11/12/25: Jon Stewart Shreds Dems For Cave, Economy Bleeding Jobs, MAGA In Shambles Over Economy

25:20There is going to be mass pressure put on these Democratic senators to go in a different direction. And, you know, on MSNBC, I've been watching it some of these past couple of days because it's been kind of interesting to see where they land. And the vast majority of them are furious as well. You know, they are disgusted. they're shocked that the you know that they caved at this moment i talked yesterday about how rachel maddow did her whole opening rant on like guys we just had the no kings protest the largest action literally in history you had these election results and now is the time you cave when you and you literally got nothing for it like what the hell and she i don't know that i've ever really seen her criticize the democratic party certainly not in that forceful or forthright away she's one to sort of like hint in a direction, but that fully take a stand somewhere.

26:12He or she was taking a stand and then she had Bernie Sanders on as her guest to back it up. But there was one MSNBC host, Lawrence O'Donnell, who comes on right after Rachel Maddow, who did actually defend Chuck Schumer. A lonely voice crying out in the wilderness. Very courageous of him at this point, actually, in a certain way it is. Let's go ahead and take a listen to the case that he was making for Schumer. This is A4. It might be easy to criticize Chuck Schumer. It is easy to criticize Chuck Schumer. It's easy to make fun of him. You can wish he were smoother. You can wish he had all the smoothness of Barack Obama.

26:53It's easy to criticize him, but it is not easy to replace him. It might be easy to call for his resignation, but it is not easy to say who, with a name, could do a better job. It actually is easy to say that I would say Chris Van Hollen or Chris Murphy, either one of them would do a better job. I mean, Chris Van Hollen has really he in a certain way is this kind of unifying figure because he's this very mainstream Democrat, you know, in the firmament of the establishment of the party. But he also was quite courageous and clever, too, by the way, and creative when it came to Kilmar Abrego Garcia and leading the charge there when it's come to Gaza and, you know, going there and looking at, OK, they're lying when they say that the you know, that the problem for aid distribution is the U.N.

27:41And the problem is the Israelis. And he's been very, you know, he's been very outspoken in that regard and I think has earned a lot of respect from progressives and liberals who see him as someone who has stood up against the Trump administration. But, you know, he's going to be able to do the fundraising and do the party insider stuff as well. So personally, I think he would be a fantastic choice. Now, he's another one who may be sniffing around it, potentially running for president. I believe he had either a New Hampshire or an Iowa trip or something in that regard. In my opinion, you know, he's he's the type he's not like a super charismatic figure, but he seems to be clever and principled and have some decent strategic instincts.

28:23So to me, that would be, you know, his his best use would be in something like leadership in the Senate. So the idea that Chuck Schumer, I mean, it's just farcical on its face that Chuck Schumer is so, so exceptional. How could we possibly replace him? It's like, literally, what planet do you live on? I could pick a random person off of the street, and I think they would do a better job at this point with the role of leadership that the base actually wants their party leaders to serve at this point. Well, right. And I mean, part of I'm just, again, thinking back to Tea Party shutdowns, leadership never really wanted Tea Party shutdowns like they were dragged into it by Ted Cruz and whomever else.

29:03But they didn't have all those like specific attainable goals outlined in a lot of cases. It was kind of just for the purpose of causing trouble and getting like throwing a wrench into the gear of Washington. And what's interesting about this is Democrats created a pretty specific benchmark that they wanted to achieve with the shutdown. which was health care. And there's nothing that Democrats have more of an upper hand on than health care because Republicans have nothing. What is Mike Johnson saying right now? Like we have notebooks full of plans or something like that. They got nothing. And after all of that, concepts of a plan, concepts of a plan.

29:41After all of that, they get like when you when you set that specific of a benchmark. And you walk away like for really no, like the timing makes no sense. It's not as though, you know, the credits were on the table. Again, it's not until the end of the year. They expire at the end of the year. That's why this is coming up right now. So it's not like it was within a couple of days or anything like that. Speaking of the timing, let's try to figure out what it might have been. Because the lever has some reporting about the airline industry, which has swamped Washington, D.C. over the last couple of weeks.

30:16The next element up on the screen. Just going to town, lobbying people. And this was a report in The Lever that found correlation between airlines' favorite Democrats and who voted to end the shutdown. Crystal and Politico Influence had a great report last week as well about the airline industry just like as soon as Duffy announced the flight reductions or requested the flight reductions, that sent the lobbyists for the airline industry into overdrive. And I think that probably is as good of an explanation as any for why they voted pretty randomly on Sunday. I mean, it seemed as though even Democratic insiders were surprised, maybe not Schumer himself, But it didn't seem like anyone actually realized this was about to be on the brink of Dems siding with Republicans.

31:07And that's exactly what happened. Seems like maybe it was the airlines. I mean, people forget how powerful the airline lobby is in D.C. You know, anytime, remember, during COVID, like they always got their custom bailouts. You know, they they're always in the ear of legislators. And then what Sirota and his team at the Lever did is just to literally look at, OK, let's take a look at the FEC contributions. Let's pull up the history. And lo and behold, seven out of the eight of them in particular have taken large sums from the industry, which means that you're going to be in constant communication with them.

31:40And then one in particular, Jackie Rosen of Nevada, was one of the largest recipients of airline lobby cash. So there's no doubt that money is influential, impactful in terms of their thinking. The other thing that I've been pointing to that I really think it's important for people to keep in mind is Trump's threat to nuke the filibuster. Republicans hated that. But these type of corporate Democrats also hate that because even if they publicly claim they want to get rid of the filibuster, the truth of the matter is they love having an excuse for why they can't deliver. And the filibuster is the best excuse they've ever had.

32:16It is, in a sense, existential for them in order to maintain this pretense that they would love to deliver for working people. They would love to deliver for Americans, but they just can't because of this terrible rule called the filibuster. And therefore, we can never actually achieve the things that we totally promise you we actually want to achieve. So I think that was the other piece, because that likely was the other way that this ends, where Trump puts enough pressure on the Republicans, where it's like, no, you are going to get rid of the filibuster. They caved to Trump and nuke the filibuster.

32:50And in my opinion, that's a better outcome. And in my opinion, and I think the base, the base of the Democratic Party would have accepted that, too, because then it's like, OK, you fought, you did everything you could. And even if they ended up with nothing on health care, it's like, you know, you've you took it as far as you possibly could. You did not give up the fight and you press the case. You put health care on the table. You know, you really put the Republicans in a difficult spot. And now the filibuster is gone. And guess what? If Democrats take back power, which is increasingly possible, at least in the Senate, in the next elections, then you're going to be able to pass some of your priorities that in the past you've always said you could never achieve.

33:26You could get Puerto Rico as a state. You could get D.C. as a state. You could pack the Supreme Court. You could pass legislation that actually will benefit working people. So I think that filibuster threat is another thing that freaked them out because these corporate type Democrats need that, existentially need that as their excuse for why they can never actually really do anything big with the power that they have. Yeah, I mean, that's exactly right. I think because, you know, what's made me come around on the filibuster even recently, I always kind of go back and forth on the filibuster. What's made me come about coming around on it recently is that it's actually healthy for the country to see more direct consequences of our votes.

34:09And I don't mean consequences in a negative way, but actually it could be positive, could be negative, that when you vote on something, you see it happen. The filibuster is not like in the Constitution. It's not like part of the system that the framers designed. And so if you have a majority of the House and the Senate and a president to sign a piece of legislation, then the country feels what they voted for as opposed to feeling that like constantly getting thwarted. Now, there are a lot of other things that I would do in addition to nudging the filibuster to make sure that the country was running.

34:45if I could wave my magic wand in a way that I think made sense and was helpful. But that one in particular, that means people would actually have to face votes. So they would have to face votes on the floor of the Senate. The senators would have to face votes on the floor of the Senate for things that they said they would support, Medicare for All being a pretty obvious example. And then they would have to face votes from their voters who say, you told us you were going to vote for, I mean, John McCain is the best example. You told us you were going to repeal and replace how many times, and then you voted no on the repeal and replace, those actually having those votes and actually seeing more, feeling more, putting less of a buffer between what people vote for and what the country looks like is probably helpful at this point.

35:34I agree completely. And the other piece is, you know, because you have a legislature that really is not interested in governing, that has helped to help to create the dynamic of an executive branch that just done does everything. And so it creates I mean, Trump is responsible for, you know, the consolidation of power and the insane ways that he uses and abuses his power. But one of the things that sort of greases the skids in that direction is if you have a filibuster that makes it impossible for Congress to do anything, then increasingly you have presidents reaching for the pen using executive power and Congress just sort of like, I mean, they just they just see their power completely to the president and they're happy.

36:15Yeah, they like to have any. Yeah, they're happy to not have any actual legislative responsibility. That's easier for them. That's more comfortable for them. So so I do think that the filibuster has sort of been an under discussed part of why this thing came to an end the way that it in the in my opinion, ridiculous and pathetic way that it ultimately did. Gang of eight, then you have Obama doing DACA with executive orders. It happens all the time, and the senators then can escape the backlash. So we may have gotten something good out of it if Dems had continued to hold out. Maybe Trump would have had them nuke the filibuster.

36:52I don't know. I'm skeptical. Senate Republicans were so, so averse to that for the reasons we just discussed. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated, and Black America is at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying.

37:341968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, In the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie.

38:17Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway. We are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

38:37What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

39:14Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

39:35Crystal, let's talk about jobs. We have new job numbers from ADP. We can go ahead and put B1 up on the screen. It's a tear sheet from the Wall Street Journal, which is relying on the ADP numbers as well. The headline here, ADP estimates private sector was losing jobs in October. Although we don't totally know whether this is an accurate reflection because we don't have government numbers right now, Crystal. Reaction to these ADP numbers, I'm not particularly surprised by them. What do you make of it? Yeah, I mean, you know, we've been seeing things trending in this direction for a while. And I think that Trump has thought that he could, look, Trump is a master at bending reality, like bending perceptions of reality.

40:22And I think he believed that he could do that with the economy as well. He could point to the stock market. We've had the government shutdown, so we're not getting government numbers. So we have to rely on numbers like ADP. And we've been tracking here how people feel about the economy. Some 70 % plus say that the economy is poor. That is a total reversal of where things were in Trump's first term, where they had all sorts of issues with Trump. His approval rating was underwater, but they still felt like the economy was really good. And I think that is like the central reason ultimately, that he ends up back in the White House.

40:56So you have a complete flip of that. People in their own lives are experiencing a lot of economic hardship. And then we've also been tracking the slew of corporate layoffs that have been coming down the pike. And, you know, it has been we have been moving in this direction for a while, but I really think it's coming to a head now where it used to be. The general sense was, OK, if corporate America is doing well, then Americans are probably doing pretty well too. Those two things have become completely disconnected. The best thing you can do as a corporate boss is fire a bunch of people. Your stock price is gonna go up.

41:32And so the fortunes of corporations are actually now inversely related to the fortunes of ordinary Americans. That is the reality of where we live now. And so yesterday, Sagar and I covered how consumer sentiment is at historic lows, historic lows. And as we go into the Thanksgiving and the holiday season, et cetera, you know, really bad place to be. Meanwhile, corporate sentiment is near all time highs. I mean, that tells you everything about the tale of two economies and about the way that now what benefits corporate America is directly advantageous for them and disadvantageous for your average American.

42:12So I don't think, you know, whether these ADP numbers are exactly precise, I think they are probably directionally correct that there was either very little job growth or actual job losses. This is also for the time period when the government was shut down, and the government is a huge part of our economy as well. Well, yeah, and so the ADP numbers, I mean, it's crazy right now the way that we are trying to understand what's happening without the usual information. So payrolls firm, so the ADP is estimating the private sector, according to the journal, was shedding 11 ,250 jobs a week in the four weeks through October 25.

42:46Now, it also says, last week in a separate data series, ADP estimated that the private sector added 42 ,000 jobs in October, but that figure uses a different methodology intended to replicate the government's monthly jobs report more closely. So it's a mess just trying to understand even what's happening in the economy, but the consumer sentiment versus corporate sentiment marker is a pretty good one. And the, well, it's a good one in terms of taking the temperature of the public. And in terms of Trump not understanding and not being able to explain away consumer sentiment or assuage consumer sentiment, I think that's really, really true, Crystal.

43:30It's a problem that the Biden administration had, and they kind of went for greedflation for a little bit, but in a very half-hearted way to say we understand, like, yes, we're in charge of the economy, but we understand, you know, to the extent any government is in charge of the economy or any president's in charge of the economy, but we understand what's going on and like find another scapegoat, et cetera. But it was half-hearted. And now for Trump, it's like he's not even looking for a scapegoat other than Biden. He just keeps saying we inherited a bad economy. Once you're a year into your presidency, which she almost says, you really have to stop saying that line about the economy you inherited because people are, it's just going to piss people off.

44:11Not only does it stop working, but it's also just going to piss people off. So here's how House Speaker Mike Johnson talked about the idea, all the ideas that Republicans have to reduce healthcare costs, which are going up, up, up for Americans. This is B2. Subsidizing the insurance companies is not the answer because it just drives the cost up even further. So we need to look at the root causes. The Republican Party is the party that is working on that, has been working on it and has more ideas going forward. We've got to bring down the costs and you can do that in a responsible way that also increases access and quality of care.

44:46And we've got, we've got notebooks full of ideas on how to do that. We've got to build consensus around it. That's, that's news to me. They have notebooks of ideas of how to do this, crystal, because if they had notebooks, we would probably expect to hear a little bit more about what's in those notebooks. And all we can hear about is the notebooks now. That's right. I'm having major flashbacks to Mitt Romney and his binders full of women. But we'll never know whether he really had those binders or not now, I guess. But yeah, with the notebooks of ideas, it also harkens back to Trump saying, you know, we've got a concept of a plan on health care.

45:19The truth of the matter is Republicans have given up on health care and they just decided the best thing to do is to just hope that nobody talks about it. Like, you know, in 2024, it worked right. Kamala didn't really bring it up because Democrats also had kind of given up on health care. You know, Biden's theoretical plan was a public option, which I do think would be a significant improvement over the system that we have. Of course, I support Medicare for all. You know, I think that's the direction that we should go in. But, you know, the Republicans have a point when it comes to the subsidies just going straight to the health insurance companies.

45:55They have a point about that. I mean, that's been my criticism of Obamacare from the beginning, is you actually have to confront the health insurers. You have to confront big pharma. You have to confront the hospital system and the private equity barons that are rolling up those hospital systems. You actually are going to have to confront capital if you're going to deal with this thing. And there is zero indication that Republicans want to do that at all. So to the extent they ever float anything, it's like price transparency. Sure, fine. Does anyone believe that that's going to solve the problem?

46:27The thing that Trump floated of, OK, well, instead of giving the subsidies to the health insurers, we're going to give it to you guys in your health savings account. OK, fine. But the reality of what's going to happen there, that doesn't deal with prices at all. It doesn't deal with the underlying problems at all whatsoever. And what you likely end up happening then is even fewer people inside the health insurance marketplace, which leads again to this death spiral situation. The people that are still there are older and sicker. And guess what? That raises premiums for everyone. So it could actually accelerate the collapse of the system we have, which, look, maybe that's something we should be cheering for at this point.

47:04Like I'm not really, you know, I'm not an accelerationist typically, but something apparently catastrophic is going to have to happen before legislators are really willing to confront capital and deal with the system. But yeah, I mean, you listen to Mike Johnson talk and I'm just hearing Marjorie Taylor Greene in my head saying, why do I have to be in like a skiff to, you know, to even stiff what a Republican health care plan is? And I think it was, again, the ladies, the view that were like, well, maybe there's not one. And she said, I think that's the real truth. And of course, obviously, that is the real truth.

47:36They are not going to do anything to try to tackle health care. They're just going to try to change the subject again. That is the actual strategy. Yeah, they got nothing. It is the biggest failure of the conservative project in the last, what, 15 years when they could run on repeal and replace. It became a replacement in and of itself for an actual policy because it was such a useful political bludgeon and hammer for so long that by the time they had the power to actually repeal and replace, it was abundantly obvious. There was no consensus plan and there was no good plan. There was no consensus plan because there actually was no good plan that people agreed on.

48:16And to your point about the Trump idea of giving subsidies directly to people, that's basically what we do rather to insurance companies. That's basically what we do with college tuition. And I know we're going to talk about this a little bit later in the show, just on the general question of affordability. But that has not brought down the cost of college tuition in any way whatsoever. So it's not a long-term solution. I don't know how interested Donald Trump is in a structural long-term solution. I don't think anybody is under the illusion or delusion, you could probably call it, that Donald Trump wants to do a structural long-term fix to the health care system.

48:52He's never run on some type of comprehensive fix to Obamacare. Just repeal, replace, everyone will have health care. So there is no Republican plan waiting in the wings that Trump could shepherd through like a good old tax cut bill. There's nothing like that for health care. And you know what? It matters to every single American family, normal American family, not ultra wealthy American family on a monthly basis. Even if you're upper middle class, your health care costs are out of freaking control. That's exactly right. Yeah, no, I mean, Trump, all he knows how to do is like brand plays and gimmicks.

49:28That's it. So, you know, someone brings him 50 year mortgage and is like and with a meme that appeals to his ego and he's like, yes, let's do that. And everyone absolutely hates it because he never thinks beyond like this compares me favorably to FDR. Let's do it. The the fake, you know, two thousand dollar stimulus checks that he is claiming he's going to send out, which is 100 percent never, ever going to happen. And already his officials are like, well, what we really mean by that is the theoretical savings that you achieved through lowering the price of avocados or whatever. It's like, you know, so I mean, that's that's really all he knows.

50:03Now, he's good at that branding and those gimmicks, right? No tax on tips. I think that was very appealing in the election. You know, I think people liked that idea. But if you're actually going to govern and deal with complicated, entrenched systems and entrenched interests, you're going to need a little bit more. You're going to need an ideal, an ideology. You're going to need some backbone and some will to do it. You're going to need some actual like policy knowledge. And that is never, ever going to be this man who is so stupid that he would float something like a 50 year mortgage, which literally enraged absolutely everyone as an actual plan for affordable housing.

50:41Yeah, we're going to get to that in just one moment. Let's take a listen to Kevin Hassett here, who is the director of the National Economic Council talking about if the shutdown had continued, he was on Face the Nation over the weekend, there would have been a negative quarter. Well, that, I guess, may still happen. Here's B3. Goldman Sachs, they have a top economic team, and they're estimating that we've already knocked about 1.5 % off of GDP. I think that number is probably low if we keep going even a couple more weeks because there's going to be a massive amount of air disruption, especially around the holidays.

51:15And one of these things every now and then when we're talking at economics, you and I, we talk about seasonal adjustments and things like that. But the fact is that Thanksgiving time is one of the hottest times of the year for the economy. It's Black Friday and all that kind of stuff. And if people aren't traveling at that moment, then we really could be looking at a negative quarter for the fourth quarter. Why is he smiling when he says that? I don't know. Here's a tear sheet from Reuters. The headline is U.S. fourth quarter GDP could be negative if shutdown drags on. White House economic advisor says just about what he mentioned there on Face the Nation.

51:49So I guess, Crystal, some of this could be getting at the pressure that Democrats were under hearing from. I mean, he's citing Goldman Sachs there. I'm sure Democrats were hearing from some of their friends at places like Goldman Sachs about some of those very same numbers. And, you know, we were talking about the airlines pressuring Dems to cave on the shutdown. I'm sure this worked its magic with some of those Democrats as well. Yeah, no doubt about it. And, you know, for a top White House official to be saying we could be looking at negative GDP growth in the fourth quarter is pretty stunning.

52:23We also had Scott Besant previously saying, effectively admitting that some sectors of the economy are already in a recession. So even this administration, which is happy to spin and to lie about, you know, basically everything is having to acknowledge some measure of reality because it's just becoming too obvious to, you know, whether you're someone who's on Wall Street, looking at the numbers, looking at activity, whether you're a regular person, like just going about your life, it's becoming too obvious to deny. And it's worth saying in terms of the shutdown impact. First of all, the government is still technically shut down right now.

53:00You know, I live in a town where the most of the economic activity is centered around this naval base that does a lot of civilian research. A lot of people have been furloughed there. I'm getting questions at gymnastics about like, so when are we getting paid again? When is that happening? I don't know. I have no idea. So in any case, it'll be a while even before things are back up and fully running. And then the impact, and Sean Duffy admitted this, the impact of the airports is going to be long-lasting. We were already in a dire situation with a lack of air traffic controllers. Now you've had people who couldn't go this long without a paycheck, and they left and they're gone, or they're just sick of being treated in this way.

53:38Like, you know what? I thought working for the government meant that I had a steady and reliable job, and clearly I don't. So I'm going to go and do something else with my life. Those are going to be long lasting impacts that are going to, I think, bleed over into holiday Thanksgiving travel. It's just right around the corner. So, you know, for Hassett to be sounding the alarm here about negative GDP growth, I think is quite exceptional. And the last thing I'll say about that is we've, of course, been tracking how almost all of the GDP growth anyway has just been this giant bet. Giant speculative bet on AI has been the entirety of GDP growth anyway that has been covering up a lot of other underlying problems in the economy, including in other corporate stocks, consumer-centered stocks in particular, all of which are underperforming stock indexes in Europe and other parts of the world.

54:36So if even with the AI hysteria, you are having negative GDP growth, that's a really ugly place to be. And I wonder, actually, if we do see that they blame the shutdown. Yeah, if that's what looking back on it, if that becomes the line for the administration is, you know, they're looking to either say we inherited this economy and such a mess. But there's so much going on in this economy that you and Sagar have covered recently. Let's go ahead and put this next element up on the screen. This is a CNBC report on ghost job postings, which the headline here says are adding another lay of uncertainty to the stalling jobs picture.

55:18Since the beginning of 2024, job openings have outnumbered hires by more than 2.2 million a month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data that points to ghost jobs that never seems to get, that never seem to get filled. This is a really shocking report, Crystal, because it's one of those things you just, it's not even on your radar. And then when you look at it, this is a part of the article, job openings have generally been on the decline since peaking above 12 million in March, 2022, when opportunities outnumbered available workers by better than two to one in August, the latest month for which data is available because of the government shutdown.

55:53Openings totaled more than 7.2 million, while hires were just 5.1 million. The ratio of vacancies to workers was about even. What did you make of this, Crystal? Because to me, it just seems to be another wrinkle in the enormously complicated picture of an economy that feels like a total bubble right now. Yeah, it feels fake in a lot of ways. And so ghost jobs make sense as part of that picture. You know, we covered statistics about how many more job applications new college graduates are having to put out, just an astonishing number. And then for even with that additional effort put in for worse results where they're not getting as many jobs, the unemployment rate for new college grads is going up.

56:37And so, you know, people who are going on whatever the resume, what is it, Indeed, what are the resume websites now? I forgot when I was coming out of college, it was Monster, I think, was the one that we went to. But in any case, they're looking at these job openings and it's like, OK, I've applied for a million of these. Who is even getting these jobs? And apparently in some significant number, the answer is no one. These are just sort of hanging out there in the ether, fake job postings that never get filled. So you have this perception of like, oh, there's all these, you know, job openings.

57:08And, you know, surely one of them, surely one of them will be interested in me, at least for a callback. But the reality is that they're they're actually I don't know, just they're just been hanging out there and no one bothered to delete them. They like to keep them out there to have resumes coming in in case at a last minute notice they need to to bring in someone for some purpose or other. But I think for a lot of people who've been in the job market, it will probably ring very true to them that this is what's going on. Yeah, I think that's right. And this is also part of the data package that economists use to understand where the economy is going.

57:41And some of the reactions in the CNBC story here are like, well, that's not helpful because right now we're trying to actually understand where things are going, what the real story is. And it's a reminder that, honestly, the experts here don't exactly know what the real story is, let alone with changes in immigration enforcement and then changes in artificial intelligence, how rapidly that is sweeping different professions. So things do not feel good, that is for sure. Yeah, indeed. And maybe that explains the MAGA revolt we're about to cover. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba.

58:21It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated, and Black America was at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people would die. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest.

59:05It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt. Hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

59:55What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

1:00:33Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:00:53There are rumblings of impatience with the Trump administration here in Washington, D.C., among some people on the right. Now, of course, there's always going to be some rumblings of discontent with any political party, but I'm just here to convey this is getting to be a little bit louder by the day. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was on Morning Joe yesterday and asked about that Argentinian beef bailout. Dare we call it a bailout? Not the beef bailout. I'm sorry. There was the beef bailout. This is the market bailout. Here we go. This is Scott Bessent responding to some questions. Listen to exactly the language that he uses and doesn't use.

1:01:37How does a$20 billion bailout of Argentina help Americans? Do you know what a swap line is? It's currency swap. Yes. Yes. But what is that? That's you're the Treasury Secretary. Yes. But why would you call it a bailout? That is how in most bailouts, you don't make money. The U.S. government made money. We used our financial we used our financial balance sheet to stabilize the government. One of our great allies in Latin America during an election, the president there won the in a landslide. The government's going to make money. And I would rather use peace through economic strength than have to be shooting at narco boats coming offshore if the government collapsed.

1:02:22All right. Well, there were some, you know, friends of Scott Bussians. He's so bitchy. He's so bitchy there, right? Do you even know what a swap line is? Why would you call that a bailout? Define it. Define swap. Like he thinks he's got such a gotcha there. but in reality I mean it is a bailout that is an appropriate term to use yeah both can be true you can make money on a quote bailout yes right even if your technical financial engineering you know has a different term as well that doesn't change the dynamics okay you have a swap line for that do you have a swap line for other countries no you don't right because you specifically wanted to prop up this country exactly because you Scott Bessent have you know your buddy's money is on the line with regard to these hedge funds that had bet big on Argentina.

1:03:09And by the way, you wanted to intervene in their upcoming elections, which you did successfully and helped to forestall what looked to be incoming electoral losses for Javier Malay. So like no one is no one is buying this bullshit. Well, yeah. And the reason that I slipped up and said beef bailout as I was setting up the segment is that that was also part of this, right, is people were annoyed with the use of fungible taxpayer dollars going specifically to Argentina. But then when Donald Trump mentioned potentially starting to import some modest amount of Argentinian beef, MAGA was furious. Maha was furious.

1:03:48I wrote a story about it over at UnHerd, just tracking everyone who had come out and was just completely beside themselves with this, what they saw as a betrayal of particularly small American farmers. Now, obviously, the American beef industry was annoyed by that period. But there are a lot of small American farms that have put some stock in MAGA and the Trump movement, hoping to get a little bit of help out of it, and were just completely caught off guard by that proposal to import any Argentinian beef, period, because they see themselves as being in need of help from the U.S. government and getting basically nothing.

1:04:30Now, Donald Trump was also grilled by Laura Ingraham in what was obviously a pretty tough interview, and actually a contentious interview at certain points, like this one, maybe the most contentious point of the interview, on H-1B visas. This has set off another firestorm on X. And again, this is just social media, where a lot of the elite discourse happens. So does it trickle into polling soon? Maybe, maybe not. We'll have to see. But this is what Trump said about H-1B visas. See one. There's never going to be a country like what we have right now. The Republicans have to talk about it. And does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration?

1:05:11Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign But you also do have to bring in talent when we have plenty of talented people. No, you don't. No, you don't. We don't have talented people. No, you don't have you don't have certain talents and you have to people have to learn. You can't take people off an unemployment like an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory. We're going to make missiles or I'm going to put you ever do it before. Well, let me give you an example in Georgia.

1:05:40They raided because they wanted illegal immigrants. They had people from from South Korea that made batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries are very complicated. It's not an easy thing and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like five or six hundred people early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You're going to need that, Laura. I mean, I know you and I disagree on this. You can't just say a country's coming in, going to invest$10 billion to build a plant and going to take people off an unemployment line who haven't worked in five years and they're going to start making missiles.

1:06:19It doesn't work that way. So that's happening as people are also like the interviews airing as people on the right are also furious about the proposal for 50 year mortgages, which Donald Trump had to defend to Laura Ingram in that interview as well. And he did basically defend it in that interview to Laura Ingram as well. At one point, he said, it's not a big deal. We're going from 40-year to 50-year mortgages. And Ingram jumped in and said, no, 30-year mortgages to 50-year mortgages. Just kind of touch. Yeah. And so here's a post that I just noticed pinging around. Some group chats yesterday.

1:06:52This is from Savannah Hernandez, who is a contributor with Turning Point USA. She posted this long X, almost essay. It's that long. She says, I'm tired. It's Akman-esque, yes. Yeah, and Akman-esque. She pulled an Ackman and she wrote, I'm tired of based social media videos and big talk from the admin with zero follow through. First thing she cites, we voted for home affordability and we were given 50 year mortgages and debt slavery. At one point, she then goes on to say people are being arrested for, quote, anti-Semitic attacks. Meanwhile, it's Christian children who are being targeted and killed in the middle of mass.

1:07:30And it's mobs of violent leftists who continue to scream, kill white people with zero repercussion. That is a recurring theme in her post. She goes on to say American students are drowning in debt and the admin has responded by making them compete with 600 ,000 Chinese students. Oh, and if you're lucky enough to get a degree, you're still going to have to compete with the Republican promoted H-1B visa hire that will work for half your pay. She goes on to say this is why the right wing is divided. She says, every time Americans, or because Americans voted to feel safe, prioritize and protect it, and every time we try to voice our concerns, we are labeled as anti-MAGA, anti-Israel, or anti-Trump for bringing forth substantial criticism of the direction of the party.

1:08:07She says she's watched the quote, right-wing implode over the last two weeks. So, and by the way, goes on, and the reason we are is because many are afraid to legitimately criticize the administration. That is absolutely true, Crystal, and I think she's directing this at those, quote, based social media posts from MAGA World. So she seems to be especially upset with her fellow influencers who say if there's a little bit of criticism, a breath of criticism, it becomes a pile-on over someone being anti-MAGA or having their MAGA bona fides challenged, which has definitely happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene.

1:08:42And Marjorie Taylor Greene, whatever you want to say about her going against the team during the shutdown, Marjorie Taylor Greene is as MAGA as it gets, like true MAGA as it gets. This is a person who is like organic grassroots MAGA and represents that sort of, I always put around 30 to 40 % of the Republican Party. That's the type of MAGA that actually goes to rallies, buys merch, that sort of thing. Marjorie Taylor Greene represents those people who were inspired by Donald Trump's drain the swamp message. And you and I could disagree or could just debate whether or not people were right or wrong to put their hopes and drain the swamp Donald Trump, but people feel like they were out of options.

1:09:26And they did. And that's the bottom line. And a lot of the people who were brought into the conservative movement, brought into the broader right on those promises are now seeing second administration, Donald Trump. And second administration, Donald Trump, is a legacy building, Donald Trump, who's been laser focused on foreign policy. And now is what did he say last week, Crystal, after the Tuesday elections? Like they have this new word affordability. That was a good one. Oh, my God. Which is a con, which he describes as a con job by the Democrats, which is like, oh, my God. And by the way, speaking of Anotaj, guess who he's hosting at the White House today?

1:10:07Jamie Dimon and a bunch of other Wall Street CEOs. so really finger on the pulse there brother i'm sure you can walk them around your new gilded ballroom um and you know you can all marvel at the splendor of your home depot disgusting gold interior of the white house um you know i mean listen obviously i think part of what this lady said was insane about like whatever her you know whatever her right-wing hysteria is and her critique that basically like oh they're not being fascist and like i was gonna say i Just in like the theatrical part. I too am frustrated that you're not in prison yet. Right.

1:10:43I mean, it's understandable, right? We're all disappointed by that, right? You know, it looks like fun. You should have been in CECOP months ago. I mean, Ghislaine looks like she's having fun in prison. You could get a service puppy, maybe. In any case, I don't think I'd be getting that kind of treatment. Unfortunately, I don't have the goods on Donald Trump the way she does. In any case, putting that aside, you know, her point that she makes about I'm tired of the base social media videos like the sense is basically i didn't take that as actually a shot at other influencers i took that as a shot at the administration which loves to create this fascist content their asmr like deportation videos and they're you know set to music rating of the sandwich guy's apartment and all this kind of bullshit right or staging this oh we're going to march all the horses through the park where children were playing and record it even though like we're literally doing nothing other than posturing for the cameras.

1:11:37We showed many times, obviously what is happening in Chicago has been extremely real and extremely violent and horrifying for the communities there. But also it was meant for the theater. Every single action they took, when you see people recording them, they've got tons of cameramen, people recording on iPhones and actual like, you know, real legit cameras so they can package it up and produce it for mass content. You see the DHS Nazi posting on a daily basis. And I think that they believed, and I think up to this point in a large part, it has been that that would be enough because that's, that's like they're triggering and owning the libs.

1:12:16Right. And they're like, that's what you people want. Right. That's all you really need from us. And so what Savannah is saying is like, and again, I think part of what she says completely insane and outrageous, but she's saying, no, actually that's not enough. Um, I see what you're doing and I see that you're, you're trying to play us. Like you're trying to play us. You're trying to substitute in this, you know, this show for the actual things that we thought we were getting and we thought we were voting for. Now, I don't think she's reflective of her specific disappointments, I don't think are reflective of the overall population.

1:12:47I think most of the population is pretty horrified by the level of authoritarianism, does not agree with the way that the deportations have been accelerated or the show of force. And we can see that if we look at C3 in these last elections, every single demographic group in the country shifted away from Donald Trump and or for I should say from the Republican Party. But I'm like, you know, those two things are one in the same. And in particular, the largest shifts came from some of the groups that were really heralded as a new part of the Republican coalition. You're looking at young people, young men in particular.

1:13:24You're looking at Hispanic voters. You're looking at Asian voters. Those groups fled the Republicans in these elections. So, you know, when you have that sort of an undeniable national reckoning and even the people who are coping and saying, oh, these were blue states and it's not a big deal, they know the truth. And this sense of we have a new coalition and we're going to be ascendant forever. You know, demographics is destiny the way that Democrats thought back in 2008. That has just run smack into an actual reality. So not surprising that you have more and more voices on the right who see the writing on the wall, recognize that Trump is wildly unpopular and will not be alive, let alone in power forever.

1:14:14and are starting to feel more emboldened to make some noises. Emily, I do want to just say about that H-1B thought, which I find incredible. So first of all, I think the H-1B visa program sucks. I support bringing, you know, I'm very pro-immigration, but it does create a situation of basically indentured servitude. I think it needs to be, you know, wildly reformed. I don't think that the immigration status should be attached to the employer. So I have my issues with H-1B. Okay. Putting that aside, the thing he said about Georgia, was so fascinating because he's like, he's 100 % correct about, look, they're building out this battery plant.

1:14:52Hyundai has their own people who know how to do this. We literally don't have workers who have this specific skill for how to build these batteries with by this particular company. Like we just don't have that. And so, yes, we need some people here to train up our workers so that maybe in the future they can hold those jobs. And he said something to the effect of like, and they wanted them out. Well, the they is Stephen Miller. Like this is his administration that conducted this raid. And he's acting like, I can't believe this was done. It's like, dude, these are your people that, you know, that went in and did this and created this whole diplomatic crisis and did again, the base social media video show of force, put them in shackles.

1:15:34These South Korean workers who were legitimately here, put them in shackles and arrested all of them and deported them back to their country. So it also showed just a level of disconnect between what he was willing to say in this interview and what the actual policy and direction of his administration has been. Yeah, that is a really good point. So I'm looking right now at a new Economist YouGov poll on approval for Donald Trump. If you look at people who voted for Trump in 2024, only 16 percent disapprove of the way he's handling his job as president now. But But we should also look at this. I mean, it's at 18 percent among conservatives.

1:16:11So by ideology, 18 percent, that's almost one in five. And then by party ID, independents, 63 percent, 63 percent of independents disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president. In any presidential election, independent voters are absolutely crucial, as they were in 2024. So when you have 63 percent disapproval with independence, it's just going to depend on how much Donald Trump values. I mean, he's doing the legacy building. He wants that Nobel Peace Prize for a reason, because he wants history to see him as an enormously consequential figure and one who sort of who completely.

1:16:49completely, what's the best way to put it, completely outperformed the expectations of the elite. I think that's what he wants people to see him as. And that's where he's willing to cut deals with different countries and do all of these like big foreign policy kind of moonshot type negotiations. But at home, that question is going to hinge on independence. And one of the gripes that you've heard from people in MAGA world recently is that he's been too focused on foreign policy and not focused enough on affordability and domestic policy questions that matter, like homeownership, student loan debt, price of college, just cost of living stuff, which, Crystal, his political instincts, whatever you think of Donald Trump, he has better political instincts than a lot of people in the party leadership, because he was out there talking about things like the price of eggs and the price of gas and gas prices are roughly down.

1:17:47So he's got that going for him. But what the price of beef is still over like six bucks a pound when I checked last week. Yeah. And he talked about that. So he knows that it's a problem. The question is whether he has the sort of will to tackle some of these problems in a way that really does make a difference. Because I think what we're starting to see as he approaches the one-year mark of his second term, which most people assume will be his final term. We still don't quite know whether that will be the case, but which most people assume is his final term. People are not interested in the bullshit anymore.

1:18:22It's just not going to work. Because when you're looking at the post-Trump era, a lot of the Trump era politics fade away. Not all of them, but a lot of them, which is to say the specific debate about Trump himself. When that fades away, you're left with way more nuts and bolts.

1:18:54I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead up to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bowen. Hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey Matt, hey Bowen. Hi Cookie. Hi. Now the Winter Olympic Games are underway. We are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:19:281969. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. At a Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by Black people because of what happened in Alabama?

1:20:04After Montgomery Braw. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Thank you.