:09

Halleloo! All right, y'all, have a great week. We'll be back here same time, same place, wherever you are listening or watching. Hello, YouTube. Make sure to come back next week and check the vibes of American politics with us. And while you're here, like, comment, subscribe, follow, post, share, twat, whatever it takes. Make sure that you share Vibes Only with your friends so that they can get involved before the midterm election cycle. And we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.